This energetic adventure with a touch of romance has behind the action an anti-censorship message any manga reader can support. Library Wars is based on a novel series by Hiro Arikawa about a future Japan where the Media Betterment Act allows the national government to seize any books they deem offensive for any reason. They’re opposed by librarians, whose code speaks of freedom to acquire and read any book in privacy. They’re fighting for a citizen’s right to access media […]

Inspired by the To Terra… Manga Moveable Feast this month, I’m looking at some more modern stories of young people in space. Saturn Apartments has a very similar premise to Terra, in that humans have moved to an artificial structure surrounding the Earth, which is now an uninhabited nature preserve. But the approach is very different — where Terra tackles big philosophical themes, Saturn Apartments makes its points through quiet stories of everyday life for a lower-class worker. The society […]

This breezy shojo romantic comedy by Shigeyoshi Takagi answers the question, “what would action movies be like if they were aimed at women instead of men?” It’s a high adrenaline piece about finding the person who likes you for you, a twisted love story for a jaded generation super-saturated with media. Riko desperately wants to be normal, although she’s got the athletic prowess of Batman (but with a lot less control). Her abilities are described as “superpowers” in the promotional […]