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Complete tangent, but I met my equally nerdy brother in Paris last month. It was my first time, and his fourth. We stayed South of the Republique metro station
by consumer451 7mo ago
Complete tangent, but I met my equally nerdy brother in Paris last month.
It was my first time, and his fourth. We stayed South of the Republique metro station.
After the literal 30th indie Manga [0] shop that we walked by, I asked him: "how are all these shops financially viable?" He said: "look inside."
Holy crap, they all had customers inside! I had no idea that Japanese culture has such a strong presence in the heart of Paris, in the middle of Europe.
[0] I should be clear, this was not just Manga. There were so many cool indie retro video game shops that it blew my little mind. I should probably get out of my Silesian village more often.
- b0rtb0rt 7mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonisme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonisme
- consumer451 7mo agoCool! Thank you for this information! Very interesting.
- Palomides 7mo agofrance has a really strong tradition of comics, it's not just manga
- alamortsubite 7mo agoI learned about la nouvelle manga recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_nouvelle_manga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_nouvelle_manga
- bombcar 7mo agoIt’s not just France; most of Europe. Barks and Don Rosa are better known there than in their home country.
- goldenarm 7mo agoPedestrianization of neighborhoods like Rivoli did decrease shopping at first, but ended up exploding again once people got used to it.
- consumer451 7mo agoI have to say, I look forward to visiting Paris again as soon as I can find an excuse. I know there are things people could say negatively, as one could say about any large city, but the energy and diversity really drew me in. I also really like French food, especially when mixed with the crazy chefs in that area that we stayed. Edit: just so everyone knows, this is what an airport terminal could be, according to Air France: https://postimg.cc/ZCww5xFs https://postimg.cc/ZCww5xFs - So cool that I had to take photo. This was the least customer-hostile area that I have ever seen at an airport. Oh, you have to wait for a flight? Just lay back and chill.
- rsynnott 7mo ago… Huh, never heard of anyone actually _liking_ CDG before.
- consumer451 7mo agoHaha, I get that. You may be aware, but this is Terminal 2G. It is almost like its own tiny airport for short hops by Air France in the EU. It feels like a completely different world from the main mixed-carrier international disaster situation. It really feels like a designer experimental terminal.
- rsynnott 7mo agoDoes it still have the weird security procedures? (Security at CDG is IME very slow and just, well, strange; at least once they were asking people to _carry their passports through the scanners_, rather than leaving them in their bags like in all other airports in Europe). CDG wouldn’t be my _least favourite airport (I think that’s probably San Francisco, specifically the international terminal), but it definitely would be up there.
- Kankuro 7mo agoFrance is the 2nd largest market for manga after Japan (or it was a few years ago). That's surprising because there are almost 7 times more inhabitants in the US. Those who were a kid in the 80s and 90s in France saw a lot of Japanese anime on TV during this period, so that's part of the explanation.