Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Do Manga Artists Prefer To Stay Anonymous?
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revolutionotaku
Posts: 888 |
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I've once watched a live stream of one mangaka creating their newest work on their website & their face wasn't in the camera's view.
As a way to respect of this mangaka's privacy, I won't give out their name. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4471 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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^ To be fair, most art livestreams I've watched don't show faces, even for non-digital art, usually because the camera's set up to show the art, so you often only see hands.
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Maybe it's part of his image. There are those who make themselves an icon by hiding themselves in elaborate masks and getups. It's not just introverted mangaka either, but performers as well. Man with a Mission comes to mind. |
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WingKing
Posts: 617 |
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It's not just the mangaka who have an obsession with privacy. The band Amazarashi (who did the Ranpo Kitan OP and Tokyo Ghoul root-A ED) has never been seen in public either, and even when they give concerts they perform behind a screen. Frankly, with how crazy fans in general and otaku in particular can be, I don't blame any of them in the slightest.
She's been writing an adult mystery novel series under the pen name Robert Galbraith. I think besides trying to put some distance between her old work, she's also trying to make sure kids don't see her name and read them thinking they'll get more Harry Potter (and I also suspect that's why the first hundred pages of "The Casual Vacancy" were so difficult to slog through, to turn off any kids who might accidentally pick it up). |
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danpmss
 Posts: 768 |
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The most interesting example I can think of right now is Ryukishi07.
While never revealing his real name at any circunstances, he is an incredibly modest and friendly/sociable man, who often appears in otaku events, do interviews, talk to his fans and even do annual "parties" for them to be reunited and discuss, cosplay and have fun, as a kind of particular event (the famous "07th Expansion Party"). I can mention a very few people that use pen names and reveal themselves and interact openly as much as him (Oh Great! [Oogure Ito], very rarely, is one of them). |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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I've been wanting to see a picture of Sakurako Kimino for over a decade, I never found a thing so far. I don't even have a clue if she ever went to any signings in Japan either.
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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That's a thought I had too: American comic book people tend to be very public, going to conventions and answering questions, signing autographs, conducting interviews with magazines and blogs, and so forth. I think it's based on culture. Japan is a country that values introversion, whereas the United States is a country that values extroversion. You can see it in the stereotypes of the other group: Extroverts in Japan are seen as noisy, obnoxious, disrespectful of your space, and intrusive into your life. Introverts in the United States are seen as boring, incomprehensible, and naïve (in the sense that some people think people are introverts because they've never experienced good socialization), if not murderers-in-training. Hence, I believe the comic book industries between the two countries attract different people. The American comic book people who do the convention circuit are those who have always naturally been extroverted and are doing comic books partially for the recognition and adoration from fans, not unlike pro athletes and movie stars, and there's kind of a party atmosphere at these places. (I'll bet these publishers prioritize extroverts in hiring too.) The manga business, however, seems to attract quiet people who are more comfortable expressing themselves through drawing than by speaking, and the publishers have more of an office environment. There are definitely introverts in American comic books and extroverts in manga. The former is largely found among independent and underground publishers or webcomics; the latter are have already been mentioned in the article. All in all though, I see a greater proportion of introverts in arts and illustration than any other kind of work (I mean, you got recluses like Bill Watterson, J.D. Salinger, and John Swartzwelder, all of whom are or were highly respectedcreative professionals), so it's really the bigger surprise the American comic book industry is so extroverted as a whole.
Oh, I remember that now. I heard from volunteers at Anime Expo that he had a lot of other conditions regular attendees don't know about, such as advance knowledge of the building's hallways so as to minimize being in the public parts when going from place to place, and for the volunteers to never look him in the eye or speak to him. Your guess is as good as mine as to why he'd even make a convention appearance. He might have been flooded with requests and gave in this one time, or he might have done so to be so weird and annoying that no one would do it again.
More so than any other author I know about, J.K. Rowling cares very much to protect her young fans. She put a ban on any Harry Potter merchandise aimed at adults or associated with adult behavior (like alcohol). That she'd work under pseudonyms is perfectly in line with that. |
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animalia555
Posts: 467 |
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On pseudonyms. I wonder if Buso Renkin would have done better if Watsuki had used a pseudonym.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4089 |
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I was thinking about a same comparison; I learned the faces of Stan Lee and Steve Dikto long before the face of the Green Goblin. Marvel even named their letterers but for manga, assistants are lucky to get mentioned at the end of tanks. Not that what they do even gets mentioned there; The mangaka knows they do the backgrounds or inking, isn't that enough? But isn't this something of the publisher's business practice in Japan? The characters may be created by the mangaka, drawn and written and lettered but they're owned by the magazine? They're not hot shot artists who can make demands in their own medium- at first if at all-, they're hired hands always lucky to get one more chapter published. There are ones who can get popular enough to break free of their moribund print shackles... hey Dragon Ball is owned in part by Akira Toriyama... but then you have a middle or middling success story like Ken Akamatsu and Negima! where the guy had to cancel the series in order to gain some sort of creative control. Or so I've heard. So everything's anonymous except for the name of the magazine. It's the only name they want to matter. Getting popular artists? Isn't that more a bonus? And something of a pain? Yeah, so it comes from anthology comic volumes where everyone is a team player, each one with their own title and name and that's it; Ok, sometimes you can get the cover but that's to sell the rest, not just yourself. That's a pretty anonymous spot already, really. So, yeah, if each title lived or died on its own as its own title as a first run product then the artist would have to come out and speak up... well, there was this American comic artist only known as the "good artist" among fans of his 20 plus year career. That guy didn't get any recognition, not even a pen name, until almost twenty years after he retired but then again, he was published by Walt Disney and this company makes Japanese publishing practices seem lenient. But that's not far off from the Japanese system. You know the publishers output from its competitors, you pick the tanks you like from that and if you're lucky, you learn a little about the guy making the stuff you love. So its anthology then title and then artist. For comic books, you can make serious collections just from following artists from title to title, from publisher to publisher. I may have just Genshikened myself. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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Why would it have? I thought that Rurouni Kenshin was very popular. I read and enjoyed Buso Renkin before I even knew about Kenshin, but I suspect that I am in the minority. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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Having understood the repercussions that come with public recognition, I find it easily understandable why most mangaka prefer to work incognito.
Albeit on somewhat-rare instances, there are some music groups that prefer to work with their actual identities concealed in some form. For instance, the famed music duo ClariS are only known through their anime depiction of them. |
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Sparvid
Posts: 240 |
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That's something I've wondered about doujinshi. Do doujinshi artists mostly sell their own products at places like Comiket, or do they hire people / ask friends to help out to do the actual selling at their booths?
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Just-another-face
Posts: 324 |
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Both good reasons to have these kinds of sleaze vaporized off the planet. |
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Hoppy800
Posts: 3331 |
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Idol fans wouldn't be an issue if the managers of the idols told them to knock it off, same with mangaka, there is a line you just don't cross and when it is crossed they have to put their foot down. |
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#Hgeronimo
 Posts: 82 |
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Is Kozue Amano a pen name too?
man, i so wish to know her. she's just a touch in all of our lifes. (i mean the fans.) |
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