In a recent column of “Through Otaku Eyes”, Kanta Ishida wrote about the worldwide popularity of Rumiko Takahashi.

Ishida wrote, “Who is the artist who played the greatest role in the “globalization” of Japanese manga?”

“It might be Akira Toriyama, whose Dragon Ball became synonymous with manga. Or it might be Katsuhiro Otomo, who showed his skill at precise description in Akira, or Naoko Takeuchi, who excited enthusiasm among girls across Europe and the United States with her Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Or maybe it’s Fujio F. Fujiko, as there can hardly be a child in Asia who doesn’t know Doraemon.”

“All these names are necessary when talking about Japanese manga’s foreign expansion.”

“But I’m beginning to think it may be the works of Rumiko Takahashi that showed the world the essence of manga more widely and deeply in and after the 1980s.”

“I am sometimes surprised by how widely her works are known while talking with people in the manga industry abroad. Pascal Lafine, editor in chief of Tonkam, a publishing company in France, told me about his considerable feeling for Takahashi’s hit manga series, Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku. Lau Wan Kit, a Hong Kong cartoonist who won the top prize in the second annual International Manga Award contest hosted by the Japanese Foreign Ministry for artists based overseas last month, said Takahashi is one of the mangaka he respects. Russian Japanologist Ivan Sergeevich Logachov loved Takahashi’s Ranma 1/2 so much that he finally translated it into Russian.”

“There may be mangaka who have sold more copies abroad than Takahashi has, but in many cases a certain title or artist is especially popular in one area and not so much so in others. Takahashi is a rare case in that her works are evenly popular over many parts of the world.”

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In a recent column for “Through Otaku Eyes” for the Daily Yomiuri, Fukuda Makoto wrote about otaku politicians.  Fukuda wrote, “The nation’s politics are currently dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election, which will be held on Monday. Ballots will be cast and counted on that day.”

“The five contestants for the LDP presidency–former LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Nobuteru Ishihara; former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike; former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba; Kaoru Yosano, state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy; and LDP Secretary General Taro Aso–are campaigning around the nation. But many believe Aso has already secured enough votes to win the election.”

“This is the fourth time for Aso to run in an LDP presidential race. Aso, who openly admits he is a fan of manga, is believed to enjoy popularity among otaku, too.”

“The popularity is believed to have been ignited partly by a stump speech he gave in Akihabara, the so-called otaku paradise, when running for the LDP presidency in September 2006. His speech began with a call, “You self-described otaku people out here in Akihabara!” He was welcomed with great applause and became widely referred to as “Mr. Aso, popular among otaku.”

“Aso’s favorite read is said to be the manga Golgo 13, a classic series about the adventures of a professional assassin. He set up the International Manga Award when he was the foreign minister. Because of rumors that he was reading Rozen Maiden, a manga in which many beautiful girl dolls appear, he was even nicknamed “Rozen Aso” or “Rozen Kakka [Mr. Rozen].” There is even a shop in Akihabara now handling Aso character items for the presidential race, making him something like a universally recognized pro-otaku politician.”

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In a recent column for “Through Otaku Eyes”, Ishida Kanta of the Daily Yomiuri wrote, “Just two years ago, two 16-year-old girls from France were found and taken into protective custody in Poland. They had left their home in the suburbs of Paris and set out for the “land of dreams”–Japan. They were great fans of the manga Naruto and Japanese image-based “visual-kei” rock bands. They are said to have liked everything about Japan, ranging from the culture to the lifestyle.”

“When I read the news, I didn’t think anything more about it than that there are some strange girls in France. But now I have to change my perception. Visiting the Ninth Japan Expo held July 3-6 in Paris, I learned that “Japan fever” among young people in France is not a trifling matter.”

“The Japanese media tend to regard the event, which drew as many as 130,000 people this year–it was 88,000 last year–as something weird, no different from a cosplay festival. But it is becoming a full-scale exhibition handling an amazingly wide range of Japanese cultural offerings.”

“Expo staff and visitors alike, however, are mostly young people in their teens and 20s. Few among them have actually been to Japan. So the prime sources of their image of Japan are manga, animation, video games and the like.”

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In a recent column by Fukuda Makoto for the Daily Yomiuri, Fukuda writes about the comparisons of the Miyazaki murders when media bashed on otaku versus the recent Akihabara slayings and how media handled that.

