Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Is It Socially Unacceptable To Be An Otaku In Japan?
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Stuart Smith
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Comparing modern anime to old in the context of otaku acceptance is really odd to me. Anime was mostly limited to OVAs back then, with only a handful of shows airing on TV, the bulk of the medium was limited to otaku stores. These days we get more shows airing on TV in a single season than were made in an entire year back during the 80s and 90s. More and more Japanese television slots are airing anime, making it more accessible and noticed by people in general and anime movies make up some of the highest grossing movies in Japan every year. Not to mention otaku conventions in Japan seem to growing bigger and more frequent every year, even outdoing ComicCon in attendance despite the more focused theme and lower country population I guess I don't see how that is any different from how comic movies are doing well here, aside from the comic adaptions here always being live-action, while in Japan it's anime.
-Stuart Smith |
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enurtsol
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That's a bit misleading. A lot of those anime are aired on late-nights, akin to infomercials for direct-to-video - even the producers are the ones paying the TV networks, instead of the TV networks paying to air it. More noticeable and accessible because it's on TV after all, but like late-nights, how much generally people bother.
Japan also has high population density at the size of California (think if San Diego at the size of California) with excellent public transportation system - everybody can easily go to center Tokyo from any part of Japan. Travel at the expanse of USA is more hassle with big cons at the peripheral coasts, so not everybody can easily attend any convention, so people are forced to be more selective and generally segregated to within their nearby states. |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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While I agree that there is definitely more tolerance towards anime (and other hobbies) in the West, is it all that different?
I work in a place where I am probably the only person watching anime. I got weird looks a couple of times when discussing anime when talking about films in general. "Cartoons/kids films, huh?". That's what I get at the very least. I live in a large city, and still watching anime would not be something I would otherwise advertise as a hobby. Imagine living in a small town with a lot closer mentality- would it be different from the Japanese society? It's easier for me to maybe find people who have similar hobbies and talk about them- but these include more specialised sub-groups/internet forums I need to look for, rather than it being a widely accepted social phenomenon people openly share. Specially not above a certain age. There are more or less acceptable hobbies in the Western culture. If you happen to enjoy something that is not really mainstream, like posting photos of your food on Instagram, you are not that likely to find a lot of understanding from the general public. |
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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I think a lot of modern fans have floated that misleading assumption that a large # of productions inherently means more anime is being produced now than ever. But if you check the most recent anime industry report from 2016, you'll notice that the actual animation production minutes is still lower now than it was back in 2006. In fact, in 2010, animation production minutes were almost as low as they were back in the year 2000, and there was less animation in 2016 than in 2015. I think a lot of misperception about the amount of anime produced comes from the increase of single-cour shows, shorts and movies, and a lower focus on long-running series and multi-episode OVAs. It's hard to say exactly what the output was like in the 80's and 90's, since it doesn't seem the industry report reaches back as far as then, but I just wanted to clarify that going by # of productions alone isn't enough to judge how much actual anime existed back then. Also, while there's certainly more late-night anime appearing on TV, that seems to also be in tandem with a decrease in children's anime and family-friendly day-time anime as well (which is also noted in the report). Personally, I don't think it's a coincidence that anime attendance is rising as Japan's population falls. Actually, I think there's an innate connection between the two if you follow through on most of my commentary on this thread, and I think that that connection drives some of Japan's mainstream unacceptance of the adult fandom. Again, my point is about popular social attitudes --- the last time I was in Japan about 5 or 6 years ago, it was still my impression that the social expectation was that people normally stopped watching anime by the time they got into college. Western attitudes towards adults enjoying comic book movie characters and franchises is a bit ways more accepting than that. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13567 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Even outsides various fandoms, there are people who can somewhat relate to the socially reclusive. Case in point are people those that are antisocial or have autism-related conditions.
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UlyssesJoyce77
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I believe it more to do with the working environment being over the age of 50.if u work in tech which has a demo of younger employment then you might see more tolerence. Also video games(even though still part of the mainstream) is looked down upon by the majority of the public. They still view it as a kids toy. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Well, it depends on whom you're talking to. If you find someone with similar interests, or you're in some social place with that interest as its theme, then go ahead and talk about it as much as you'd like. That being said, geeky stuff, by their antisocial nature, also means you're going to find more awkward moments and more angry screaming about tiny disagreements than more mainstream stuff. (Just like sports fans!)
