Ask Tangognat – Realistic Manga for 5th graders
Posted on | February 1, 2009 | 17 Comments
Penny asked me for ideas on manga to give fifth grade girls who don’t like manga with fantasy elements. They want to read realistic stories with drama and romance about high schoolers and college students. They’ve already read and mostly hated Sugar Princess: Skating to Win.
This is tricky because fifth graders are going to be too old to enjoy all-ages titles but Penny needs to stay away from manga with sexual situations. Penny’s girls like Red String and Harlequin manga. I’m going to try to list a few titles below, and if any of my readers have advice or other suggestions for Penny, please add your thoughts in the comments.
When I first got this question I thought of the Shojo Beat line. While some of the titles have the fantasy elements that Penny’s girls won’t like, I think there are a few titles from that imprint that might be worth considering. I’m guessing that Penny will want to preview all of these titles before passing them on to her class – I’ve read early volumes of most of these manga, but I can’t comment on whether or not there’s more sexual content by the end of the series.
High School Debut – This has more of an emphasis on comedy than drama, as enthusiastic Haruna and cynical Yoh start to date. Still, the realistic setting and emphasis on relationships might appeal to these fifth graders. This is one of my favorite recent manga series.
Love*Com – A tall girl and a short boy have an antagonistic relationship that makes their classmates think they are training to become a comedy team. Will love develop between them despite their height difference? Risa and Atsushi are really funny together as their relationship progresses, yet there is also plenty of angst as Risa discovers her feelings for Atsushi before he figures out his feelings for her. I’ve read the first 4 or 5 volumes of this, so I’m not sure about recent plot developments.
Monkey High – Slightly more serious than the other two series I’ve mentioned so far, Monkey High is the story of a stereotypical cool girl who ends up going to a new school and finding a boyfriend who looks and acts like a monkey! I’ve only read the first two volumes of this series, but the commentary on high school life might be enjoyed by fifth graders who want to read about characters who are older than them.
Most of the titles I can think of from Tokyopop are either too mature or have fantasy elements, but here are a couple possibilities:
Zig Zag – A boy settles into a new life at his school’s dorm. I’ve only read the first volume of this series.
VB Rose – I haven’t read this at all, but the storyline about a girl forced to make her older sister’s wedding dress might be interesting, and it doesn’t seem like it has any fantasy elements.
If you have any more suggestions for Penny, please let her know in the comments for this post!
I’ve been getting a ton of suggestions from my twitter peeps:
Hikaru No Go – Doesn’t have the romance angle, but has plenty of action.
Prince of Tennis – Sports manga with cute guys.
Crimson Hero – The trials and tribulations of a high school volleyball player. Plenty of romance and angst in this title.
Baby and Me – An older brother struggles to raise his younger brother after his mother’s death.
Gals! – Adventures of girls who love to shop and take on bad guys.
Hitohira – Slice of life title.
Mixed Vegetables – Amusing if they like cooking manga.
Happy Happy Clover – Manga about cute bunnies.
Wild Ones – A girl moves in with a yakuza clan.
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17 Responses to “Ask Tangognat – Realistic Manga for 5th graders”
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February 1st, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
INUBAKA is a series about a girl moving to the big city and working in a pet shop. Only drawback there is that the girls are VERY obviously drawn to attract the reader’s attention.
THE WALLFLOWER is about four pretty boys who have been hired by their landlady to turn her gothy niece into a proper and attractive young lady, and the girl’s continuing efforts to undermine the effort.
February 1st, 2009 @ 2:03 pm
I don’t know if the horror elements of Wallflower might be a bit much for 5th graders though. Thanks for the suggestions!
February 1st, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
Thank you so much for all the suggestions! High School Debut and Monkey High sound promising – but I’m not sure about the humor elements. These girls really aren’t that fond of funny moments in their stories. They’re very serious young ladies. Baby and Me sounds right up their alley, if they’ll read a story where a boy is the protagonist.
Crimson Hero was one I’d considered – if there isn’t page after page of volleyball action to slow down the story – yeah, you and I know it’s an important part of the story, but they think it’s boring.
Hitohiro I’ve never heard of. I’ll have to check it out.
Again, thanks so much for the suggestions and please keep them coming. I realize my girls are a bit rigid in their requirements (you should try coming up with Accelerated Readers for them!) but they really do want to read manga and I hate to disappoint them by not having something they like. I’ve got one girl reading RED STRING for the third time because she hated the fantasy of FROM FAR AWAY and TIME GUARDIAN but still wants manga to read. On the other hand, I’ve got girls reading those books for the third time too. *Sigh* You just can’t win.
February 1st, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
If they are at all interested in dance, they might like Swan. It will look a little old-fashioned if they are conditioned to like the way modern manga is drawn.
February 2nd, 2009 @ 7:04 am
[...] has some ideas for manga for fifth-graders who prefer realistic romance to [...]
February 2nd, 2009 @ 10:20 am
If ‘realistic’ is what they’re craving, your readers may like Hitohira, which is about a shy girl who joins the school drama club, mostly against her will. But with the support of the small, but feisty club, she discovers that she has skills (and a voice) that she never knew she had.
