Back in early March, Anime News Network published an article talking about the then-upcoming release of “;The Rough Guide to Anime,”; one of the newest offerings from Rough Guides, a publisher of travel and pop-culture reference guides.

At the end of that article was this sentence: “;Rough Guides also has plans to publish a companion book on manga, but no details on that, beyond an expected street date of Sept. 21, are available yet.”;

I chuckled to myself when I read that, then returned to looking at some page mock-ups I had received that morning from the Rough Guides office in London of my profile of the “;Death Note”; manga.

Indeed, “;The Rough Guide to Manga”; is coming soon, albeit slightly delayed to early October. And I'm pleased to announce today that the author of this guide to all things manga is none other than your humble lil' “;Cel Shaded”; columnist.

This book was definitely a challenge for me to write. I often think of myself more as an average manga fan blessed with enough writing talent to assemble coherent critical thoughts of what I'm reading than a “;manga expert”; per se.

Yet somehow Sean Mahoney, formerly of Rough Guides' U.S. office and now at DK Publishing, believed enough in what he read in columns by tag-team partner in fandom Wilma Jandoc and I to offer us the opportunity to write a manga guide that will be available nationwide as well as in the U.K., Australia and perhaps even other nations that I haven't heard about yet. While Wilma ultimately decided not to join me in writing this book, her encouragement throughout this process was greatly appreciated, and I'd like to thank her for that.

What you'll learn from this book is what I learned over a two-year writing process: the history of manga, a look at what makes manga what it is, and profiles of key people, publishers and resources in the industry. At the center of it all is what the Rough Guides people call the Canon, my picks for 50 must-read series that are certain to spawn feverish debates on Internet forums. I don't want to sound cliched, but I really do feel that it's a good book for established fans and newcomers alike.

So that's “;The Rough Guide to Manga.”; Pre-order it online, or inquire at the bookseller of your choice. It was the 1,693,294th best-selling book on Amazon.com yesterday, but I'm confident that you loyal “;Cel Shaded”; readers can push it up to at least number 1,693,290. Don't prove me wrong, folks.

MEETING ROLL CALL

» Oahu Anime Explorer: 6 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday at HMC Academy, 555 N. King St. Visit http://www.oahuanimeexplorer.com.

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For more anime and manga news and commentary, check out “;Otaku Ohana”; at blogs.starbulletin.com/otakuohana. Follow Jason S. Yadao on Twitter at twitter.com/jsyadao or e-mail him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).