Yeah, that sounds incredibly embarrassing. There is one vendor at the Frank & Son Collectible Show that has a bunch of figures, folders, and such that are pervy like that, but I figured that since they're kept in one corner, I thought maybe the stores in Japan are like that too. So there are entire stores just filled with these things? I'm not surprised by old men buying these though. Old people seem to be a significant part of the audience for near everything.
I asked some time back about salarypeople in Japan going drinking with their co-workers and there not being any real concept of teetotalism in these groups. Now I have to wonder if that's because of the "honne" and" tatamae" principle, which I was not familiar with until now. A refusal to drink alcoholic drinks at these places (or at least a refusal that other people will notice) must be a mingling of honne and tatamae (that you will not drink alcohol, a personal thing, but you have to do so to appear acceptable to others, an outside thing).
I would definitely not consider this a basic question, considering geeky, nerdy stuff is what's currently popular in the west, including the United States, and has been so for long enough that there are anime fans now who were born or became self-aware after it had started AND live in a place that there isn't such a stigma in the schoolyard. There would not be times in their lives when geeks and nerds were looked down upon. The idea that there is no such thing as a stupid question is what applies here. Anything obvious to you will not be obvious to someone else, even if they've been into it for many years, just as there are likely plenty of things you don't know that would seem obvious to someone else.
Well, I'm pretty sure the business owners who sell to otaku would welcome domestic ones too, as they're the ones giving the businesses money.
That's the same with any marginalized group though: If you can find a way to get them to like you, they will consider you a treasure, because they as a group don't get much respect otherwise. But that wasn't what the question was about. Rather, the person asking wanted to know why the shunning exists in the first place. The view from the inside is very different from the view on the outside. You can say similar things about Sonic the Hedgehog fans, me being one myself, but I am well aware of the terrible reputation the fandom has and why it gained that reputation--most such fans are completely unaware of how they come off to other people and thus don't understand why they are so hated.
The very word "otaku" carries a different connotation (and arguably a different definition altogether) between Japan and the west. Seeing your definition of it, and thinking about what an otaku is in Japan, I'd say "monomaniac" might cover it pretty well (considering words like "addict," "craze," and "obsession" have also been worn with pride in the west), which describes someone who is only interested in one thing and has little to no interest or motivation for anything else. Then again, "maniac" has also been co-opted, so perhaps not.
Well, it depends on what you mean. Ever since series like Breaking Bad and The Big Bang Theory (and, I would say, preceded by Matt Smith's run on Doctor Who, Grand Theft Auto 3, and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy), geekdom and nerddom has become much more socially acceptable, and you are no longer shamed at being immature if you're reading a comic book in public, even if most people won't read one themselves. The Star Trek movies have been commercial hits, superhero films are the current big thing to where there are now superhero-themed rides at theme parks, and the brainiac character can now be one of the good guys or even the protagonist (films like Megamind and The Life of Pi, the aforementioned TV shows), where previously they were annoying side characters (a "Melvin") who were occasionally helpful but more commonly the butt of jokes. Game shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Jeopardy! made being a trivia geek look good because of how much money these people won. On the other hand, scholarly topics or those requiring a large deal of dedication to understand, such as mathematics or computer science, remain niche and obscure, its existence known to all but understood only by a few. The anime/manga fandom in the west is one of those that hasn't broken into the mainstream, or it had in the 90's and 00's but dropped out, due to its inaccessibility from the perspective of your typical westerner and probably the Animation Age Ghetto.
Well, if a pejorative term is used enough by a lot of people in a positive manner, the term then becomes positive. Definitions and connotations change based on how people use those words.
That is the ideal circumstance, that people can like what they like and not worry about what other people think about them, but the world is not like that. Humans are social creatures and will naturally feel self-conscious about such things. Humans are social creatures and can also accidentally burn bridges or otherwise destroy relationships with other people through culturally unacceptable behavior in one's hobbies. If you're looking for a job or a home, you might be turned down because they do a background check and someone had witnessed you doing something particularly deviant (such as, well, patronizing a business dealing mainly in erotic merchandise). Having child pornography is the clearest example of that: It is a taboo in most, if not all countries, and being caught with it WILL cause you to lose your job, destroy your reputation get a restraining order and one of those tracking cuffs, and various other restrictions on your life, even if it's all fictional and drawn/stylized CGI.
