The Coast is a local free paper published weekly here in my home-city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It’s “independent and locally owned”, publishing every thing from local news, editorials, reviews and entertainment schedules, not to mention a bevy of ads that I love for always letting me know about fun local businesses I wouldn’t otherwise discover.

Recently I began writing reviews for the paper and my first was published in this week’s edition. The Coast is available to read digitally with its full print layout online and in blog-like format, where you can directly read my review of Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight. Writing in the shorter format has been a great exercise and I’m eager to share more of my favourite titles with fellow Haligonians.

Fellow Kuriousity writer, Shannon Fay, has been writing and reviewing for The Coast for a couple years now. Her reviews have recommended plenty of great manga titles to our local comic-loving populous. You can read her reviews online at The Coast’s website as well:

GoGo Monster
Solanin
Saturn Apartments (Vol. 01)
Black Blizzard
Peepo Choo (Vol.01)
Not Love But Delicious Food Makes Me So Happy!
A Drunken Dream
No Touching At All
La Quinta Camera: The Fifth Room
A Bride’s Story(Vol. 01)

Bakuman and Wandering Son also made her picks for Top 11 Books of 2011.

From now on I’ll be doing occasional round up of reviews by Shannon and I as they’re published in The Coast. If you’re in the Halifax area, I hope you pick up copies of the print edition and enjoy all the local literary flavour!

Tokyo, November 8, 2011 – NEC BIGLOBE, Ltd. (BIGLOBE), one of Japan’s leading Internet service providers, announced today that its digital bookstore Android app “SUGOI BOOKS” has begun offering manga titles, both in native Japanese and translated into English, in Canada.

SUGOI BOOKS expands its service into the Canadian market with a library of more than 500 titles, featuring authentic manga books translated into English, and English-language comic books by IDW Publishing. Titles include: “Appleseed” by Masamune Shirow, “STOP!! HIBARIKUN!” by Hisashi Eguchi, ”Kaze No Jin” by Hiroshi Motomiya, the “TRANSFORMERS” series, the award-winning “Locke & Key” series, and the “True Blood” series. Original manga such as “Hell of the Girl”, “Rashomon”, “Hachiko”, “Portrait of Hell”, and “The Setting Sun” are also available.

To commemorate its service launch in Canada, BIGLOBE will give away 300 free tickets that can be used to buy manga chapters through Thursday, December 1 at midnight (PST) to anyone in Canada and the United States, who downloads the app and registers an account on SUGOI BOOKS.

BIGLOBE intends to achieve an annual sales of 10 billion yen in the year 2013, by expanding its manga library to 50,000 books at the end of 2012, continuing to grow global distribution by launching its bookstore around the globe, and by providing its service on multiple platforms including iPhone, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry.

SUGOI BOOKS Summary
URL:
Website: www.sugoisugoi.com
Android™ Market:

https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.ne.biglobe.topbooks.us

Available Platforms: Android 1.6 or higher.
BIGLOBE also plans to release the SUGOI BOOKS app for iPhone/iPad, Symbian, and BlackBerry.
Payment method: PayPal
Readers can purchase books with the following prepaid ticket plans:
Monthly-Purchase Tickets: $26.75 (2300　Tickets), $13.50 (1100　Tickets), 　$4.00 (310　Tickets)
Pay-As-You-Go Tickets: $26.75　(2200　Tickets), $13.50 (1050　Tickets), $7.00 (500　Tickets),　$1.40 (100　Tickets)

About NEC BIGLOBE, Ltd.
NEC BIGLOBE, Ltd. (Established in July, 2006, based in Tokyo) is a member of the NEC group, one of Japan’s leading IT companies. The company is one of the largest Internet service providers in Japan and offers a variety of networking services, content and applications, while boasting 19.56 million service users as of the end of June, 2011.

http://www.biglobe.co.jp/en

The event broke single-day records from past events with over 800 attendees processed within a couple hours of the convention opening early Friday afternoon. By the time doors closed on Sunday the organizers greeted 1268 anime and gaming fans.

“We couldn’t be happier with this year’s turnout and the money raised for the IWK. All the staff, volunteers, guests and attendees were amazing – we’re lucky to always work with such a fantastic group here in the Maritimes!”

As a non-profit organization, Animaritime’s parent group The Society for Atlantic Fan Culture, is dedicated to not only holding events in the Maritime provinces but also giving back to the community. With all proceeds of this year’s Animaritime auction and raffle going to charity, the staff raised $3256. This year’s charity funds were donated directly to the IWK Health Care Foundation.

Along with the convention’s events and panels, 2011 attendees had Canada Day fireworks and an outdoor concert to enjoy. Both were put on by the city of Moncton as part of their annual Canada Day festivities. Bonus local events, good weather and positive attendee feedback sealed the date for next year’s convention which will return to the Delta Beausjour on June 29th – July 1st, 2012.