Fukuda wrote, “I was a high school student who loved anime and manga at the time of Miyazaki’s crimes, and the cruelty and abnormality of his acts is not the only thing I cannot forget about them. I also was struck by a storm of otaku-bashing following wide media coverage that emphasized that Miyazaki was an otaku who owned an enormous collection of anime and horror videotapes.”

“I well remember being annoyed by widespread and sensationalistic headlines that looked as if they were trying to identify the abnormality of his crimes and the causes of his acts only with the fact that he was an otaku. There were also calls to abolish “harmful comics,” and shops dealing with dojinshi self-published manga comic books, including some with sexual content geared for adults, became the targets of harsh criticism.”

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In the latest column for “Through Otaku Eyes” for the Daily Yomiuri, Ishida Kanta writes, “Although it will end Sunday, Inoue Takehiko: The Last Manga Exhibition, which is being held at the Ueno Royal Museum in Ueno, Tokyo, is an unprecedented event in the study of the relationship between museum and manga.”

“Museum exhibitions of work by mangaka are now somewhat commonplace, but they do not have a long history. Until about 20 years ago, there were few people in the world of art who considered postwar manga “art.” It might have been possible to hold such a show at a department store gallery, but displaying manga at an art museum was out of the question.”

“The exhibition of the works of Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astroboy, in 1990 at the National Museum of Modern Art in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, was a turning point for such perceptions. The event, held about one year after the death of the manga giant, was a large-scale retrospective with about 1,500 original drawings. The event drew headlines along the lines of, “Public museum opens its doors to manga.”

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In the latest column by Fukuda Makoto for the Daily Yomiuri, Fukuda wrote, “During Golden Week, I was able to take some time off for a visit to Tokyo. I currently work at The Yomiuri Shimbun’s Fukushima bureau, and I had been away from Tokyo for a long while.”

“During my trip, I noticed two changes compared to the time when I lived in the capital.”

“First, I was able to see changes relating to the exhibition and sale of dojinshi self-published manga comic books.”

“A lot of specialized dojinshi markets focusing on particular themes are held during Gold”en Week. These are smaller in scale than Comic Market, or Comiket, a major event held in summer and winter every year, but they are still significant.”

“One notable new thing seen at such events this year was that some markets banned the entry of people under 18 and asked visitors to present identification to be allowed to enter.”

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In a recent column of “Through Otaku Eyes” for the Daily Yomiuri, Ishida Kanta wrote, “For action figure collectors like myself, it’s always a thrill to be able to pose the models in any position we choose.”

“The market seems to have been dominated by the “Revoltech” series by Kaiyodo Co., a figure manufacturer based in Monma, Osaka Prefecture.”

“Recently, however, Max Factory, a toymaker in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, has entered the market with its brand new “Figma” series, which is available for about the same price.”

“Revoltech was launched in 2006 as the signature line for Kaiyodo, the firm behind the miniature “shokugan” (food toys) included in the Choco Egg produced by Furuta Confectionery Co.”

“The appeal of the Revoltech series is its specially developed revolving joints that feature a distinctive clicking sound whenever they are moved. Many of the robots in the successful series were designed by Katsuhisa Yamaguchi, a toy designer known for his aesthetic style.”

his month, I found myself transferred from The Yomiuri Shimbun’s Cultural Department to its Fukushima Bureau as part of a personnel reshuffle.At 300 kilometers north of Tokyo, Fukushima seems like it’s an eternity from the capital. But the journey between the two can take as little as 1-1/2 hours by the Tohoku Shinkansen.

The situation has improved dramatically since I worked in the prefectural capital seven years ago, with information moving more quickly between the cities. Now in Fukushima, I can get information about trends in Tokyo. I can also get anything I want online, including books, manga, CDs and DVDs, just a day after I order them.

In a recent “Through Otaku Eyes” column for the Daily Yomiuri, Fukuda Makoto wrote, “For me as an anime otaku, however, the biggest change in my daily life is the number of anime shows that air on the locally available terrestrial TV channels.”

“In the Kanto region, where we can watch NHK, four networks and a variety of independent local broadcasters in each of the prefectures, there are a number of anime shows even in late-night slots. It was almost impossible for me to watch all of them. When I lived in Tokyo, I fully utilized three hard disk recorders at home to record the shows.”

“When it comes to life in Fukushima, however, there are only four private broadcasters. There is no local affiliate of TV Tokyo, which airs the highest number of anime shows of any domestic broadcaster, though many of their shows are rebroadcast through a local channel.”

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