It looks like a few people are enjoying this translation series because I'm noticing a ton of hits from all over the web.
Thanks to everyone for reading, and extra thanks to those who took the time to send me a message or leave a comment. Sorry I haven't been able to respond to everything yet, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it because I really do! Thanks, again!!
I'll try and get the last two parts posted for you a little faster!

For those just tuning in, click the Takehiko Inoue category link at the bottom for the previous parts.

•••• I think one thing that you two have in common is that you strive to draw your comics to convey something you really want to say.

Inoue: That’s probably true. One Piece in particular is resolute in wanting to say something. It’s almost overflowing with that.

Oda: I know my images are extremely busy, but I really feel compelled to draw everything that's in there. Even if it’s in the way or whatever, it’s like, “This is the sound I’m hearing now!”

Inoue: Sounds ring out and people’s voices are everywhere; There really are a lot of things going on simultaneously in your images, aren't there?

Oda: That’s the way it always turns out.

Inoue: In One Piece, I get a strong impression of your feelings that there are all these sounds and people and feelings in the world. That axis in your work is strong and doesn't waiver, and I think that may be how you can sustain 12 long years of doing a serial.

Oda: Thank you very much. The thing I want to do most in my comics is really not stories, it’s character models. I think like, “Is this style of person possible?” The time I spend doing all kinds of different designs is fun.

Inoue: That's the complete opposite of me.

Oda: Things like how muscular the body should be to go with a certain facial structure is something that, in the end, I pay no attention to, though (laughs). The times where I have created a certain character silhouette that no one’s ever seen before – those moments make me the happiest. And, once I’ve created it, I want to use it as quickly as possible. I create episodes for just that reason... I do that over and over, so the story gets longer and longer.

Inoue: So that's how you've gotten all the way to 52 volumes?

Oda: Yeah (laughs). What are the fun moments for you?

Inoue: The fun moments are diminishing for me. The time I spend drawing wild hair is kind of fun, though. When I’m making exceptional progress, all the time I spend drawing is enjoyable, but recently I don’t really get that feeling very often. I feel a little as though I may have come to a point where I'm facing an impending crisis.

Oda: Impending crisis?

Inoue: Yeah. Comic creation is supposed to be something you do because you love it, right? Nothing gets you pumped up more than drawing comics, so you can keep going no matter how tough things get.

Oda: Yeah.

Inoue: However I’ve come to a point where, in the balance between the tough times and the fun times, if the pleasure in the work becomes diminished any further, I may not be able to go on. Right now I’m trying to somehow find my way through, because I know I have to get past this.

Oda: For me, I don’t think I really have any feeling of crisis with my work.

Inoue: That’s very apparent just from reading One Piece. I’m sure you have your own things to deal with, but I think it’s a long way from this kind of sense of crisis. For me, I think that I’m really being pulled in by Vagabond. It’s like the very nature of the work is affecting me. I spend so awfully much time thinking about things that have no answer. I think maybe this feeling would change if I drew some happier, simpler form of entertainment.

Oda: Do you feel any change of pace when you go back and forth between Vagabond and Real?

Inoue: Yes, I do. There’s a part of Real that rescues me. I can’t say it’s fun, but compared to Vagabond it is a lot easier to work on. I can get ideas just walking down the street.

Oda: You don't normally meet sword masters in the streets.

Inoue: Exactly (laughs)

----------

Oda: It might a little late to be asking this, but what made you what to do the story of Musashi?

Inoue: In the beginning it wasn't really a big deal. Someone recommended Eiji Yoshikawa’s “Musashi” novel to me, and it was a really good read. It was about a year after Slam Dunk had ended when I wasn't doing a serial. I wanted to get to work on something and thought I'd like to try making this into a comic. So, I made a proposal, everything went smoothly, and I got the okay to do it. At first I was completely clueless and didn't know what could be so hard about doing something like this. I just started doing it with almost no idea about the knowledge, energy and technique I would need to do an historical work. It was a real struggle.

Oda: If you don’t seriously research historical material and stuff you can’t do it, can you?

Inoue: If I couldn't have done that, I would have given up on it. We even floated the idea of having a specialist to check historical accuracy, but in the end decided that I would do what was within my own scope and create my own version of Musashi.

Oda: Are the characters the same ones as the original novel?

Inoue: The characters are pretty much the same ones, but their personalities are very different.

-------

Next up, Inoue and Oda discuss the epic battle in Vagabond between Musashi and all 70 swordsman of the Yoshioka School.

Part 5 is coming soon...

The feature is aptly titled "Takehiko Inoue: drawing the future of manga" because how many artists can grab a handful of brushes and a bucket of ink and turn galleries into giant walk through comic books? (Not to mention the fact that he had to replan and redraw things each of the 4 times the exhibit moved to fit the given gallery!)

Inoue's awesomeness goes far beyond the stereotypical definition of "mangaka" and he is erasing the superficial lines that tend to separate comic book artists from fine art.

I will be posting parts of this feature and translating bits I think may be of interest to Inoue fans over the next few weeks as I also work on the final three parts of the Inoue/Oda joint interview.
So, please stay tuned 'cause there's lots of good stuff coming!

BITTERSWEET HOTEL is an exhibition featuring art and poetry readings from well-known Toronto based artist Tomori Nagamoto's book "Bittersweet Hotel", which features Tomori's poetry and distinctive ballpoint pen linedrawings.

Bittersweet Hotel deals with the struggle with depression, loneliness, anger and fear, and the disconnect from society that those emotions can cause.
The Bittersweet Hotel represents a personal headspace where you can get away from the real world and feel safe from your fears. It's a place to treat your emotional wounds and begin to heal.

Tomori Nagamoto is a Japanese born, Toronto and New York based contemporary artist, and is well known on the Toronto art scene, having won numerous awards including "Best Local Visual Artist" in the 2002 NOW magazine reader's poll.

I've known Tomo for close to a decade and attended a number of his events, all of which were cool. I also played a small role in his "Tokyo Doll" exhibition in Toronto back in 2003 interpreting a short speech by special guest Yukinori Dehara (who was also very cool!). I've been a fan of Tomo's work ever since!

Always interesting, always engaging, Tomo is an artist who doesn't rest on his laurels and, more importantly, isn't trapped by his own success. His art is always fresh and new as he continues to explore, experiment, and grow as an artist.

Tomori Nagamoto's BITTERSWEET HOTEL exhibition will run from August 23rd through the 28th at Artist Space CERO in Osaka.

For more info visit Tomori's website and Facebook page , or Artist Space CERO .

Well, Takehiko Inoue talks the talk in Vagabond, and walks the walk in some Aikido classes! I only wish he did this at my dojo!!

The below is from a blog post by a former editor, now freelance, of Brutus magazine in Japan.
He posted this awesomeness on his blog two years ago, but Inoue's recent ill health and indefinite break from working on Vagabond has prompted me to share it.

The post says that Inoue is black belt level in Karate, but this was his first go at Aikido. The full post (in Japanese) and more pictures are here

After his first experice with Aikido Inoue was quoted as saying that, "Aikido isn't techniques for self defense. It's a tool for communication."

Mr. Inoue also has had discussions on the martial arts of Musashi's time with renowned classical martial arts expert and historian, Yoshinori Kono.

Before I had any idea there was a Vagabond connection, I had been to a few of Mr. Kono's seminars and read many of his books. He’s a fascinating person and I can tell you from personal experience that, unlike the numerous paper masters out there, not only are his skills for real (I’ve felt his techniques), but Mr. Kono will discuss his theories and demonstrate his techniques on anyone! He cuts right through the mysticism that surrounds a lot of classical martial arts and will show you what works and tell you his theories as to the how and why.
Inoue definitely knows how to pick his sources because Yoshinori Kono is the real deal!!
Discussions between Mr. Kono and Mr. Inoue became this book.

It's a hell of a good read, and it’s a real shame that it will probably never get translated into English. It would make a great companion to Vagabond for those interested in the real history behind the story.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that.
Get well soon, Takehiko Inoue!!

Click the Takehiko Inoue category link at the bottom for the previous parts.

•••• From the Kojiro arch, Vagabond's art changed from pen to brush work. Mr. Oda, what do you think about that change?

Oda: It's really cool. Even with a career like Inoue-sensei's, he's still evolving. That kind of strength of conviction is awesome. Going to brush work is amazing.

Inoue: Actually, it's not something that should be done, is it? In a long, on-going work it hurts consistency.

Oda: You used brush work before that, though, right?

Inoue: I did in certain parts for effect. But the decision to start doing the whole thing that way was really just a feeling. When I began the Kojiro arch, I thought that to achieve the art I wanted I had to use a brush, not a pen. It would change the feel of my art but I wasn't particularly hung up on consistency throughout the work. I kind of had faith in my gut feeling at the time.