About Animaritime

Animaritime is an annual convention held by the Society for Atlantic Fan Culture. The entirely volunteer-run event is held each year in New Brunswick, Canada. 2011′s event marked the convention’s seventh year and was held July 1st-3rd. Animaritime’s activities encompass a variety of anime and video game related events such as discussion panels, workshops, showings and tournaments. Special events such as a Garage Sale, Plushie Making, an evening dance and a specialized café are fan-favourites as well. Throughout the duration of Animaritime, local vendors offer a variety of merchandise to attendees while Animaritime’s Artist Alley allows artists and creators from across the Maritimes to promote their work and sell their creations, a fantastic assortment of talent and skill along with the colourful costumes that many of the attendees wear during their stay.

More information about Animaritime can be read at animaritime.org

For additional information please contact:
chair@animaritime.org

We survived! Another year of Animaritime is behind us, bringing with it some much needed relaxation and a heavy sadness. I miss all the staff and chatting with the attendees and even that constant hectic mental state you get in when you’re running back and forth from 8am-12am everyday. Amazing times! If you’re curious to see some pictures or read some comments, our Facebook page is very lively this year.

Special thanks to Vertical Inc‘s Ed Chavez who attended as a guest and held several great manga panels. I loved being on a panel with him and Andre for our Manga Industry panel (my first time participating in a roundtable panel) and I learned a lot from Ed’s Manga Licensing panel (for the love of manga support our publishers!).

Though most of my attention stays as a staffer, I always make time to visit the vendors. I was really happy to see there was even more manga than usual this year and came back home with a satisfying stack of goodies.

From the vendor Gamezilla (whose recently revamped store location I visited after the con ended) I got some great discounts on hard to find titles. My largest purchase was volumes 2-11 of Descendants of Darkness which I’ve been itching to reread – a supernatural story that teeters on the edge of being a boys’ love story. The switches between humour and really dark content is as strange as I remember it.

Having enjoyed the complete random of the last volume I read, I also bought Gatcha Gacha (Vol.06-07) and on some recommendations, Suppli (Vol. 02-03). Going for something newer, I bought the third volume of Afterschool Charisma.

Strange Adventures (always the Halifax store of choice!) returned as a vendor and had a bunch of manga to sift through. From there I found three volumes of Rumiko Takahashi’s One Pound Gospel, volumes 4 and 5 of Itazura na Kiss and A Drifting Life (so I can finally leave the library copy for someone else!). Lastly, despite a lacklustre feeling from the first volume, I gave Saturn Apartments another chance by buying volumes 2 and 3.

Other random purchases included two pretty art books by names I can’t read the Kanji for (thus sadly can’t tell you who they are), and a stack of old Mixx magazines because I got them for pennies and enjoy the nostalgia factor.

So yay for convention weekend! Animaritime is always a blast and somehow manages to out-do itself every year. More memories, more manga – it’s all a win-win! So what was in your swag bag this week?

The pre-con Kuriousity blank periods are upon us – sorry for the blip of blog-silence there! At least it’s the best reason for missing writing time – East Coast Canada’s anime/manga/gaming convention Animaritime 2011 is only two weeks away! As a staff member, I join the rest of the small but dedicated crew as we put the final touches on the 3-day event before it hits on Canada Day this July. The event takes place in Moncton, New Brunswick.

This year’s event has a great manga line-up including the appearance of one of our special guests – Vertical Inc‘s marketing director, Ed Chavez! I hope he has fun at our humble but lively convention; we’re very happy to have him :)

For the manga-fans, here’s a sneak-peek at our manga-related line-up this year:

Manga! Manga! Manga! – The manga panel I run each year where attendees and I talk about what manga we love to read and where in Atlantic Canada we find to read, buy and share it. It’s always fun hearing what genres and titles people are really into – it changes a lot every year!

Vertical Inc. 2012 – Ed Chavez’s panel about manga publisher Vertical Inc. and their plans for the upcoming 2012 publishing year, as well as their remaining (amazing) books due out this remaining 2011.

The Manga Industry – A panel about the manga industry today with Ed Chavez, Andre and myself hosting. It’ll be a lot of fun discussing the big changes in the industry as of late and hearing the attendees’ thoughts and questions.

Manga Licensing – Ed Chavez hosts this panel about the ins-and-outs of manga licensing for the North American market. It’s going to be a really educational look at the process that many manga readers aren’t aware of. Trust me, Ed knows his stuff!

Other events/panels I’ll be running include Shonen-Ai (all ages), Yaoi/BL (18+), Yuri and Day in the Life of an Animaritime Staffer. I’ll also be running the Garage Sale which includes my participation and a lot of manga being sold for cheap!

