Librariantics and Manga/Anime Reviews

None of the following is my work, but a classmate of mine in Fantasy Literature and Media for Youth created it as an intro to manga and anime for newbies, and he gave me permission to post it here in response to the post about comics' and pop culture's roles in promoting reading. The author is Ted Anderson, and he also just recently started a blog, Librariantics, where he's also intending to review manga and anime series (here's the first, for Peach Girl). He is extremely knowledgeable about this form, so his blog is worth a look!

TED’S ANIME AND MANGA COURSES

Level 101: What’s with the big eyes?
Cowboy Bebop (anime) Action. Some violence and nudity. Teens and up.
Bounty hunters in the year 2071 make their way across the solar system, hunting criminals and running away from their various tragic pasts. Regarded as one of the greatest anime of all time, and the series that got Ted into anime in the first place. Highly recommended. (Also by the same crew, and also highly recommended, the series Samurai Champloo, about wandering samurai in 17th-century Japan set to a hip-hop soundtrack, and the series Michiko and Hatchin, about a fugitive femme fatale and the daughter she gave up ten years ago on the run in South America.)

Yotsuba&! (manga) Comedy, slice-of-life. Nothing objectionable. All ages.
Five-year-old girl Yotsuba has an insatiable love of life and boundless energy, and her infectious curiosity pulls in everyone around her. Effortlessly charming and wonderfully drawn.

Ranma 1/2 (manga and anime) Romantic comedy. Mild violence and nudity, both mostly comedic. Teens and up.
Probably one of the most famous anime exports of all time, Ranma 1/2 follows Ranma Saotome, who has the unfortunate curse of transforming into a girl when splashed with cold water, and back to a guy when splashed with hot water. Very hilarious, completely over-the-top (ever seen figure skating turned into a martial art? how about flower arranging? or tea ceremony?).

Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (manga and anime movie) Sci-fi, drama. Violence, nudity, dense philosophical musings. Teens and up.
This manga was written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki, whose Ghibli Studio also produces some of the best-known (and just plain best) anime films of the past twenty years. Centuries after the Earth has been poisoned by man’s wars, the few remaining civilizations eke out a living at the edges of freakish jungles populated by gigantic insects. And when one of those civilizations gets their hands on some of the weapons that almost destroyed the human race the first time, it’s up to the princess Nausicaa to save the world. Gorgeous artwork and heady musings on life, nature, and war make a fantastic combination.

Lovely Complex (manga and anime) Romantic comedy. Nothing objectionable. Tweens and up.
Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani have been schoolmates for years, and their constant bickering has made them into the school’s best unintentional comedy duo. But when Risa starts falling for Atsushi, she’s got no idea what to do. Part of the problem? She’s a full half-a-foot taller than he is, and completely self-conscious. Light-hearted and wacky. Look up information on the Kansai dialect before reading or watching—you’ll thank me later.

Kimi ni Todoke (may be called Reaching You or From Me to You) (manga and anime) Romance. Nothing objectionable. Tweens and up.
Sawako Kuronuma’s long black hair and creepy demeanor have earned her the nickname ‘Sadako’, after the ghost-child of The Ring—but deep down she’s just shy, awkward, and unintentionally weird. Everything changes when popular classmate Shota Kazehaya takes an interest and tries to draw Sawako out of her shell. Unbelievably sweet and charming, this new series is one of the standouts of 2009.

Level 201: Oh, those wacky Japanese!
Nana (manga and anime) Drama, romance. Nudity, drug use. Teens and up.
Nana Osaki is an aspiring punk singer who leaves her boyfriend to find herself. Nana Komatsu is a hopeless romantic who comes to Tokyo to find her true love. The two end up sharing apartment 707 (‘nana’ is also the Japanese word for the number 7) and falling into a tangle of fame, love, and rock-and-roll. Possibly one of the finest manga or all time; definitely high on Ted’s list.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan (anime) Action. Comedic nudity and some suggestive language. Teens and up.
Simon has lived all his life in an underground village, but the day he discovers a strange robot buried in the earth is the day everything changes. Along with Kamina, his over-the-top, sword-wielding partner, and the busty sniper Yoko, he sets out to save the world. Actually, ‘over-the-top’ is a pretty good phrase to describe this entire show. Imagine giant robots fighting each other. Now imagine them fighting a giant robot that’s the size of a city. Now imagine that robot fighting a robot that’s actually the moon. And it just get crazier from there.

Azumanga Daioh (manga and anime) Comedy, slice-of-life. Nothing objectionable. All ages.
It’s hard to talk about the plot of this series, because there really isn’t one. Six girls in high school and their various wacky interactions. No romance, no crushes, in short, no boys. The manga came first, but the anime might be easier to understand; the musical cues make the subtle humor a little less subtle. (By the author of Yotsuba&!)

Haibane Renmei (anime) Fantasy, drama. Nothing objectionable, but highly abstract and ‘talky’. Late teens and up.
In a walled city in an unknown country, there are the Haibane: young girls and boys born with miniature wings sprouting from their backs and halos above their heads. They are born in cocoons, they live apart from the normal people, and they have no memories of their lives before. And they each have their Day of Flight, when they leave for the world beyond the wall. Highly fascinating series, though very slow-moving—not for action junkies.

