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Anime and manga in Japan


Anime and manga in Japan

To many Westerners, anime (animation) and manga (comics) are the most popular icons of modern Japan. Many visitors come to Japan in search of merchandise relating to their favorite anime and manga titles, which are often released in different versions in Japan and the West; the Western versions edit out taboo references in the Japanese version. Most anime fans will even try to find Japanese-language anime DVDs, but there is a catch: there are usually no subtitles on domestic releases (with the exception of Studio Ghibli releases, which all offer English subtitles), but Japan is in DVD Region 2 and uses NTSC-J video formatting, so if you live outside of Region 2 and/or use PAL or SECAM, you are out of luck except if you have special, often expensive equipment such as multi-system televisions, VCRs, and all-region DVD players. However, a computer with region-lock bypassing software installed (i.e. VLC Media Player) should allow the more tech-savvy to view such DVDs. You may also be surprised by the prices: new DVD releases regularly cost over ¥3,000 and there are usually only 2 episodes per DVD. Blu-Ray releases are more expensive than DVDs (starting at �4,000). Note, however, that Blu-Ray regions are much less restrictive than DVD regions. Japan shares its code (Region A) with North and South America, Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong (but not mainland China). Some discs are also released without any region coding at all, and can be used with any NTSC-compatible player.

The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Japan


Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Japan - updated Mar 2024

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Japan Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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