To interview some of the award winners from the first year of Silent Manga Audition, the  committee went on a trip to the land of hope, Indonesia! Located in Oceania region of east Asia, Indonesia is a country of diverse cultural and historical background. Consisting of more than 18,000 islands(!), home to 238 million people. People are very energetic and said to be easy-going, we went to meet some key figures to find out how Manga scene is evolving, in the vibrant capital city of Jakarta… To begin, we visited “GRAMEDIA”, a large book store in Jakarta! Although book distribution is made a challenge by the vast size of the country, it did not stop people from loving books, and of course manga! There are many book shops like this, especially around cities where population density is high. Most books are sold in soft cover format. As well as local authors’ titles, many stories from outside Indonesia are seen on the shelves, such as JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Chinese historical classic “Shui Hu Zhuan” and Legendary Japanese Samurai “Oda Nobunaga” series. Comic books are priced around 2.50 US dollers a book, about the price of a nice lunch at a food stall. A lot of translated Japanese Manga, but Indonesian local titles are growing strong, currently at around 10% of the market. They are clearly marked and promoted on the shop shelves. Girl’s contents (Shoujo Manga) seems a little more popular than Boy’s (Shonen Manga) ? It was fascinating to see how Manga scene is growing in volume and numbers. It really shows at the shop shelves 😉 Along many Manga, we were particularly happy to find many “How-to Draw Manga” style of books, aimed at future Manga-ka’s! We are sure there will be more bookshops like “GRAMEDIA” around Indonesia. Let’s hope Silent Manga Audition entrants’ Manga on their shelves in future!