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As Episode 18 was about Soji Okita, Episode 19 focuses on Hajime Saito of the Shinsengumi; and also explores the meaning of the Shinsengumi's motto, Makoto (Sincerity).
In place of the still-recovering Hijikata, Saito travels to Aizu and meets with Lord Katamori, the daimyo of the Aizu region.
Saito pledges the Shinsengumi's support of the Aizu clan. Lord Katamori entrusts Saito with the Mazaki Guard, a division of 30 samurai troops led by Mazaki (voiced by Akira Ishida, a nice surprise). Mazaki is an old-school samurai: rigid and doctrinaire, he criticizes Saito for not wearing armor and for wearing his swords on the right side and not the left.
Saito explains that the New Government Army soldiers don't wear armor, and that fighting men who are wearing regular uniforms while encased in armor will slow them down. He adds that wearing his swords on the right doesn't mean that he lacks a warrior's soul.
When the New Government Army attacks Oshuu, Saito shows Mazaki what he's made of. Mazaki is amazed at Saito's swordsmanship (historically, Soji Okita and Hajime Saito were considered the most skilled swordsmen in the Shinsengumi), but when Saito learns that they are being surrounded and orders a retreat, Mazaki refuses. Saito tells him that to die here is the wrong time, and that the Mazaki Guard must live to protect Aizu. With Saito covering them, the Mazaki Guard then retreats from the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Hijikata and Chizuru are making their way on foot to Aizu. Hijikata reminds Chizuru that the Shinsengumi owe the Aizu clan and that he must do his part to support Aizu.
Saito and the Mazaki Guard retreat from Oshuu to Fukura, where Saito tells Governor General Ootori that he is impressed by the Aizu soldiers' pure devotion to bushido and tradition. Mazaki later apologizes to Saito for questioning his warrior's soul.
Sannan, Heisuke, Saito and Shimada meet in Fukura, and are discussing whether the rebel Choshuu forces will attack at Aizu or at Sendai when Hijikata and Chizuru arrive. The men speculate that the Bonari Pass will be the next location where the NGA will attack.
When battle breaks out at the Bonari Pass, Mazaki and the Mazaki Guard sacrifice themselves to enable Saito and the Shinsengumi to escape. Before he goes to his death, Mazaki tells Saito to look after Lord Katamori and Aizu.
The Aizu soldiers keep getting pushed back, and finally Ootori orders the Shinsengumi to abandon Aizu and retreat with the rest of the Bakufu army to Sendai. Hijikata is upset at this, as abandoning Lord Katamori and Aizu reminds him of when he had to abandon Kondo.
After Ootori leaves the meeting, Sannan and Heisuke arrive and Sannan tells Hijikata that he will go on ahead, as he is originally from Sendai and can gather information from his contacts there. Sannan and Heisuke then leave for Sendai and Saito tells Hijikata that he will remain behind in Aizu to defend Lord Katamori. The Aizu samurai impressed Saito with their bushido, and he wants to help defend the region that Mazaki and the others gave their lives for.
He and Hijikata reflect on the Shinsengumi's motto of Makoto. Saito asks Hijikata for permission to raise the Makoto banner in battle, and Hijikata replies that it belongs to Saito as much as it does to himself. The episode ends with Saito saying goodbye to Chizuru and leaving to join the Aizu troops.
The historical events take precedence in this episode, along with the theme of what the Shinsengumi - and what all samurai - were supposed to stand for. The bushido code - the way of the warrior - was perfectly embodied in the taciturn Hajime Saito, who let his sword speak for him throughout his Shinsengumi career. The character of Mazaki represents the old-school samurai who learns that the externals have nothing to do with whether a samurai has a warrior's soul or not. In turn, Mazaki's resolve inspires Saito to join the Aizu forces, who face suicidal odds against the NGA.
The real-life Hajime Saito did indeed part ways with Hijikata to join with the Aizu samurai for the duration of the war. Later, he became a police officer and lived until the age of 72, dying in 1915. At least in Hakuouki he managed to avoid the fate of becoming a rasetsu like the others. ;) Till next episode...
