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snarpMinekura's blog is a lot harder to read (for me, anyway) than Kaoru Mori's - Minekura loves her run-on sentences, and any word that can be written in kanji, the woman is darn well going to write in kanji.
Also, Minekura's blog is clearly part of a conversation with her fans to a greater extent than Mori's is - there are references in there that I think assume more context than I have. So, I'm sure I'm missing stuff in here. Sections I had to guess about are in gray.
World is MINE*
Laughing Manjusaka
The latest Zero Sum Special Edition WARD is out now.
Somehow it looks like a horror manga magazine - red covers are the trademark of horror manga. It's so weird; I just made it that way thinking it would look summer-like. (Of course, it does look appropriate for Obon.)
There's a ToshoCard with this picture on it in the bonus package, too, so if you're interested, please keep it in mind. And keep the manga in mind, too, of course.
I had to redraw that cover over and over, to the point that it's gotten imprinted on me - now I can't draw anything else right. The truth is, the thing that I'm absolutely worst at (the thing I hate the most) is doing the cover art for my own manga, but since the the magazine's cover is its face, I can't do anything weird without making trouble for everyone else who's got material inside... It's a lot of pressure! (bitter laugh)
This is especially tricky for the main Saiyuki storyline, where I have to fit four people in the image. It really puts limits on composition... And there's all that writing that needs to be on there, and I have to be sure each one looks distinct from all the other covers I've done before...
That said, somewhere deep in my heart lives an impulse towards destruction. (laugh) Ichijinsha is actually very tolerant about this sort of thing, so if I were all of a sudden to draw some crazy picture that ruins everything, they might just say, oh, I see.
The Zero Sum Issue 100 Commemorative Site has a "Cover Museum" where you can see all the past covers (and when they're all lined up like that you can totally see how dirty my art is AAAAAAGH orz), so please carefully review them in a private place. You must do this religiously each day. ***
- 2010-07-18 00:05
[I skipped this one because it was all promotional stuff. -ed]
What you gave me.
Last month, I posted about the letter (the book?) that some South Korean readers sent me. But today, I received a gigantic envelope from readers all over the world!
[photo]
On both sides of the envelope, there are pictures of me with the countries' flags... and I'm not really that cute... putting that aside! The finishing touch was, on the envelope's flap, the words "World is MINE." And inside...
[photo]
Crammed full of letters offering encouragement, from all over: Italy, Spain, France, Russia, Singapore, Indonesia, America, Canada, and more... Some people had gone to the trouble to write in Japanese, and while others were in languages I couldn't read, the feeling came through clearly. The phrase "Get well soon!!" showed up over and over. What's with you guys? God, I love all of you crazy weirdos.
- 2010-09-01 00:00
Is summer just now starting?
The Postcard Collection went on sale at the end of July. Anthologies are really amazing...! Though I wanted all the writers to write whatever they liked, every single character ended up making an appearance. I'm jealous of Zakuro - he's so popular.
Both the Omnibus and the Anthology have been out of stock on Amazon since the launch day. But they've restocked now, so be sure to get them! During the planning stage for the anthology, I was muttering to myself, "I want to be able to include a side story and stuff." I said to my editor, "This would sell, right?" So, I'm in your guys' hands now. (laugh)
There'll be a Saiyuki-variant Can Case Phone Card in this month's Zero Sum bonus package. I don't have enough art for Blast yet, and I don't have anything yet for anything but the phone card... Busy, busy.
We finally got the autograph items printed from last year's Saiyuki Exhibition at GoFa in Aoyama. I'd like to apologize to everyone who applied and had to wait. GoFa had the images, so there wasn't really anything we could do on this end... They got here yesterday, so while I had the chance, I autographed everything in one fell swoop and sent it straight back to GoFa. Hopefully it'll all be in your hands in a few days. I hadn't really grasped the sales numbers before, but it took half the day to finish signing, which really made it hit home! Thank you all so much. I hope you're happy to get them!
- 2010-08-01 00:03
Because my life is not cool.
I forgot to put it in the post below, but in the Saiyuki Gaiden section of the cell phone page MinekuraKazuya.net, background images - one for each of the 11 characters - will be going up one at a time. A few days after they've all run, in the Bus Gamer corner, there'll be backgrounds for each of the Ichi-no-Han, so please look at those, too! Also, on the site for the Saiyuki Gaiden OVA, some character design art will be posted a bit at a time, so please check that out.
I'm slowly but steadily getting through all this work. I'm getting tired of making corrections to the comics... Soon I'll be working on some things I'll be able to post about. I'm doing my best!
