Taking Kids to Japan: Manga and Anime.

 Climbing Sticks, Mount Fuji, Japan (Scarborough photo)    Parents, are your preteen/teen kids into Japanese manga (serialized graphic novels) and anime (Japanese animated movies?)

Manga Display at Hong Kong Comics Convention 2005 (photo courtesy Nancy Fancher)

If you’re clueless at this point, go ask them, but prepare for an earful of tongue-twisting names and plots.

For those fortunate enough to travel to Japan to see the real thing, here’s a great link listing manga/anime museums including iconic Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle) in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka.

Manga How-To Books, Hong Kong Comics Convention 2005 (Scarborough photo)

If you want more details, my “Tokyo with a ‘Tween” article will hit the streets in a couple of days in the “San Antonio Express-News” and I’ll provide a link here.

Miles o' Manga at the Hong Kong Comics Convention 2005 (Scarborough photo)