I personally thought it was a little slow-moving — but it is a rare shojo comic where friendship and self-actualization is main theme, rather than romance or fantasy-fulfillment.
Hitohira is from Aurora Publishing — here’s the URL to the book as featured on their website:
http://aurora-publishing.com/manga_volume.aspx?mvid=15
February 2nd, 2009 @ 10:23 am
And also a shout out to Happy Happy Clover. While it is about talking bunnies and forest creatures, the characters act like feisty school kids who learn about true friendship, while getting into a few messes along the way. It’s very charming.
February 2nd, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
I’d second VB Rose (full of beautiful drawings and very sweet romance!) and Zig*Zag, as well as perhaps Venus in Love by the same author as Zig*Zag (Zig*Zag and Venus both follow the relationships and daily life of a bunch of characters, so it might appeal to the Red String reader; I’ve only read one volume of Venus so far though). Tears of a Lamb, by the same author as VB Rose, might also interest the girls. The main character is a boy, but the story is pretty interesting and well-thought-out, and the characters all have fun personalities.
Me & My Brothers is also a fun and cute story about a girl and her (not-blood-related) brothers. She’s a somewhat younger protagonist—8th grade at the beginning of the book, but high school aged by recent books, and with romance beginning to develop.
Sugar Sugar Rune, about two best-friend witch girls, is a bit more fantasy-ish, with younger-aged protagonists, but still takes place partly in a school setting, and has really fun, stylish artwork.
Oyayubihime Infinity is another interesting take on “fate” and destined love, with a group of high-schoolers who are drawn together by a butterfly-shaped birthmark on their thumbs.
I just got the 2nd and 3rd (of 4) volumes of Minima! recently and loved them. Middle-school-age heroine and a talking stuffed animal. It has some good insight into its characters—Ame is a shy, quiet girl who has a hard time making friends or talking to the boy she likes, but through meeting Nicori (the stuffed animal) she begins to open up to her classmates and develop a more healthy perspective on life.
February 2nd, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
I like Venus in Love, but I’m not sure if the boy boy girl love triangle might get Penny in trouble if she recommends it to the kids in her class.
February 2nd, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
how about “Azumanga Daioh”, “Backstage Prince”, “Imadoki”?
February 2nd, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
While the tone of Imadoki would be ok, I’m guessing Penny wants to steer clear of anything with a teen pregnancy subplot.
February 3rd, 2009 @ 9:26 am
These suggestions are great – and if I can’t use them for school I can add them to my own reading pile.
I do appreciate the warnings on content. A teen pregnancy subplot is not going to fly in my elementary library, neither will any hint of boys love – which is why I could never put out Card Captor Sakura even though I really enjoy the story and art. As I said, I’m pushing it a bit with Harlequin Pinks as it is. A teacher voiced concern that the man was shown kissing the woman when he was shirtless. We’re a conservative district.
Anyway, thanks for all the help.
February 3rd, 2009 @ 9:41 am
Beauty Pop might also work (competitive hair cutting) but it isn’t very serious in tone.
February 9th, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
I’d second the recommendations for ME & MY BROTHERS, HITOHIRA, MONKEY HIGH, and LOVE*COM. To that list, I’d add several titles from Tokyopop’s aborted OEL line, including OFF*BEAT, SORCERERS & SECRETARIES (not a fantasy, despite the title), and ME2. The only drawback to these titles is that only one–SORCERERS & SECRETARIES–is complete; the others remain unfinished.
Another possibility is manhwa. NETCOMICS and Yen Press have both released a number of PG and PG-13 romances that are heavy on the drama, light on the comedy. Some of the best include NARRATION OF LOVE AT 17 (NETCOMICS), a four-volume coming-of-age story that revolves around a high school drama club; GOONG: THE ROYAL PALACE (Yen Press), a romance about a commoner who marries into the Korean royal family; and VERY! VERY! SWEET (Yen Press), an opposites-attract romance with a strong, sassy heroine.
One final suggestion is BE WITH YOU (Viz), a one-volume adaptation of a best-selling romance. There is a slight supernatural element (a widower finds the ghost of his beloved wife wandering in the woods near their home), but it’s quite minimal. The overall tone is very serious, which should appeal to readers who aren’t fond of wacky shojo antics.
February 9th, 2009 @ 5:13 pm
Thanks for the suggestions!
February 9th, 2009 @ 7:20 pm
You’re welcome–this is a great list! One other title occurred to me after I hit the “Submit Comment” button: AQUARIUM (Central Park Media), a one-volume anthology of shojo stories. The gender roles are a little dated (one of the characters dreams of an exciting career as a stewardess…!), but the artwork is nice, and all of the stories focus on real-world situations.
April 7th, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
There’s a similar series to this, (but is about ballet) that i would recommend reading: Swan by Kyoko Ariyoshi. I’ve recently finished all of the english series that are published by CMX Manga. Swan has TONS of drama, and romance in it, but the thing is that it has 21 novels (only 15 are in english so far) and is a sport story so it can be a bit repetitve but still dramatic in many ways. It’s also written in the 70′s, so the clothing might be a little off from today but it’s rated E for everyone.
I’m almost the same grade as your daugthers, and i loved swan.