Manga Moods: 40 Faces + 80 Phrases

by Saori Takarai

Book Overview

A raised eyebrow, a curled lip, a wink of the eye. All it takes is a single clever stroke of the G-pen to instantly change a manga character's mood from one extreme to the other: glad to sad, sassy to shy, angry to embarrassed. Illustrator Saori Takarai presents original pencil sketches alongside her finished, full-color drawings, to show just how the transformations take place. In addition, each of the facial expressions is labeled with the Japanese...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 4921205132
• ISBN13: 9784921205133
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Japanime Co.
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 5.4"
• Age Range: 13 to 16 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 11

Customer Reviews

Adorable

I bought this for my 12 year old niece. She loves the shoujo style, clamp-esque type anime art (so does auntie for that matter!) and she's just learning to draw and for 12 is showing a real talent for it, so I've been wanting to help and encourage it now while she's so young. As an artist myself, I've been teaching her and this book was wonderful for demonstrating the different emotions you can do with a face with minimal lines and strokes. Out of all the myriad of books I've bought for her (How to Draw Manga, Manga for Dummies, etc...) this so far has been her absolute favorite. I flipped through it and gave it a good look over before I gave it to her and as a tool and guide for beginners I give it 5 stars. It's small, it's convenient, and for kids/beginners handy as heck. The only disadvantage, because of it's size, unless you break the spine, it will not lay open for reference while someone is drawing. But that is minor and not worth losing a star over. I doubt a 12 year old will even notice that little detail, she loved it just as is. :)

Cute and Simple

I bought this book as a gift for my daughter. The book shows different "faces" of moods relating to Manga. It is not a -How to Draw- book. It is more of an inspirational book for you to create your own drawing with ideas of how the expression should be formed to relay the emotion. She loves the Japanese translation that is included. Overall she enjoys this book a lot. It is pocket sized as other reviewers have commented, making it easy and light for taking back and forth to school.

Love Japanese Art

I just bought this book and as soon as i got it, i review the whole book. I'm so facinated with its content and the Japanese words are romanized and it includes the Kanji which i love so much. I highly recommend this small but joyfull Manga book about Moods. I am so "Manzoku" LOL

A "so Kawaii" book!

This is one book that I have been dying to get my hands on for a very long time, but only managed to do so recently. I was a little surprised when I got the book. Firstly, the book was way smaller than I expected (pocket size), and secondly, I had not really expected it to be a "gift book" kind of book. Nonetheless, "Manga moods" is colorful and charming is its own ways. There are 40 different kinds of moods, from the standard happy and angry to others like coy, doubtful or malicious. The illustrations are all very cute and manga-like, and the portrayals of the moods are very lively and well executed. In fact, although this isn't a "how to draw manga" kind of book, someone interested in drawing manga (like I do) may have well picked up a pointer or two from the book on drawing different moods from the illustrations (such as movement of eyebrows, shapes of mouth and eyes, and so forth). In addition, there are two Japanese phrases (with English equivalents) accompanying each mood, which I personally find useful for simple use in my own crappy works. The hiragana chart at the end of the book is a bonus, though not necessarily very essential for those who already have a basic understanding of Japanese. My only gripe is that the Japanese phrases are written in romanji. For me, it would have been better if the original Japanese text were included as well! But then again, this is more of a "gift book" meant to be read for enjoyment rather than for serious learning. Overall, "Manga moods" has a very clean and sweet feel to it, and to me, it is a refreshing way of looking at the various moods and expressions the book has to offer. Definitely a cute book to have!

The epitome of cute.

This is one of the cutest things I've seen in my life. If you don't like cute stuff (and if so, shame on you), this is still a great resource of facial expressions for manga females in a style similar to titles like Negima or Pita-Ten. The pocket sized nature of it makes it a great book to carry along with you on trips when you may feel like breaking out the sketch book and need a reference for a certain emotion. Also included with each emotion is the Japanese word for that emotion and two Japanese to English phrases. Not especially useful, honestly, but it's a fun addition.