This episode is all about Soji Okita.
Hijikata and Chizuru leave Nikko and hurry to catch up with the Bakufu army. At the same time, Soji travels separately to the same destination.
Soji arrives and has a few words to say to Hijikata:
Kondo has been executed by the New Government Army, and Soji is furious with Hijikata for allowing it to happen. Chizuru pleads with Soji to stop, as Hijikata is still recovering from his injuries, and Soji walks off.
Chizuru follows him and tells him that Kondo gave himself up to save the rest of the Shinsengumi. Soji recounts how Kondo took him into his dojo and was like a big brother to him. "I never thought he would die before me," he says. He then takes his leave, telling Chizuru to look after Hijikata.
In the meantime, Saito challenges Hijikata to a fight, with Heisuke yelling at both of them to stop. Saito wins, and tells Hijikata that his injuries preclude him from leading the main unit. He says further that he realizes that Hijikata is fighting partly to forget his sorrows, but that he remains responsible as their leader. Hijikata finally agrees to let Saito lead the men until he has fully recovered.
In Edo, the New Government Army attacks a temple in Ueno, and Harada once again runs into his boyfriend oni friend Shiranui. Koudou and his new army of rasetsu show up, and Shiranui has a surprise for them: silver bullets.
Together, he and Harada kill the rasetsu, and Koudou prepares to hurl a bomb at Shiranui but Harada throws his spear first. Koudou is temporarily disabled, the bomb goes off in his vicinity and the immediate threat is ended. Harada, who has been injured in the fight, tells Shiranui that "Shinpachi is waiting for me in Aizu." We then hear Chizuru's voice as the narrator saying that "we never saw either of them again."
Hijikata and Chizuru stop in a small outpost town so that Hijikata can finish recovering before reaching Aizu. Not too far away, Soji, who is on his own now, overhears some New Government Army soldiers saying that Hijikata of the Shinsengumi has been discovered in a nearby town.
Before the soldiers can reach Hijikata, Soji intercepts them. Coughing up enormous quantities of blood from his tuberculosis, he realizes that he is close to the end. He ties his sword to his hand to prepare for the final battle:
In an isolated mountain pass, Soji - with a vision of Kondo before him - vows to prevent the soldiers from capturing Hijikata, in his last act as a soldier of the Shinsengumi. He then enters rasetsu mode and takes on the large group of New Government Army soldiers.
Meanwhile, Hijikata overhears villagers talking about a "tremendous sword fight" occurring in a nearby mountain pass, with one white-haired man taking on a huge number of men. Hijikata realizes that it's Soji and leaves to join the fight.
Chizuru runs after him, and helps him up the mountain. Once at the scene, they stop.
Both recognize Soji's sword. Hijikata softly says that he "doesn't need to worry about Soji anymore" and turns to go.
Chizuru doesn't understand, until... she does. Soji killed all the soldiers and then faded to dust.
She bursts into tears, and then hurries to catch up with Hijikata.
To be honest, Hakuouki has never moved me to tears - until this episode. This second season has been everything that I wanted from Hakuouki from the beginning. The producers are not pulling any punches here - main characters are dying right and left, and it's an open question from week to week what will happen next to Hijikata and Chizuru.
It's a mystery to me why Chizuru, as the narrator, tells the audience that they never saw Harada or Shiranui again after this. It may simply be a nod to the historical record, which does indeed state that Harada died after being wounded at the Battle of Ueno. But then - why not simply show Harada dying after the battle?
Historically, Saito and Shinpachi lived to old age, so if they're going to follow history then these two should survive whatever comes next. However, if they were really following history in this series, Sannan and Heisuke would already be dead. Sannan was ordered to commit seppuku after he tried to leave the Shinsengumi back in Kyoto, and Heisuke died in 1867 in an incident called the Aburakoji Affair. I guess one could argue they're already kind of dead, being rasetsu ;) - but still.
