Are anime, manga, and games really that popular?

[Charles]

Most of the Japanese culture that diffuses into America, it seems, is from animation, comic books, and games. However, all of these things are normally the province of children and male geeks in America, and it has been considered "childish" or "geeky" to be a fan of any of these art forms on into teen years and adulthood.

Although that's changing significantly as time goes on, I wonder what it's like in Japan, where so much of this art comes from. I keep reading that in Japan it's perfectly normal for people of both sexes, all age groups and places in society to enjoy these things. But, somehow, I still get the feeling that liking them is kind of geeky.

How much of a role do these things really play in Japanese culture? ありがとう。 I look forward to your opinions. :)

[Jason]

As far as I know, manga is accepted and read by all sorts of people. Unless you're completely obsessed or something, I don't think manga alone would get you called a geek or anything. It's pretty widely respected as an art form. Strangely, anime isn't as much. The percieved "geek factor" with anime is higher. I don't know about games.

[ali17]

Amine is huge in Seattle not many peole would call you a geek for watching it here.

[Nekomata]

Watch the great japanese show "Densha Otoko" (train man) to get a view of what is considered geeky in Japan!

From what I understand watching a lot of anime and especially spending all your money on anime/manga merchandise such as figures (there are TONS of it in Japan) is considered really geeky in Japan and you will then be called Otaku.

[doriangrey64]

i watch Anime and read Manga all the time. But in the UK Anime isn't all that big nor is Manga. They dont really show Anime on TV unless its the crap shows pokemon and onepiece. But there are a few shops which specialise in comics and stuff and have a large selection of Anime and Manga one such shop is called Forbidden Planet thats where i get most of my Manga from. One of the things i dont like is the fact that the Manga takes so long to be translated into English and released in the volumes.

[Charles]

I already know you're geeky, Dorian. I'm talking about Japanese culture. :P

[doriangrey64]

who you calling geeky kuso jiji

[The Frankensteiner]

Otaku no Video is a pretty good anime on the subject. Check it out.

[Brugg]

I've always loved comics, and i often enjoy animations as well. I find the idea that these art forms have to be childish and geeky plain stupid. I'm not saying there isn't lots of geeky stuff around, but that aside, it's just a different form of expression. There are many excellent and very grown up comics, and, at least in my opinion, animation is very interesting as a medium. I haven't really taken time to find manga i'd like to read, but i'll definitively try it sometime. As for anime, i've watched quite a lot, though not so much lately. I guess i do realize that there's quite a bit of geekiness sticking to the whole anime thing, but still i'm fascinated by japanese animation every once in a while.
Having said that, i have to agree that there is a LOT of not-so-good stuff around, and my impression of the avarage anime today isn't too positive. It seems like it's getting more and more based on violence and sex, solely, - which might even have worked, was it not for the total lack of other contents.
Here in Norway it's getting more and more accepted that comics might as well be for adults, even though the main market undoubtedly is the children. Animation is a bit different, unfortunately.. Among my own friends, anime and manga is quite widespread, bot now that i think of it, our geekiness is probably a bit over the average.
Whoops, i ranted.

[ali17]

I have heard that anime and J-Pop is really popular in Germany. Is this true?

Here are some good anime/manga series that are worth checking out I think anyway

Cowboy Bebop
Samurai Champloo
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Samurai 7 (Based 7 Samurai)

Good animation and a good story line.
I think that all of them come in anime and manga form

[m0u5y]

go to a video store in japan and you'll find way too many animated games... with no gameplay at all... oh and mostly dating games. hard to find something playable. in japan this kind of stuff is popular with young kids and graphic romance novels with junior high schoolers. older people (usually guys) who aren't old enough to get real perverted stuff get the comics etc... somehow a drawing is more acceptable lol. you can win this stuff at the game centers too. what they have on tv mostly is boring food shows where they say everything is delicious, news, scary kid shows where the hosts act like children and... uh lots of musics shows. television isn't something we watched over there but that was because we were mostly out doing stuff like getting from the dorm to class or doing grociery shopping and in the spare time karaoke, kaiten zushi, maybe an expensive movie, game center stuff (taiko game is best) and... uh, anyway, they're not that big on their own stuff there. They do love disney movies and miyazaki, who then again was inpired by disney a lot... so i guess that's the same stuff except the whole save nature theme. Hmm and they've been complaining about the complete loss of quality in their animated products so i guess they make money by sending it overseas. I know that's all that was on the kids' channels when I lived in Italy. I don't think europe has many of it's own cartoons.
there are 'otakus' over there who are obsessed with gundam models and collecting little half naked pre-schooler statuettes... the perv level in japan is off the roof. they actually do have geeks and nerds over there and they're very much outcast although japanese never admit that something like that happens, like the whole burakkunin class of japanese who is outcast for beign related to people who use to deal with garbage and dead people. we learned a lot about japanese culture in the hiroshima-nagasaki peace study course at hiroshima university. and in a completely unrelated class we talked about... how japanese girls lift their skirts up haha. the entertainment business in japan is pretty much karaoke based. everything is karaoke... but i dont think there are any karaoke nerds lol. i never met any japanese person my age that knew anything about animation, only the foreign exchange students that went to japan for just that reason. they kept asking their tutors about different shows and books and they were just clueless. unless you're in tokyo that stuff and cosplay aren't much of a thing.
ps.
if you ever end up in the neighbourhood, go to an onsen. theyll all look at you. it's funny.

[doriangrey64]

whats an onsen?

[Bueller_007]

whats an onsen?

"onsen" = "hot spring"

[Jason]

whats an onsen?

"onsen" = "hot spring"

No, an onsen is a place where anime and manga artists send their characters as a thinly veiled excuse to put in more fanservice. See also: "umi."

Not that i complain or anything...

[atomsk]

I have heard that anime and J-Pop is really popular in Germany. Is this true?

J-Pop not that i know, but Anime yes. I've seen some Ghibli movies on TV and MTV germany shows series. currently they show gantz http://www.mtv.de/gantz/
RTL2 shows alot of series for kids like naruto, detective conan and those lame trading game shows. http://www.rtl2.de/pokito/