Writing for The Guardian’s book blog, Ned Beauman considers manga for the uninitiated:
The particular problem with manga, though, is that there’s no way to know if we’re really getting the best of the medium. Manga comics constitute 40% of the books published in Japan, so of course only a tiny fraction will ever be translated - and at the moment, that tends to be the best-selling titles, especially the ones beloved by American teenage girls, who are the main market in the English-speaking world. (Manga aimed at teenage girls is called “shoujo”, and manga aimed at teenage boys is called “shonen”.) I’ve got nothing against American teenage girls, but what if the Japanese were forced to judge western cinema on the basis of nothing but Ashton Kutcher films?
Still, Mr. Kutcher does have a surprisingly diverse body of work, and indeed most of the manga I’ve read is wildly imaginative, if not (at least to this untutored eye) all that sophisticated.
If you make it past the Ashton Kutcher comparison, Beauman goes on to recommend Naruto and Hot Gimmick.
