The Extinct~Manga

Graphic novels . . . . or manga as they say in nihongo. I bet, every people nowadays have at least read a manga once. To good to be true, the magic of reading a manga, where you can choose your desired title, really does leave you stunned and leaving wanting to wait for the next chapter.

Practically in Indonesia, graphic novels are from Japan, the percentage is around 97% I believe. It was only recently that those from Korea and the US tried to go thru the Indonesian market offering their variety of titles and genres. Regardless so, each every one of them has their own market.

Back to myself, I can remember reading these tiny books ever since grade 3. Back then in Singapore, it was a luxury to read such books as we had to go to Indonesia to get one that was already translated in Indonesian. I remember that one of my favorite manga was one called “Kenji”. A classic title that even manga oldschoolers till now would highly regard this title due to its story and artwork.

And as I grew older, the title’s I read expanded. But it wasn’t till my Uni days that the number of titles and my enthusiasm towards manga really exploded :P. Hundreds of titles I read and more genres I enjoyed. It surely did in someway, broaden my view of what’s happening in the world in a more surreal graphically way. And it also heightened up my interest in Japanese stuffs as almost of the titles I read where from Japan.

Not only I read them in hard copy format, I also progressed on to downloading the soft copies from the internet. With the number of titles available increasing, I slowly shifted away from my regular comic rental to self picking them from the internet. Not only its cheaper, but we also get the privileged to have them straight or sooner than waiting for the official printed version in Indonesia.

But then . . . why called it extinct? Well....pretty much due to the sudden fact that I just stopped reading them for now apparent reason. To say not reading at all would be wrong cause I do read some selected titles, just for the sake of finishing them of due to their interesting story. No apparent clear reason can be found to why I just stopped suddenly. Guess it might be the thought that I had to move on in life and do something more worthwhile.

Unlike philately where it has been dead and left in the cupboards, manga isn’t total dead to me. It’s just fading away, surely for to be extinct some day in my life. Till then, just enjoy on what’s left . . . .