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The Manga Guide to Electricity
Manga Book Review
Of all the things in this smart-cell-phone-enabled, twitterized, facebook'ed, blogged, mobile-computing, anime-watching world, nothing, *NOTHING* is more important than electricity. It literally runs everything you use to get through a normal day. Wouldn't it be nice if you knew *something* about this precious resource, as we move towards clean, green, renewable sources of energy and the world looks toward carbon-nanotube ultra-capacitors or hydrogen fuel cells as battery replacements?
 Without trying to turn Anime.com into the front page of Slashdot or Gizmodo, we present The Manga Guide to Electricity, which aside from being a great manga to read, will actually learn ya' enough to make a pretty decent science fair project, or at least understand enough to debate the pros and cons of an Obama energy plan.
The book starts with an overview of the physical nature of electricity, a description of positive and negative charge, and the units used to measure electricity including the difference between current flow (amperage) and current force (volts). It introduces electricity in the many forms we use and experience daily, including static electricity, direct current as found in flashlights, and electrical circuits such as one finds in buildings. It introduces Ohm's law, the basic relationship between current flow, current force, and the resistance of the electrical conductor.
But it does it all couched in the warm fuzziness of a well-thought-out, cleverly drawn, fun to read manga. Wouldn't it be nice if all our school textbooks were done this way?
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, October 2009
Manga! Manga! : The World of Japanese Comics
Manga Book Review
This intense study of the development of Manga and it's influence on Japanese society is still a treat to read even though this book was first published more than 20 years ago. Fred Schodt's close relationship with "manganokamisama" Osamu Tezuka allowed him a unqiue insight into a world where the comic book is read by everyone, in every walk of life, with no boundaries between class or status. In short, if you want to know about how manga (and anime) has become what it is, this book is a must-read. Schodt's depth of material is staggering, covering every aspect and genre of manga, and included are many samples of both male and female manga (men generally read action/adventure manga, while women prefer romance manga) and their various sub-genres.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, May 2002
Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics
Manga Book Review
Until now, the only two substantive books about manga as a medium were Frederik L. Schodt's Manga! Manga! and Dreamland Japan. This recently published book is a thoughtful analysis of the manga phenomenon as a whole and covers everything from Osamu Tezuka to current works, and manga's emerging role as a global influence and the major cultural export of Japan.
 The opulently printed artwork and the thoughtful, historically and culturally accurate discussions of the social, aesthetic, and political background of manga make this an important book to own for any anime and manga fan. Get this!
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, January 2005
Rising Stars of Manga
Manga Book Review
This book is a result of the “Rising Stars of Manga contest” which was sponsored by TokyoPop. We have to admit that at first we didn’t have much hope for a collection of manga drawn by gaijin! However this collection had a few nice surprises, and would be well worth adding to your comic book collection. The volume features quite a bit of good storytelling and artwork, and there is that special bonus of knowing that you may be looking at the work of a future Tezuka (well we can always hope).
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, September 2003
Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society
Manga Book Review
Most Americans have absolutely NO IDEA how influential manga is on the social, political and economic fabric of modern Japanese society. This book examines an aspect of this culture — the commercial industry of mass-communication via the cartoon, how manga is produced, and how the industry churns out product, often to the detriment of creativity.
For those fascinated by how the manga publishing business works, this book is an inside-out look at one of the driving forces of contemporary Japanese culture.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, July 2005
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Manga Website Links:
Mangaka.co.za: Manga Community Website
Manga et Cetera: Manga Guide
MangaTranslation.com
Online Manga University
Ultimate Manga Guide
Manga Seeker
Manga Titles: An Overview
S-Cafe: A great guide to Manga
Article: A History of Manga
Manganews.net: Manga Information Site
Manga entry at Wikipedia
Jai2
Fred Schodt's (author of Manga Manga and Dreamland Japan) website.
The Manga Guide to Databases
Manga Book Review
Princess Ruruna, of the Kingdom of Kod, has a problem. With the king and queen away, she has to manage the Kingdom of Kod's humongous fruit-selling empire, and she is swamped by paperwork and information overload. A mysterious book, sent by her father, contains needed information as well as Tico the fairy. Tico, and the supernatural book are going to help Princess Ruruna solve her problems with the power of *the database*. (ta-dah!)
 If you're a *real* geek, like me, then you'll find this to be the perfect combination of real tech-learning and manga. In Japan, manga really is used as a way to comprehend EVERYTHING (there is a manga for almost every subject you can imagine (yes, that too)), and these manuals are the start of the manga-as-a-useful-tool revolution in the USA.
If you learned things like normalization and set operations from a rather dry textbook, you may be quite entertained by the contents of this manga. If you would like to teach others about creating and using relational databases and you want it to be fun, this book may be exactly what you need. And if you know nothing about the mechanics of databases, then this is a good starting point because the information is easy to digest in this entertaining format.
It is an introductory level book. It teaches what a relational database is, about the entity/relationship model, using standard sql, as well as transactions, recover, indexing and query optimization. That's a pretty decent foundation, and the manga performs well as a platform to introducing relational database management systems.
 All the SQL is ANSI standard. Barring any proprietary quirks, everything in here should work on just about anything from Access to Oracle. Teamed up with PostgreSQL or MySQL, you should have everything you need to teach a class on building and using databases. As an additional plus, the manga format would make it especially attractive to younger people.
The art work is well done and the side story of Ruruna, her assistant Cain and the fairy Tico is cute and fun if a bit silly. Each chapter picks up with the story and is pure manga. This is followed with a review section that reverts to a more text-heavy mode and then there are review questions to help you understand what you've picked up in each chapter.
The cute story of Princess Ruruna helps take what is essentially a very dry subject matter and dresses it up so you'll actually want to learn about databases. The manga also introduces examples of real world situations that are being modeled in the data. They are a bit contrived as all examples are in these situations, but they still help to reaffirm how the various pieces fit together so that databases can be helpful.
If you use a computer (and you must be if you're reading this website), we recommend you pick up a copy of this manga, because sooner or later in your life, you'll be dealing with a database. And you don't want to end up like the Princess did in the early chapters of the story...
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, August 2009
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