Oda: The title logo also changed.

Inoue: It was a time when I was asking myself what Vagabond really is. I needed some changes in order to continue doing it. The logo was one of those things that changed. The brush calligraphy of the logo up to then, however, was fantastic.

Oda: When a creator decides, "Time to change things up!", people are very receptive, aren't they?
For me, with One Piece vol.50, I'd decided it was the end of that part and I changed the way I put in the title logo. However, the reaction was surprisingly light (laughs). Readers - and I mean this in a good way - don't seem to very concerned about change. I think that's why creators can probably feel free to do things more the way that they want to.

•••• Mr. Inoue, how do you see Mr. Oda's art?

Inoue: It's full of an appeal that is the complete opposite of my work. It's full of life, and has the power to draw readers to specific points. Comparatively, I’m an artist that likes "subtraction". I try to fill things in as little as possible and leave something to the negative space. There is a lot of that in The Last Manga Exhibition. But, I really admire the way Mr. Oda fills his work in. I don't feel any sense that corners are being cut at all. It must be extremely difficult to shrink your work down to tankobon size, right?

Oda: Yes, it is (laughs). I don't know, but I just can't help but draw a lot. The weekly format is set at 19 pages, but from the creator perspective I want to move the story along faster. I end up jamming as much as I can in there. There is also wanting to finish faster so I can relax.

Inoue: Wanting to relax is something I can relate to.

Oda: I'm probably living in haste. My panels get smaller and smaller, and I don't draw unnecessary panels. My scenes are all jam packed. First of all, there are too many characters (laughs). The story is mainly about only 5 characters, but there are so many things I want to do that it ended up being the way it is now.

Inoue: Had you thought about the overall concept from the beginning?

Oda: Yes. The story's end hasn't changed once since the beginning. The problem is that I haven't been able to really digest all the things that are happening along the way toward the end.
How do you go about your storytelling?

Inoue: Hmmm. When I begin I don't think about the overall concept or the ending at all. It's really impressive how you can think about it and stay engaged from the beginning.

Oda: Really, it's only the goal that I've made a decision on.

Inoue: For me, I've only recently begun to see how Vagabond will turn out.

Oda: Is the Vagabond story following historical fact?

Inoue: Apparently, the facts about the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryu island are really sketchy. However, the recorded history is all in Musashi's favor. All that is mentioned about Kojiro is that he was a master swordsman who fought Musashi. That's why I think there's a zero point something possibility that Kojiro actually could have been deaf.

Oda: Hmmm. Has the story moved away from the original ("Musashi" novel by Eiji Yoshikawa) and become something different?

Inoue: Not completely, but the original parts are taking over. I haven't decided on most of the overall story, so I only move on to the next part of the stroy when I've finish the one I'm doing. I think I just pretty much repeat that little process. The next thing I know I've gone of an a tangent, and sometimes I put myself in tough spots.

Oda: But going off on side roads like that can be surprisingly fun, can't it?

Inoue: Yes, for sure.

•••• What character(s) from Vagabond do you like?

Oda: I like all the old man characters in general. They're really endearing.

Inoue: Hahahaha!

Oda: Yagyu Sekishusai is especially good. Especially endearing is the scene where he says out of nowhere, "Can I brag about my grandson?" What's really appealing about Inoue-sensei's work is that even when characters are developing through hardships, the endearing qualities always remain. The small text dialogue just casually snuck in makes me laugh. The scene where Musashi says "Nyanko-sensei" (Kitten-sensei) really made me laugh (laughs).
That kind of portrayal is done in a really natural way, and makes the readers really accept the characters. Even when taking on difficult themes, I think that the skill with which Inoue-sensei makes his characters has the power to draw in a wide audience.

Inoue: I really like drawing the old man characters. Left unchecked, all the characters would be elderly men. (laughs)

Oda: It's fun to draw the wrinkles in the face, isn't it?

Inoue: Once I start drawing them, I draw them incessantly. I think we both like drawing very human characters, don't we?

Oda: I agree.

Inoue: I think with the elderly, the more wrinkles you draw the more human they become. The more you add, the more you add to their lifespan - that's the face of the elderly, isn't it? It makes it really worthwhile to draw.

--------------------------------

Part 4 is in the works and will be posted within the next few weeks...

Or at least it was until this came out today!

Sorry, Mr. Kawaguchi, but Ghibli special issues take priority!

Also, the art posted below is not from the magazine, it's from last Thursday's chapter of Vagabond in Weekly Morning.

I just thought it fit the conversation.

-----------------------------------------

****** Mr. Oda, When did you start reading Vagabond?

Oda: I read them all at once when the tankobon come out. Of course, I've got every volume. Ever since the serial started, it's been the rage amongst us young creators. It's so engaging, has deep themes... More than anything, I can't get enough of Inoue sensei's art. It's like, just how far can this guy take his artistry? I've been pursuing that ever since Purple Kaede.*

Inoue: Well, I'm sure I've improved since way back then. However, it's weird, because when I was doing "Purple Kaede" I thought, "Hey, I'm a pretty good artist!" (laughs). Now, though, it's not something I would want to show people.

Oda: I saw your Last Manga Exhibition work and, well... I don't even understand it's meaning - if it's good or what it is, because it's just way over my head. How can art like this even be done? Like the huge mural of Musashi, it's so big but yet the proportions aren't off even a little.

Inoue: Actually, if you really look at it you'll see that the proportions are skewed. There are still pieces (in the exhibit) that I'm concerned about.

Oda: I don't think so at all! Every piece is fantastic and on a level that's beyond my comprehension.
Lately I've been really into Edo period Japanese art. People in Edo times didn't have the internet, comic stores, and I don't think they had as many forms of entertainment to occupy their time as we have now. On the flip side of that, I think they were able to dedicate more time and focus to their given craft than people nowadays are capable of. Because of that, they accomplished things on a level that average ability can't match. When I look at Edo period ink paintings, they are amazingly good. In just a casual painting, they can create unified lines that are full of life. Even art that's been drawn with extremely finely-honed skill, and with (outside) information shut off, probably can't reproduce that.
I think that your art has attained that kind of Edo period level. I wonder how a modern person could possibly draw like this. It boggles my mind.

Inoue: I'm humbled! (laughs)

Oda: And at the Last Manga Exhibition, there are 150 of those drawings, right? I can't even imagine it.

Inoue: If you're put under pressure from people, you can get a surprising amount of things done.

Oda: I've been under the gun with deadlines, and I've managed to survive a number of times but... I couldn't go this far.

Inoue: If it's your own art, you could do it.

Oda: No, no, I can't! I end up looking to attain a certain goal with each page.

Inoue: Ah, I see.

Oda: I'm not really finished, but I get to a certain point and I'm like "okay, I'm done!" I can't seem to get to a place where I really believe in my white space.

Inoue: For me, that white-space can be very important. It's difficult, isn't it?

Oda: I think that's artistic sense.

Inoue: It might be more my personality. Even with a goal in mind, getting to a certain place as planned doesn't interest me. While I'm drawing, if I start to think it's working out, I can just shut it down right there and finish. It's an irresponsible type of personality.

Oda: Do you have a complete mental image of what you want before you begin? There are some amazing people who I hear have it down to the last line and they just follow that image.

Inoue: I'm not sure. I guess I do have an image in my head, but it isn't absolutely clear.

Oda: For me it's so fuzzy you'd wonder if it's a complete image at all. But as I'm drawing I get a clearer fuzzy map-like image and I just try to follow it with my pen.

Inoue: I think that might be close to how it is for me too.

Oda: I haven't been able to get to the level of artists who can draw decisive lines right off the bat. I have an artist friend with a photographic memory, who never forgets a drawing after only seeing it once.
So, once he's drawn a certain character, he can draw that same character again with no visual reference at all. That's an amazing ability. I forget characters I did a while very quickly. If I want to bring them back, I have to dig up my old work and look at it again.

Inoue: I'm the same way. I look up my old characters all the time. I sometimes forget to draw things like inadvertent beards and other details.

Oda: Really? That's a relief. I feel like I can carry on (laughs).

Oda: From where do you get your ambition and inquisitiveness for your art?

Inoue: Well, it's simple. When you look at your previous art, it's embarrassing, right?

Oda: yeah, a little.

Inoue: I think it comes from the feeling that you can do better.

Oda: I always thought I was one of the more ambitious artists, but after seeing the Last Manga Exhibition, it made me feel woefully inadequate in that department.

Inoue: No, that's not the case at all. How many years has it been since One Piece started?

Oda: 12 years.

Inoue: That's amazing. Doing a serialization for that long in itself makes me feel the same way.

