Archive for the Interview Category


‘By Your Side’ Interview at Kinokuniya NYC

December 2nd, 2022

This week, I had the incredible pleasure of being interviewed a Kinokuniya NYC in midtown New York City. I cannot begin to tell you how much fun this was! Thanks so much to everyone at the store, especially Ariel, the interviewer. We held the interview right as people walked into the store, so we had quite an audience. I signed some books – and even had a few folks there pick some up. Thanks to the folks who came by!

Once again, I’ll ask you to give this video a watch and a “like” on the Kinokuniya Youtube Channel. It helps them and lets them know that they made a good choice to have me. ^_^ Here’s the whole interview:

 

 

If you’d like to share some shorter clips, they also had me do a pitch for my book… ^_^

 

…and then read a short segment.

 

Please feel free to share any of these and comment on YT! Thank you all for making By Your Side a success and thanks again to everyone at Kinokuniya NYC and Kinokuniya USA for their support.

You can find By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga at Kinokuniya, online or at bookstores near you!





Interview With inori, Creator of I’m In Love With the Villainess

April 16th, 2022

I'm in Love With the Villainess Light Novel Volume 1Hello and welcome to an exciting interview. Today we welcome inori-sensei, creator of the I’m in Love With the Villainess series.

Over the years, I’ve been pleased to have interviewed some extraordinary creators here on Okazu. I’m especially pleased today because  ILTV, is a ground-breaking series. Riding the wave of isekai popularity, this series takes time to talk about very real issues in queer lives in Japan, and how queer folks have to deal with those issues.

It’s especially exciting to me that Comic Yuri Hime is running the manga of this series and choosing to engage with those issues. I’ve been reading Yuri for a long time, and it finally feels like CYH is ready to talk about queer people – and, even more importantly, show us in the Yuri stories we love.. ^_^

I hope you will please welcome inori-sensei with a warn Okazu welcome!

 

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Q1: Please Tell Us About Yourself

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I: Thank you for giving me this valuable opportunity. My name is inori, the author of I’m in Love with the Villainess. (ILTV)

 

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Q2: How did you become a writer? Was it something you wanted to do since you were young?

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I'm in Love With the Villainess Light Novel Volume 2I:  My becoming a writer was rather accidental. For health reasons, I was always taking care of my parents in a state close to being a NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training), but the novel I wrote as a hobby was published commercially, and as a result I got a job as a writer.

…Even so, I have always wanted to be a writer since I was a student, and I have applied for a newcomer award sponsored by a light novel publisher.

The first time I applied, my work came in third for a fairly large award. “Maybe I have the aptitude” is what I have always thought.

Now that I can manage to eat just by writing, I’m really glad I can do that.

 

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Q3: Why did you begin writing Yuri?

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I:  There is no particular reason for me to write Yuri work; for some reason, when I try to write something, it naturally becomes a relationship between women. I have written a heterosexual story with a male protagonist, but it didn’t quite fit.

 

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Q4: Which artists have influenced you?

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I'm in Love With the Villainess Light Novel Volume 3I:  I’m not familiar with so-called general literary arts, but I’ve been reading light novels since I was a junior high school student. In particular, the work of a light novel writer named Shinobu Saeki has had a huge impact on me. She’s quite different from me in her style, but if I hadn’t read her work, I would never have been a writer like this now. Her work is still cherished on my bookshelf and I read it again from time to time.

 

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Q5: If you were not a novelist what kind of work would you be doing?

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I:  To be honest, I’m not very strong, so it would be quite difficult to work outside of being a writer. If ILTV hadn’t been published, I would still be dependent on my parents.

Since the world is a big place, I think I might have been able to so some kind of work but, in any case, I think I would have been forced to live a poorer life than I am now.

 

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Q6: Please tell us a little about your creative process. How long does it take to write a chapter?

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I:  As a commercial writer, my writing speed is uneven, and the time it takes to write one chapter is extremely unstable.

