How about giving your children a manga set as a festive gift?

Mangas, a special group of comic books, is very popular in their country of origin Japan. Usually conceptualised by Japanese mangakas -- authors and/or illustrators -- they are read by people of all age groups.

The translated versions of the popular mangas are now becoming increasingly popular around the world.

One of the popular manga series available at STORY is the Naruto series by Masashi Kishimoto, a ninja adventure series that took the world by storm.

Speaking at a function in 2015, Ken Sasaki, CEO of Viz Media, the English language publisher of the Naruto manga, said that till then they had sold 220 million copies of Naruto globally.

Another reason why Naruto is very popular among youngsters is that it is relatively easy to represent a character during cosplay – it is enough to have an appropriate headband for identification.

Another popular manga series stocked by STORY is Death Note, where the manga is designed to look like a black notebook.

In Death Note, written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, a high school student Light Yagami tries to play ‘god’ and to ‘cleanse the world of evil’ with his power to kill derived from a supernatural notebook.

Usually mangas are identified not under typical genres but for whom they are meant – kodomomuke (meant for children), shonen (meant for young boys), shojo (for young girls), seinen (boys in their late teens or slightly older) and josei (adult women).

Nise Koi (sub titled False Love) by Naoshi Komi is a romantic comedy by Naoshi Komi.

Often, the theme and illustration in a manga helps identify the target reading group but Nise Koi is slightly different.

While the theme and the illustrations indicate it is a shojo manga, the action-packed content is indicative of a shonen manga.

One Punch Man, one of the ongoing Japanese web comic by an author who uses the pseudonym One with Yusuke Murata illustrating it for the manga series, can be said to be a parody of a super hero.

No opponent, not even strange monsters can overcome Saitama, who downs everyone with a single punch. So he is always on the lookout for befitting challengers while trying to overcome his plain look and be recognised as a superhero.

Another popular manga series is Yu-Gi-Oh! (Game King), which is a spin-off from the eponymous trading card game.

The Buddha series by Osamu Tezuka is his interpretation of the life of Gautam Buddha.

While STORY’s collection of mangas is more for the shonen demography, female fans or the shojo brigage need not be disappointed as there is a whole collection of the Millenium Snow by Bisco Hatori.

It revolves around Chiyuki Matsuoka, a 17-year old high school student with an ailing heart and a vampire who might save her life.

“These days it is difficult to keep away children from playing video games or augmented reality games. It is even more difficult to get them to read books,” said Anupriya G, English language teacher in a Kolkata school.

“Therefore, I encourage children to read comics and mangas in the hope of inculcating reading habits in them,” she said, “because the pictures in the comics or mangas attract the children who are more attuned to seeing such characters in animated cartoons or games.” 

Boxed sets of the popular series of mangas at STORY can be an ideal gift for the festive season.

About STORY:  There are a total of four STORY outlets in West Bengal. They are in Elgin Road; Diamond Plaza Mall, Nager Bazar; Avani River Side Mall, Howrah and Junction Mall, Durgapur. The flagship bookstore of STORY, was launched on April 15, 2014, in Kolkata. It claims to be eastern India’s largest standalone bookstore covering an area of 15,000 sq feet.

STORY also helps students of Future Hope, an NGO in Kolkata that provides home and school for street children, by training them at various stores during summer internships. It also raises funds and donates books, gifts and toys to various charity organisations.

‘Share a Story’ initiative collected 10,000 books and handed it over to Future Hope and Mukti Rehabilitation Centre. STORY contributes books for the annual Carnival and Jumble Sale at IICP (the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy).

Eventually a pilgrimage for all book-lovers Story has a massive collection of books of all genres and a dedicated floor for children.

Through innovative technology and outstanding customer service, Story provides more than 50000 titles. The best basket of collectible pens and writing accessories is available in the Pen & Ink section.

The art street section offers art material and accessories, gift it! section has bountiful of special gift items, greetings section boasts of a wide range of all reasons greeting cards whereas the paper shop and stationery section has a comprehensive range of house paper and stationery materials of different kinds.

Images by Sudipto Mukherjee