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!