GPManga was created in 2008 as an offshoot of the review site The Gilded Pen and is the accumulation of thoughts, ideas, and reviews aimed at readers and fans of Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime). We specialize in promoting shoujo (girls) and josei (women) manga to the young women of North America and aim to reverse the stereotype that comics in any form are just for the boys.

Due to two separate crippling blows, GPManga is in the process of a site-wide revamp including all new manga and anime reviews. As such, old reviews have been removed form sites such as Amazon, Shelfari, and Library Thing.

GPManga can also be found on both Facebook and Twitter.

Amber Barth

Amber is the head reviewer here at GPManga. She’s in charge of everything. Literally.

Amber was first introduced to anime at the tender age of 7 with Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics c. 1988 and a sprinkling of Speed Racer.  Although she was a veracious reader—having spent most of her high school days reading works by Anne McCaffrey, David and Leigh Eddings, Margaret Weis, and Tracy Hickman—Amber wasn’t introduced to the world of comics until 1997 when she received her first comic, a Tomb Raider/Witchblade crossover, freebie from Top Cow Comics. Soon, titles such as Aria, More Than Mortal, and Areala—a manga-styled comic created by Antarctic Press—led her deeper and deeper into the graphic world. It wasn’t until 2001 that Amber happened upon RightStuf.com and was introduced to a whole world of anime and manga than she had ever seen before.

Amber is currently attending junior college working on two degrees, one in Asian studies and the other in Early Childhood Education.