Astro Boy, Dragon Ball, Akira, Sailor Moon, Demon Slayer, Death Note. All these popular and iconic anime have something very much in common; they started off as manga. Simply put, manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan, which have become extremely popular in the United States since in the 80s and 90s. In this episode of It’s Lit, Princess Weekes discusses manga as its own rich literature, reflecting the complicated political history of Japan.

This resource offers a series of discussion questions, vocabulary, and suggested materials  to support student learning alongside the episode. It also includes a tool to summarize the complex literary history conveyed in the video and a jumpstart activity to get started reading manga. Last, the resource offers a comics panel and ideas for students to try their hand at writing a manga-inspired format.