Forum - View topicNEWS: LA Area Library to Buy $10,000 Anime/Manga Collection
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Wow this is a surprise!! Excellent!
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Ataru
 Posts: 2327 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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Starwind Amada
Posts: 981 Location: Easton, PA, USA |
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Once again, the media writes another brilliant article on anime.
 Let's analyze this:
What kids want to check out most these days is in short supply at South Bay libraries. I think there's more older fans than little kids looking for manga. Demand for Japanese animation and graphic novels has exploded since Americans were first introduced to television imports like "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and "Dragon Ball Z" earlier in the decade. Too bad Yu-Gi-Oh! came to America near the end of the 90s. Dumbasses. Once considered a product of the Japanese counterculture, Japanese animation, known as anime, and graphic novels, known as manga, are now mainstream hits. From the tale of a working stiff who happens to pilot a giant flying robot in his spare time to a story for young children featuring talking hamsters who like to share their toys, manga and anime have captured the imaginations of America's youth. Heh, at least they didn't mention busty chicks with saucer-shaped eyes. Wait, they do later. But few local libraries have capitalized on the trend. Because those old lady librarians think manga is the work of the devil and is all violent and pornographic.
At the Hawthorne branch of the Los Angeles County Library, the smattering of titles sitting on bookshelves was once enough to satisfy patrons, but demand is outweighing supply. Go figure. "Everything that is a graphic novel goes really fast," said Anthony Lynch, acting branch manager. You'd better believe it. Gardena holds one volume on how to draw manga in its county library branch, but that's about it. What a terrible library. "There isn't much more here," said manager Kelly Hulbert. Then get some instead of telling us how much you DON'T have. And although it carries more anime and manga titles than others, Torrance's Katy Geissert Civic Center Library finds itself empty-handed on a regular basis. Better get some bulk shipments. With children and adults alike discovering the appeal of saucer-eyed characters, the materials have been flying off the library's shelves, said library service director Norman Reeder. "They are usually checked out all the time and then it looks like we have none." That is about to change. About to? Kinda late in the game, aren't we? Torrance has just approved use of a $10,000 Friends of the Torrance Library grant to purchase a collection of Japanese anime and graphic novels. The grant comes at a time when anime products are flooding the youth market, with everything from video games and television shows to stuffed animals and lunch boxes in circulation nationwide. No more X-Men action figures for little Billy. Now he wants the Seshhomaru plushie he saw at Suncoast. "They have everything now," said Emon Ghaneian, 17, a self-described anime "freak" from Redondo Union High School who plays the anime-based card game Yu-Gi-Oh! every afternoon with a large group of friends. They said "freak." I feel offended. 
Products like games and DVDs are also fueling interest in Japanese graphic novels, where many anime characters get their start. Drawn much like comics, these books can reach up to 300 pages and be bound together like novels. And much like novels, there are multiple genres for readers to pick from. Everything from sci-fi, fantasy and "space opera" titles to romance, comedy -- even giant robot anime is available. They forgot to mention that they read right to left instead of left to right. How could you forget that? Emon said the books' story lines appeal to him. "It's just more real" than comics, he said. "It's real life mixed with funny parts." Yeah, and it's much better than all the Superman and Ultimate X-Men in Deep Space crap we have. Finding material was much more difficult when he began looking five years ago, said Mark So, 22. Fans could once find their series only at specialty comic stores, while now they can purchase them at almost all book and toy stores. Aren't there stores that specialize in anime and manga. Oh, yeah, there's Tokyo Kid in MA. "If you can't get it at the store, you can just get it on the Internet," he said. Correction: You can just BUY it on the internet, if you get me. The Torrance library hopes to reflect that shift. The items selected for its new collection will be aimed at kids and young adults, who make up the products' largest fan base. While anime is well known for producing big-busted, scantily clad female superheroes dealing in decidedly adult situations, the library said it will not purchase any sexually explicit material. Wow, the media never ceases to amaze me when it comes to anime. "While anime is well known for producing big-busted, scantily clad female superheroes dealing in decidedly adult situations, the library said it will not purchase any sexually explicit material." If they were correct in thinking that anime is JUST that, they'd be contradicting themselves by going and saying "The library said it will not purchase any sexually explicit material." But of course they don't realize that because they just want to get paid. To make sure titles are age appropriate, books and videos will be categorized into four different age groups -- 9 and up, 10-13, 13-15 and general adult audience. Library employees will enlist the help of local anime publishers to determine in which age group the titles belong. Okay, so why not get some titles with "Busty babes in short skirts" and just stick them in the adult section? Another contradiction. Most products come pre-packaged with a Japanese rating on the cover, but what is appropriate in Japan doesn't always fly in the United States. Even those designed for underage viewers can contain some nudity and violence. Because all manga is similarly drawn, picking the right title can be difficult for a consumer not familiar with the style, said Chris Shorb, owner of Third Planet, a popular comics and games shop in Torrance. Shorb recommends parents look at more than just the cover of books or DVDs when shopping for a suitable product for children. "You might see the cover and think it's for kids but, when you open it up, you're thinking, 'What is this?' " he said. Angelina Lee, 11, who spent a recent afternoon sitting in the aisles of a Torrance Borders with her 10-year-old brother Christian, agreed that it can be difficult to determine which books are for adults because the covers all look similar. She demonstrated by picking up a book from the shelf rated for older teenagers that appeared kid-friendly on the cover. "I really can't tell sometimes," she said. Heh, stupid soccer mom must've not seen the age rating printed on the back of the box. Convenient for her, now she can go preach her Christian ways all the way to the court. B*tch. But Shorb said despite sex and violence limitations, anyone can find a title that suits them, including members of a traditionally undertapped audience -- females. While most manga story lines appeal to the staple audience of young men, many titles are aimed at girls. That's great about the shoujo and all, but why are they mentioning sex and violence limitations when they stated they won't even carry any explicit material? "One of the best things I see is all these girls now coming in the store," he said. Better make sure they're not underage. Anime is sure known for its pedophiles.
