Manhua: 1/2 Prince

Hello everyone!

In this post I'm going to present you another Asian comic, but today as different of the other latest post this one is about a Taiwanese Comic, they are also called manhuas, and this one is named ½ Prince.

First, as cultural reference, I've noticed that usually Asians call half and write as "½" people who change from girl to boy or from boy to girl(as other example, Ranma ½).  And well, this is a very fun and interesting story (as most comics I've recommended you, xD). Believe me, once you start reading it you won't stop reading it until you reach the last released chapter and you'll be laughing like crazy most of the first chapters. Well, here is it:

cover of the
1st book of the novel

       ½ Prince

Original Name: ½ 王子

Pronunciation: Èr fēnzhī yī Wáng zǐ

Story created by Yu Wo and drawn by Choi Hong Chong

Released in 2004

Magazine: Dragon Youth Comics(龍少年 Lóng Shàonián)

Publishing Company: Tong Li Publishing

Genres: Gender Bender, Comedy, Adventure, School Life, Shoujo, Shounen, Action, Romance, Sci-Fi, and Harem.

                  Summaries:
 

     From MangaFox:  It is the year 2100 A.D. and humans have invented a virtual reality game called "Second Life". Feng Lan, due to a bet with her brother, vows to beat him in the game without using her feminine charm to attract others to help her. Thus, she becomes the first transgendered character in "Second Life" - in other words, she is the only person who has a gender in-game opposite from hers in real life. As her popularity rises due to her looks and bloodthirsty skills, can she keep her identity a secret from her loved ones and friends?

From The Little Corner:

It is the year 2100 A.D., and humans have developed a virtual reality game with a realism level of 99%. Feng Lan, due to a bet with her twin brother, vows to succeed in playing the game without using her "female benefits." Due to this, she becomes the first and only female to play as a male character in "Second Life." As her infamy rises as a bloodthirsty warrior, can she keep her identity a secret from her real life acquaintances whom she has beaten up?

 
   From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
 …The protagonist is a 19 year-old female student named Feng Lan, who is challenged into playing the nearly arrived game Second Life by her twin brother. As the first person to log into the game, Feng Lan is given a wish which she uses to give herself the privileged of creating a male avatar whom she names as Prince. In game, she strives to prove to her brother that she can be a capable player.

By today March 14, 2012 the manhua is still ongoing. The manhua is based on a Taiwanese novel with the same name.

The comic, apart from having a good story, also have good drawings (there’s bishies :P) and it is not much different from the original story, though the drawings of the manhua might not be as good as the drawings of the novel covers.

There might be many characters, and maybe you would want to do a character map. The chapters are not commonly released, so if you read it and reach the end, you’ll have to wait at least 2 and half months to read the next chapter (that’s somehow tiring and frustrating).

The novel have already finished, so if you want to read it, you can read it complete, there are not original Englis translations, the novel is just in Chinese, but you can find some fan translations.

Thanks for read; I wish you had liked it.

GBU, good-bye, have a nice week!

PS: Sorry for not posting for many weeks, but on those past weeks I had a lot of homework and projects also my computer hard-drive stop functioning, again. So I need vacations or classes break to go again to the US.

And as I had a lot of things to do, I barely could read the updates from my favorite Asian Comics and I couldn’t read any new manga, except for Psyren from which I bought a Shounen Jump magazine for $90 MX and some classmate from Escucha lend me Pandora Hearts manga volumes from 1 to 7(I read them on the bus on the way from school to my house, xD).

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the pictures used above, neither the information given in the summaries. All the right goes to their respective owners.

How did I got to know Asian comics...

Hello bloggers!

And everyone, how are you?,

as every single time before I wish you are well and healthy, XD

right now I'm somehow happy because yesterday was the last day of classes, but that doesn't mean that is my last day of the semester, which is really sad T_T

I do also watch anime when I should be doing something else

Anyway! Today I'm not really going to introduce another Asian comic, because all the pictures and information I've been collecting is on the stupid mac, right now I'm using my brother's and father's computer ¬,¬

and on Saturday I was checking how many words my computer could write in one minute, and oh! surprise! it wrote approximately from 5 to 8 words per minute, I checked that while trying to leave a message in Facebook at a FB group wall(to do so, it took me 26 minutes :S).

I need to change my computer, and the guarantee is from the US, but it could also be possible to change it here in Mexico as a Best Buy was opened on the past weekend :D

      In this post I'm going to still talk about Asian comics, but not like in the past in which I make a recommendation, xD

instead today I'll talk about myself and how I got fascinated by Asian comics, obviously of how much I like them and how did i got to know they existed :P.