Not much more one can say here...
Till next episode.
Two light novels that I was the copy editor on have been released: Eureka Seven: New World Order and Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Fallen Angels, both from Bandai Entertainment, are now available. You can find out more about them by clicking on my Amazon store in the sidebar (imaginatively titled "My Anime and Manga Books").
Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Fallen Angels is the novelization of the end of Gundam 00's first season, while Eureka Seven: New World Order is the third in a series of four novels that present an "alternative retelling" of the Eureka Seven story.
The Shinsengumi continue to come apart at the seams, and a new character is introduced.
Episode 17 begins with Hijikata, Chizuru, Shimada and the remaining Shinsengumi soldiers joining the old Bakufu army on the march to Aizu. Edo Castle has surrendered and the "New Government Army" has taken control of the capital city.
In Edo, Harada and the oni Shiranui meet again. Shiranui tells Harada that the oni have cut all ties with Koudou Yukimura, who has linked up with the New Government Army. More disturbingly, Koudou is planning to start a war in Edo to supply his rasetsu soldiers with the blood they require to live.
On the road to Aizu, Magistrate Keisuke Ootori introduces himself to Hijikata, at first attempting to shake his hand in the Western manner. Hijikata merely stares at him until he drops his hand. ;) Ootori is the new administrator in charge of the Bakufu army, and he gives Hijikata leadership of the main attack unit. Hijikata then assigns Shimada to a different unit, assuring him that this is because his battle experience is needed to lead that unit - and not because the Shinsengumi are being disbanded.
Hijikata expresses his anguish about losing Kondo to Chizuru, rhetorically asking "what the hell should I believe in now." He is seized by another rasetsu blood-craving fit, and this time when Chizuru offers her blood he doesn't refuse.
The Bakufu army attack a castle that has allied itself with the New Government Army, and Hijikata leads a ferocious solo charge that inspires the wavering troops to follow him. In the castle, Hijikata runs into Kazama and Amagiru. Kazama hasn't forgotten Hijikata slashing his face in their previous encounter and attacks Hijikata with a special "oni-slaying" demon sword, severely wounding him. Their fight is stopped when the castle catches on fire and begins to collapse.
The New Government Army prevails at the castle, and the Bakufu army continues on to Aizu while Hijikata remains behind in Nikko to recover from his injuries, nursed by Chizuru. Shinpachi, who has been fighting with a different unit of the Bakufu army, pays Hijikata a visit as he convalesces.
The Shinsengumi continue to lose ground in this episode, as now with Magistrate Ootori there is another layer of administration and headaches to deal with in the old Bakufu structure. Edo has fallen to the New Government Army and the new threat from Koudou and his rasetsu soldiers is brewing.
It's getting painful to watch Hijikata, who has been emotionally off-balance ever since having to abandon Kondo, and who seems to be set on burning up what's left of his life force as quickly as possible. Worst of all is the fact that he has now succumbed to drinking Chizuru's super-oni blood to quell his rasetsu blood cravings. When he cuts the back of her neck and begins to suck from the wound, he orders her not to turn around to watch him do this. The shame in his voice is palpable.
A note for the curious: I read part of a blog post on Hijikata's route from the Hakuouki otome video game (on which the anime is based). As I'm not a gamer, I didn't realize that the Hakuouki producers were actually basing the plot on the game. Well, it looks like they are - they're following Hijikata's game ending. I read just enough to spoil a little bit of what's coming soon and then stopped reading. Be advised - there are some dark moments up ahead in the series. Till next episode...
Thirty-seven Japanese manga publishers - including major ones such as Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan - are banding together to produce a joint manga portal site on the Internet for North American manga consumers and fans:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-11-12/37-japanese-publishers-to-launch-n-american-manga-portal
In addition, Digital Manga Publishing is launching the Digital Manga Guild, a collaborative venture with fans to publish manga on the Internet with the permission of the Japanese creators, and with the revenues to be shared among the creators, DMP, and the fans who do the translation, editing and lettering work.
