When an artist gives form to something invisible, their state of mind will be reflected in the picture whether they’re aware of it or not. Any attempts at fake sincerity will be in vain. The readers will always see through to the truth." SJ: Much of the emphasis of your new book, Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga is on shonen manga storytelling—is your advice the same for other kinds of manga? Also, do any Western comics come close to capturing the manga panel development work you describe in your book? If so, which ones? There may be nothing more beautiful than a person who pursues something important, regardless of society’s approval, and even if it means standing alone." At the time, Star Wars (1977) was wildly popular, but I preferred Carrie (1976) and its tale of a girl with supernatural powers who exacts ferocious revenge upon her parents and bullies. I was well aware that what I liked and what became smash hits were two different things. But even knowing that, I couldn’t shake my desire to remain true to the things that I personally enjoyed, and that I thought were good, and to not hew to what was currently in vogue."

Originally, I went into this book thinking that maybe I should write a manga because that was what I was interested in, and I figured I would hire an artist to do that portion. My closing conclusion is this: ultimately, the 'golden way' or 'royal road' to Hirohiko Araki is alike to Shelley's 'sublime.' That is to say, it is directly linked to his philosophy on the 'Golden Ratio' or symmetrical perfection; divine beauty derived by synchronised, synergised points of emphasis. He understands he does not achieve this all the time, but aims to achieve it where possible by refining his style and attitudes accordingly to maximise the propensity.Digital goods, open DVDs and Blu-rays, smart art prints, mystery bundles, and final sale items are excluded from the return policy. I believe that the fundamental role of art is to make the invisible visible. Whatever the artist wants to express, be it love, friendship, justice, or something else—these are not things that can be seen by the eye, and the artist must turn these invisible ideas into a visible picture. Also, he then goes on to explain how, because of this philosophy, he developed Hamon and Stands - "while Hamon made superpowers visible, Stands took the next step and made them into characters." At the most basic level, the first panel should illustrate the five Ws and one H—in other words, who is doing what, and when and where, and why and how."

From an instructional perspective, this is an excellent book to the extent that it clearly identifies the elements of manga, the way these elements connect, shape, and depend on each other, and it communicates something of the mythos, lexis (linguistic and visual) and ethos that makes manga, manga. It's the ethos part of the equation that makes this book problematic. Unfortunately for at least this reviewer, Araki doesn’t come out, nor do his characters. No cool 'ships…no secret past in yaoi. Manga in Theory and Practice is the practical vehicle for manga knowledge that its title advertises and Viz’s English edition provides a more sober cover and its raw translation is, for better or worse, un-calibrated for American readers. Let's get this outta the way. I very much like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ( JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken.) That said, I don't think it's perfect and is marred by numerous errors, mostly owing to the unforgiving nature of the drafting, creating, publishing, mangaka.

I bring these notes with me to the meeting, and as I talk with my editor, I revise and add to them. Additions come through our exchange of ideas, and if something seems weak, I’ll rework the idea, which may result in needing to perform additional research. He then proceeds to layout his indispensable character creation sheets, alongside how he likes to interplay various characters against one another to create scenarios. Major props to him for admitting the earlier arcs were marginally defined by their abundance of dichotomies. I was drawn to it for the same reasons I was drawn to Sonic Adventure 2, Yin and Yang, and the colour grey. But while fantastic for superficial reasons, it's too reductive, as he admits and says he learned from (and I believe) later on. Perhaps JoJolion was a test of this, and that's where my complex feelings towards it lie. In Manga in Theory and Practice, you say that the theme of all 8 parts of JoJo is "an affirmation that humanity is wonderful". Could you elaborate on that?