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!

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 [...]

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.

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.

What?

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.

meaning?

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.

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.

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.