A FUN, EASY WAY TO LEARN THE ABCs OF JAPANESE
American pop culture is turning Japanese. Every day, millions of kids spend hours watching translated anime on Cartoon Network and reading telephone book-sized comics called manga. From Spirited Away to Shonen Jump, if the label says "Made in Japan," it's cool.

But what if you want to enjoy anime and manga in its original language? Written Japanese consists of three scripts: the phonetic hiragana and katakana syllabaries, each comprised of 46 characters (collectively known as kana); and kanji, a complex set of characters based on Chinese ideographs. Hiragana and katakana are the true "ABCs of Japanese," as they can be used to write complete sentences. Children in Japan learn to read and write hiragana and katakana long before they are introduced to kanji. Most manga targeted toward the youngest readers in Japan are also written completely in kana.

"Kana de Manga" makes learning hiragana and katakana easy and fun for students who already enjoy Japanese comics. Each page has a humorous manga illustration representing a word that begins with the hiragana or katakana character featured prominently at the top. A brief explanation accompanies each drawing; the English equivalent of the word is given; and there is a work area where students can practice writing the characters.

Written by Glenn Kardy, editor of several volumes in the popular "How to Draw Manga" series, including "Getting Started," the first book of its kind to be used at major universities in the United States (UCLA) and Japan (Waseda). Artwork by Chihiro Hattori. Features a foreword by Ronald A. Morse, Professor of Japan Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

112 pages. Black-and-white with jacket. 5 inches wide by 7 inches tall.

The series continues with another fun-filled volume packed with original manga illustration to help readers instantly recognize and write the most essential kanji characters in the Japanese language -- enough to get by on a trip to Japan, decipher newspaper headlines and begin to understand manga in its purest, untranslated form.

"A brilliant idea!" says Professor Ronald A. Morse of the Japan Studies Department at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. "Japanese kanji—the written symbols adapted from Chinese—were originally drawings of images from real life. Japanese comic books and cartoons now provide fresh images to help us learn. Kanji de Manga uses today's manga images to make the kanji learning process fun and easy for otaku of all ages. This is a brilliant approach to learning the language."

Each page features its own comic strip, kanji pronunciation guide, stroke order, and English explanations.

Created by Glenn Kardy, editor of several volumes in the popular "How to Draw Manga" series, including "Getting Started," the first book of its kind to be used at major universities in the United States (UCLA) and Japan (Waseda). Artwork by Chihiro Hattori, niece of legendary manga artist Eichi Fukui.

Important: Use of this book requires knowledge of hiragana and katakana, the Japanese phonetic alphabets, which are taught in the book "Kana de Manga." If you don't already know how to read and write kana, we recommend you start with that book first.

112 pages. Black-and-white with jacket. 5 inches wide by 7 inches tall.

This all-new entry in the popular Kanji de Manga gives students their first look at “yoji-jukugo,” idioms that are written with just four kanji characters. Manga artist Chihiro Hattori's funny, familiar drawings make it a breeze to remember the kanji combinations for such timeless, universal pearls of wisdom as “Time is Money,” “You Reap What You Sow” and “Love is Blind.” English text.

SC, 5x7, 160pgs, B&W