Manga Study Guide: Barefoot Gen/Line

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Lines used in Manga

Lines are a common use in comics. They are often used to emphasize situations or add

extra information to the scene. Most commonly they are used to express action, motion,

mood, power or depression.

Action lines:

Action lines are usually parallel straight, diagonal or curved lines. Action lines have two

main categories, one being focus lines and the other speed lines.

Focus lines are used to create focus towards a certain object/person by using thus focus

lines via outward projections. (image)

Speed lines are a combination of a lot of lines going in the same direction, usually parallel

straight lines. It is used to indicate velocity, or speed, in the scene whilst directing where

the character(s) is moving towards. (image)

Mood/atmospheric lines:

These lines are often curved, spiky or even shown like smoke to indicate the atmosphere

or the current mood of a character or an object. They are often around –or emitted from - a

character or object making it seem like steam is coming off them. (image)

Depressing lines:

Lines to show depression are mainly vertical straight lines. These indicate the character's feeling towards the situation.