Anime and Manga

Girl Friends - The Complete Collection by Milk Morinaga For fans of Strawberry Panic comes a new tale of forbidden love in 496 pages When it comes to grades, bookish high school student Mariko Kumakura is at the top of her class. Socially, however, she is shy and lonely, typically eating lunch by herself. Enter the charismatic and beautiful Akko Oohashi, whose goal is to befriend Mariko and burst her out of her introverted shell. In the process of transforming Plain Jane Mariko into one of the cutest, most popular girls in school, deep feelings begin to emerge that suggest something deeper than friendship. Will these feelings destroy the budding relationship between Mariko and Akko, or will it turn into something else?

MW by Osamu Tezuka Yukis is a young bank employee, charismatic but devoid of all morality. Garai is the guilt-ridden Christian priest who atones for Yuki's sins. 15 years ago they witnessed and survived the chemical decimation of a seaside village rumoured to have been the hiding place of an experimental psychotic drug used by American GIs called MW. Driven by nothing but the desire to inflict evil, Yuki's salvation will only come from Garai's negotiation of the guilt-ridden torment of their forbidden love, and his responsibility to stop the vicious killer that the MW chemical has created.

My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 by Gengoroh Tagame; Anne Ishii (Translator) Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo; formerly married to Natsuki, father to their young daughter, Kana. Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi's estranged gay twin, Ryoji. Mike is on a quest to explore Ryoji's past, and the family reluctantly but dutifully takes him in. What follows is an unprecedented and heartbreaking look at the state of a largely still-closeted Japanese gay culture: how it's been affected by the West, and how the next generation can change the preconceptions about it and prejudices against it. (Please note: This book is a traditional work of manga, and reads back to front and right to left.)

Wandering Son by Shimura Takako (Artist); Matt Thorn (Translator) In the first of eight volumes, readers are introduced to fifth gradersShuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki. They have happy homes,loving families, and are well liked by their classmates. But they share a secretthat further complicates the already-complicated verge of puberty: Shuichi is aboy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. Wandering Son: Book One is written and drawn by one of today's mostcritically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura, who portrays Shuishi andYoshino's very private journey with affection, gentle humor, and unmistakablegrace. Wandering Son: Book One is a sophisticated work of literary mangatranslated with rare skill and sensitivity by veteran translator and comicsscholar Matt Thorn.

Whispered Words by Takashi Ikeda Whispered Words is the story of two high school girls, Sumika and Ushio. One is in love with the other, but unable to confess. Both of them prefer girls, but Ushio likes cute and petite types while Sumika prefers the athletic outgoing girls. To complicate things, a cross dressing boy, Masaki, is in love with Sumika. What ever will happen to this mixed-up bizarre love triangle mess?

Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 1 by Bisco Hatori The uproarious comedy about a girl enlisted to work in a lavish host club! In this screwball romantic comedy, Haruhi, a poor girl at a rich kids' school, is forced to repay an $80,000 debt by working for the school's swankiest, all-male club--as a boy! There, she discovers just how wealthy the six members are and how different the rich are from everybody else... One day, Haruhi, a scholarship student at exclusive Ouran High School, breaks an $80,000 vase that belongs to the "Host Club," a mysterious campus group consisting of six super-rich (and gorgeous) guys. To pay back the damages, she is forced to work for the club, and it's there that she discovers just how wealthy the boys are and how different they are from everybody else.