In the case of ILTV and She’s Such a Cheeky Commoner (SSCC), one chapter is about 30,000 to 40,000 characters in Japanese, but one chapter might have taken one week at the fastest and three months at the slowest. The maximum number of characters I have written in one day is about 100 sheets of 400-character manuscript paper.

 

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Q7: You began writing webnovels, ILTV is now a manga and a print novel. Can you tell us how it felt becoming popular?

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I'm in Love With the Villainess Light Novel Volume 4I:  At the beginning, ILTV seemed to be more popular overseas than in Japan. The very first commercial publication was, of course, in Japan, but it was only an ebook and was not well known, and sales were not particularly good.

After a while, English-speaking people such as Jingle and Angela, and Korean-speaking people such as 와타 오시 번역 did fan translation, and the readers who read them formed a fandom and supported them. Thanks to you, it has become more popular overseas.

These fandoms worked with publishers to release print novels in South Korea and then in North America. ILTV is now translated in 8 countries around the world. Against the background of this popularity, Comic Yuri Hime decided to serialize it – a great manga  with the power of a wonderful manga artist named Aonoshimo-sensei. As a result, it seems that the popularity of the series in Japan is gradually increasing, and in 2021 it was ranked 5th in the “Manga Ranking I Want to See Animated” at Anime Japan, one of the largest anime-related events in Japan.

At the end of last year, a long-awaited print novel in Japan was also released. In this way, the existence of ILTV is due to the fandom who supports me both at home and abroad. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all again.

 

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Q8: Many fans wrote in to ask a question: How do you come up with ideas for characters? Fans were especially interested in the Demon Queen.

(This answer contain slight spoilers for Volume 5 of the series)

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Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyak Reijou, Volume 5I:  I think it’s a famous story for everyone who sees this interview, but the main character Rae has a model. My partner is Aki-san. She’s a very humorous person, so my first motivation was that I thought it would be fun to write a novel with such a person as the main character.

The next character to be born was Claire, who was in line with the genre of “villainess” that was used on the novel posting site Syousetsuka ni Narou (Let’s Become a Novelist) at that time. However, I didn’t think it would be fun for her to simply be a villain, so she was written as a character with conviction and aesthetics as a villain. Many of the other characters were created due to the needs of the story.

The Demon Queen you asked about was created as the most suitable character for writing Chapter 17 “The Truth of the World”. As a prototype, there was “Demon Queen” that appeared in my other work that was not released, but Demon Queen of ILTV was created as a character who burns themselves up from a love without salvation. The idea is that there is a gadget called “Looping World” came first, and from that gadget was born a cast that functions most effectively for the story, that is, “Daemon Queen” of ILTV.

 

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Q9: Do you read any Yuri? What kind of series do you read? ——————————————————————————————–

I:  I may not have read as much as you can imagine, but I think I have read a fair amount. I  read Maria-sama ga Miteru, which is famous as a classic, Bloom Into You, which sparked the recent Yuri boom, and Revolutionary Girl Utena in the old days.

Recently, I’m paying attention to The Demon Girl Next Door (まちカドまぞく, which is streaming on HIDIVE) by Izumo Ito. At first glance, it’s a loose four-frame manga, but in reality, it’s a very readable manga with a bold story hidden in the base. The second season of the anime The Demon Girl Next Door 2-chome (まちカドまぞく 2丁目) will also be broadcast this season, so please pay attention to it.

 

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 Q10: Do you have anything you’d like to ask your overseas fans?

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I would like to ask you: What do you want from the ILTV series and me?

Especially for the former, I sometimes hear requests for a promotional video, CD drama, animation, etc., but I haven’t really reached out to know how many of those voices are. I would be grateful if you could send what you want from the ILTV series to the Yuri Hime editorial department and GL Bunko. Here is the contact information, so please do not hesitate to contact them when your time and passion allow:

Yuri Hime editorial department: https://ichijinsha.co.jp/inquiry/yurihime/

 (Enter your name, email address, type of inquiry (* opinions / requests to the editorial department), inquiries from the top Contents) The form looks like this:

And you can write GL Bunko here: info@glnovel.com

 

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Q11: Your series has been translated in to many languages. Do you have a message for overseas fans?

