Oscar's Reading List

"There’s an old doctor in a futuristic cyberpunk world who goes to a scrapyard with all the junk from the rich people world in the sky, Zalem. Part of the junk is the torso and head of a cyborg. The doctor’s daughter died, so he feels a bit linked to this cyborg girl body that died. He revives her into a complete cyborg. She starts exploring the world and has flashbacks to her life before and slowly realises that she was a Martian cyborg who was made specifically to destroy Zalem in a war. She also finds a love interest who teaches her a lot about the current world and what the doctor who found her is hiding, which is that he is a bounty hunter who kills criminals for money. She becomes a bounty hunter and also discovers that her boyfriend is in heavy debt and tries to help him get out of it by killing the loan sharks but that doesn’t go so well. “A manga is like the in-between point between a book and a film” The sketch-like drawing goes very well with the cyberpunk style and is completely different from the other manga I’ve picked. In a weird form of censorship it’s barely got any blood because it’s machine parts that get blown apart, so although it’s a seinen manga it doesn’t feel so adult. At five volumes it’s a good length. The film is very good although it’s difficult to fit five volumes into one two-hour long film without messing it up, so it’s a bit wonky. I think the manga is good for kids age 12 and up, a similar level to The Hunger Games ."

"In America the Demon Slayer anime is so popular that it has become synonymous with anime. In Japan the film has broken a lot of records. The manga came first and the anime is quite true to the manga. The anime has a paint-like feel to it, very blocky. The manga has a darker feel to the art style. It’s about Tanjirō who had his family massacred by a demon while he was out, except one of his little sisters, Nezuko, who got turned into a demon. Tanjirō tries to convince himself that his sister is fine, he is in denial. Then a demon slayer comes to kill his sister but he convinces the demon slayer that his sister is human. The demon slayer gives Tanjirō a pep-talk, and Tanjirō decides to become a demon slayer and kill the demon who massacred his family, who happens to be the leader of the demons. The demons are very clever, like killer humans. There are a few special demons that act more human-like than others. Tanjirō finds a master to train him in water breathing, which is a technique to kill demons. He enhances his sword with the power of water, passes the test and sets out on a quest to kill all the demons. The relationships between the characters are deep, not just between the brother and sister but also among the demons, and with the demon slayers who go with Tanjirō. It’s a revenge story with a pretty basic plot, but the characters have a very in-depth feel to them. It’s quite violent and dark but not gory. I think this manga is for children age 11 and up unless they are very sensitive. It depends. It’s usually quite predictable what happens so it’s not too important, but if they are long series with arcs it might get confusing, and if the story is good why would you want to skip it? But you can check a fan page and find out if an arc isn’t as good as the earlier part of the series, and they often have recap chapters towards the end of an arc. With shōjo manga the arcs are often shorter. With seinen it’s more important to read the books in order because the story is more developed. The criticism is fair, I suppose. Almost all seinen manga are absurdly violent, which is not the same for josei manga. But it’s really easy to ignore it and just focus on the story. About the stereotypes, for me it’s an added layer of comedy, I just think it’s stupid if there are stereotypical characters and dialogues. I prefer the ones with demons. There are a lot of manga and anime that only serve to fuel the author’s fantasies, so you have to make sure you don’t pick those. There are sites that have manga and anime sample chapters and episodes and a lot of reviews, so that helps to filter out bad ones. In shōnen it’s very similar to a Marvel film, it’s violent but not blood-spattered. And there are different types of girl. When Naruto says “let me protect you”, Sakura beats him up and says she doesn’t need his help. When I read One Piece I didn’t care if the dad left his responsibilities at home to join pirates, it’s only for the character development and story later in the series. I don’t actually think he sets an example to be followed in real life. But you shouldn’t have young children reading seinen manga, because many of them are a bit extreme in lots of ways. So parents should realise that just because it looks like comics doesn’t mean it’s for a child at all. Sign up here for our newsletter featuring the best children’s and young adult books, as recommended by authors, teachers, librarians and, of course, kids. One of my favourite manga is Tokyo Ghoul but I didn’t recommend it as one of my five best manga for children and teenagers because it’s a seinen. It’s a manga for people in their mid to end teens and adults, because it’s horribly gory. Like The Promised Neverland , Tokyo Ghoul has layers and layers and there’s always action and a lot of character development. I like the constant keeping on your toes. But I wouldn’t read this manga if I worried about my mental health because it can be a bit depressing and the characters go through huge depression. If you feel down then Pokémon is great. For mid to end teens Attack on Titan is another good manga. Jujutsu Kaisen and Naruto are popular manga for readers in their early teens, and Assassination Classroom and One-Punch Man as well. One-Punch Man is a parody of overpowered superheroes, it’s really funny. Dr. Stone is for kids around 8-12, it’s a more educational manga series. Dragon Ball Super has lots of fighting, it’s like Naruto but more child friendly. I never paid too much attention to the love arc when I read it. Like Pokémon , Dragon Ball has lots of iterations. Bleach , Naruto and One Piece are often called the big three of manga or anime, they set a lot of culture for later ones. They have more sexist parts because they were early ones, but you don’t focus on that when reading. The fighting is the most important part."