German manga
Gallery
I have already lamented the demise of German manga anthology magazines on this weblog (, the last monthly anthology, was cancelled in 2012). But what about journalistic periodicals that write about manga? As far as I know, there are two German-language magazines of potential interest for manga readers: Animania (or “AnimaniA”) and Koneko.
Generally, Koneko seems to reach out more to its readers, the vast majority of which appear to be teenage girls. Animania on the other hand makes a somewhat more mature impression, and is more focused on the anime/manga scene. For this reason I find it more appealing than Koneko, which I would only recommend to someone who is also interested in J-pop. Still, it is a pity that, after the cancellation of MangasZene in 2007, there is no German magazine in which manga are the primary topic, and not just one small part of a purported all-encompassing fandom of Japanese pop culture.
But in 2017, artist Arne Jysch also showed that realistic stories from German artists still hold some appeal to German audiences with his adaptation of Der nasse Fisch (“The Wet Fish”), a historical thriller by Volker Kutscher, which also served as a model for the German television series . Jysch, who has studied animation and mainly draws storyboards for movies, has also mastered a fast style. The smaller graphic novel format along with new scanning techniques help him to save time as well. These aspects also benefit young artists who have come to graphic novels via manga. One example is Kristina Gehrmann’s trilogy (Iceland), which deals with the failure of the Franklin expedition in its search for the Northwest Passage. Her work has already been reprinted several times. Then there are artists like , who always like to surprise with new story approaches. Her three-hundred-page zombie apocalypse Endzeit has even been adapted into a film, with an all-female crew.
Deadlock 1 & Twittering birds never fly 2 GERMAN BL Manga Yaoi Good condition!
Graffiti of the Moment Volume #1 by Hinoki Kino German-language Manga (2015)
