put adults right after teenagers . There ’ s a lot of good stuff to read , and some of this is getting animated in live action series —‘ Squid Game ,’ for example , and there ’ s ‘ Alice in Borderland ‘ on Netflix right now . Manga has been such a hit that we ’ re starting to go into Korean comics , which are called ‘ manhwa ’ and Chinese ‘ danmei .’”
Top sellers for Jen ’ s clientele are , “ As far as classics go , ‘ My Hero Academia Naruto ,’ ‘ Pokémon ,’ anything by Junji Ito , ‘ JoJo ’ s Bizarre Adventure .’ Popular newer stories are ‘ Demon Slayer ,’ ‘ Spy x Family ,’ ‘ Chainsaw Man ,’ and ‘ Solo Leveling .’ That one is Korean , so that ’ s manhwa , and then probably ‘ Tokyo Revengers ’ is up there . Another classic , ‘ Fullmetal Alchemist ,’ is still doing well .”
While a hard decision , Jen admitted that her favorites are , “ the classic ‘ Sailor Moon ’ series . These were my — I don ’ t know if I should have you write this … I call it my gateway drug — but that was the anime that got me into anime in general . It started my discovery to try and find out what else was out there . Growing up , because I ’ m so much older than a lot of my fans who come in here to buy stuff , I had to really work to get ahold of anime . My friend had a friend who lived in Japan , and was recording ‘ Inuyasha ’ off the TV , so this was long before it was released in the U . S . Then they were ‘ fansubbing ’ ( subtitling of foreign films , especially animated , by fans ) for us , so I was able to watch ‘ Inuyasha ’ way before it got released in the U . S . because of that .”
For those new to the idea of anime , Jen recommends as an introduction into the genre , all of the Studio Ghibli movies . “ All of them ! There ’ s not a bad movie there . They ’ re all wonderful and heartwarming , and there ’ s usually deep meaning behind all of them . For example , Miyazaki ( co-founder of Studio Ghibli ) is pretty anti-war , and every one of his stories has some kind of anti-war sentiment . ‘ Spirited Away ’ is ingrained in Japanese culture , and the idea of Yōkai , ( Japanese monsters and folktale ), so that was just a beautiful story .”
I quickly realized that I was merely scratching the surface of this cultural phenomenon , but I fully intend to dig deeper . There are so many avenues to explore ! In addition to books , movies , and series , you will find card games , artwork , clothing , stuffed animals ,
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