Fellow Kuriousity writers will be holding panels of their own too: Andre will be running Classic Anime, Anime Jeopardy and Creating/Designing Original Characters. Marsha will hosting Plushie Making, Costuming 101 and Anime Improv.

Our full event schedule and information on our main events can currently be seen on the website. I can’t wait to see all the new and familiar faces there this year!

And a semi-related reminder: I hope all Canadian anime fans have bought their tickets to Trigun this Wednesday!

Prepare to get nostalgic or witness why so many people are proud to have the story of a gun-toting pacifist as one of their first anime - Trigun: Badlands Rumble is officially coming to theatres across Canada!

“Vash the Stampede is a gunslinging, red-trenchcoat-wearing drifter with a giant bounty on his head. His biggest threat, however, may not be law enforcement, but an outlaw by the name of Gasback. Twenty years ago, Vash accidentally interefered with one of Gasback’s robberies, and now the villain’s back with a score to settle. Gasback has come to Macca City in hopes of stealing one of their major installations, and Vash has just coincidentally arrived at the same spot. Also involved in this caper are a beautiful lady with a grudge, a couple of insurance agents, and Vash’s old buddy Wolfwood. At first it seems that Gasback has succeeded, but one can never underestimate Vash’s legendary abilities—not to mention the secrets that his allies have up their sleeves.” – Cineplex

The movie will be a special one night only event on June 22nd at 7pm, local time.

Empire Theatres has confirmed with Animaritime organizers that the movie will have Japanese audio with English subtitles. Tickets through Empire Theatres will go on sale on their website tomorrow and tickets are currently available to purchase on Cineplex’s website.

You can see the full list of Canadian theatres below:

Trigun is a lot of fun so I hope everyone who’s able goes out to buy a ticket, not only for a fun time shared with fellow anime fans but also supporting more anime in Canadian theatres!

Conveniently located on Toronto’s busy (and bound to keep you even busier) Bloor St W, my roommate and I entered what we thought was just your run of the mill used book store. Never know what you can find, right? Well what we found was BMV Books – a three-floor discount bookstore with an entire floor dedicated to comic books, manga and fantasy novels.

The manga sold here is mostly overstock material, meaning it’s likely product sold to them that couldn’t be sold by either the publisher or other companies. They also sell some used material brought in to them by customers. Their selection is vast – from titles over a decade old to titles much more recent, you’ll find a little of everything and all at about 50% off the CDN cover price or less. Typically the books ranged from $3.00-$6.00, depending on the company and format.

We found books as new as the third volume of Vertical’s 7 Billion Needles and Yen Press’s Maximum Ride, to editions as old as Mixx’s Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth volumes (in surprisingly good condition too). There was something of every genre released in English, including boys’ love and yuri. First edition volumes of Fushigi Yuugi were especially nostalgic to me (my first manga GN purchases!) while I loved the opportunity to fill in my collection with some long-since out of print OEL titles from Tokyopop, NetComics titles (which I have trouble finding anywhere but conventions) and a couple ADV Manga books. All for cheap!

If you’re a manga fan who lives in or around, or is simply visiting, Toronto, then along with their assortment of comic stores, I highly recommend putting Bloor St W’s BMV Books on your list of must-shop stops.

Vertical Inc. Marketing Director To Attend Eastern Canada’s Animaritime 2011 Convention

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Moncton, NB, May 26, 2011 – Animaritime is pleased to announce that marketing director of VerticalInc., Ed Chavez, will be attending the 2011 event as a special guest.

As both a manga editor and translator, Ed Chavez has worked in the industry for years including forcompanies such as Seven Seas, CMX and the Japanese publisher, Kodansha. Since 2009 he hasbeen the marketing director of Vertical Inc., promoting the company’s varied assortment of titles. Alongwith attending conventions as a Vertical representative, Ed Chavez has also hosted panels across thecontinent for different facets of manga’s history and industry, along with holding a strong onlinepresence among manga fans.

“As a convention with an audience passionate for manga, we’re thrilled to be able to have Ed Chavezattend our event. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge about manga and the industry itself thatwe feel our attendees will really enjoy and learn a lot from.”

Ed Chavez joins graphic novel artist, Faith Erin Hicks, and anime voice actor, Spike Spencer, asguests to this year’s Animaritime convention which returns “bringing the best of Anime and Gaming toAtlantic Canada” after a one year hiatus in 2010.

About Vertical Inc.

Vertical Inc. is a publishing company specializing in Japanese novels and manga. Based in New Yorkcity, Vertical was launched in 2001 and has since licensed over twenty manga series. The company is known for its strong support of classic manga titles including a vast library of titles by the ‘God of Manga’, Osamu Tezuka. The company’s most recent licenses include the long anticipated Princess Knight and the series, Drops of God, which had a worldwide effect on the wine industry during it soriginal publication run.

