“Manga is a cradle to grave phenomenon,” says Deb Aoki, writer for Anime network and Publisher’s Weekly. “It’s a visual storytelling medium that people enjoy from the day they first start reading or enjoying pictures to the day they die.”
“Japan has this history of visual storytelling,” continues Aoki, who is also a cartoonist. “Even Japanese language is pictorial. The character for yama looks like a mountain. The character for river looks like a stream. They come from pictures.” Manga follows this trend, representing about 40% of all books published in Japan.
“Manga is a medium like movies is in America,” adds Aoki. “In Japan, the movie industry is not developed, not as high budget. A lot of the story telling talent is in manga. The best selling Manga artists are multi millionaires; they’re celebrities. Kids say ‘I want to be a manga artist.’ They call manga artists ‘sensei’ – like you’d call a doctor or another professional. They regard a manga artist with that level of respect.”
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