Exclusive interview with Everlasting Heart creator, Shigeto Yamagara!

The creator of this self-produced Flash anime short, also known as 'Kimi to Boku', was kind and attentive enough to give an interview for this blog, in the middle of the March 11 Earthquake, the tsunami, and the nuclear crisis that followed. It was quite the challenge but it was well worth it.  Even in the face of the worst of adversities one has to get up and move on as if nothing, and that's what true strenght is like.

Photo from the set of 'Everlasting Heart': the kitten is incredibly freaking adorkable 

Born in Miyazaki prefecture, located in the south west region of Japan, in March 30th, 1965, Yamagara, also known as 'Shiget', is a self-taught artist who ensures there's always something new to learn everyday. "I am even learning from your questions at this moment", he indicates.


'Kimi to Boku', or Everlasting Heart was the very first flash online based anime, launched in 2001. It has garnered 4.8 million page views since, it was translated into English and the creator published a book version in 2009.


The live-action adaptation, which was made available this month, has Beck's Aoi Nakamura as the mangaka, and Maaya Sakamoto as the voice of the cat, as well as the performer of the theme song.

-What inspired you to become an artist?
There are lots of messages which I want to get out through my creation. My job is to take it shape. It is my lifework.

-What technical obstacles or limitations did you find when making Kimi to boku?
It is normal that there are technology obstacles when the work is produced. The problem is how to overcome it. It is a lifetime.

-What would be your advice for people that want to become better animators or artists?
Approach of productions are various depending on a person. It is accomplished sooner or later if you have a strong will that you want to pass it around through your work. The most important thing is not giving up. My motto is “Be what thou would seem to be.".

-Which are your current projects?
I finished filming “Kimi to boku” , and am getting ready for creating new animation.
This new animation will be about Animal Rescue and Pet Loss. Everybody needs to be saved. It will be completed by July 2011 that is 10th anniversary of “Kimi to Boku”, then it will be shown online. It has been scheduled to deliver English version within 1 month time afterward. I want you to look forward to it.

-Do you think that going the 'independent' route is the best way, rather than seeking employment in a studio? I mean, making your own projects and giving them internet exposure?
Business is the first priority for companies. I don’t prefer that way when I created my work. First of all, I publish my work and restructure it as commercial use if it is necessarily. I think it would be a great encouragement for young creators if it becomes successful as a business model. It is not only about your taste, technique and knowledge to make it success. You also need to have skills of producing and promotion. It is not easy but I am very confident that a great case example was made by making the world first film adaptation of a flash animation.

-Do you think that the situation with illegal distribution of manga and anime around the world could be solved? If so, how?
It is nothing unusual to get rip-off in in the capitalist society. However, we have the right to reform it. It would be for a while to get social selection. My job is creating works and I am not a politician but I am ready to help to reform our society.

Photo from the set of 'Everlasting Heart', in a scene of dubbing. "I was sometimes discussing with the director about the scenario and production on the set. The main characters, played by Aoi Nakamura and Maaya Sakamoto, met up the first time at the dubbing session. These two actors made the movie so great. I had joined since the movie was still at the planning stage and also got in to filming and dubbing sessions", Shigeto comments.

-What would you advise a graphic designer or digital animator to put in their portfolio (demo reel)?

There are two choices as to self promotion. Firstly a method that you get jobs directly. Another one is a method that you send your own image to as many people as possible. I believe it is the best way that those two methods get together and it becomes a professional artist (a creator) yet you might get nothing with just having passion and techniques.

However it would not be that difficult if this question meant just about getting jobs. You can just provide your technique which is just good enough for the job which you targeted. It is possible to be an employee if you have enough skills for the job.

Learning technique and expression means you expand your job, expression and ideas. If you work on it very hard, you will find a way. In addition, I say that the promotion is just a method and it is not “aim”.

Photo from the set of 'Everlasting Heart'. Shigeto Yamagara says: "I was really lucky that I could get involved in this process, taking a step into the new world of movies and having a view as the original creator for this animation and story. It may not be exaggerated to say that the deep understanding of the director and all the staff for the movie created a quality that even old fans of this animation will be satisfied with"

Kimi to Boku (You and I) is the story of an aspiring mangaka and his cat, told from the cat's perspective. It follows the friendship between the cat and the young man from when they first meet up to when they must part. The story is autobiographic, based on the creator's personal experience with his cat.

-Would you have a cat again in the future?
It is not going to happen. This is because ”Ginougou” the main character of “Kimi to Boku” is still alive in my heart although I love cats and dogs both. I am still with him.
However, I don’t disagree that other people getting new cats in to their lives. I will show my answer in the new cat animation.

