Mangasplaining is the podcast that turned me into a big bad manga boy
Though I’ve always loved comic books, manga has long been an embarrassing blind spot for me. For the longest time, I was dimly aware of Japanese comics as the source material for a lot of the anime I already loved, and the passionate, growing fandom that has spent most of my lifetime surpassing the readership of the comics that I did read. I would note the earnest hubbub of the Barnes & Noble manga section and wonder, What do they know? Could that be me? Turns out yes, it could. I just needed the right guide.
Mangasplaining is the introduction to manga that I’ve been looking for all this time. Hosted by Christopher Butcher, Deb Aoki, David Brothers, and Chip Zdarsky, the podcast is a book club where Butcher, Aoki, and Brothers introduce Zdarsky — who is the writer of Batman and Daredevil, but also an infant manga-reader with almost zero experience in the form — to a new book every week.
The show’s appeal is in its focus as a grand tour of all there is to see in the world of manga available to English readers. Each episode, one of the three expert panelists introduces Zdarsky to a comic they chose in the weeks prior, and all of them will discuss it, building to the ultimate question: Did Chip like it?
Mangasplaining is an ideal manga guide because it’s hosted by a bunch of friendly comics geeks; it just feels like a bunch of adults talking about stuff they’re interested in. This may sound a little anticlimactic, but manga — due to the sheer volume and variety of series out there — is mostly covered by enthusiasts. And enthusiast coverage is not always the most accessible, as it’s geared toward an audience that’s knowledgeable, passionate, and very much in the tank for the topic at hand.
Mangasplaining may not be the
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