This was a short history of manga and anime for young adults. I knew absolutely nothing about the history of manga so it was very interesting. It is a short book so I also checked out a more detailed book for adults.

It covers the more famous mangaka (manga creators - I learned a new word!) and the different types of manga including seinen (men), shonen (young men) and shoji (young women). The history starts several hundred years ago. Manga was popular prior to WWII and came back into popularity after the war. Advances were made and at some point, female writers came on the scene.

My first exposure to manga/anime was Sailor Moon. I loved Sailor Moon! Since then I've read several graphic novels. Takes awhile to learn to read them from right to left but eventually you get into a rhythm. Now I have to find some more at the library to read since I've read this book.

I've always been a bit annoyed that the manga and graphic novel section is in the teen section of the library, simply because I'm not a teen and I like to read these and I thought they were for everyone. Reading the manga book, I learned that there are different types of manga for different age groups. The worst was when the Denver Public Library built a teen room (no adults over the age of 18 allowed) and moved all the manga and graphic novels into this room so adults couldn't check them out. I was all for the teen room, just not for the exclusivity of the graphic novels.

So, recommended if you're curious about Japanese manga and don't want to read a huge tome about it. ( )

Very informative book about the history of manga. There are very few illustrations however, which is strange but I'm sure it would have been expensive due to copyrights. ( )