Book 5- Manga in Theory and Practice by Hirohiko Araki
This is the first book on my shelf that isn't a comic of some sort, and also the first nonfiction book. I purchased it at the MFA in Boston in the gift shop for an exhibition of a very different artist, Takashi Murakami. I'm not sure why this book was being sold at that exhibition, as Murakami isn't a manga artist and his style is completely different from Araki's. I bought it almost immediately though, as I was already a huge Jojo fan at the time, and I had no idea Araki had published a book about his process before stumbling onto it in the wild.
This book is written as a guide for a reader looking to succeed as a mangaka, but as someone with absolutely no interest in ever doing that, I still enjoyed it as a fan of Araki's work. I think even if you took out every reference to Jojo and handed me this book without telling me who had written it, I could still guess it was written by Araki. He comes at manga in an incredibly analytical way. You can tell that he thinks about every choice he makes a lot, and tries to explore every possibility before deciding how to move forward. It feels very similar to the intensely specific and detailed ways that stories and battles play out in Jojo.
Parts of the book were more interesting than others. I enjoyed (although didn't necessarily agree with) the second chapter, which was about manga structure and themes. The way Araki writes characters is so deeply thought out. A lot of the advice he gave about writing sounds deceptively simple on paper, but I can imagine would take a lot of practice to master in real life. Unfortunately, the chapter on art was less interesting. I think making good art is harder to teach than writing a good story, especially in a context like shonen manga. Most shonen manga follows general story tropes that Araki can instruct on, like maintaining momentum or writing a compelling protagonist that the audience wants to root for. Art is a lot more subjective, so aside from giving common art advice like "make sure to study anatomy even if your art is stylized" and giving some descriptions of the pens he uses, there isn't much Araki can say about how to improve your art.
The biggest highlight for me was the last chapter of the book, where Araki walks the reader through an actual oneshot he wrote, and breaks it down. It was really satisfying to see everything he had gone over in the book put into practice. I also just generally think listening to a master like Araki analyze his own work and process is fascinating. If that sounds appealing to you, if you're a fan of Araki's work, or if you're generally interested in the process of how manga is made, this was a light and engaging read.
