Manga Moods: 40 Faces + 80 Phrases

I purchased Manga Moods to use as a reference for drawing facial expressions for anime/manga style characters. The book does not disappoint. Over forty expressions are represented, each expression includes two phrases that correlate with that emotion. The phrases are written in English and phonetic Japanese with Hiragana. The drawings are adorable. I couldn't help but smile as I read through the book and each new expression came up. Each expression is portrayed by an adorable girl. An added bonus, in the back of the book, Takarai includes an explanation of Hiragana, a script used to write phonetic spellings of Japanese words. She also includes the 46 basic Hiragana characters, contracted Hiragana, and two dash and one circle Hiragana. The book is smaller than I expected. This is a good thing, since it makes it far more portable. This would make a great gift for the Otaku in your life. Or even the artist in your life who wants references for drawing styles. And at less than $10, it won't hurt the wallet.

I love this book! It's just very cute to look at. If you're trying to learn to draw manga, this isn't for that purpose. It is full of captions along side the illustration of the mood. There are various characters. (I must say my only complaint is all their hair is way to similar. It would have been cool to have some variation in hair styles. But such a minor complaint.) I find this an excellent reference for drawing facial expressions too. I highly recommend this book if you love cute things or just manga in general. haha

A cute simple guide to very common moods and expression you'll recognize from both manga and anime. I bought this friend, though we both look through it from time to time. Notes -Fully colored pages! And a Japanese pronunciation guide/Hiragana chart for anyone interested in reading the kana. -Tiny! Like a child- no, a toddler book. Maybe a little bigger. About 5 x 5 inches at the most. The pictures are large, however. -A lot of the expression/moods are really exaggerated. A bit of a let down for my friend - she thought it would be a page or two dedicated to showing variations of the same Mood. I saw the previews and assumed she did too, so I was expecting just what we got. But I agree it would've been better if there were more examples of an emotion. Moods like Emotional definitely warrant it. To the book, Emotional is portrayed as laughing until you're crying. When I think 'Emotional' I think over-the-top versions of anger, sadness, happy, despair... -I suppose it's subjective, but I don't think the labels for the moods match up well to the actual mood (at least, the English). Suspicious looks Surprised, Confident looks Content, Satisfied looks Confused, and like I said before, Emotional looks Relaxed, Happy and Childish, all rolled in one. All in all, a nice book. It's not really essential, as you could just as easily find more varied examples by randomly selecting 3 manga from 3 different series and comparing how the artists portrays a mood. Still, it's very cute and handy when you need a small guide at arm's reach. I don't think it's worth anything over $6, though.

I bought this book as a gift for my daughter. The book shows different "faces" of moods relating to Manga. It is not a -How to Draw- book. It is more of an inspirational book for you to create your own drawing with ideas of how the expression should be formed to relay the emotion. She loves the Japanese translation that is included. Overall she enjoys this book a lot. It is pocket sized as other reviewers have commented, making it easy and light for taking back and forth to school.

Manga Moods is a really cute book, though a lot smaller than I expected it to be. My first thoughts when I saw this book were, "Awesome! This would be perfect for learning different expressions!" So as soon as I got it, of course I looked through it right away, and I was honestly a little disappointed. The Moods aren't as expressive as I thought they would be. And quite a few of them were like others in the book, only with a small tweak of eyebrow or an added sweatdrop. And others, to me, don't really look like the feeling they're trying to express. For example, Suspicious (on page 19) looks more surprised (to me at least :/). Disappointed (on page 43) and Gloomy (on page 47) look very similar. It's not terrible though, I still use it for reference on expressions. It is a pretty book after all, and it has two Japanese phrases for each Mood if you're interested in learning a little Japanese (phrases). Phrases like "Dream on!" for defiant, and "Time for bed." for Sleepy, you know things like that. On the back it's recommended as a gift book, and I guess it would make a decent gift for someone who is interested in manga, and learning the different expressions. My reason for three stars, is mainly based on the fact that I don't feel the moods are 100% accurate on some of the pages, but it is, as I stated earlier, a visually appealing book, and still fun to look at. The price seems reasonable for something like this, and I would still recommend it to others.

I bought this for my friends daughter who is studying manga art at collage and found this birthday gift very useful

Als ich mir dieses Buch bestellt habe, habe ich mir mehr erwartet. Vor allem bei der Größe. Das Büchlein misst gerade mal 13x13cm. Mit einem Wort: klein! Dafür ist es mit einem Hardcover. Der Aufbau: Linke Seite die Emotion in Worten (Engisch und Japanisch) und zwei dazupassende Phrasen. (80 Phrasen) Rechte Seite eine colorierte Zeichnung der Emotion. (40 Gesichter) Das Buch beinhaltet zwar alles was es verspricht (40 faces + 80 phrases), dennoch hätte ich mir für diesen Preis etwas mehr darunter vorgestellt.

The book itself is rather small, much smaller than what I had in mind. It conveys characters with emotions (facial expressions), and also there are very basic japanese phrases with an english translation. I am satisfied with it. Its a little small addition to my collection. :)

Bought this book for my daughter who loves to draw Manga. She is delighted with it and says it is very helpful to her, would recommend.

lovely book with some nice illustrations. Please note that this is not a book with useful phrases. An example of what it does contain is Happy, that Japanese word for it and a pronunciation and an anime happy face. I brought this for a friend moving to japan. I have it myself mainly cos i like the pics