A little over a year ago, I was able to get some friends to participate in a group discussion reading Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. The format of reading a graphic novel was new to several in the group - especially a Japanese graphic novel reading right to left - not to mention the daunting length of the series (23 volumes). One friend committed to reading the first 5 volumes. She said she couldn't make any promises to read further, and by the tone of her voice, I thought that might be all she would read. I was surprised (but not too surprised) when she not only kept on reading to the end of the series, but read far ahead of the reading schedule.That everyone enjoyed the story made the experiment a success. We also had some interesting discussion about the medium of storytelling - graphic novels versus prose. The consensus was that Fruits Basket would not be the same story in prose, that indeed, a lot of the storytelling conveyed in the art would be lost. I think this case could be made for most, if not all, of the manga that I've read over the past several years.
Since I know a few of us follow a variety of manga, I thought I would open the discussion up to why you like manga. Do you prefer manga over anime (when comparing the same story told in the two different mediums)? Does it vary with different series? Or, if you don't like manga at all, why not?
If there's any interest, in the coming weeks, I'd like to open this up to discuss certain series specifically, either in depth or by posting reviews. I hope you'll join me!
