Manga, anime, and cosplay boomed in the early 2000s, fueled by the advent of the internet, and today the trend is clearly upwards. On the video platform TikTok, the hashtag “#anime” has more than nine billion views, “shelving” videos, in which TikTok users arrange manga volumes on bookshelves, are trending on the platform. Cosplay videos, in which fans dress up as their favorite characters from anime, manga or computer games – such as from popular anime like “Demon Slayer” and “My Hero Academia” – are booming.
Crunchyroll, the US, the world’s largest streaming service for anime, broke the five million subscribers mark worldwide last year, and streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu are constantly expanding their offerings to include Japanese cartoons, including their own productions – Netflix is planning one Real film adaptation of the manga series “One Piece”, which is the most successful manga series in Japan with around 490 million copies sold.
Hype also in Austria
The fact that manga is in trend is also confirmed by current figures from publishers: According to the German trade magazine “buchreport”, manga sales in Germany increased by around 75 percent in 2021 (in comparison, western comics increased by 30 percent in the same year), as did the ” Tagesspiegel” reported. And also in this country, for example in the bookstore Morawa or at Thalia, according to their own statements, one notices a “hype on manga”.
Love, bullying, phobias
The range of manga genres is enormous and covers every age group and every literary genre. The Shonen genre is the most successful – it is aimed at young, mostly male readers. The counterpart for young readers is the genre Shojo. There are also Seinen manga for an older, male audience, fantasy, romance and slice-of-life manga that are dedicated to an excerpt from everyday life – such as a budding relationship or bullying at school.
The fact that characters in manga and anime can become strong identification figures for young people is shown by the manga series “Komi Can’t Communicate”: The RomCom manga tells the story of the schoolgirl Shoko Komi, who suffers from social phobia, which is why she afraid to talk to others. The manga, which delves deeply into psychology, has garnered widespread praise for its portrayal of social anxiety on social media.
Antiheroes also give hope
Another example is the character Deku from the manga series My Hero Academia, which has become a global cult phenomenon. In the manga, the character is bullied by classmates. Despite the bullying, the character remains herself and continues to develop in the series. Alyssa from the Run Comics store in Vienna explains: “Viewers who can identify with him get the feeling that they can develop further with him, that gives hope.”
The social pressure in Japan, such as the pressure to perform at school or at work, is often discussed in manga, says Japan researcher Christina Gmeinbauer from the University of Vienna to ORF.at. The characters lead lifestyles that do not conform to the societal norm, such as “baito,” a social trend in Japan that sees people have multiple part-time jobs instead of one full-time job. An example is the manga series “Maison Ikkoku”, in which a protagonist fails the entrance exam at the university at the first attempt and keeps his head above water with part-time jobs for years.
Manga that “liberate” women
The genre Boys Love shows romantic relationships between young, mostly beautifully drawn, androgynous men – and according to media reports is mainly read by girls and women. A classic of the genre, whose stories are often written by women, is the manga series “Given” by Japanese author Natsuki Kizu, which is regarding four male band members who make music together and fall in love with each other.
Empowerment for female readers
In order to explain the popularity of boys-love manga among female readers, there are different approaches in research, says Gmeinbauer – the manga can be understood as a kind of “empowerment” for female readers: “Through the same-sex love relationship, there is also a kind of equality the relationship partner,” explains the expert.
Because the main characters are male, reading is also “less stressful” for female readers because they don’t project themselves onto the characters, Alyssa adds alyssa The New York Times writes that it can also be exciting for women when traditional gender roles are turned upside down, for example when a young man is seduced by an older suitor and women read from the seducer’s point of view.
More looks than kisses
It’s also the portrayal of romance and intimacy that is unique to manga and anime, Alyssa tells ORF.at. There is romantic attraction, there is affection, there is flirtation – but it is often subordinate to the action, the feelings are in the foreground. A flirt can go on several pages, a kiss between the main protagonists is something “that you wait a long time for in manga,” says Alyssa, adding: “Gestures, facial expressions and looks have a greater meaning and are shown more often.”
figures as role models
Shonen manga is dominated by the narrative of a “young protagonist who goes off with friends to fight evil,” says Gmeinbauer. Dedicating yourself to a goal and doing everything you can to achieve that goal is a strong motive in the genre, says the expert, using the Japanese term “ganbare,” which means something like “doing your best” and ” do not give up”. A popular example is the anime “Demon Slayer”, which broke all box office records in Japan. The story follows the boy Tanjiro whose family is murdered by demons who turn his sister into a ghost. Tanjiro manages to save his sister and frees humanity from the evil spirits. It is a story regarding “personal growth, overcoming difficulties and resilience”, the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” (“NZZ”) quotes the sociologist Yuka Ijima of Daito Bunka University in an article.
How cosplay pushes boundaries
Cosplay is also regarding feeling your way into a character from an anime or manga – a living fan practice that has spread from Japan to Europe and the USA. Japan conventions, where cosplay competitions take place and guests of honor from the scene perform, attract thousands of fans every year, such as last year’s YuniCon in Austria (more than 6,000 visitors) or Germany’s largest convention for manga and anime, the DoKomi in Düsseldorf – to which more than 75,000 visitors came this year.
In cosplay, a collective term from the English words “costume” and “play”, people dress as characters from manga, anime, comics and computer games. ORF.at talked regarding the kick of cosplay in a video with cosplayers from the local scene at AniNite, Austria’s largest and oldest convention for Japanese pop culture. There are no limits to cosplay, you “can dare to be the character you want to be,” says make-up artist and cosplayer Julez “Kikiko Banjo” in an interview with ORF.at. For the cosplayer, who mainly portrays male characters from anime and manga, cosplay is more than just a hobby: “People can live out a side here that they are otherwise too shy for in everyday life,” says Julez.
Scene in Vienna
Cosplayer Monika “MissesCharmy” is a trained seamstress and has meanwhile turned her hobby into a profession. Monika is no stranger to the scene and has won multiple cosplay competitions including the International Cosplay Champions Cup (ICCC) 2021 in Austria. According to Monika, the cosplay scene in Vienna is above all diverse and young, with people from all walks of life: “You can make friends with people you wouldn’t have anything to do with in normal life,” says Monika.
The topic of gender roles would play an important role in cosplay, says Monika, gender boundaries would be broken above all, for example with genderbent cosplay: “When you go to the convention and look at the people, it is not important which gender you represent, character is important,” says Monika.
