Japanese TV series "Astro Boy" is one of the most successful animes shown in China. (Photo : Google)
The number of Chinese teens becoming "Otakus," or people obsessed with Japanese manga and anime, is rising by the year.
Japanese anime materials like manga, films, TV series, video games and toys are some of the things that keep Chinese teenagers busy nowadays.
According to reports, almost all of the savings of the "Otaku" teens were allotted to buy their favorite collectible toys, manga, video game series DVDs and controllers, and other anime-related materials that cost huge amounts of money.
Taobao, a Chinese top website for online shopping similar to eBay and Amazon, reported that 5 percent of their earnings in Shanghai were obtained from anime-related products.
However, as the number of Chinese teen "Otakus" increases, many people are worried as these teenagers become ignorant of their surroundings and are only concerned about their interests.
Want China Times reported that on April 4, approximately 20,000 "Otakus" filled an anime event in Wuhan, Hubei Province, despite the bad weather. In fact, some participants have prepared their cosplay costumes for months just to imitate the characters they are portraying.
In Japan, where anime originated, there were approximately 620,000 recorded "Otakus" in 2004, and the country had a gross income of 242.8 billion yen ($2.02 billion) from anime and manga market alone in 2013.
Survey results also show that 55 percent of smartphone users in Japan use their gadgets to access anime-related materials.
Japanese anime was first introduced in China through the film "The Dragon Boy" by Hayao Miyazaki in 1970 and had a continuous success since the first airing of "Astro Boy" on CCTV in 1980.