Ghost in the Shell (manga, 2 anime movies, anime TV series, movie based on TV series) Sci-fi, action. Nudity and intense violence. Late teens and up.
In the near future, anyone can be a cyborg, the internet is everywhere, and information is everything. The special forces of Section 9 take on terrorists, rampaging robots, hackers so good they can erase themselves from people’s eyes on the spot—the bleeding-edge criminals. The manga is probably a good place to start; the first movie is considered an anime classic and spurred a wave of interest in anime in America, but it’s also densely philosophical and sometimes hard to understand. The more recent TV series is more action-heavy, but doesn’t sacrifice big ideas for the sake of explosions.

Ouran High School Host Club (manga and anime) Comedy, slice-of-life. Nothing objectionable. Tweens and up.
Haruhi Fujioka, student at the ultra-elite Ouran High School, is pulled into the Host Club, where beautiful young men entertain high-class girls with money to burn. One small problem: she’s a girl, too, but nobody knows it. It parodies cliches of anime romantic comedies—each of the other Host Club members cater to a specific audience of young girl—so it’s good to have a background in this kind of material first.

Tekkonkinkreet (manga and anime film) Action. Violence. Teens and up.
The orphans Black and White make a life in the sprawling metropolis of Treasure Town, fighting off gangs and weirdos of all stripes. When the local yakuza come in to turn the city into an amusement park, Black and White are pulled into a dark, strange world where they might have to give up their innocence just to keep their lives. Visually distinctive and wonderful.

Paprika (anime film) Sci-fi, drama. Nudity. Late teens and up.
When an experimental device that lets the user travel into others’ dreams is stolen, the dreamworld and the real world start to blur together, with dangerous consequences. It’s up to the icy Dr. Atsuko Chiba and her impish alter-ego Paprika to keep reality together. A visual tour de force from revered director Satoshi Kon. (Also check out his psychological thriller Perfect Blue and comedy Tokyo Godfathers.)

Level 301: No, seriously, what’s with the eyes?
Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime) Action, psychological thriller. Violence, nudity, sexual situations, suggestive language, intense psychological weirdness. Late teens and up.
Fifteen years after the world was almost destroyed, the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 can only be defended from the alien Angels by the gigantic Eva robots and their teenage pilots. But as these teenagers start to crack under the pressure, and as an enormous conspiracy comes to light, things start to get weird. Enormously complicated: this series has had academics puzzle over its mysteries for years. Personally, I think it’s overrated, but it’s definitely had an impact on the anime industry.

Revolutionary Girl Utena (anime and manga) Fantasy, drama, romance. Nudity, mild violence, psychological weirdness. Late teens and up.
The teenage girl Utena is attending Ohtori Academy when she gets pulled into the strange world of the Duelists’ Club, where the winner of the duels gets the honor of being ‘engaged’ to the mysterious Rose Bride, a silent, seemingly passive young girl. A strange, gender-bending, post-modernist take on the Western fairy tale, if you put in the effort, it’s endlessly interesting.

Genshiken (manga and anime) Comedy, slice-of-life. Mild nudity and mild suggestive language. Teens and up.
The college students of the pop culture club have their infights, their crushes, their relationships and their interactions like any other group, but they see it all through the lens of anime and manga. For that reason, it’s good to have a thorough grounding in the tropes and cliches they reference, though anyone can get the relationship aspects of the show.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime) Sci-fi, comedy. Suggestive language. Teens and up.
Haruhi Suzumiya is an overexcited, obsessive teenager searching for the mysteries of the universe: time travelers, aliens, and psychics. She forms a club of mostly unwilling ‘volunteers’ to search for them, but there’s a twist: the other club members are time travelers, aliens, and psychics. And Haruhi, unbeknownst to her, is God. She can change reality on a whim, and it’s up to them to keep her from accidentally destroying the universe. One of the most critically and commercially successful anime of recent years, in both Japan and the US.

FLCL (may also be listed under Furi Kuri or Fooly Cooly) (anime) Sci-fi, action, comedy. Suggestive language. Teens and up.
When Naota is hit in the head by a guitar-wielding, Vespa-riding woman with pink hair, that’s weird enough. When strange alien robots start sprouting from his forehead the next day, things start to get downright psychotic. Prepare for mile-a-minute pop culture references (a whole sequence animated in South Park style? why not?) and inexplicable wackiness; dropping acid before watching would be redundant.

And here's his addendum for librarians:

Also, I should mention two more series, only because they're of interest to library students.

Read Or Die (three-episode direct-to-video series, followed by a 26-episode TV series with a different set of characters) Action, comedy. Some mildly suggestive costumes. Teens and up.
Yomiko Readman is the world's greatest bibliophile, spending every last cent she has on books. But she's got two secrets: first, she's a Paper Master, able to telekinetically control sheets of paper and turn them into any kind of weapon or tool imaginable; second, she's a secret agent for the British Library, helping to track down the rarest manuscripts in the world. The first, three-episode series is about her adventure facing down a group of clones of historical figures who want to make the entire world commit suicide using Beethoven's secret masterpiece. The second, 26-episode television series is about a different set of characters, three Paper Master sisters who operate a detective agency out of Hong Kong and get embroiled in a secret war between the British Library and their Chinese counterparts that could destroy space-time itself. In case you can't tell, it's pretty weird.

Library War (anime) Action, comedy. Violence. Teens and up.
In an alternate-history Japan, the Media Betterment Committee is legally authorized to perform censorship raids on bookstores and libraries throughout the country. However, libraries are also legally authorized to defend their collections--if necessary, by force. Iku Kasahara joins the library militia in order to protect intellectual freedom, accidentally falling in love with her commanding officer along the way. Worth seeing just for the idea of gun-toting librarians. Don't miss the episode where Kasahara goes on a secret nighttime mission to acquire the last remaining Japanese-language edition of Farenheit 451.