Of Manga and Anime

"Whatever you lose, you'll find it again. But what you throw away you'll never get back."- Kenshin Himura

Before internet was a common thing to every household, the primary source of entertainment in every home was the television.  When I was kid in the Philippines, in the mid to late 90s, it was basically Dragon Ball vs Thalia! I can still remember how I hated all her soap operas, from Maria Mercedes, MariMar, Maria del Barrio until Rosalinda, many Filipinos from almost all ages and background went crazy for her! She was even received in the Philippines like a head of state.

As a kid, I didn't really care much about her though. I just wanted to watch the kid goku look for the 7 DRAGON BALL! Too bad for me, he was put against Marimar on the same time slot on the TV! Poor me, it was me against my lolas (we call our grandmothers lola), my titas (aunts in Filipino), my mother and even our neighbours! One of my grandmas even brought me with her to watch Marimar the Movie where I just fell asleep! Good thing I was in the Philippines so many good animations and cartoons from Japan arrive early and back then they used to show a lot of cartoons and anime on national TV. 

The biggest Japanese influence in the world are arguably manga and anime! Before kids of now could dance along with all their favorite KPOP hits or cry over their favorite KDrama, we simply used to dream of becoming a spirit detective like Yusuke Urameshi of YuYu Hakusho, have the 8 flame dragons of Recca or  ride the flying nimbus of Son Goku! Anime is a term used to describe the style of Japanese animation and has been around since the early 20th century. Now, anime and its comic book counterpart, manga, are hugely successful in Japan and beyond with an industrial worth of over 15 billion US dollars. Anime does not only include TV series for children, but also adult’s TV shows and even movies. 

Up to this day, Japan still continues on producing different manga and anime and still the world still goes crazy like when the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F was announced and recently with Broly coming back to life in the new DragonBall Super movie that would be released later this year to early 2019. I, personally, am tirelessly waiting for the last part of the Rebuild the Evangelion, a film series reboot of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a popular mecha anime of the 90s. It is about a boy named Shinji who got recruited by his father to a shadowy organization called Nerv to pilot a giant bio-machine in a post cataclysmic setting. 

So how has anime influenced the world?

The same anime and manga culture are also bringing a lot of tourist to Japan to further discover their culture. It has piqued and is still piquing a lot of interests throughout the world. Bringing money to the land of the rising sun. Anime has become one of the best resources nowadays to tell stories in an animated form, with freedom of expression in any genre and for any audience, which contrasts against traditional cartoons which are generally aimed at children.There are many people who started to become interested in Japan after watching some of these shows. Sometimes, they are even inspired to learn Japanese. As a result, in 1984, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) was created.

Around the world different anime conventions are held where people talk about their passion and dedication with manga and anime. Fans can also buy different merchandise or even try to 'cosplay', portmanteau of costume play, where you dress up literally like their favourite anime character and impersonate them. 

Anime also influenced many artists around the world with it's characteristic art style from different anime characters usually sporting big eyes and unique hairstyle with the western world developing their own style. 

Definitely this multi-billion-dollar industry has influenced the world with Japan being the biggest winner.