Mangablog points us to this article about a library who is going to be spending a $10,000 friends of library grant on manga.
One of the things that really irks me about mainstream news coverage of manga is the assumption that it is filled with sex and violence. This article goes to such great lengths to point out that the library isn’t purchasing books filled with “big-busted, scantily clad female superheroes dealing in decidedly adult situations” someone could get the impression that it is difficult to find the material aimed at a young adults when there is plenty of manga out there that work very well for that age range. The writer also refers to anime and manga being part of the Japanese counterculture, which I also found bizarre – anime and manga is very mainstream in Japan, and while countercultural manga exists, it doesn’t make up the majority of the content.

Nitpicking aside, it is great to hear that a public library system is making such an investment in manga.