Anime DICRIA: from an instagram profile to a community library

Credits: Disclosure

By: Carlos Henrique Souza – Lupa do Bem / Favela em Pauta

Created during the pandemic, in February 2021, Anime DICRIA consists of an Instagram page, opened by photographer Edson Cura (25), from the Fallet community, in the Santa Teresa neighborhood, in Rio de Janeiro, which ended up becoming much more than a profile on a social network. On the platform, the group uses manga contextualized in images of daily life in Rio to inform and, through this idea, they created a physical space to encourage the reading of Japanese illustrated stories.

From this idea of placing anime characters in the real daily life of Rio de Janeiro, for example: a purchase at Uruguaiana Market, a trip to Angu do Gomes and even a walk on Leme beach, the project evolved. Today, with more than 67,000 followers on its Instagram profile, the page pierced the otaku bubble and became popular in Rio de Janeiro, arousing the interest of children and also of those who do not belong to this niche.

For Caroline Muniz, director of the Anime DICRIA project, the logic of success goes beyond just covering a different market than the common one. “With all this, we have the will to make art, so I think these children will also have the will and inspiration to do it. Because they feel it was worth it, it was a positive part of her life,” she says.

The offshoots that emerged from an anime page

Also nourished by the intention of being a counter-narrative movement to the big communication companies, considered by them as “sensationalists”, the “Dicria Newspaper” was created, where the group publishes weekly the most relevant news for the region, such as job vacancies, free exhibitions and news about anime and manga.

The newspaper DICRIA has been a great diffuser of campaigns to prevent coronavirus and the importance of the vaccine, for example. By approaching the news simply and directly, the newspaper won a section dedicated to sports and videos talking about the references to anime in hip-hop culture and also in everyday life.

Manga’s Library opening

As a result of the work and with the encouragement of the followers, who donated many manga, now as a collective, Anime DICRIA inaugurated, in April 2022, the Communitary Manga’s Library DICRIA, becoming the first library specialized in manga in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

Manga’s Library DICRIA has a local collection of 4 thousand copies of manga. The project director says that one of the reasons for the creation of Manga’s Library is the difficulty of access to copies by the most impoverished strata of society, mainly due to the high cost and the few Brazilian publishers, making it almost impossible to acquire one.

Emerson de Araújo (12), a resident of the Fallet community, was at the opening of Manga’s Library and told what he thought of the initiative. “It was a business for me to be able to go out, play, enjoy a little. Because sometimes I get very stuck at home”, commented the young man and added that he came to like the Naruto anime a lot because of the Manga’s Library.

Contribute to Anime DICRIA

Currently, the project continues with the objective of encouraging reading as a daily habit for children, in addition to producing educational workshops, and is seeking help and volunteers. To support the project, just access the profile on Instagram, @animedicria.

*Manga: according to the website of the Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture and Social Assistance, it is the name given to Japanese-style comics. Their main feature is striking eyes and the prevalence of very expressive images that often need no words. Another striking feature is the reading, which takes place from right to left, in an oriental style.

**Anime: the term comes from the English word, animation. It is used by Japanese culture to designate all forms of animation, but it became known in the rest of the world to define the specific aesthetic styles of Japanese animation.

***Otaku: is an expression often used to define people who are interested in Japanese pop culture, especially anime and manga.