-What book have you been reading as of lately?
I read modern literatures to gossip magazines when I was young. I don’t have much time to read books though I have never been lazy to read data or get photos for future creations. I also like reading portfolios of Japanese/foreign illustrators or some books about making of movies.

-What is your favorite manga and/or anime series?
I am currently reading “Mugen no Junin” “Historie” “JoJo Series” I have countless old favorite comics and I have repeatedly read those. I have read some of them at least a 100 times. I don’t have any commercial animations which stick out in my mind. The reason is that I actually don’t have good knowledge for current commercial animations. As an aside, I got a huge impact from Osamu Tezuka and Fujio Akatsuka as manga artist and Osamu Dezaki and Akio Sugino as animator.

-What do you think of life at this stage?
It is very difficult to face to all the things happening around me.
At the same time, it is also very difficult to live honestly. However, I wish I could and am trying to make it happen. This type of life might not be easy but it is very important challenge of life to accept the difficulties and get over it. It should be good if I could have good life with big confidence and then burn my life out at the end.

My only wish is to have time to say “Thank you” to the people who would be left behind of my death.

English translation by Saki Anderson.
http://on.fb.me/g6fi0u

The flash anime short and its live action version are both available on

http://universal-radio.jp/
http://universal-radio.jp/animation/EVERLASTING_HEART/

It was a great interview, and a great opportunity to get more insight on the process of self-producing digital work and marketing it online, a strategy or method that is slowly but effectively changing the anime and manga industry.

Link to previous news on 'Kimi to Boku': http://myanimemangafix.blogspot.com/2011/01/kimi-to-boku-flash-anime-gets-live.html

The origin of the word 'Weeaboo'

Always present as part of internet community jargon, who and what is a 'weeaboo'?

Memes dedicated to the meaning of this word

The word 'weeaboo' originated in the 90's in the infamous but legendary message board known as 4chan.org. It took form after a relatively obscure arcade game that consisted of slapping a duck with a paddle and the duck would make a'weeaboo' sound, meaning how idiotic can some fanboys and fangirls be.

It is a despective term used for people in Western countries that become so obsessed with anime, manga and otaku culture in general, that they believe they can go to Japan and live exactly the same lifestyle as depicted in the series they watch, or that Japan is some sort of Disneyland where situations and people are exactly like the anime series they watch.

According to urbandictionary.org, a weeaboo can be someone who likes their illegally downloaded anime to have romanji karaoke in the opening songs so they can memorize and sing them in Japanese, uses constantly words like 'kawaii', or 'moe', or even 'sugoi' to refer to things, end their sentences with 'desu', imitate all facial expressions from anime characters, imports groceries and candies from online Japanese stores, believes that anything from Japan is better than what is produced in America or Europe, and the list goes on.

In general, they live a life completely absorbed in otaku culture, thinking that the complexity of Japanese culture can be reduced to that.

But what is the difference with a Japanophile, for example?

Japanophiles are more about the culture and the way of life of the Japanese. They are more interested in history, traditions, society, politics, economy, and mostly it is for academic purposes. But that doesn't exclude an interest in media, and we can say that anime and manga are the most popular expressions of Japanese culture. It is what the foreign world sees, no doubt about that.

That's why I'm all against generalizing and discriminating groups of people with names.

New Kuroshitsuji II OVA trailer!

This is a new trailer for the OVA special that ships along the DVD edition of Kuroshitsuji II.

The most recent OVA special, "Kumo no Ito" (Spider's Intention) shipped in the ninth DVD volume last Wednesday.

Internet connection crisis

I've been all these days without a stable connection to the internet :-( How frustrating. At least with the connection I have right now I'll put up the new poll.

Blood C promo

For those who loved the series Blood+, CLAMP is developing a new top-notch anime that will premiere on July 7.



Nana Mizuki, who is the voice of Naruto's Hinata and Shugo Chara's Utau Hoshina, will play the lead role of Saya Kisaragi.

Production I.G is handling the animation. Tsutomu Mizushima (XXXHOLiC) is directing the project with creative supervision by Blood: The Last Vampire planning assistant and Blood+ director Jun'ichi Fujisaku.

The anime will be adapted into a manga by Ranmaru Kotone and it will be launched on July 26 on Shonen Ace magazine.