Last week, as part of a pathology checkup, they did a small procedure which involved taking a shaving of bone from my face. As a result, the right side of my face is now swollen up like a monster. (bitter laugh) At first the neoplasm had swollen three centimeters in size, but now it's gotten to more than twice that... My face looks bad enough to make people in the street turn to get a second look, so as you'd expect of me, except for trips to the convenience store, I've been staying in my nice cool house (laugh). The swelling's gone down a lot now, but even though I told them it still hurts to laugh, I keep laughing at Sugino-san and Ashi-san. Sorry about that. I've come to a revelation of how lucky I am that I'm able to laugh like normal like this. ...It really is a revelation.
- 2010-08-01 00:05
August Update
My condition's gotten worse, so I'm going to have to give up on getting this month's chapter in.
I'm really sorry.
I've been getting better, and am going ahead on a lot of different things, like September's WARD (with a center color spread) and the manuscript for Zero Sum (the opening pages will be in color). And a bunch of other things... I'm doing my best to get it all done.
I wrote about it a little before, but there's been this whole sequence of events - the small illness, that eventually led to a fairly major operation, that made me get depressed... But! I've decided I'm just going to do my best, both to go in and get those tests done, and to get all my work done.
Since I only end up talking about being sick, I'm not updating this blog much - sorry about that.
In other news, I borrowed Sugino-san's iPad, and I've been watching anime during work, and playing Solitaire while I'm waiting around at the hospital. I'm very much enjoying my usurpation of other people's private property. (laugh) Actually, once when I realized there wasn't enough space for all the anime, for a second there I did think about erasing all Sugino-san's apps. Sorry!
- 2010-08-27 00:00
-
* This is a pun - the "mine" is the first character in Minekura's surname (pronounced mih-neh). (Because I am slow, I did not catch at first catch on to the fact that this was the character in her name. It means "peak" or "ridge," so I assumed it was, you know... a metaphor for being hardcore.)
**I'm sure this is something very obvious that someone'll explain to me the moment I post this, but: she keeps saying "Zensa" (全サ). I don't know what that means! I kind of think it may mean either all of her manga as a general category, or one of them in particular, but there is evidence for and against both points of view. musouka has corrected me! The zensa is a packet of bonus materials advertised in the magazine, which readers can send away for.
*** Not sure about this statement; I may well be projecting the level of actual snarkiness present.
Also, Minekura's blog is clearly part of a conversation with her fans to a greater extent than Mori's is - there are references in there that I think assume more context than I have. So, I'm sure I'm missing stuff in here. Sections I had to guess about are in gray.
World is MINE*
Laughing Manjusaka
The latest Zero Sum Special Edition WARD is out now.
Somehow it looks like a horror manga magazine - red covers are the trademark of horror manga. It's so weird; I just made it that way thinking it would look summer-like. (Of course, it does look appropriate for Obon.)
There's a ToshoCard with this picture on it in the bonus package, too, so if you're interested, please keep it in mind. And keep the manga in mind, too, of course.
I had to redraw that cover over and over, to the point that it's gotten imprinted on me - now I can't draw anything else right. The truth is, the thing that I'm absolutely worst at (the thing I hate the most) is doing the cover art for my own manga, but since the the magazine's cover is its face, I can't do anything weird without making trouble for everyone else who's got material inside... It's a lot of pressure! (bitter laugh)
This is especially tricky for the main Saiyuki storyline, where I have to fit four people in the image. It really puts limits on composition... And there's all that writing that needs to be on there, and I have to be sure each one looks distinct from all the other covers I've done before...
That said, somewhere deep in my heart lives an impulse towards destruction. (laugh) Ichijinsha is actually very tolerant about this sort of thing, so if I were all of a sudden to draw some crazy picture that ruins everything, they might just say, oh, I see.
The Zero Sum Issue 100 Commemorative Site has a "Cover Museum" where you can see all the past covers (and when they're all lined up like that you can totally see how dirty my art is AAAAAAGH orz), so please carefully review them in a private place. You must do this religiously each day. ***
- 2010-07-18 00:05
[I skipped this one because it was all promotional stuff. -ed]
What you gave me.
Last month, I posted about the letter (the book?) that some South Korean readers sent me. But today, I received a gigantic envelope from readers all over the world!
[photo]
On both sides of the envelope, there are pictures of me with the countries' flags... and I'm not really that cute... putting that aside! The finishing touch was, on the envelope's flap, the words "World is MINE." And inside...
[photo]
Crammed full of letters offering encouragement, from all over: Italy, Spain, France, Russia, Singapore, Indonesia, America, Canada, and more... Some people had gone to the trouble to write in Japanese, and while others were in languages I couldn't read, the feeling came through clearly. The phrase "Get well soon!!" showed up over and over. What's with you guys? God, I love all of you crazy weirdos.
