Often in American comics, apart from the main story, there are interesting additions, such as a cover gallery or a short journalism. On the other hand, what do mangacas have interesting to offer?
Heroes portraits
There are a lot of heroes on the pages of comics, often, even in the course of the plot, we will not find out all the information about them. And then additional materials come to the rescue. In several manga, you can find profiles of specific characters at the end of the volumes. Kubo Tite in Bleach successively presents his heroes. Interestingly, this is quite detailed information, because the author gives … the blood type of his characters! In addition, he publishes data about his favorite dish, and as if that was not enough, he dedicates a musical theme to his heroes! In contrast, in the Great Zodiac War , only basic details such as real name, weight, and height are disclosed at the end of the volume. And Kohta Hirano in the Drifter Gallery of All Charactersdescribes his characters humorously: “Nobu-Nobu, born of the Oda family, a smoking machine, such a walking thrower!”. However, perhaps the most interesting information about the heroes was found in the fourth volume of Green Blood . Namely, Masasumi Kakizaki presents there specific models of weapons that are used by the heroes, with technical information! For example, Luke Burns used the Pietta 185 Remington New Model Army revolver.
Bite the universe!
Some stories can be so confusing that it would be useful to clarify certain issues or concepts. That is why, for example, in Abara at the end of the volume, all the organizations that have passed through the pages of the manga, as well as the most important characters, are described in detail. All this to make it easier for the reader to find himself in this enigmatic world filled with terrible hermitage! Kohta Hirano in Driftersintroduces historical characters to the plot, most of them Japanese, so it was a very good idea to introduce additional historical information. Thanks to this, you can find out who the Benkei monk was, or where the jigen and taisha fighting styles come from. Historical events mentioned by the heroes are also presented. Kaori Yuki, on the other hand, is inspired not by stories like Kohta Hirano, but by fairy tales. For this reason, the manga also includes summaries of individual works by the Brothers Grimm, so you can see directly what changes the Mango has made.
A few words from the translator
Of all the manga add-ons, my favorite part is the translation of proper names. After all, it is extremely difficult, but also a very interesting question. More than once I wanted to learn the translator’s line of reasoning and in some manga the publishing house was used by the readers. In Bleach , you can come across a term at every step that is not easy to translate into Polish. For example, shinigami or zanpakutou, eventually translated into Death Guards and Soul Reapers . Interestingly, in the first case, we can learn (from a short text by Paweł Dybała) that the internet user is responsible for creating the term.
A few issues in the Drifters were explained in a similar way, for example how they tried to reproduce Toyohisa’s speech stylized in the original.
My most regret is that you have not been tempted to find such a corner in One-punch mana , where a superhero with an elaborate nickname appears at every turn!
Oddities and other wonders
Not always accessories have to serve something, sometimes it’s just about fun. This is what it looks like in Drifters . Kohta Hirano states in the afterword that there is basically nothing to write here, but if there is room, he will sing! The translator tells you that the chapter titles refer to different songs!
However, this is a small matter compared to the miracles found in Bleach ! We have Radio-Kon episodes , where the host of the program interviews the heroes of the manga. Unfortunately, they appear quite irregularly and very rarely. In addition, you can come across the popularity ranking from time to time! From the first edition, we will learn that the most liked character was Ichigo Kurosaki (as many as 9742 readers voted for him), and five votes were given to, for example, the anonymous Mr. Director! And in Volume 20, there’s a Hollow fan gallery!
Mention of honor, i.e. a short summary
Finally, I would like to mention one of the best additions. In the fourteenth volume of Berserk there is a unique episode, namely the Berserk Prototype , created by Miura during her student days in 1988. You can see many interesting elements in this one-shot. I was surprised by the prototype of Griffith!
I appreciate all the additional elements included in the comics. I like concept art as well as cover art galleries. In manga, I like pages devoted to problems with translating proper names. It cannot be denied that thanks to such details a given volume becomes more valuable.
