Todd: Ah, Kawabe, You are Japanese, so can you explain manga? And what is Manga? And why is it so popular?
Kawabe: OK, it's a diff...it's easy, but difficult question. OK, manga is the, is the drawing with the story.
Todd: Uh-huh! So like a comic book, but not really a comic book.
Kawabe: Mm, that, many kinds of manga, so basically it's the picture which is drawn by someone, and then you read it, and which has a story, it's a comic. Mm, it's a comic, and then,
Todd: So there's manga about many things.
Kawabe: About many things yes!
Todd: For example, what topics or what themes might there be manga about?
Kawabe: It depends, it depends. There are thousands of you know, stories and if it's about the animal,like a, it can be anything.
Todd: Really! (Yeah) Like for example, baseball or?
Kawabe: Yeah! Baseball stories. A kid's stories, American football story, Shakespeare's manga.
Todd: Shakespeare manga!
Kawabe: Yeah, you don't have to read! (Really) Yeah, of course. And then, what else? Everything, you can.
Todd: Ramen manga?
Kawabe: Ramen manga! There is. Seriously! Ramen manga! Salaryman manga. School teacher manga, and any kind of home drama, or the stories of novel can be manga. Manga script. So, it's, OK, imagine the movie. Yeah! You can make up everything. Troy! Old ancient greek stories! Or the like the, the future stories, like, and the, you know, whatever it is. You know. You just make it up,and write it or draw it.
Todd: Why do you think manga is so popular?
Kawabe: Because, it's like the hollywood movie, in the states the hollywood movie is so popular, because it's the field you can express your imagination, where you can play with your imagination, and how do you say?
Todd: Like it's not real.
Kawabe: Yeah, it's not real.
Todd: Escape reality.
Kawabe: Uh-huh, it's the, like a neverland.
Todd: Fantasy!
Kawabe: Fantasy! So, in Japan it's the manga instead of hollywood movies, I think.
Todd: That's really interesting. So do you still read manga?
Kawabe: I used to read a lot, read a lot, but now I don't read much as I was reading, OK, for example, how much do I read? Like one story in three months.
Todd: You mean one manga story in three months. Oh! so you still read manga sometimes?
Kawabe: Sometimes! Like sometimes my friend recommended, or sometimes I saw a good review on the magazine. Yeah, I pick up some and I read them when I got time, but not very much recently.
