The manga is experiencing a ‘boom’ in Spain due to the pandemic: how Haikyû, One Piece or Naruto sneaked into houses during confinement

The manga lives a new ‘boom’ thanks to the new and old followers, and the pandemic has had to do with it. Paco sets the example. During confinement, he rediscovered manga after 20 years: “One day I was bored with so much pandemic. I saw in the library that they were there and I started reading again.” With this, he told laSexta, he was able to escape. And he returned the hobby.

A situation that is also represented with Javichu Mateo, a minor who discovered manga with confinement: “I spent all day on the computer and my mother told me to find something to read.” Now he is one of the so-called ‘coronaotakus’, a lover of Japanese culture in a pandemic. This surge in readership brought about by COVID has skyrocketed manga sales.

“It has been an exponential increase, 50% or 60% more sales than just manga,” explained Ricardo Rodríguez, owner of the Greyhskull bookstore. One fact: in November, the manga ‘Haikyû!!’ It was the best-selling book in Spain. It is the story of some high school boys who are passionate about volleyball. the manga it works so well that it appears on bestseller lists.

Therefore, many publishers are focusing on publishing this genre. “25%-30% of what we produce is Japanese manga. Some of the best-selling titles that we have in our editorial catalog are precisely manga”, has detailed Pedro Medina, editor at Fandogamia Editorial. After 3 decades, manga is experiencing another golden age thanks to an audience attracted by its aesthetics as well as by a theme more heterogeneous than ever.

“There is science hobby, survival, adventure. Also both homosexual and heterosexual love, comics intended only for female and male audiences, “explained Tony Caballero, cartoonist of the manga ‘Backhome’. The boom in digital platforms has attracted those who only watched anime to paper. As the sector, while there is desire to read there will be sleeves to sell.