| Popular culture in Japan today appears in many instances
- especially for kids between the ages of, twelve and thirty or four
-- to revolve around anime (animated films, both theatrical releases
and video productions) and manga (a type of visual literature including
everything from comic strips to complex illustrated visual novels).
Reflecting a traditional cultural orientation intensely visual in
general, these commonplace forms of popular literature sell literally
millions of copies monthly and are frequently found stacked in huge
piles outside neighborhood bookstores.
The most popular recent manga has been Akira, the complex tale
(set in the year 2030) of a group of psychic Japanese victims of
an atomic explosion that wiped out Tokyo years earlier. The story
was published in monthly installments over a period of five years,
winning an audience of millions of readers.
Perhaps the most famous anime are those produced from the manga
drawn by Hayao Miyazaki; they include such titles as "Sen to Chihiro
no Kamikakushi (This anime won the prize of Golden Berlin Bear
2002 of Berlin International Film Festival.)?E?EMy Neighbor, Totoro
(about a fantasy figure involved in the lives of two young children)". |
