From aisatsu to kaiten-zushi, Nihon is number one when it comes to things that are cool. This fun little book features full-color manga illustrations and delightful prose to offer the rest of the world a glimpse at what the Japanese love most about the country they call home.

The thing that can make or break a manga is the expression of machines and "automata": It's those fantastic devices and the sounds they create that make manga so exciting. In this book, the techniques taught in volumes 1 and 2 are used in expressive techniques to create outrageous imaginary automata, cars, motorcycles, explosions, fires, mythical animals and other fantastic effects.

Drawing realistic faces and bodies is only half the job - you will want your manga characters' clothing to look good, too. Depicting wrinkles, skirt hems and other apects of clothing isn't as easy as it looks, but this book will simpify the process for you. Features sections on underwear and outer garments, and how clothing changes shape as the body moves, bends and stretches.

Continuing in the tradition of "How to Draw Manga: Illustrating Battles" is this fantastic volume featuring battle scenes from such rough-and-tumble sports as judo, karate and kendo (Japanese fencing), boxing and street fighting. You'll learn not only how to draw battle movements, but also the clothing and gear used in these sports.

Kana de Manga makes learning hiragana and katakana easy and fun for students who already enjoy Japanese comics. Each page has a humorous manga illustration representing a word that begins with the hiragana or katakana character featured prominently at the top. A brief explanation accompanies each drawing, the English equivalent of the word is given, and there is a work area where students can practice writing the characters.

Japanese manga artists rely heavily upon onomatopoeia - sound-effect words - to tell their stories. This special edition in the Kana de Manga series features more than 100 Japanese onomatopoeia and their English equivalents in categories such as "humans," "animals," "machines," and "nature."

Yojijukugo are four-kanji expressions that make up some of the best-known and best-loved Japanese idioms. These include gems like "kill two birds with one stone," "time is money," and many more! Features 80 Japanese idioms, each accompanied by a full English explanation, kanji breakdown, example sentence, and an original manga drawing.

The Kanji de Manga series uses original comic artwork to teach readers how to identify and write the most common Japanese kanji ideographs. Volume 1 introduces 80 basic kanji that all Japanese schoolchildren are required to learn before entering the third grade. Each page features its own comic strip, kanji pronunciation guide, stroke order, and English explanations.

This is the second volume in the Kanji de Manga series, which uses original comic artwork to teach readers how to identify and write the most common Japanese kanji ideographs. Volume 2 introduces 80 basic kanji that all Japanese schoolchildren are required to learn before entering the third grade. Each page features its own comic strip, kanji pronunciation guide, stroke order, and English explanations.

Kanji de Manga continues with another volume packed with original manga illustration to help readers instantly recognize and write the most essential kanji characters in the Japanese language - enough to get by on a trip to Japan, decipher newspaper headlines and begin to understand manga in its purest, untranslated form. Each page features its own comic strip, kanji pronunciation guide, stroke order, and English explanations.

Kanji de Manga moves forward with an all-new selection of 80 kanji geared toward intermediate learners of the language. Upon completion of this and the previous three volumes, students will have learned a total of 320 kanji, enough to prepare them for the advanced levels of the official Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Each page features its own comic strip, kanji pronunciation guide, stroke order, and English explanations.