The term manga is interpreted simply as Japanese comics, but literally means "irresponsible images". The artist Hokusai Kastushika, who gave one of his sketchbooks the title of "Manga", first coined it in 1814. Today manga has increased tremendously in popularity and is considered a respected form of art and literature. It is published in Japan in the form of a professional comic in a variety of series designed for every age group. An author or artist of a manga is even given a special title, called a Mangaka. Manga stories can also be an inspiration and precursor for anime ("manga films"), video games or live-action movies.

As in every culture and with every hobby there are fans that would like to create the same high quality work as professional Mangaka. These fans naturally create manga based on their favorite manga characters and series. The work that these amateurs thus create is commonly referred to as dojinshi (pronounced: Dough-jinshi). Dojinshi has, in its own right, become extremely popular. While the quality of dojinshi may vary extremely, the most talented amateurs are sometimes noticed by the original artists or publishers, which occasionally leads to them becoming professional manga artists.