Many of those attending the Tite Kubo panel dressed up as their favorite Bleach characters. (Tony Weidinger)

On Saturday I got to attend VIZ Media's Tite Kubo panel. He's the guy who wrote the popular manga Bleach. The room was packed with people, many dressed as their favorite Bleach character. One person even had Ichigo's huge sword. There was a lot of anticipation in the room and when Kubo entered, he was like a rock star. One girl squealed, "He's so cute." You could feel that there was a lot of respect for him from everyone in the room. He showed a video of his studio in Japan. At one point there was a shot of some chairs and a suitcase. When asked what was special about the suitcase, he said he bought it to come here to the US for the first time. He also had to get a passport. When asked when he realized he had such a big fan base here, he said, "Yesterday." There were also a lot of Hispanic fans of the manga because one of the Bleach characters Chad, is Mexican. The panel inspired me to try and catch up on the Bleach anime series which I think is at almost 200 episodes.

Shojo Beat Magazine is aimed at female readers. (Viz Media)

Years ago, I attended a workshop taught by Gene Yang in which he explained that American comics tend to be all about action, European comics are all about the art, and Japanese comics are all about character development. The how's and why's of this generalization are explained in Scott McCloud's book, Understanding Comics, which I'm sure, by now, you've all read. (No? What are you waiting for?)