I may not be Japanese but I grew up religiously following manga and anime on tv.
My sister, brothers and I would congregate in front of the television at 6. At every day of the week, there was an animated program about valiant young people on their respective space ship that turned into fighting robots.
We love Mazinger Z, Daimos, Mekanda Robot, Grendizer and Dunguard Ace But everybody’s favourite was Voltes 5. I was absolutely fascinated with his chain knuckles.. My sister and I also would follow a more girly animations called, Candy, Candy and Ron Ron, the flower angel. And we spent a fortune on buying the last Hello Kitty pink plastic treasures!
Anyway, manga and anime are not losing their charm, in fact it is busy conquering the world.
There is a manga and anime for everyone.
There are apparently five basic classifications.
There is the shonen aimed for young boys who are below the age of 15. Shows like Dragon Ball and Pokemon anime.
Seinen is for older boys of 15-24. Just like that Scarlett Johansson’s live action version of Ghost in the Shell.
Shoujo (Shojo) are aimed for young and teenage girls.
Josei are for a more mature females. These mangas are focused on more melodramtic stories.
And finally the Kodomumoke. These are the manga and anime that busy mums tend to let very young children sit in front of for educational purposes, of course. 🙂 Under this category is something called yoji for babies