Unit 5 Listening 1

Manga’s new popularity

Listening 1: Manga’s New Popularity1: A reporter will introduce Manga, its special drawingstyle and how it has becomepopular in the US and Europe. The reporter goes to a comic book convention and talks to different people.

John Abrams buys comic books for stores to sell. He says that all the big stores in America know that manga has become more and more popular. He says that manga isn’t like American comics.

2: John Abrams says that when he was a kid, comics were about superheroes but manga: tells different storiesdifferent kinds of people read itManga stories are longerPeople can read many books about their favorite characters.

Because of these things, bookstores think that they can make more money if they sell manga comics.

3: The reporter says that there are lots of different types of manga, and John Abrams agrees.

John Abrams also thinks that people like the drawing style, and that many young people like the drawings because they look like video games.

The reporter says that 60% of manga readers are girls. She talks to Tina Roberts in a booth that sells Shouju.

4: Tina talks about how wonderful manga is and how she met Rumiko Takahashi, the writer for InuYasha At last year’s convention.

5: The reporter talks about how some manga is made in North America. This might be one reason why it is becoming popular.An American company called Tokyopop has become successful. Colin Baxter explained that Tokyopop was started by Stuart Levy, an American who worked in Japan. Tokyopop’s books were sold to Americans just like they were sold in Japan – they weren’t changed at all, except for the language.

For example:They had to teach Americans how to read manga from right-to-left, instead of how Americans usually read (left-to-right).

Books were also published in black and white, instead of color.

Manga books were also cheap – under $10 US.

By 2005, Tokyopop sold 1000 different manga comics and made over $40,000,000 US. They also sell video games, films, and have manga contests on Facebook.

6: The reporter talks to Margaret Brown.Margaret works for a library that has a lot of manga comics.

Margaret says that manga is very popular with children and young adults.

Each day 3 out of every 4 manga comics In the library are checked out. The libraryIs going to get more manga comics for their visitors.

She thinks that any kind of reading is good, and kids like manga because it looks like TV shows and video games.

Manga also has good stories, and her library is making a club for young people to discuss the different parts of manga stories.