- 2010-09-01 00:00
Is summer just now starting?
The Postcard Collection went on sale at the end of July. Anthologies are really amazing...! Though I wanted all the writers to write whatever they liked, every single character ended up making an appearance. I'm jealous of Zakuro - he's so popular.
Both the Omnibus and the Anthology have been out of stock on Amazon since the launch day. But they've restocked now, so be sure to get them! During the planning stage for the anthology, I was muttering to myself, "I want to be able to include a side story and stuff." I said to my editor, "This would sell, right?" So, I'm in your guys' hands now. (laugh)
There'll be a Saiyuki-variant Can Case Phone Card in this month's Zero Sum bonus package. I don't have enough art for Blast yet, and I don't have anything yet for anything but the phone card... Busy, busy.
We finally got the autograph items printed from last year's Saiyuki Exhibition at GoFa in Aoyama. I'd like to apologize to everyone who applied and had to wait. GoFa had the images, so there wasn't really anything we could do on this end... They got here yesterday, so while I had the chance, I autographed everything in one fell swoop and sent it straight back to GoFa. Hopefully it'll all be in your hands in a few days. I hadn't really grasped the sales numbers before, but it took half the day to finish signing, which really made it hit home! Thank you all so much. I hope you're happy to get them!
- 2010-08-01 00:03
Because my life is not cool.
I forgot to put it in the post below, but in the Saiyuki Gaiden section of the cell phone page MinekuraKazuya.net, background images - one for each of the 11 characters - will be going up one at a time. A few days after they've all run, in the Bus Gamer corner, there'll be backgrounds for each of the Ichi-no-Han, so please look at those, too! Also, on the site for the Saiyuki Gaiden OVA, some character design art will be posted a bit at a time, so please check that out.
I'm slowly but steadily getting through all this work. I'm getting tired of making corrections to the comics... Soon I'll be working on some things I'll be able to post about. I'm doing my best!
Last week, as part of a pathology checkup, they did a small procedure which involved taking a shaving of bone from my face. As a result, the right side of my face is now swollen up like a monster. (bitter laugh) At first the neoplasm had swollen three centimeters in size, but now it's gotten to more than twice that... My face looks bad enough to make people in the street turn to get a second look, so as you'd expect of me, except for trips to the convenience store, I've been staying in my nice cool house (laugh). The swelling's gone down a lot now, but even though I told them it still hurts to laugh, I keep laughing at Sugino-san and Ashi-san. Sorry about that. I've come to a revelation of how lucky I am that I'm able to laugh like normal like this. ...It really is a revelation.
- 2010-08-01 00:05
August Update
My condition's gotten worse, so I'm going to have to give up on getting this month's chapter in.
I'm really sorry.
I've been getting better, and am going ahead on a lot of different things, like September's WARD (with a center color spread) and the manuscript for Zero Sum (the opening pages will be in color). And a bunch of other things... I'm doing my best to get it all done.
I wrote about it a little before, but there's been this whole sequence of events - the small illness, that eventually led to a fairly major operation, that made me get depressed... But! I've decided I'm just going to do my best, both to go in and get those tests done, and to get all my work done.
Since I only end up talking about being sick, I'm not updating this blog much - sorry about that.
In other news, I borrowed Sugino-san's iPad, and I've been watching anime during work, and playing Solitaire while I'm waiting around at the hospital. I'm very much enjoying my usurpation of other people's private property. (laugh) Actually, once when I realized there wasn't enough space for all the anime, for a second there I did think about erasing all Sugino-san's apps. Sorry!
- 2010-08-27 00:00
-
* This is a pun - the "mine" is the first character in Minekura's surname (pronounced mih-neh). (Because I am slow, I did not catch at first catch on to the fact that this was the character in her name. It means "peak" or "ridge," so I assumed it was, you know... a metaphor for being hardcore.)
**
musouka has corrected me! The zensa is a packet of bonus materials advertised in the magazine, which readers can send away for.*** Not sure about this statement; I may well be projecting the level of actual snarkiness present.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 07:35 pm (UTC)(I've actually been trying to translate at least one entry a day from some-mangaka-or-other's blog recently, so this isn't really any different from what I'm already doing.)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 08:17 pm (UTC)On that South Korean "letter? book?" thing she mentions, I've seen that entry and run it through crappy machine translation: apparently a large group of Korean fans collected letters/email of support and well-wishes for her, and bound them into a book.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 01:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 03:13 am (UTC)Aww, thanks so much!
Re the "do this religiously every day" - she's definitely being funny. Especially given what seems to be her opinion on religion, as voiced through Sanzo in Saiyuki!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 07:24 am (UTC)It's extremely readable snark.