BILLY TRINGALI’S OFFICE at IU Indianapolis feels more like a Comic-Con booth than an academic’s hidey hole. Posters of saucer-eyed anime and manga heroes cover every vertical surface, and memorabilia line every horizontal one. “It’s like an open-air museum,” Tringali says. “There’s not an inch of wall that’s not covered.”

Tringali is IU’s instruction librarian for undergraduate health sciences, which sounds pretty buttoned up. Until he starts talking about what it entails. “I teach students to hunt things down,” he says. “I do basic AI literacy training. Essentially explaining that you don’t just trust what a chatbot says, because it’s probably lying to you.”

But that’s only part of the story. In addition to his day job, Tringali is also founder and editor of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, which makes him arguably one of the world’s leading voices in the scholarly study of the subject.Anime has exploded in the U.S., fueled in part by its omnipresence on streaming services such as Netflix. And manga with titles like My Hero Academia and One Piece are wildly popular among younger readers. Well, not just younger readers. Plenty of grown-ups read them too.

Tringali says people are attracted to anime and manga for simple reasons: accessibility and variety. There’s decades’ worth of materials to read and watch, with subject matter ranging from horror, to adventure, to esoteric philosophic ramblings—sometimes all three in the same work. “Whatever interests you, it exists in anime, and there is a massive backlog for you to explore,” Tringali says. “Anime and manga can be powerful teaching tools for enhancing cultural understanding and improving language skills.”

In addition to reading and watching pretty much everything in the anime/manga world, he’s also analyzed this corner of the pop culture universe in great detail. His journal is the only open access academic periodical that exclusively publishes works discussing the worlds of anime, manga, cosplay, and their fans. What began as a graduate school project now attracts scholars and aficionados from around the world. Every year, Tringali helps run a standing-room-only academic conference at Anime Expo in Los Angeles. “We pack the house,” he says. “Fans are really, really hungry for academic analysis of popular culture.”

His influence is such that within the community he’s known as the anime apostle. He got hooked on the genre early, spending his childhood sitting on his grandmother’s “horrendously purple” living room rug watching endless episodes of Pokémon. When he realized his local library didn’t offer manga, he established a substantial collection simply by donating books from his own trove. “I watched them all being cataloged and thought, Oh, this is going to be a huge problem for me,” Tringali recalls.

Today, his enthusiasm burns just as hot as it did during his Jigglypuff-besotted youth. He channels his devotion by helping students see not only the academic value in his favorite pop culture genre but also the importance of other subcultures. For instance, he’s developing a student sewing circle for cosplay fans who dress up as characters to learn how to sew their own costumes. For the anime apostle, it’s all about spreading the word.

Our Monday brings clouds, but we’re also expecting many hours of sunshine to brighten things up. Winds turn more out of the west, which will allow us to warm temperatures back above average. Afternoon highs reach into the lower 40s.

The “warm-up” doesn’t last too long. A midweek system brings the chance for rain and snow showers followed by more typical January temperatures.

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Indianapolis Weather Forecast:
Monday: Sun and clouds. High: 42°
Tuesday: Mostly cloudy. Showers possible. High: 50°
Wednesday: Mostly cloudy. Scattered rain/snow showers. High: 42°

Indianapolis 7-Day Weather Forecast

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IU Indianapolis Jaguars (4-14, 0-7 Horizon League) at Milwaukee Panthers (7-10, 3-3 Horizon League)

Milwaukee; Sunday, 3 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Panthers -9.5; over/under is 166.5

BOTTOM LINE: IU Indianapolis will look to end its seven-game road skid when the Jaguars face Milwaukee.

The Panthers have gone 5-2 at home. Milwaukee ranks third in the Horizon League in rebounding with 34.1 rebounds. Faizon Fields leads the Panthers with 6.1 boards.

The Jaguars are 0-7 in Horizon League play. IU Indianapolis allows 90.1 points to opponents while being outscored by 5.1 points per game.

Milwaukee scores 77.4 points per game, 12.7 fewer points than the 90.1 IU Indianapolis gives up. IU Indianapolis averages 5.6 more points per game (85.0) than Milwaukee allows to opponents (79.4).

The Panthers and Jaguars square off Sunday for the first time in Horizon League play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Isaiah Dorceus is averaging 5.8 points and 4.2 assists for the Panthers. Danilo Jovanovich is averaging 12.5 points and 6.2 rebounds while shooting 55.4% over the last 10 games.

Kyler D’Augustino is scoring 17.8 points per game with 3.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the Jaguars. Jaxon Edwards is averaging 10.4 points and 1.9 steals over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Panthers: 4-6, averaging 74.2 points, 33.9 rebounds, 13.4 assists, 5.5 steals and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 41.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 78.0 points per game.

Jaguars: 2-8, averaging 79.1 points, 28.4 rebounds, 20.2 assists, 9.6 steals and 3.9 blocks per game while shooting 43.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 83.5 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.