Manga is a type of book originating from Japan in and has varying dates of beginning but is thought to be from around the early 1900s and has been around ever since. It has many similarities to the comics we see in America with drawings and panels on every page but with slightly different characteristics like art style and that you read from right to left . Manga has made way for some very popular stories today such as Dragon Ball Z and Naruto, which are very popular and influential. Manga, like comics, is the blueprint for animated series and Japan’s version of animated series is called anime. While anime has gained massive popularity over the years, many people aren’t as interested in manga, which is often a better representation of the story that the authors are trying to create.
According to Ms. Disalve, Heritage High School librarian, Heritage manga, one of the most popular genres in the school library, is one of the more checked out sections and more known by the “frequent flyers” of the library. However, the library at Heritage is often more used as a hangout spot rather than an area to get reading done, and this could be partially due to the fact that reading isn’t as popular as it used to be as reading for fun in America “has dropped 40%”, according to The Guardian.
The manga section at Heritage contains many big names and great stories ranging from Attack on Titan, which has record high reviews on IMDB or something more niche like BLAME!, which is an ominous and captivating story with a unique art style. As a manga reader myself, having read over 50+ manga over the years, the Heritage library does contain a lot of great ones, and they are even updating this section every 3-4 months, so there’s always something new to check out. Some of the charm to these books is how fast you can read them with the average manga only taking 30-45 minutes to finish, which provides something students stories that are highly entertaining to in their pastime instead of using social media or scrolling through the internet.
Everytime time I walk past the manga section at Heritage, it is saddening to see so many great stories left untouched due to the lack of student interest in reading books, or perhaps, more students just need to try manga despite existing the social stigmas associated with them or their lack of information about the genre; however, reading manga also opens people up to connections online and in person the same way TV shows allow people to do. Hopefully, more people will start checking manga out as a more captivating alternative to using a phone for people’s pastimes.
