Manga University is the educational imprint of Japanime Company Ltd., a publishing company based in Kawaguchi, Japan with offices in California.
Our company motto, “Educating With Art,” reflects our commitment to creating products that are wholesome, informative and fun. We love manga, and believe it can — and should — be used for more than just great entertainment.
In fact, we know it can! In Japan, educational and lifestyle manga are quite common. Studying for your driver's license test? Visit your neighborhood koban (police box) and the officer will provide you with a manga explaining traffic laws. Trying to get back into shape? Your doctor can give you a comic book with exercise and diet tips. Applying for a part-time job at the local conbini (convenience store)? Don't be surprised if the application is filled with little cartoon characters explaining the hiring process!
Those fantastic manga images can simplify things that might be otherwise very difficult to understand. (Admit it — you looked at the pictures on this page before reading this far, right?) More importantly, it makes learning more fun! No one understands this better than a manga fan, and that’s why we want to make books that teach you about the things you want to learn!
Our offices are in Kawaguchi City, twenty minutes north of Tokyo, in a renovated building that once was a traditional Japanese restaurant and watering hole. While the kitchen and dishwashing areas have been taken over by desks and computers, we left the private tatami dining rooms untouched, and now use them for meetings with our Japanese colleagues to make them feel completely at home.
Pay us a visit! Download this file to fly to Manga University in Google Earth, and make sure to turn on the photorealistic 3D buildings layer to take the campus tour in full 3D.
We are a little company with big ambitions. While we work with dozens of artists and editors around the globe, our main staff consists of only five people: three in Japan, and two in the United States.
Glenn Kardy is the founder and CEO of Japanime. Glenn's background is in journalism (San Francisco-style), and has worked as both a reporter and an editor for major newspapers on both sides of the Pacific. He has lived in Japan since 1995.
Glenn founded Japanime in 1998 as an anime goods and toy shop to bring the fun of Japanese culture overseas. After seeing how many people became interested in learning about Japan through comics and animation, Glenn returned to his roots — journalism and publishing — and the Manga University imprint was born.
He may be the head of Manga University, but Glenn also handles everything from planning, creating, writing, designing and editing our award-winning publications to running the day-to-day operations of our Campus Store. That’s right — many of your orders are processed by our CEO!
When he isn’t busy running the company, Glenn likes go on really, really long walks. The 20-mile trek from our office to Tokyo Tower is a favorite. He also enjoys watching Oakland A's baseball games on the Internet. He loves living in Japan, but really misses Taco Bell.
Want to find out what’s going on in the mind of a manga publisher 24/7? You can follow him on his twitter page here: @masterofmanga
Mari Oyama is Glenn’s wife and keeps a tight watch over all of our Japan operations (and a tight watch over Glenn, too). She’s the only one who knows when our out-of-town meetings are scheduled, and makes sure we get there on time. Mari is also our go-to person for those Japanese culture questions that only a real Nihonjin can explain — and none of the Manga University publications would have been possible without her invaluable guidance.
Mari enjoys kids, cats and gardening (though not necessarily in that order), and maintains a dizzying array of potted plants on the rooftop patio just above our offices. She is also the only licensed driver in the MU Japan office, and if it weren’t for her expert motor skills we would be stuck eating lunch at convenience stores every day. Thanks, Mari!
Naomi Rubin is Glenn’s assistant and does everything else (including the dishes) at MU’s Japan campus. Besides translating and designing our latest books, Naomi is also heavily involved in Web development and takes charge over our interns (don’t worry, she remembers to feed them... most of the time).
Even though she’s only been living in Japan for a little while, Naomi has been studying Japanese language and culture since she was a kid and often wishes that MU’s books had been around when she got started.
Judy and Ron Hibbard live in Sacramento, California, and keep watch over the Japanime warehouse. We depend on them to make sure all of our Campus Store and wholesale orders are shipped out quickly and safely every day, and they never fail to get the job done.
Since our launch more than a decade ago, we’ve released more than 30 titles ranging from the popular art-book series “How to Draw Manga” to our award-winning Japanese language publications such as “Kana de Manga,” and “Kanji de Manga.”
Are We a Real School?
Yes, and no. We get e-mails every day asking about enrollment into “Manga University,” but we just use that name to highlight the educational nature of our products and services.
However, Glenn and our artists have conducted lectures and seminars at Temple University's Tokyo campus, and we do offer an online drawing class for students of all ages who want to get better at drawing manga. We also regularly arrange workshops and private lessons with professional manga artists here in Japan. If you are interested in any of these learning opportunities, please contact us.
