When you enter a public library and discover Spy x Family on a shelf next to Dragon Ball Z that you can actually touch, there’s something subtly amazing about it. For many years, manga in Singapore was priced for enthusiasts, wrapped in plastic, and largely out of the reach of those who were unfamiliar with the culture. It existed somewhere between collector’s obsession and financial burden. That calculus is altered in ways that are still becoming apparent by the National Library Board’s decision to formally archive and increase access to digital manga.
The initiative began in February 2023 when NLB opened its first Grab-n-Go Manga Library at City Square Mall. It was a completely self-serve pop-up on the fourth floor that subtly turned into a cultural phenomenon. There are more than 5,000 books that can be checked out, eRead screens for digital access, and an RFID checkout system that allows you to take out up to eight volumes with just a single card scan. It was successful. When that initial pop-up closed in August 2023, the public’s response was so positive that NLB continued to grow and opened a Comics Library at Anchorpoint, which combined the manga collection into a larger collection and added graphic novels and comics in both English and Mother Tongue.
Things really start to get interesting at the digital layer. Customers can access eManga titles without ever entering a physical location thanks to the NLB Mobile app and eResources platform. That is more important than it may appear. For many years, reading manga online in Singapore required navigating pirated scanlation websites. While most fans weren’t particularly proud of this practice, it did solve a significant issue. Physical English volumes were expensive, sometimes costing over twice as much as their Chinese counterparts. Purchasing a whole series was a commitment rather than a form of entertainment. In contrast, the digital archive of the library provides access and legitimacy simultaneously, which feels almost revolutionary.
This has a local heritage component that merits greater consideration than it usually receives. Captain V, Singapore’s first full-color comic, and Medium Rare, the nation’s first comic book adaptation of a movie, are included in the collection. These are part of an intentional effort to document Singapore’s comics industry as something worth preserving, not novelties tucked into a corner display. One of the brains behind the pop-up concept and the creator of the adored Mr. Kiasu character, Johnny Lau, put the project’s goal simply: to rekindle Singaporeans’ love of reading. It may have landed because the ambition is so modest.
Approximately one-fifth of the manga titles at launch came from Shogakukan Asia, with plans to keep contributing. This kind of collaboration gives the archive genuine institutional weight, indicating that NLB plans to continue this as a long-term endeavor. Visuals make reading easier, according to Winston Tan, Head of Planning and Development at NLB. This is a valid observation, supported by the fact that Singapore’s otaku community actually reads a lot once they have access to the content they are interested in.
The extent to which the digital archive will grow and whether the physical pop-up model will continue to find new locations throughout the island are still unknown. The model appears to be spreading naturally, which is encouraging, according to the Comics Library at West Coast Community Center. It appears more obvious that NLB operates under the sincere conviction that it is more effective to meet readers where their interests already exist rather than waiting for them to arrive on their terms. This belief is reflected throughout its Libraries and Archives Blueprint. Public libraries all over the world have been slow to fully adopt that concept, which isn’t particularly radical.
Even though anyone with a library card can access the publicly funded Detective Conan and Cells at Work! shelves, there is still a slight sense of the unexpected. It’s difficult to ignore how far the NLB has come since manga was hardly recognized as a valid acquisition category. The direction seems correct, regardless of whether this archive develops into something comprehensive or stays a carefully selected niche within Singapore’s larger library ecosystem.
