Manga (Anime) series info?

[goddess47]

I'm writing a story where my main character stops his friend, a dad to a 13-ish year old boy, from purchasing some anime manga books because the main character knows the book series is too adult (sex, violence, both) for a 13 year old. The main character then recommends a different series because the story line is more appropriate for the age of the teen.

The story is the relationship between the main character and the dad, so this is a small piece of the larger story. But I know absolutely nothing about anime (or manga, obviously!) and would appreciate some recommendations of titles that would fit those categories.

Thanks!


ETA: I'm looking for currently available titles and perhaps where they are best purchased (a bookstore, a comic book store, a specialty shop, online?)


ETA2: I'm looking US-centric here.

Comments

[puddlesock]

This is so funny because it literally happened to me. A middle-aged mom in the bookstore walked into the manga section, picked up the first book she saw without looking at it, said “she likes this stuff, right?” and walked off. As she left I noticed the book was shrink-wrapped (in the U.S., that is only done to books that are A) special collector’s editions or B) pornographic) and then glanced to where she pulled it from and saw it was yaoi hentai (yaoi referring to stories of love between men and hentai meaning pornographic anime or manga). It took me a while to work up the courage to talk to the woman, but when I did she told me she was buying the book for her 12-year-old niece. I explained what I did here, and also pointed out that many manga have an age rating printed on the back (once again, at least in the U.S. I’m not as familiar with other international releases) and that this one was rated for adults only. I helped her look around for something more age-appropriate and we settled on the Ocarina of Time manga adaptation.

[goddess47]

Oh! That is perfect! Yes, it would be uncomfortable explaining to mom what she had done... so glad you were able to stop her from getting the family annoyed at her... I can see the sister-in-law gritting her teeth and saying, "Do you know what you bought my precious darling?" LOL...

Thank you for sharing that!

[puddlesock]

Especially since I live in a highly conservative religious area… yeah I can’t imagine how that birthday party would have gone over.

Anyway as for actual suggestions:

Someone here already mentioned manga demographics, and I definitely think mainstream shonen would be the go-to recommendation of someone who has a lot of knowledge to someone who has none. “Battle shonen” (series that focus heavily on fighting with over-the-top weapons and magical powers) are common entry points for beginners. Of course Naruto is the classic example, it’s very popular for a reason. My Hero Academia is a more modern example which is also extremely popular, and I’ve already seen someone mention Fullmetal Alchemist which is a great choice. The only caveat is that these series are known for stretching out for a loooooong time. Naruto, not counting spinoffs, is 72 volumes total, and let’s not even get started on One Piece (112 volumes and still ongoing). If a dad was going to introduce a series like that to his kid, he’ll either want to look into checking out volumes at the local library (depending on where you live the library manga section can be quite good, and most libraries that have a manga section will have the classics and current popular titles) or be ready to make a big investment.

As for sports manga, there’s lots to choose from. Honestly there’s a manga for any hobby you can think of (like seriously, any activity has at least one manga dedicated to it), but sports are the most common. The most popular I can think of in recent memory are Haikyuu! (volleyball) and Blue Lock (soccer), but there are plenty of notable works in this genre as well as cult classics. Kuroko no Basuke/Kuroko’s Basketball (basketball), Ace of Diamond (baseball), Prince of Tennis (tennis), Yowamushi Pedal (cycling), the list goes on. If your character plays or is interested in a sport, it might be worth your time to google [x sport] manga and see what comes up.

If your child character is interested in video games, there’s also a ton of manga adaptations to choose from. I already mentioned OoT, but a lot of Zelda games have manga adaptations (Twilight Princess being the best one in my completely unbiased opinion). Pokemon also has a long-running series called Pokemon Special (Pokemon Adventures in America), which is famous for being a lot darker than the games themselves. A lot of other Nintendo games have shorter-running manga about them, like Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and Kirby. Outside of the Nintendo sphere a lot of classic JRPGs have manga adaptations too.

I know that was probably a lot of information, I really like explaining this stuff lol. I hope at least some of it was helpful, and I’d be happy to answer any other questions you have ^w^

[goddess47]

All of that is helpful. My MC is not an expert but knowledgable, so what you give me helps me with the information given to dad... so it does give me some good options to work with... and my MC is known as a 'trivia' person, so some of this will help fill in some of the 'babble' that will happen.

I'll see where the story goes but this should be good!

THANK YOU!!!

[dragoness_e]

I'll toss in Hikaru no Go for the "family-friendly manga for father-son bonding" one--it's about a young kid who inherits his grandfather's haunted Go board and winds up being tutored in Go by the ghost of a medieval Japanese Go-playing nobleman; he goes on to compete professionally in tournaments. It's a charming story.

[goddess47]

You've made me want to read that for myself! Thank you!

[dragoness_e]

You're welcome! I hope you can find it and enjoy it. Your library might carry it--it's family-friendly enough.

[thekumquat]

Heh. My mum did the same - I mentioned my fiancé was severely dyslexic so reading wasn't much fun, but he did like graphic novels, like Sandman and Stardust.

Mum went to a big mainstream London bookshop (Waterstones), found
the graphics novel section, and saw a stand of paperbacks. She thought they'd be much easier to carry home, and we'd been to Japan recently, so a couple detective stories sounded perfect!

I honestly can't fault her thought process. We like detective drama on TV, etc. About 15 years later I did mention that gay porn wasn't actually his
thing...

It was line drawings, but every page we flicked through had guys either sucking cock or fucking!