February 22, 6:30-8:45 PM join us for our monthly meeting of the Animanga Club! We've got all sorts of zaniness in store from a raffle to trivia to our always popular "mystery anime." What is it this month? Sorry, no hints. Drop by and let your inner otaku run free.

Arata : the legend. Vol. 1 — Yu Watase, normally known for her  shojo series (such as Absolute Boyfriend) tackles the shonen genre here. Two guys from different worlds, one a modern day student, the other pretending to be the next ruling princess of a magical land (it's a long story), suddenly switch places. Watase demenstrates she's a master of either genre, as she spins a fantasy yarn similar to her Fushigi Yugi but this time with a bit more action, shonen-style. The 7th volume has just come out, and this series just keeps getting better.

If you weren't able to attend the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. on September 24-25, videos of the event including authors' talks are now available. Historian and author David McCullough appeared at the 2011 National Book Festival, as did Sylvia Nasar, Cassandra Clare, Wally Amos, Sara Paretsky, and more.

December 14, 6:30-8:45PM, join us for our monthly meeting of the Animanga Club! We've got all sorts of zaniness in store from a raffle to trivia to our always popular "mystery anime." What is it this month? Sorry, no hints. Drop by and let your inner otaku run free.
*Meeting in the Purple Room.

We had over 60 people enter our 2011 contest with some amazing, beautiful art! This year's theme was "World Cultures", and kudos to everyone who incorporated it into their drawings! So many people deserved recognition, but we had to limit ourselves to 3 winners for each age group and a few honorable mentions. Take a look at all of 2011 manga entries to see the honorable mentions and all the other fantastic artwork! Here are the winners:

5-6 Grade

1st Place — Daydreaming by sydney Jiang, grade 6

Adults have asked for it, so here it is — your very own anime club! Saturday August 20th, 2:00-4:00PM. Watch the hottest new shows/films and enjoy japanophilia together.

Looking for some good action/comedy manga, then check these out:

Blue exorcist. 1 by Kazue Kato

Toriko. Vol. 1. Gourmet hunter Toriko!! by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro

Tegami bachi: Letter Bee. Vol. 1. Letter and Letter Bee by Hiroyuki Asada

To compete with illegal sites, Japanese manga publishers have gathered together to create jmanga.com, a site for English readers to get manga online legally. Some content will be for purchase, and some will be free (it has both). It's going to go live Aug. 17, but there's a beta site up now. Check it out.

Want to see yourself in Shonen Jump magazine? Viz is giving fans a chance to send in cosplay photos, art, stories, even haiku (really, all kinds of stuff) to appear in their December issue. Check out the details of their superfan celebration.

Blue Exorcist is like a cross between Bleach and a horror movie. Twin brothers with a mysterious past live with their adopted father, an exorcist priest, when all Hell breaks loose, literally. A large cast of characters, complex backstory, and creative fight scenes puts this series right up there with the best action mangas out today.

Love offbeat series like Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba&!? Then check out K-on! It follows the foibles of a high school music club (they've just enough people to form a pop band — nevermind some can't play instruments). Filled with lots of quirky, short, often non-sequitur gags, this is the perfect thing for anime/music lovers looking for a laugh.

Drama and friendship? Check. Gorgeously drawn clothing? Check. Stuffed animal as a main character? Double Check. Everything you love about CLAMP is here in their new series, Kobato. It's about a girl on a mission with a magical bottle that fills a little each time she helps heal someone with a broken heart. The only rule is that she can't fall in love with aynone whose heart she's helped fix. Yep, you know where this going... drama aplenty. So, what are you waiting for? Check it out.

The legendary team that brought you the best-selling, suspense-horror manga Death Note is back! There's more of that singature, jaw dropping art, but this time it's used to tell a much different story: Bakuman is about two artists trying to get their first manga published! Yes, seriously. Self-referential, and totally different, this manga is definitely worth checking out.

O.k., so, fans of both teen girl fiction and manga can stop holding their breath. Yes, we've got the first Gossip Girl Manga: for Your eyes only and the first Clique Manga both now in! Go crazy. Go ahead. Just don't let anyone get caught in the wake of your reading frenzy. Ah, it's always slightly dangerous when two popular worlds collide...

How can I describe this series? Slightly twisted… alright, very twisted. In a school run by the grim reaper kids are trained to collect the souls of evil-doers by fighting with special weapons that 'eat souls'. The strange twist is that these deadly weapons are actually characters in their own right and can transform into people at will. You with me? The pairs get sent off on missions to stop the bad of the bad. Soul Eater is definitely for mature teens with all the demented action you might expect of a horror/combat series run wild. But, for those looking for something with as much attitude as action, soul eater is a series that's hard to ignore. Check out the anime or the manga.

Funimation has come up with a new contest this summer: make a video proving you're the biggest Fullmetal Alchemist fan and you could win a free ride to Comic-Con International (San Diego)! Check out how to enter. Also, this summer, Tokyopop is touring across america to find "America's Greatest Otaku," which they will be filming reality-tv style. If you think you might be that "greatest otaku" and want to get on film then check it out!

Word on the street is that the hit manga Bleach may get made into a new, live action film for U.S. audiences. Bleach has been an anime, a manga, a trading card game, a video game, and even a musical. Yes, a musical. In fact, there have been at least 5 different Bleach musicals in Japan. Check out this article.

So, you like ninjas. You're a fan of Naruto. But, you're also a romance junky. Admit it. You also kind of think all the female characters in Naruto are kind of weak. Well, then I've got the perfect thing for you: Tail of the Moon. Strong female lead, shinobi missions, and a love story to round it all out. Or, check out Shinobi Life for a mix of action and romance in even amounts. Hey, there's nothing that says you can't have your ninja and romance fix at the same time. Go ahead.

Love the x-men? Love shojo manga? Well, look no further: X-men: Misfits is a wild reimagining of the x-men drawn manga style with a heavy focus on romance. It follows Kitty Pryde at Xavier's school for the 'gifted', an all boys school. I know, your first thought might be "no, no this is blasphemy," but this is meant to be different with familiar characters turned on their heads. If you can accept that, this is actually a fairly entertaining story, and it's interesting how well these two styles mix!

O.K., you can officially be excited now; Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, has a new manga coming stateside this October: Hero Tales. It's an historical fiction / fantasy action series about a boy who's destined to be a hero and the magical sword he's questing after. Yeah, you've heard that set up before, but this is Hiromu Arakawa we are talking about! I for one can't wait to see what surprises are in store for this...