Sometimes I look at manga artists' blogs.

[snarp]

They're weird!

Kumiko Suekane (Afterschool Charisma): Suekane is allll over the place. The blog's tone is very casual, fannish, and jaded, to the point that I can't understand, like, 75% of her references. She's into Phoenix Wright. Complains about her magazine (!).

Moyoco Anno (Hataraki Man, Sugar Sugar Rune): There's one post on there, and in it she apologizes for not posting. And drawing - sounds like she's been sick. Tone is sad and bored. Feel better, Moyoco Anno!

Natsuki Takaya (Fruits Basket, Hoshi wa Utau): Very domestic. She talks about her assistants, presents people have given her, stuff she's bought, food she likes, and the weather. She posts photos of all of these things. The title of the blog is "Cat and Mouse and Stars and the Moon."

Kubo Tite's Twitter (Bleach): Casual stuff about work and his assistants. His fans send him fan-Tweets, and he says, "Thank you!" and sometimes comments on personal details they've mentioned. "I'm glad I've made a manga that fathers can read with their sons!" IF THEY WANT THEIR SONS TO GROW UP TO BE MISOGYNISTS i didn't say anything

Kaoru Mori (Emma, Otoyomegatari): I really enjoy hers. Excited discussions of her research material for Otoyomegatari and anything else she's been into recently. She went through an opera phase at one point, and obviously still likes the Victorian era.

She also posts a lot of sketches of busty women, attended by mock-embarrassed disclaimers that she does draw things other than busty women. Well, evidently you do not do so very often, Kaoru Mori. If you wondered why her women in Emma and Otoyomegatari are so much hotter than her men, this blog may help to answer your question.

Comments

Kaoru Mori's blog

[(Anonymous)]

I tend to draw women easier than i draw men, and therefore when sketching draw more women...but lingerie shots were never really an interest. I did totally go through a victorian phase, though.

Especially weird because as far as I know, its totally different from the actual manga she's done to date. At this point I'd be expecting embroidery or weaving designs if it was work related.

Re: Kaoru Mori's blog

[snarp]

I would say that both Emma and Otoyomegatari show a definite interest in the female form! Mrs. Molders is particularly notable.

Re: Kaoru Mori's blog

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, and the servants bathing.

But i guess for me, it seemed more...artistic? Like, and interest in getting the balance and movement and anatomy right, while at the same time showing something about the way the characters lived?

...to me in was in a whole different class from the pinup style stuff she posted.

[chomiji]

How about Kazuya Minekura (Saiyuki)? I know she's been ill. She puts little slices of her current drawing projects up - usually from things that will be published, but she also really likes to draw flowers.

[snarp]

The most recent three posts talk a little about promotions and anime releases, but are mainly about her health. She has bone cancer of some kind, and her second August 1st post complains that her face is swollen because they had to take a bone sample from it. She doesn't mention what the results of the test were, but in the August 27th post she says, "My condition's gotten worse," that she spent a lot of time waiting around in a hospital playing with an iPad she borrowed, and that she's determined to keep working and not get depressed.

The fourth one is, obviously, stuff overseas fans have sent her. Her blog's title is "World is Mine," with "mine" written both as the English word, and as the kanji meaning "peak" or "ridge. On the seal of the big envelope in which her publishers (I assume?) forwarded this stuff to her, they'd written "World is MINE."

[chomiji]

Oh no ... I knew she was ill, but didn't realize how badly.

T-T

Yes, a bunch of those fans who sent the package are on LJ and participate in the Saiyuki LJ community. She seems to be a very sweet person and such a fan girl herself - she got her start drawing doujinshi.

Thank you for the translation.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

*deep breaths*

OK, after some seriously weepy panic over here -- I lost my first real heart-dog to osteosarcoma so hearing those two particular words together instantly makes me think of the worst possible scenarios -- a little poking around further and folks on veronicacode's journal are talking about fibrous bone dysplasia, which sounds like it's all sorts of horrible but not actually *malignant*, thank goodness.

*hyperventilates a little more*

[chomiji]

Ah, OK. Yes, that disease also has bone lesions that are called tumors, but actual cancer is only a rare complication. See Mayo Clinic article on Fibrous dysplasia.

Yes, I was sad all evening.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even if a tumor is benign, that doesn't mean it can't be troublesome or painful...and bone pain is such a dreadful thing. I'm so glad to hear it isn't a metastatic cancer, but this disease, and the surgery that's the only real treatment, sounds plenty ghastly on its own. :(

[snarp]

Agh! Sorry I freaked you out. The word "neoplasm" was in there, and for some reason it was in my head that that always meant "malignant." I should've looked that up first - I'm really sorry.

[chomiji]

It's easy to understand how it happened! It's just that like many other Saiyuki fans, we love Minekura as though we know her (she's such a fangirl herself). And we knew she'd been sick - she had some surgery last year or so, which delayed all her manga releases. So we got a little carried away when we thought it was cancer... .

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

It's OK, really! Medical jargon can be confusing enough even when you're not running it through a layer of translation, and I certainly don't expect people to be mindreaders about that sort of random trigger (especially when I didn't even know just how hard it would hit me until it happened.) And I channelled the nervous energy from that little freakout into starting up a project to make a collaborative senbazura, so it's all good.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

...sensei has bone cancer? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! ;_;