The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Manga) by Nagaru Tanigawa

Kyon is just starting high school and is looking forward to being a mature young man, dating, and doing normal things. However fate has a different idea and thrusts him into a friendship with the weird girl, Haruhi Suzumiya. Kyon is defintely going to have his hands full because it turns out that Haruhi can actually control, manipulate, and create the reality around her. She has limitless god-like powers.

Except she is totally unaware of her abilities, she is depressed, and has chosen Kyon to be her BFF.

Soon Haruhi’s group of friends expands and together they form a new school interest group whose purpose is to seek out the strange and unusual. And because Haruhi’s deepest desires are to find aliens, time travelers, and telepaths,  her friends become the very things she seeks. Now Kyon is surrounded by aliens, time travelers, and telepaths, but Haruhi is oblivious to the power her friends have suddenly developed. Kyon is stuck between a rock and a hard place, because he constantly has to please Haruhi, yet now let her know her own power. If she found out her mind may not be able to handle it and destroy all of reality.

Needless to say Kyon’s high school life will be far from ordinary.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a great manga. Along with the anime version it is based on a series of Japanese young adult novels. The anime and the English translation of the first novel is out now. Highly recommended and appropriate for anyone 16 and up (it contains some mature humor).

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InuYasha by Rumiko Takahashi

Kagome is a young school girl in the present day. One day she falls down her family’s abandoned well. Suddenly she is thrust back through time in to ancient Japan. There she meets the half-demon InuYasha who seeks the Shikon jewel, a special stone that can grant one wish to whoever has it or increase their innate powers. InuYasha seeks to become a full fledged demon and in his previous attempts he has tried anything to get it. The only person who could stop him was a woman named Kikyo, the protector of the Shikon jewel, who magically bound InuYasha to a tree forever. But in doing so Kikyo died. The Jewel was buried with her never to be seen again.

Except, Kagome is from the future, and she unknowingly has brought back the Shikon Jewel with her. Now every vile creature in ancient Japan is after her and her only ally is the disreputable InuYasha who she frees from the tree. Together they fight off demons and gods in order to protect the jewel. But matters take a turn for the worse when during one battle the jewel explodes in to hundreds of small pieces. Now their quest to protect jewel is in jeopardy, for even a small Shikon fragment can give someone enormous power. They will have to rely on one another and new friends they meet on their way in order to restore the jewel.

But can InuYasha be trusted? What is keeping him from turning his back on Kagome and stealing the power for himself? Could it be beautiful Kagome herself, who reminds InuYasha of a lost love?

InuYasha is a great manga for beginners. It has action, romance, adventure, and it keeps a lighthearted tone. Highly recommended and appropriate for readers 14 and up.

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Blank Slate by Aya Kanno

Zen is a handsome, dashing, and irresistible to everyone he meets. There are just two things wrong with him. First he has amnesia and cannot remember the last twenty years. Secondly, he is an unstoppable killing machine. He lives by his own whims, which usually means wreaking havoc on everyone and everything around him. If it wasn’t for his looks he would be unlovable.

But he begins to change when he meets Hakka, a young doctor who cares for a village of refugees. Hakka is everything Zen is not. He is kind, compassionate and seeks a better world for all of humanity. Hakka is so kind he takes pity on Zen and agrees to help him regain his lost memories.

Their journey is filled with intense gunfights and suspense. Will they discover Zen’s former life? What is the truth hurts? And is it worth dying for? Blank Slate is a story about being your own person no matter the cost. Like all of us, Zen seeks to be free.

Blank Slate is a quick two volume shojo manga. Reluctant readers who don’t want to dedicate themselves to reading a lengthy multi-volume manga like Naruto may prefer this short, self-contained story. It is recommended for anyone who loves action and spy fiction. It has intense scenes of gun violence, so it is appropriate for anyone 14 and up.

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Genshiken by Kio Shimoku

There is a term for those who obsess over manga, anime, and video games. These people are known as otaku. We have many otakus who hang out on Monday nights here at BPL for our Anime Club. We nitpick about the filler in the Naruto anime or what happened in the latest issue of our favorite manga. These conversations go on forever and really bring out the passionate geek in all of us.

When I was younger I had a simliar experience with Star Trek. We called ourselves Trekkies. We just didn’t talk about Star Trek, but other nerdy interests we had, such as D&D, Super Nintendo, and whatever fantasy book we happened to be reading at the time.

This is what the manga series Genshiken is all about, obsessing over our interests and making friends. Sasahara is new at college and is coming to terms with who he is as a person. He knows he is into manga, anime, and video games so he decides to joining the Genshiken club, an all encompassing group of eccentric personalities. There is the hardcore cosplayer, the would-be manga artists, the video game expert, and the overwhelming sense of belonging. Sasahara builds friendships, and has fun, and truly starts to finally like himself.

I highly recommend this series. It is appropriate for anyone 16 and up. There are some racier comments in regards to different genres of manga. Genshiken is a perfect read for anyone who likes humor, and stories about finding true friends. It also works as a great introduction to otaku culture. I liked it so much, I will probably read it again.

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Scott McCloud’s books on comics are excellent resources on anyone who would liek a deeper understanding of the medium we all love.

Here is a movie where he talks about his ideas:

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Dororo Volume 1 by Osamu Tezuka

Lord Daigo wants to rule all the land. He travels to a monastery and promises 48 demons they can have any part of his unborn son as long as they grant him the power to rule. When his son is born the child is a monstrosity. It has no limbs, no eyes, and cannot care for itself. Daigo orders his wife to cast the child away. So she puts it in a basket to lets the baby float away.

A doctor finds the child and begins to care for it and begins to notice that the child seems to know how to move around even though he is blind. The young child also can speak even though he is mute (he speaks with his mind). The doctor strives to help the child fit into society and crafts prosthetic limbs for him. But one day the doctor is attacked by demons only the child can “see”. The doctors names the child Haykkimaru, which means demon boy. The boy must leave in order to draw the demons away from his foster father.

Life as a wanderer is tough, and one night while Haykkimaru is talking shelter from the cold he hears a mysterious voice. It tells him that 48 demons have his body parts and if he kills them he will slowly regain what is his rightful body. Soon after he meets up with a young boy named Dororo, a child thief who is being beaten by villagers. He befriends the boy and sets off on the adventure to regain his body parts.He is only armed with his special prosthetic limbs. He can remove his arms to reveal swords that are attached to his body. He also has contraptions hidden in other body parts as well, all of which he will need to kill the demons.

This manga is really good. Highly recommended. Osamu Tezuka is the godfather of manga. He created Astro Boy and pretty much invented manga. Dororo is appropriate for anyone 14 and up.

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What do you think? It could be worse. I’ll still see it though.

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