More information about Vertical Inc. can be read at vertical-inc.com

About Animaritime

Animaritime is a volunteer-run convention held annually in New Brunswick. This year’s event marksthe convention’s seventh year and will be held July 1st-3rd. The conventions encompasses a variety ofanime and video game related events such as discussion panels, workshops, showings andtournaments. Special events such as a Garage Sale, Plushie Making, an evening dance and aspecialized café are fan-favourites as well. Throughout the duration of Animaritime, local vendors offera variety of merchandise to attendees while Animaritime’s Artist Alley allows artists and creators fromacross the Maritimes to promote their work and sell their creations, a fantastic assortment of talent andskill along with the colourful costumes that many of the attendees wear during their stay.

More information about Animaritime can be read at animaritime.org

For additional information please contact:chair@animaritime.org

Toronto, ON (May 26, 2011) – Fan Expo Canada™, the country’s largest gaming, horror, comic, science fiction and anime event, today announced its highly anticipated lineup of anime guests appearing at the ever popular CNAnime Expo from August 25 – 28, 2011. Anime luminaries include Canadian and international voice actors from such smash hit shows as Fullmetal Alchemist, Pokémon, Death Note, Dragon Ball Z and Bakugan.

For four days only, CNAnime Expo will give visitors the opportunity to participate in fun-for-all anime games and activities such as Name that Tune and Anime Karaoke; as well as contests, workshops, seminars and chance to meet with their favourite industry professionals, one-on-one!

CNAnime Celebrity Guests Include:
COLLEEN CLINKENBEARD – Star of RIN – Daughters of Mnemosyne
JASON DELINE – Star of Bakugan
CAITLIN GLASS – Star of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
MIKE MCFARLAND – Star of Dragon Ball Z
SHAWN MEUNIER – Star of Bakugan
VIC MIGNOGNA – Star of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
JUNKO MIZUNO – Acclaimed manga artist
BRINA PALENCIA – Star of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can [Not] Advance
CHRIS SABAT – Star of Dragon Ball Z
MICHAEL SINTERNIKLAAS – Star of Summer Wars and Slayers
BRAD SWAILE – Star of Death Note
VERONICA TAYLOR – Star of Pokémon

Key Features and Highlights of the CNAnime Expo:

· Anime Karaoke Party
· Anime Name That Tune Game Show
· Anime Win, Lose or Draw Game Show
· Free Autograph Sessions – meet and seek autographs from professional anime creators
· Q & A Sessions – ask the questions you have always wanted to ask the experts
· Small Press Pavilion – this Indy Market features local independent comic books, zines, manga and other related publications
· Celebrity Guest Speakers – live presentations by your favourite anime celebs
· Workshops and Seminars – learn about working in the anime industry
· Canada’s largest Masquerade on Saturday, Aug. 27th – dress up as a popular anime character and compete
· 600 commercial exhibitors and retailers will offer everything from gold and silver comics, graphic novels, toys, games, videos, DVDs, artwork, posters and more

For a 17th consecutive year, visitors from across Ontario and around the world will have the opportunity to experience the very best of pop culture first-hand at the upcoming 2011 Fan Expo Canada™. In addition to CNAnime, the country’s largest combined event will include The GX- the Canadian National Gaming Expo The Canadian National Comic Book Expo, Festival of Fear Horror Expo and The SFX Science Fiction Expo.

SHOW DETAILS:

WHEN: AUGUST 25- 28, 2011

Thursday, August 25 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm (Special Preview)
4:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Friday, August 26 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Saturday, August 27 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Sunday, August 28 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

WHERE: Metro Toronto Convention Centre South Building
222 Bremner Blvd, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

For more information visit, www.fanexpocanada.com

Quick update today to announce that after having an easy-to-do forwarder set up to make our .ca work as a domain, as of today Kuriousity is officially fully hosted at kuriousity.ca!

There’s still a forwarder in place to automatically send all old kuri-ousity.com to their corresponding page here on kuriousity.ca so there shouldn’t be any problem with broken links. That said, if you come across any link issues (be they on the site or from elsewhere) let me know!

Shifting the site over to our new .ca address is step one of a little revamp Kuriousity is getting. There’re some changes to the layout coming (nothing too huge but it’s about time for a fresh coat of paint!) so I’d like to take this opportunity to put out the question for visitors – is there a particular feature you’d like to see? A change to the layout that would make things easier for you? Leave me a comment or send an e-mail my way.

All proceeds of annual auction to be donated to IWK Health Centre Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Moncton, NB, May 13, 2011 – Animaritime, the Maritime provinces’ premiere anime and gaming convention , is proud to announce that all proceeds of their annual Animaritime auction will be donated to the IWK Health Centre Foundation.

