How the manga became the best-selling comic in Argentina

With over a century of history, manga arrived in Argentina in 2000 with the increase in “comiquerías” over the previous decade and today it is considered the best-selling comic genre in the world. country.

With branches in downtown Buenos Aires and in the Belgrano district, Entelequia is considered one of the bookstores that offers the widest variety of manga.

There, Darwin Silva has been working since 2008, one of his historical sellers who ensured that the manga “Today, it’s the best-selling genre of comics in the country, sought after by teenagers, girls and boys, young people in their twenties and adults in their thirties who collect them.”

Silva said that “Comics, in general, especially from Marvel, have been a business boom since the ’90s, especially when the Profile Editor posted them. It also caused the multiplication of comiquerías. You could find five in a radius of five blocks, ”he pointed to Telam.

Over the years, many places have closed and others have settled, such as the Comic Club and the Entelequia, which were the forerunners. They were joined by Meridiana and Camelot.

In the world of manga stories, there is a wide range of genres.

“Jiro Taniguchi is a Japanese author, but he has a very European drawing style and larger formats, hardcover, he’s an author who writes on traditional stories that older people love a lot,” Silva described.

Instead, teenage girls are inclined to work for the Clamp Group, a female quartet of Japanese manga cartoonists who won the title of Queens of Sh? Jo (the manga intended for young girls), with titles of fantastic, magical and romantic stories.

“The most popular seller, for teens 18 and over, is the manga Chainsaw Man, which contains violence and sexual content; My Hero Academia, superhero style but Japanese; Demon Slayer is friendship; Slam Dunk, sports; Evangelion, a robot classic, with a strong religious and whimsical tone, ”added Silva.

According to Conicet researcher Federico Álvarez Gando, there is “a certain idea of ​​circulation which associates these contents with a new fashion and, as such, supposedly temporary”.

However, its origins can be traced back to the tenth century “paint rollers” (emakimono). It is estimated that the first manga in history was born at the beginning of the 20th century by the cartoonist Rakuten Kitazawa, who in 1902 drew Tagosaku in Mokube no Tokyo Kenbutsu. It was not until the 20s and 30s of the last century that manga began to appeal to a children’s audience until with World War II it became a real industry.

“There are estimates that predict that by 2050, the narratives of Japanese culture will globally replace the archetypes of the American entertainment industries, becoming one of the most important benchmarks for the development of daily interpersonal relationships,” a- he stressed.

Minimal details, vivid colors, but also violent and realistic storylines, are some of the reasons why the manga, the “Japanese cartoon” with more than 120 years of life “, has become a commercial boom, among the children’s audience of Argentina.

“The main difference between manga and a story or a novel is that the story is told in another way; although there are similar comics out there it is more specific the designs have some shadows, minimal detail and unlike the anime on tv you have to be extra careful. If you focus, that’s great, ”said Telam Juana, 10, from the Agronomy district of Buenos Aires, who started seeing cartoons at age 8 and is a fan of manga.

According to her parents, during the pandemic, Juana relegated reading also due to the influence of video game offerings and YouTube. But the manga has become a good company because, according to her, “the story is well told”, although she recognizes that “some manga contains violence, like DeathNot”, and others belong to the horror genre. .

Regarding the drawing style, “the first thing that strikes them is that they find it particularly expressive and detailed, of ‘superior quality’ compared to American comics and animations.”

In this sense, the centrality of the visual aspect in Japanese culture is a dimension that facilitates its childish and intercultural understanding.

Álvarez Gando stressed that by reading them, children and adolescents “save the different themes they tackle, the in-depth treatment of their plots and the complexity of the characters”.

9-year-old twins Lucio and Nahuel from Belgrano neighborhood in Buenos Aires said a few months ago they were reading manga and one of their favorites is Naruto.

“I like to read a lot, and the manga are very good because the drawings have details, shadows,” he remarked to Télam Nahuel, who attends a French school with his brother. According to them, they started reading manga at the school library, where their mother works. “I like the one in which the characters have powers, of earth, water and fire, it’s like the movie Ávatar”, detailed Lucio, who ensured that all the stories do not contain violence or fights, because “there is also nature”.

“And that makes even more sense when you consider that there is usually still some association of cartoons or cartoons with ‘childish’ and ‘innocent’, in idealized terms,” ​​he said. to analyse.

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