Super Character Design and Poses, Volume 2: Heroine Book

Now I don't draw at all, but when I heard about this book I just had to get it. I figured that at the very least I'd get a few laughs out of it & pass it along to my manga drawing friends. Years later it's still very much in my possession & I still pull it out to laugh at the very true stereotypes & clichés it portrays.

This book is part manual & part manga. The general layout of the book is a manga telling you how not to avoid the clichés (or rather, how to spot them). The book gives us six characters that are the basis for just about every manga character out there. (No really, it's actually true.) You have the boy adventurer (think Ash from Pokemon), the average everyman (think Tenchi), the brooding villain/anti-hero (think Hellsing), the girl next door (there's one in each manga, take your pick), the sweet little sister type (think Sasami from Tenchi), as well as the sexy older woman/occasional villain type (think Ryoko from TM). The book goes over the various clichés in plot as well as clothing- most of the big clichés are all there!

Even if you aren't an artist you'll still get a kick out of reading this, especially if you are more than a little fed up with the overly clichéd mangas & characters out there. This isn't the deepest reading out there & most will finish it in about a half hour's time, but its well worth the price. It makes for an excellent reference guide, especially if you want to get into manga- or even "regular" comics or webcomics. There's a lot of clichés you don't want to fall into using! Totally worth it.