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Copyright © 1996-2008 Philbert Ono. All rights reserved.
PhotoGuide Japan is a trademark of Philbert Ono
Transmitting from Tokyo, Japan

Online since March 1996.


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Cover photo

Manga & Anime

This is a photograph, not a manga drawing. These are life-size dolls of manga characters found at the Tokyo Anime Center in Akihabara, Tokyo.

If you can draw huge eyes and a tiny nose and mouth, you can draw manga.

Those of us in Japan have long known about the popularity of manga comics and anime, even among adults. We often saw them reading comics in trains. To foreign visitors, it was one of Japan's most amusing phenomena.

Fast forward to today, and we see how popular Japanese manga has become outside Japan. I was really surprised to see manga books even in Finland.

There are also many more manga/anime characters than ever before. The simple days of readily identifiable Astro Boy, Princess Knight, and Speed Racer characters are gone forever. We are now smothered by a plethora of major and minor characters of all shapes, sizes, colors, species, costumes, and personalities.

So what's this got to do with photography? Well, we also have people called costume players (cosplayers for short) who dress up as manga/anime characters and pose for photographers at manga/anime fairs. Of course, there are cosplayers outside Japan too.

Pretty amazing when you think that just 15 or 20 years ago, manga/anime was pretty much limited to Japan and a few niche markets overseas.

So, what will be the next Japanese thing to take the world by storm? Pachinko? Not likely.

Cover photo and page design:
© Philbert Ono
Past cover photos here