The current surge of interest in manga is nothing short of a revolution in young adult publishing. Manga are Japanese graphic novels, in which stories that were originally published in magazines are then compiled into black and white paperbacks which can go on for dozens of volumes. With the uptick in interest in anime (Japanese animation) teens and tweens are flocking to the new medium. They cluster around shelving trucks of returned books and scarf them up before the books can hit the shelves. Manga brings young people into the library building and forms a ready base for programming and book talks.

These are incredibly high circulating materials. An informal study of twenty five titles in my collection over the course of three months showed that consistently 50-60% of the books were out at any given time. The books, for the most part, hold up surprisingly well. A recently retired volume of Rurouni Kenshin from that same collection had circulated 38 times in under two years. Given that our loan period is three weeks, this was a book which was literally always off the shelf. At a cost of ten dollars, this book gave very good value before being used in a collage making activity with the manga/anime club.

Breaking manga down into basic categories can facilitate purchasing and maintenance even for librarians who are unfamiliar with comics. A simplified set of categories I’ve used to good result consists of: Romance, Samurai, Horror, Mecha, Quest, and Sport. The romance category is any romance, boy-girl, girl-girl, or the extremely popular boy love comics which depict sexual, though non-explicit, gay relationships. These are wildly popular with young women since they can identify with either character and remain sexually non-threatened themselves. Samurai covers any of a range of lone warriors against the world. Be they ninja, knight, wizard or cyborg, these are established super warriors who are fighting their way through life, often in a quest for personal peace. Horror in Japanese comics is alien and visceral and can include books where the protagonists are themselves demons, vampires, or ghosts. Mecha has technology which is lavishly rendered and at the focus of the action and plot. Steampunk fits into this along with androids and giant robots. The Quest books are those where the character works their way through a progression of steps upward gaining skills, powers, and abilities as they go. The “best in Japan” and arena competition plotlines are popular in this category as are hunter and revenge plots. Sports stories cover a wide range of competitions and are an easy reader’s advisory hook for athletes.

With all this in mind, manga still resists simple classification and books will often fit into more than one category comfortably. These basic groupings make it easier to see how titles might fit together as a whole in your library. One simple technique for tracking your collection is a simple spreadsheet which records all of the titles, which volumes the library has, which volumes are missing, how many total volumes there are in the series, and what categories they fit into. Although it is a pain to construct at the outset it is invaluable for seeing where the holes are.

A brief cautionary note is in order. Manga, almost by definition, has aspects which some communities might find objectionable. Violence is common, sex can be explicit, and occasionally the two are depicted hand in hand. Before anything is added to the collection it must go through a flip test. Just briefly glance at the pages to ensure that there is nothing which would be inappropriate for your library. Many potential problems can also be avoided by using a three-tiered shelving system. If possible, the best thing is to have manga for children, for young adults, and for adults and to shelve them accordingly. Labeling materials with ratings has been done in some libraries but it is a poor solution. Even marking a book PG is often enough to turn parents off on works which they may already doubt the legitimacy of. Shelving materials in areas clearly designated for different populations shows diligence on the library’s part without predisposing people about the content of the books.

Cataloging manga is actually easier than one might think. Copy catalogue records are available for the more popular titles and original cataloging gets easy with practice. There is a fair amount of debate about how graphics (including manga) should be shelved in a collection. Some argue that they are primarily works of fiction and should be shelved by author and that nonfiction and biographies would be placed elsewhere accordingly. In my experience, this only does the patron a disservice. Fans of the genre will seek out everything the library has. It is better customer service for them to have all of the materials in one place for them to browse as they choose. Dewey decimal system users should consider the 741.5 designation, LOC libraries can use PN6727 for most items. Manga should be catalogued as individual records with volume numbers rather than as a serial. Ultimately this makes searching for particular volumes much easier. It is very important that the patron interface for the catalogue shows volumes, as readers will want to see which ones are available.

Manga/anime clubs are, without a doubt, one of the easiest and most popular YA activities you can put on. The books act as an incredible leveling agent and issues of race, class, sexual orientation, age, or gender are sublimated by the shared interest in the literature. Programming is often quite simple. Given a room to themselves and left to talk as loud as they want, teens will make their own program if you put a stack of manga in the middle of the table. Origami is always popular and your library probably already has a number of books on the topic. Nice origami paper is inexpensive and scrap 8 ½ x 11 paper works great for practice. Drawing workshops are fun even if you yourself cannot draw. There are a lot of books about how to draw manga. If there are not already some in your collection then you should seriously consider getting a few. Coloring pages are an easy activity and yes, teens will color if you find the right things to give them! Get images of popular characters off of the web, print them out in grey scale, make a bunch of photocopies and you are good to go. Involving your club in a collection development meeting is a great way to give them a sense of ownership in the library. Our club meets weekly but many libraries have popular clubs meeting biweekly or even monthly.

Manga can be a vibrant and popular part of your library. Care must be taken in developing a collection which will be right for your individual community, but there is so much material out there that there are good options for any population. Young people are already aware of manga: if you bring the books into your library, the teens will follow.

Christian Zabriskie is a Young Adult Librarian for Queens Library. He is an advocate of graphics in libraries and has done numerous presentations on the subject. He is also the founder of Urban Librarians Unite, a social/professional group focused on the challenges and triumphs of working librarians in large urban centers. Contact him at christian_zabriskie@yahoo.com

Manga Terminology

Shonen – Boy comics, mainly centered on action and conflict driven. Think race cars, cage matches, and giant robots: you know, boy stuff.

Shojo – Girl comics, mostly focused on relationships and romance with some agony aunt components as well.

Manhwa – Korean manga, the art features more angular, elongated forms. These read right to left in a western orientation.

Yaoi – Manga which chart romances between men. Typically these are not explicit and are marketed to young women with whom they are wildly popular. They offer girls a completely non-threatening romance where they can identify with either participant.

Hentai – Pornographic, often violently pornographic comics. If you work with young adults you know they like to test us. If someone asks you if the library has any hentai you should always answer with a resounding NO.

Otaku – A manga/anime aficionado, in Japan this term refers to any geek, be they computer geeks, railroad geeks, manga geeks, or any other permutation of the genus. American fans have co-opted the term to refer to themselves, often with a tribal pride

Simple Categories for Manga Collection Development

Romance => boy girl, boy boy, girl girl, etc.

Samurai => which includes ninjas and western knights

Horror => in all its derivations including demons and vampires as main characters

Mecha => giant robots, steampunk, space opera

Quest => the slow progression of a character through a ranked growth of power

Sport => all sports manga