When you are in Japan, you can’t ignore the Japanese comics, they are everyone, in many shops, on commercials in the street, on the train, etc. I always love comics but I can’t say that I was a fan. I mean, I wasn’t among those who read comics, just enjoy cartoonish-style visuals when playing games and I love cartoon movies. Things changes when I came to Japan.
Since my second visit to Japan, I’ve decided to spend more time absorbing the Japanese street culture, and that included spending hours in different shops and see what Japanese people love. Anime wasn’t something strange to me, I’ve seen it online many times but I wasn’t really into it.
Once I entered the Animate store in Nippombashi Osaka, things changed. Once I stepped into the store, I was in another realm, a world of Japanese comics. I spent hours walking around the shelves, looking into many Mang series books. I’ve asked people and the seller what is the most popular manga series and started from there.
It’s the first time I’ve heard of One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball (OK, I’ve heard it before because of the videogame), Attack on Titan, Death Note and others. Most of the Japanese manga books were in Japanese and only several few in English. It still didn’t matter, because I really enjoyed looking through the anime art, it was beautiful. I just couldn’t believe how popular it is and how many books and series exist.
Eventually, I bought a few books, including several in Japanese and a few in English. I bought Death Note, Naruto, and One Piece at first. I liked the art and the background story of Death Note, so I bought it in English, same goes to One Piece. One Piece was also one of my favorites because I liked the art style of this manga series and the adventurous story behind it.
I bought some of the books on Animate Osaka Nippombashi, especially the English ones and others on Book Off. BOOK OFF has many second-hand manga books and anime CDs and ti’s a Tax-free store. It’s very inexpensive to buy Japanese comic books there. In fact, I checked some of the books that people are trying to find, and some of them listed even as high as $100 on Amazon. On Book Off, I was able to pick them up for 100 Yen, which is less than a dollar.
I bought Attack on Titan first chapter book at Book Off in English. I went there for the first time, and I saw it. Came back again to buy it, and couldn’t find it. When I asked, they told me that there isn’t an English version of it, but eventually, one amazing guy searched for it and found it for me. It wasn’t in the same place because I gave it to a person, I couldn’t recall which one. Anyway, I got it and I was so happy and it cost 200 Yen.
When I got back to the room I started reading Death Note first. At that evening, it was just me and the comic books. I fell in love with the art style and Japanese art in general. I even searched for Japanese art books for my mom, because. This was a way to also let her enjoy the Japanese culture. She is a painter, so I brought here books featuring Japanese art drawings. Me, I was all into comics that week.
All of those Japanese comic books were in Black and White. I bought some books with colorful art and even found that there are colored versions of some of the comics that I bought, like for One Piece. It looked beautiful.
With all the rush that we have in our life, many times we miss things. Sometimes we just look at things in a certain way, but once we experience it first hand, we have different opinions about it. This is what happened to me and why it was so important for me to integrate with the Japanese culture and try out things that I haven’t tried before. Although I won’t stay forever there, I see life as a series of pieces of time, and we need to make the best of each one that we are in. Living the present and do the best to let me enjoy what I have now in front of me. Open myself to new things and discover new things that I might enjoy experiencing.
Japan did just that. It opened me up to so many things that I wasn’t aware of before and I found new passions there. One of those passions is for Japanese comics. I can’t wait to get back and get into Anime stores and see what’s new since I left. If you are in Japan, give yourself the pleasure in exposing yourself to Japanese comics and see if you enjoy it. If you do, you are into a hell of a ride, trust me.