No, this isn’t a fictional piece. This…is manga. And anime.

back story.

Back in, I think, February or March, there was a TNLA (Tennessee Library Association) conference in my city that I got to attend. It was really cool to be around other librarians, and to sit in on presentations and panels. I felt more at home within the library than I already had!

During the week, there were some silent auctions, meaning you’d go to the tables where the prizes were, and you’d bid an amount for the prize. Whoever had the highest bid would win. Of course, some of the prizes included books, but not just any books – MANGA.

“Manga” (noun) – “a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children.”

Oxford languages dictionary

Now, my history with manga isn’t extensive. The first one I ever read was Kitchen Princess Omnibus (which I checked out from my library, by the way!!), and to be honest, I didn’t even realize that’s what I was reading (it is so good though, and today I found out I’ll be able to read at least the first three books on our new library pass for Comics Plus BUT that is besides the point). But now that I watch a lot of anime that comes from manga, I’ve gotten interested in it!

Y’all, there were a couple of “mega manga bundles” in this silent auction, and while they were in these solid colored baskets so you couldn’t see what you were getting, they had documents on the table to tell you what was included. So, naturally, I bid on two of them. I don’t think I went over $100 with either, but I still went close. I was so excited thinking about if I won, I’d have a great start to a variety of manga I might really love. If there were any I wasn’t interested in, I’d just give them away to someone who wanted them.

Well…I’m usually not a person who wins things like this, but y’all I WON!!! And I was SO excited because I couldn’t wait to see all the different manga I’d gotten. I was especially excited for the first volume of Sakamoto Days (which is also an anime on Netflix right now that I recommend!)

Well, if you’ve read about my life up until now, you know that things don’t always go as planned. And this was one of those things.

I left work on my lunch break to go pick up this bundle…and it was a bundle of all the same manga. And not just any manga…it was Demon Slayer.

Now, that might not sound disappointing to you, but trust me, when I left that conference center with 15 volumes of Demon Slayer in hand…I was SICK. I couldn’t believe it. I was really sad that I didn’t get Sakamoto Days, but truly baffled at how this was advertised as “mega manga”, almost alluding to there being more variety, when there wasn’t.

Demon Slayer is not only a popular manga, but also a popular anime series. So many people love it, but I was upset because Cadarius (my husband) had tried to watch it, and said it wasn’t any good. Usually, I like to see for myself, but I trusted his judgment, which is why I was sad about now being the owner of so many volumes of a manga that apparently wasn’t all that great.

present day.

Fast forward though, and the whole reason why I’m telling you this story is because I’ve changed my mind – I’m going to read them all. Not only am I going to read them all, but after every book, I’m going to watch the episodes that coincide with it. And you can guess what I’m going to do after that…

I’M GOING TO GET ON HERE AND WRITE ABOUT IT FOR ALL OF YOU TO READ!

I wasn’t excited before, but now? This is just part of the journey! Something new and exciting for me to try out, and to get my writing flow going. I’ll only be writing one of these posts a week, so, no need to feel like you need to skip 15 consecutive days of blog posts if this isn’t something you’re interested in. But the first post should be up either before the end of the week, or starting next week!

This right here is how you turn lemons into lemonade. And I’m ready to drink the whole pitcher!!

Have you recently been disappointed about something, but turned it around for the better? How has your changed perspective helped you move forward?

Mishy 🦋🩵

p.s. It might have helped that Cadarius ended up gifting me the first five volumes of Sakamoto Days shortly after this scenario happened. But hey! Whatever works!