Norbert Daniels Jr.
September 4, 2016 
© 2016 Shin Takahashi and TREND-PROCo, Ltd.
The Manga Guide to Regression Analytics is exactly what the title says: it’s a textbook on mathematics that teaches the reader through manga. As much as that sounds like a joke, it actually is successful at its mission.
The textbook starts out with a crash course on the principles of calculus and moves on up to teaching regression analytics, the statistical process for finding the relationships between variables. Each chapter comes in two parts: manga and text. The manga teaches the concepts with café waitresses as your guides. It combines storytelling 
and dialogue with the information it tries to teach the reader. After the manga portion, there’s a denser, in-depth section that looks like it could come out of a regular textbook. These sections add necessary information that, when combined with the more streamlined manga, create a better understanding of the topic.
The Manga Guide to Regressive Analytics is a surprisingly effective math textbook. The manga sections nail down all the big concepts in an easy-to-read way so that the reader is better prepared for the traditional sections that follow. Don’t let the manga branding fool you; it’s a legitimate way to learn the material. While you won’t see it on any college syllabus, it’s worth picking up if it catches your eye and you’re ready to learn.
publisher: No Starch Press
story and art: Shin Takahashi & Iroha Inoue
rating: All Ages
