I’m curious about the meaning of some of the squiggly lines visible around the character in all three panels of this page:
I’m especially curious about the little circle to the left of Alpha’s face in the first panel.
Any manga experts here?
I think she may be unsteady and inebriated slightly (as going back 2-3 pages shows her drinking something out a flask, and then becoming unsteady as she looking towards the Sun).
And in Western Comics, the little circles are often used as a sign of inebriation (though usually more than one)- I know Doonesbury used to do this a lot back in the 70s.
A straight line out from the eyes will mean either intense glare (straight line) or not really focusing (squiggley line.)
vertical squiggleys over the head also mean general discombobulation.
A series of short dashes perpendicular to the body simply means that this body part is import. In the case of the second panel, it looks like she has noticed something or her eyes have focused again. But you’ll see this used in cases where, for instance, someone looks at their watch (dashes around the watch), someone looking at someone else’s breasts (dashes about the breasts), etc.
All the other marks are basic movement marks.
I don’t know what the circle is, though the intoxicated theory seems likely enough. The blush marks on the cheeks make it seem plausible. (That said, it could just be an ending mark to the straight line do differentiate it from all the other linage.)
Odd, I must have missed the flask and the apparent intoxication in the previous pages. Interesting.
I don’t think the particular circle/line symbol in the first panel is a sign of inebriation though – I see it quite a lot in this manga, in circumstances that do not involve intoxication.
Two more examples:
(Last panel, to the lower left of Alpha’s face): Read Free Manga Online at One Manga. Online manga scans reader.
(Last panel, above and also to the right of Alpha’s head): Read Free Manga Online at One Manga. Online manga scans reader.
A friend said the top one is to show “bewilderment” while the bottom two just indicate movement.
I don’t know a thing about manga though.
According to this Hiragana table, the little circle is a “semi-voiced sound mark” (whatever that means).
So I’m guessing it’s some kind of sigh or wordless exclamation.
Iconography. Ooh. I love it when we on the SD get jargony. Keep it up.
Actually, it’s “semi-voiced sound mark” only when written in upper right corner of kana. Small circle like that alone is how Japanese write period.
But I don’t think that there is some deeper meaning to that. Just visual clue for something that would be camera panning around in movie.