a few months ago i made a thread asking if you were embarrassed that you read manga and surprisingly most ppl felt it was fine, But there were still many ppl who were embarrassed to admit they read manga/ watch anime. My question is why? Video games also used to be considered a kiddy form of entertainment but gradually became accepted as worldwide as entertainment for all ages. I know that in japan manga/anime are liked by all ages but what about outside of Japan? I think manga's and animes are still form of entertainment that is considered to have an age limit. Once pass that age many ppl feel that it is embarrassing. What are your thoughts?

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Current Favorite:Seishun For-get!
Manga That Needs More Attention: S Senjou no Tena

The "stereotypic" manga is Naruto. Most of the people that don't follow manga/anime just think about some guys killing/fighting eachother, because they have not been exposed to the rest of the gender. I for one hate to admit it infront of female friends as I feel I will get "shunned".

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Pokémon - Favorite anime and game series of all time!


The World God Only Knows -Favorite manga of all time

Well, when my friends at school ask me what I like to do, I usually don't say "read manga and watch anime" because it embarrasses me, because they probably don't even know what it is, so I have to explain it to them and they usually refer to them as "children's cartoons" it annoys me when someone calls manga/anime cartoons.


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You're not alone. <BR>We are partners. <BR>If you are a witch, <BR>Then I'll become a warlock.<BR><BR>- Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

This is a very interesting and important matter in my opinion... Although I'm not sure, I suppose that most people here in this forum are from the US, and probably there aren't many portuguese members so I'll explain a little how it is here in Portugal.

I´m a senior in High School, and when I talk about my hobbies with someone I don't know very well I usually avoid talking about manga/anime (unless I'm with 2 friends who are also fans). When people here hear "anime" they instantly associate it with kids and consider it a childish hobbie. I'd even risk saying that in my school, there aren't more than 15 fans of manga, and 90% of the students think that it is childish or don't even know what it is. Still all my friends know that I like manga and even though they, sometimes look at me like I'm some sort of freak, I don't really care because reading manga is part of me and if they can't respect that they aren't good friends anyway. BTW from the maximum of 15 students, I'd dare say that only 2 or 3 are girls, so yeah So long for the dream of having a hot manga fan as my girlfriend

yep. the problem is that most people don't know anything about manga. They probably have seen one page of a manga in their whole life (maybe from a manga like Naruto or whatever) then they tend to think that all manga are like the one they've seen.

In germany it seems to get better I think. Although we have such a small selection of manga in our book stores, especially in the small villages. so it's not surprising that most people haven't ever held a manga in the hand. In the bigger cities it looks better though.
But you still are considered as a freak. Well, I don't mind, because i'm not the only one. Normally I can't stand the people who call me a freak, anyways.
Usually I don't tell everyone that I'm reading manga, my friends know and I've heard from someone i met, that i look like I was a fan of manga so it seems like I can't hide it

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There's nothing to see here. Proceed with what you were doing or throw rainbows at random pedestrians.

I think reading manga/watching anime is fine to an extent. If you occasionally read manga/watch anime, I think that's a great thing. But when it starts to affect your mind to the point where you're blabbering nonsensical, poorly-pronounced japanese and eating nothing but Pocky and rice balls, then good sir/madam, you've gone too far.

Germany's thoughts on manga/anime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KympX6C_qfQ
(If you don't understand german: The guy in underwear has to tell the blindfolded guy certain phrases picked by the talkmaster using his own way of communication )

As for my thoughts, I don't judge people based on their hobbies or likes and dislikes and I expect the same of my friends. No one seems to mind it so far, also manga are pretty much unknown (aside from Naruto/One Piece on tv - most people think those are american productions though )

The other day when I was happily buying manga, there was a (pretty much) old lady doing the same right next to me, and she didn't seem to be embarrassed about it. (plus she did choose good one )

In France, I think manga is accepted. There are still a people that think it's childish and people that don't really know it but other, you can find people from all ages buying manga

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first thing you have to do after telling someone that you read manga is to explain that there are manga for every taste and demographic. there are the sophisticated and there are the childish, naive, "hollywood" (lack of a better word) manga.

and when you say anime, first thing people think about is tentacle hentai and dragon ball...

i think france has the advantage of a long history of avan-garde comic artists and their adult comics. i believe, france's comic culture is the closest to the eastern asian (japan mostly, don't know enough about other countries) comic culture. don't know much about american adult comics other than the mature gory marvel comics. france has urban style realistic comics that could at least be considered classy literature by the not involved.

but (well, my sources on this are manga, so take it with a grain of salt), even in japan, manga isn't really widely accepted once you're at a certain age. once you're seriously working (i don't know, late 20s, early 30s?) i seems, that manga is not your timesink you want your colleagues to know about...

i think it's similar to what you witness when asking people about television. no one wants to admit to watching the cheap crappy piece of shit shows on television that are seriously killing brain cells and make you dumb. but they are there, the tv-ratings. and how everyone knows about it. but they don't watch it.

consuming mainstream media is childish and not "chic". but the majority does it. else it wouldn't be mainstream, would it?

the last part isn't directly pointed towards manga and anime, but in general, everything that isn't "hard" to consume (like books. real books are hard. reading is hard. all those little letters are hard) is widely considered not worth being proud about. and you only watch it because you want to mock those people on the tv and those the seriously watch it.

i guess this only works within your age group and once you step out of it, it's something different. you just don't like what your parents like. or your children.

and stuff that caters to a wide demographic just can't be good. no, must be bad, because everyone watches it.

this is my personal view and i relate myself to everything i wrote. yes, everything you watch is shit. my taste is better than yours. period.