No, the reason why they're impossible in western society is that copyright laws make them unfeasible. Everyone keeps low so as not to attract the attention of copyright attorneys, and a big event on the scale of Comiket is the easiest way to get their attention, have the whole thing shut down, and make copyright laws even stricter. Basically, the difference is that copyright is enforced at-will in Japan, so publishers can turn a blind eye to doujinshi writers and other such artists, whereas in North America and Europe, copyright is enforced mandatorily such that even if the publisher wants to ignore it, they have to shut things down here and there, especially if said fans are making money off of it. (Observe how Hasbro ignores fanworks no matter what it's about--but the moment said fans start charging for it, they will hear from Hasbro's attorneys.)
My impression is that being an anime fan in Japan is commonly seen as a thing among some people and that they spend a lot of money. That is, they don't have to be liked, but if they will spend a lot of money just because it's related to what they like, that makes them, financially, a valuable audience. The underlying reason behind every one of these cases without exception that I can think of is money.
Depends on the game. Tetris: The Grandmaster is solitary. BlazBlue is not.
There are also the super-obsessed, hardcore fans who genuinely cannot stand seeing the works they're a fan of changed in any way and will inherently dislike any such adaptations, but based on fans I've spoken with (and I have had a lifelong passionate interest in fans from an anthropological level, which is why I minored in anthropology in college), the ones that hold that opinion, if they're not being intentionally contrarian, are always the hardest of the hardcore, the people right in the bulls-eye of the target of fan dedication. Think of it like Jason Fox from the comic strip FoxTrot--he may be a fictional character, but he IS based on such people. (I've always considered Jason Fox to be the most spot-on depiction of such people in wide-release fiction, though Jason definitely has a hipster-like shunning-what-the-mainstream-likes mindset too.)
Both of those groups have also had nasty stereotypes caused by some very loud, very socially awkward people who think disrupting other people's daily routines is fun. Having been part of both the furry fandom and the Bronies (two fandoms I found unusual enough to try to understand), most of them are pretty normal but somewhat eccentric people and, on average, are actually more civil than the average Trekkies were during the days of The Next Generation or Deep Space 9--and the Trekkies have calmed down greatly over the decades into a model fandom (or close to one, anyway) and have managed to cast aside their reputation as a relic of the past. I think it'll eventually happen with the furry fandom and the Bronies too (though I'm not sure which will come first--the furry fandom is taking great lengths and spending a lot of money to try to gain acceptance, whereas the Bronies are making relatively little such effort but have more of a stigma of being loud, immature brats than of sexual deviance and thus have smaller hurdles to overcome). But yes, the fact that Star Trek fans have become peaceful and it's okay to identify yourself as a Star Trek fan nowadays speaks volumes to how willing to accept people's differences are here, and I have faith in that concept to believe the same will happen to the two fandoms you mentioned.
A flawless protagonist makes for a boring story.
The subject is not what the otaku think of themselves, but what non-otaku think of them and why. Someone being a terrible example by going around killing people while proudly being part of a marginalized group is going to negatively affect that group. Such an incident can definitely contribute to or even cause the shunning in the first place, which is the point of this discussion: Why otaku are shunned.
If you are good at describing it and talking about it, you can get a surprising amount of appreciation from people at large. Food is a topic nearly everyone has some passionate opinions about, and most people would be interested in knowing where they can find good food near where they live. There are plenty of professional food photographers out there, so being good at taking photos of food is certainly a valuable skill. The general thing I see from people when I say I'm into something that's quite niche is a "Huh, is that so?" kind of response. They don't know much about it so they can't really talk much about it, but more often than I expected, they were willingly to learn the basics of it and even ask questions if they don't understand something, even if I don't expect them to always remember it all. |
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UlyssesJoyce77
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I bet this happen even after the superbowl.most people will talk how good the commercial was or the halftime but never the actual game. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Except that I do not work in an environment with people over 50. And having worked in a variety of fields, I noticed that non-mainstream hobbies (whether collecting something non standard, anime, video games not as much, but to some extent) often don't get much support/interest. My good friend works in IT and he is probably the only person in his company who watches anime, or at least the only one who mentions it openly. He was recently recommending Your Name to someone at work and the other person checked it online- oh, cartoon, no thanks. Despite the rise of its popularity, anime for most people, unless you are a secondary or university student maybe, is something kids watch. And even if people do watch it, they don't really talk about it and keep it in the closet- no difference from Japan really.
