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Part 3.1 - Visual Flow II, in FRUITS BASKET
And a few more notes on visual flow in FRUITS BASKET and how it's achieved. Do I need to throw the image warning up again?
I first figured out this whole dialogue-flow thing when I was reading FRUITS BASKET and noticed that many times I was reading backwards, or in a circular motion, and I didn't know how I was directed to do that, so I started drawing lines through the bubbles and pages to see how the mangaka achieved that effect. Here are pages 52 and 53 of volume 7:
Looking at the page overall, you can tell that they're discussing something more serious than the scene with the confrontation between Hiro and Tohru. While Tohru's photo of her mother is very important to her, it's an issue that affects her alone and doesn't involve the physical safety of anoyone. Shigure (kimono) and Hatori (collared shirt) are discussing a serious beating that Akito, the head of the Sohma family, inflicted upon Kisa Sohma, and other issues that surround Kisa and Hiro. So the filler-textures aren't happy little flowers or lacy roundels, like in the previous example, they're big black scratchy lines that add a solidity to the page, and the shadows cast on Shigure's kimono are deeply textured ones, which do the same thing. The only bit of levity in the artwork is Shigure going all cartoony for a panel (called chibi when referring to manga) when he figures out why Hiro is being a little snot to Tohru.
There's not as much obvious pointing from panel to panel as in the previous example, either, but you can tell by the way the characters are facing and by some of the momvents where you're supposed to be looking next. The wide panel on page 52 where Shigure is stubbing his cigarette out pushes you from left to right by the way he's facing and his arm thrusting out to the right, whereupon the form of the sofa pulls you over to Hatori and his speech balloon. In the panel right below that, Hatori's hair curves you from his speech bubble to the next panel in sequence, where the gradient pulls you on.
Note how, in the panels with gradients and text, the gradients follow the text? You can go either dark to light or vice versa, but if the speech balloons are to be read from top to bottom, the gradient is top-to-bottom (or bottom-to-top, depending on your point of view), and if the speech balloons are meant to be read right-to-left, then the gradient is right-to-left? Not a coincidence. If the gradient went opposite of the text, it'd stop the flow.
Here's another thing I want you to look at - how the dialogue flow makes you read backwards (from the Japanese point of view) without even noticing it.
See how both of these pages have very strong left-to-right diagonals? That's the wrong way to read Japanese, and it's the way opposite the way you've been reading this manga, but it's a natural sequence, and not because you're used to reading left-to-right. It's because the flows of the visuals is a stronger influence than your ingrained sense of how to read, and if I'd flipped the pages horizontally so that the diagonals went against the English reading standard, you'd still follow it with no problem.
Now, one more thing, about how breaking the panel boundaries and breaking the speech bubble boundaries changes the flow. Here's page 53 with no text. I have made one tiny little change that changes a large portion of the flow. (well, ok, it's so tiny that you might not actually notice it until I tell you. The joys of being a coy smartass.)
Did you spot the change and how it altered the flow? It's in the very last panel on the page - the bottom left panel. In the original, the bottommost speech bubble is cut off by the panel border. This serves as a brake when reading it, so when you're reading the big panel with Shigure's head, you don't hop over to that panel after reading the second speech bubble of Shigure's. Instead, your eye follows Shigure's collar up to the next-to-last panel, and then you follow the speech bubbles down to the last panel.
What I did was (badly) widen the bubble so the bubble broke the panel border instead of the panel border cutting off the bubble. Your eye then goes to that bubble instead of following Shigure's collar, and all of a sudden you're reading *up* the page:
Of course, that leaves you in a pickle because the flow leads into the center of the page and not off the page to the next one, but that's why the flow doesn't go that way. :)
Yet another conclusion-less essaylet. I want to work on action scenes next, because I'm attempting to lay out an action scene, but I may wait a day or two on that.
