France

"The Rose of Versailles" by Riyoko Ikeda is one of the best-known shoujo manga in Japan and around the world, with over 15,000,000 sold since its debut in 1972. Recently Sony Magazines released a book called "Study French with The Rose of Versaille" that provides basic French lessons.

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...And the old Japanese adage "reading manga all the time makes you stupid" is proven true yet again.

From the Morning Edition of the Chunichi Newspaper for July 4th, 2006:

According to the July 3rd edition of the French newspaper Liberation, 2 16-year old girls from the Paris suburbs, who were both manga fanatics, left home without notifying their families because they "wanted to visit the land of manga."

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French publisher Humanoides has announced a new global manga anthology magazine titled Shogun, which will feature works from European artists.

The otaku culture is becoming increasingly popular in France. Over 60,000 people are expected to attend this year's Japan Expo held in Paris from 7/7 to 7/9. Manga artists such as Morishige, Aki Shimizu, Hideki Owada, Kenjiro Katatsu, and Mamiya Takizaki, as well as animator Kizuhide Tomonaga, are will be attending the expo.

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