Popular culture in Japan today appears in many instances -- especially for males between the ages of, say, twelve and thirty-four -- to revolve around anime (animated films, both theatrical releases and video productions) and manga (a type of visual literature including everything from comic strips to complex illustrated visual novels). Reflecting a traditional cultural orientation intensely visual in general, these commonplace forms of popular literature sell literally millions of copies monthly and are frequently found stacked in huge piles outside neighborhood bookstores. 

The most popular recent manga has been Akira, the complex tale (set in the year 2030) of a group of psychic Japanese victims of an atomic explosion that wiped out Tokyo years earlier. The story was published in monthly installments over a period of five years, winning an audience of millions of readers. 

Perhaps the most famous anime are those produced from the manga drawn by Hayao Miyazaki; they include such titles as Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind (a young princess whose powers provide her great empathy with the non-human life forms surrounding her), My Neighbor, Totoro (about a fantasy figure involved in the lives of two young children), Laputa (a castle in the sky...) and Kiki's Messenger Service. 

about anime and manga...