Index to the Series
I first figured out this whole dialogue-flow thing when I was reading FRUITS BASKET and noticed that many times I was reading backwards, or in a circular motion, and I didn't know how I was directed to do that, so I started drawing lines through the bubbles and pages to see how the mangaka achieved that effect. Here are pages 52 and 53 of volume 7:
Looking at the page overall, you can tell that they're discussing something more serious than the scene with the confrontation between Hiro and Tohru. While Tohru's photo of her mother is very important to her, it's an issue that affects her alone and doesn't involve the physical safety of anoyone. Shigure (kimono) and Hatori (collared shirt) are discussing a serious beating that Akito, the head of the Sohma family, inflicted upon Kisa Sohma, and other issues that surround Kisa and Hiro. So the filler-textures aren't happy little flowers or lacy roundels, like in the previous example, they're big black scratchy lines that add a solidity to the page, and the shadows cast on Shigure's kimono are deeply textured ones, which do the same thing. The only bit of levity in the artwork is Shigure going all cartoony for a panel (called chibi when referring to manga) when he figures out why Hiro is being a little snot to Tohru.
There's not as much obvious pointing from panel to panel as in the previous example, either, but you can tell by the way the characters are facing and by some of the momvents where you're supposed to be looking next. The wide panel on page 52 where Shigure is stubbing his cigarette out pushes you from left to right by the way he's facing and his arm thrusting out to the right, whereupon the form of the sofa pulls you over to Hatori and his speech balloon. In the panel right below that, Hatori's hair curves you from his speech bubble to the next panel in sequence, where the gradient pulls you on.
Note how, in the panels with gradients and text, the gradients follow the text? You can go either dark to light or vice versa, but if the speech balloons are to be read from top to bottom, the gradient is top-to-bottom (or bottom-to-top, depending on your point of view), and if the speech balloons are meant to be read right-to-left, then the gradient is right-to-left? Not a coincidence. If the gradient went opposite of the text, it'd stop the flow.
Here's another thing I want you to look at - how the dialogue flow makes you read backwards (from the Japanese point of view) without even noticing it.
See how both of these pages have very strong left-to-right diagonals? That's the wrong way to read Japanese, and it's the way opposite the way you've been reading this manga, but it's a natural sequence, and not because you're used to reading left-to-right. It's because the flows of the visuals is a stronger influence than your ingrained sense of how to read, and if I'd flipped the pages horizontally so that the diagonals went against the English reading standard, you'd still follow it with no problem.
Now, one more thing, about how breaking the panel boundaries and breaking the speech bubble boundaries changes the flow. Here's page 53 with no text. I have made one tiny little change that changes a large portion of the flow. (well, ok, it's so tiny that you might not actually notice it until I tell you. The joys of being a coy smartass.)
Did you spot the change and how it altered the flow? It's in the very last panel on the page - the bottom left panel. In the original, the bottommost speech bubble is cut off by the panel border. This serves as a brake when reading it, so when you're reading the big panel with Shigure's head, you don't hop over to that panel after reading the second speech bubble of Shigure's. Instead, your eye follows Shigure's collar up to the next-to-last panel, and then you follow the speech bubbles down to the last panel.
What I did was (badly) widen the bubble so the bubble broke the panel border instead of the panel border cutting off the bubble. Your eye then goes to that bubble instead of following Shigure's collar, and all of a sudden you're reading *up* the page:
Of course, that leaves you in a pickle because the flow leads into the center of the page and not off the page to the next one, but that's why the flow doesn't go that way. :)
Yet another conclusion-less essaylet. I want to work on action scenes next, because I'm attempting to lay out an action scene, but I may wait a day or two on that.
Index to the Series
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I'm learning a lot about the refined details of manga art through your writing. I truly appreciate it.
You seem like a cool person, so I hope you don't mind that I 'friend' you. I'd like to keep an eye out for your future stuff too.
:)
Thanks again!
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(And once I finish this series and go back to my normal blogging, you too can be thrilled by my usual content-free posting of photos of my cat, Internet quizzes, and random stuff that isn't anywhere near as funny as I think it is. :))
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too funny!
lucky for me, i luv cats, take quizes all the time and enjoy people's ranodom stuff!
^__^
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