Between the news about the economy and the negativism in this years elections (If I hear one more person in my office go off about the Gay marriage initiative, I’m going to scream!), I’ve been retreating more and more into my own fantasy world. One of those fantasies is getting out of this office of increasingly closed-minded individuals, and into a business of my own. This particular fantasy just started as I’ve been reading about the city I live in wanting to revitalize downtown, which still has an old time “Main Street” feel to it. The city wants to keep that feel, and get more businesses that are unique and won’t compete with the big box stores that have been opening recently (Target, JC Penney, etc). Now, one of the stores in downtown is our local comic shop, where I sometimes get awesome manga deals. So, I started thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if, in conjunction with the comic shop, maybe in a shop upstairs, there was a Manga Lounge/Reading Room? I can just see it, the walls lined with shelves of manga. Bean bags and lounge chairs scattered around; no set seating, so you can either read by yourself,…
When I was in High School, I wanted to learn Japanese. My Dad thought I was crazy, since he didn’t see any future in knowing the language. Unfortunately for me, my High School and Junior College didn’t offer it as a course. Only the four year college did, and by the time I got there, I was already set in my major and didn’t have time to fit it in. I still feel some twinges of regret not being able to learn the language. I could have been one of the “old hats” in the anime and manga industry today. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t still think joining it. I may not be able to read or speak Japanese beyond a few worlds I pick up from watching subs, and listening to Japanese 101 podcasts, but that doesn’t mean I can’t find a niche in the manga industry. We keep hearing about how book stores and comic shops don’t know what to do with manga. They don’t know how to shelve or market it. Well, I’ve come up with a position that I think I could fill that would solve this problem. There are marketing consultants, management consultants, and…