Manga: The Complete Guide

While plenty of books deal with Japanese anime, the movie or television form of Japanese animation, none have dealt with Manga, the Japanese comics that are so prevalent in Japanese society. But while there are hundreds, if not thousands of Manga published in Japan every year, this book covers series published in America. And not just manga, either, but Manwha as well, the Korean equivalent.

Not only is each series' main themes covered, but each series is reviewed by one of 24 different reviewers. In fact, the only name I recognized out of the group was Patrick Macias, who I remember from Animerica. But really, more than just reviews of manga titles that you can find in America, this book covers various types of manga, from different types of romance manga to categorizations like Sports, Psychic, Horror, Fantasy, Mecha and Robots, Seinen, Transgender, and so on. Other categories are hinted at but not covered because most of them never get published in America, like Salaryman comics- comics for working stiffs, usually about businessmen or middle managers who make good.

The sheer number of manga is just overwhelming, and you may not agree with every rating (I certainly would have given Fruits Basket 4 stars, not 3 1/2), but you may find yourself intrigued by a series only to realize no one in your area carries it (thank goodness for the internet!). But more than just reviews, this book covers the whole of manga, including issues that many don't realize are there, thanks to American censorship. For instance, there is a scene in one of the Sailor Moon episodes where the Sailor Scouts are captured by an enemy and hung from cross-shaped torture devices- A scene excised from the American version because of Christian sensibilities. Or, from the same series, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune who are either Lesbian or really, really close (take your pick), hugging and hanging all over each other. To give these scenes less of a charge, they became cousins in the American version- although cousins aren't usually that physically close with each other, either). But even things like cutting out images of underage smoking from titles like Hikaru No Go are mentioned. Even as someone who is fairly into manga, I was surprised at how much censorship takes place. There is even more if you want your title to be carried by Scholastic or Wal-Mart- as in when Yu Yu Hakusho first came out on DVD, there were two versions floating around- one in Wal-Mart being the more censored version, and one from other video outlets being more true to the original story.

In this book, the reviewers go the extra mile and review, in separate sections, titles that fall under Yaoi and Adult (Yaoi being male-male romance/love). Almost completely absent is another category in Japan: Yuri, which is female-female love and romance. And the book doesn't even begin to cover so many of the comics published in Japan. Those who think Manga is all sex and pornography would be very surprised- books there are targeted at every market from housewives to children to XXX adult and beyond. it's too broad a category to lump under the "Manga are X", where X is a single thing. If I had to fill in X, mine would be "Diverse" or "Far too complicated to sum up in a single word."

As an overview of all manga this book is good. But of course, as soon as it was finished being written, it was out of date already. Still, as an overview of almost too many manga series to count, this will let you know what's out there. Some series are simply not represented, like "Mail Order Ninja" from Tokyopop, so you may not be able to find all the series you want to learn about.

But it's more than just a catalogue of series, and the essays and information that accompany the listing are invaluable. With so many series, there are ones I have never heard of, and ones that intrigued me but others I knew I'd never read- or want to. Where this book shines is the information about Manga in general, and about how manga is accepted and censored in the US, as well as in Japan.

I liked this book, and it's a wonderful overview of the many flavors of manga. While no book can ever be completely up to date, and you might take issue with some of the reviews of manga you like, this is a book I'd heartily recommend to anyone who likes or is a student of manga and the Japanese production of manga.