Manga March Madness

I don't know if I've mentioned it lately, but I am a librarian in a public library.  Two years ago, I was assigned to go out to our local high school and meet once a week with the kids and talk about "something" for an hour after school.  Honestly, I was at a loss. My own kids last saw their teenage years over 10 years ago, and the world has been through immense change since I was a teenager. I do know that kids enjoy reading Manga (so do I) and that we were heading into that perfectly wonderful time of the year known as March Madness, where the NCAA looks to crown the championship college basketball team.  Brackets abound everywhere.  So, I decided to combine those two things and make a Manga March Madness for us to discuss.  Which heroes/anti-heroes were the best?  Who would reign supreme in a battle?  

We were to meet once a week, discuss the characters, and then vote on who the winners were each week to move on to the next bracket.  I picked my favorite characters, and then I polled my co-workers to find their favorite characters.  And then, I came up with this bracket. 

For over a month, we met in the media center after school and voted on who was the best of the characters.  The final four came down to Yor from Spy x Family, Tatsu from Adventures of a Househusband, Saitama from One Punch Man, and   I know, that's a wild group of characters, isn't it?  

So, I'm curious. If you were to build a bracket?  Who do you feel must be included?  

Spy x Family

Sometime during the pandemic, I discovered how much I love graphic novels and manga.  To me, it's an entirely new genre of books, and there is a lot of ground to cover in this area.  There is a wealth of material in this age group, and since I had never read any of it, I had an astounding array of reading materiel to see me though a very uncertain time.

I find that I love graphic novels and manga for several reasons:  

1) I love the art.  

2) The visual storytelling is phenomenal.  I enjoy that the art in and of itself allows me to visualize stories in a way that I never would have before.

3) The stories are unique and fresh.  I don't find expected storylines.  They are all wonderfully unexpected!

4) I find that I really enjoy the challenge of reading Manga, which reads from right to left - or backwards of what we consider standard in the United States.

One of my favorites is Spy x Family.  (Query: do you pronounce the x or not when saying the name of the title?)

In this beautiful story, super spy Loid Forger discovers that his next mission requires him to have a family in order to execute the mission.  

Loid goes to an orphanage and adopts a young girl named Anya.  It turns out that Anya is a telepath.

And then Loid needs to find a wife, so he marries the beautiful Yor.  Yor is secretly a highly paid and very successful assassin.

This little family then adopts a dog.  A dog that can see the future. And can communicate with Anya telepathically.

With Anya as the only person who knows everyone's secrets, she works hard to ensure that her family is safe.  She works to keep Yor out of trouble, and maneuvers situations to Loids' advantage.  The dog works in conjunction with Anya to keep everyone in the family safe. 

The adventures this family has are fantastic.  I love that the author does their best to keep Anya as childlike and safe as possible, considering that she is a telepath and knows everyone's secrets.  But, all Anya really wants is a family.  And everything that she does is to keep her family safe.

It's wild.  It's fun.  And it is unpredictable.  I really enjoy this series!  Just a note - in our library, this is shelved in the Adult Manga collection.  So while the characters are adorable, some of the situations in which the characters find themselves lean towards an adult audience.

Right now, Spy x Family continues through Volume 15.  The anime version is also out (through season 3) and there is one full length movie to date.

Manga

 Are you into reading Manga? I wasn't, until this summer. One of the other librarians on staff encouraged me to read a few series.  And then, I go hooked. I love Manga! I love the story lines, I love the format that is so accessible to kids across the board. Whether kids are struggling to read, or accomplished readers way above grade level, manga is an equal opportunity format. The fact that it is a graphic based format makes it easier for struggling readers, and the white spaces between the panels encourage higher order thinking skills painlessly.  (making predictions, drawing inferences).  

Manga is different than Western Graphic Novels in that you read them from right to left, and you start each page on the top right hand side, reading to the left, and then returning to the left side and going down a line. I'm convinced that reading in this format is going to help me stave off dementia!

While I enjoyed most everything I read, I was drawn to "Slice of Life" manga.  Slice of life is based around the life of a person going about their day.  From chores, to school, to preparing meals.  

In no particular order, here are my favorite Manga series that I read this summer:

Yotsuba & !

Yotsuba and her father encounter many adventures when they move into a new house in the big city! Every day brings new adventures!  *Note, in many ways, I felt that this series was a "read-alike" to Junie B Jones or Ramona Quimby. This is the only series that I read that came out of the children's section.

Silver Spoon

Yugo Hachiken chooses to go to an agricultural school instead of the Academic School that his parents had planned for him to attend. Hachiken's life takes an interesting turn as he begins to understand the world that prepares the food that he eats, and applies his business acumen to helping the future farmers i the school grow their business models.

The Ancient Magus' Bride: Wizards Blue

Definitely NOT a slice of life!  The ancient wizard has chosen a bound partner who's job will eventually be to kill her. Wonderfully fun fantasy full of action and adventure, with a touch of magic tossed in for fun.

Spy X Family

Super Spy must acquire a family in order to spy upon a foreign diplomat/businessman who has designs on taking over the world.  Said spy quickly finds a family.  He unknowingly marries an assassin for hire and adopts a telepath. This series is solid gold!  We can't keep it on our shelves. It keeps getting checked out!

Living Room

High School student lives in the big city in her uncle's boarding house with really hot college guy across the hall who might be as interested in her as she is in him.  Or is he?  Very sweet series!

The Way of the House Husband

This delightful series follows the life of an ex-Yakuza gang member who retires from a life of crime and becomes a House Husband.  I love the comic absurdities throughout the series!

Have you read any Manga? What are your favorite series? Inquiring minds want to know!

*If you're curious to find out more about Manga and how it supports reading, you can find out more here: https://www.ncwlibraries.org/the-benefits-of-manga-and-graphic-novels/