Manga, anime catching on

Manga and anime , Japanese print comics and cartoon animation, have been around for more than 50 years , but it's only in the last five that they have made it big time into the American mainstream, particularly among teenagers. They seem to be the rage south of Boston as well.

Librarians in Duxbury and Norwell have responded to public demand by establishing manga and anime clubs that meet regularly. Others in Weymouth , Whitman, and West Bridgewater are building up their graphics collections, including manga comics and anime DVDs, and looking into establishing clubs of their own.

The local interest is likely to peak when Anime Boston 2006 , the fourth annual anime convention in Boston, is held over the Memorial Day weekend.

For a long time, interest in manga and anime ``was more of an underground movement," said Lexington librarian Robin Brenner , who has made manga and anime her area of expertise. She has created a website called noflyingnotights.com and is writing a book. She frequently visits libraries to give presentations and help get new clubs off the ground.

Teenagers have often started ``by watching anime, but then found manga is a cheaper habit," Brenner said. ``In the last five years, manga has become really big with teenagers. It's the thing they read."

The graphic style of the Japanese illustrators is easily recognizable. Characters are simple, drawn with large eyes (the larger the eyes, the more innocent the character), angular faces, and spiked-up hair. According to Brenner, illustrators were strongly influenced by such cartoon characters as Betty Boop and Disney's Mickey Mouse .

While manga's beginnings can be traced all the way back to animal scrolls produced by Buddhist monks in the sixth and seventh centuries to poke fun at the Japanese upper class, the father of modern manga and anime is Tezuka Osama , the creator of Astro Boy in the 1950s .

The backgrounds in these Japanese graphics tend to be very detailed and the storylines complex, compared with their American comic book counterparts.

``There is manga for everybody," Brenner said. ``It's on every subject . . . war, history, religion, your job; and there's an awful lot of romance. It's divided by gender and by age group."

Japanese readers can get through a 300-page manga in about 20 minutes , Brenner said, and publishers put out 30 to 40 magazines monthly, ranging from 300 to 1,000 pages long . Americans are just getting the hang of reading manga. The comics are read back to front and the pages right to left. Getting used to that sequencing system is far easier for younger Western readers than it is for older ones, Brenner said, and it even may be one of manga's attractions for today's teenagers.

``It's like they have a secret language," Brenner said.

The Duxbury Public Library has had an anime and manga club for nearly five years. Other clubs are fledgling in comparison.

Nancy Perry , youth services librarian at Norwell Public Library , said the club there just started meeting last November after a presentation by Brenner. Only about half the club's 20 members are from Norwell .

At monthly meetings, members settle back and munch on ``pocky" (a Japanese snack of cookie sticks dipped in chocolate) while watching an anime clip. The Japanese treat adds to the atmosphere, organizers say. ``Some draw manga, and they like to share their drawings with the other members at the meetings," Perry said. ``Others write script, and they share that."

Thirteen-year-old Tristan Elliott , a Norwell Middle School student and member of the library's anime and manga club, said his interest bloomed from watching Japanese animation on television. Once he could read, he became interested in manga, grabbed by its intricate plot lines, he said.

He said it generally takes a few minutes to adapt to the format, but ``after the first couple of chapters, you get into it." Elliott frequents area bookstores, adding to his collection. He also spends as much as two hours a day drawing illustrations, although he doesn't write any scripts.

``Manga appeals to a wide range of readers," Perry said. ``From very sophisticated readers who like them for their complex plot and character development to reluctant readers who like them for their visual appeal. They satisfy quite a range of interests. You have romance, comedy, gothic and horror, and historic fiction."

Seventeen-year-olds Wendy Read and Meghan Rusk of Hanson joined the Norwell club after finding out about it from an art teacher at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School . Both girls are into manga and produce a great deal of artwork. They have already registered to attend Anime Boston 2006 on May 26 through 28 , which is expected to draw as many as 9,000 fans to the Hynes Convention Center.

Christine Wallgren can be reached at clwallgren@aol.com.