As manga continues to grow in popularity, finding in-depth and realiable information on the subject may be quite challening. Frederik Schodt, author of the famous manga information books Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics and Dreamland Japan has provided English-speaking fans with valuable information concerning manga, Japanese culture, and langauge. Akadot had the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with Schodt and find out more about his titles and opinions about the popular manga industry.

Akadot: At one point you recommend reading manga as practice for those who are learning Japanese. Is that how you became so fluent?

Frederik Schodt: I highly recommend reading manga for those studying the language. Along with watching television and videos, it's essential, I think. Manga helped me a great deal in language study. When you're beginning to learn written Japanese, one of the big difficulties is that it's hard to read kanji characters. Manga for young children come with pronunciation keys, however, so that anyone can read the kanji, or at least figure out how to look them up in a dictionary. It was an enormous help for me in the beginning, not only in learning how to read and write, but in learning to understand popular thinking in Japan. You may have heard of a magazine called Mangajin, which is unfortunately out of business now. It was published in Atlanta, Georgia, by a friend of mine, and used manga to try to teach Japanese. It was a wonderful concept, and it's truly unfortunate that the magazine is no longer with us.

Akadot: In the first part of your book "Dreamland Japan", you said, "Reading manga is like peering into the unvarnished, unretouched reality of the Japanese mind." How much of that raw thought is being expressed in manga?

FS: A great deal. Manga are far less filtered than most media, such as novels (which require considerable education and connections to get published) and films (which require a production team and lots of money). Until recently manga have also been regarded as more of a fringe media than TV or film or novels, and as a result artists have been left alone to create whatever they wanted.

Akadot: Do you still enjoy manga? How did you feel about manga before doing your books, and then afterward? Was there a big difference it how you enjoyed manga?

FS: I still enjoy manga a great deal, although I don't have a great deal of time to read them. I am currently translating the Astro Boy (Mighty Atom) series for Dark Horse, as well as Masamune Shirow's Man Machine Interface (the sequel to Ghost in the Shell). Although I'm translating them, I'm also greatly enjoying the stories. Astro Boy, in particular, is a great favorite of mine.