Kevin Ryan, of LanguageJapan fame, just mentioned a new manga on the way: Joe is Japanese. There is a trailer at that link to get you started. The first part of the trailer is a major crackup, with the protagonist trying to get his family name understood while calling several places. The latter part is not for the younger kids since Joe is telling a story from the other side of the tracks. Japanese skills are not a requirement, as there are subtitles for all the Japanese parts. It could add a motivating factor to those of you working on your bilingual skills. The site includes links to the characters’ MySpace pages; here’s Joe’s. It all looks very promising!