I'm leaving out the rest since there's nothing else to talk about. |
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JTtheBrick
Posts: 99 |
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Dude, you talk too much. Good thing your opinions are just that: opinions. You're turning good news into political crap.
Last edited by JTtheBrick on Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Steventheeunuch
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HOW DARE THEY NOT CAST IT IN A POSITIVE ACCURATE LIGHT MAN I AM GONNA GET PISSED AND POST SOME MORE ANGRY FLMEZ ON THE INTERNET GRRRR INTERNET MALE EXPLOSION FIST!!!!!! |
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Kaneda2K31
Posts: 8 |
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I think my Public Library system has some graphic novel selection but everyone keeps stealing them.
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championferret
 Posts: 765 |
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I think it's okay, except for them addressing the nerd who plays the Yu-gi-oh card came as a 'typical manga fan'.
This line also cracked me up:
Yeah, I know what you mean, it is just SO hard for me to tell the difference between Sailor Moon and Paranoia Agent. |
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space clam
Posts: 636 |
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Teh fix'd. EDIT: Starwind, in the part where you complain about the "soccer mom," you should note that the article is quoting an 11-year-old girl. |
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Bahamut God
 Posts: 113 |
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I work for the city of Torrance, and 30 feet from the Geissert library. I've been in there bugging them for manga a LOT in the last few months. I'm so happy about this. I've offered in the past to help them separate out there manga into age appropriate sections, but guess they want to trust the people who are going to sell it to them. Good luck.
When I talked to the librarians, I tried my best to explain that it is not only children that are interested in anime and manga. But I could tell my message was not getting though. When they start seeing a lot of 20+ year olds hanging around in the child's section of the library, all creepy like, they may start to understand. The librarians seemed to look down on graphic novels, refering to a younger worker as being the "fanatic" that was pushing for all the japanese stuff. (Hats off to her by the way.) Also, the owner of Third Planet is well known to dislike japanese products. He likes the sales, and the girls coming into the shop though. I've been there a few times, and frankly the place creaped me out. In all fairness however, I'm not into tabletop games, and the store is a hangout for people who are. There are a lot of anime fans in this area, every high-school has a club, or at least a group of organized people who are into it. I can promise you that everyone the article described as "freaks" really said "Otaku" but they translated it because they didn't feel like explaining it. Also the girl reading manga in borders is pretty common, ton's of people from 10 and up just sit around reading the manga in all the book stores where they can get away with it around here, at almost all times of day. Sometimes I really love this area. All this could be true for the rest of the country, but often it seems like from the stories I hear that there is a much higher concentration of anime fans here. Might help that Torrance is like 30% asian. (though most people perceive it as being much higher as the asian population is quite active in the community) http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/popInfo.php?locIndex=10986 http://www.library.torrnet.com/ (case you want to see what they have so far) |
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Abarenbo Shogun
 Posts: 1573 |
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How do you think I met my Girlfriend? Shy as heck, yet can make a very convincing Drow Sorceress in LARP and kills at D&D. |
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thebaron
Posts: 149 |
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The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has good selection of manga and anime DVDs.
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a_lonewolf
 Posts: 34 |
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Surprisingly the Monroe County Library in Bloomington, Indiana has a very extensive selection of anime and manga. In fact you can place your order for it online and pick it up at a drive-thru when it is ready. It's really very convenient. I live in Indianapolis now, but the big Indianapolis libraries pretty much have zilch manga and anime. It's amazing to me that a small town library has so much, but I suppose that is because it's in a university town (Indiana University). I get some of my manga there and finish out the volumes they don't have at Borders.
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Bunk
Posts: 21 |
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Ah, Bahamut. I used to work in Torrance too, next to one of the big Toyota buildings at Mori-nu Tofu. It was only a temp job ten years ago, but man. Torrance has a large Japanese population (now I'm in Little Saigon, whose Asian population makes Torrance look like whitebread USA!). We ate at Yaohan every single day. It was the first time I'd really been immersed in the Japanese culture, and I loved it!
That was good of you to offer to help them put the novels in age-appropriate sections. Heaven knows they need to do it. With as popular as Japanese media has become here, the majority of consumers still don't quite get that most of their cartoons/comics are targeting an older teen/adult age bracket. Definitely not for kids. Store owners and Librarians needs to study up on this stuff before lumping Astro Boy next to Berserk 
Well, $10,000 might barely scratch the surface, but good for them. I imagine everything will still be checked out 24/7. |
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Himeno
 Posts: 35 |
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I'm not from any of those areas but that's cool you guys are getting more anime and manga. In my area, I think ours too are expanding more anime and manga. A lot of libraries are...I know this librarian lady, she's in charge of buying the books and such...which is cool because she told me if I have any recommendation on whatever let her know and she'll order it.
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Cowpunk
Posts: 168 Location: Oakland - near the Newtype Lab |
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Libraries have been picking up anime and manga for years now. It dramatically varies city to city depending on who is making the decision. Input from fans can help, especially if you can show samples to the librarians.
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