Preliminary Evaluation of Manga’s Emotional Impact Using Physiological Indexes

The manga market has experienced significant expansion in recent years, necessitating the production of higher-quality content. Previous studies have highlighted that high-quality manga can effectively evoke emotions in readers. Consequently, gaining an in-depth understanding of the emotional impact manga has on its reader is crucial for enhancing manga quality. This study specifically aimed to quantify the emotional effects of manga on readers. Given manga's unique format of being consumed page by page, we utilized EEG and HRV sensors to capture emotion-induced physiological responses on a double-page spread basis. Findings from the EEG data indicated an increase in readers’ concentration levels at plot twists. However, HRV did not show significant differences from one page to another. This suggests that changes in EEG indexes on specific pages might allow for emotion estimation from page to page, despite the lack of significant HRV findings.