I don't know if it has much to do with you being good at talking about things you like. But more to do with social norms and whatever is in fashion atm- the second one being a bit more flexible, but still, very often if your hobby is not mainstream, you will be operating in some sort of niche underworld,unless you are lucky to hang around some liberal/artistic milieu or know a group of like minded people who also enjoy it. Some hobbies seem to share the same fate to be seen as either childish, or useless, and anime to me belongs in that group, much as I would ove to see it gaining more popularity. It does not have the same universal appeal as cinema in general. So in many ways, I kind of think there is all in all not as much difference in the way that while it is being frowned upon in Japan, in most other countries it is ignored/misunderstood at the very least. |
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omoikane
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As someone who used to mod a fairly active forum (but not as busy as this one) I can say that the content of the posts are often a reflection of what brings the posters in. In this case I'm sad to see this outdated take on Japanese attitudes, that it more so plays to existing stereotypes overseas than any actual truths in Japan. That said I am no expert in this, and I don't know if whoever wrote it (Justin?) has the professional pedigree to speak for/about cultural attitudes among Japanese people today. Based on the 10+ trips to Japan I've taken in the last year and a half to attend nerd events though, I can say that this difference in culture is vastly overrated by westerners. Perhaps also because I am a Chinese-American, I have a non-mainstream perspective, about the differences of how people think of these core nerd identity issues like "what is an otaku" and how to survive socially as a geek or nerd or whatever, in Asia. And I recognize that ANN is still kind of the sort of site a lot of culturally ignorant westerners (which none of us are I'm sure) go to, so the gloves have to be on to a degree. I think the best example is the honne and tatamae thing. It's true, japanese people operate on that level to a degree, it's ingrained. But the danger is you can use this to explain like, everything Japanese culturally, even if it's wrong in actuality. Truth is if you are a hardcore *anything* people will look at you weird, but the cultural differences can make the explanation like this fall flat. Plenty of anime nerds and weebs in the States hide their hobby from their coworkers, opposite like how a hardcore Seattle Seahawks fan working in Seattle would not hide her fandom at work, for example. It's definitely not because of some "honne and tatamae" thing. It's because there is a cultural hierarchy. In Japan people tend to temper their fandom for pro sports team in the workplace context (as with almost everything else) that is very different than how it is in the USA, so maybe this has something to do with honne and tatamae? I am not an expert. But my point is really, this has very to do with honne and tatamae, yet it's parroted as a primer here in the article. What is a lot more important is that culturally we're at, like, 4th gen in terms of otaku culture in Japan? These are children of otaku growing up, and Japanese otaku of this generation seek communication and shared experiences, less so the accumulation of knowledge and goods as the primary mode of fandom. By necessity and nature, these are social and friendly people. Maybe the best fictional example (from 2002!) is Kousaka Makoto of Genshiken. The riajuu otaku is real and already party of the Japanese otaku life and norm 15 years ago, so that's why ANN has to drag a turd out in 2017 to contradict this. Japanese kids who like anime vary as much as American kids who like anime. The difference is just the marketing for anime and manga is pervasive in Japan, and not so much outside of Japan. They go to have a good time at local anime cons (or what passes for anime cons) as much as we do, although they probably won't go in cosplay and they would do different things (who needs to go to dealer's room when you can buy everything there just by going into a local store on any given Wednesday?) Sure, it's a self-selective process when I go overseas and go to an otaku event, the super-introverted, at-home types won't be there, but the people I meet there are just average Joes without any crippling self-image problems, much like anyone I meet off the street, really. It's more "riajuu" than even American anime cons, which is way more self-selected as a subcultural niche, than just Japanese fans who are really into That One Thing than clinging onto "otaku identity" as a means of identity or self-validation. And one more thing about loneliness: everybody is lonely in Tokyo. Being a nerd is one way to cope with that, not the other way around. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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A key thing to consider is that you have to be able to explain it in a way that someone who knows nothing about it can understand. Keep it simple, keep it brief, keep it goal-oriented if there are goals. If, for instance, you are into speed-solving Rubik's Cubes, it's good to have one on you that you can demonstrate by solving it quickly right before their eyes. That always impresses people. Even if you don't have something on you to demonstrate, a quick, one- or two-sentence description works. Something I often see when a fan tries to describe something to a non-fan is that they have so much to say about it that they go on and on. You have to be able to hold back and just say the basics. Unless your workplace has a staff of only a few people, I guarantee there is at least one co-worker of yours who has a pretty niche, obscure hobby too. You just don't know about it because they don't talk about it. There's no one to break the ice, being open about their niche hobbies because everyone is apprehensive to speak about it. There are so many different niche hobbies out there, far more than you can count, and in the age of the Internet and social media, where one can privately and anonymously find like-minded people, it is easier to get into a niche hobby than it's ever been before, that I would find it hard to believe that your workplace has a monolithic mindset restricting themselves only to highly visible interests.
