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Manga Cafe




A manga café or a is a kind of Café in Japan where people can read Manga . People pay for the time they stay in the café. Most manga cafés also offer internet access like and vice versa, making the two terms mostly interchangeable in Japan. Additional services include Video Game s, Television , Snack / Beverage Vending Machine , and more. Like Japanese cafés in general, Smoking is usually permitted.

For an hour stay, the cost is generally about 400 yen, with most places requiring customers to pay this as a minimum even if leaving earlier. Some manga cafés offer a service where one can rest for the night.


SERVICES

Search criteria at a search engine site ("National Net Café / Manga Kissa Search Engine (beta)" {Link without Title} ) offers a glimpse of services that may be offered at a manga kissa:
  • Seating - reading seat, non-smoking seat, sofa, massage chair, party room, internet seat, pair seat, ''zashiki'' ( Tatami matted), reclining seat

  • PC - disc burners, office software, color printers, photocopier, TV

  • Facilities - movies/DVDs, Shower room, Darts , magazines, PC class, music CDs, nail salon, pool table, newspapers, CATV/CS broadcast, Table Tennis , Slot Machine , Tanning Bed , Mahjong



ABROAD

Recently there have been numerous Manga café opening outside of Japan. These are generally maintained and operated by fellow Manga enthusiasts. One such café opened up in France , and offers courses from a Mangaka .


CRITICISMS

Recently, there have been complaints from Manga Publishing/distribution companies that say manga cafés are unfair. Generally Royalties are not paid for the reading of a book, and due to the nature of the business a single Manga or Graphic Novel can be read by as many as 100 people. The Profit s go directly to the proprietors of the cafe rather than the manga distributors themselves. (Public Libraries avoid this criticism because they do not take profits.) Cafés such as GeraGera are competing with companies such as Kinko's for quick E-mail and Internet service.


IN FICTION

  • In the sixth episode of the 2006 Anime '' Kanon '', the character Makoto Sawatari tries to get a job at a manga cafe.

  • Misaki Nakahara of the series '' Welcome To The N.H.K. '' works in a manga cafe that her uncle owns.



REFERENCES

  • Macias, Patick and Machiyama, Tomohiro. ''Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo-Tokyo'', Stone Bridge Press, 2004. ISBN 1-880656-88-4



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