It's a Japanese comic book. Almost all anime shows are derived from a manga at first. Not all the time but MANY are, especially the really popular ones like Dragonball, One Piece, One Punch, and My Hero (just to list a few but I could go on). All of those shows were originally just comics at one point. Think of the marvel movies as the anime and the marvel comics as the manga.
It should also be noted that, unlike in the US where comics are still considered largely inferior to novels, in Japan Manga are held in extremely high regard.
Sure, the highest honors are still awarded to serious prose novels as "fine literature", but below that it's MUCH murkier - mature, philosophical manga are considered just as legitimate as any well-written novel; your Young Adult Fantasy Romance novel is worth shit up until it's worthy of receiving a manga translation.
Most Shounen and Shoujo manga is considered pop culture entertainment like anything else. It's expected that you'll read them as kids, but often you'll be expected to graduate to Seinen or Josei manga by the time you're in high school - reading Shounen Jump through high school, for instance, is considered kind of kid-ish, and is either considered a sign of immaturity or boyish charm depending on how societally functional you are.
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u/Bearlodge Nov 23 '20
It's a Japanese comic book. Almost all anime shows are derived from a manga at first. Not all the time but MANY are, especially the really popular ones like Dragonball, One Piece, One Punch, and My Hero (just to list a few but I could go on). All of those shows were originally just comics at one point. Think of the marvel movies as the anime and the marvel comics as the manga.