Rise of Anime
Yesterday I went to Kinokuniya in New York to go look for some cooking magazines, and found that the entire store had been reorganized. My beloved Orange Page and Lettuce Club magazines had been moved to the back. The office books had been moved upstairs. And what was given the most real estate? Manga and anime. Weaving in between the aisles were hip kids dressed in outfits you would see in Harajuku on a Sunday; I badly wanted to take their pictures but was too shy. But here is a photo of Kinokuniya — the books on anime and manga stretch from end to end.
I take this in part as evidence of just how popular anime and manga are becoming. If you go to chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble, chances are you will see young people stretched out on the floor reading through graphic novels.
In other news, the Tokyo Anime Fair is starting; looks like fun and something I’ll want to check out one year.
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Marie,
Interesting post, thanks for the news there.
In related news, US publisher Random House is set to launch a manga list of books, too.
NEWS: Random House has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to a number of manga titles published by Del Rey/Random House in the US in conjunction with Kodansha, one of Japan’s leading manga publishers. The series will launch under the imprint name Tanoshimi.
Random will publish 15 titles in August 2006 priced £5.99 each (including the bestselling series xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa by superstar manga creators CLAMP) with 45 titles over seven series to be published by December 2006.
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:34 amI enjoy reading some manga but the other day when I went to Borders and went to the manga section I felt wierd. I seemed out of place among the 5-8 preteens and kids that were crowding the aisle. I walked away and felt silly.
March 23rd, 2006 at 3:41 amIf i knew any Japanese that would be heaven for me. As it is, i’ll have to make do with scanlations…
March 23rd, 2006 at 3:44 amScanlation? Is that a real word? Very cool.
Well Shay, there’s always Amazon.
But honestly, I think you can just tell yourself that you are young at heart — a good thing to be, I think.
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:46 am“Scanlation? Is that a real word? Very cool.”
I don’t know if its in the dictionary but it has widespread use. Its basically the manga version of a funsub where Japanese speakers scan it, put translations over the Japanese dialogue and release it for download.
Borders has been faster than Barnes and Noble to take up manga. There’s a large Japanese bookstore in my area that has changed half of its shelves to manga and anime. The english selection is pretty good but they also have imported Japanese, Chinese and Korean manga sections. If you look at the difference between the Japanese and English titles you will see that it still hasn’t been marketed to its fullest potential in the US. The focus is on kids and teens when it comes to the American licensed manga and anime. The Japanese section has tons of non-pornographic adult titles. The US would have to get over its complex of animation and comics being only for kids first but the current 20 something year olds that grew up with video games, computers and anime are a good opportunity for that.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:05 amYes, but it’s not just Kinokunia — they also have huge manga sections in most every bookstore, especially Barns & Noble, when I went. I actually fret over this. One of the reasons I learned Japanese was to understand the great stories like Maison Ikkoku. Why should anyone learn Japanese now though?
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:45 am“Why should anyone learn Japanese now though?”
Because the Barnes & Noble / Borders sections mostly consists of really maninstream titles that are adapted to anime and by the time it gets here it had been out in Japan for years.
Like I was pointing out before, most of the more mature manga is not licensed in the US and when it is it is usually a few years after the original release. Thos manga sections at Borders aren’t that big and their selections really doesn’t compare to what you can read if you kow Japanese.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:23 amScanlation. Gotta love the new words. But what is a funsub?
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:44 amAnimeKa Network : FansubPremière team de funsub, c’est pas une team de speedsub ni d’open-fansub. Qu’est-ce le funsub ? Ce sont des animes que l’on fait pour nous mais que l’on partage tout de même. Quelles différences ? Contrairement à beaucoup de teams qui …
meaning?
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:54 am“Scanlation. Gotta love the new words. But what is a funsub?”
Short for fan made subtitles. Japanese speakers create subtitles for anime that hasn’t yet been dubbed in English and release it for download. Its become so extensive that you can often see a popular show the day after it airs on Japanese tv instead of waiting a year or more for the official English release. Most of the anime online consists of fansubs.
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:21 pmEs,
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:39 pmThanks for that. But how does FANSUB, which stands for FAN SUBtitles, become FUNSUB, what does FUN stand for? Does it mean FUN SUBTITLES,FUNNY SUBTITLES, what?
or FUN = Fan Under Neurosis
What?
