Teen Anime & Manga Club: What's Appropriate and What's Not?

Sandy George, Pewaukee Public Library, Pewaukee, WI is a member of our Wisconsin Teen Librarian Services Group. She shares her experiences with running a Anime & Manga Club in her library.

I have been running a successful Manga & Anime Club at the Pewaukee Public Library since 2015. This club meets twice every month. At the first meeting of each month we do some sort of activity – games, crafts, snacks…that sort of thing. At the second meeting, we watch anime!

One concern that always comes up as I am deciding which anime series to show to my club is: Does this show have any fan service that is going to make me cringe with shame as we watch it?

For the uninitiated, fan service is something that is inserted into an anime purely to make the fans happy. This can include a lot of different things, but the term most commonly refers to is sexual content that is included mostly for the purpose of pleasing cis male viewers. Sometimes fan service is pretty harmless, but it can include elements such as characters who are scantily clad, shower scenes, overly large breasts, etc.

Fan service is not inherently bad, and in many ways is a reflection of Japan’s own cultural take on what forms of language and sexuality are appropriate for young people. However, certain kinds of fan service can certainly feel…icky.

So how do I know for sure that a show is going to be truly appropriate for the 6th-12th grade crowd?

First and foremost, the only way to truly grasp the content of an anime is to watch it. I always preview the first three episodes of an anime that I am considering showing to my club (that’s all we ever have time to watch) to make sure that the content is something that I am okay with showing to the group. If I encounter fan service as I am previewing a show, I consider exactly what kind of fan service it is, how much of it there is, and whether or not is actually has anything to do with the plot. I do not require that every anime that I show be completely devoid of fan service, violence, or bad language. That would leave us with very little to watch, and even less that the club would actually WANT to watch! But I trust my gut as I am previewing the anime and listen if I get that icky, uncomfortable feeling that tells me that the content isn’t entirely appropriate.

Previewing the anime is an absolutely necessary step, but I do have a few other resources that I like to use when I’m first learning about a new series. These resources give me a better idea of exactly what I’m getting into before I start watching the anime, and can sometimes help me weed out very inappropriate anime without having to spend the time and energy previewing it. 

My Anime List is one resource. I like this resource as a way of getting a good summary of the series’ plot, some basic background about when the series was released and how long it is, and of course, the series’ rating. These ratings are given in MPAA-style, but not by MPAA itself (because they are, by and large, TV shows, not movies). Rather, it appears that someone associated with My Anime List is rating the series themselves using a style that most people in the US are familiar with. Because of this I always take the ratings with a grain of salt, especially if the ratings are high as I have seen several series given R ratings that I truly did not think merited it. I’ve never had the reverse problem, where I felt that the rating provided by My Anime List wasn’t high enough. So while I do not intrinsically trust these ratings, they usually give me a very good starting point for learning about a new series. 

Another resource is Anime Feminist. If it wasn't obvious from its title, this website/blog has a very strong feminist slant as they review and discuss different anime series. They also tackle topics like race, gender, etc. so it is very intersectional. I like looking at their reviews of newer anime and their seasonal lists to see what they think of newer series.

We're always looking to connect with other young adult services librarians in WI! If you, or someone you know, wants to join our monthly meetings, please contact Taylor Wilcox at twilcox@waupacalibrary.org.