[DeepL Translation - needs review] Volume 1: The industry's first! The first Zuka Otaku (Takarazuka Otaku) manga! The first volume of a manga about a Zuka-otaku (Takarazuka nerd)! Whether you're a Zuka fan or not, you're sure to find something you like in the "Solar Power! Let's Enjoy Zuka Life.
(Translator: DeepL)
✨Solar Power! ✨
This is a surprisingly great read for learners. It's a long running manga about Takarazuka otaku. If you don't know Takarazuka, the concept is that in this theater trope all the actors are women. Rose of Versailles is one of their most famous plays. Each page of the manga is usually a self-contained short scenario. You don't need to know much about Takarazuka beforehand. Every couple of pages, the mangaka explains any otaku terms or phrases. The manga also features not just otaku-otaku interactions, but also otaku-non otaku interactions, so you're never too far in the deep end.
The three things I appreciate most as a learner are the scenario length, scenarios themselves, and handwriting. The lengths of the scenarios make them easy to consume, so it's easy to go at your own pace. While the scenarios all involve Takarazuka otaku, many of them are totally normal scenarios with incredibly everyday speech. As opposed to most fictional manga, dramas, or even daytime tv, the speech in this manga is the most normal I've seen outside of real life. That, combined with the variety of scenarios makes this series an invaluable resource for learners. The last of my favorite learning things is that this manga is almost completely handwritten. Luckily sensei's handwriting isn't too difficult to read. She writes without cursive, so each stroke is easy to see. It makes for great practice of reading handwriting because of that.
Possible downsides - no furigana except for names. While you might think this work has a lot of specialized vocab, this is true, but much of it is based on fairly commonplace vocab. It's way more useful than a sci-fi or fantasy manga packed with made-up terms. Even more so since the origins and meanings of the specialized vocab are explained every couple of pages.
Other: I've learned most of the N2 kanji and didn't find many that I wasn't already experienced with. I think if you know N3, then you're probably set with an occasional lookup. I think grammar is also mostly N3, possibly N4 even, but I could see someone with only N4 kanji having to do a lot of lookups.