I think the key difference here can be found in an American proverb: "Don't mix business with pleasure." Western culture does not have a "honne and tatamae" equivalent, the closest being just that: Business and pleasure. And it means exactly what it is: When you're on work, you are to maintain a professional demeanor. But once you're off work, anything goes (as is permitted by the law). The honne and tatamae concept sounds like a Japanese person is to keep that dry, professional look at all times in public rather than just when one is on the clock. And even when they're on the clock, the work environment seems to be a lot more relaxed in terms of speech and social interactions. Co-workers predominantly refer to each other not by rank or by family name, but by given name. When you work in an office, you are expected to keep decorations pertaining to your interests to personalize your desk. (I have the Equestria Girls Minis figurines of Applejack and DJ PON-3 in front of me between my keyboard and my monitor, for instance.) I think that's why Americans commonly have the worker bee/worker ant view of Japanese people: They tend to be so very formal, so very hierarchical, and so very unquestioning of authority compared to Americans that it looks jarring, almost alien. (My parents came from east Asia themselves, so I got caught between cultures growing up. I am a natural nonconformist though, so I've identified better with American culture than that of my parents'.) |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1778 Location: South America |
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Again, sorry for posting on an old thread but I wasn't not being able to resist correcting people.
It's because Japanese culture now is more developed and less influenced by the West as the Anglophone countries are declining in influence while the rest of the world is increasing in influence so Western culture such as Star Wars is just less influential now. K-On! is certainly way more Japanese than Bubblegum Crisis, although both are shows featuring cute girls and both clearly are in the same "development tree". Now, anime today is tremendously superior than it was 25 years ago. Today the quantity and variety of anime is tremendously greater as it is the level of artistic sophistication. About 25 years ago anime was still a niche restricted to a few genres and it wasn't a well developed medium if compared to manga or live action film, but today Japan makes about 800 cours + ovas+ films a year, and with tremendous diversity.
They are best selling manga in Japan and manga is the backbone of Japan's popular culture, manga sells 10 times more than movie tickets and several times more than novels sell in Japan. Boku no Hero academia in particular is serialized in the biggest manga magazine in the world. Is it mainstream? It's like Harry Potter mainstream! If it is on Shounen Jump and is therefore mainstream by default. And note that even mainstream manga has incorporated a lot of otaku culture into themselves, so that shounen jump published stuff like Medaka Box. Well, currently 40% of Japanese college students self identify as Otaku so that's not that a small subculture anymore. (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/02/01/are-you-otaku-roughly-40-percent-of-japanese-college-students-say-yes/)
Neither are One Punch Man or Boku no Hero Academia, both are mainstream manga titles for normal people who sold millions of books. Proper otaku anime titles? Hum, I think that Flip Flappers, Girlish Number, Saga of Tanya the Evil and Gonna be the Twin Tail are among the real otaku titles. Usually anime original or adapted out of a light novel is more otaku oriented, a la Evangelion, the ultimate otaku title of all time, which became so popular it became mainstream. While manga adaptations or adaptations of a "regular" novel (not light novel) are more mainstream appeal. Stuff like Space Brothers, Hyouge Mono, Yamato 2199, Attack on Titan, One Punch Man or From the New World and even Sound Euphonium, March Comes like a Lion or that rakugo show are representations of mainstream Japanese culture in anime. One thing to remember: animation is a medium, manga is a medium. There exists mainstream manga/anime and underground stuff. Like every medium. Otaku are the ones obsessed with hardcore underground stuff that is also very sexualized: stuff like Hinako Note is quintessentially otaku, One Punch Man is not.
