The Way of the Christian Samurai

This month’s Wired Magazine cover story is on the history of Manga (Japanese Graphic novels) in the United States, entitled “Manga Conquers America.”

A few interesting facts found in the article (which features a 10-page manga-style history of manga) include:

- The first blockbuster Manga in the US was the samurai action title “Lone Wolf and Cub”

- Manga is more influential in Japan than Television is in the US.

- Some Manga titles grossly outsell US comic books - even on US soil! The monthly circulation of the english edition of Shonen Jump is 250,000, while the Amazing Spider-man only sells 100,000 per month. That’s 5 copies of Shonen Jump for every 2 copies of Spider-Man sold!

-Journalist Douglas Mcgray has referred to this soft export of Japanese culture as its “Gross National Cool”

So is your family ready to understand what the common theme of Samurai found in Manga and Anime means for them as Christians? Get ready, as it doesn’t look like the tide is going to ebb any time soon.

Another article on Manga from Wired is available online:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/anime.html

Tags: Wired Magazine, Manga Conquers America, manga, samurai, Shonen Jump, Japanese, Anime, Christian