Animaritime’s auction is one of the conventions most well attended events. With lively volunteer hosts and an enthusiastic audience, the event sees anime and gaming related items auctioned off in a live bidding environment. Material bid on in the auction are donated by sponsors, vendors and attendees and include books, DVDs and signed merchandise from beloved creators and industry members. The auction is open to all attendees of Animaritime.

“The IWK is an important part of our region and the IWK Foundation is a great charity that allows us to support their work. They do a huge number of works throughout the Maritimes, and all of Canada, and we’re very proud to be a part of that.”

As a non-profit event, one hundred percent of all money raised at this year’s Animaritime auction will be given directly to the IWK Health Centre for supporting care given to children and their families across the Maritimes.

About IWK Health Centre
The IWK Health Centre provides quality care to women, children, youth and families in the Maritime provinces and beyond. In addition to providing highly specialized (tertiary) care, the IWK also provides primary care services. The IWK is engaged in leading-edge research; works to promote healthy lifestyles for families; and supports education opportunities for health professionals and other learners. The IWK takes pride in providing safe, high quality care to the populations they serve and making a positive difference in people’s lives while contributing to a culture of inclusion and diversity.

More information can be read at iwk.nshealth.ca/

About Animaritime
Animaritime is a volunteer-run convention held annually in New Brunswick. This year’s event marks the convention’s seventh year and will be held July 1st-3rd. The conventions encompasses a variety of anime and video game related events such as discussion panels, workshops, showings and tournaments. Special events such as a Garage Sale, Plushie Making, an evening dance and a specialized café are fan-favourites as well. Throughout the duration of Animaritime, local vendors offer a variety of merchandise to attendees while Animaritime’s Artist Alley allows artists and creators from across the Maritimes to promote their work and sell their creations, a fantastic assortment of talent and skill along with the colourful costumes that many of the attendees wear during their stay.

More information about Animaritime can be read at animaritime.org

For additional information please contact:
chair@animaritime.org

Sunday at Toronto Comics Art Fest had a spotlight panel for special guest and manga artist, Usamaru Furuya. I was present for the interview which was conducted by TCAF’s director, Christopher Butcher. Like my Natsume Ono post, I wasn’t able to record the interview (though in this instance it was lack of means instead of lack of permission) so the write-up below is done in paragraph format with just a few direct quotes. I hope it still proves even half as interesting to readers here as it was for those of us there!

Warning: Some images in article are intended for older audiences only.

“After graduating from Tama University of the Arts, Tokyo native Usamaru Furuya turned his attention to the world of comics. Since his debut in 1994, he has gone on to draw sixteen titles. First translated into English in the nineties before the onset of the manga boom, he won an expectant cult following in the United States that is being rewarded only today with a new spate of localizations.” (Creator bio from Vertical Inc.)

Chris was a fantastic host who had a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm for Usamaru Furuya’s work. He started the spotlight with a short history of Furyra’s earlier works, notably the now out of print in English Short Cuts. He then opened the floor to Furuya speaking about his works.

Usamaru Furuya wrote the shorts published in the Secret Comics Japan anthology (now out of print in English) when he was twenty-four years old. He drew manga when he was a kid but stopped as he grew older. Because of this he found suddenly going back to trying comics was difficult so he started with 4-koma style works becase of the simplicity of the four boxes. He didn’t really set out to make 4-koma comics, it was just easiest. The style of it was so simple however that he liked he got away with calling his artwork ‘minimalistic’.

Usamaru Furuya went to art university for theatre panel studies. Around this time he was asked by his editor to create Short Cuts which is the work that forced him to learn how to leave the 4-koma style. He was still stuck in tight panels though.

In his work, Garden, there’s a few pages that are sealed shut. A reader needs to cut them apart in order to read them. The content inside was so violent that they wanted to give readers the option to read them. As Usamaru Furuya said “if you get nauseous, you could stop.”. Usamaru Furuya says he doesn’t really think about his works in advance and “lets instinct write it”. He admits he felt very stressed about himself personally when writing Garden and was still scared of panelling. He did feel much better about leaving the 4-koma style behind him once Garden was finished however. He’s very thankful to his editors at the time for helping him reach that point.

Chris then asked Usamaru Furuya about how he draws very pretty people and how works look so different. His work Flowery is drawn in a very painting-like style and notably varies from the sharper look of his other series. What influences these changes in his art? Usamaru Furuya said he wasn’t conscious of the change: “When I think about drawing comics, when the story changes, the art style changes with it.”

