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Japanese literature gains popularity among young readers


Published : 28 Jan 2023 10:18 PM

With the widespread reach of technology, social media platforms and gadgets, there is a significant drop of number amongst the book readers. From the increasing prices of paper to more time-friendly entertainment sources, it has become somewhat hard to thrive in a literature-oriented culture which is facing a socio-technological interest shift. 

However, a subculture of literature has been relentlessly creating its own reader base and seen a huge boost due to the availability of internet. Japanese Manga, a unique literature with visual arts has been gaining popularity among teenagers, youth and middle aged readers, animation lovers and seekers of diverse cultural norms. 

Japanese Manga has been always the front face of Japanese literature since its debut. After 2000, when cable television channels broadcasted animations created in Japan, kids, youth and many came to know the unique cultural elements of that country. As all these animations have been created from the visual novels and comic books which is known as Manga, interest on these forms of literature gained a stable height among the readers. 

In last 4-5 years, number of Japanese literature reader has increased a lot, reports said.

Books & Periodicals, a bookshop based in Sector 12 of Uttara, is the bookshop with biggest Manga collections in Uttara. With also having a collection of Bengali and English books of many different genres, this bookshop always prioritized selling manga, which attracts not only the teenagers, but also middle aged readers. It is to be mentioned that Japanese manga offers content and context for a divers age group, thus readers find it easy to connect with, no matter how old or young they are. 

 “My business partner often shared her idea of having a library with an extraordinary and variety collection of books. That’s how the bookshop journey began for us.” said one of the owners of Books & Periodicals.

Upon asking about the type of customers she see, she stated, “Honestly, there is no certain age group of our regular customers. Readers of every age collect books for us. However, we are getting lots of younglings as our customers ever since we started the Manga section.” 

Subrina Mamun Priam, a frequent visitor of this shop, when asked, said that  Manga always offers an offbeat experience which makes this literature form unique than the traditional and western literature.

Several students from Milestone College, Uttara High School were seen flocking towards the Manga section. Upon asking, they said that growing up with the Japanese animations, those always fascinated them to read the books also. Their parents are also satisfied as these literature forms keep the teenagers away from excessive digital platform usage. 

It is to be noted that Japanese Literature, specially anime and Manga has gained a worldwide attraction in past three decades. Though only a small portion of the reader base is leaning towards this literature genre, the number is increasing rapidly, due to the fresh, new content it does offer to everyone.