Apparently manga is educational filth now?

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
The sharp eyes over at <a href="http://www.otakunews.com/">Otaku News</a> have spotted that UK-based newspaper <i>The Times (Education Supplement)</i> have <a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2047114">published an article</a> discussing the educational value of Japanese manga.<ul><span class=menu>"Sex, violence and fantastical creatures have long been staples of English literature. But generally they appear in written form. Now the Reading Agency, an organisation that promotes literacy, is encouraging schools to buy Manga comics, the Japanese cartoon novels notorious for their violent, and often adult, content."</span></ul>The Reading Agency will soon be selecting 150 manga titles that are suitable for placing in UK libraries and schools. Now, wouldn't it be fun to study Dragonball in English class?!
 
Don't be so cynical with your headlines, man. :p

The article seems, as usual, to be full of bias and preconceptions - I mean, really...
Mangas depict wide-eyed heroes, often in varying states of undress, as they battle to overcome adversity or fantasy villains from futuristic worlds. Text appears in speech bubbles or in brief descriptive passages, and is unavoidably limited.
Click to expand...
What have they been reading? No shoujo, that's for ******* sure.

Heck, even a flick through SaiKano, Marmalade Boy, Gunslinger Girl or Azumanga Daioh would show them that there's more to manga than violence and pornography.

I've reread that article several times, and it's making me more and more pissed off - I'm currently thinking of writing in to complain about the article (although I should probably read the full version first).

I've emailed the Reading Agency to see if they can send me a lit of the manga they're recommending - if there's a significant number of non-violent titles, I am definitely going to complain.
 
Nice to know the media haven't learned anything new since the 90s. I guess we're all deviants then.

Ironically, I always wanted my School library to stock Kenshin and Gundam...
 
Always good fun to try and sneak opinion into a headline ;) This one was especially cynical, but it just seemed too appropriate to ignore! I'm not planning on making a habit of it though :)

Despite the article's cliche impression of manga, I think it's a cool thing that public communities like schools are becoming open minded enough to understand there is a wealth of real quality in manga and it's not all just big boobs and extreme violence.

It would of been better if The Times had quoted someone involved with The Reading Agency rather than hire one of their own jaded reporters to write about it (haven't seen the full article yet though).

I've emailed the Reading Agency to see if they can send me a lit of the manga they're recommending - if there's a significant number of non-violent titles, I am definitely going to complain.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of it will probably be shonen-jump graphic novels; Dragonball, One Piece and maybe even Naruto. If it's going in libraries though, I guess there is always a chance some of it will be for adults too (fingers crossed!).
 
Paul said:
The Reading Agency will soon be selecting 150 manga titles that are suitable for placing in UK libraries and schools.
Click to expand...
Cant think of much more to say apart from cool :) It will probably end up been SJ titles mainly though.

Typical The Times though :roll:
 
Paul said:
I think a lot of it will probably be shonen-jump graphic novels; Dragonball, One Piece and maybe even Naruto. If it's going in libraries though, I guess there is always a chance some of it will be for adults too (fingers crossed!).
Click to expand...
I wouldn't automatically assume that - I know that Viz completely ignores territories outside the US and Canada for their anime products, and I'm not sure if they're more open with the manga market. I'd expect to see mostly Tokyopop stuff; they're the only manga publisher (apart from Dark Horse) with an actual UK presence.
 
It'd be stupid of Viz to ignore this if it ends up going through - they have a good deal of popular shounen series that would be perfect fodder for teenage boys.
 
I applaud the Daily Mail for once again blowing another thing wwwwaaaaayyyyy out of proportion... I think I'll email them to complain. Then again, at least they did balance it up somewhat with two differing view. Still, like you said Richy, it is pretty obvious of their stance on the whole thing. And annoyingly, they outlined the entire scheme as if it applied to boys only. Fantastic.
 
Jesus, this is a real shame. The actual article itself isn't too bad; at least providing a positive look at manga as well as their sensationalist nonsense- but what is with the dramatic headline? I thought professional journalists would have moved beyond such blatent generalizations.

Maybe we should just quit reading books all together? After all, Stephen King must be responsibe for a lot of the crime these days.

(Incidently, I'll probably post a main story about this for the main page later. Thanks for scanning it in etc Richy :) )
 
Hmm, "such as Love Hina from all female writing team CLAMP" (quote from the Reading Agency website). I'm sure Ken Akamatsu will be interested to hear that Clamp wrote Love Hina.
Jay
 
They may be incapable of reading the cover or side of a Love Hina book which have by Ken Akamatsu on but it's a nice idea and a step in the right direction. I doubt we'll see libraries with stacks of manga on the shelves but we can dream...
 
Back
Top