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  • Hey guys!

  • I would like to welcome a very special guest to my channel today

  • This is Asa, and she is a professional mangaka in Japan!

  • So we're going to talk to her a little bit today

  • And give you some advice, for those of you that are thinking of becoming a mangaka in Japan

  • and yeah, I'm really excited to talk to her!

  • So if you could tell us a little about yourself, your background and how you ended up here

  • I came to Japan about 4 years ago

  • By then I had been working in Sweden as a freelance manga artist for 7 years

  • And then I studied Japanese in Japan

  • and then I studied graphic design to get a diploma

  • and then after that I got published

  • I was published with a book called "The Scandinavian Girl Asa's Mysterious Adventures in Japan"

  • I know what the Japanese title is so I'm picturing you translating it

  • Mysterious Adventures in Japan

  • So I did that, and that was a 4-koma manga

  • Which is like 4 panels, like strip comics

  • And just finished the 2nd one which will be out in like 2 weeks

  • Ooo I'm looking forward to reading it!

  • I read the first one and it's adorable

  • and I can relate to so many of the stories in it so it was really fun for me to read

  • I'll link all her books below you can purchase them online

  • So if you're interested in checking them out, please do that

  • I asked you guys on FB and Twitter if you had any questions for Asa

  • So yeah, let's get into those!

  • How can you get started as a manga artist in Japan?

  • Well I think there are a lot of different paths you can take

  • I only know what I did

  • If you write manga, you don't necessarily have to go to Japan

  • That would obviously be the easiest

  • But you can also write manga in your own country, get it translated to Japanese

  • and send it

  • Ahh and get it published here as well?

  • Well I have one Swedish colleague, she's like a super talented mangaka

  • She won a prize in Ribon, which is a really famous shojo manga magazine here

  • So it's possible to do it from outside Japan as well

  • But there is the thing with the Japanese I suppose

  • You have to write in Japanese...

  • It will be a lot easier if you can speak it yourself

  • Instead of having someone to translate everything

  • So the first step would be learning Japanese guys

  • So get on that first!

  • And that of course is much easier to do in Japan

  • So if you have a chance to do that

  • Schools in Japan, they are a little pricey

  • But it will also get you a visa, which is awesome

  • So if you come to Japan on a student visa and study Japanese

  • You can do manga "katsudou"....

  • You can work as a manga artist...

  • You can start showing your stuff to different magazines and editors and stuff

  • So it's actually a really good thing to do at the same time

  • What do you think of manga school in Japan?

  • There are several schools that you can do to here to study how to draw manga

  • Do you have experience with those? Did you go to one of those?

  • I did... but I kind of lost my nerve

  • Really?

  • Yeah... so I really wanted to study manga

  • But I ended up studying graphic design instead

  • I was like "Oh you can't become a manga artist in Japan..."

  • But you can!

  • So you really wanted to be a manga artist, but you kinda felt like it was too difficult?

  • I was just obsessed with somehow working in Japan

  • But anyway, there are manga schools. They're called "senmongakkou"

  • Which is like a college

  • And they have animation courses, and manga courses and stuff

  • Anyone can get in, as long as you clear the school's requirements

  • Japanese is always one of those I think

  • Are there any schools that will accept only English speakers?

  • Not that I know of...

  • You need Japanese, probably N2 level

  • That's a pretty common requirement

  • So get on studying for your JLPT!

  • Which is a pain in the butt, I know because I did it!

  • But if you clear that, you're kinda eligible for lots of different things in Japan

  • It'll be easier to get a visa probably, easier to join a school and get a job

  • Clear your N2

  • How can you get your art seen by publishing companies?

  • Do you just contact a company randomly and say

  • Hey I draw manga, check it out!

  • and just send it to them?

  • Yeah there are a lot of different ways to do it

  • So I studied graphic design, but I also had a lot of electives

  • Where everything was manga related

  • So those teachers were always telling us, you have to do mochikomi!

  • Which is basically, you bring your stuff to a publisher

  • or an editor, and show it and you get feedback

  • and I think anyone can do this

  • They're willing to sit down with you and look over your stuff

  • Yeah! If they think your stuff is interesting

  • But I didn't do it that way, you can go to manga markets

  • I think the most famous one is Comiket

  • Have you been?

  • Yeah, and set up a little table and sell your stuff

  • And then publishers will come and look around at stuff, so you can get recognised there?

  • And build connections that way

  • I'm more fond of one called Comitia actually

  • Comiket is like so huge, it's massive!

  • But Comitia is smaller, and it's only for original manga

  • So not doujinshi, which is like Naruto

  • So I really recommend that!

