![]() ![]() And in 2014, Katsuhiro Ōtomo won the jury's grand prize for his lifetime's work – a most prestigious accolade from the most important event in international comics in France. The proof that the genre had turned a corner came in 2003 when 'NonNonBâ' by Shigeru Mizuki (edited by the independent publisher Cornélius) won a prize for the best comic at Paris's annual comics festival Angoulême. The beginning of the 2000s brought the golden age of manga in France, with the publication of series like 'One Piece', 'Naruto', 'Hunter X Hunter', 'Monster' and 'Bleach'. In 1990, the publication of the amazing and complex 'Akira' by Katsuhiro Ōtomo was the first stage in the success of manga in France – and in 1993, 'Dragon Ball' arrived on the city's shelves, and the market started to explode – as did sales of videogame consoles by Japanese brands Nintendo and Sega. Animations aimed at children were even censored.ĭespite this, the public began to take an interest in the aesthetics and the often sombre style of manga. ![]() Toei Animation films were shown on French television starting in 1987: 'Dragon Ball', 'Saint Seiya' and the very controversial 'Fist of the North Star', which started a tense debate in France, with a strong anti-manga movement building in the media (particularly the cultural journal Télérama) and politics. Manga had to wait for a new generation of readers with tastes beyond the Franco-Belgian Tintin tradition – a generation that came of age at the beginning of the ’90s thanks to the influence of television. ![]() In 1983, the famous comic book publishers Les Humanoïdes Associés decided to start distributing Japanese works, starting with the excellent 'Barefoot Gen' by Keiji Nakazawa, but the project bombed. If manga represents more than a third of comic book sales in France today, its popularity abroad didn't happen easily. And for the last 15 years, Paris has welcomed two major events for fans of manga and Japanese pop culture – the Japan Expo in July, and the Salon Paris Manga in February. There's even a Manga Café near Paris's national library (an adaptation of the Japanese concept of 'manga kissa'), which opened in 2010 and is the biggest library of mangas in France with more than 10,000 volumes, which can be consulted for €3 an hour while fuelling on coffee or bentos. You'll find boutiques with names like Little Tokyo, Hayake Shop, Manga Toys and Manga Space – and that's just the specialists, as most general bookshops have a dedicated manga section. In Paris, there are a dozen or so scattered throughout the 5th and 11th arrondissements (a swish Left Bank area with a hefty literary heritage, and a trendier Right Bank neighbourhood). Japanese culture is, clearly, here to stay, with all of France's major cities boasting specialty manga shops. For the last 10 years, tens of thousands of volumes have been sold across France, making it no less than the second biggest market for manga in the world after Japan. France has a particularly unique relationship with manga, and one which stretches much further than the confines of Paris. ![]()
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