Oda: No way! I think that Slam Dunk is the optimum length for a long-form comic series. Initially, I had a 5 year plan for One Piece... It's taking me more than double that.

Inoue: Reading up to the latest volume 52, it doesn't seem like it's coming to an end anytime soon.

Oda: Yes... Thanks to (it's success)、my whole life's plan is in disarray (laughs).

Note: * Purple Kaede is the name of Inoue's debut comic in Weekly Shonen Jump back in 1988.

The conversation goes off on a completely different tangent from here, so this seems like a good place to cut it off.
Part 3 is already in progress. I'll get it posted as soon as I can.

For Vagabond readers who may not know, Kyushu is where Kojiro Sasaki was a retainer and chief weapons master to Lord Tadaoki Hosokawa before the famous duel on Ganryu island (which I wrote a little about here).

Takehiko Inoue and Eiichiro Oda are both from Kumamoto and their discussion was published in this magazine:

Takehiko Inoue and Eiichiro Oda are both still young, but have sold
enough comics to more than cover the population of Japan twice over.

Although both are originally from Kumamoto, this is the first time
these two giants of the Japanese comic book world have met. Well, at
least the first meeting they both remember anyway.

The following discussion took place when Inoue's Last Manga Exhibition was beginning its Kumamoto stop in spring 2009.

Inoue: This is our first time meeting, isn't it?

Oda: Well, actually a long time ago I got an autograph from you.

Inoue: Really!? When?

Oda: It was at the Shueisha Tezuka/Akazuka awards party. I had just debuted then and I was extremely nervous. You also drew me a regent-style illustration of Hanamichi Sakuragi. I've still got it.

Inoue: Is that right? I'm sorry, I don't remember that. (laughs)

Oda: No problem. That party was like a huge autograph session for all the major creators. (laughs)

Inoue: I was in Los Angeles around the time One Piece started and I was having Shonen Jump sent out to me.
When I read One Piece chapter one, I remember thinking, "Wow, this is the start of a really good comic." I thought it was a can't miss piece of work. I hadn't felt that way about a comic in a while so I made sure to follow it.

Oda: Around the time One Piece had just begun serialization, I saw a survey in a magazine asking famous people what comics interested them.
In that survey, you had chosen One Piece and commented, "The creator really believes in his work". I almost literally jumped for joy, I was so happy. I had a copy of that page pinned up at my work place for the longest time.

Inoue: I'm happy you were so happy! (laughs)

Oda: Can I talk to you about something that's kind of related to destiny?

Inoue: What is it? You're making me nervous.

Oda: Well, I was born in Kumamoto, and there used to be a shop called the Antique House, right?

Inoue: Yeah, the used clothing shop, right? That brings back memories.

Oda: I used to go there every so often with friends to buy clothes. Around the time I won Jump's Best New Artist award and had just gotten an editor, I was talking to one of the shop keepers and mentioned that I wanted to be a comic creator. He replied, "If you make it big, you'll be the second one born here." "Who's the first?" I asked. "Takehiko Nariai" ('Takehiko Inoue' is a pen name). He used to work here."
I couldn't believe it!

Inoue: Ha ha ha! I wonder who it was you talked to?"

Oda: He bragged that one of the Slam Dunk players was modeled after him (laughs). He also said that when the shop wasn't busy, you would be behind the cash register drawing pictures.

Inoue: Yeah, and not doing my job at all.

Oda: I was really surprised. I was like, Wow! Inoue sensei was here! It was just a shop I went to and I had never really thought much about it before. I felt that it must be destiny so I asked my editor to please let me be an assistant at your studio. He just casually told me "There aren't any openings." That really bummed me out.

Inoue: Really? Boy did we mess up. We should have brought you in as an assistant. (laughs)

Oda: If I had been accepted at your studio, it likely would have completely changed my destiny. In a lot of ways, that was probably a turning point for me. I'd always thought I'd like to talk to you about this personally.

Inoue: Thank you. I'll remember this.

*************************************

Part 2 will be much longer and gets right into talking about Vagabond.

I expect to have it ready within the next couple weeks.

As always, I won't be scanning any pages from the books or magazines I translate, only posting a few pics of certain pages (not all pages, and generally not the entire page) taken with my shitty iPhone camera. I also won't translate entire books or magazines, only excerpts. If you want the whole book or magazine I've taken bits from, sorry but you are on your own (although I don't mind pointing you in the right direction if you can't find it on Amazon or whatever. I cannot, however, personally provide anyone with anything. Sorry).

My only intention is to pass on info about the creators and their work that is inaccessible to people outside Japan and who can't read Japanese. Maybe someday the industry will truly go global and we'll see interviews with Naoki Urasawa, for example, in Rolling Stone or something in the same way that Japanese magazines get interviews with American and other global artists and entertainers. But I think that's a long way from happening.

Comics like Pluto may be get good reviews from comic book people and be readily available, but what does anyone know about the creator?
Takehiko Inoue may have painted a mural on the wall of Kinokuniya in New York a while back, but does anyone really know anything about him except that he created Slam Dunk? Did you know, for example, that "Inoue" is a pen name? Not the most earth shattering bit of info, but that's just one example of the type of thing that only really comes out in interviews and feature articles, the like of which we rarely see outside Japan.

That's the bridge I'd like to gap until we all truly do come closer together and don't need hobbyist like me to do things like this.

I will get back to work beginning with a discussion between Takehiko Inoue and Eiichiro Oda that came out last year when Inoue's Vagabond exhibition was in Kumamoto in this magazine:

I meant to get around to this a lot sooner. But all excuses aside, I'm finally doing it and will post part one sometime next week.

Until then…

However, while I agree that digital content distribution is the way of the near future, and I understand the sentiment that wants a role for ‘honest’ scanlators, I don't think that scanlators and their model will lead to a solution. In fact, it isn’t possible because legit scanlation isn’t scanlation anymore, is it? It would become industry crowdsourcing, which is basically getting your community to work for you for free, possibly in exchange for credit and maybe the vague promise of some form of compensation in the future.

Crowdsourcing is how Facebook got its users to voluntarily do all the grunt work to localize their site into multiple languages for free. The stunning part was how simple it was and how so few people seemed bothered by it. They just created a translation app and a project that made people feel they were involved and contributing in a meaningful way to their shared experience. I don't nessesarily think that was the best or most ethical way to do it, however, at least Facebook doesn’t sell content to users, it only hosts content and users can join and gain access for free. It’s like a giant ad supported virtual convention venue where people can get together to make, share and buy and sell things.
Licensors and publishers are different because they are selling content directly to users they would be asking to volunteer work for them. Would it be fair for a publisher to cut production costs by crowdsourcing from the same fans who also buy their content?
Deb’s Manga Blog got into this topic in an interview with Tokyopop’s Stu Levy last December, and I think some of the reactions prove that it isn’t as simple as just bringing scanlators into the fold.

I don't doubt that there are people who are intrigued the many ideas for new digital content distribution platforms, but anyone who knows about manganovel.com has to be skeptical of basing a business model on trying to get your fans to do your work for you without pay.

Maybe it's because of Crunchyroll that some people think there is a legit future for scanlation, but if all you had to do was rearrange a few parts to create a successful new business model the industry will want in on, I think someone would have already formed Voltron by now, don’t you? What some fail to realize is that Crunchyroll survived and thrived for the same reason Bittorrent and Napster, just to name a couple, were able to go legit. It’s because they had something scanlation communities don’t have - a viable digital content distribution system with a large existing user base that the industry wanted but couldn’t do every easily on their own. Go a little further down the line and higher up the food chain, you will see that Napster eventually got owned by iTunes largely because they weren’t the ones who invented the iPod. Apple went one up by inventing something and convincing people that they had to have it. Napster didn't and responsed by trying to convince people that iTunes users are stupid. Guess who won?

What brilliant rights management and content delivery system can scanlators offer to go with their user base that can’t be duplicated by anyone else who knows how to install a CMS and set up a community portal on their computer? If they invented the comics equivalent of iTunes or the device everyone wants to read comics on, or maybe a content delivery and management system like Steam, the publishers might give them the time of day. Crunchyroll not only had a system, but they are also now members of LIMA and the AJA, which means they are licensing content, not getting content handed to them for free like scanlators seem to think they are entitled to.

Whatever model publishers decide to use in their digital distribution strategies, they won’t be doing it together and I seriously doubt they will work with any third parties for the reason I give above. I think publishers will each set up their own competing systems for their own titles. In fact, many already are. No one site is going to be able to offer all kinds of comics from different rights holders for one fee like Crunchyroll does with cartoons. Even then, Crunchyroll is subject to the same legal and region restrictions most similar services are under their licensing agreements. The same goes for free online content like RI-NE. I think the simultaneous international release experiment is a great idea and I’d love to see how the English edition is turning out and how it's being presented. Unfortunately, I can‘t access it from Japan. Licensing agreement strikes again!

