Japanese anime and manga enthral all generations in Nepal

By Nayak Paudel,Kathmandu, Oct. 5: Either a group standee of Goku, Luffy, Naruto and Tanjiro or one of Itachi, among others, catches the eyes of any individual who reads Japanese manga or watches Japanese anime when s/he walks along the no-vehicle road into the Kathmandu Durbar Square from the Juddha Salik. The standee welcomes curious visitors to Stem Collection, a store selling merchandise based on Japanese fictional characters.

The store is filled with action figures, stickers, posters and accessories based on many of the famous Japanese graphic fiction and their characters.

Thanks to the digital age, many enthusiasts learn about the store on social media beforehand and arrive there to buy some merch related to his/her favourite characters. But for those who see the store for the first time, it leaves them in awe. "There is Luffy, and Chopper looks so cute. Wow, what a big statue of Goku," said 28-year-old Sanam Rai to his friend when he visited the Stem Collection last Friday. 

"You do not even know how much I had been searching for merch like this. I did not know a store like this existed in Nepal. I knew we could get manga in bookstores of New Road, but this store has left me in shock, but a happy one," said Rai. According to 43-year-old Sugan Rajbhandari, owner of the Stem Collection, it is not only youths and teenagers who are seen in joy when entering the store.

"Children, teenagers and youths are not the only customers here. While many adults, from every professional sector, also come in search of merch of their favourite characters, I have even welcomed elderlies to my store," Sugan told The Rising Nepal as a woman visitor in her 40s tried a tracksuit printed with hand signs from Naruto, a Japanese manga series, on Tuesday. It has been seven years since the Stem Collection opened in Indra Chowk and five years since it was relocated to Dharma Path. 

"Me and my friends opened the store with the aim of selling educational toys, such as Rubik's Cube. We had a couple of action figures of Japanese fictional characters alongside characters from Disney and Marvel. However, we found that parents buy a sticker for their children rather than a Rubik's Cube," said Sugan.

Sugan now operates the store alone and has replaced educational toys with merch of Japanese graphic fiction. But a handful of different designs of Rubik's Cube can still be seen on some shelves in the store.

"For parents, buying a manga is not fruitful. They see manga and anime as basic cartoons with nothing to learn from. It has been one and a half years since I started watching Japanese anime, and I am now a fan of it," said Anu Shilla Rajbhandari, 42, wife of Sugan.

Anu now knows the names of almost every character in the merch at her husband's store and helps the customers. 

"The stories of Japanese graphic fiction are different and so is the way they are portrayed. They are different in the sense that we are left with time to anticipate what will happen in the next episode. Some Japanese graphic fictions have even run continuously for more than two decades and their story has still not come to an end," said Anu. 

"We recite folk stories to children because we know that fiction helps children learn something in an easier and more entertaining way. Nepali parents should understand that children can learn the importance of discipline, hard work, freedom and friendship, among others, through Japanese manga and anime because they are more than just cartoons," she added.

Sugan, on the other hand, has been familiar with Dragon Ball, Naruto and Pokémon as they were either available on CDs or shown on TV by cartoon channels when he was a teenager. 

"However, when I started rewatching anime some years ago to remain updated on the sector as I had to sell the merch, I found that I missed many things when I watched them during my teenage. The most interesting thing is that we fall in love with villains. I have a lot of merch of villains and there are many who come looking for them," said Sugan.

Sugan also pointed towards the increasing love towards Japanese graphic fiction in Nepal by recalling his visits to Nepal's Otaku Jatra, a festival celebrated by anime and manga fans dressed up as their favourite characters (cosplays), as he kept a stall of his store during the festival. Otaku Jatra, which was celebrated recently on the occasion of Nepali New Year on April 14, 2023, was a great success as per the organisers. The festival was also celebrated in 2019 but was affected in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

"There are so many individuals who come seeking manga. Since a chapter of a manga series is a separate book of around 50 pages on average, a reader needs to buy a number of books. Still, many demand a couple of volumes containing some chapters to keep it as a memoir," said Rajesh Gajurel, owner of New Road Bookstore. "A new episode of a manga arrives every week. It is easily available to read online rather than waiting for days for the episode's English translation to be available and importing them," said Gajurel.

"My son often puts pressures on me to buy him his favourite manga, but I do not find it anywhere despite visiting every possible bookstore. However, when I took some stickers and merch of some of his favourite manga characters from the Stem Collection, he was happy and stopped demanding manga books," said Indira Prajapati, who was buying stickers for her son in the Stem Collection on Tuesday. "Nowadays, I take some stickers and action figures for him frequently because I found that Japanese graphic fiction teaches many good characteristics to children." 

As the trend of Japanese manga and anime is increasing in Nepal alongside the trend in other countries globally, Sugan believes that Japanese manga will be declared the most loved fiction in the entire world soon. "I plan to expand my shop as much as possible," said Sugan.