Manga status at your school

[Kireihana]

Hmm, well I suppose this applies mostly to those of us still in school, but the question is this: How popular is manga at your school?

It's extremely popular at my high school. After attending a private school from 1st-8th grade and being practically the only person who liked anime/manga (though I think I might have started a bit of a "trend" during 8th grade, XD) I was surprised to see how popular it was at my school. And considering how hip-ly out-of-it my little town is (I don't think that phrase made a bit of sense, lol), I'm sure that it's even more explosive in other schools.

I see people walking around with GN's all the time, or reading them in lunch. It seems to be especially popular among the punk-skater crowd (that's what I call the kids who wear converses, striped stockings, have multiple piercings and carry skateboards) But I have seen a lot of girls like myself toting shoujo manga from class to class. And then there's the extreme species of the obsessed-to-the-point-of-being-socially-inept, complete with keychains, t-shirts, and Kenshin-embroidered carry bags who play YuYu Hakusho on their GameBoy Advance while waiting in the lunch line.

No offense, of course, to anyone who falls into those categories. As for me, I don't usually bring my manga to school for fear of loosing it or being ambushed by other fans. (i.e. "OHMYGOSH, is that an Azumanga Daioh sticker on your planner? I LOOOOVE THAT SHOW!!!!!" Me: "Uh, yeah....")

[AngelSakura]

It's moderately popular. People will probably know what you mean if you say "anime" but still need a definition for "manga". In the anime department, it's mostly whatever's on Adult Swim/Cartoon Network, though I do know someone whose heard of Weiss Kreuz.
Manga people will jump on, but sadly it's spiraling because of a certain incident involving manhwa *coughKillMeKissMecough* making it difficult to bring to school. Though I saw my Weiss kreuz freind with Furuba #4 and Juvenile Orion #3 at lunch Thursday. But I am in 7th grade, so in one more year I'll have a fresh start.

EDIT: I want a Wolfwood keychain, but the mean cashier at Suncoast took the last one! No fair! I want a chance at being an obsessed-to-the-point-of-being-socially-inept otaku! *Waaaaaaaah*

[Riku777]

there's maybe 7 ppl including me who even know about manga/anime at my school. It's sort of sad. But the "group leader", the one who has the most manga, often lets us borrow her stuff as long as we return it the way we got it. So It's very quiet at my school but I manage.

[Debitt]

I'm a demon worshipper to the Christians at my school for reading manga. >>; To most everyone else, they're childish comic books. ^_^; There are a few people here and there, but not many.

[R. Zion]

I went to a Vo-Tech and was in the Commercial Arts program, so anime and manga were relatively popular. As a project we had to pick artists to do a speech on, as well as paint some of their work on a tile for the cieling, and as of when I was last there I remember Kid Buu and SSJ3 Goku up there.

Besides that, my friend and I did pictures of Tenchi and Kagato, respectively, for one of our projects.

So I'd say the greater bulk at least know what DBZ, Sailor Moon and the more commonly known ilk are, and others who know quite a bit more.

(*Remebers the days of Tatewaki Kuno fandom and carrying around his T-square like a boken*)

Hoist with my own petard!

[Ichigo_89]

I only know like, 2 people period who like Manga. And only one actually LOVES manga and buys the GNs. (It's tough being homeschooled...) That's why I can't wait until college, then I can join an Anime club or something. The previous posts are hard for me to imagine just because I can only dream of people all over the place with GNs in hand. *SIGH* guess I'll just have to remain being special.

[Mangafanatic]

Yeah, Zipo and Kokoro, we are in the same boat! I Koroko's case, I can sympathize with you because my Christian extended family things I'm skipping down the road to Hades with my indecent Fruits Basket *insert fire and brimstone*!!!

Similary Zipo, I know 2 fans of manga. One is my friends who doesn't have time to keep up with it and really only reads what I buy and the other person is my sister. She probably wouldn't like it if it weren't for me. So, homeschooled otakus have it tough.

