India’s Otaku Tribe

They love everything associated with the Japanese culture, far beyond its food. Often, they meet to discuss their favourite manga comics and anime shows and, at times, even dress up like the characters from these books. They are the Indian fans of manga and anime, who call themselves "otaku", a Japanese word for people who are obsessed with manga, anime and video games.

While manga is a form of comics, written in Japanese and drawn in a style developed in that country in the 19th century, anime is a Japanese animation style. Manga and anime are extremely popular in Japan. In the West, too, they are read by people of all ages. In India, however, these art forms have begun to find appreciation only recently.

The manga fan clubs in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune and Chennai have hundreds of fans who communicate with each other through social media and host get-togethers. During the meetings, these members discuss latest developments in mangas and anime, exchange books and videos, and sometimes, dress up as characters from these series — at events known as cosplay, which is an acronym for costume play. These meets may also include origami, anime screenings and tarot-reading sessions.

The Manga Cafe in Delhi, which was recently started by the Japan Foundation, has received a very enthusiastic response, according to Sangam Kumari, who is a librarian there. "It has been just over two months, and we've seen a lot of interest among people in manga comics and anime movies," she says, adding that they stock a large collection of manga comics and also enable subscriptions for the two most-famous weekly manga journals — Shonen Magazine and Shonen Jump.

"Many youngsters in India are becoming otaku because there is always a character in these series that you can relate to. It doesn't matter if the character is evil or good, it is so well-defined that people keep reading mangas week after week. There is a group of otakus who socialise over the internet on websites such as animaxindia.com and the Manga Lovers page on Facebook. In India, there are only a few places where you can buy hard copy of mangas but the number of such places is growing," says Yash Raheja, a 17-year-old who frequents the Manga Cafe in Delhi. Here, otakus bond over discussing various characters such as Ichigo Kurosaki and Naruto from manga comics Bleach and Naruto respectively.

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