Akadot - Article: A review of "Let's Draw Manga: Ninja and Samurai" page 1

In Manga Academy we cover the basics of drawing manga from a beginner's standpoint and as mainstream as possible. However, we know that someone may want to specialize in a particular form of drawing, or may just be a fan of a particular series. With that, here are some books aimed at Manga Academy and others in order to further your studies on subjects that interest you. In the future, we are hoping to incorporate these into specialized study, but for right now please enjoy the books.

Sometimes there's nothing better than a huge swordfight. Here's the hero with his shaved head and topknot, facing off with some evil thing in black ready to strike from the rafters of a burning house. Yes, it may sound a little corny, but some people I know live for that, the era of grace and deadly, dramatic fighting. And it seems like there's a good deal of you, seeing the numbers of people who draw stuff like that. So here is a book that may help with some of the finer details of life in Japan way-back-when.

Let's Draw Manga: Ninja and Samurai is more of a reference book than a step by step book. There's a smattering of everything in here, but this isn't quite for the beginner artist; someone who already has a basic handle of what they are doing is going to get more mileage out of this book. Being done past class 203 and having your proportion in order is going to be a must.

The book has large and simple images, which make the line work to create such images easy to understand. Complicated period clothing such as armor is broken down into its separate bits to observe how it is put together. Common poses are shown, with a rough outline of how they are put together and with job-specific characters such as the crouch of a hiding ninja to the post strike pose of a samurai warrior. Hairstyles common to most period drama are shown in a variety of directions, explaining visually the shaved topknot combination that from photographs looks somewhat confusing. Those who remember doing the Application "Looking around" in Class 202 will recognize the way the face designs are portrayed. When designing characters, a person will normally want to see them in more than one angle and in more than one view. This does not mean that they don't have full body shots, each of the costumes come with a front and back pose. Towards the back of the book, period gear such as sleeping pillows, various swords and weapons are shown in full detail. These give an idea as to what items were present at that time.

This would be best used like the reference material in 207; it shows how things are put together so that there is a better understanding of drawing the clothing and tools of the time. It is also pretty basic, as the information covered goes over only the most common stereotypes of samurai imagery. Someone with a deeper background in ancient Japan will be somewhat bored with this book, but that is an unnecessary complaint due to how many people don't know the difference between a katana and a naginata, or just how Samurai armor is put together. Let's Draw Manga: Ninja and Samurai is perfect for a beginning artist whose influence to ancient Japan so far has been Ruroni Kenshin or Ninja Scroll.

Check out Let's Draw Manga: Ninja and Samurai at Akadot Retail.