CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Just today I was browsing through my Target (I live in SF Bay Area) and I found manga in the book section! There were only Rave Master 1-2 and one volume of Dragonball, but I found it kinda interesting how manga and anime's beginning to creep into department stores, and not just specialty places like Borders, Sam Goody, and Suncoast.

Are Targets/Walmarts/other stores near you turning towards the anime/manga trend to make an extra buck?

Ya, At the wal-mart near our house, i saw some manga. Although I had no idea what series it was they still had it.

I saw Shonen Jump at Shopper's Food Warehouse (formerly known as Metro) and I think I saw it at Walmart too.

I've seen Shonen Jump at several stores... And my Wal-mart carries anime, but only "popular" titles like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragonball (Z, GT, whatever), Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, and then movies like Spirited Away or Milennium Actress. My friend said she she saw some manga at Wal-mart, but I've yet to find any. (But my friend isn't a good reference, because anything remotely comic-style is "manga" to her)

Speaking of mainstream, though, does any of your public libraries carry manga? Our town's only had a little, but I was still very surprised at that. They had like 2 vols. of Maison Ikkou, 2 InuYasha, 1 Marmalade Boy, 1 Ceres, and several Dragonball Zs. But they had random volumes, like for MB they only had vol. 3, and Ceres they had vol. 2. Ah well.

Oh, and publishing giant Del Rey has picked up on the manga craze, so they might be able to bring it into more stores. ^^

Kireihana wrote:Speaking of mainstream, though, does any of your public libraries carry manga? Our town's only had a little, but I was still very surprised at that. They had like 2 vols. of Maison Ikkou, 2 InuYasha, 1 Marmalade Boy, 1 Ceres, and several Dragonball Zs. But they had random volumes, like for MB they only had vol. 3, and Ceres they had vol. 2. Ah well.

Surprisingly enough, the libraries in my area carry a great deal of manga, but they're all scattered so I usually have to reserve to get what I'm looking for...but mainly they've got old volumes though. Fushigi Yuugi, some Inuyasha, a manga abt WWII, stuff like that. I was kind of surprised to find Battle Royale once, too.

And about department stores joining in with the manga craze...I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing...

Our Wal-mart carries some of the more popular anime titles...mostly stuff that's seen on TV. But it's better than nothing ^_^

If Wal-mart starts carrying manga, then...hmm. I dunno. There are enough places around here that sell it...they'd really have to be competitive with their prices to sell any.

Even if Wal-mart sells Tokyopop at a ridiculously low price, I'll still probably buy it for cover price at my comic book store. I'm loyal XD

Edit: Also, our library carries some manga, but not a very good selestion. I hear the library in the next town has some good ones though...

walden books at the mall of georgia has a huge amount of manga for sale. more than ive ever seen in one place.

The Targets here have a small collection of "big" anime titles and some manga. If I want to browse for manga or anime, though, usually I go to Fry's (sigh, I hate that store, and yet I'm always shopping there ...).

Oh yeah, I found 1 volume of Tokyo Mew Mew at my library once, but it was like the third one. And I got my Brolly: The Legendary Super Saiyan DVD at Walmart. Good thing it had a uncut version/Japanese language track or else I wouldn't of bought it. Ug, Brolly....Bururi sounds much better.

shooraijin wrote:The Targets here have a small collection of "big" anime titles and some manga. If I want to browse for manga or anime, though, usually I go to Fry's (sigh, I hate that store, and yet I'm always shopping there ...).

Fry's has manga O.o?
The way I get all my manga (in So-Cal) is through Suncoast, Virgin Megastore and the local bookstores. More recentlyI've been getting books through a Anime/Manga store about a mile from my school. There are a few good ones scattered across the southland/inland empire. Oh and just for record, I got my first Shonen Jump (No. 3) at a grocery store called Stater Bros., though I havn't seen it there since.

ShiroiHikari wrote:Our Wal-mart carries some of the more popular anime titles...mostly stuff that's seen on TV.

Manga on tv? What a concept! We don't even have manga/anime infomercials here. >.<

But, I have some good reports from my school! A girl from my class showed up in school with Ceres vol. 1 today and sparked a mini-craze (If I'd known that would happen, I would have brought my manga to school a long time ago). One of my best friends (who used to hate a/m) was looking at it, and said: "He-ey... this is pretty cool... darnit Carrie! I hate it when you're right!!" XD Now she wants me to lend her my Azumanga volumes. Score for the otakus!!!

I will further work to promote manga in the Appalachia! *bows*

YES, today your school-- TOMMORROW THE WORLD!!!! HA HA HA HA HA!!! No, seriously, that's really cool. I've been trying to wave my manga around enough for my friends to ask to borrow it, but I haven't had much success. I did loan off the first volume of Saint Tail to my cousin. Two days later she called me and ask for the rest of it. Said she couldnt' do any school until she finished it.

