Nowadays the teenagers are a “manga” generation

Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White? By now they belong to the past. Nowadays kids know who is Walt Disney, but they prefer Yu Gi Oh to the Seven Dwarfs, Goku to the Prince Charming and Cell to the Wicked Witch.

We talk about the “manga” generation, kids who have grown up with the cult of Japanese comic and that today spend hours in specialised shops to find a comic, a whole edition, a novelty in preview. As the strict Japanese tradition is, the manga has to be read “from back to front”, that is from the last page to the first one. The most fanatics also manage to learn the phonemes and by now they are able to read Japanese. Then there are the cult follower that subscribe themselves to a Japanese course or to “manga comic” and they have the special paper delivered directly from Tokyo. So, it is a trend that captivate our interest, but also becomes a business with the exchange of the cards, which are handled carefully because their price could be very high. In this way the market is crowded by fans of role-plays with the “Magic” cards or of epic battles of Yu Gi Oh.

Mara Victoria is a 17-year-old high school student and manga are her passion, in fact next summer she is going to fly exactly to Tokyo with her grandmother, who grants one of the most important wishes of her granddaughter.

How did you start your passion for manga?
Where does it come from? It is difficult to say, I started being keen about manga by chance. I have always liked the “cartoons” that were Japanese, and one day I found the comic (manga) of my favourite cartoon. I read it very quickly and the next day I bought another and another again… and I have never stopped. It is something that you feel inside…for me it is like eating!

What do you like about a manga?
Ummhm, I don’t know. The first thing that impressed me a long time ago (6-7 years ago) were the drawings: so precise and with a lot of details compared with the anime. The second thing is that stories fascinate me a lot, above all those which represent the rich Japanese culture and so that use rituals, demons and so on, typical of Japan.

Where can we buy a manga?
Everywhere by now. Even in the biggest supermarkets, among Mickey Mouse comics and Diabolic comics you can find Manga! But the market of Japanese comics had a great success that exist shops and fairs dedicated to them: the Comic’s Fair. Probably these places are frequented by real freaks (those who try to find particular manga that the shops do not sell) and by collector who try to find rare books (and unique) perfectly kept. By now also we buy them on Internet. Buying on Internet means SAVING MONEY. There are no excuses. Offers, sales, auctions are very common nowadays. Thanks to the Internet the possibilities to find a particular product, even rare, are very high.

But how many are the different types Manga?
We can say that the genres of manga are in continuous expansion. The most popular genres in which, if we want to simplify, one could divide all manga are Shonen, Shoujo (or Shojo), and Seinen. The Shonen, which take their name from boy in Japanese, are all manga dedicated to fighting, competitive sports and everything that could fit in the interest of a boy from 10 to 18 years. Its designs are very spartan and less curated, the use of the screentones (a type of transfer that allow to create particular light-dark effects) are very reduced. For the Shonen aimed at a more mature publico (approximately between 15-18), the designs are more realistic and less infantile and the forms of the female characters are very emphasised. The Shojo, manga destined for females, frequently have sentimental stories that often have topics like friendship and more often love. The cartoon, depending on the age at which it is intended, has plots that are more or less mature. The drawing gives special attention to that particulars, the lines are thin and sinuous, facial expressions, the clothes, the hair are expressed right down to the smallest details. There is an ILL use of textures. Another kind is that of Seinen manga, which was intended for an older audience, drawing explicit (too rude scenes) and the complexity/seriousness of the plot, which often involves themes unsuitable for children. Another genre that I was leaving out but that in contemporary reality is one of the most popular is the Doujin, which is not a true and precise "gender". The Doujin are manga of the fans, that use the characters of their favorite masterpiece, inventing stories in which the characters can change their social intersections, to become homosexuals. Another popular genre (especially on the internet) is the Hentai (literally PERVERTED), Erotic/pornographic Japanese manga.

 Bambi really doesn’t exist anymore….