So I'm in Paris now, went also to Meaux, a few neighboring towns and was surprised to see tons of anime/manga related shops and if not dedicated anime shops then clothing and apparel with anime prints in various shops. How did it happen? Was there a sudden cultural movement, some celebs made it popular? I've been here like 8 years ago too and yeah comics in general were popular (which is obvious considering how the most iconic comic book character – Asterix – is French) but I didn't see the japanese manga and anime being big.