ANIME REPORT
Im glad to report that there is Anime in Vietnam if you are patient and
desperate enough to look for them. One time I was passing by a street near Hoan Kiem Lake when I noticed a book stand at the side of a building. I recognize it as a minibook rental, where they (like us) rent and read those little romance novellas. But as I was about to pass them by when I noticed one of the covers looked different. As I gazed a closer looked, my eyes were not decieving me. It was a manga cover of Dragonball Z! A much detailed inspection revealed a flotilla of mangas: 3x3 Eyes, Ranma ½, Black Jack, Detective Conan and Jintaro(?) about this young coming-of-age soccer player/student. There were other manga which I think are more Shonen but which I could not identify.  Unfortunately I found no mecha, and definitely no hentai. ^_^; I tried looking for copies being sold in bookshops but the regular bookshops seem not have any stock (I tried asking them for “manga” but could not understand, but when I said “comic” they did). I found out later they were exclusively sold in children’s bookstore. So imagine my embarrassment when I bought a sample issue of Detective Conan (its either that or that Jintaro manga, which I had no idea what it was) and scanned a sample page. As you can see it is similar to our “English dubbed” manga but translated in Vietnamese. Apparantly there is also a following of anime fans, who unfortunately, are kids because the back part of the manga would reveal fan mail and art from children 6 years old and above (I don’t know if “above” meant people in their late 20’s but what the hell!).

Their cable here does not have AXN but has NHK and Arirang. Sometimes I’m lucky to have glimpsed some unknown anime, and there was one time I was able to catch a scene from Steam Detective but to my dismay the end credits. T_T