Bamboo Blade (anime)

Bamboo Blade (Anime).  AIC A.S.T.A., 2007-2008. Licensed by Funimation Entertainment.

What’s it about?

Toraji Ishida (aka Kojirou) is a part-time high school teacher and kendo* instructor at Muroe High, and struggling to make ends meet. When his former senpai, Kenzaburo, who is also a high school kendo instructor, challenges Kojirou’s team, offering him a year’s supply of sushi from his father’s restaurant if his girl’s team can win--now all Kojirou has to do is recruit a team!  

*For readers unfamiliar with the term, kendo is a form of Japanese fencing, performed with a long bamboo blade, hence the title of the series

Find out more:

A part-time high school teacher and kendo coach, Kojirou, is struggling to scrape enough money together to have a decent meal. He jumps at the chance to win a whole year’s worth of meals at his friend’s father’s sushi restaurant. All he has to do is have his girl’s kendo team and beat his senpai’s team. Simple, right? Well, first Kojirou has to assemble a team. This proves to be difficult---in fact, at his first practice match against Kenzaburo’s team, he only has four girls, and tries to pass his best fencer, Tamaki, off as two different people. Kojirou eventually fields a full team of five with some formidable (and quirky!) fencers.

The character interactions are fun to watch, and quite funny. Dan, a short, plain-looking guy has a gorgeous girlfriend, Miyako (also known as Miya-Miya), so devoted to him that she rides around on a bike with a sidecar. In one episode, Miyako’s foot was injured, but she still rode the bike with Dan in the car despite extreme pain. Dan offered to help, but she knows his feet won’t reach the pedals. The fact that he offered to help, though, acted like the best painkiller in the world, and suddenly she power-pedaled her way back home. This character is rather two-sided, seeming extremely sweet and innocent at first (and always extremely devoted to Dan), but can be cruel and enjoys hitting people. When she is angry, she is depicted as being surrounded by a creepy black and purple aura.  This is a character-driven comedy, and quite hilarious, although no new ground is broken. The animation and backdrops are extremely well done, and the voice acting is also very good, especially in Japanese. Recommend this anime to fans of slice of life comedies and sports-themed anime. It appeals to both male and female audience, even though its target audience is male. 

Genre: Sports comedy, Slice of Life

Interest level: Grades 6 & up

Rating: TV-PG

Subjects: Kendo, High School, Sports, Teachers

Dub or Sub?

I’ve seen the first four episodes in English and thought the dub was decent, but I prefer the sub—the voice actors for Dan and Kojirou are hilarious!

Is it also a manga?

Yes, there are 10 volumes published in English, with the 11^th on its way in mid-December.

Similar anime & manga titles:

K-On!

School Rumble

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Ouran High School Host Club

Series information: The complete series is 26 episodes

Frindle

Clements, Andrew. Frindle. Simon & Schuster, 1996. Tr. $15.00,  ISBN 0-689-80669.

What’s it about?

Nick Allen is full of ideas, and his latest is to create a new entry in the lexicon. Need to jot down a note? Don’t grab a pen, grab a frindle!

Find out more:

Nick Allen is an idea man, but he’s afraid that his ideas will be squelched by his fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Granger, who is a strict dictionary aficionado.  When Nicholas tries his usual ploy to distract the teacher during the last few minutes of class so they won’t assign homework, Mrs. Granger instead assigns him a report on dictionaries, in answer to his question, “where did all the words come from?” in dictionaries. Indignant Nick researches his question, and the next day presents an epic report intending to suck up the entire class. He nearly succeeds, but the class is saddled with their usual homework load. During his report, he asks Mrs. Granger again why words mean different things. Mrs. Granger explains that we decide what goes in the dictionary.  Nick mulls this, and later that afternoon, has an “aha!” moment when he picks up a pen his friend has dropped. It’s not a pen, he declares. It’s a FRINDLE!  The word catches on quickly, and soon Mrs. Granger becomes frustrated and disciplines children using this word instead of pen. At that moment, pens stop being pens and are frindles.  The children rebel, and take pride in their frindle-induced detentions. Soon parents and the school board get involved, and the media (including Letterman!) is not far behind. Frindles even rake in a large profit when a local entrepreneur realizes the power of this subversive brand.

