When people ask me why I came to Japan, I always feel like my answer may strike them as a little odd. Aside from the fact that I came to Tokyo because I needed a change of scenery after ten years in London and 27 spent living around Europe, the real reason why I came to Japan is simple: I came to live in Japan because I was raised on Japanese animation as a kid. I’ve always felt like I’ve known Japan and its people, through years spent watching, absorbing and devouring countless anime series and mangas.
You see between 1975 and 1995, France (alongside most of mainlaind Western Europe) imported a huge portion of its children’s television programmes from Japan. A pretty odd, and little known, fact. After all it’s not like France had no children entertainment of its own - ‘bandes dessines’ (you’ll have to excuse the lack of accents, English keyboard and all that) or the French equivalent to comics has always been incredibly popular both in and out of the country (Tintin or Asterix anyone?). But when it came to cartoons, someone, somewhere decided that the best thing to do was to import them from the other side of the world. And I’m thankful to them for making such a decision, though I know realise that this was a decision more likely influenced by money and other less interesting factors.
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