La Blue Girl
© N/A
No Standing?
By: Nadia OxfordDate: Thursday, April 19, 2007
Anime and manga may not carry the searing popularity it had in 1998, when Pokemon took over the world for a time until God managed to wrench it back. But both have definitely proven to be more than mere "fads." Those of us who grew up with bootlegged Akira subs or Sailor Moon's earliest adventures will see our children grow up on the very same … if they aren't already.
But there are already some differences between this generation of geeks and the rising generation. In the old days, getting a manga or anime fix meant going to some dusty convention and digging in a mildewed box of disease and bear traps in hopes of pulling up something other than yet another mouse-chewed copy of La Blue Girl.
Nowadays, kids can get their Japanophile fix thanks to safe and (mostly) sanitary shopping through the internet and comic book shops. Even regular book stores--Barnes and Noble, Indigo, Chapters--all carry volumes of popular manga. It's made the hobby more accessible because readers can now shuffle through a manga before they buy it.
In many ways, it's great to have the option of a lengthy preview. It can suck, however, when you have to step over ten kids to see what's new on the shelf. It seems as if loitering has become more popular than collecting.
Drop your eyes in shame, for you know you have done the very same. Well, er … so have I.
Big Stores, Big Space
When big book stores gobbled up their little competitors in the late 90's, they brought along in-store coffee shops, unparalleled selection, bad jazz music and bad toilets. What's even more curious is that customers are no longer chastised for reading books or magazines off the shelf for an extended period of time. They're actually encouraged to do so.
The new arrangement works well for most people (barring those quickly grab and purchase the latest best-seller only to find out someone had used pages 130-131 as a tissue). If you step into a bookstore these days, you'll find tables and chairs thick with quiet readers who are as comfortable with handling the product as library patrons are with borrowed materials.
A trip to the manga section will reveal the same, but on a grander scale. Manga fans don't just freeload, they freeload hardcore. They sit wherever there is a butt's-worth of parking space; on a window sill, in a corner, under an occupied table.
Okay, I will admit to doing the very same and getting in the way of everyone. It turns out holding a manga is like holding a Magnet of Obscure Purchasing. If you think reading manga in front of a shelf of overpriced human anatomy books is a good idea because it's a low-traffic area, you'd be wrong. You'll have to move at least four times. I guarantee it.
You Can't Make Me Pay
There are a few good reasons manga fans litter bookstores so thickly. A lot of readers are in the younger set. Their meager disposable incomes sooner goes to delicious candy than any kind of reading material. Tokyopop's publishing practises knocked back the general price of manga some years ago, but we're still talking about ten dollars a pop (sorry). Take into account that manga has a tendency to span for volumes upon volumes, and it's no wonder kids are content to read in-store.
Younger readers are also less likely to be serious collectors. Whereas an adult derives some pleasure in racking up shelves full of neatly-organised volumes of Inuyasha, kids are a little more likely to dump their latest issue of Shonen Jump into a toybox. A few gaps in their collection won't bother them so much.
The same reasoning can be extended to include older audiences as well. There is a lot of manga available, and more is coming in every month. Let's face it; not every series is a gem. In fact, some can outright stink. It benefits a reader to check out a talked-about manga first instead of just buying something they don't like. Who needs a bookshelf full of barely-touched "Volume Ones?"
Sitting and reading a manga on the spot is also just so gosh darn easy. You can flip through a manga relatively easy and have it finished within several minutes. Reading a novel takes considerably more time and concentration. You might only get past a few chapters before someone does decide to put the Evil Eye on you for hogging the couch in the Children's Section for too long.
At the end of the day, can manga freeloaders be considered annoying? Sure, if you're not in the mood to trip over coats and knapsacks tossed in the aisle by some school kids with a handful of Dragon Ball. But if you gently shoo them away, at least they'll let you access the shelf … so you can sit down and join them. Let he among us who has not thumbed through a shelf copy Death Note cast the first stone.
I am SO guilty. I had to laugh when I read your Death Note comment because I did the same thing with that exact manga. One of the employees came around us or stepped over and around us more accurately, a couple of times and smiling cheerfully every single time. Except the last time. That time (around the fourth) I could have sworm he gave me the evil eye. What can I say I usually scan a manga or two and then pick up what I'm there for on the way out, it's a sort of self-imposed freebie. I look at it this way, I spend $30 on mangas, I get to scan some other mangas as a bonus. I know some smaller manga stores that actually give you a 4th book for free or for 50% off if you buy 3 but they don't let you sit on the floor and read any other mangas. That's why I spend my money at the big book stores that do. I don't think Manga's are necessarily a good financial investment and I don't think they want us thinking too long and hard at how much money we spend on "comics". They probably don't agree with my bonus freebie manga scan philosophy, but they never say anything. Not verbally anyway. Just the ol stink-eye occasionally. heh.