My nine-year-old sister's read volume one and she doesn't seem to think of it as "bad" for her, but I'm even wondering about whether I should let her near it or not. What do you say?

It's has no gore, blood, and there are some decapitations.

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It starts off sweet, but heads start rolling soon enough. ^_^

Definitely not for more kids.

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The North American rating is "OT" that stands for "Older Teen".

The manga does goes over some psychological, death, bloody, and violent themes. A bit more than your usual pg-13 movies. Furthermore, this isn't a simple manga story along the lines of Kodansha/Jump shoujo/shounen. She may go through it okay, in a sense with looking at some of the scenes, but the story is a bit complex for an elementary school student.

In my opinion, I think elementary school kids should not be given anything from GFantasy until they are in junior high (or ages 13+, at least).

(Almost every Sunday, I'm watching over three 8 year old boys, whose attention spans are enough on playing games and not so much on reading. Girls, on the other hand, are fairly more mature... I don't know about 9 year olds though.)

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She's...really mature, I guess? I mean, I bought it and she knows full well that it's OT-rated.
@tgirl-she's really more mature than some ninth-graders and sometimes she acts older than me. I think she would be able to understand the story, but, yeah, the psychological stuff is what I'm worried about. Blood/gore/violence along that level was okay with me when I was twelve, at least.
I'm planning to buy all of the volumes as they come out in English, and I'm honestly worried more about everything during and after the headhunter arc than the blood and gore throughout the first ten (?) or so volumes.

At 9 years old, I would have read this no problem, but it differs with each individual. I was never really scared about gore and while I may not have gotten all the plot points, I would have discovered it soon enough after researching it more. -I research all of my favorite manga-

Personally, I think she'll be fine by the sounds of it. By given my 10 year old sister is still scared of soft movies like The Ring, it really depends.

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I've been watching horror movies since I was 6 and I'm fine. It really depends on the person. I think that at 9 she should be able to decide if the bloody stuff is too much for her - whether the manga makes her feel good or grossed out/scared. If she no longer enjoys it, she can just stop reading.

Yeah, I think the psychological stuff is what I'd be a bit worried about too. Violence/blood may not be too much of an issue for some kids since they're exposed to it a lot via video games and movies.

However, PH is something that can easily go over a kid's head in the depth department. I also agree that it depends on the individual reader as everyone is different.

Anyways, even if you think your sister is mature enough to handle PH, I would still hold it off a bit until she's maybe 11 or 12? On the plus side of that, when she gets to 11 years of age, she'll have more volumes to read. Yay?

(If I ever had a younger sibling, I would definitely reserve PH for when they get a bit older. No matter how much he/she begs. ^__^)

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I guess it is okay for her to read this series. If I was 9, I would have no trouble reading it, but I guess it depends from person to person. There is really not that much blood, but the only thing you should worry about is the psychological stuff. It is quite complex, so I suggest you should look over it before letting your sister read it.

PS - I love Pandora Hearts! It's my favorite manga! I recommend it to you all!

Last edited by joji1006 at 3:14 pm, Mar 30 2013

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Along those lines, the only other manga she's read is Cardcaptor Sakura and maybe the jump from "All Ages" to "Older Teen" would be a problem too. One of the things that got me hooked on manga was that it provoked stronger feeling in me than traditional books, and since she's not used to manga, it might be too "strong" for her. I've shown her the most violent scene in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle as well and she wasn't particularly bothered by it. I think the biggest problem would be if she thinks that it's scary. If she can take it in a stride, then she'll be able to read it, is what I think.
@joji1006--I've read and reread it, and to me the psychological stuff seems like something she'll be able to handle, so long as, again, she can think of it as "not real".

Last edited by Obsessive at 3:31 pm, Feb 4 2013

Yeah... It is a big jump from something that's good for "everyone" to something older people can read.

To me, being able to read something =/= understanding the manga themes. It's like when we watch a lot of pg-13 rated movies when we're younger, a lot of their themes went over our heads. Heck, I could see Groundhog Day a thousand times, but not understand a single thing. Hence, the same thing can go for manga.

When I was your sister's age, I didn't care much about manga because there was a lack of it available in English at that time (until Mixxzine showed up, but I was in junior high by then). They go much deeper than American comic books. Stuff like Calvin and Hobbes, Sonic the Hedgehog (adapted from Sonic SatAM), and Bone. However, if manga were fully available at that time, I would still look at the more lighter action packed shoujo stuff. (I was a huge Sailor Moon nut back then, but that was for the anime (even if it was inaccurate). When the manga first came out in English, I went "screw the anime. The original story is MUCH better". ^__^)

With Pandora Hearts, you got:



Try explaining all these to your sister. Hehe. ^^; Edit: If she got all of these down pat, then, she may be okay. ...However, if she asks too many questions, then yeah... It's a bit too much then.

These are definitely stuff that should not be read at an elementary school level. You can get into tragic stuff in junior high like Shakespeare, but I think elementary school reading level should be a bit more innocent than that.

Violence and blood is one thing. Kids are already desensitized towards that. Understanding though, is a whole different level (to me, at least).

Last edited by tgirl at 4:15 pm, Feb 4 2013

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Yeah, I don't want to be the one to explain to her. Maybe the first three to seven volumes? I already own those, and they aren't as "dangerous" as the other volumes.

^ Yep yep.

The thing with Pandora Hearts, you keep learning some new things in almost every single chapter. The more information that piles up, the more you have to rely on past information in order to understand the current one.

(I'm also buying the books slowly in order to support Mochizuki-sensei. I've been following the manga ever since it first came out in Japan. ^^ ; )

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I see nothing wrong with it for a 9 yr old. It is a fantasy and nothing really graphic in it. It has some graphic stuff but they don't really show the gory details. Its not really a dark manga eventhough it has dark flash backs because in the current time line it is leaning more towards good will trimph over evil so nothing really to worry about.

Even if she is not bothered by the violent scenes, I think that a nine year old would still have trouble understanding Pandora Hearts. It's a really complicated series. As someone said, the information keeps piling up in a way that is hard to understand even for grown ups. I don't think your sister will develop some kind of trauma by reading this manga, and so I would let her read it without much concern, but she is so young that she will probably not be able to grasp the whole depth of the series completely.