Lychee Light Club was inspired a lot by underground theatre and by one of his favourite underground artists at the time (Lissa’s note: I was unsure of the artist’s name so opted to not try and add it here inaccurately). He found he mimicked the artist’s style with Lychee Light Club as a form of respect. Usamaru Furuya believes that his book Flowers is much more representative of his actual personal style.

The work No Longer Human has a different kind of art style as well, according to Christopher Butcher. Usamaru Furuya shared what the book is about including that it’s based on a Japanese novel series. The story takes place in a contemporary world about a young man whose life is spiralling into darkness and depression. Again Usamaru Furuya says he wasn’t conscious of the art style changing but did want his work on the series to reflect the original story’s mood and theme. He wanted it to be more realistic: “… more shadows, more real.”

Usamaru Furuya says that he sees how some manga artists change their art styles with each book while others always stay the same. He refers to himself as “like a chameleon” with it comes to drawing different works.

Chris noted that he’s always felt Usamaru Furuya is, as an artist, never afraid to stop the story and show what’s going on with him as a creator. He uses an example from Short Cuts where the character representing Usamaru Furuya enters the scene to complain about how frustrating creating nine panel pages is. “I want to draw a big picture!” – Short Cuts. Then on the next page there’s a huge detail-heavy, full page spread. Usamaru Furuya admitted he was very tired when he was drawing Short Cuts, especially that particular page. “I was tired of drawing the panels.” He drew himself in the story to relieve the stress. “Thinking back, I was kind of selfish. Selfish, but honest.”

When asked if he wanted readers to really see his process instead of just the actual story (with instances like these), Usamaru Furuya said he never means to show himself in his work, “… it just happens.” It’s something else he admits he’s not really conscious of when it happens but feels he’s a much stronger person now that he can create a work where he doesn’t involve himself.

Usamaru Furuya answered that his favourite work is always the one he’s working on at the time. Currently he’s working on a title for Shonen Jump with a series similar to Genkaku Picasso so that’s his favourite right now. Along with that series, he’s also working simultaneously on a comic for Erotics F. It’s a story taking place in the middle-ages in France where children are battling. It’s aptly called Children’s Crusade. He just recently finished No Longer Human.

In regards to his working enviroment, Usamaru Furuya works with assistants and shared his busy work schedule:

Usamaru Furuya says he’s done this same work schedule for the past ten years. Prior to that he simply didn’t have any assistants but worked as hard. Chris was sure to thank him for interrupting his busy schedule to attend!

Chris said that Usamaru Furuya’s work 51 Ways To Save Her (which was originally licensed by CMX but fell through when the company shutdown), has grown in popularity after the recent tragedy in Japan. Chris wanted to know if Usamaru Furuya would change anything about the story in light of what happened. 51 Ways To Save Her is about two characters who experience a huge earthquake in Tokyo and must try and make it home. Usamaru Furuya notes there was no tsunami in his story and no nuclear crisis which he believes is one of the hugest impacts of the recent disaster. Specifically he laments the effects it’s having on people across the Pacific. He says he now knows much more about earthquakes, about how when and where the quake hits can have an effect on the results. His descriptions ranged from the creation of tsunamis to the potential smell of rotting corpses caused by any quake that would happen in the summer. He remains very shaken and sad about the natural disaster and says that he may feel comfortable enough to revisit the concept with his new knowledge in about 10 years. Usamaru Furuya says he was able to write 51 Ways To Save Her at the time because Japan was in “a time of peace” so he didn’t feel guilty about it, though that would be very different today.

Moving onto more light-hearted territory before opening the floor to attendee questions, Chris asked if Usamaru Furuya speaks to people around the world about his works. Usamaru Furuya responded that “I don’t hear much from foreign countries. I very rarely receive e-mail… When making comics I don’t mean to make it for the world. I make it for one person – I think: is that particular person happy about what I’m writing? Is it funny or interesting? If they think so, the world does to. It’s universal.” He followed up by admitting the person he was referring to was himself in high school.

An audience member asked Usamaru Furuya about his work Plastic Girl. The book is a story told with a variety of different materials for the artwork. The different mediums included wood, cloth, japanese-style paper, photography, stones, stained glass, holes in walls, melted iron and cardboard boxes, among others. Usamaru Furuya said “I wanted to be free of the paper.” The story itself is about a girl who wanted to be an adult and get away from childhood. There’s an escape theme between the plot and Usamaru Furuya wanting to escape paper. He said Plastic Girl was a lot of fun but he’d never do it again. Plus it was very expensive.

When asked how Usamaru Furuya would describe his character Picasso (from Genkaku Picasso) from the perspective of being a high school art teacher, he responded with what he found about teenagers when he taught art (neat fact!). “Kids don’t normally show their expressions, especially to teachers.” He found it very hard to give advice to students and believes he’d find it the same with Picasso. That said, he believes “…if I can teach how to draw to a serious art student, I think it would reduce one kind of his suffering.”

