Most libraries now have manga titles added to our collections, and they can be very popular with patrons!
If you do not regularly read these titles, it can be hard to know what the best ones might be for your patrons. Asking your patrons about the best, or the titles they most enjoy, is a great way to find good titles. You can also subscribe to listserves for manga fans, check out websites, or follow journal recommendations to get suggestions your patrons would enjoy.
The best way to get familiar with these titles is the same as all Reader’s Advisory suggestions: read them. Flip through the books and look at pictures. Pay attention to characters who appear throughout a series.
I have seen too many library people who, when asked about manga by patrons, give the “crabby librarian who doesn’t like you” stare and just wave vaguely over to the collection. “I don’t know anything about those, but they are over there.” What does that say to a patron? “This library does not care about you. What you like is valueless, or embarrassing.” And what happens with that patron? Do you think they come back? Do you think they will be supporters of the library – any library – when we need votes, money, or materials?? Probably not.
Let’s be better! Dive in and see what kinds of stories might be appealing to you, and to your patrons! Here are a few resources you can use to keep up with manga materials:
- The Librarian’s Guide to Anime and Manga
- Japanese Comics / Manga Studies Resource Guide
- Librarian’s Guide to Manga (Overdrive)
- Explaining Manga
Several librarians shared the manga titles that are most popular in their libraries for their teen users:
- Hikaru No Go series
- My Hero Academia
- Assassination Classroom
- Demon Prince of Momochi House
- Seven Deadly Sins
- Dragonball Z
- Fruits Basket
- Yotsuba&!
- Attack on Titan (the main series and the spinoff No Regrets continue to be popular. We have a few people reading Before the Fall & Junior High spinoffs, but not quite as many)
- Sailor Moon (to a certain extent)
- Black Butler
- One Piece
- Death Note (seems to be making a comeback in my library)
- Noragami
- Haikyuu!!
- >Barakamon & the spinoff Handa-kun
- Behind the Scenes!!
- One Punch Man
- Yona of the Dawn
- A Silent Voice