Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura on table, two shojo and magical girl comics or mangas.

Comics Across the World

Comics differentiate from one place to the next. The ideas and drawings may be different, but the sharing of ideas will always happen. 

Keep reading to learn about comics across the world. 

Manga

Manga are Japanese originated comics. It popularized in the late 1900s to early 2000s, particularly for its unique art style. Compared to American comics, manga provides a different perspective on superheroes and romantic school settings. Soon, manga turned into animated film, better known as anime. 

Cardcaptor Sakura is a superhero or magical girl anime. What makes the magical girl genre unique are its flashy outfits, transformation sequences, and emphasis of being a heroine who fights for what they believe in. This genre can also be identified by the romantic aspect it may or may not include. 

Kimi ni Todoke is a school romance anime, or shojo. Shojo is a romance genre targeted towards young women, often focusing on the development of relationships. 

image of person in black shirt reading comics, or manga.

Manhua

Manhua are Chinese originated comics. Due to the introduction to digitized graphic novels in the 2010s, manhua rose on apps such as Bilibili Comics. 

On the inactive Bilibili Comics, popular web novel Heaven Official’s Blessing made in 2017 got serialized into a manhua in 2019. Due to its sudden rise to success, it also acquired a donghua in 2020. Donghua is Chinese animation. A year later, the novel received an English translation in physical volumes. 

Manhwa

Manhwa are Korean originated comics. Korea started the development of digital comics, with the creation of Naver Webtoon in 2004. It later changed to Line Webtoon in 2014, then WEBTOON in 2020. The app supports different languages of Webtoons and is available for download in America, Canada, and Asian countries. 

True Beauty, a manhwa launched in 2018 on WEBTOON, quickly gained popularity on its release. The comic was well received for its art, story and characters. Two years later, True Beauty went on to get a television series and even a makeup collaboration, on brand for the manhwa. 

Comics are not restricted by language. The art and engaging plot of a story help to traverse language and develop a dedicated viewer base. 

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