During my first trip to Japan, when I was seventeen years old, I noticed something very different about Japanese university students – they spend a lot of their class time reading manga. I’d always thought comics and animation were for small children but I was forced to rethink this idea when I sat in on a class at Sophia University in Tokyo many years ago.
I was surprised that so many students ignored their teachers and showed no interest in the class whatsoever. It was clear the university lecturers in Japan didn’t reprimand those students who were engrossed in their manga but I know for a fact my lecturers outside of Japan would have informed me in front of the whole class that I should be taking notes, if I was showing such a complete disinterest in their lectures. Although not every student was reading Japanese comics, more than half the number of boys in the class seemed more interested in reading manga than concentrating on doing well in order to obtain a university degree.
After this observation in a typical university classroom, I started noticing Japanese adults reading manga everywhere I went in Japan. On the train, I spotted lots of young businessmen in suits engrossed in a thick, black and white copy of their favourite illustrated manga, in cafes young people would be drinking coffee and reading manga as they waited for their friends for arrive, I also saw bookcases full of manga in my Japanese friends’ apartments, and there was a huge section in every Kinokuniya bookshop dedicated to these Japanese comics.
I started learning Japanese in my teens and at that time I couldn’t understand why so many Japanese people older than me had an obvious passion for reading Japanese comics. I thought it was childish because I didn’t understand that a lot of Japanese manga often deal with very mature themes. I was always afraid that if I started reading Japanese manga, my Japanese language skills would be punctuated with manga-like expressions. I thought I would sound a bit like a small child when I spoke Japanese if I read too many comic books, so I never bothered to take the time to open up a manga and find out what it was all about.
About ten years ago, I started noticing that Japanese manga and anime were becoming increasingly popular with foreigners. I was also surprised to see that Akihabara, a place that was considered to be the best town in the world to get a great deal on anything technology/ electronics-related, had now become an Otaku’s paradise. Maid cafes were springing up all over Akihabara, foreigners were dressing up as their favourite manga character, and young teenagers from all over the world were getting large contact lenses to create a doe-eyed look. Photos started appearing on Facebook and Twitter of girls in Harajuku wearing Lolita dresses and outlandish outfits so they could look just like their favourite manga characters. More recently, I’ve been taking more notice of this manga/anime phenomenon and I’ve been hearing about the wonders of Studio Ghibli, the brilliance behind Sailor Moon, the appearance of a life-size scale standing model of Gundam in the Odaiba shopping district in Tokyo, and I’ve also noticed there are now hundreds of YouTube videos presented by young girls everywhere showing you how to achieve the ultimate kawaii look.
I’m a writer of Japanese fiction and non-fiction and I have a very keen interest in anything to do with Japan but despite the obvious saturation of manga and anime influences on the Japanese culture, I’ve never read a single manga or watched any Japanese anime, mainly because I just don’t know where to start. I’m now in my forties and I would really like to watch an amazing anime or read a popular manga with a romantic theme and without sleazy elements, but I’m afraid I might choose something too childish, far-fetched or boring. I’d like to discover why Japanese manga and anime are so popular but I’m also afraid I might not fully understand the manga-specific language.
If you’re a manga or anime fan and you have a great recommendation then please share it with me. I’m on Twitter @RenaeLucasHall. I think it’s finally time for me to read my first manga or watch my first anime but I’m going to have to rely on your best suggestions to get me started. However, please choose carefully before you throw a recommendation in my direction. I don’t want to lose interest at the first hurdle and ignore what has become a huge and very important part of modern Japanese culture.
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