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Thank you for your continued support. I’m really happy that “your support” is not a metaphor or mere flattery. There is a line in the commercial of the famous Japanese painkiller Bufferin that “half of Bufferin is made of kindness,” but, definitely “half of inori is made with the support of fans.”

ILTV Has come to a close, SSCC will continue a little longer. I would like to try new works, so please continue to support me.

***

Thank you very much Sensei! I have written Comic Yuri Hime to tell them I would like an ILTV anime, and I hear that a lot of other people have done that, as well. We will continue to ask for that and other media. And of course support any new projects you start.

 

If readers want to offer direct support, also please consider subscribing to inori-sensei on Pixiv Fanbox: https://inori-0.fanbox.cc/.

And of course, you can support I’m in Love With the Villainess by buying both the light novels and manga from legitimate sources. Volume 5 of the Light Novels is on the way in late summer from Seven Seas! I can’t wait for you to read it. ^_^





Interview with Color_LES (Kuru,) Creator of Mage and Demon Queen

March 29th, 2020

In the last few years, online comic platforms have made an incredible impact on the Yuri fandom, Comics from Japan, Korea, Thailand, China and the Philippines have all made huge impressions on fans worldwide through Webtoons, Lezhin, Pixiv and other platforms. Among these popular Yuri comics is Mage & Demon Queen by Color-LES (Kuru).

Mage & Demon Queen is action-comedy-romance story in RPG fashion. Young, but powerful, mage Mallori keeps attacking the Demon Queen’s tower, because only by defeating the Demon Queen can she become the Queen’s lover.  MDQ has been among the top comics on the Webtoons platform in the Fantasy category and overall and today

Today, I am thrilled to bring you an interview with Mage & Demon Queen creator Color_LES (Kuru)! Please give her a warm Okazu welcome. ^_^

 

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O: You’ve been drawing Yuri manga style comics for some years now. I remember coming across World Canvas back in 2015. Can you tell us about how you got into drawing Yuri? What was your “first”? ^_^
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CL: It was a high school classmate who introduced me to Yuri. We were casually talking about anime, and when I asked her if she knows what Yaoi is, she said, “Yuri is better!”

I had no idea what Yuri was, so she told me that I should look it up online.

…And so, I did. What turned up in the search results stunned me! Girls liking girls? That hits close to home. I was so perturbed by my discovery that I had dreamt of Yuri that night. When I woke up, I knew I was already hooked. LOL

My first Yuri was Kannazuki no Miko. I relied on what’s available in Youtube for my Yuri fix. Strawberry Panic was also there, but I preferred KnM for its action and fantasy elements. I grew up watching Shounen anime with my brothers, so it’s what had appealed to me.

At that time, I had never imagined that I’d end up drawing Yuri for a living. I’ve always aspired to be a manga artist, but I didn’t give much thought as to what genre I’d focus on. I just wanted to create something “cool” that’d be a huge hit, like Naruto and other Shonen Jump titles. When my fascination for Yuri grew however, I did want to draw Yuri— but I was held back by my fear of being outed as a lesbian.

In 2013, Black Ink Comics, a local publisher, wanted some manga-style romance. I saw this as the opportunity to be the first to publish a Boys’ Love manga in my country (it had less of a risk of me being outed than Girls’ Love), but when I asked if they accept same-sex romance stories, they said they weren’t ready for those. The year after that, Black Ink released their first BL comic, which was a shock, to say the least. While I was upset that the chance to publish BL had slipped past me, it also dawned on me that they’d probably accept GL stories as well. I was still scared of being outed, but I went through with it anyway and that’s how World Canvas, my first Yuri comic, came to be.

