A Guide to Manga Iconography

A light and digestible guide to common icons and depictions in manga. Back when I was first getting into the genre, I remember learning to interpret different styles and symbols from context clues, and it's neat that there's now a guide like this to clearly lay it all out.

This book is essentially a collection of four panel comics, to be read right to left in manga style. Each comic is designed to illustrate a different symbol, like tear drops or speed clouds, featuring a short written explanation and then the panels themselves, which are simple stories with a collection of animal friends. The panels generally have minimal dialogue and little interconnected story, similar to a series of Saturday morning cartoons.

One of the things that most stood out to me is the strong attention to detail. Like words, symbols can have variable meaning, depending on context, and the comics and descriptions are both meticulous in capturing secondary and even tertiary meanings for the symbols described.

While there might not be much new material for magna afficionados, this book is a great guide/short comic collection to introduce the genre.