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:40 pmI don’t know if I’m the only one, but this disturbs me a bit.
I’m not at all against manga or anime. I’m against the kind of reorganization that Kinokuniya did in favor of highlighting manga and anime usurping the balance between other aspects of Japanese culture, and the part of Japanese culture that has been most successfully exported as entertainment.
I used to go to Kinokuniya a lot. I mainly went in to buy Japanese language books for study, poetry and art books, and I’d go upstairs for cards, wrapping paper, and so on.
I’m very close to people who teach at universities here in Japan and every year a handful of Western students apply to study here. There are more than a handful of young “academics” who cite their reason for wanting to come and experience Japanese culture, as their love for anime and manga. I have to figure that’s an automatic disqualification. It prompts me to think, “Get a life.”
Again, I don’t want to come off as anti-manga/anime. There’s a time and a place. I just feel discouraged that the “heiwa boke” that wealthy industrialized countries are stricken with has become self-perpetuating and that the abundance of entertainment related products that double as many people’s only serious exposure to Japan are warping our sense of reality and masquerading as cultural-experience.
It’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:27 pmDanny: I believe that was a typo. I’ve never heard of “funsubs” only “fansubs”
March 24th, 2006 at 1:40 amMike — it’s an interesting point, and I’m going to do another post on the subject. You aren’t the only one to feel this way. It’s certainly a change in how people first come into contact wiht Japan.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:50 amHahah, Danny that was a typo. Sorry, I didn’t notice even after you asked.
mike plugh
Considering how much of the manga and pop culture related magazines are imported and not in English they are probably trying to provide material that young native speakers want. If you just consider the english section its not that big. Kinokuniya doesn’t just cater to American’s who study Asian culture and a lot of their customers who aren’t native english speakers aren’t interested in language books and such.
I really disagree with your idea that an interest in anime and manga doesn’t qualified as an aspect of Japanese culture. Sure by itself its not much but it almost always leads to exposure to other aspects of the culture. You have to start somewhere and being interest in romanticized aspects of traditions that half the native speakers don’t know much about doesn’t make a student that much different. Modern culture in Japan is much more driven by entertainment and things you probably wouldn’t consider a valid cultural experience. Japanese students are no different. Ask them what why they studied english and they will probably tell you about the crappiest American pop singer of all time and some basketball player. But hey, you can’t really say its not American.
March 24th, 2006 at 5:10 am[...] ure, Entertainment Global Roundups Japundit’s Marie writes about the recent rise in popularity of anime and manga (cartoon movies and books) in the United States, spar [...]
March 24th, 2006 at 5:51 am[...] Study This
Japundit contributor Mike made an interesting observation in a recent post on anime. Essentially, I had written about how the New York Kinokuniya had been reorganized to [...]
March 24th, 2006 at 6:19 amA language expert in USA,reading about funsub and fansub, tells me: “The transit of fansub to funsub (a descriptive noun becomes and experiential noun) is really rich. Has anyone blogged it?”
No, Es, maybe you made a typo,maybe even an ”atomic typo” (google it),but in fact, there IS a term called FUNSUB, too. it comes from FANSUB. So your typo was actually correct!
March 24th, 2006 at 10:24 pm[...] I went to Kinokuniya tonight and was really impressed! The picture above is taken from an interesting entry on the rise of manga and anime by Japunpit. I really regret for not visiting Kinokuniya earlier. It is true that the price has been marked up (mostly due to importing the items in from Japan), but after some calculation, I think it’s still cheaper than buying from online (which requires domestic shipping as well, and the wait is really frustrating as it is the holiday season now). So I decided to buy the Bleach books and own them right away. I am just so excited. The artbook has many new illustrations. I think Kubo Tite gives Ichigo and his classmates too many pages, so my Renji only has few. But I am probably biased, because there is never enough Renji appearance for me! Filed under: Bleach | [...]
December 14th, 2006 at 2:46 pmAwesome! My favorite animes and mangas are Naruto, Switch, xxxHolic, Death Note, Peace Maker Kurogane, Takeru, Yurara, and Bleach. Yeah, I’m an anime freak!
December 27th, 2009 at 7:32 am