Akira live action movie delayed

Although is hasn't been formally cancelled yet, the live action adaptation of the manga by Warner BRothers is still in development hell, as JoBlo reports:

Warner Bros. has shut down the previsualization department devoted to development of an American live-action Akira movie franchise and laid off most of employees that were working on the pre-development of the picture. However, Warner reports that the film franchise, “Is still very much in the development stage,” and tentative production of the film franchise has not been formally canceled.


In a reportedly separate development, actor Keanu Reeves has formally confirmed that he was offered the leading role in Warner’s Akira movie and turned down the offer.

I have mixed feelings about any comic book or manga that WB touches, but I feel relieved that this project is not likely to come forward.

Why is Bleach titled 'Bleach' anyway?

Bleach is the name of the 1989 album by Nirvana, one of author Tite Kubo's favorite music groups, aside from Bad Religion and many others.

Kubo often listens to classic rock  and metal music while he works and that's where he draws inspiration from. You may notice that many of the manga's chapters are titled after key songs that embody the concept and the mood of certain characters and situations.

But the word has multiple meanings. Bleach often refers to the chemical substance used for cleaning purposes, that can be highly toxic if used in a 100% concentration.

Bleach is also the decolorant powder to get the hair to a yellow point before a toner is applied. People with extremely obscured hair or pigments need to do this procedure if they want to get a good shade of blonde, or else, if they just use common dyers, their hair turns orange.

With the influence of Western culture, thousands of Japanese men look to dye their hair blonde, often with the orange result. It was a common belief in Japan that young people who dyed their hair were 'yankee' or 'juvenile delinquents'.

This all resonates perfectly with Ichigo's theme. In the beginning of the series, Ichigo was often picked on and bullied because of his looks. The irony here is that he has orange hair, not because he wanted to dye it, but because of his mother, who also had orange hair, (that'd actually be strawberry blonde).

Still, when he grew up he was regarded as a tempered, bad-ass punk along with his friend Sado Yasutora precisely because of that.

Curiously enough, 'Ichigo' means 'Strawberry' :-)

Kuragehime DVD/BD will come out next year

Well, this could only indicate that the possible second season of the anime could come out later this year, or next year at the most. And that's a big COULD, since we have no confirmation yet.

:-/

FUNimation announced its acquisition of home entertainment, broadcast, digital, and merchandising rights to the 2010 Kuragehime (Jellyfish Princess) television series. The eleven-episode series will be released on domestic DVD & BD next year. FUNimation simulcast the series last fall.

I want a season 2 so bad! :(

Nyanpire teaser!!!!

Finally!



The official website for Gonzo’s upcoming Nyanpire The Animation television series has added a minute-long teaser. The adaptation of yukiusa’s original dojinshi about a dying cat transfused with vampire blood will premiere later this summer.

Source: ANN

Shueisha will launch new manga magazine this summer

The new magazine will replace Young Jump and it will be the first manga publication with the concept of "pure manga magazine", that meaning one that is not pigeonholed to any age range or gender. More information will be available on May 26 through the web and other means.

The new publication will be named Miracle Jump and it will feature the following authors and titles:

Sakurako Gokurakuin (Sekirei),
Atsushi Nakayama (Traumeister),
Tohru Fujisawa (GTO),
Hiroya Oku (Gantz),
Kazuki Funatsu (Addicted to Curry),
Peach-Pit (Rozen Maiden),
Nakaba Suzuki (Kongoh Bancho),
Manta Aisora (Haiyoru! Nyaruko-san),

Most of them are on the genre of science-fiction and fantasy.

Source: ANN, Mainchi Shimbun's Mantan Web

Mayo Chiki! teaser trailer

This is a harem romantic comedy that revolves around a boy that discovers that his classmates' butler is actually female.

The series is set to premiere on July.

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi will have an special episode released!

Kadokawa Shoten announced that the sixth limited edition volume of creator Shungiku Nakamura's Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi boys-love manga will come with an anime DVD titled "Episode 12.5" in late September.

The manga already inspired an ongoing Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi television anime series and an earlier original anime DVD that came with the fifth manga volume.

The special episode is sorta like an OVA or mini OVA that lasts 20 minutes.

The limited edition volume will also have an exclusive cover, a DVD jacket illustration by anime character designer Yoko Kikuchi, and a special box. More details will be provided in Kadokawa's Ciel and Très Très magazines.

The main story follows the tension between a newly recruited manga editor (Takashi Kondo) and his tyrannical editor-in-chief (Katsuyuki Konishi) — who happen to share a common past. The media distribution site Crunchyroll has been streaming the anime outside Japan since it premiered in Japan last month.

It's already a hit series since it premiered, because of its quality and premise. The dreamy appeal of the protagonists doesn't help, either ^_^