My Review:
I have several “How to draw Manga” books on my book shelf. Recently I decided to start a drawing manga course so I went through all of them and tried to choose the best ones for inspiration. It seems that after the explosion in popularity of Manga in USA and Europe many non-Japanese artists published books on this topic. While this doesn’t have to be necessarily bad it seems to me that most of them didn’t catch the essence of Japanese Manga and that it wouldn’t be a good idea to use theirs books. There are few exceptions though, for example Adam Warren and Fred Perry (I will get to his video course in the next review).
Back to the review 
There are 2 original Japanese “How to draw Manga” books that I consider to be the best and “How to Draw Anime & Game Characters, Vol. 1: Basics for Beginners and Beyond” is the one that has been translated into English. It may be decieving that it is called How to Draw Anime… but basically the only difference between Manga and Anime is that Manga is a static comic form while anime is a cartoon (moving picture format). So the character design process is exactly the same.
What I like about this book most is that it really gives you all the info you need to get into drawing Manga. It starts with the basics such as drawing cubes and balls in perspective and continues by building on this with the addition of eyes, mouth and more details. After explaining the drawing of a generic anime head it goes on to show you different popular styles of current anime characters while showing each head from different angles, for example bird’s eye and ant’s view while rotating the head along a vertical axis at the same time. This is very rare in other books.
A large part of the book is focused on comparing the professional and beginners’ drawing of the same character. This is highly useful as you can clearly see the many mistakes and poor use of techniques taught in the book by beginners. On one page the finished drawings are compared while on the next one circle and stick characters are drawn representing these two drawings that are even better at pinpointing the basic mistakes in the drawings such as incorrect proportions and perspectives of different body parts. Be sure to check out the samples from the book in the gallery bellow.
The book continues with drawing characters’ bodies, explaining different body parts and poses as well as foreshortening and clothes design while sprinkling the book with one page tips by popular young Japanese manga artists.
Short summary:
+ great and very comprehensive Manga book to start with
- no detailed explanation of anatomy, however this could actually be a good thing as it seems it work
My opinion:
Best “How to draw Manga” book translated into english. 
Price:
This book is obviously out of print, there are some sellers on Amazon.com and the price range is surprisingly wide. From $18 to $150. WTF?
www.amazon.com/gp/product/4766111206/
Product Description
This exciting new series which may be used in conjunction with How To Draw Manga is a dream-come-true for all aspiring “Anime = Japanese Animation” artists, “Video Game” designers, as well as fans. Volume one introduces the step-by-steps involved in drawing various types of male and female characters, young and old, in the unique “Anime” style whose popularity seems to be growing by the day.
Moreover, it provides detailed explanations how to bring out certain personality traits through facial features, anatomy, wardrobe as well as accessories. This will be one “Hot” book for all “Anime” fans.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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