Manga: The Complete Guide
Cover of Manga: The Complete Guide, featuring artwork from Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fruits Basket and Naruto.
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| Author | Jason Thompson |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Manga |
| Genre | Encyclopedia |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
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Publication date
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October 9, 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 592 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 85833345 |
| 741.5/952 22 | |
| LC Class | PN6790.J3 T56 2007 |
Manga: The Complete Guide is a 2007 encyclopedia written by Jason Thompson and published by Del Rey which provides basic details and short reviews of over 1000 Japanese manga titles that have been translated and released in English in North America. Though Thompson is listed as the author on the cover, some titles' entries were initially written by other reviewers, which Thompson later edited.
Jason Thompson was a manga editor for Viz Media in 2000 when he first began wanting to craft a manga encyclopedia. At the time, there was little interest in publishing it, so Thompson remained at Viz. Thompson became the first editor in chief of the company's newly launched Shonen Jump manga anthology. The magazine was highly successful, but Thompson wanted to work on his own projects and stepped down after six issues when Viz declined his request to switch to part-time work. In 2005, Del Rey approached Thompson about his idea for a manga encyclopedia, reviving the project. It took two years to compile the book, and Thompson resigned from Viz to do so. The main difference between Thompson's original concept and the published version is that he originally intended the work to be organized by artist rather than title, and wanted to place more emphasis on manga's relationship to the more popular anime medium.
While Thompson is listed as the book's author, a group of twenty-four other writers helped craft some of the entries, brought in when Thompson "started to stress from all the workload". Thompson then read and corrected the entries if he felt they were inaccurate. The other writers included Patrick Macias, Patricia Duffield, Julie Davis, Derek Guder, Carl Gustav Horn, Hannah Santiago, Leia Weathington, Shaenon Garrity, and Mark Simmons, a Gundam expert.
Each title has at least a one paragraph description that includes the demographic (shōjo, shōnen, seinen or josei), a rating out of four stars, and an age advisory, including a description of any objectionable content. Yaoi and "adult" manga each have their own section at the back of the book. In addition to covering individual titles, Manga: The Complete Guide includes information on the basics of the Japanese language and a glossary containing information on numerous anime and manga related terms, concepts of manga culture like magical girl and dōjinshi, and Japanese pastimes seen in many of the translated manga.
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