Manga has a first-impression problem. It's enormous, genre-defying, visually foreign, and comes wrapped in the kind of devoted fan energy that makes newcomers feel like they've wandered into the graduate seminar by mistake. Mandy Kaplan — who did her manga homework at the Department of Motor Vehicles while her son got his learner's permit — is here to represent everyone who's been lurking at the door. Her guide is Helen McCarthy: author of the very first English-language book on Japanese animation, the first English book on Hayao Miyazaki, and thirteen published works on the subject in total. Her fourteenth, The Manga Bible, drops March 24th. The woman does not stop.They work through three titles Mandy actually read: One Piece, which turns out to be a sneaky piece of social conditioning about building friendships when the world is terrifying (Eiichiro Oda knew exactly what he was doing); Nana, which delivers all the drama of Sex and the City set in 1999 Tokyo — a friendship story Mandy almost completely missed because she was reading it between DMV announcements; and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which she found deeply upsetting, and means that as a compliment. Helen contextualizes all of it: the cartoony violence, the naïve heroines, the Indonesian protesters waving a One Piece flag, and why manga that looks contemporary might actually be set in your mother's girlhood. By the end, Mandy may not be a manga nerd. But the door is open — and she can see the plushies from here.Helen McCarthy is the author of the first English-language books on Japanese animation and on Hayao Miyazaki — which is to say, she was there taking manga seriously before the rest of the English-speaking world had even formed an opinion about it. She's consulted on doctoral theses, spoken at universities from Akita International to the University of Maryland, and built a career out of a manga collection that started with Spanish-language comics her partner found on a graduation trip to Mallorca. Her latest book, The Manga Bible — an accessible, people-first entry into the world of manga and the artists behind it — is out March 24th from Prestel. Find her at HelenMcCarthy.net.Referenced in This Episode

One Piece — manga and anime by Eiichiro Oda; live-action series on Netflix
Nana — manga by Ai Yazawa
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind — manga and film by Hayao Miyazaki

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