Manga as a resource

I've been eying manga (comics) as a possible resource for years now.  I've finally decided to take the plunge after noticing that a second hand store 10km up the road has a sale on: ten books for 200 yen. Well gosh, that's not so much of a gamble.

I pass regularly, and decided this morning to drop in for an hour and find 10 likely candidates. I must say that the content of 99% of those on offer does not appeal. I don't go for fantasy, sports-oriented, futuristic battles, sexually-oriented, juvenile . . .

Now, comics in Japan resemble books. They are thick. And they come, often, in dozens of volumes. I figure that if I can find just a single series that I like, then I'll come out a winner. I'll find a way to make use of that set to learn the language. There are sites that claim that you can learn Japanese via manga. I'll give it a try.

First, I'll get a feel for each book. I'll spend about 10 seconds per page flipping through. Based on that, I'll rate them out of 10, and maybe rank them.

First up is a manga called Darren Shan. It's been translated from the books in English by, yep, Darren Shan. I picked this because I recognize the name. The local bookshop has a mountain of his books (novels, not comics) in Japanese by him. Used copies cost only 100 yen. I happen to have these books in English on my computer. I've checked out the first book, and its English is simple. Maybe the Japanese will be too. Looks better than Harry Potter to me, anyway.

Flipped through the book. Looks interesting. Storyline is easy to grasp. It has vampires in it, but you can't have everything just so.

I'll give this one 7/10.