in japan, increasing numbers of people don't. they continue to live a life inside four walls, inside their mind, the life we call the computer geek, the nerd, as avatars. there's a name for it, a whole subculture of what's called otaku. once a derisive term, now a proud identifier of the geek, one who has turned his back on the real world and finds satisfaction elsewhere. manga, or comic books, hold a different place in the cultural landscape here and address different needs. there's yowi, for example. otherwise known as boys love manga, extremely popular with teenage girls. stories change, but the core themes are sexually ambiguous boys getting very friendly with each other. what legions of young girls and soccer moms find compelling in the thousands of these titles, something of a mystery to outsiders looking in, but there they are. whole sections of manga book shops dedicated to basically one direction type boy band figures having sex with each other. yowi isn't generally explicit, though it can be. some of the most popular manga are, however, lurid, over-the-top illustrated stories of incredible violence, rape,