by The other day, for some reason, I went to “Salon del Manga” for the first time. As the name implies, this is an annual festival for Japanese subculture fans at the Montjuic exhibition hall in Barcelona.
Geeks from all over Spain will gather for four days, from October 30 to November 1. Last year it was canceled due to a pandemic, so the fans’ passion seems to have reached its peak.
According to the Spanish newspaper “El País,” the admission ticket was sold out in 24 hours when it went on sale on October 18. According to the newspaper reporter, many “students” were seen even though it was a weekday on the first day.
I took a peek on Sunday with four guys who are pretty enthusiastic about manga and anime and one of her (all Spanish), although they aren’t even cosplayers.
One of them, Mr. A, was doing the wrong thing of buying ten tickets online, including his friends, and selling the surplus online (and he couldn’t sell only one). ). Also, I was next to Mr. B, trying to buy a ticket online, but while the site went down and went mad, and while I was happy to be connected, I went down and went mad again for about 30 minutes. As a result, I was able to buy it miraculously. By the way, the ticket costs 12 euros.
They had a ticket to enter at 11 o’clock because they had such a hard time getting the ticket, but they arrived at 10:15 in anticipation of a line (by the way, 40 minutes from Barcelona called Sitges). I live a long way away). The enthusiasm is different.
I’m a beginner in the manga at a level where I can’t say “I’m reading manga” to them, so no matter what I ask, I can only answer “Who is it,” “I don’t know,” “What?” The only thing I found out was ──
“There is a fried egg character, right?”
“Fried egg?”
“Something is lying down.”
“Ah, an unmotivated egg?”
“That’s it”
It was just “Gudetama!”
I’m so ignorant about anime, so I decided to silently stick to them. Look at the figures that cost hundreds of euros, repeat “Wow” and “Wow,” look at the gacha, look at the caps and clothes that say “Akihabara,” look for the manga, and carefully look for the character’s key chain. After looking around, I returned to the figure department and repeated “Wow” and “Wow,” and when I noticed it, it was 14:00.
At first, I was amused, but I couldn’t keep up with how the enthusiastic fans enjoyed it, and when they decided to eat yakisoba, I retired. Call a friend who lives nearby and evacuate to drink beer.
When I asked what happened after that, after eating yakisoba and fried chicken, I watched a kendo game, watched a K-pop dance, bought a figure that cost dozens of euros, and “Akiha” He bought a cap. They left Salon del Manga at 18:00. It’s like what the heck is going on for 7 hours, but when I see him talking with excitement, I think it’s cute, and thank you for loving Japanese subculture so much, and I’m happy as a Japanese person. It was a day that became.
