Anime Boredom - The appeal of Japanese manga anime/manga article

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The appeal of Japanese manga

Recently I was asked to ponder a question, a simple question, or so I thought. This should be a simple question considering what I do, right?
Question : What is the appeal of Japanese manga?
Simple, eh? Considering I review manga on a regular basis you’d think I’d have a firm handle on this.
So then what is it about the manga experience that appeals to so many, across the wide spectrum of tastes and genres? Well to start off I took a look at what manga means to me, and why it appeals so to me personally, for my first answer. And to that I thought of the wide reaching range of titles and genres that manga encompasses, so much so that even someone like me can find quite abit to love about manga.

There is pretty much something in manga for everyone. Young and old ranging from All Ages titles, to Teen and Older Teen, and Adult only fare, there’s something for everyone.
Then there’s the wide range of genres and topics. Pick a topic, any topic, and odds are there’s a manga (or several) for you. Fan of sci-fi or horror? Manga has you covered. Want a romance or a romantic comedy, or maybe just a good comedy (sci-fi comedy, fantasy comedy, something comedy) then manga has your bases loaded. Speaking of bases being loaded there’s also tons of sports titles, from the obvious to the obscure it’s all here! After all where else can you find a title based on a sport like Go or, heaven forbid, card battle combat! Card battle combat! And yes, there’s even sex mangas for adults! Like I said if you can think of the topic you can probably find a manga to suit that topic! Really! Oh, and lest we forget, manga is one of the forms of media that has a nice wide appeal with both male and female readers (which is not always the case with other “comic” genres like American comics which seems to have a fairly big appetite for the Super Hero or gritty “attitude” titles).

But what else makes manga so appealing? I asked around, and got some good thoughts from co-workers on the topic. Joe, a fellow reviewer and associate at work (www.animeboredom.co.uk) said “I love manga because it is easier to read when your commuting than a book,” and that made sense, why didn’t I think of that? Mangas for the most part are the size you can easily stuff them into your pants pocket (if you have a pocket of a good size on your pants), which means you can take a good read with you wherever you go. A few books might not be so portable (Dark Horse’s titles sometimes, and a few good reads like Azumanga Daioh (ADVManga) come to mind) but for the most part they’re all easy to stick into your pocket and take out for a read while waiting for the bus or subway or whenever you need to pass a few dull moments while in transit to wherever.

Another logical reason also comes from Joe, who said “I also work in a call centre, where it’s hard to read a paragraph at a time (of a book) between calls, but frames (of a manga) you can race through or take your time on.”
And you know what? That also makes sense if you think about it. You can digest a whole book or parts at lunch, or skim it between your work during the brief moments you have to catch your breath. Again perfect, and quite smart if I do say so myself!

As for choice? It’s becoming better and better! For instance let’s take the UK, where Joe tells me that the selection of mangas is becoming better and better all the time, with the number of places selling manga expanding each and every day. Of course I probably can’t speak for all over Europe, since it would take a lot of research and polling to find out the situation everywhere, but I have a feeling that it’s getting out there (and it’s growing leaps and bounds each and every day). I do know in bits and pieces of the growing interest expanding into other countries, like Poland for instance (where I used to communicate with another associate that was heavily into manga)! Also Anime Boredom is not the first European site I worked for, because I once worked for an animation site in Europe called Cartoozine, where I was hired to do manga reviews (which again points to the growing interest in manga)!

Alright, alright, I was asked to gauge the appeal of manga in Europe… which is about as easy a task as polling the fishes of the oceans and asking them what their favorite bait is. Just to gauge the full gauge of manga’s impact in Europe (according to my Editor, Mr. Huxley) you’ll need to ask a wide range of people ranging a wide range of countries, each having their own situations and their own reasons behind why manga is a hit in each and every country. To gauge it all, and hence understand it all, will be a tremendous undertaking that can’t be answered in a simple 1000 word article.

So don’t stop here, just at this one piece and it’s few reasons. Expand your mind, and find out for yourself what manga has for you. Why? Odds are manga has something that appeals to you, and if you look long enough you’ll find that manga is for you (for reasons all your own, that fit your own taste and loves).
Because in it end it doesn’t matter why Europe is in love with the manga experience, what matter is why YOU are in love with the manga experience, or will be once you found your nitche and your love.
And believe you me, you’ll find a reason to love it. Many have already, so will you. Trust me.