I came out a few months after my book did, and the support I’ve gotten is absolutely heartwarming. I’m able to create what I love now and looking back at what I did, I’m happy.

 

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O: We’re happy, too. For you and for us! Let’s talk about Mage and Demon Queen. It’s been a big hit since it launched on LINE Webtoons officially in 2018. I know *I’m* a big fan because it’s such a fun spin on an RPG. ^_^ What were some of the things the story has done that you didn’t expect?
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CL:This sounds grim, but I didn’t expect it to make me physically ill. I knew doing a weekly series would be stressful, but I didn’t think that it would reach the point of making me sick. It was sure a learning experience, but I’m taking care of myself now and I’ve learned delegate some of the work to others. I want to be able to continue making comics for a long time, after all.

Besides that, the comic brought me many good and unexpected things, too! I was happy that it got an official Webtoon translation in French and Spanish. And It helped me catch the attention of people I admire and respect. Doing this interview is also something I’ve never would’ve expected, haha.  

 

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O: That’s definitely part of the journey, knowing what to let go of. What’s your process? How long does it take you to drawn an issue?
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CL: It takes me 5-6 days to finish an episode. I start with a storyboard, then I have my proofreader/editor check the dialogue. When they’re done checking, I update the story with the corrections and start sketching. I pass the panels for my assistants to line, color and add the backgrounds. The comic is then put together, and I edit and add the finishing touches.

 

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O: What’s different about working on a LINE Webtoon than drawing for a book, like WORLD Canvas?
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Unlike finishing a one-shot book wherein you can rest for months to come, In Webtoon, the battle goes on even after finishing an episode because the story has to continually update every week till it reaches the end. Doing a webtoon is more challenging, but I also find it more fun. I worked solo on books, but I have people to work with in Webtoon. Working with them and seeing our readers’ reactions on the episodes we put out are what I enjoy most.

 

( Every interview, I ask folks to put the question they want to be asked here. ^_^ This one was unexpected!)

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Q: Thank you for your hard work. Should we pamper you?

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CL: Yes.

 

Okay, we’ll try! ^_^


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O: What has changed for you, personally, with the popularity of Mage and Demon Queen?
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CL: I’ve gained more confidence in creating Yuri stories. I’ve always thought that Yuri was too niche to be the focus of my career, but the success of Mage & Demon Queen helped me achieve financial stability. It also gave me a chance to help other artists by employing them. I am truly thankful to Webtoon for giving me the opportunity to work with them, and to my readers who have been extremely supportive.

 

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O: What creative work has inspired you, personally and artistically? Are there any games, VNs, comics, animation that has informed your work on MDQ?
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CL: I was inspired by many things! Here are some of them:

Anime/Comics: Hayate x Blade, Tamen de Gushi, Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Many Isekai series

Games: Tales of (series by Konami), Fate/GO, Disgaea, Ragnarok

 

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O: What does the future hold for COLOR_LES?
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CL: There are many possibilities. I could create another Yuri comic in Webtoon after I’ve finished Mage & Demon Queen, or I could take a chance on a different webcomic platform. If anyone asked me to create a Yuri game with them, I may take it if the offer is good. Whatever it is, I’m sure it will still be Yuri.

 

Thank you very much for your time today! You can follow Color_Les (Kuru) on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter and of course, Webtoons, where we both hope you’ll read Mage & Demon Queen!

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to see more, please support Okazu on Patreon!

 

 





Interview with Kase-san Series Creator Takashima Hiromi

November 3rd, 2019

Last spring I had the absolute pleasure of meeting and talking with the creator of the delightful Kase-san series at Toronto Comic Arts Festival. At that time I asked her if she would do an interview for us here on Okazu. Graciously, she agreed. We both had a busy summer, so thank you for your patience. ^_^

In the meantime, the Kase-san and Morning Glories OVA was released in English by Sentai Filmworks, and the 6th volume of the manga, Kase-san and Yamada will be released in February 2020 from Seven Seas!