[Whitephoenix]

Yeah, it's moderately popular at my school too. There are quite a few that enjoy anime, but I'm one of a small percentage (yes the almost socially inept otakus) that actually whips out a manga volume and reads it every once in a while. Unfortunately, anime/manga is also quite misunderstood.
I get "stop reading that porn!" quite a bit. Ex: I started flipping through Fruits Basket vol.4, and this guy just goes off on me with: Put down that book! It's about people fantasizing about others! (kinda hard to explain. In one the omake theaters, Tohru says fun-tastic fantasy and fantastic funtasy.) But that incident was more of random boy being stupid than getting accused.

[Mangafanatic]

It's about people fantasizing about others! (kinda hard to explain. In one the omake theaters, Tohru says fun-tastic fantasy and fantastic funtasy.) But that incident was more of random boy being stupid than getting accused.

Uh, wow. That kid is REALLY stretching everything! Why does a fantasy suddenly mean that people are fantasizing about one another!?

[blue whisper]

My best friend and I just started a manga/anime club at our school this year. We thought only about six people would be seriously interested, but it turned out over fifteen were (that is just of the forty of so people that knew about it in our small school). A lot of people think that it is mainly for little kids.. but its becoming more popular.

[Whitephoenix]

Uh, wow. That kid is REALLY stretching everything! Why does a fantasy suddenly mean that people are fantasizing about one another!?

I really don't know. The kid's got some whacked out logic.

[Spirit_Wolf8356]

I'm one out of three anime fans in my school. Other two fans just happen to be very good friends. ^_^

[Mangafanatic]

I'm one out of three anime fans in my school. Other two fans just happen to be very good friends. ^_^

Consider yourself very fortuneate!

[Kireihana]

My best friend and I just started a manga/anime club at our school this year. We thought only about six people would be seriously interested, but it turned out over fifteen were (that is just of the forty of so people that knew about it in our small school). A lot of people think that it is mainly for little kids.. but its becoming more popular.

Good for you! At my school we basically only have academic, atheletic, and community service-oriented clubs. If there were a manga club though, it would probably be very popular. My cousin says there's a huuuge a&m club at her school, but she lives in the D.C suburbs, where anything that's anything is hugely popular.

Wow, I figured that if manga was popular at my school, it'd be popular at any school. I guess you guys proved me wrong. But even though manga is very popular here, some people still mistake it for "anime." In the words of one of my soccer coaches: "If I catch another kid reading one of those darn anime books during class, I'm gonna go off!"

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Very few people from my highschool like manga and anime. It was a Christian college so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Basically we had the Ironfist Chinmi manga in our library (until some idiot stole them) and everyone knew what Pokemon, Digimon and DragonBallZ were but the lesser known ones weren't known. I don't even have friends that like manga and anime. Maybe they think its kid's stuff, but mostly because they think its weird, with the big eyes, long legs, weird hairstyles etc. I showed some of my friends the first two Last Exile DVDs and they really enjoyed them! Now I have to get the others so they can watch the rest.

I notice my local library has been getting more resources recently and among these I've found the entire How to Draw Manga series and Ironfist Chinmi, Astro Boy and several other mangas which is pretty cool. I'll have to borrow them eventually.

I see it as Australia is still coming to terms with the whole manga/anime phenomenon. We don't have many places selling them, they are getting popular but it is gradually. I mean the only anime released in cinemas here were Metropolis and Spirited Away and that was in indepent cinemas! Both great anime by the way!

[bakafish]

anime is popular in my school but manga not so much. in one of my classes there are three otaku including me. i know a lot of anime fans and manga fans but i am the only one i know who downloads scanlations and fansubs. most fans are INUYASHA!!!!! type fans, unfortunately.

i talked to one of the seniors when i was at gsa and she said she would start an anime club. i don;t think she has yet though.

[Ichigo_89]

A lot of people think that it is mainly for little kids...

*Feels the urge to take Akira on a portable DVD player to your school*

[Mangafanatic]

*Feels the urge to take Akira on a portable DVD player to your school*

*has suffered from similar urges all her life*

[mechana2015]

I go to a college and have a lot of people I know that are manga fans. At least 4 direct friends and a lot more inderectly.