It's true that Japan hates it's own culture more than the West does hate it's own culture. I think that's because of Japan's deep inferiority complex regarding the West. But now that inferiority complex is fading away as the rest of the world is converging to Western living standards (so called by economic historians, The Great Convergence) so Japan is starting to notice they don't need to be like the West to be OK and so I believe Japanese fans of quintessential Japanese culture (which is essentially what manga/anime is) are less shammed by society today than they were 25 years ago. I think that in 20 years or so there will be no more stigma regarding Japanese culture in Japan.
It's because it's a foreign culture. Unless Japan colonizes the US and Europe militarily, dominates it's economy and imposes it's culture upon the vanquished (which is exactly what the West did to Japan and to the entire rest of the world as well), anime/manga will not be mainstream in the West. Just like Brazilian soup operas or rock bands are not mainstream in the UK, despite their tremendous popularity in Brazil. In fact, the biggest selling comic book franchise in the western hemisphere is Brazilian, outselling all American superhero comics, but nobody outside of Brazil knows it. One culture becomes mainstream in another culture when that culture is in a dominant position. For instance, US culture is globally mainstream because of the US's position as the world's foremost geopolitical power. It's culture is then imposed upon the rest of the world (I think it's because people like to get into the culture of people in position of greater power so the culture of the dominant countries spills out to the dominated countries). While Japan's culture is stigmatized even in Japan, thanks to it's geopolitical position as a US-satellite state in Asia, how is it going to become mainstream outside of it? The fact that the "anime fandom" exists in the West is due to the fact that Western culture lacks well developed animation and comics mediums so the vacuum is partially filled by foreign stuff: anime/manga. Yes, there exists some western comics and animation but they are so dramatically underdeveloped compared to anime/manga that it's the same as a nothing (is there anything comparable to Monster, 20th Century Boys, Vagabond, Gunnm, Evangelion, Madoka and Vinland Saga in the west? Of course not.). Maybe if manga-style mahua becomes mainstream in China (a la Fox Spirit Matchmaker) and then as China emerges as the dominant geopolitical power in the world (which is quite possible if not inevitable as it's economy develops further if China's GDP gets bigger than the North America and EU combined), then Chinese anime might become mainstream in the West.
I don't think there is such a thing as "anime fan" in Japan. It's either otaku, who tend to be hardcore about several things besides animation or nothing. People who are only into anime and not into manga/videogames are basically "Westerner anime fans", a social group that doesn't quite exist in Japan. Anime got more popular in the west than manga, which is the real deal in Japan, because it's visual language is more accessible to westerner's than manga. In Japan, otaku as represented in manga series like Genshiken, are defined as people mainly drawn into porn manga. Essentially, the sexual aspect is the key aspect to defining otaku as a person whose sexuality exists partly or wholly in the aesthetic realm as Tamaki Saito has defined it. Western anime fans are not otaku, they just consume manga, a mainstream staple of Japanese culture, translated into animated TV shows (which work as manga commercials in Japan and are usually adapted from children's or teenager's manga, for nowadays more often adapted from adult manga). Based on manga sales statistics I estimated that the average Japanese person has "watched" about 400 to 500 anime series in the form of manga over his/her lifetime. Although the content of such manga tends to differ drastically from the anime western fans are exposed to: there is a lot of adult manga not adapted into anime that's also very realistic in style and features mature adults and that's the type of manga that not-young adults tend to read. It's not Kancolle, it's more like Monster or Only Yesterday. Stuff published in this magazine: https://myanimelist.net/manga/magazine/1/Big_Comic_Original, which is very different from typical anime is the typical manga read by Japanese adults over the age of 30. |
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