  • And there they had an editor area where you can just fill out a paper

  • Of course, Japan, there's always gonna be a paper to fill out

  • Lot's of papers, learn your kanji!

  • So I just did that, and then you can go and show your stuff

  • That was how I got in touch with my publishing company

  • That sounds a lot less stressful than having to go to a company by yourself

  • I think an event like that might be a good way to start out guys

  • Are the deadlines as stressful as shown in anime?

  • Yes.

  • Yes? Haha that's really life guys! It's actually like that!

  • Well it really depends

  • I read a manga called Bakuman

  • Yeah I've heard of it

  • So I thought it was gonna be like that, just like dying

  • But it's not that hard

  • And it really depends on what you're doing

  • I'm only working part time actually, because my manga doesn't run in a magazine

  • It just gets published on my blog actually

  • So that gets collected as manga books

  • But if you have a weekly section

  • Then you're pretty tight for your schedule

  • That's just insane

  • It's amazing though! It's amazing :D

  • So do you enjoy it? You're enjoying working as a mangaka?

  • Yeah, oh it's amazing

  • You're glad that you chose this path?

  • I'm so happy that I got this chance to be published in Japan as well

  • Like I never thought it would happen actually, but it did!

  • You can do it!

  • I think that's really cool, that you're an example that it can happen

  • I see lots of you guys commenting on my videos asking if it's possible to be a mangaka here

  • And I've seen people reply to you and be like "Pfft NO. Too much Japanese competition, you don't have a chance"

  • But Asa is proof that it can happen! So don't give up!

  • If you're passionate about becoming a manga artist

  • Then go for it! Why not?

  • If you fail, you fail. But you might as well give it a shot!

  • I should probably say that I'm not the only one either

  • There are others, there's a German girl called Caroline Eckhardt

  • She's published 2 tankobons

  • And I have another friend called Benjamin Boas who writes manga scripts

  • He doesn't draw it himself, which is actually quite common

  • So that's another option too, if you suck at art!

  • One of the other questions was is it more important to be a good artist, or good at coming up with stories

  • So you could just do one or the other, if you're only good at one of them

  • Yeah you can, it's actually quite common

  • There's quite a lot of people who want to tell their own stories or something

  • And then they get a Japanese mangaka to draw it for them

  • But the thing about being a foreigner as a mangaka in Japan

  • That is your strongest point, and your weakest point at the same time

  • Is there a lot of competition?

  • It's just monstrous

  • Of course it's insane, yeah

  • But as a foreigner, that's your weapon! That's the thing you can do that Japanese people can't do

  • The thing I've been told constantly from my teachers and publishers

  • is to use your foreign perspective when you write stories

  • It's a bit limiting, really

  • Because you basically just draw mangas about being a foreigner in Japan

  • Or about your own country, or international marriage love stories

  • But it's so true though

  • Yeah that's what you can do, and other people can't

  • Yeah kinda like your secret weapon kinda thing

  • So let's talk about your new books that are out!

  • I read your first 4-koma manga series

  • And the art is so different to that, it was neat to see the contrast

  • And these are published in Japanese, Swedish and English

  • Just so you can get an idea of her artwork

  • It's called "Sayonara September"

  • This is what the books look like

  • So what's the main idea of the story?

  • It's during one year, and the main character, is a girl who wants to become a manga artist

  • and the process

  • Yeah so that might be kinda interesting for you guys too

  • Is it based a lot off of your own personal experiences?

  • Yeah some of it is, but it's actually quite dark

  • And very dramatic

  • I think that is actually very interesting

  • When foreigners draw manga, when they've been reading Japanese manga and stuff

  • Like what you get inspired by, what you use in your own books as well

  • There's a lot of like Sailor Moon, Shojo Kakumei Utena, kind of dark stories

  • I like that, because it's such a contrast to your first work that I read

  • Yeah it's so different from my strip comics!

  • People read it and they're like Oh my gosh! Are you ok!?

  • But no, I think that's really cool that you have such flexibility to make both types

  • But yeah, I will link everything down below guys!

  • So make sure to check them out!

  • Very beautiful, very fun to read, very hard to put down, very interesting

  • So I totally recommend them!

  • And yeah, I'm so proud of you for doing so well here! I know how hard it is to work

  • Thank you, you too

  • So I totally respect that

  • So I hope you guys enjoyed talking to Asa!

  • If you have any questions for her, leave them down below

  • Maybe I can relay them over to her and we can reply to them

  • Thanks for watching! Bye!

  • Good luck!

Hey guys!

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