At the very least, the announcement of these two ventures represents substantial movement on the issue of legally downloading and reading manga in the U.S. We'll see how it develops from here, but I think at least some optimism is in order. :)
Episode 16 opens with Saito following Sannan, as the rasetsu unit leader goes off in search of his nightly blood feast.
Along the way, Saito runs across the oni Amagiru, who is fighting off a rogue rasetsu soldier. When Saito cuts the rasetsu's arm off, the rasetsu dissolves into dust. Amagiru explains that he was a runaway from the Tosa Clan, and that he dissolved because his life force was used up.
He then tells Saito one of the secrets of the ochimizu: that, while it may give superhuman strength and self-healing powers, it only heightens the use of these attributes that are already present in that individual. In other words - the more a rasetsu uses his powers, the more of his natural life force he uses up and the shorter his life span. Unbeknownst to either of them, Sannan overhears this.
Later, Hijikata - having been informed of this disturbing fact by Saito - orders Sannan to stop creating new rasetsu soldiers and to end his experiments. Sannan is angry, but agrees. As the Shinsengumi's lord in Edo has been captured, Hijikata orders the Shinsengumi to move to Aizu, and sends the rasetsu unit on ahead of the main unit.
After the meeting, Hijikata and Chizuru are alone in the room when Hijikata experiences another rasetsu blood-craving attack. Chizuru tries to cut herself to give him blood, but he throws her out of the room. Once alone, he takes the medicine that Heisuke gave him to deal with the cravings.
The Shinsengumi main unit takes refuge in a sake brewery on the way to Aizu. There, Kondo is in a reflective mood and tells Chizuru that "dreams alone don't turn one into a famous general." They are interrupted by Hijikata and Shimada. Hijikata tells Kondo that the enemy has surrounded the brewery.
He offers to provide a diversion to allow the rest of them to escape, but Kondo instead orders him to escape with the others while he, Kondo, will remain behind to give himself up. Hijikata argues that even if he gives a false name that he'll be found out, but Kondo is adamant. Hijikata gets very emotional, but accepts that it's an order and that he has no choice. He recalls their beginnings together at Kondo's family's dojo. "I thought you and I would rejoice together in the end," he says.
Hijikata, Chizuru, Shimada and the other soldiers leave the brewery, and Hijikata enters rasetsu form to slay the enemy soldiers and allow everyone else to escape. In the midst of the slaughter, Chizuru approaches the scene with an unreadable expression on her face, drawing her short sword, but by the time she reaches Hijikata it's all over.
Standing in the middle of a field of corpses, Hijikata curses himself for letting Kondo be captured. "We shared the same dream," he says. Chizuru comforts him, saying that Kondo intended Hijikata to live on.
This was another very good episode, both in terms of plot development and in terms of the growing relationship between Chizuru and Hijikata. The relationship is becoming genuinely believable now, as Chizuru chooses to stay with Hijikata and the Shinsengumi even as their fortunes fall and the danger mounts, proving her loyalty to her friends and her devotion to Hijikata in particular. With Kondo out of the picture, the Shinsengumi leadership now lies solely with Hijikata, which keeps the story in line with the historical record.
I loved the moment when Chizuru walked towards Hijikata while drawing her sword. We can't tell what she's thinking - but I like to imagine that she was so moved by horror and pity at Hijikata's rasetsu condition that she was actually contemplating trying to put him out of his misery.
There are eight episodes left, but I'll make a prediction now. I predict that we'll see the brief consummation of the Chizuru-Hijikata relationship, that Hijikata will die, and that the series will end with Chizuru willingly going to Kazama. This would bring the two eastern and western oni clans together, with Chizuru serving as a humanizing force to temper Kazama's ruthless nature.
I'm predicting this because the producers have been turning Kazama into a more sympathetic figure in recent episodes. He's been amazingly patient, considering that he's the most powerful oni in Japan and could have seized Chizuru by force at any time up to now. I get the sense that he now has a grudging respect for Chizuru's loyalty to Hijikata, as much as he hates Hijikata, and that he's just waiting for the inevitable - Hijikata's death - before approaching her again. Any thoughts on this? ;) Till next episode.
