Banzai!

I'll be honest: I don't know what actually means. But it sounds good.

Cultures have a way of surprising you. Take Japan: I have it on repeated good authority that the movie Lost in Translation was scarily accurate in its portrayal of the culture-shock experienced by Westerners. The country also has a reputation for being the most self-focused, in-group, racist culture in the world, to say nothing of the most scarily warrior-culture-focused (Europe has a tradition of honourable suicide, but has never made such a big - or compulsory - deal of it). I remember, faintly, that in a world-wide anthropological assessment of native cultures the Japanese were beaten only by New Zealand's Maori as the most aggressive. The Inuit (Eskimo) peoples were the least aggressive.

But then this happens: An international award for non-Japanese artists who practise the delightfully recognisably Japanese style of manga.

I heartily approve.