A MOST POTENTIALLY SHORT-LIVED VENTURE FOR MANGA IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

The Japan Times writes about manga's growing influence around the world. But there's one place where I'm not sure it'll be long lasting:

In October, Shueisha, whose manga "One Piece," "Naruto" and "Dragonball" have been hits in Europe and the United States as well as in Japan, ventured for the first time into the Islamic world. As part of Japan Year 2010 in Turkey, it held a "Discover Manga: The World of Shonen Jump" exhibition at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

It remains to be seen just how long that kind of exhibition will last, and if Turkey under cretins like Tayyip Erdogan will allow participants to display sans censorship: deeper into the Islamic world, female imagery - something the mangakas are very good at drawing - is heavily censored, ditto many references to the Jewish community, Israel, and even Christianity. Romance and sex are censored too. And Turkey could soon be following suit with many other Islamic regimes in terms of censorship and what books are allowed to enter the country. Thus, I wouldn't count on this having long lasting impact.