In follow-up, he was asked how he would interact with Picasso as a friend. Usamaru Furuya admits that Picasso was himself. He said he painted and drew a lot in highschool and didn’t have many friends. “I thought I’d be popular with girls if I could paint well… it never happened.” Eventually he did find friends through his painting. Today he is making comics and travelling the world because of it so he believes Picasso would be very happy with this future.

Because of the heavy horror nature of his stories, someone asked if there are horror stories/movies that inspire him. Usamaru Furuya answered that he used to watch a lot of horror films though doesn’t watch them anymore. He believes as a young adult he was looking for that kind of stimulation but not since he’s grown up. He was also inspired by the works of Kazuo Umezu (Drifting Classrom).

Lastly, Furuya was asked what he thought of the use of the internet for cartooning. In response, Furuya held up a printed screenshot of his webcomic website where he’s posting the prequel to Lychee Light Club. He says the idea of posting his new work online was originally his idea and he approached his editor about it. He enjoys that people can leave comments on the pages. Having been envious of comedians who get an immediate reaction to their craft (ie: laughter), Furuya wanted to experience the same instantaneous response by using the internet. He’s gotten very good responses about his comic and that makes him very happy, plus he believes he’s learning a lot from it. Furuya said he told Natsume Ono she should join him online.

And that was it! Usamaru Furuya was very honest with what he said and the answers he gave to questions. I really enjoyed his panel and hope that he had a good time here in Canada and at TCAF. My thanks to Furuya, his translator and Christopher Butcher for the informative interview.

Natsume Ono was a special guest at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Fest and on Saturday there was a special interview session hosted by About.com’s Manga Specialist Deb Aoki. While no recording was allowed, I did take some notes and I’ve done my best to put the neat facts and information together here for the Natsume Ono curious. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to provide any quotes because of the recording rule so apologies for the choppy paragraphing. Those disclaimers aside – enjoy!

“Natsume Ono made her professional debut in 2003 with the webcomic La Quinta Camera. Her subsequent worksnot simple, Ristorante Paradiso, and Gente (a continuation of Ristorante Paradiso) met with both critical and popular acclaim. In 2009 Ristorante Paradiso was adapted into a TV anime series. Her current series House of Five Leaves(Saraiya Goyou), also adapted into a TV anime series in 2010, is running in IKKI magazine.” (Creator Bio from SigIkki.com)

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Prior to becoming a manga artist, Natsume Ono was an office worker at a parts factory. She had no formal art training before persuing her new career.

Living ten months in Italy provided her with the inspiration for several of her manga series (notably Ristorante Paradiso) and she attributes the anatomy of her characters, with features such as high noses, to the Italians she observed there. While in Italy, Natsume Ono attended comic-making classes and enjoyed the chance to socialize and see how large the pool of talent and publishers in the country was.

When asked if the characters of her Ristorante Paradiso and Gente stories were based on actual people she’d met while there, Natsume Ono said no. However her series Quinto Camera had characters based on a teacher in Italy and a fellow art student. Interestingly, this series originated as a webcomic.

Some of Natsume Ono’s earliest work is collected in the anthology-style book, Tesoro. She wrote half of the stories prior to living in Italy and the second half upon returning. This one-shot book is due out from Viz Media later this summer.

Natsume Ono always wished she could travel to different countries but recently has wanted to travel around Japan more to learn about her own country. Her trip to TCAF is not only her first time in Canada but also her first public speaking event.

When asked if she enjoys writing about older characters specifically, Natsume Ono answered that she finds it very fun. She likes that when writing about older characters there’s a lot more history to reveal and life experiences the characters have to draw on.

A number of her series were shown on a projector during the presentation including two series based on the subject of police in New York city: Danza and Coppers. The series’ focus is more on the friendship between the officers and their relationships with their family while the crime solving aspects of police work plays out in the background. Neither of these series have been licensed in English.

In regards to inspiration for her police officer dramas, Natsume Ono has never lived in New York but did visit it to research the manga. She really enjoys American crime dramas however and was inspired predominantly by these. Though the series were finished at one volume, she would like to go back and create a “season two” someday after doing more extensive research to show New York city more accurately.

Her work not simple was drawn prior to her time in Italy. Her friends had questioned her choice to expand the story past it’s original one chapter but her editor at the time wanted more of the story. Natsume Ono says she rarely gets feedback or criticism from readers but does often hear from friends close to her.

When working on House of Five Leaves, Natsume Ono was inspired by period dramas she liked watching on TV. In hindsight she regrets having a samurai story with so little movement and sword usage. She liked doing another story about male friendship however and it’s her preferred theme for stories. She enjoys that friendship between men is different from friendship between females and writes about it “longingly”, liking the strong camedry that can form between two men.

