Rereko is a girl from the land of Electopia, a place similar but slightly more advanced than Earth. She is a fairly normal girl, except for one problem – she failed her electricity final. Her teacher decides to send her down to Earth in a lightning bolt, where she discovers she has superpowers where she learns all about electricity. This, my friends, is the plot of a textbook on electricity. Review after the jump.
The Manga Guide to Electricity is the second entry in the EduManga books from No Startch Press, and it’s a pretty interesting read. I learned more about electricity from it, so it succeeds on that point, but unfortunately, it has a number of annoying flaws.
The EduManga series is supposed to be educational, and I get that. But I feel like they also have forgotten about being entertaining. Each chapter only has about two to three pages of plot before they quickly move on to the lesson for the chapter, which remains the sole focus on until the last page. I feel like it could be more entertaining if they managed to mix them together, instead of having such a clear divide between the two.
Also, immediately after each manga chapter, there is a ten page section that restates everything that was in the chapter, except in a far less interesting format. It’s redundant and defeats the entire purpose of having the Manga-style textbook.
If you’re looking for an interesting way to learn about electricity, then The Manga Guide to Electricity is probably the book for you. But if you’re expecting to be readily entertained by it, I’ve definitely learned more about electricity since reading the book, but there’s nothing that I couldn’t have learned from Getting Started in Electronics, and I would only be slightly less amused.
Hits: Unique way of teaching electricity
Misses: Threadbare plot, placing chapters of text after each manga chapter seem boring and redundant
Final Score: Five point Five out of Ten. It’s got promise, but just barely; it needs a bit of work before it becomes above average.
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