Well my friends wouldn't pay any attention to me, but when some other girl brings in manga, they get into it, and all of a sudden they're running to me begging to borrow my manga. But I did have several people who I don't know too well come up to me and ask where I get manga. (I had to tutor about 5 people on how to read it correctly, XD)

But about manga in stores... maybe it's just where I live, but the only titles I can seem to find are Yu Watase's works, InuYasha, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop (all those popular ones), Chobits & other CLAMP, along with the SJ graphic novels. But I've never once seen Angelic Layer, even though it is by CLAMP, and I know it's supposed to be really good and I was wanting too look into it. Come to think of it there are hardly any shoujo titles other than Yu Watase's, Hot Gimmick, etc...

When Wal-mart sells discounted manga. Now that will be the day.

OOOOO mainstream manga! YEa i have seen it in random stores too and in libraries! Its so awesome! ^_^

Kireihana wrote: But I did have several people who I don't know too well come up to me and ask where I get manga. (I had to tutor about 5 people on how to read it correctly, XD)

Yes, when given the oppportunity. . . people will be VERY stupid. Okay, maybe not stupid but-- hey, how hard is reading manga? I am a self-educated otaku, and I never had any trouble reading it. Maybe some people were born otakus and the rest have to be converted. j/k.

By the way, if you can't get really good manga, you could always just shop amazon or ebay. You can get pretty much everything at one of those two places.

Saw Shonen Jump at Food City today, which was a surprise...

No one at my school is interested in buying manga anymore. Instead, they'd rather borrow it from me! O.O My Azumanga Daioh volumes are disappearing! XD

Kireihana wrote:Saw Shonen Jump at Food City today, which was a surprise...

No one at my school is interested in buying manga anymore. Instead, they'd rather borrow it from me! O.O My Azumanga Daioh volumes are disappearing! XD

Hey, girl, if you want to earn a little moola to buy new volumes of manga--- you could always say you'll loan them out. . . but for a fee.

Do you mean someone's stolen your Azumanga Daioh or it's just being borrowsed rapidly. Man, if someone stole my manga-- I'd go to the police. That or I'd sneak into the office at school and make a threatening announcement over the P.A. System that "Who ever stole my Azumanga Daioh had better return it or face the inevitable wrath of manga-deprived otaku!" They wouldn't know what as otaku was, so I'm figuring that would freak 'em out pretty bad.

Kireihana wrote:Saw Shonen Jump at Food City today, which was a surprise...

No one at my school is interested in buying manga anymore. Instead, they'd rather borrow it from me! O.O My Azumanga Daioh volumes are disappearing! XD

I understand what you're feeling, Kireihana lol. But rather for me, it's a whole circle of confusion, people borrowing my manga, me borrowing other people's manga...it's rather like ten of us have a whole library of manga rather than little individual collections

Oh, Shonen Jump's abundant over in the SF Bay Area. But at Target I saw the volume of Rave Master for $8.99...a dollar cheaper than what you'd usu. buy them for (dunno about you but it's a big difference to me). If Target had a whole library of manga I could save quite a bit...

No, no one's stealing my manga, but they are asking to borrow it (but they know the "break it and buy me a new one" rule). And the nearest Target is 45 minutes away.... But most manga isn't too hard to find in these parts, it's the anime. Considering there are no Suncoasts or BestBuys in my area at all. *hugs internet*

No little topic, don't die!

Just thought I'd share a funny thing that happened at my school today (I believe this falls into the category of manga spreading in the mainstream of my school). I walked into science class to find a mysterious face drawn on the board... big eyes, red pigtails... none other than Chiyo-chan. I was surprised. Her hair wasn't finished so I finished coloring it in and then drew Tomo and Osaka beside her. I have to find out who this mysterious Chiyo-drawer is...

Hmmm. . . Maybe you'll get lucky and it will be a tall, hansome, gentleman-ly guy.


Yes, if life were a shoujo manga, that's EXACTLY what would happen.

Unfortunately, it isn't.

That's right. . . stomp on my dreams .

My pleasure, dear friend

O yes, Kireihana, relating to your peers' sudden obsession with Chiyo-chan, I've gotten my sisters in love with Azumanga. Their addiction soon spread to their whole class, and now my manga are at the mercy of little fourth graders lol....

Oh man, fear the fourth graders. If you see them coming with forks, Run.

It is nice to sacrifice our manga and anime to get others into it though, is it not?
As for the increase in manga last June our local bookstore had a 4 ft. area for it. Now it has grown to 12 ft and is bleeding over into the comic and video game areas. So it is on the rise indeed. Good for us.

yeah, that's what's happened to all the book stores in our area. When I started liking anime and manga a couple years ago-- they had a couple volumes of sailor moon in the kiddy section. That's it. Now half of the whole back wall is manga. It rocks.

My Waldenbooks has a manga shelf 13 - 14 ft. long! They have everything from Crayon Shin-chan to Battle Royale (unfortunatly). But I went to a Borders recently and they had less manga but a bigger selection - Pita Ten, Fushi Yuugi, ect.
Someone borrowed a Shonen Jump and a HTDM book from me Monday and I just got them back. When I aquire some more manga, a bigger selecton (read: OT manga), maybe I'll lend my stuff out for money.