Manga Mania Bishoujo [Paperback]

This book is adorable. The art is stunning (That's because Christopher Hart only drew about 22 illustrations out of the whole book.)Christopher was never a good artist in the style of manga. I'm was never a fan of his art and still isn't.
But this book is great to have for refrence, most of the book is not for beginners, But it might be useful for them to buy it anyway. It does has some simple steps for them in drawing the heads.
It starts you off drawing beautiful eyes. Then the many lips and mouths and their expressions.
Then drawing the head in different poses.
And then it goes to teaching you how to draw the Cheat between the Pretty Girl (only two pages though.)
It shows you 9 pages on hair, when wind is blowing, between short, long, medium, and wild hair. The many curves of hair and style. Also "When you change a hair style, you change a character" page. It gives you 12 pages on body expressions and poses and Body Language.
3 pages on the poses of hands and (2 pages)
on feet (note all feet pictures except one, is wearing some kind of shoe.) It also tells you between a Stylish Figure and a Seductive Figure,a Cool Figure, and Warrior Figure(4 pages.)
It also have Advance Action Poses (11 pages.)
It also has Bishoujo Clothing from Primitive to Techno Soldier to School to Professional Uniforms to Magical and non-Human costumes (11 pages.) They have Drawing Characters in Costume
(17 pages)(the following is in order); Futuristic fighter and in medieval Futuristic Fighter, Fantasy Elf Princess and Rich Elf Princess, Traditonal in Country and Tropical, Athlete in Gymnast and Runner, Villian is Fantasy and Sci-fi, Scientist in Pretty and Beautiful, School Girls and their many uniforms.
Glamouring up a Character (9 pages) shows you how you can make a character more glamourous by changing the hair, outfit, or pose. But afterwards it's Creating Chemistry (7 pages).
And last but not least "Magical Girl Special Effects" (on the last 7 pages.) <--That might be very useful if you creating a Magical Bishoujo Manga.
I'll give it 5 stars cause it was a very good book and most of the illustraions were amazing. It was worth the money.
A Super Good Book for Kids. Cause it contains no nudy at all.
But I think that this book is better than Christopher Hart's Shoujo Book.

Manga Mania was actually not bad. Chris Hart's books are rather hit or miss for me, but this book was very comprehensive. It covers the female figure in great detail in Japanese style. The contributing artists were wonderful and did a good job of showing the female figure and face from various angles.

The sad thing about Chris Hart's books is that his own artistic style is so very poor. Frankly I could've done without his own illustrations, which is really too bad since he is the author.

I think the couples illustration at the end, and the drawings of the face from various angles were worth this book's price alone.

5 stars. A book I'll use again and again!

So you're interested in learning to draw those awesome beauties so common in anime and manga but can't find a local master to teach you. Flying to Japan or Korea is out of the question as well, so what do you do?

One option is to purchase nifty "How to" books from sites like Amazon.com. Unfortunately, you won't have any idea of how good the book is until you open that package from the shipper. The quality of any genre of art book varies widely. Some assume much more skill than the average Otaku can manifest on a good day. Even a good book art book is of limited value if it's not the right book for the individual aspiring artist.

Fear not. Having purchased a number of books on the topic I feel qualified to recommend MANGA MANIA: Bishoujo by Christopher Hart. From the very first page you will be lead through the process of creating beautiful, alluring female figures with little more than basic art tools and modest talent. Christopher Hart avoids the temptation to show off his own artistic talent while talking down to the reader/student. Instead, he walks you through the process of character design. With clear, step-by-step illustrations you see the character come alive. You deal with not only eye placement but expression. The famous eyeshine and shadowing details also come into play as you decide which technique appeals to you most. Along the way, the author imparts history and cultural influences that have shaped the manga culture we know today.

You might go on to buy other Manga art books afterwards to refine and define your style. But start with this one.