Reflections (in a little Japanese bowl)
'We are now in the condition of Manga as air' as Osamu Tezuka once wrote.
In contemporary Japan I think its not quite true - but one comes to feel like saying it. Compared to the pitiful and frankly disgraceful state of the comic book industry in the UK, Japan is really a comic book paradise. Take a walk down almost any sizeable street and there will soon be a 7/11 type shop with a manga section. These normal avenues for getting manga (equivalent to newsagents ina way) typically have around 150 to 200 different titles of trade paper backs, and about 30 large size regular monthly and weekly anthologies.
Every now and then you will also come across bookshops with larger manga sections - borders type bookshops here often have a manga section that will offer several hundred different books. And then there is the usually at least one really big speciality store for just manga in which your into the 10,000's. As of that wasn't enough thereare also manga libraries, where you can sit and read any manga from a range of 1000's for a small hourly fee. Another favourite of mine is the cyber cafes, where you can spend all day and all night if you like, for about 2 pounds an hour. Here you can use pool tables, massage rooms, karaoke, computers, get a private booth at no extra cost, free drinks included and of course... 1000's of manga to read!
Manga is available for browsing in hairdressers, the doctors, restaurants. Only yesterday a family sat next to me in a restaurant and each went immediately over to the shops section of manga (they only had about 300 books - not much to chose from!) and took one each. Soon father, mother and daughter were all happily ignoring each other, each reading their different mangas!
As I write this now my 7 year old Japanese nephew is sitting next to me, avidly reading an edition of The Ring manga. Its a strange mixing of worlds for me, because the manga ka who did that book, Sakura Mizuki, is a friend of mine. He was featured in my anthology book MANGA MOVER last year, his first time translated into English. He came over with me on the plane to London for the MANGA LIVE festival, and we are now working together on my next manga book THE JAPANESE DRAWING ROOM. Yet here next to me, oblivious of the production aspect of manga , is this little 7 year old kid thoroughly immersed in the consumption aspect of it. Reading Mizuki's work and going "Ohh, Sadako - scary!" Which is great to see...That is what's wonderful about manga in Japan for me, that kids still love it, unlike the UK, where most kids/teenagers dont read comic anymore. The other thing that is great is that, of course, adults dig it too!
One thing I want to caution on is that manga is NOT universally accepted in Japan. Not at all. In fact amongst many it is still considered to be somewhat of a geeky thing here (otaku), despite what we think in the UK. I have friends amongst University staff here and mostof them don't have a high opinion of manga or much knowledge of it. But even here they are still far more receptive to listening to someone try to say what is good about manga and taking it in that they might have missed something. In the UK people will be far more entrenched in their disdain for comic books. A good example is that I recently talked with a Japanese professor of English, already into his 60's and therefore from the generation before manga's all conquering' reputation. He had almost no knowledge of manga at all, despite being a literature professor. Yet he still had enough openness of mind to buy a copy of my Manga mover book from me, and to check it out.
On the other hand, an English man I recently spoke to, who had lived in Japan for 10 years, still had a dismissive attitude towards comics! This is why I say we are in a disgraceful state in Britain, we turn our backs in wilful ignorance on an art form that we have played such a large part in creating. And that, at root, is what's great about Japan - manga IS more widely accepted as an art-form, or at least as artistic'. So in Japan I don't think we are in a condition of manga as air - as in, universally there and all pervasive. Perhaps, though, I can say we are in a time of 'manga as water' - its very healthy and there is plenty available nearby if you want it!