Rating: 
Summary: Buy this book!!
Review: I'm one of the people Christopher Hart talks about in his book who would be less of an oddity in Japan. I commute to Wall Street and most of the time I am reading Manga rather than the Wall Street Journal. I love this art form and now I know a little but more of why I do!
Rating:
Summary: My son and his art teacher loved this book!
Review: My son is a talented artist whose passion is cartooning. As he is a fan of Japanese comics, I bought this book for him for Christmas. He tells me this is the best book that he has ever gotten. He lent the book to his art teacher who is also a fan! She says that it is one of the best books she has ever seen on this subject matter. Bravo to Christopher Hart.
Rating:
Summary: Love Manga and Love this book!
Review: I am an amateur artist who is always looking to improve his technique. This book proved incredibly helpful to me in drawing Manga. Although I love the art form for my personal enjoyment, I tended to shy away from drawing Manga. The perspective that Christopher Hart has on Manga and cartooning in general is incredible! This will no doubt help any artist at any level become a much better artist.
Rating:
Summary: Manga Mania
Review: This book was and is an excellent helper for my teen aged kids. They absolutely love the characters and the simple way of creating them as described in this book. It may seem a bit advanced for younger kids but can be enjoyed by any Japanese manga lover. The book describes many details that are needed for the complete anime; from simple body parts to the more complex moves to the full scene of body and objects. Great gift for anyone who likes Manga art.
Rating: 
Summary: Try the "How to Draw Manga" series instead
Review: I bought this book at the beginning of my interest in manga, and the only help it gave me was the Japenese phrases at the back. I keep the book around for that reason, but not much else. If you're a budding manga artist, or on more advanced level, I highly recommend the "How to Draw Manga" line of books instead of this one. The "How to Draw Manga" series covers a wide spread of manga topics, from starting basics to advanced pen and tone techniques. They even have books dealing specifically with shojo and shonen art! (I have already pre-ordered the Costume Encyclopedia that comes out in Feb. 2003!) Mr. Hart's work is good if you want a reference for WESTERN cartooning, but not for manga and animé.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmmm...
Review: This book is good, but FAR from the best! When I got this, it seemed like a really good helpful book! Nothing really was too helpful though. Then I got some How to Draw Manga books (techniques for drawing female characters, male characters, and a few others) and I was blown away! This book is good, but if you really want to draw better, get some How to Draw Manga books!
Rating: 
Summary: Not one of my favorites
Review: I don't think I would buy "Manga Mania" again. While Christopher Hart has hired some talented artists to draw this book for him, most of them look like they have drawn in the style of american comics all their lives. It's like a book on basketball written by a rookie who has great potential, but has never really played as a pro. There's work from ten artists in this book, with Christopher Hart narrating. Only one of these artists (Svetlana Chmakova) seems to know what the manga art style is really like. As for the rest of the artists, it's like they said to themselves, "I think I'll draw manga today!" and applied for the job. Even if you have drawn american comics for years, you can't just jump into manga art and become a pro.
Topics in this book include an introduction(in which the pronunciation of the word, "anime" is written incorrectly), "manga basics", "action poses", "The bad boys of manga", "manga genres", "manga's fantasy realm", "drop-dead-gorgeous manga babes", "awesome robots and other cool stuff", "designing dynamic scenes", "common japanese terms"(why is this in here?), "So you wanna be a cartoonist?", "the inside view" (a nice interview with Viz man, Bill Flanagan), and an index.
Although the books by real manga-ka and manga-ka groups (like K's art, Hikaru Hayashi, the society for the study of manga techniques, and Kenkyukai Manga Gihou) are a little more expensive, I would definitley choose book by japanese pros over this.
Rating: 
Summary: pretty cool...
Review: This book is cool, but it helps if you have drawn alittle manga before. I love to draw pokemon manga and this book is just inspiring. Love all of the drawings. The colors are fine, it doesent matter anyway. The best thing about this book is that its so big and i could look at it for hours. Even if your just a beginer you should still check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Manga Mania
Review: Very good book. It shows good examples and gives you enough info so that you feel comfortable creating your own characters. Very informative and fun to look at again and again!
Rating:
Summary: Musings of an artist...
Review: Okay...I am by no means a professional artist or mangaka, though I wish I were. I do, however, have a few years experience of drawing manga- and anime-style drawings. And I also own (somewhere..) a couple Christopher Hart books. How to draw comic book dogs and...animals, I think...^^;; I forget. I loaned them out. Anyway, that is not the point of this post. I'm not going to insult Mr. Hart for being an American cartoonist attempting to instruct on manga. That's a bold move. Sadly...he did not achieve his goal. I do not own this book. I have looked at it many, many times in bookstores debating whether to buy it or not. I always choose not to. Why? It is, as many other reviewers, have pointed out, Americanized. The How To Draw Manga series is a much better choice. And for those of you whom it is unavailable to, go to the website. The books, and MUCH more, are there. Why, you may ask, do I refuse to buy this book? Besides its Americanization, I feel that it does not properly instruct in manga style. I learned more about drawing in the manga style from the internet and copying my Sailor Moon artbook. The faces in this book lean more toward action comic books than true manga. And the coloring is just horrible. Well...not really horrible, but it isn't manga-ish at all. My recommnedation: if you can't afford the HTDM series...surf the net.
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