Kathmandu

When manga artist Nobuhiro Watsuki created the fictional character Kenshin in Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X, he probably did not even think that this Himalayan country would also fall under his magic spell. Kenshin, as erstwhile assassin, takes a vow to fight injustice, and his popularity surged across the world, and it is still increasing. It was created in the manga form in 1994, which was later turned into an anime in 1996. Its latest version Rurouni Kenshin: Master of Flame was published in 2014.

Manga is a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels.

Similarly Dragon Ball Z (1989), One Piece (1997), Naruto (1997), dark fantasy manga series Berserk (1989) and Pokemon (1997) are several other examples of manga and anime that have crazy fans from all across the world. And Otaku is a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests, commonly the anime and manga fandom. Such fans have created the Comic Con International Day to celebrate this fandom and promote the Otaku culture.

It is surprising that Nepal, a developing nation in South Asia which didn’t have a wide reach to television just two decades ago, has had a huge following of anime and manga since the early 90’s. With the broadcast of popular mainstream animes like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach and Pokemon in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the fanbase has become stronger and is growing. Plus the Internet and rise in digital media have opened a portal to thousands of anime and manga easily to the new generation contributing even more to the growing fanbase.

What is Otaku culture?

Krishant Rana, another co-founder of Otaku Next, passed his childhood with Pokemon, and disliked it when people questioned him about wearing anime costume.

“When football lovers wear jerseys of their favourite teams and tee-shirt of their favourite player and go to outside any time, nobody ask them why are they wearing that, but when we wear our favourite anime dress, they ask us why.”

As per him, “The Convention is the day where we celebrate wearing their costumes, applying makeup to look like them, play Playstation, perform action, nobody judges us then.”

Did you know?

In Nepal, there is a huge crowd who love Korean dramas, but did you know that some of the famous dramas are based on Japanese manga. Be it Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango) by Yoko Kamio, or City Hunter by Tsukasa Hojo, Playful Kiss ( Itazura na Kiss) by Kaoru Tada, Full House by Won Soo Yeon, and Pretty Man (Bel Ami) by Chon Kye Young, they are all based on manga proving the popularity of manga and anime.