Only a few people can say they were there at the beginning of web comics - and Austin Osueke is one of them.
Osueke is the Publisher/CEO of eigoMANGA, one of the first web comics publishers. Based in San Francisco, eigoMANGA is the publisher of the shonen comic anthology Rumble Pak and the shojo anthology Sakura Pakk. The publisher's latest projects include Danity Kane, a comic book series produced in association with Dawn Richard, and Alpha League, a multicultural superheroes comic for children. Osueke was the keynote speaker at Anime Expo in 2009, and recently made some time in his busy schedule to meet with me.
Q: You started eigoMANGA 10 years ago.
A: Yes. We commemorated the ten-year anniversary with a booth at the J-Pop Summit in Japantown this year, and we were also at the New York Comic Con to promote our new association with the MTV Geek site, which is an MTV portal dedicated to web comics.
Q: And both you and eigoMANGA were a web presence back when web comics were new...
A: Yes, I specifically wanted to do web comics back then. I was arguably one of the first ones to do it. Some people had a web page for their own web comics, but there wasn't any publisher or portal for aggregate back then. I started doing it, and had a lot of Flash on my site which was tough because back then a lot of people had dial-up connections - and Flash wasn't sophisticated then - there was no streaming or pulling up XTML content. Flash means big files, which not many people had the capacity in 2000 to view on their computers. College students would go to the dorms to check out our site. When Wizard did an article on us in the early days, that brought attention to our site and more people became interested in our work.
Q: Was the site monetized at first?
A: Not really. At first, we just wanted to bring the comics to the audience. Before that, in the beginning, I was an artist myself and went to conventions and showed my artwork to publishers. But there was a lot of red tape involved in working for Marvel and DC, so I decided to do it on my own and see what happened. I was in college and worked as a computer programmer and didn't think of comics as a job - but then, as I mentioned before, the site received a lot of attention after the Wizard article, and I began to take it more seriously and try to get more traffic to the site. I looked around and found some POD (print on demand) sites and put my comic images on T-shirts, and income began trickling in. It was a labor of love, both then and now. About four years in, I got even more serious and started to produce my comic books in print.
Q: Did you intend the eigoMANGA site originally as a showcase for your own work?
A: Yes. I wanted to get my comics onto a site. My initial idea was to put my own artwork on the site, but I don't think I was good enough (laughs) - and I discovered that a lot of people out there had fantastic work, so I decided to help them. When I published the first four or five artists on the site - that was fun for me.
Q: I've been a huge manga and anime fan for five years, but I know I'm not too knowledgeable on the history of the business before that. I mean, ten years ago, anime was on VHS videotapes, right?
A: Manga has been around for a while. I think Tokyopop was around back then, but under a different name. The only viable companies back then were Viz and Dark Horse. Around the late 1990s, I think Tokyopop started with Sailor Moon. And yeah, anime was just on VHS tapes. I was from Texas, where there wasn't a lot of Japanese influence. I took Japanese in high school and the teacher would bring subbed anime videotapes for us to watch. I got interested, and in college I joined the anime club and we watched a lot of anime on tape. Rice University was really supportive in that way. Anime and manga weren't mainstream then - there was no Cartoon Network, but when anime like Dragonball got nationally syndicated on TV, that's when it got noticed. It was an underground college dorms kind of thing - people would swap VHS tapes. There was no You Tube back then! (laughs)
Q: Would you say anime and manga have peaked in the U.S.?