      First of all(before talk about myself), the way most of the people in the Western world get to know the Asian comics is by Anime and Manga(Japanese cartoons and comics). Japanese culture is really advertised by American and European TV channels. Here in Latin America the Japanese stuff come from the US(and maybe from Canada), if in the US something results being popular, it does come to Mexico or Colombia(countries in which TV stations make the translations/dubbed) and then to the rest of Latin America. (I don't know the situation in Europe.)

Shugo Kyara!(guardian character). Amu and Ikuto

      Obviously that's the way I got to know Asian comics. In my life, when I was younger(12 years), I usually spent time in the internet chatting on MSN or watching videos on YouTube. Once I was watching a video of Winx Club there(I was a huge fan on winx), and in the video it have scenes of Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew(Mew Mew Power), Mermaid Melody(PichiPichiPitch), Winx Club, and Shugo Chara! *o*

I had already known of all those animes and I didn't care for anything except Winx Club, but Shugo Chara! caught my attention and I started to search for more videos of shugo chara on YouTube and tried to watch the anime. When I found the first episode subtitled, I watched it, and I loved it. From there I started to watch anime, knowing it was Japanese Cartoon and not a "Chinese cartoon" as everybody would call it in Mexico(here anybody or anything that have Asiatic features or characteristics is called "Chinese"). :B

Death Note manga

      A year passed until I started to watch another anime, which is really popular, but I actually think it sucks, NARUTO. I started to watch it on summer when I was 13 when my brother was watching TV, I was passing by and found it interesting. Some months passed until I started to watch more anime, it was when I was finishing my first year of middle or secondary school and I discovered I had a cousin which was otaku, but with whom I never talked with. She introduced me to this world by recommending me more animes to watch: CLANNAD, Rosario+Vampire, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles(which two years later she told me to never read :/ ), and many others.

As time passed I watched those animes she recommended me, and obviously I started to watch more by my own way. I got somehow caught and becoming more interested in those, as Japanese anime stories weren't as repetitive as Mexican stories, not even in love, and those didn't always have a happy ending(some were more realist). ^_^

      I didn't started to read manga until the next year, in which by May(I think so), I was watching NARUTO Shippuden, and I found most of the anime was a filler, so I started for search for the original story in the manga, and that's how I just started to read to know more about NARUTO, and also because the manga had more episodes than the anime.

The Sexy Simpleton Manhwa

Sometime later I found some manga webpages(which some are listed at the very bottom of this blog) and started to read some mangas of the animes I watched first, as Rosario+Vampire(I usually call it by its original name, Rosario to Banpaia). From there I started to read more and more mangas, until it came the moment in which I didn't like to watch animes anymore, in the same way I preferred to read many books instead of watching movies or TV. :D

It was when I was 15 I found the existence of Korean comics, in which I did also got fascinated, the first story I read was Love in the Mask, it was in the HOT section of most manga webpages and the picture and summary make it looks interesting. As in manga, I started to read manhwas in that way until I discovered more and more. Some mangas and manhwas were recommended to me by school friends whom I didn't knew they liked to read Asian comics, and watch anime. :X

      The first time I read a manhua was briefly described in Knight Princess post, because it was the first time I read a manhua because I thought it was from a Japanese mangaka whose stories I liked, and I discovered it was really Chinese until I read the name of the author. This happened when I was in second semester of High School.

      Right now, I'd read many stories, still reading some ongoing series, and have in waiting list many others. All this began four years ago, and I wonder why I feel like it happens way much time. I started with Shugo Chara! when it was October in my first Middle School year, now I'm almost 17 and finishing my 3rd High School semester. :)

3:00 am Danger Zone Manga

      But anyway, that's how life is. I wish you had liked to read my story. Maybe other time I'll publish some social conflicts most of the fanatics to Asian culture face with society, the most problematic is Parents and Friends(in which you discover who really is and who really is not your friend, and who does easily accept it, and who not).

Thanks for reading. have a nice weekend, I wish you had liked the post, GBU, goodbye.

(Sorry if something that's written in the post doesn't make sense in English, I'm still learning, xD).

PS: People, don't stop eating or making your chores for reading. It is not good for your health. I'm saying this because I'd done this while reading some really interesting mangas and manhwas. .-.

Manhua: Knight Princess

Hi everybody!!!

How are you all?, I wish you are all fine and healthy ^ᴗ^ (I’m sick right now ¬¬)

            Today, in difference to the other days, I'm going to finally present you a Manhua from China, remember that also Vietnamese and Thai comics are called Manhuas. :D

The Manhua I'm going to present you today is… Knight Princess(Qishi Gongzhu; 騎士公主; 骑士公主) also known as Cavalier Princess, written and drawn by Cen Xiao Jing.