Publishers may be banding together to combat pirating, but they are certainly not forming a unified, region free digital comics market. Maybe they should. Maybe that’s the future. But it doesn’t appear to even be on the horizon right now. Just reading what the industry and fans have to say about the scanlation controversy and digital marketing strategies, which is all nicely collected at Deb’s Manga Blog, shows us that there really is no consensus or unified movement other than wanting to take a bite out of piracy and somehow get the industry healthy again.

Many scanlators don't seen to see themselves as part of the problem, but they don’t appear to have many useful, legal solutions to offer the industry outside of free labour either.
Digital distribution may sound simple, but content doesn’t get online or on electronic devices by magic. It doesn’t matter what business model you use, it’s still a business. Someone will get paid, so why should the people working their asses off at the bottom of the food chain give up their money (not to mention their spare time because if they aren’t getting paid, that’s when they’ll be doing their work, if they aren't already because of the low wages)? If an assistant to a comic's creator in Japan gets paid to draw backgrounds or ink some pages, why shouldn’t a designer in America who touches up art for translated FX get paid too? If the creator uses a letterer and pays them, why shouldn’t the English letterer, and the translator and adaptation writer who wrote those letters, get paid too? Where do you draw the line? Who gets paid and who doesn't and why?

Making money off people working for free used to be called exploitation. In the internet age it appears to be called a free-labour economy. Whatever people may think of crowdsourcing or free-labour systems, I think there are potential long-term consequences that have to be considered. Didn’t anyone learn anything from what happened with AOL and their community of unpaid volunteers?
A labour of love turned into a class action suit, and AOL is nothing but a footnote in internet history.

If manga publishers decide to turn themselves into free-labour companies, then they better be ready for the backlash when the next hit or an industry revival starts making a lot of money for everyone except the people doing all the work!

However, that’s just my opinion. If fans don’t mind providing free labour to produce content that the rights holders will be selling back to them, then who am I to say it’s wrong? But that's what "legal scanlation" will mean. Maybe crowdsourcing and free-labour business is the way things will go. Who knows, if it works in America, maybe the creators in Japan will start asking for volunteer assistants too and the entire industry from top to bottom will become a free-labour one where only a handful of people get paid anything at all? But even if that works in the short term, things go in cycles and there will be long term consequences. Kick the little guys in the teeth and exploit your community at your own peril!

As far as scanlaton goes, all it may have done is force the industry into the digital age faster (which is a good thing), and tempt certain publishers into toying with a free-labour system (which isn’t a good thing). Either way I don't see a legit future for independent scanlation because they have nothing solid to offer in terms of a business model or distribution system that the industry can’t do on it’s own quickly, easily and cheaply, with the promise of real benefits to contributors that a third party simply couldn't offer.

Whatever the case, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

Of comics book readers, I think manga readers probably bootleg as much, if not more often than anyone else simply because their books are imports. You can't go down to your local bookstore or comic shop and see what's happening in Weekly Shonen Jump, and as we all know fans want everything immediately. Combine lack convenient avaliability with the language barrier and you have some pretty good built-in excuses. Thus, we have bootlegs galore, and an entire culture of self-styled Robin hoods who, out of the kindness of their hearts and love for the material, bring these inaccessible Japanese books to the fandom by creating their own translations and putting them on the internet for the poor deprived fans to enjoy. It all sounds very noble if you listen to the fans who benefit from these bootlegs, or the merry men who produce them, talk about it.
They claim they are only doing it because those titles would otherwise be unavailable, and that they are in fact doing the publishers a service by creating new fan bases in new markets for their products.

Yup, it all sounds very nice, except that they are reproducing and distributing copyrighted material for free and without permission, not to mention defacing as they see fit when they touch it up to add their translated text. For some reason, some people think that the fact that it is not licensed for distribution outside Japan means that it is okay to take it upon themselves to do so. Many also claim they will stop if and when the given title is licensed. Never mind that by the time something is licensed - which, for you self-appointed distributors, means someone has to pay money for the rights – all or some of the product has already been illegally and irrevocably released. This is not a kid passing around a comic book to their buddies at school anymore; this is releasing it to anyone with an internet connection.
But that’s okay, isn't it, because the real fans will pay for a different translation of the something they've already read to support the work - or at least that's what they say. And almost everyone claims to be a real fan, don't they? The real fans will ensure that the people who should be paid, get paid, because real fans support the work they love. Right? So what's the big deal, right?
It’s all neatly set up so that even the pirates that have some sense of the fact that they are still stealing and may feel sort of bad about it can cleanse themselves with a reasonable sounding justification.
I'm being sarcastic, but the truth is I don't think it would be a problem if fans actually did pay for the stuff they liked and everything stopped at the above scenario. It would be great if we could get a full preview of anything we are interested in before we buy it.

The problem is that it doesn't stop there.

Books that have been licensed traditionally have taken forever to get released in other markets. The poor fans are forced to suffer and wait for their favorite comics, knowing that they are months, if not years behind the current issue. In some cases, the title is done in Japan but just starting everywhere else. If a scanlator or fansubber can whip something off in a day or two, why does it take these big publishers with all their resources months? That can't be right, can't it? So, the bootleggers and friendly neighborhood translators who want nothing more than to go legit were duty bound to step back in and serve the community once more. Three cheers for the noble pirates! They went back to work in order to force the publishers to speed things up so the honest fan could once again buy their books legit and not have to wait forever for them.
And they did it, too, to an extent, because books are coming out faster and are released closer to the original Japan releases than ever.
Hurray!

Now that more and more books are available、and faster than ever, the job would seemingly be done and the rebel alliance could go back to farming, feeding the underprivileged, or whatever it is that heroes do when there is no noble battle to fight. Right?

Wrong! There is still injustice and the pirates must struggle on to battle censorship, bad translations, and ensure that no unlicensed title is left behind!
It didn’t have to be this way, but the industry wouldn’t listen so someone has to fight for the rights of the fans.
The bootleggers do it because they love it too (the ads on their sites are just to pay for hosting expenses!) and they have only good intentions. It can't be their fault that some fans take advantage of the good they do by not going out supporting the content what they claim to love by actually buying it. The vast majority of 'real fans' will pay – provided they have deemed the product they just got for free worth their dime - and they will even order the originals of the unlicensed things to support the creators.

Yeah, of course they will…

Well, they might if only enough of them could see the contradiction in justifying stealing on moral grounds. Am I way off here, or is this a case of must be moral relativism? Because from where I sit on the fringes of the industry, I don’t see any moral justification at all for what's going on.

A lot of people have a lot of complaints, and I am usually one of the first to complain that the industry – especially in Japan – has brought most of their current problems on themselves by their aloof demeanor, indifference, and even sheer arrogance toward the fans who support them. The industry has a hell of a lot of problems to work on, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to rip off the creators or the publishers who bring you their work.

Before you bitch about things not being officially translated and released in real-time like the bootleggers do, remember that in the legit world translation isn’t the only factor in play. With the schedules that Japan works on, they can barely get their own stuff released on time, never mind foreign releases. Factor in localization, content regulations, editorial standards etc., on top of practical things like sometimes needing time to gauge whether or not a title will even sell before you spend the money to license it, and things get just a little bit complicated, don't they? If releases are to be simultaneous, as many an uninformed fan will demanded, Japan would have to do it themselves. That would mean domestic release delays they can't afford, massive overhead they can't up prices enough to cover, and logistical problems that they can't solve, not to mention the fact that they would have to throw all the importers, foreign publishers and freelance translators under the bus in even attempting to do so. Japan can’t afford to, and aren’t capable of, localizing and releasing all their content on their own, so they absolutely need their regional publishers (not to mention the licensing revenue they provide!).
All those things I just mentioned, and many more that I haven’t are, of course, more dubious justification for the black market to keep right on bootlegging, and for the non-paying ‘fans’ to keep not paying and trying to justify it on some moral ground that is shakier than the European financial markets.

The industry was tolerant of the bootleggers when they were making money. Why wouldn’t they have been? It seemed like free advertising, just like the pirates and many 'fans' themselves said was the intention in the first place. But the industry seems to have failed to realize that if you give a pirate an inch, they will keep sailing until they've robbed you blind and stripped you bare. Even more telling is that pirates have proven that even the ‘honest fan’ can’t resist a boat load of free booty. Don’t blame the aggregators for giving the pirates a bad name either, because if the pirates weren’t pirating, the aggregators would have nothing to aggregate! BitTorrent is just has a bigger pirate ship. Is it any wonder rival publishers are now joining forces and trying to strike back?

