The life as an anime and manga fan series continues. I hope you guys have found some of the perspectives from those in other countries (UAE, UK, Bulgaria, Norway) enlightening and insightful. I should stress, maybe there are differences from others, so if you want to share your country’s perspective on anime and manga, don’t hesitate to comment below.
Now, onto this month’s feature! I asked Leonardo, currently somewhere in Upstate NY, to share how he sees manga and anime in Brazil, and you may or may not be surprised to know how much of it is available for everyone’s consumption.
(Note: Answers were edited for clarity.)
Organization ASG: Can you explain a bit about your background and how’s life in Brazil?
Leonardo: I grew up in Rio de Janeiro and lived my entire life in Brazil, but now I’m spending a year in the United States doing as an exchange student. In Brazil I’m a college student, a junior, studying Information Systems. Life in Brazil can be very exciting, but I prefer staying at home reading good books, not only manga, but literature in general and novels. I was always like this. I read Harry Potter books when I was pretty young, and when they were released here I watched all the movies as well, it was one of my first book series. As for anime and manga, I started watching anime when Dragon Ball aired. It was and still is very popular here, but at that time I didn’t know it was called anime, the same with Pokémon…I also watched Beyblade at that time and I miss it…
I also played some games, although I was never a big fan of games, playing Pokémon a lot, even competitively, and some other Nintendo DS and Super Nintendo games since I had both consoles. Games are very expensive here, manga is a cheaper hobby I think.
How did you become interested in manga and anime?
Leonardo: Like I said in the first question, my first contact with anime was in childhood, but at that time I didn’t know they were called anime or even that they were made in Japan, they were just cartoons; I didn’t know manga at that time. I think Naruto was the first anime I watched really knowing that it was an anime back in 2009 or so. Since then I started to watch more anime, but I don’t remember what my first anime was anymore. As for manga, I certainly got interested after playing Jump Ultimate Stars, that game was awesome! I really liked to play with Eve from Black Cat; the manga was never published in Brazil, so it was at that time that I knew about scans, I think it was my first manga. I read a bunch of manga through scans until learning that there were manga publishers in Brazil. The first manga I bought was Bakuman, which just made me more addicted with its story about manga and Shonen Jump, which I was already a fan.
How would you say the market is over there? There’s no companies selling manga over there I assume?
Leonardo: There is a fairly good number of publishers here, actually, there are four if I am not mistaken, but the market is owned almost by two of them. I’ve been following the market since 2011 when I bought my first manga, Bakuman, and since then the market has increased and improved a lot in my opinion. The catalog of the publishers are expanding, not only bringing the most famous series, but some others that few knew about since then. I think it is a signal the market is maturing. However, the market is still slow; it is not like in the United States when famous series are released fairly quickly, most of the time taking advantage of an anime and such. In Brazil, the publishers take more time than I would like to bring some famous series that are sure to become a success in the country. It is somewhat annoying and I end up buying the English edition. Another aspect that, in my opinion, keeps the market from evolving is that manga are still sold in newsstands mostly, it is rare to see a bookstore with a good section of manga, and comic stores are even rarer. I think they should invest on bookstores to bring the market to another level. Despite all the problems that must be corrected, I am optimistic, I think that Brazilian market will be one of the biggest in the future. The people working in the industry are passionate and are doing everything in the power to improve the market, testing new formats and new ways to bring manga to Brazil.
How’s the anime and manga culture in Brazil?
Leonardo: Anime and manga in Brazil is still a niche. Besides series really famous like Pokémon, Dragon Ball, Naruto, people don’t know much about anime and manga. I think anime is more famous here because Dragon Ball was watched a lot here as well as Pokémon, along with its games. Manga is more unknown to the majority of the people. For example, most of the manga have mirrored covers because sellers cannot handle oriental reading, they all line the manga wrong in the shelves and stuff. However, with the work that publishers are doing on the internet and in events, I think that manga and anime is getting more popular.
What are your main interests when it comes to manga and anime?
Leonardo: I try to read everything, but the majority of the manga I read are shounen. Among shounen, I don’t have preferences, but I really enjoy reading romances. As for anime, I don’t follow them much. Most of the time I limit my choices in each anime season to adaptations of manga I already read, with some exceptions throughout the year. Following this logic, I buy many manga, but I never bought any DVD or BD and I don’t think I will do in the future. However, regarding other products related to manga and anime, I’m starting to enter in the world of the figures; I enjoy them a lot.
How much do you keep up with any industry news in like the U.S or Japan?
Leonardo: I try to follow the U.S market closely since I started to buy manga in English. I am always aware of the releases and announcements and I try to read news and discussions about the status of the market. The Japanese market, on the other hand, is much bigger so it is hard to say whether I keep up with it completely, but I try to follow as much as I can, principally the shounen industry. I follow Shonen Jump news very closely, and Shonen Magazine and Shonen Sunday as well, to a lesser degree. I also follow sales and other statistics, in both industries. Besides this, any news of series I follow, I try to keep up as well.
Thanks to Leonardo for taking the time to share his perspective of anime and manga culture in his country.