I apologize to my readers and to Takashima-sensei for the long delay. But today it is my very great pleasure to bring you a short interview with the creator of one of my favorite series of the 2010’s, Takashima Hiromi-sensei!

 

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Q1: Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
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I am Japanese manga artist, Takashima Hiromi. I love to draw.
 

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Q2: How did you become a manga artist? Was it something you wanted to do as a child?

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I was scouted at Tokyo Comic Market Comiket。
It has been my dream to become a manga artist since I was a child.
 

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Q3: Which artists are your role models?
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There are so many. Mainly manga artists, but there are too many to choose between.
 

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Q4: If you were not a manga artist, what kind of work would you be doing?
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I can’t imagine anything other than drawing manga, so maybe I’d be a manga artist’s assistant?
 

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Q5: Please tell us a little bit about your process. How long does it take you to draw a chapter?
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If one chapter is 24 pages, it would take me 10-14 days.
The “Nemu” (storyboard) takes about a week.
 

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Q5.2: How many assistants do you have? What is the first task you have to do and what is the last task?
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3-4 people.

As I sketch and ink the characters, I’ll have my assistants draw the background at the same time.

Then I ask the assistants to apply tone, after which I finish it.
 

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Q6: What does the success of Kase-san mean to you?

The [Kase-san] animation became a great learning experience, because I was able to learn about a completely different world. From now on I will keep working hard!
 

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Q7: What have you learned in the production of the Kase-san manga?

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Can [a scene] be drawn so that the character’s personality and actions are not disturbed?
 

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Q8: Do You read any Yuri Manga? If so, what series?

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I read a great deal of manga. The first Yuri manga I ever read was Morinaga Milk-sensei’s GIRL FRIENDS.
 

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Q9: Is there something you would like to say to overseas fans?
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There are cases where Japanese culture is depicted in the comics, but is there anything that you wonder about?
A rice ball bentou. Girls going together to the bathroom.

(Erica here: It seems to be universal that girls go to the bathroom together! It seems normal to me. ^_^)

 

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Q10: Do you have any advice for young people who would like to become a writer, artist or mangaka?
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When I was young, I think my mental perspective changed frequently.
Still, it is the most difficult thing to continue creating without lowering one’s motivation.
Don’t overdo it, don’t compromise, keep going for the long haul.
I will also do my best.
 

Thank you very much Takashima-sensei for your time and advice! We will continue to read and enjoy your work.





Interview with J-Novel Club’s Sam Pinansky

October 1st, 2019

This summer saw an announcement by J-Novel Club that they’d be releasing a number of Yuri Japanese novels. Yuri and science fiction have had a run of popularity after SF Magazine’s Yuri edition and Hayakawa’s release of a Yuri science fiction anthology, Asterism, so this seems like a good time to be into Yuri and Sci-Fi. Yesterday, I reviewed Last and First Idol, and found it to be an impressive piece of work. I took some time to speak with J-Novel Club’s founder Sam Pinansky about this new direction.

 

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Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get involved with anime and manga originally?
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SP: Back when I was in college, I got really into anime after seeing some VHS bootlegs of Evangelion, and then I started renting tapes of classics like Slayers/Ranma, etc.

In graduate school I took Japanese for fun while studying for my PhD, and started fansubbing anime to help learn.  I took a postdoc in Japan, and after that was over put myself in the right place to be one of the first simulcast anime translators, quickly turning that into my career.  After gathering a group of localizers I took a job at Tezuka Productions, and then later on Yomiuri TV Enterprise, basically running a localization service for anime, TV shows, movies, and manga from Japan.
 