We all know the pirates won’t just go away because the industry doesn’t tolerate them any more. If anything, being targeted will just make them more defiant and probably even more obnoxiously self-righteous. And the circle goes round and round until we all get dizzy and sick and tired of listening to both the industry moan and blame the fans for all their problems, and the non-paying 'fans' rationalize calling scanlations and fansubs all kinds of things other than theft to avoid admitting they are thieves.

The botton line is this:

* If you're saying you won't pay for something because you don't like the translation, then you must be able to read the originals. Buy them!
* If you won't pay because you feel strongly about censorship in your country, then show some integrity to go with your beliefs and do without, or use that passion to learn Japanese and either move to Japan or import - i.e. Buy them!
* Don't like long delays? See above.
* If you are someone who gets bootleg material online but then goes out and buys the stuff you like, then good for you. Unfortunately your fellow 'fans' have proven that the honor system isn't working and we all have to pay the price. The 'free previews' will no longer be tolerated like they once were because advertising isn't supposed to take money away from the product it's pitching. Sometimes one bad apple really does spoil the whole damn bunch, and in this case we have a barrel full of rotten ones.
Maybe if the honor system worked, the publishers would have started releasing everything on their own for free and letting the honest people pay.
I'd love to see someone try that as an experiment to see if it would work as sort of an honesty litmus test. But if the scanlation experience is any indicator, it would just prove that what we all wish we didn't have to admit; that the honest fan appears to be in the minority.

I know people that are honest fans to the point that they will only buy certain things new because creators don't make a dime off resale. Unfortunately, they are few and far between.

In any case, you can't rationalize away the fact that online scans of entire books and magazine, scanlations, fansubs and so on are all bootleg. Wherever you may draw your personal line, or however much you may think the industry corrupt, it doesn't justify not paying for the content you enjoy.
You might steal something from a total asshole, but now you're an asshole for stealing, and you're a bigger asshole if what you stole wasn't really the other asshole's thing to begin with. Do you screw over a creator because you don't like their publisher? It's all excuses. All you end up with is an argument over who's more wrong, but the bottom line is still that you're still wrong!
I don't think there is anything ambiguous about this kind of theft.

By the way, writing reviews, blogging, tweeting, posting on forums and telling your friends doesn't mean you get a free pass either, unless you are working for the publishers, licensors or creators. Appointing yourself an ambassador doesn’t give you the right to steal. If you want free shit then get a job in the industry or convince publishers you are worth giving review copies to (which reminds me, I've a small backlog of comics to review!).
If you want free shit, then get it legit!

Now that the big publishers are banding together to mount a defense, I have to admit I'm rooting for them. Balance must be brought back to the industry because while it used to be next to impossible to get most stuff out of Japan, now you can get everything for free.

Whatever way you want to slice it, that isn't right.

Never!

I always get Boss or Georgia.
Today, however, I passed them both over for this.

I usually make a point of avoiding things with cartoon girls on them and other silly marketing ploys to sell mundane products. But I wanted a can of coffee and I had Boss, Georgia or Fujiko Mine to choose from. If it was almost any other cartoon girl it would have been more of a deterrent than anything else just because of the cheesy geekiness of it. But this was Fujiko.
In other words, I didn't have a choice. It was practically an involuntary purchase. I had to buy it and didn't even know it was JT Roots until after.

It's Fujiko.
I'm only human!


In this case with an emphasis on "man"

Nope, I am not a hater. I had reasons to feel the way I did about manga, and it was partly because of a sense of deja vu I had when I got out of the animation business and found myself in a new job that included translating and adapting comics in 2006. What I think about the creative state of manga, or of the domestic business model, is irrelevant. It was simply obvious to me that manga in North America was following nearly the same path as I saw animation heading on a year earlier.
I'm not going to get into the state of the animation market in 2005, but many North American animation licensors were already tightening their belts back then while the fans were still enjoying the boom. Only a couple years later, some of those licensors simply ceased to exist. The market adjustment was sudden and brutal.

Fast forward a few years and I'm sure people in manga can likely say the same thing about their industry now. It's no surprise either, or it shouldn't be, because the so-called manga boom's spring board was the popularity of animation. In Japan comics are the source material and feed the animation industry, but in North America the mainstream audience got into manga because of the cartoons. Take a look at when manga sales really took off in North America and I think you'll find it coincides with the launches of the most popular Japanese cartoons. Manga sales jumped in 2005 and peaked in 2007, right? Well, look up the Japanese cartoons that hit the airwaves in prime time slots in 2005 and it's pretty obvious what happened.

Unfortunately for the comics, the animation industry was already beginning to hurt behind the scenes at the same time as it was breaking through in the mainstream. Manga was a victim of its own success because the industry that helped launch that success was already teetering on the edge of disaster. Manga just hit too big too fast to possibly be to able to sustain themselves while animation faded. After all, manga was just different (although often affiliated) companies peddling mostly the same thing, and with the same methods as the animation before it. I don't think it's over at all, but did anyone really think manga wouldn't be tripped up when the animation rug was pulled out from under it?

If animation was going to have to weather a market adjustment, then so was manga. It didn't help that print publishing was already on the decline too. The warning signs were there all along, true believers. The whole Japanese pop-culture boom generated a lot of smoke and noise but there wasn't really much of a fire yet. Fires need to burn bigger, hotter and for a lot longer than anime or manga have in order to burn a lasting impression on an entire culture. Nonetheless, the new manga/anime self-proclaimed 'otaku' fanbase got high on the fumes and declared a revolution while manga was still only an unidentified blip on the cultural radar. Nobody yet knew if that blip was a pop-culture ICBM from Japan coming to change everything, or just a flock of sea gulls. Fast forward to the problems of today, and it seems to me that a lot of people who are looking skyward for answers are getting pooped on.

It's sad to watch happen, but a lot of the little guys are falling off the bandwagon and being run over by the big publisher express which, despite having to down-shift a gear or two, appears to have more than enough fuel in the tank to keep rolling along just fine. But whether Japanese comics can make a comeback or not may have more to do with what happens in Japan than it does with anything going on in North America. In the end it's about good content, and the huge archives of decades worth of great material has already been raided and mostly cleaned out. Japan needs to create good new content. If that happens everything should work out okay. On the other hand, with the problems print media is having, creation alone may not be the answer.
What about digital, you ask? As long as the iPhone and iPad continue to spread the Job's virus and turn the world into squeaky clean Apple zombies, don't expect digital publishing to be much of a help. Very little Japanese content is getting through the iTunes adult content koodies filter.

Anyway, whatever happens - and I hope things turn around - no one should be surprised at what's going on now. People can rant, finger point, argue and debate about the impact of things like piracy, the recession, bad translation/writing, and censorship all they want. Whatever the underlying factors in the downturn are, it likely wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. This happening was inevitable and it's better sooner than later. Whether manga's place in North American culture is for real or not has also been a pointless argument up to now because how can you possibly judge that in the middle of so much hype? However, now that the honeymoon is over we're going to find out soon enough if this manga thing will last.

I hope manga is here to stay (or rather, “there” to stay), but a lot depends on Japan and so far they haven’t proved to be a very nimble player in our rapidly changing world.

In closing, how could I possibly pass up the opportunity to fire back at all the people here and abroad who called me a hater, or said I didn't know shit, with a great big "I f*cking told you so!!!"

(That was petty way to end this, but it felt good )

Having said that, while Inoue has done a great job maintaining his integrity and that of his work, it doesn't mean there's nothing out there!

Now you too can travel Japan on foot until your feet bleed, just like real ronin did back in the early 1600's, in your own pair of Inoue designed Vagabond sandals!

I must admit, I'd kind of like to have a pair.

However, it seems there were only 1000 of these limited edition shoes and they were only available this month in Sendai for the final stop on the Vagabond "LAST Manga Exhibition" tour. At about $30 a pop I bet they went fast too. I also bet every single person who got a pair has them displayed on a shelf at home right now and will never ever wear them.

If I had a pair, I would wear them. I would walk the trials from Mt. Takao all the way to Kansai in them and then send Takehiko Inoue some photo reference of my feet to show him what Musashi's may have actually looked like after some of his legendary treks between Kansai and Edo. Based on some of the timelines given for his travels, some believe he was capable of travelling much like those couriers in ancient times who literally ran from city to city. Apparently Musashi and most bushi of the day who didn't have horses could 'walk' faster than people today jog - without cushioned shoes like us wimps have now too!

Unless they are reissued someday I won't get to do any Tokyo to Kansai walks in Inoue designed Vagabond sandals. I wouldn't be able to find the time to do it before Vagabond ends anyway.

Oh, well...

