Did you know Manga books are printed back to front for a reason?

Manga is a rage but have you ever wondered while picking them up and browsing that you are slightly lost with the linearity of the narrative? That is because the manga books are printed from what is traditionally right to left or from back to front, the polar opposite of how one actually reads books. And there are reasons for the same.

Why do you read manga books from right to left?

To answer the question of why Manga is printed from right to left, one has to go back to the origins of the books. Remember that they come from Japan and were originally written in Japanese. The manga that we now read is a translated form of the original but maintains all the flavours of the original text.

In Japan, the alphabet or written texts align from top to bottom in different columns, which start from right to left. Thus, the actual Japanese text is read from right to left, unlike Western writing, which is from left to right. Now, since the original text is right-to-left, naturally, the flipping of the pages also happens backwards. This makes the whole book appear to have been printed from back to front.

One can now argue that most English manga are but translations, and they could have been presented in an easier way, the traditional left-to-right. Here’s where a second theory comes in. Most youngsters who pick up a Manga book usually read it on the go in places like the Tube (underground local trains), while walking, etc, and most importantly, using only one hand to support the book and flip the pages. Since it's easier to flip it back to front while reading, the translations have also kept it in the original format to make it an easy reading experience.

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