Japanese comics, printed right-to-left in black & white. Manga are first serialized in thick, inexpensive anthology magazines (zasshi) and then collected into high quality graphic novels called tankoubon. Japanese publishers generally just break even on magazine sales (they are dirt cheap), relying on tankoubon sales to generate profit. Sometimes a manga series will run solely in tankoubon. Forty percent of all printed reading material in Japan is manga. Manga magazines are targeted to precise demographics for female and male, catering to every age group and genre. Most anime - Japanese animated series - are based on a manga series.
Writer/artist of a manga series. Usually the manga-ka is responsible for the main art work and writing the script (sometimes this is split between a writer and artist), however the manga-ka works in partnership with an editor. Japanese editors are very powerful, determining which ideas should be developed and which dropped, and which manga stories become published and which do not. The job of an editor is to guide and advise manga artists to ensure that their work is commercially successful. Given how easily a young Japanese manga reader can become a manga creator by winning one of the many contests that Japanese manga magazines run to recruit new talent, having an experienced editor to guide the development of a story can be hugely beneficial. On the flip side, many manga-ka comment on their editor's domination over their work in their side comments (always jokingly). There frequently seems to be a tension between the vision of the female manga-ka and their male editors (I wonder just how many female editors there are, in what is likely a male-dominated field). Manga-ka also benefit from having one or more assistants who perform the less glamorous work of backgrounds and other routine art chores.
Literally means "separate volume". Manga are sold in tankoubon format after being serialized in magazines, with each tankoubon containing around 4-10 installments. Softcover paperback-sized books around 200 pages, they sell for about 400 yen (~$3.70 USD). Less commonly, some manga series are published originally as tankoubon and do not appear first in serialized form. Smaller than American graphic novels: 11x17.5 cm (4.25 x 6.75 inches). See Japan Book-Mart Legend for various other sizes.
Japanese comics are initially published in monthly anthologies (rather than the American single issue comic). These anthologies or manga magazines are nicknamed "manga phonebooks" by Westerners and are thick (200-1000 page) squarebound magazines printed on cheap newsprint in two-tone colored paper. Each magazine is dedicated to a certain type of manga series and audience and may be serialized monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly. A few are published seasonally. They're very cheap and accessible, only costing around $4-5 USD, and readers often throw them away after reading. If they like the series they will likely buy the compiled tankoubon when they are released a few months later. There is something for everyone: drama, romance, adventure, comedy, fantasy, slice-of-life, sports - even cooking all appear as manga.
Emily's Random Shoujo Manga Page lists many of the shoujo manga "phonebook" anthologies. Kodansha lists their manga anthologies on their English site KodanClub.
Manga marketed to girls; typically relationship-based stories characterized by mutuality, cooperation, and generosity.[1] See The Shoujo Manga Homepage and Kodansha's Promising and Popular manga for women of all ages
Manga marketed to young women aged twenty and up. Tends to deal with more adult aspects of being a woman in contemporary Japan, including frank discussions about sex, dating, and being in the workforce. See Animefringe Review: Happy Mania for an example. My favorite category of manga.
Manga marketed to boys; typically achievement-based stories characterized by individualism, competitiveness, and materialism.[2] See Kodansha's Promising and Popular manga for boys.
Manga marketed to young men aged 18-20 and up. More graphic, often with more adult depictions of sex or violence. See Kodansha's Promising and Popular Manga for teenage boys.
A genre of shoujo manga that focuses on one or a group of young girls that are endowed with magical powers at the beginning of the series, usually by a magical talking animal or mysterious stranger. She often transforms into a magical alter-ego with the aid of an item given to her, or discovered, that is cute and pretty and very often resembles a wand or piece of jewellery. Her purpose for transforming into superhero form can range from helping ordinary people with their problems to saving the world from supernatural menaces. See Henshin: The Mahou Shoujo Genre and Emily's Magical Girl Page.
Sentai is Japanese for "task force" and is the name of a long-running series of "Ranger" shows that air each year in Japan. "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" is the American version which most people know. The formula involves an evil group of demons or aliens who want to conquer the Earth. A group of (usually 5) color-coordinated youths with martial arts skills is empowered to stop them. Episodes follow a pattern of: ordinary scenes of civilian life, followed by monster-of-the-day being called, quick battle with the minions, finished up by summoning the obligatory giant robot to destroy the evil monster. If this sounds very much like the anime version of Sailor Moon, you're right! Sailor Moon is a combination of "magical girl" and "sentai" shows. Pretty Guardian Sailormoon is even closer to sentai show because it is live action (but still true to its magical girl roots).
Notes: Definitions of shoujo and shounen manga are inevitably drawn from the well of terms describing stereotypical gender roles. My definitions of girls' and boys' manga use terms describing the values of Belonging (feminine) and Enterprise (masculine) as found in Carol Lee Flinders' Rebalancing the World: Why Women Belong and Men Compete and How to Restore the Ancient Equilibrium. Flinders' book examines the values of Belonging (mutuality, cooperation, generosity) and Enterprise (individualism, competitiveness, materialism) and how Enterprise came to dominate. These two value systems are not intrisically gender-based, but were assigned to females and males following the Agricultural Revolution which led to the elevation of masculine Enterprise values over feminine Belonging values.