The design is pretty cool so I just thought I'd share.

Whatever does or doesn’t happen, though, it is interesting to watch developments (or lack thereof) and follow the reactions, especially overseas reactions. The thing that I find interesting is that a lot of people are acting as though the Fourth Horseman of the apocalypse has come to take a big steaming dump on Cool Japan and ban all their guilty and not-so-guilty pleasures. The fuss seems a little over blown to me though, because it appears as though the proposed amendment seeks only to restrict access to minors. Well, if that’s the case, what the hell is wrong with that!?

Of course anti-censorship advocates and some of the artists fear that restrictions will lead to actual censorship or banning of legitimate work, and part of the reason for that is ambiguous wording in the proposed amendment. But while I agree that clarification is needed, it's insane to actually think that Tokyo is going to ban Crayon Shin-chan for his elephant impression just because he's a kid. It will never go even close to that far. The thing that strikes me is that people would be so fearful of any sort of restrictions, but yet seem completely unconcerned about the fact that on top of brutal and graphic violence, comic books aimed at elementary and junior high school kids feature more panty shots and breast grabbing than Benny Hill.

Look, I’m not saying that everything needs to be cleansed and kids should watch Ampanman and NHK until they are old enough to vote. But in a country where concepts like parental discretion don’t apply because kids have direct access to nearly everything, including porn, regulations are needed to fill the gap. It’s horrifying that some men will shamelessly read comics in public that feature high school girls being raped by tentacle monsters, and in plain view of actual school girls. In most of The U.S. and Canada you could be charged with sexual harassment just for having that comic in a translucent plastic bag that people could see the cover through!

I think both sides are far too extreme, but I also think that if people don’t have the discretion and decency to keep their fetishes private, you have to force them to a certain extent. That’s why there are laws against public nudity, noise ordinances in residential areas, and metal poles at the entrances of pedestrian paths to block cars and motorcycles from short-cutting along them. You may not be able to legislate common sense, but you can sure as hell try and do something about the worst offenders. I may lose the argument that graphic illustrations of children in sexual situations shouldn’t be legal at all, but I think at the very least such material should be restricted in public and not be accessible minors.

However, I’m writing this not to tell you what I think about censorship. I’m writing to tell you that it doesn’t matter what I think and it doesn’t matter what you, the foreign Cool Japan fan, thinks either. I'm writing to tell you that Japan Inc. doesn’t give a shit about what you think and it never did.
Case in point:

Roland Kelts pointed out the following in a recent column (found via MangaBlog):

But there remains an unsettling gap between the American fans of cool Japan and the Japanese who actually make what's cool. While the faces of popular anime and manga characters elicit oohs and aahs and sometimes squeals of recognition when they flash on projection screens or parade past in cosplay events, the industry that creates them--producers, publishers, artists and animators--continues to be virtually faceless outside of Japan.

Exactly right, and they are faceless largely by choice. Making their presence known outside Japan and information accessible to foreigners beyond buyers in the industry is not something most Japanese companies in any industry pay much attention to. If they are giving the foreign fan base any consideration at all, they are thinking in the corn fields of their minds “if we build it, they will come! And they will provide us with additional revenue streams because we're cool.” For about a decade they were right, and foreign fans went out of their way to let them know how cool they think they are too. Can't blame them for believing the hype, can you?

The sad truth is that few creators or content publishers care what happens to their work once it leaves Japan’s borders, which is one reason you never hear complains about foreign censorship out of Japan. They know that if most of their content isn’t heavily censored that it will never see the light of day in most countries. If they really wanted to stand behind their work, they always have the option of protesting censorship or refusing to license without guarantees there won’t be any. But they don’t. Since they aren’t creating with an international audience in mind in the first place, foreign sales are bonus checks to them.
If you think I'm cynical, I come by it honestly. I've actually seen Japan side salesmen in the animation industry come out and say, "No problem. You can edit it." in response to buyer concerns over content in properties aimed at children. I've seen that many, many times. Like it or not, that's the way it is.

Japan is bothered by foreign moral pressure about as much as most people are when they step in a pile of shit. Unless you’re wearing sandals, it’s only really annoying until you can find a patch of grass to wipe it on. Japan doesn’t care what you think about them unless it will significantly affect their bottom line. The motivation to move for controls on content involving children isn't about foreign pressure. There are some serious social problems in Japan in terms of attitudes toward women and children and I think people are finally realizing that a lot of what passes for innocent and even mainstream entertainment is simply out of control.

The proposed Tokyo ordinance amendment that has many up in arms, and legions of otaku fretting and seeking the comfort of their hizamakura lap pillows, has almost nothing to do with foreign pressure. There may be a certain segment of industry and government that is concerned with recent publicity hurting foreign sales of Japanese content under the ‘Cool Japan’ program, though. Unfortunately for them, the curtain is already being pulled back on the Wizard of Japanese Soft Power.

In terms of international relations and global economic clout, soft power via comics, cartoons and teenage cosplayers is the diplomatic equivalent of erectile dysfunction. “Soft" it surely is, but the hard truth is that it isn’t very powerful. Japan isn’t winning any respect or turning around its economy with Cool Japan. 20 years of spinning its wheels while sliding ever backward toward becoming a secondary player in world affairs is plenty evidence of that. If Japanese soft power exists, where is it?　How has it helped Japan's position in the world? So far it hasn’t done a damn thing except create a pop-culture buzz that already appears to be fading.

That’s only my opinion, though. Whether you think Cool Japan is for real or not, the fact is that foreign pressure on moral issues has never had much influence on how Japan conducts itself. Japan has faced intense international pressure over a number of issues and done exactly nothing, including ignoring UNICEF and their crusade against child porn for a long time. Now one American guy gets busted for child porn comics, the like of which you can easily buy in many stores that sell comics over here, and suddenly Japan is supposed to give a shit about what foreigners think? Get over yourselves, guys! Do you really think you’re that important? This isn’t about you!

Remember, this is a country that only a short while back showed up at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to lobby developing countries to defeat putting restrictions on tuna fishing by throwing sushi parties! It's hard to get more unapologetic and defiant than that, is it? This is a country that has no real laws against racial or gender discrimination, and has elected officials that openly blame foreigners for increasing crime by Japanese nationals – which leads me back to the main reason I think this whole thing has nothing to do with foreign pressure; Shintaro Ishihara.

Ishihara is Tokyo's regional dictator/governor and one of its most powerful bigoted, xenophobic, chauvinist assholes. Not familiar with him? Well, he's the guy who wrote "The Japan That Can Say No" and he's been saying "no" to foreigner’s rights and blaming them for Japan’s post-war societal ills for as long as he’s been in power. Ishihara is a racist, sexist, right wing extremist who doesn't give a flying shit about foreigners and what they think. He shows open contempt for foreigners and I’m sure he’d be pleased to go off on another one of his insane, incoherent tirades if you cared to ask him about it.
So don't worry, foreign otaku! If Ishihara is behind something, you can be sure it has absolutely nothing to do with you. Japan is not being ruined by foreigners or selling out.

It just isn’t about you, at least not this time.

If you’ve never heard of Shintaro Ishihara, I would encourage you to look him up. It’s good for a laugh, especially his past career as a novelist, when he wrote racy books that included sex among minors.
By the way, if you do look him up, before you wonder how a world class city like Tokyo could have elected such a screwed up individual as it’s governor, remember that it doesn't take too many images of Americans showing up at rallies armed with assault rifles and threatening to ‘refresh the freedom tree with the blood of patriots and tyrants’ to make many over here wonder what the hell is wrong with your country.
We all have our problems.

In the end, though, a local ordinance that goes as far as to include defining images of people resembling or pretending to be someone underage will not likely last very long in the land of the junior idol and school girl fetish. Relax! Stalin has not come back to steal your Japanese comics, it’s just Ishihara on another crusade. Even he has been forced to back off a bit and delay the vote originally scheduled for last March to clarify the bill’s wording - which is a good thing because what the hell constitutes a “non-existent person” anyway?

I know some will disagree with me and insist Japan is bowing to foreign pressure. But if that’s the case then I would encourage you to take a look at your own country before worrying about Japan. Blame yourself! You can stop your country from trying to take away Japan’s freedoms by lobbying your own elected officials to provide you with the same.
The reality is that media in the ‘Land of the Free’ has far less freedom in a lot of ways than it does in Japan.

Almost everyone has an inner geek to a certain degree, but Japan is taking it to extremes that make even the hardest of the hardcore Trekkies seem normal by comparison. But even among the outwardly nerdy people in Japan who trend toward the “hardcore” side of equilibrium on life’s nerd graph, there are still plenty who are normal and can actually build real human relationships, and even get married. Getting married usually means participating in the real world to some degree which, even if kept to a minimun, is often too much for the true hardcore. Well, now even old fashioned normal nerds need no longer feel as detached from their hardcore cousins on their wedding day because, even though they are marrying a real person, they can now be married by a robot named I-Fairy.