Qui Shi Gong Zhu first volume cover

The environment in which this story is developed is a beautiful and fantastic world created by its Mangaka, in the palace of a country named Bocinia with an Arabian architecture and dressing, but at the same time with oriental traditions from China:

            Yanshi is a girl that had wandered with her father for fourteen years, and just recently has discovered that her mother is actually Bocinia's current queen, she was separated from her when she was just an infant. Now, in order to see her mother, Yanshi and her father enter the palace, but not in a normal way: she entered disguising herself as a boy, working as bodyguard, and her father crossdressed, working as a maid; however, she never thought that she would run into the Princess of Bocinia, and then become her bodyguard by mistake… OɜO

Principal characters as children

            The genres of this Manhua are Shoujo, Drama, Comedy, Fantasy, Historical, Romance, and Gender Bender.  With regard to the characters, in the beginning is just Yashi and her father, when they finally got into the palace more characters take place in the story, some of them also becoming very important in the developing of the plot (like Abelie, Salsuke, and Archie), making romance take place in this story.  e.a

            This Manhua caught my attention since the moment I saw the summary from the a manga web page, this is the first Manhua I had read, it is really interesting, a good story with good drawings, and also it caught my attention because the drawing style from this Chinese comic looks somehow like the drawing style of Tanemura Arina(a japanese Mangaka), it made me remember Sakura-hime Kaden, xD .  The story is really cool and beautiful, since you start reading it, you won't stop reading it. >-<

If you are interested in Asian Comics, this is one of the best options to start, because is really short, sadly it is short because the Mangaka had some personal problems and  was in a emotional depression  –_– ᵁ , so they stopped to release the comic, and the end of the story was published as a novel, and you can find various translations of the summary of the end at Mangafox.com forum(Knight Princess Important News, page 8).

 

The two princess and their knights(names from left to right):
Yashi-Salsuke , Archie-Abelie

Thanks for reading, I wish you had liked it,

Goodbye, GBU, have a nice day~! :3

How to Read Asian Comics

Hi everybody~! :D

Today I’m going to tell you how to read Asian comics correctly.

         You may say "Do you think I’m stupid and don't know how to read comics?" ¬¬ , but no, I don't think you might be stupid, because I guess most of the people that are reading this have at least read 1 comic in their lives. :3

         I'm writing this because Asian Comics have different ways of reading them, it doesn't mean you should know Chinese, Vietnamese, Tai, Korean, and Japanese languages. But you must know the correct way of reading them, because if not, you will not understand what are you reading, it has happened to me, and when you notice you've been reading in the wrong way, it may be bothersome. We'll be using the terminology from the first post.  
  So let's begin:

         Most of the Asian Comics are read from right to left, from up to down; just as how you read an Occidental comic, but flipped horizontally, as the picture up ⬆ show us. First what is in the boxes, then the dialogs, and sometimes it might include what some characters are thinking, or explaining their behavior, positions, and faces.

Most Japanese, Tai, and Chinese comics are read in this way, and some Korean and Vietnamese comics.

 

    But there are Asian comics that should be read as Occidental comics, most of the Manhwas are read in this way; also there are Mangas and Manhuas that can be confusing because they must be read complete vertically and then go up again from right to left, those kind of comics are not common to see, those are called "4 panel"(example: "Lucky Star", "Working!!” and some extras chapters of other comics as the "The Breaker" or "Shugo Chara!"), as the example of the picture at the left ⬅ . 

           And there might be sometimes that some Mangakas add their creativity to the comics, so it may change a little the way of reading some pages (principally in Mangas). 

          When you buy your Asian comics at the American continent and Europe, the publishing company that did translate the comic may have print it so it'll be read from left to right.

  

Well everybody, that's all for today, i wish you have understand, and that you'll read lot's of Asian comics. Probably in future I'll make articles about the most famous Manga and Manhwa publishing companies.  :P

       Good bye~, have a nice day! GBU!

The pictures were taken from Working!! manga and modified by me with PaintBrush Mac program, and from Manga for Kids: How to Read Manga

Definition of Manga, Manhwa, and Manhua(Wikipedia)

Definitions:

Manga (漫画; まんが; マンガ)is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons (sometimes also called komikku コミック). In the west, the term "Manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th century.

Manhwa  is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons (common usage also includes animated cartoons). Outside of Korea, the term usually refers specifically to South Korean comics. The term, along with manga, is a cognate of the Chinese manhua. Manhwa were inspired by classic Asian arts, especially Chinese.

Manhua (simplified Chinese: 漫画; traditional Chinese: 漫畫) are Chinese comics originally produced in China. Possibly due to their greater degree of artistic freedom of expression and closer international ties with Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Republic of China) have been the places of publication of most manhua thus far, often including Chinese translations of Japanese manga.

Information from Wikipedia®, the free encyclopedia  :D

and picture from Drawing Manga Art Tutorials :3

PD: Wikipedia is not always a reliable information resource