IThey first arrived in a dribble fashion. In recent months, bookstores have been seeing new customers, young people who came to collect manga that they had reserved online, through the Culture Pass, a device granting them 300 euros to spend, then being tested in 14 departments. With its generalization throughout France, on May 21, dozens of bookstores saw their profession transform under the influence of these visitors.
“Don’t be sorry that they read manga. You have to remember that before, at that age, they stopped reading. “ A seller of the La Planète Dessin bookstore in Paris
Having become manga storekeepers, they nicknamed the Culture Pass the “Manga Pass”, with Japanese comics now accounting for up to two-thirds of bookings. Here are piles of manga that we install under the shelves to have supplies on hand. In Fnac as in independent booksellers, manga shelves have been robbed, with holes never seen before.
Torn between windfall and curiosity, the sellers meet, amused, this new tribe, who never ask them for the titles of authors who have gone to “La Grande Librairie”. “Do not be sorry that they read manga, recalls a seller of the La Planète Dessin bookstore in Paris. You have to remember that before, at that age, they stopped reading. ”
How do we recognize them?
When they turned 18, they didn’t think they were going to be able to vote but that they had access to the Culture Pass. They understood what they could do with it when they saw a photo, posted by a friend, of all the books he had just obtained. After spending 4 euros to check that it works, they wonder what to do with the rest of the jackpot. They like the idea of buying “All volumes” of a manga. They cancel their reservations as soon as they find another deal.
They go to pick up their books in bookstores where they had never set foot before, are happy to discuss with the seller of the comic book section who explains to them that they are not required to use the Culture Pass platform to reserve their books. but that they can also walk around the shelves to look for what they could afford.
They do not buy literature, but, besides twelve manga volumes, also order half-business, half-personal development books like Power. The 48 laws of power, by Daniel Green, typical feminist poetry Milk and honey, by Rupi Kaur, leaving booksellers to wonder through which prescription channel these bestsellers, almost unknown at home, reach these kids.
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