Anime and manga took off with young adults and teens during lockdown — and it stuck

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Esteban Alducin-Borges was a bored high schooler browsing Netflix. Unexpectedly, he stumbled upon an anime series about a Japanese high school student called “The Quintessential Quintuplets.”

He was hooked partly by the vivid artwork, which he says was unlike anything he’d seen. But it was also the storyline. It transported him into a world without pandemics and lockdowns, where teens like him could do normal things.

Anime offered him an escape, Alducin-Borges says, “because that’s what I wish my high school life was like.”

Once he finished the series, in which the student tutors identical quintuplets uninterested in their studies, Alducin-Borges did some research. He discovered that the anime was adapted from manga, a style of Japanese comics and graphic novels. He also learned that the show left out several plot points. He longed to find out what happened next.

That’s when a friend offered to take him to a large Japanese bookstore in Arlington Heights, where he picked up the first volume in “The Quintessential Quintuplets” manga series. He quickly became a regular at the store.

The fandom surrounding anime and manga had been gaining steam before the pandemic, but interest in Japanese pop culture surged during lockdown, especially among young people like Alducin-Borges — and it hasn’t faded. Experts attribute that to the availability of streaming services like Crunchyroll, Hulu and Netflix, which make it easier to watch anime.

Several comic store owners in Chicago saw a boost in manga sales during the pandemic and say that manga has been flying off their shelves ever since. The Chicago Public Library is also seeing an increase in demand for manga; two manga titles were popular enough to make the teen top 10 list of books for 2024.

The appeal is escapism, a creative outlet and, ultimately, connection. For teens and young people, both during and after pandemic lockdowns, manga and anime fandoms offer a way to meet people, make friends and even find love. Fans meet each other at comic stores, online and at anime conventions, where they can dress up as their favorite characters and bond over their love of Japanese pop culture.

In the world of manga and anime, “anything can happen”

Some fans learn Japanese to read manga and watch anime without English translations. Misumi Sadler, director of the Japanese language program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says that’s the main reason enrollment in Japanese-language courses at her school is on the rise. Last fall, her department added an extra section to the first-year Japanese class to meet growing demand.

Sadler and other experts say manga and anime attract a wide audience because of the breadth of genres they cover. From action-adventure to fantasy to slice-of-life, the range of these art forms makes it easier for all genders and ages to connect to the stories and see bits of themselves reflected in the characters.

The manga and anime series “Paradise Kiss” is about a high school girl who is drawn into the world of fashion design through modeling. The “Spy x Family” series follows a spy who adopts a psychic child who can read his mind.

The queer romance genre is also extremely popular, Sadler says, although Japan is more conservative than the United States, and same-sex marriage isn’t recognized there. But through manga and anime, the artists behind the stories can dream aloud about their hopes and desires, she says.

That’s one reason why Sadler says “anything can happen” in manga and anime — and why many readers and viewers feel like the art helps them “detach themselves from real life and go into a different world.”

“I found a group of people who understand me”

It’s not just escapism that young people are after, though: They’re also diving into Japanese pop culture to make friends.

That’s where conventions come in. They’re a place for fans to meet others who love the same art they do and to dress up as characters from their favorite stories, known as cosplay.

On a recent weekend in January, the University of Chicago campus looked deserted — except for one Gothic building packed with people in their teens, 20s and 30s, many from all over Illinois, attending an anime convention called UChi-Con.

Charlotte Sclafani, a 16-year-old from South Barrington, was cosplaying Reko Yabusame, a character from a Japanese horror adventure game called “Your Turn to Die.” The teen, who wore heavy eyeliner shaped into little black droplets beneath her eyes, says manga and anime have helped her find her crowd.

“I remember a couple of years ago, I was so lonely,” Charlotte says. “But ever since I started cosplaying and interacting with people online and at conventions and making friends, I found a community and a group of people who understand me.”

Finding love while cosplaying

In a world where meeting new people offline can seem impossible, conventions also help fans find love.

Kai and Vince Zamora first met at an anime convention in Indiana three years ago. They bonded over their costumes — both were cosplaying characters from an anime series called “Chainsaw Man.”

After the convention, they realized they wanted to be more than friends.

“Inconveniently enough, he lived about an hour away from me,” Kai says. “But it was well worth the drive, just because we had that same spark for anime and cosplaying.”

The 20-year-olds got married last year and have been couples-cosplaying ever since.

At UChi-Con, they were dressed as characters from “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Kai spent hours gluing tiny rhinestones onto her Rouje the Bat costume ahead of her first-ever cosplay competition.

Alducin-Borges also met his girlfriend at an anime convention at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he is now a senior. She was selling drawings of her favorite anime and manga characters drawn in dark hues.

“We just talked and talked,” Alducin-Borges says. “I helped her out with her table, and then we took some time to walk around the whole space, check out other artists and just enjoy the convention.”

After that, the pair started getting together to watch anime. They quickly realized they were into completely different shows: She likes darker and grittier animes with a tinge of violence. He is drawn to light-hearted ones. Alducin-Borges says the experience helped him get to know her better and deepened their bond.

He still has a hard time believing just how much his pandemic discovery has changed the way he relates to the world and those around him.

“I did not think anime and manga would have that type of impact on my life,” Alducin-Borges says, “especially because I just thought of it as a hobby. But once I started connecting with other people who had similar experiences, it became, like, this big bomb of connection, where you just share the things you have in common and learn more about others.”