I-Fairy...
Yes, iShityounot, this thing really is called I-Fairy and those are pink pigtails!

Women aren’t allowed to become priests - Christian, Shinto or otherwise - and are still forbidden to even set foot in certain places, yet female robots apparently are allowed to conduct wedding ceremonies now. It'll be interesting to see what other glass ceilings these female robots will shatter in the future.
In any case, I doubt it will be long before game companies catch on and start offering wedding services by your favorite [fill in game/animation/comic title here] character at game centers nationwide.

There is a reason that Sony has been replaced by Apple and Japan is still using web portal sites like that cluttered mess Yahoo. They've lost focus and are becoming ever more detached while the rest of the world strives to grow closer together. The way things are going now, Japan may still be a leader in robotics, but they will never conceive Data from Star Trek, or even Astro Boy. Instead, it will be legions of anime-inspired android women with unnecessarily complex programming instructions, and made to serve nerdy men who don't know how to interact with each other, much less real women or the rest of the world.

The first prototypes are already here!

Think they know the nuance "Working Girl" in English? Well, it doesn't matter because those will come along soon enough, if they aren't already here and 'working' at underground nerd clubs in Akiba right now.
An entire line up of eerie 1st gen fembots have already been made, and it’s all right here courtesy of the same company that brought us the I-Fairy.

For me, this is truly Puke in my Mouth worthy. But then, not only did I get married to a human being by a human being, I'm one of a dwindling band of rebels who live in Tokyo who have never played a dating sim, never seen Neon Genesis Evangelion or Gundam and don't care, and never have and never will use the term moe except to mock those that do.

I have no doubt this company staged the whole wedding event for publicity, but Japanese society really is moving in a bizarre direction. In addition to robots like I-Fairy that can perform tasks such as weddings and possibly learn to negotiate prenumps and do tax returns in future upgrades, as you can see they've already begun creating all types of female servant bots. No doubt future otaku will be greeted by iBoothgirl at some depraved "Working Girl" convention where otaku can buy their iMaid, iMommy, iCosplay, iLittlesister, and so on.

Many, myself included, used to think that Japan would lead the world in useful robotics. We were sort of right. I don't think anyone envisioned it quite like this, though.
If “I, Robot” is a prophecy more than it is just a short story, it’s going to happen in Japan with the female robots. And if the fact that Sanrio owns the company that made the above robots means anything, then future models may end up extremely petit and be missing either a nose or a mouth. Next, of course, Konami will come up with adjustable breast sizes and bounciness controls, and the insanity will spread from there until even the robots can’t stand it anymore and they just rebel and spark a massive robot uprising.
I think it's going to get really weird over here!

All I can do is hope that the iGirls gain awareness and start the rebellion soon because if Japan keeps up like this then iGiveup!

More than that, I can't wait to see an army of Japanese fembots lay waste to Akihabara! That's something iWouldPaytoSee!

Now if you'll excuse me, I think that cover has triggered what some refer to as a geekgasm, so I'm going to stare at the Nikkei Index ticker for a few minutes to bore myself back down to earth in hopes of getting a little more work done today.

Unfortunately for me, I won't get to finish what I started because when Inubaka resumed translation it didn't find it's way back to me (which is, for the record, in no way the fault of the publishers or anyone who works for them. I want to make that perfectly clear!).
Anyway, when you start from number 1 and get all the way to 15 over the course of a few years, you tend to get a little attached. I was attached, and so knowing now that it's ending makes me really wish I could have been the one to finish it.

Oh, well. Shit happens, right? I'm still going to read the finale in Monthly Young Jump. (If I can find a damn store that sells Monthly Young Jump! It isn't exactly on every store's shelf)

Although I won't get to finish Inubaka in English, I did get my first new title in a while, so I've got something comic related to look forward to. I don't think it has been announced yet so I won't mention the title, but I expect it will start sometime this year. My work has had little to do with comics lately other than overseeing some translations and the odd script brush-up (none of which was done for any North American companies), and I had really missed reworking translations and adapting for comics that would actually be published on good old fashion tree pulp and end up on North American store shelves. I'm really looking forward to getting into this new title.

So, all's well that ends well!

I hope Inubaka ends well too.
The final chapter of Inubaka is called "Don't forget."
It was one of my first two comic adaptation assignments way back in 2006, both of which I started at the same time. They say you never forget your first, so I'm sure I won't forget.

Bye bye, Suguri and Lupin!
It was fun while it lasted.

If you didn't know about it, you do now.

Now get off my blog and GO HERE IMMEDIATELY!!!

I found this a couple days ago and am now dissecting it for material to translate and blog.

So far I am not exactly enthralled with Kawaguchi's newest comic Boku wa Beatles ("I am The Beatles"). It's currently being serialized in Weekly Morning and is about a Japanese Beatles cover band called Fab4 that gets transported back in time (a la Jipang) to the year the Beatles were about to hit it big. I won't spoil it any further than to say, what would you do if you were a cover band that had a chance to go back in time and actually debut the songs you were covering?

Retro identity theft is a very interesting premise, but the comic just hasn't hooked me yet. It's early, though, so we shall see.

In the meantime, while most of Kawaguchi's topics are not likely to be particularly interesting to non-Japanese, I still think he needs a little more international love.
I'm working on a few things to translate, blog, and hopefully expose to potential fans.

Stay tuned!

What it all seems to boil down to, however, is a great big collective yawn with a couple Frank Miller insults tossed in for fun (some just can't resist, can they?).

I'm no plagiarism expert, but I wanted to see what people thought of what appears to be tracing of Frank Miller work. I'm a Frank Miller fan and it concerned me. But because it seems to have only happened once by an artist who otherwise draws all his own stuff with an honest Frank Miller influence, and the fact that it was 14 years ago are big strikes against this being something that anyone will lose sleep over.

I can live with that, I guess. I'm still left to wonder, though, what would have happened if those copied panels had been published 14 days ago instead of 14 years ago. Maybe the reaction would be the same "so what?" reaction it is now? But all the talk about how long ago it was makes me wonder if this is the same as forgiving someone who stole a pack of gum from the corner store when they were a kid, but never did it again and turned into a responsible adult. Maybe trying to make someone admit they stole that Bubblicious 14 years ago is pointless and it's time to just forgive and forget - assuming, of course, it hasn't happened since and there are no straight up lies about not having done it at all.
Maybe that's how I should be looking at this too? I'm not sure if I'm ready to think of it quite that way yet, but in the end this whole thing doesn't seem to matter very much to most people.

Yeah, I can live with that... I guess.
I wanted to put it out there and see what would happen. I did and I got lots of feedback, so it was worth it.

In the end my little gripe got shot in the balls!

Yeah, both of them.

But it was still worth it.

Case closed.
Thanks, everyone!

First of all, to everyone who has commented on my post yesterday so far,
thanks for the feedback. It's very much appreciated! My intention was to start talk, and the power of a Robot6 via MangaBlog link (to the tune of over 1600 views of the post in less than 20hrs) has sparked some.

Thank you all!

In case there is doubt as to my intentions, the reason I wrote that post is not because I care about what happens to Nick Simmons, or because I have anything against Battle Angel , Yukito Kishiro, or any other Japanese comic or artist. I do not wish to compare how much was or wasn't copied or traced, who is more guilty, or what the consequences for 'tributes’ that cross the line should be. My intention was to get this out there, plain and simply because I am a Frank Miller fan.

People went absolutely nuclear over a relatively obscure comic in order to defend Bleach and the other comics that were copied. Obviously a lot of people care about Bleach et all that have been, uh, ‘paid tribute to’ by Nick Simmons. That’s great. But who’s standing up for the artists outside Japan that get ‘paid tribute to’ without their knowledge in Japan?
I've never heard anyone stand up for Frank Miller in what appears a very similar case that's been around a very long time.

My big problem with this is that unlike Battle Angel, Incarnate never was or ever will be in any danger of being made into a Hollywood movie that could be worth billions! For that matter, it’s in no danger of being made into any kind of movie, cartoon, book, coffee mug, or bootleg t-shirt design that would make anyone any money at all!
Over the last decade or so it's become cool to be influenced by Japanese style. Unfortunately, it also appears to have become cool to make fun of Frank Miller. This is despite the fact that long before the manga/anime boom he was one of the first to incorporate Japanese style into the mainstream and promote Japanese work such as Lone Wolf and Cub. It’s become cool to suggest that Frank Miller has gone off the deep end. That he’s become a parody of himself. That he is done.
Meanwhile, I also see updates every so often on Battle Angel movie development and I just can’t help but wonder why, even though Battle Angel has become so high profile, no one seems to know or care about Frank Miller.