This is an excellent novella to hand to upper-elementary students. It’s a book about how language is living, malleable, and constantly changing.  It’s a book about character, as well.  Some people may not like the challenge to authority, but the challenge is an etymological challenge, and the thrust of this book is not negative.  Nicholas becomes extremely wealthy—and generous-- when the trust fund his dad set up with all the frindle merchandise profits becomes his at the age of 21.  He does buy himself some nice things—a fast computer, a mountain bike, some games-- but he also gifts his parents, older brother and niece, and sets up a one million dollar scholarship in Mrs. Granger’s name.  This book is a feel-good book, and a fun read that challenges our notions of language.  Mrs. Granger’s need to cast herself as the villain was a funny twist, and so is Selnick’s illustration of Nick on the David Letterman show.  Clemens has penned –er, frindled a winner!

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 3-6

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Humor

Subjects: Dictionaries, Words, Classrooms, Teachers, Inventions, Semantics

Awards:

Christopher Award (1997)

Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Award (1999)

Texas Children’s Crown Award (1999)

Read-alikes:

Avi’s Nothing but the Truth

Dahl’s Matilda

Characters:

Mrs. Granger—Nick’s fifth-grade teacher, a dictionary aficionado

Nicholas Allen—the protagonist, the inventor of the word “Frindle”

Mrs. Chatham—the principal of Lincoln Elementary

The Skin I'm In

Flake, Sharon. The Skin I’m In. Jump at the Sun, 1998. Paperback $5.99 ISBN-10 0-7868-1307-5

What’s it about?

Maleeka Madison didn’t use to hate the dark skin she was born in—but lately, she has been assaulted with taunts about her blackness. Her disfigured teacher Miss Saunders helps her find her voice through her talent for writing.

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Maleeka Madison, a seventh grader being bullied because of her dark skin and because her clothes are hand-sewn by her mother, a very poor seamstress, has a bad feeling inside when she first sees her new English teacher Miss Saunders, who has a large swath of unpigmented skin across her face. Since Maleeka works full time to fit in, the last thing she needs is to be associated with her—which is a danger, since her attracts “strange characters.”  Last year, Maleeka was a good student, a nice kid who flew under the radar—until Caleb, the smartest boy in school began to express interest in her. The girls in her class began to pick on her mercilessly. The bullying escalates until the entire class taunts her. Caleb stops associating with her (which Maleeka finds out later was to protect her, not to insult her), but the torment doesn’t stop. Finally Maleeka takes the initiative to get protection by doing homework for Char, the toughest, meanest girl in her class—who has already flunked seventh grade twice. Char gives her new, stylish clothes, and gives Maleeka a tough-girl confidence. But her attitude begins to rub off on Maleeka, who begins cutting class, getting poor grades and getting in fights. Miss Saunders is undaunted, though, and works patiently with Maleeka, helping her find her voice through her writing, and accept the skin she’s in.

Flake’s debut is stunning in its spare, powerful prose. Maleeka’s voice is realistic, and raw with pain from the death of her father, the depression and grief of her mother, and the constant barrage of insults from her peers. Much of the bullying Maleeka endures is a type of racism, black-on-black racism, which is particularly harsh on women, a topic not often addressed in literature written for the middle school crowd and something that some ethnic groups may be unaware of.  Maleeka makes some incredibly bad choices, but the reader roots for her, just as Miss Saunders does, because she is full of grit, intelligence, and determination.  Her anger at herself for stressing out her mother is particularly poignant. Clearly Maleeka is a very empathic person, despite her tough act.  This book is an amazing character study not only of Maleeka, but of Miss Saunders, a woman so tormented by her disfigurement she feels the need to compensate by being the best dressed, the hardest worker, the most successful person wherever she goes. It’s no wonder this book was awarded the 1999 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent; it is a work of art, and belongs on the shelves of every library serving youth.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Multi-cultural, Problem Novel, Urban Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 5-9

Read alikes:

Myers’ Autobiography of My Dead Brother

Wolff’s Make Lemonade

Awards:

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent (1999)

Subjects: Bullying, racism, teachers, self-esteem, African-Americans

Characters:

Maleeka Madison: intelligent, troubled protagonist with a talent for writing, bullied mercilessly for her dark skin and unstylish clothing

Miss Saunders: a disfigured, passionate English teacher who patiently works through Maleeka’s tough exterior

Charlese (Char):  a tough, mean girl who lets Maleeka borrow her expensive clothing in exchange for Maleeka doing her homework assignments for her

Caleb: the smartest, most popular guy in school, likes Maleeka great deal 

Tai: a quirky teacher at McClenton Middle School, friend of Miss Saunders