I am turning Japanese.

Or at least the segment of the Japanese population that reads manga. I was originally going to say “I’m turning into a Japanese school girl” but The Cat would probably freak. Anyway, I’m really enjoying a couple of manga titles that I ran into in my recent class. Most happen to be targeted to girls; they happen to have better stories and don’t seem to exist to put blood on the page like the ones targeted at boys.

At the recommendation of a comic store employee I read Fushigi Yugi. A Japanese school girl gets sent back to ancient China and drama ensues. One that I ran into at the library is Full Metal Alchemist. It’s sort of steampunk, sort of technomagic; I don’t have a real good handle on it yet. Kids screw around with some alchemy to bring back their mom from the dead and action ensues. And while The Cat and I scoffed at Fruits Basket, it’s pretty good. Sure, it is run of the mill teen soap opera stuff, but a bunch of the characters turn into animals of the Chinese zodiac when hugged by a member of the opposite sex (and hilarity ensues). I’ve only read the first book of each of these, but plan to keep reading the series through the library. It would cost a fortune to buy them.

All of these are confusing as hell. Maybe that’s part of the appeal. Cecil graciously let me a heap-o graphic novels to read. I love DC books but they are a bit too familiar. I don’t have to try very hard to understand or get it. Not that the story isn’t good, it just isn’t challenge. Now these manga books are so different in terms of art, pacing, conventions and story (and the fact you have to read them “backwards”). It often takes a bit of mental work to simply ID the character because they change shape and hair color so often.

If you dig comics but think manga are just for pervs like The Cat does, you should really check out a couple of titles. It takes some poking around but there are plenty that are low in the creep factor. You could ease into it with a few Western manga titles like Scott Pilgrim or Neotopia.

I’m not giving up on standard superhero fare, but it’s nice to mix it up a bit.