Manga Readers in Auckland's Graphic Novel Cafe

Abstract

Japanese graphic novels, known as manga, are now filtering into library collections. However, librarians know very little about adults who read manga and their reasons for choosing this type of reading material. By learning more about such audiences and their reading habits, collection development librarians will be in a better position to build up their collections and target their services more precisely. This study was delimited by location to New Zealand's only cafe dedicated to English-language manga, the Graphic Novel Cafe. It adopted a qualitative approach, and purposive sampling was employed to select an array of readers, who were interviewed about their manga-reading experiences. The findings indicate considerable potential for manga to attract a variety of patrons. They include the fact that manga reading can be a social activity, and is often entwined with related interests such as anime. Some of the special considerations for incorporating manga into a library collection are type, artwork and serialisation. This study fills a gap in the scholarly literature on the New Zealand context, and also highlights areas for future research to expand upon.