Goodbye, Eri

Content Warning: This section discusses suicide, mental illness, death, and child death.

Manga is the Japanese word for the graphic novel format. Writers and artists of manga in Japan are called mangaka, the suffix “ka” meaning “professional.” Traditionally, manga are first published in a serialized format, published chapter by chapter in a manga magazine. Goodbye, Eri was first serialized on Shonen Jump+, a web/online-only version of the popular and long-running magazine Shonen Jump. Manga can be long-running series (like Marvel or DC Comics storylines), shorter series with a definite ending, or one-shots that tell a single story like a self-contained graphic novel. Following serialization, most manga are collected into published volumes, called tankobon. These book-length volumes are then translated for publication in the US and other international markets. Japanese language publications are read from right to left, the opposite of English. Most English translations of manga retain this format. Many manga are then adapted for television or film in the Japanese animated format called anime. Though a small number of manga are published in full color, the standard is black-and-white line art.

Like Western/English-language comics and graphic novels, manga is a medium or vehicle for storytelling that ranges from science fiction and fantasy to contemporary drama and even nonfiction, such as