Are anime & manga niche fandoms in Japan?

[Jerry W. Loper]

Are anime and manga fandoms (and Kaiju, or Godzilla fans) small niche markets in Japan, i.e., does the mainstream Japanese public look at them the way, say, the American mainstream public looks at Star Trek or Star Wars fans?

[MKTerra]

From what I hear, it's much more mainstream than over here; A greater variety gets more demographics into it. Of course, what a schoolgirl reads/watches will still likely be different from what a middle-aged man reads/watches.

[Samurai]

I lived there for 2 years, so here's my personal observation.

Comics and anime are far more mainstream. Every single decent bookstore will have a huge manga section (often 25-40% of the entire store stock will be manga). Many restaurants have a shelf of manga for patrons to read while they wait for their meal. You'll see everyone from businessmen to schoolkids openly reading manga in public.

However, if you are an avid fanboy and collector (called an "otaku" in Japanese), you might still be looked upon as a bit of a freak. Many people buy manga, read it, and then throw it away like a newspaper or magazine. They may keep a few of their very favorites, but boxes and shelves full of manga might be seen as a bit strange. And manga back issue specialty shops in Japan tend to be small, hole-in-the-wall places similar to many comic shops in the US. (There is not a very big market of used/older manga because they are seen as disposable, and used anything is frowned upon in Japan... even in a big city like Osaka there are only 3 or 4 used manga specialty shops.)

I had one of the largest manga collections I knew of in town by the time I left, over 1500 books. I sent them all home by sea mail, and I believe I probably have one of the largest original Japanese language manga collections in the US (now over 1600 books).

[Alex L]

Sam's right.

Manga is very common, and has a fairly mass appeal.

Unlike the US, where 95% of our funnybooks are superheroish in nature, manga in Japan is more like 'real books' with pictures. There are manga that are oriented at young boys, older boys, young girls, older girls, grown-up boys and girls...

Anime is a little different. From what I hear (though this may be changing) being an adult in Japan who watches anime is like being an adult in the US who watches Bugs Bunny. It's thought of to be a little...weird. Why haven't you grown up yet, etc. etc.

[Samurai]

Sam's right.

Manga is very common, and has a fairly mass appeal.

Unlike the US, where 95% of our funnybooks are superheroish in nature, manga in Japan is more like 'real books' with pictures. There are manga that are oriented at young boys, older boys, young girls, older girls, grown-up boys and girls...

Anime is a little different. From what I hear (though this may be changing) being an adult in Japan who watches anime is like being an adult in the US who watches Bugs Bunny. It's thought of to be a little...weird. Why haven't you grown up yet, etc. etc.

There is certainly less anime for adults than manga (excluding the XXX sexual stuff, which there is plenty of). There are manga for and about businessmen and women, cooking, sports, all kinds of stuff. Anime, not so much.

But with either anime or manga, if you are caught reading "the wrong type", it would be publicly embarrassing. If an adult male is seen reading a girl's comic, it doesn't matter that comics in general are more accepted, he'll still be seen as a weirdo.

So, (if you're a man) saying that you watched a sports-themed anime or Mononoke Hime, that's ok. Saying you watch Sailor Moon or Pokemon... you'll get looks. Just saying you watch anime in general is like saying you watch movies... they'll ask what kind.

[Niro]

was anime and manga ever a niche market in japan? lol

i always thought it was quite popular , you can tell by the amount of manga being sold and the amount of anime on at prime time on big channels

[The Xenos]

Well, Samurai said most of it. While manga is common in Japan, the fandom of it is still rather niche. The 'otaku' culture still has some stigma.

One thing that kills me is that most anime fans in America call themselves otaku thinking it just means 'anime fan' and is all well and good. They don't know what a negative connotation it has. It's like white middle American kids tossing around the n-word because they like rap music. They don't know the real meanings of the word. In Japan, otaku can take on a negative connotation despite the otaku subculture that uses the word to describe itself. It basically means 'shut in'.

If that wasn't bad enough, the term was popularized in the media because of an otaku and manga fan who was a serial murderer of children. Yeah. I wish more American fans would get educated and stop throwing around words they only half know the meaning of.

Anyway, manga is accepted and mainstream. It is a lot like magazines. Well, they are sold as magazines. Though I have read readership of manga magazines is down and some of this is due to the younger generation playing on their cellphone. They're either playing games, texting friends, or even reading manga on their phones instead of in the magazines. (Yeah. I don't get kids these days either.)

While manga is accepted, being a big fan and Otakudom is still rather niche. Though recently, due to the hit TV show Densha Otoko (The Train Man), the mainstream has somewhat accepted otaku culture a little bit more. There's an interesting TV show from the BBC called Japanorama which talked about the Densha phenomenon and interviews a bunch of people, otaku and norms, about their feelings about Otaku culture.

Hmmm... I might just add this as a rant to my blog. Bah. If I didn't already just update it with more commentary and video parody of 33.