[MorwenLaicoriel]

Hmm...I'm homeschooled, but I take classes part time at a program for homeschoolers (hard to explian...I go to a school twice a week, and the only other kids in my classes are homeschoolers as well). As far as I know, none of the kids are into anime or manga. I might try taking Rurouni Kenshin or something to class sometime and see if I get any reactions.

[Icarus]

There is at least two other manga otakus at MSU that I know of. One young lady I lend manga to (I dare not lend her CCS) and one guy I see occaisonally. Plus, one guy in my Spanish class read Negima and liked it. Please note that it is by Ken Akumatsu.

The good news is that I have addicted my younger siblings, the bad news is that the youngest rereads CCS around every two weeks.

[Hephzibah]

Most people at my school would look at me blankly if I even said 'What is your favourite anime?", let alone manga! I had to describre anime in terms of pokemon to a friend of mine, it was that bad. *rollseyes*

[Mangafanatic]

Most people at my school would look at me blankly if I even said 'What is your favourite anime?", let alone manga! I had to describre anime in terms of pokemon to a friend of mine, it was that bad. *rollseyes*

Yeah, if I have to resort to pokemon in my descriptions, I don't even try.

[JediSonic]

Manga seems surprisingly popular at my school actually. I know 2 people personally who bring manga to school, and I've seen a couple of HTDM books at school as well. Just last night, at a football game (in band) there was a girl showing her anime drawings to someone.

There's also this gothic girl in my Latin class who likes watching and drawing anime, but she kinda scares me. One time someone told her he liked anime [that comes on cartoon network] and she said he just like "americanized crap".

[SakuraSamurai]

Hmmm, well there is a Anime and Manga club at my school, there's about maybe 20-30 of us in there.

[pyro_moogle]

I go to a christian school. So the idea of manga is shunned. Many people think it is porn. Some only know about Pokemon and Yu gi oh (not the best anime). I have a few friends that are into anime. He owns a whole lot I myself only own 2 manga and no anime. I will be buying some. A lot of younger kids are into it but I don't know them. Oh well. Life is just that way.

[Kireihana]

Yeah... I went to a Catholic school through elementary and middle school but they weren't very conservative when it came to what we read and stuff. I mean, we had Harry Potter and books like that in our library. But they didn't have manga (or any form of comics for that matter), mainly because none of the adminsitration knew what it was, and probably because they didn't consider it "higher literature," if you know what I mean. They were always encouraging us to read novels and classics.

[Rauken]

They came out of nowhere.
Last year it seemed like hardly any one had heard of anime/manga. This year I'm seeing a lot of people (especially girls) carrying around manga or wearing shirts for animes. And it seems like a lot more people are learning that some of the shows on Adult Swim are "japanese cartoons".

I, of course, am extremely happy about this, especially since I had a head-start on most of them and am now one of the 'knowledgeable people' and basically a library for lending out DVDs and books.

[Cap'n Nick]

In Nebraska, people always asked me, "Isn't all anime porn?"
In Memphis, people still ask me if anime is porn, but only because the only anime they watch is porn.

I'm not sure which is more frustrating.

[Nasu-ne]

There's about like 80 kids TOTAL at my school...50 in elemtary (k-6th) and about 30 in the high school/middle school (yes...I mean normal schools middle school is 6th-8th grade but....if they did that at my school there be like 14 all together....-_-...sad)

ANyway....guess what....I happen to be like the only anime/manga liker at my school, besides a friend who only draws it and doesn't even know what either one is and the other just transferred from a public school and she also only draws....

Wah...sooo alone...I mean at my school (since they RECENTLy just found out I like anime/manga by a certain friend who decided to look it up on the internet and decided to tell my 7th grade class of 5, which is 3 boys and me and her, and decided to tell them about it to tease me EVIL!!!!! Anyway...)
At my school they don't think anime or manga is porn or anything they just consider it like pokemon or yu yu hakusho something "stupid".....

Blah ON THEM.....wah....