Reading Direction for Comics/Mangas

Western and Korean comics/mangas are usually read from left to right. In contrast, Japanese versions start on the right.

In the Asian originals it can also happen that you have to read from "bottom" to "top". Since this practice is more than unusual for Western languages or writing systems, professional translations by publishers avoid it whenever possible. In the case of so-called "fansubs", i.e. manga translations by fans (for whose work we would like to take this opportunity to thank them warmly), the phenomenon is sometimes adopted in certain places, usually for prominent parts. However, this cannot be observed in direct speech.

Fun Facts: It was not until 2002 that the original mirrored version of mangas have been released in the USA. Before that, it was customary to make a Western adaptation. In Germany, non-mirrored mangas became popular in 1996. This fact shows that Japanese comics established themselves here relatively late, in the 1990s. In some European neighboring countries, such as France, this development happened about 10 years earlier.