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You first popped up on our radar as part of the AnimeSols project, translating older classic anime, including Riyoko Ikeda’s Dear Brother. What are some of the lessons you learned with AnimeSols? What anime series would you like to be able to release if you could?
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SP: Well, I’d been around translating your anime simulcasts for many years before that!  But while I was at Tezuka I came up with an idea to try crowdfunding for classic anime titles that couldn’t get licensed using traditional routes.  However we ran into the rise of Kickstarter, and our site/system not being on the most popular crowdfunding platform limited our ability to succeed.  It was also a learning experience for all the Japanese companies involved about how much communication and community interaction is necessary to have a successful crowdfunding campaign.  It seems obvious now, but these were very much the early days back then. I personally think that the classic Tatsunoko series like Yatterman and the like really deserve a proper restoration and western release.

 

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Tell us about J-Novel Club. How did the idea come about? How has it been received generally?
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SP: The idea for J-Novel Club came from me attempting to answer a question that began bothering me in 2015: Why were there so many anime being made which were based off of light novels, but so few of the actual original light novels being released in English?  I set out to create a business model that I felt would enable me the greatest chance to turn a profit on light novels and fix this problem, and in early 2016 got to work creating the company and licensing the first content, using my fairly deep connections in the anime/manga/publishing industry in Japan.

J-Novel Club is a publishing company, but we actually have 3 business models going on at the same time.  We publish physical books for some of our series, we publish ebooks for everything, and we also have a paid subscription service where subscribers can read the latest volumes of all of our series week-to-week as they are being translated.  This hybrid model is designed to allow all people to consume light novels in the ways they are most comfortable with, as people come to the format from print manga, from weekly streaming anime, and from illegal fan translation groups.  Thanks to everyone’s support over the past nearly 3 years, we’ve sold over 1,000,000 ebooks already and have already published our 300th volume!
 

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J-Novel Club is launching a new line of Yuri Light Novels. Tell us about that – how you decided to do these. What are the qualities of the first batch that you think make them stand out?
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SP: Broadening our readership base and our genres is an important part of how we grow as a company. One thing I began looking closely at is the amount of effort Japanese publishers are putting in to certain genres and series, and I began to see a mini boom in specifically the Yuri science fiction segment. As we already had a good relationship with those Japanese publishers, their latest works in this genre seemed like a natural choice.There are other books we have offers out for, but licensing takes time depending on the publishing house. Books from Iori Miyazawa like Side-by-side Dreamers and Otherside Picnic are simply great science fiction/horror stories on their own, with the Yuri elements forming more of a flavoring than the main course. I think these types of works which are trying to move the idea of what “Yuri” fiction is are very important to release.  At the same time, books like Seriously Seeking Sister act similarly, but on a different angle: instead of scifi, this time it’s your typical overpowered fantasy character which is peppered with Yuri elements. Both should serve as ways to draw our current readership as well as the Yuri fandom at large.
 

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Which is your favorite of the Yuri Novels you’re releasing and why?
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SP: Personally I really like Last and First Idol, but I’m biased since I edited it.  The author self-describes it as an “existential widescreen yuri baroque proletariat hard sci-fi idol story”.

It’s a collection of 3 scifi novellas, 2 of which won the most prestigious scifi prize in Japan, the Seiyuu Award, in 2017/2018 respectively. These are extremely “hard” scifi stories, with 11 dimensional string theory and aether based gravitational theory and all manner of trigger warnings for gore and body horror, which frankly blew me away when I first read them. As a first work by the author Gengen Kusano, they are completely bonkers. The yuri in them is so stripped down to the bare elements of “yuri” as we know it (the love of one girl for another, in all of its forms), it can be drowned out at times from the noise of planets exploding, but it’s there, and without it the book would be far diminished.

 

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What were your favorite books when you were a kid?
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SP: Asimov’s Robot series and Foundation series, Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, everything Tolkien ever wrote, and eventually in high school Infinite Jest and Gödel, Escher, Bach. I read everything.
 

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Any message for Yuri fans?
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SP: If you’ve only been reading yuri manga, you should definitely try one of our novels! Yuri-n for a treat! *gets shot*

 
That joke aside, (^_^);, thanks very much for taking time to speak with us today, Sam. We’re looking forward to more from J-Novel Club!