A: In 2006, or maybe 2005, there were already concerns that the market would start to correct itself. The market was saturated and many notable Japanese producers were saying, "There's too much anime and manga out there." Pokemon helped pick up everything in 2000 - also, when Cartoon Network picked up on anime the book buyers began buying loads of books for the stores. I think 2004 was the high point. In 2005, people began questioning the market. Around 2005, 2006, Walmart got on the anime bandwagon but they didn't know very much about the industry. They didn't know the content at all - they just thought that all of it was cute and Japanese and that kids loved it. So they bought it in bulk, but didn't know what was in it. And a lot of manga - even eigoMANGA's back then - had some fairly adult content, i.e., nudity or other questionable content, and the buyers didn't look at it to discern that. They just thought manga was like American comic books, which were federally mandated from the 1960s through the early 2000s to adhere to a comics code that prohibited swearing and adult content. Japanese publishers, of course, don't have to adhere to any such code, so there was that issue - and also, the book buyers were simply buying too much. It was like, "if it's Japanese anime and manga, just buy it." Later on, people became more discriminating and realized that there were genres and sub-genres in anime and manga.
Q: Today, there are content ratings, but the publishers themselves provide them. For example, Tokyopop has a "13+" rating, that kind of thing.
A: We're all self-policing, all of us publishers. There are smart parents out there who are knowledgeable. They'll come up to me at conventions, look at my comics and ask questions. It's still a new thing, but the buyers are more knowledgeable now, and with the slowdown in the industry, they are definitely more discriminating about what they buy.
Q: That probably would have happened eventually.
A: Yes. My content back then wouldn't fly with some people. When I started out, I should have been more sensitive - or just be more aware that there were parents and kids out there...
Q: Does eigoMANGA do age ratings now?
A: Now, yes. Our primary market is schools and libraries, so we definitely screen our content for that audience. I don't do any R- or X-rated content. That's just my personal belief. I don't want to be involved with hentai, or with any content that I couldn't show to my own kids, if I had any, or to my parents.
Q: Now that the market has shifted and people have taken a step back - there's a question as to how to market and distribute the work. For example, manga for apps. It's been successful in Japan - do you see it working here?
A: In Japan, they've been reading comics on mobile phones forever. It's huge over there. It's a different culture here for reading comics on mobile devices. In the past, and in my own experience, comic readers have always been collectors. They buy a comic, keep it in mint condition, save it and hope it raises in value. It's been that way for decades, that mentality regarding physical books. I'm old school myself, I read in tangible form, but I do recognize that it's a new market with new readers. I was waiting for the right mobile device that would provide the perfect way to disseminate new comic books worldwide. I didn't want to read anything on a phone's small screen. When the PSP came out, I was like, "that's the one." It had a big enough screen and was in color, and my demographics - teens and kids - would buy it. There were 40,000 downloads of comics on the PSP back then. The iPhone is perfect - it's a perfect way to monetize comics to a large audience. As far as my demographics went, at first few teens owned an iPhone. We found a good app that you could read comics on, and that complements the iPhone in a great way, and it worked out. I didn't think I could make a lot of money with the iPhone app, I just thought it would be good for marketing - i.e., to encourage people to buy the physical book - but they could also share the comic book virally with their friends - and we found we had a lot of increased circulation and subscriptions for the physical books that came from that. When we began with the iPhone app, we didn't do a dime of ad space - but we got a lot of orders for physical books.
Q: What about manga for iPads?
A: I love the iPad, but the market is smaller for iPads. Not every teen can afford an iPad, but they've got great screens and you can do Flash tricks, all the viral features. We'll see how it goes. Everyone wants to see how well the Galaxy (by Samsung) does, and the other models out there. Digital comics are here to stay. Whether it's configuring them to be read on an iPhone or iPad, or simply to promote the physical books, it's an important aspect for every publisher.
Q: Have you tried selling your manga as ebooks?
A: Well, it's not hard to make manga books into PDFs. I've never invested much in Kindles. I think we actually have PDF options for our books, but it's hard to monetize. Our readers don't like to read comics as PDFs. A static PDF really doesn't work for comics.
Q: What do you think the future of manga and web comics will be in America, both content-wise and marketing-wise?
A: That's an interesting question...
Q: I would think that even though it's not the hugest market, that manga and anime fans in the U.S. will always continue to be fans...