Her newest series is done in a story-telling style similar to not simple but has a setting closer to that of House of Five Leaves. This currently on-going series – Tsuratsura Waragi – is less romanticized than House of Five Leaves with more research done and more accurate representations of the era. Natsume Ono said House of Five Leaves came predomiantly from her imagination in terms of characters’ ranks and society.

In terms of creating her artwork, Natsume Ono works alone with no assistants. She currently draws her characters on paper then scans them into the computer where she digitally draws the backgrounds and text bubbles. She’s not sure how long it takes her to do a single page but estimates she completes around one chapters’ worth a week.

When asked what kind of genre she’d like to make a manga about, Natsume Ono answered fantasy (Lissa note: which would be great to see!). In follow-up someone asked if she played video games to which Natsume Ono said she was too bad at playing video games to get past any levels.

An attendee asked if there was the possibility of her doing boys’ love work in the future. Natsume Ono said if she felt like it someday it could happen but currently she has no plans for it. If she did, she would definitely use another name though. Fun fact: Natsume Ono has actually already created a few boys’ love series under the name basso. You can read about those works in an informative post over at the Manga Curmudgeon.

Natsume Ono said she loved seeing her characters moving in the anime versions of Ristorate Paradiso and House of Five Leaves with the latter being her favourite. Currently she says there are no plans to adapt her other works.

When asked if she read manga as a kid, she said her Father read a lot and in turn bought it for her. She admits she didn’t read much age-appropriate material though and some of her favourites included the cooking manga Oishinbo (which has had some compilation versions published by Viz Media) and Cooking Papa.

And that was about it! It was nice being able to attend the event and hear Natsume Ono share the info about herself and her works. She was shy but answered the questions honestly and seemed very kind – my thanks to her for attending and I hope she enjoyed herself!

It’s been a busy last few days since my roommate and I arrived in Toronto early Thursday morning. We’ve spent every waking moment since walking up and down the grid-street systems of Toronto exploring any comic store we could find, peeking into many a store that just looked interesting and nursing sore feet while trying to find the next delicious place to try something new to eat. Of course there was the comic artist extravaganza known as Toronto Comics Art Fest going on as well today!

I’ll say this as a tourist – Toronto is an amazing city. It has its share of big-city problems that I could certainly do without (nasty amounts of people smoking in doorways, huge crowds of people who always seem to be in a hurry for something, and a tricky transit system in particular) but get past all that and you’ve got a neverending supply of little shops, weird discoveries and a million things to spend your money on and not regret a penny of it.

A good bulk of the trip involved visiting local comic stores. I took a few notes after each one based on my experiences there to add to my Canadian manga-resources page. If curious about the good, the bad, the ugly and the awesome, you can pop over there to the Ontario section.

Of course a combination of my local comic store on Wednesday before the trip, a variety of comic stores visited and a full day of spelunking TCAF meant I’ve already gotten a bunch of great things to read. At the end of this weekend there will be an especially lengthy Swag Bag post about the purchases made so far (and my glowing recommendations of many), including a guest appearance from my roommate and fellow traveler, MTCopyright.

As for TCAF itself, the amount of artists present is amazing and there’s so much talent stuffed into that library it’s amazing there’s even room in there for the hundreds (if not thousands?) of people who browsed them today. Manga artists Usamaru Furuya and Natume Ono were also present at the event and I enjoyed being able to hear them both speak. I learned a lot of interesting and amusing facts about Natsume Ono and really admired the subtle but strong confident air Usamaru Furuya  had to him as he spoke about inspirations for his work. If curious to know more about Natsume Ono’s RSVP-only panel, I’ll be doing up a little post about it after TCAF. (Edit: Now posted!)

Lastly (for now!) my special thanks go to Chris Butcher (TCAF Organizer), Ed Chavez (Advertising Director for Vertical) and Deb Aoki (Panel Host) for making the event an extra-special one!

I’m off to Toronto Comics Art Fest in a few hours! With many an artist to hunt down and all their snazzy art to oogle and buy (including manga artist Natsume Ono and Usamaru Furuya), I’m super excited to hit the library floor running! That and I’ll be spending a week in Toronto seeking out comic stores new and old. Expect some updates to the Oh Canada! section after this.

Going to TCAF? Let me know! I’d love to meet up with people.

On a quick site note, expect some big, big changes coming to Kuriousity in the near-ish future but in the meantime, a little change has been made to the commenting system to allow me some peace. Upon reaching an average of 2000+ spam comments a day, I finally realized it was about time I installed a plug-in to combat it. All those who comment must now enter a simple system of letters/numbers so Kuriousity knows you’re not a spambot. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes but I think it’ll be much more beneficial in the long-run with less lost comments and less time spent deleting spam.