アメリカ田舎暮らし便り

There are a ton of Japanese webcomics and webcomic aggregator sites, and I feel like they don’t get as much play as they could, despite their only being a google away, which is a pity because we all love the web, we all love comics, and we all love Japanese, so…

Of course, unlike the comics of a mainstream publication like Shounen Jump, these comics are unlikely to have furigana and stuff…(what stuff?), and the text will be made of images, so it won’t be easy to copy and paste and thus look up like actual digital text would. Unfortunately, the one mainstream characteristic that Japanese webcomics do inherit and imitate is the preference for black-and-white over color. I likes my comics in color.

Still, all the pretty pictures more than make up for these disadvantages, even the lack of color, so, really, the moral of the story is: don’t bother looking stuff up too much, just enjoy the ride and the sights.

Anyway, without further ado and in no particular order:

1. Web Comic Ranking [WCR] – ウェブコミックランキング – is.gd/abcLwT
   Coming from an English-language perspective, website-ranking websites strike me as a very 1990s/Geocities thing, and that impression is made no less intense by the demise (?) of Technorati ¹ as a major online force — not to mention the very 1990s/Geocities style web design of WCR. But all those cosmetic impressions take a back seat to the undeniable fact that this is a high-quality website with high-quality links to high-quality webcomics.
2. あんぷら屋－トップ – is.gd/eUDk8w
   A full-color 4-panel comic strip updated every day.
3. Webコミックさ～ち：無料のオリジナルWeb漫画オンリーの作品別検索サイト – is.gd/n8Q0qK
   Web Comic Search: A search site dedicated to free, web-only and web-original manga.
4. You’re my only shin’ star – is.gd/WJF8qX
   A 4-panel brother-sister comic strip.
5. Comic Room: WEB漫画/CG・イラスト/小説/ランキング/BL – コミックルーム　登録無料！ – is.gd/skIJYu
   A comprehensive web comic (manga) / computer-generated illustration/novel/ (and yes, even) yayoi (!) ranking site. A veritable clusterhump of creative otakuism, the sheer scope and detail blow WCR out of the water. I especially like how you can look for stories by genre, because, really, deciding the best manga on the web is like deciding the best shoes in the world — it totally depends on what the shoes are for.
6. Comic Room: WEB漫画：ノンフィクション – is.gd/U3lUty
   The nonfiction webcomic ranking subpage/subsite over at Comic Room. I’ve got to give my shout-outs to nonfiction; I love nonfiction; I think it’s the most under-appreciated supercategory of writing there is. Literary fiction gets all the glory, which kinda of weirds me out, although, it’s great to be living in a world and at a time when imagination is appreciated.
7. papuカフェ – is.gd/LYg67N
   The rather unflatteringly drawn comic diaries of a Japanese mother living in Nanjing, China. Technically, she splits her time between Japan and Nanjing. Whatever. As strangely interesting as it is pedestrian.
8. アメリカ田舎暮らし便り – is.gd/JOFvsw
   A 4-panel slice-of-life (nonfiction) comic strip about a Japanese housewife and her life in rural America. Incidentally, the blog’s still a secret from her husband! The handwriting may or may not initially be a hurdle for people unused to Japanese handwriting, but even then, it still makes for great wallpaper! 🙂
9. Chaos　School – is.gd/RKt396
   A very hand-drawn (although, thankfully, full-color…sometimes) high school fantasy romantic-comedy! The author warns that there are some parts that are “intended for women”, although I haven’t gotten to any of those yet. To tell you the truth, this one’s not so much “cool” as it is “random”, but there’s definitely some potential there; anyone who keeps producing is bound to get somewhere 😀 . Basically, distractingly amateurish artwork but genuinely amusing dialog with great joke pacing/delivery.
10. Wanpanman (One Punch Man): I love it so much I’m mentioning it again — just in case you didn’t hear me the first time! A funny, irreverent Dragon Ball Z-spoofy free webcomic, redrawn by (Shounen Jump) professionals and re-released online for free. Will the coolness never end?!

That’s all from me for now! See you, Space Cowboy! Remember: Japanese websites appear, grow, peak and then disappear — i.e. get deleted by their creators — with astonishing regularity, so be sure to enjoy these while they’re hot! Feel free to share recommendations of your own and…yeah…let me know if you see any broken links, too 🙂 .