Shojo Beat
November 2006
Viz Media
Age Range: 12+
Format: Magazine
Genre: Manga
Rating: 4/5


A great magazine for the manga lover in all of us (well, us girls anyway). Shojo Beat is concerned with manga dealing with themes of emotions, relationships, love, identity and the like. It has vastly different content than Shonen Jump (the action-packed boy's manga magazine), but very similar format. The bulk of the magazine is monthly installments of various manga titles, along with a preview of a new manga soon to hit stores. This month's issue previewed Punch, a story about Elle, the daughter of a wrestling champion and a boxer and granddaugther of a Muay Thai champion, who can't seem to hold a boyfriend because her fighter friends keep such good tabs on her. She's bound by a promise her grandfather made eons ago, and is therefore engaged to a guy she considers a brother. Wild circumstance ensues.

Aside from the actual manga supplements, this issue of Shojo Beat also includes suggestions on how to dress like your favourite manga character, includes new manga titles, gives the history of Japanese school uniforms, shows you how to draw manga, showcases reader artwork and offers tips on "how to get a guy the Shojo Beat way." These tips are actually dreadfully funny, and include dating a robot to make other guys jealous, pretending you're a male samurai, getting transported to a mystical world, and transferring to an upscale private school even though you're poor in order for guys to fall for your "goofy-yet-honest common ways." Brilliant!

Although a little on the girly side, Shojo Beat is a delightfully positive way for girls to engage in their reading, be creative and keep on top of the latest manga. If you have little to no money for comics/manga in your library, subscribing to Shojo Beat (and Shonen Jump for the boys) will at least keep the wolves at bay until you can scrape up enough cash to buy the popular paperbacks.