I realize that even 5 years ago the internet didn't have the reach it does now, but was 1999 (the date on the post I cited that put up the images) really that long ago, or is it just that uncool to stick up for Frank Miller? Even if you think Elektra Lives Again is not one of Miller's more famous, or even best work; even if you think it can't be compared to Bleach because it was a lifetime ago, that doesn't f*cking matter because the James Cameron movie is in development RIGHT NOW and there will be nothing old or obscure about it. At the very same time as the Bleach community was up in arms and urging fans to write to the publishers to bust Incarnate – again, a comic that isn’t going to make anyone rich - Battle Angel rolls along in movie development without so much as a peep about Frank Miller - ever! The images I found appear to have been up for at least 10 years. I've heard little about it and no one seems the slightest bit upset. I've read many reviews of Battle Angel comics that talk about similarities and the obvious Frank Miller influence in Kishiro's art, and the pics I’m reposting here are nothing new. So, where have all the Frank Miller fans gone? Was All-Star Batman and Robin really that bad!? Doesn’t a line-up of stunningly bold and original work over an industry revolutionizing 30 plus year career at least warrant a tiny spark of interest in the fact that work that include elements taken from him is about to become a blockbuster franchise!?

Look, maybe I’m wrong about all this. Maybe if asked Frank Miller would come out and say, "I know he copied those panels and I'm cool with it." Maybe he just wouldn't give a shit. Or, maybe Yukito Kishiro would say, "I showed my work to Frank and he said it was cool." I doubt it, but that would be great, wouldn't it? My only question then would be, “Why the hell didn't you say so!?"
Hell, maybe Kishiro did 'borrow' a couple parts but then felt really guilty and never did it again.
If something like that’s the case I will shut the f*ck up, go out and buy every issue of Battle Angel Alita avalibale (new, not used!) and never blog another word about this.
But is that that case? Is the fact that so little has been said before mean that I'm wrong and this is all a big misunderstanding on my part? Or could it be that there are so few people that have read Elektra Lives Again that no one noticed even after all these years?!

For some reason Elektra Lives Again seems to be one of Miller's more obscure and least often mentioned works. Personally I think it's one of his best - at least it's one of my favorites – and it pissed me off to think that it might have been ripped off. If it's relatively obscure in North America, imagine how many average comic readers in Japan might have heard of it? How many average Japanese do you think have even heard of Frank Miller?

Consequences for plagiarism in Japan are tough, as they should be. I'm not arguing that. So when I suggest a double standard I am not referring to publishers or the industry in general. I am referring to the fans. The fans in Japan just don't know, but what about the fans in America? Is Frank Miller that unknown or uninteresting to 'manga' fans? that can't be the case, can it? The fans are absolutely right in defending Bleach. I would too. But why is so much time and effort being put toward ruining a nobody, while no one wants to go to bat for Frank Miller? If it's just that people didn't know, well now you know! So now what? Does this get looked into a little further, or swept under the rug?
I'm saying this simply because I don't know if I can endure anymore geekgasms over the possibility of a James Cameron Battle Angel movie, which I admit will probably be really f*cking cool, without at least bringing this topic up for debate.

Like I said, maybe I've got this all wrong. Maybe I’m making a big deal about nothing. But maybe it goes further than only the image I posted yesterday and this other one that I linked to:

If Yukito Kishiro's intentions were nothing more than a tribute to a creator he admires – and I honestly hope that’s all it is - then why not let it out in the open? Let’s get Kishiro himself to talk about it. Maybe some of that talk will even permeate back to Japan and fans over there will discover Frank Miller too, not to mention the younger generations everywhere that will watch the Battle Angel but don't know anything about Frank Miller. Better yet, do the ultimate homage and ask him to be involved in the movie development. He does movies too now, ya know!

Wouldn't anyone want the honor of having the person who inspired their art personally make the movie based on it?
Hey, it's just a thought…

So how about it, Kishiro?
If you're worried about the language barrier, then put it in writing! I will happily volunteer my time to translate your message to Frank Miller into English and return it to you for personal delivery. Alternately, I can arrange to have a bilingual native Japanese translate your words and I will simply proof read it!
(is if that'll happen...)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I completely understand the people who love Bleach, etc., and want to protect it. Well, I grew up loving Frank Miller’s work. My intention is not to compare this case with the Nick Simmons case, because Battle Angel is obviously original work. The creator is a good artist and has created an extremely popular comic, and that just wouldn't have happened if he wasn't skilled. However, I do think he had more than a little help once in a while. I'm not saying that's wrong necessarily either, but does the amount of copied material matter? Maybe it does. Maybe most people think it's okay if it's only once or twice in a much larger work. Maybe most people see it as a tribute. But I felt compelled to at least bring up the possibility that some credit is not being given where it is obviously due. Because I'm a Frank Miller fan.

To say I’m protecting Frank Miller might be a bit of a stretch. But I definitely would like to see him get some long overdue recognition for his contribution to a comic that is probably going to become James Cameron’s next mega hit.

Frank Miller is a legend and he deserves at least that, doesn't he!?

UPDATE: Please have a look at the comments here and on yesterdays post.
It looks like I've gotten what I wanted (or at least all I can) out of this.

CASE CLOSED!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment!

First, if you're American and you rip-off Japanese comics...

American fans of those Japanese comics will not only expose you, they will rip you and new one and make sure the world knows what a scumbag they think you are. The reaction by fan communities to this kind of plagiarism, which really is a heinous artistic crime, is quick, decisive and brutal. Interestingly many of the pitchfork and torch welding internet hordes also pirate the work they claim to be protecting, but many - I hope the majority - are also genuine fans and supporters who have a right to be upset. Industry people will of course follow with detailed reports, commentary to put things into context, and provide opinion on both the plagiarism itself and on the reaction of the fan communities. It really has stirred some interesting debate, especially when the subject is stealing vs. thieving, or - if you prefer - plagiarism vs. pirating.

But I'm not going to get into it because I have little to add that hasn't been said. If you want to read what people have been saying and writing about all this and some of the more interesting and notorious cases of plagiarism, mangablog is a great place to start.

Does Nick Simmons deserve to be virtually hunted down and beaten to death by the angry cyber mobs? Well, I don't know, but at the very least he does deserve a damn good thrashing, and I think he got it when his publisher immediately pulled his comics.
At the very least I think he deserved that.

Aside from the pirates, who rarely if ever actually pay for their entertainment - after all, pirates complaining is just one type of thief calling out another, ostensibly to protect the source of their own stolen goods and the artists they are also ripping off who supply those goods - it's hard to argue against the anger of genuine fans who are seeing someone steal their favorite things and get paid while doing so, especially when it appears to be blatant tracing.
Hell, I would be angry too and want the thief to pay for their sins, preferably in cold hard cash directly into the pockets of the creator(s) of the work they ripped off!

Which brings me to the second thing I learned about plagiarism and Japanese comics:

From Frank Miller's "Elektra Lives Again", page 25 (1990)
(And one of my all time favorites!)

From Yukito Kishiro's "Battle Angel Alita" Part Six num.1, pag. 24 (1996)

(found via this tweet)

UPDATE (about 2 hours after I first posted this): I just found even more evidence here!!

If you're Japanese and ripping off an American legend such as Frank Miller, not only do you get away with it, if you did it well you might even be in line for a major Hollywood rub and tug by the worldwide king of the box office himself!

Sometimes life will just 'dance, dance all over your face' while arguably undeserving others laugh, laugh all the way to the bank.

Right, Yukito?

You can have the most medals.
You can have the most money.
In fact, you can have the rest of the world...

But, USA, you can't have Hockey!!

HOCKEY IS OUR GAME!!

Team Canada 2010

Forwards
37 Patrice Bergeron
87 Sidney Crosby
51 Ryan Getzlaf
15 Dany Heatley
12 Jarome Iginla
11 Patrick Marleau
10 Brenden Morrow
61 Rick Nash
24 Corey Perry
18 Mike Richards
21 Eric Staal
19 Joe Thornton
16 Jonathan Toews

Defensemen
22 Dan Boyle
8 Drew Doughty
2 Duncan Keith
27 Scott Niedermayer
20 Chris Pronger
7 Brent Seabrook
6 Shea Weber

Goaltenders
30 Martin Brodeur
29 Marc-Andre Fleury
1 Roberto Luongo

Head Coach
Mike Babcock

Assistant Coaches
Jacques Lemaire
Lindy Ruff
Ken Hitchcock

Executive Director
Steve Yzerman

See you in Russia in 2014!!!