I have had a problem recently with my Junior High where a parent complained that I was reading manga while walking from the station to my school. Yeah completely ridiculous but do they make the same versions of manga and maybe even jump magazine without pictures where they can't tell by looking that it is a manga? Thanks.

haha, what an odd predicament. I'm afraid I can't help you, but wouldn't a manga without images be missing a key component? How about switching to another genre?

I'm curious to know the reasons for the complaint, though. Was it the type of manga? Or the fact that it was manga, rather than book? Or the fact that you were walking and reading at the same time?

I imagine having to modify your behaviour during off work hours is probably an unwanted part of being a teacher.

Manga without pictures is like comics without images... it's just a book at that point.

There are a lot of light novels based on popular anime and manga (they sell well because students who aren't allowed to read manga at school get them). You should be able to find them in any bookstore.

There's someone named Stephen who over the years has translated many manga and put the formatted .txt of the translations online. Manga they've done includes Monster and 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa, as well as the novel Another Monster by the same author. I don't want to directly link to the site but if you Google that info you should find it. By formatted I mean they include page numbers, sound effects, and which characters are speaking, along with bracketed narration. Looks like they format other stuff as well, such as thoughts and flashbacks.

I don't think it would be very enjoyable, though. Are you going to do it just to make a political point? ^_^ Like when people excessively censor their words with beeping sounds on television to protest censorship?

If there's an anime version of the manga, you might be able to find subtitles and read those instead.

jacf29 Wrote:I have had a problem recently with my Junior High where a parent complained that I was reading manga while walking from the station to my school. Yeah completely ridiculous but do they make the same versions of manga and maybe even jump magazine without pictures where they can't tell by looking that it is a manga? Thanks.

Is there any particular reason you can't just read the manga anyway? Who's stopping you? And what kinda person complains about something like that?? Seems like the kind of complaint you just ignore =)

Quite a lot of manga is actually based of light novels, so you could get the novels they are based of and read them?

jacf29 Wrote:I have had a problem recently with my Junior High where a parent complained that I was reading manga while walking from the station to my school. Yeah completely ridiculous but do they make the same versions of manga and maybe even jump magazine without pictures where they can't tell by looking that it is a manga? Thanks.

pretty strange compliant. I've never had anything like that happen to me. Strange...

Have you considered taking big pieces of paper and folding up a book cover to hide the fact that your reading a manga? Usually people can only see the cover, and it's fairly easy to cover up.

Whoa! I just realized the OP wasn't talking about reading manga on a tablet? hehe. Maybe by “pictures” they just meant the cover?

bombpersons Wrote:Is there any particular reason you can't just read the manga anyway? Who's stopping you? And what kinda person complains about something like that?? Seems like the kind of complaint you just ignore =)

In Japan, it's harder, particularly in a small town. Gossip can lead to you being called into your supervisor's office even for stuff like that.

If it's that big of an issue and worry, then why not just opt to not read manga on the way to school? There are plenty of other things you can do with the time that won't cause you problems. It's ridiculous that anyone would care in the first place, but there's no cure for stupidity so just put yourself out of harm's way

I can't help but think this is a trolling post...

All you need to say is that you are a beginner at japanese. The pictures help you understand and your Japanese is not well enough to read regular books yet.

If they threaten to fire you, let them know that you will goto the local newpaper and tell them that you got fired for reading a manga on the way to work, that you got fired for trying to learn Japanese. The administration of the school would become a complete laughing stock. I know Japan is backwards, but its not that BACKWARDS.

Stand up for yourself. Be a man.

You should probably consider printing out and reading all the lyrics to your favourite Japanese songs instead of listening to your iPod.

juniperpansy, I can't tell if you're joking or not. If the school has a rule prohibiting students from reading manga (ydtt mentioned such rules exist), then it's not so surprising that the teachers would be expected to set a good example. Not following the rules is frowned upon. I think your plan might very well end up with the OP as the laughing stock. :-)
edit: But I like your spirit. Sometimes one has to take a stand on issues. We need to defend our right to manga walk! ;p

I think it's because the students are not allowed to read it at school. But I found a replacement. The librarys at school have educational picture books. I will use those instead.

Thora Wrote:Not following the rules is frowned upon. [...] But I like your spirit. Sometimes one has to take a stand on issues. We need to defend our right to manga walk! ;p

This reminds me of a quote I've read recently:
“Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.” – Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Thora Wrote:If the school has a rule prohibiting students from reading manga

OK it appears that Japan is more backwards than I thought....

But getting back to the constructive side, Jacf, I do have a GTO book that appears to be what you want (a version of a manga without pictures).
it is this: ISBN - 4-06-324331-1 GTO LIVE in 北海道-上- 相沢春吉・藤沢とおる 講談社 -

But really, why don't you ask at manga/bookstores? I'm sure they would know a lot more about the topic than us.

This thread reminds me of that book Reading Japan Cool: Patterns of Manga Literacy and Discourse - http://books.google.com/books?id=iEeHTogL6uUC - They talk in part about the perception of manga in Japan.

This also made me think of the book: http://www.kirainet.com/english/the-evolution-of-manga/ - Because they both talk about analyses of the history of manga.