A: No, actually, people do grow out of anime. I've seen it. They'll be hardcore anime fans, and then go to college and turn to being sports fans. That's great, that's natural. (laughs) It's really difficult to say right now, with the economy being the way it is at the moment. It's only the slam-dunk properties like Naruto, with proven track records, or Bleach, where there are tie-ins with TV or videogames, that are successful. The distributors and buyers aren't indie-friendly and it's harder to get indie product onto the shelves. Bookstores are closing left and right, and the anime-promoting retail stores like Suncoast and Virgin are gone now. Whoever's left is being very careful. It has to be a household name like Dragonball, or whatever. So, it's really difficult to tell. Back in 2001, Cartoon Network carried all things anime - you don't see that on CN now. On TV, they're moving away from anime now.
Q: I was surprised when Toonami went away. I was a new fan and watching a lot of streaming anime on Toonami, and then they were just gone.
A: It was a sad day for a lot of fans. They put up a goodbye message on the site.
Q: That kind of marked a turning point for anime in the U.S.
A: Yes, it definitely marked a turning point in our industry.
Q: Although now there are sites like Crunchyroll, which I'm a paid subscriber of. I think sites like Crunchyroll need to be encouraged and supported.
A: It's a great thing now. People are getting away from cable - the trend is less cable, more web TV - and computer quality is getting there. It's not the same as TV, but it's getting there. It's the perfect time for sites like Crunchyroll, and a lot of anime companies are investing in them, they're great people. I'd like to see them at trade shows more - get them before a mass audience, get them more branding presence.
Q: One of your new projects is the Danity Kane comic series. I read the first issue and really liked it. I loved the character design for Danity Kane. I have to say, it can be difficult to create a female superhero that females like as much as men. You tread a fine line with the female audience - you don't want to make the character too gorgeous or too helpless (which is bad) and alienate them. Danity is pretty and sexy, but not in a way that girls and women would feel intimidated or alienated by.
A: Thank you. That was actually Natasha McGough and Kim Ji Min who were responsible for the design. My thinking was to do her as a femme fatale (laughs) - your typical Wonder Woman or amazon type, so I'm glad that Natasha stepped in on the design aspect. Danity Kane has been a labor of love. We started off by leveraging Dawn Richard's celebrity status, but we've had trouble getting otaku into the project. People think that celebrity projects are automatically vanity projects, but this one isn't. It's an ambitious project - it doesn't reference Dawn Richard or her connection with Diddy much at all. I was taken with a comment on our Facebook page where someone said that issue no. 2 "almost made them cry." I find the R&B kids are really into it. It would be nice to see more otaku get into it. At our Danity Kane panel, very few otaku came.
Q: You need to do a crossover party with the R&B kids and the otaku...
A: I like that idea. (laughs)
Q: Any final thoughts on the industry and where it's heading...?
A: I've ridden a wave of feast or famine. It's crazy right now. I tend to look at each project as IP (intellectual property) - the main thing is the story, and the story can be adapted to animation, film, games and other business opportunities. Now I want to try to develop any anime/manga project as an IP, not just as an anime or manga. I really want to do that with Danity Kane. I love that it's a great manga piece, but it can also be an animation or a game - who knows. I still do the old school business, the licensing and whatnot. We have our first two animations coming out on Crunchyroll this December, and we're excited about that. This is a business, and also a labor of love. I can't imagine doing anything else besides this.
Q: Thank you for meeting with me.
A: Thank you.
eigoManga
I came home from Yaoicon and intended to file a report on the convention. But then I thought again about a few things I witnessed there - and have decided that discretion is the better part of keeping this blog at least somewhat professional. ;) Let's just say that: 1) Yaoicon is 18+ for a reason, and 2) what happens at Yaoicon... stays at Yaoicon.On a completely unrelated topic - while in San Francisco I interviewed Austin Osueke, publisher and CEO of eigoMANGA. I'll post the interview in the next day or two - so stay tuned.
