By: Krow Smith | @coffeewithkrow

I was homeschooled from 7th Grade to 10th Grade (ages 12 to 15) and it was not a great experience. In fact, when I re-entered public school, I was held back a grade because I was so behind on credits. The experience shaped how I view homeschooling and I can be very passionate about it. While homeschooling can help some kids when their caretakers are involved and active, it can also be detrimental to the child’s education when they are left to their own devices and not following a regulated curriculum.

So, when Peggy (@pswediting) ordered the Manga & Anime Workbook by Chatty Zebra Curriculum from Amazon simply to check it out, I was curious as well. I mean, how are they going to make manga and anime educational? I could think of how, but I wanted to know how they were going to do it.

Spoiler alert: Not well

Let’s start with the good. I think it’s an interesting concept to turn manga and anime into something educational. I do see the educational value of these mediums, so to have a workbook dedicated to it is admirable. However, that is all the positives I can think of for this workbook—the concept behind it. It’s even a shame to call it a workbook because it’s moreso an activity book.

Let’s begin with the first activity, the “Japanese Word Collector,” where the reader is to write down a Japanese word, then the “Japanese spelling,” and what it means. If you know anything about Japanese, you would know that they have three writing systems (hiragana, katakana, and kanji). That’s not even considering the lack of frequency you come across Japanese words if you read or watch Japanese media in English dubbing or with English translations. It also might prove difficult for some children to pick out Japanese words from simply listening to anime while reading subtitles if they aren’t already familiar with some words or phrases.

Then we have things like “Manga Origins” where you write and draw your answer to the question “What are the origins and history of the creation of manga?” Or writing the answer to “Who was Santo Kyoden?” Things like this are fine… until we reach “Manga Genres” on Page 10. This is where you write down manga genres and what each one is about. On the surface, this is okay. However, if you look up “manga genres” using Google, the AI (which I assume children will be reading from) lists Shonen and Shoujo—which I’ll overlook since they are demographics—but then it lists “Boy’s Love (BL/Yaoi).”

Now, don’t get me wrong: gay relationships aren’t some bad thing that should be kept hidden away from children. However, the genre “depicts homoerotic or romantic relationships between male characters” according to the first highlighted line when you look up “Boy’s Love” on Google. I also know someone who reads yaoi regularly, so I have been privy to the extensiveness of the homoerotic part of the genre that isn’t the best representation for children. Just saying.

In addition to that, a few pages later it asks for “Anime Genres.” By looking that up on Google, I get results like “Isekai” and “Slice of Life.” Okay, that’s perfectly fine!… until you click on “15 more,” which then lists genres like “Harem” and “Ecchi” immediately thereafter. Let’s be fair, everyone’s Google is a little different—but I don’t look up Ecchi or Harem, so I’m assuming others who also aren’t looking those things up will get similar results.

Without a caretaker that is involved in protecting the child, this workbook could inadvertently lead that child to explicit content if they are more inclined to want to understand what those definitions mean. I find this to be a severe oversight as it only took me a few simple Google searches to find issues with these activities.

This leads me to this workbook’s biggest sin: Sloth.

The laziness is apparent as you find a lot of the activities are just drawing things. Such as your favorite Manga characters, favorite Manga, your favorite Anime characters or shows, etc. There is even a page where you simply color in the Japanese flag (a large red circle with a stark white background). On page 54, there’s also “Types of Transport” where the questions are “What modes of transport are used to travel around Japan? How much is the average cost of this transport? What is the difference in transport conditions between the rich and poor?” and you are left to draw all of your answers on the page. Also, what a strange question for “rich and poor” in this context. I think that they mean the difference between rural and city, but boiling it down between rich and poor is a thoughtless way to portray it.

As said by the Chatty Zebra Curriculum, these workbooks are made to include neurodivergent children who struggle to write. However, I don’t think outright abandoning writing on most prompts is the way to support those struggling with their writing. When I look up ways to accommodate this difficulty for neurodivergent children, it is never recommended by online sources to simply forgo writing altogether in favor of drawing. It recommends brainstorming your ideas, practicing with cursive instead of print, and—if you are in class—to type your notes or record the lectures. It encourages neurodivergent people to practice writing, find ways to make expressing yourself through the medium easier, and to have proper accommodations. Never is it recommended to simply allow the child to give up on writing entirely.

Near the halfway point in the workbook it’s less about manga and anime and more about Japan’s government, food, and native animals. On Page 68, it wants you to answer questions about jellyfish—which I’m unsure of being too well known about the country—and on Page 71 they want you to draw and write about the types of weather in Japan. This left me scratching my head because we get jellyfish on our shores here in the United States, while Japan’s weather is the same as many other places. At least they could have asked about a tsunami, right?

You may be wondering, who is this workbook for? Well, according to the Chatty Zebra Curriculum, it is for children ages 7 to 14. They do add that this workbook can be adapted to fit people older or younger. It is also said on the website that this workbook can work as a guide. However, I feel it is more of an example of how not to use manga and anime in an educational way due to the lack of depth and learning. It is missing things like creating some sort of critical look at the manga or anime. There wasn’t even a book report section for reading manga.

I can’t help but have the idea in my mind that caretakers are buying workbooks like these and simply giving it to the child to work on by themselves for “educational” purposes. Ideally, the caretaker would be much more involved, especially when it comes to using Google. However, I look back on my time in homeschooling and recall how hands-off my parents were (to say the least) and I am forced to be realistic about the chance that other adults would be the same way. Looking at the Introduction and other recommended resources within the workbook, this too seems somewhat disconnected and lax.

While the Manga & Anime Workbook can be well-intentioned, I find it to be a lazy attempt at best and potentially harmful at worst. It encourages kids to “research on the Internet” without adding that they should use a kid-safe web browser. This could inadvertently lead to explicit adult content, questionable advertisements, and illegal scanlation websites.

Furthermore, by allowing children to outright ignore writing, instead of meeting their needs while getting them accustomed to it, the creator(s) of this workbook are doing a disservice to those who are neurodivergent. Not only is it shutting them away from a beautiful and expressive world, I feel that it is infantilizing them (especially those closer to the 14-year-old range). It’s, perhaps unintentionally, teaching them “if you struggle to write, it’s impossible for you” through the exclusion of such opportunities to explore a medium in-depth. From what research I had found, that is simply not true. It takes more attention and work, yes, but it is very possible for the child to improve. As accommodating as the Chatty Zebra Curriculum thinks they’re being, it’s ultimately causing more harm than good.

When looking at reviews across the Chatty Zebra Curriculum catalogue, it’s all positive. The dissonance between the kind words and what I see in the Manga & Anime Workbook is disorienting. I truly don’t believe that your child could get a quality education based on this workbook. Also, the fact that this workbook includes a “certificate” at the end feels insulting.

If you are looking to make manga and anime into an educational activity for your child, I recommend against getting this workbook. Instead, watch anime with your child and ask them questions about it: What was it about? Why do you like a certain character? What is the show trying to make you feel or think? Things that inspire critical thought, allowing them to better analyze the show. You could also do book reports with manga. There are other options that don’t include spending your money on this workbook.

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Copyedited by: Katherine Cañeba | @kcserinlee