Hey there.

I went to Otakon this weekend past and it was the coolest Otakon ever! Not because the anime was better this year (it wasn't) or the deals were as good this year (cuz they weren't) or because there was an endless parade of horny bishies just waiting to be jumped (not even close!).

No this year was special because somehow, someway, the staff at Otakon pulled a major coupe and got Maki Murakami to come for a guest appearance! Saturday afternoon I got in line and waited for an hour and a half for the hour long Q n A with Murakami-san. It was wall to wall fangirls and a few fanBOYS. I stood in front of a very good K with a bazooka that read "Shuichi's Alarm Clock," and a Rage who had her own bazooka and two Ryu's one in the pink Kuma suit with the blue overalls. Very cute.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share what came out of that QnA with Murakami-san with you guys.

First of all, there are NO pics. The Otakon staff damn near beat it into us that no photography or cameras of any kind were allowed inside and if we were caught we'd be escorted out and stood on until said image was deleted. Any gifts had to be given to a staffer who'd pass it along. I suspect the Otakon staff sold their soul to Tokyopop because they had the tightest con staff security I've ever seen at one of these things.

I managed to get a third row seat once inside and they started pretty quickly. Ms. Murakami herself is a very small, very pretty woman and seems very shy. The mic barely picked up her voice. She was accompanied by her TP editor and a translator who also seemed to work for TP and her Japanese manager. The session opened with a slide show of a day in the life of a mangaka which showed her office and her equipment and such things.

To the best of my recollection, the slide show revealed:

Ms. Murakami lives in Hokkaido.

She draws by hand and then scans stuff in to ink on one of them digital pad thingies.

When she sends stuff to her publisher, they have notes in the margins about what percentages to color everything.

Sometimes it takes her a month and sometimes it takes her a week to finish a chapter. Sometimes it takes a year!

She lives with some dogs, three salamanders who don't have names and some fish.

She didn't mention a significant other, but then again, I don't think she would if she had one.

She likes ugly and grotesque things and when she needs an anatomical reference for Re/Mega Mixes, she'll watch horror films to get close ups of said genitals.

She has a replica gun collection to draw from for K. Because no one in Japan owns a gun, they're very realistic because they're allowed over there. That would last all of four minutes here in the U.S....

She said she gets lonely sometimes while she works, so she watches movies on her computer while she draws. The slide showed her watching DOOM of all things...

Mmm...that's about it for the slide show. After that they opened up the audience for questions, most of which were of the squealy fangirl variety, intermixed with some serious questions.

The QnA revealed:

Ms. Murakami doesn't have a reference for a real life person that she based any of the Gravi characters on, including K or Eiri or Shu who were asked about specifically. She DID say that she had been to NY to do research and that the reference points for the city in the manga are real.

Her favorite character is Shuichi. (She said that to someone dressed as Shu so who really knows?)

The Re/Mega mix pairings are largely based on a: what she likes and b: what the fans have asked for. She suggested alternate pairings be passed along to her managers. More ASK, Shu x Ryu and K x Hiro were requested. She said she'd take them under consideration. Sadly, no one requested more Big Daddy. *I didn't raise my hand*

When asked if she had formal training as an artist she said no. She's been drawing since about four years old but never took classes in it. She also stated she had been doing her inking digitally for about ten years.

Someone asked if the Remixes were going to be translated for the U.S. and the TP rep said that they were considering it. They have to see how and IF stores will carry them. They also revealed that they had already translated and sold some of them in Spain and were working on that model with the TP Spanish reps to figure out if it could be done in the U.S.! Why Spain? Someone tell me...

Someone also asked what her inspiration was to write Gravi in the first place. She said that she liked the genre of boylove and when she first started doing it, there wasn't really anyone else doing it, so why not start it? She saw a gap in the market and worked to fill it.

Another question involved why did the series begin to take such an outlandish cartoonish turn with mecha pandas and such. Basically she said she ran out of ideas and decided to have some fun.

When asked if there were going to be any more anime or how many EX's there were going to be, she said it wasn't really up to her but as many as the fans wanted. Anime wasn't her decision alone however and people needed to talk with her manager and TP to request it.

Someone also asked about more novels, and she said since she didn't write them, she didn't know and that it'd be up to fan demand and whether or not they'd want to publish more. (I got the feeling that a lot of that stuff isn't up to her but what her handlers/publisher wants).

When asked if she felt her work was helping to promote the state of homosexual affairs in Japan, her translator went WHOA..THAT'S DEEP. I honestly don't remember what Ms. Murakami said about that...but the answer wasn't such that it stuck.

Ms. Murakami also stated that a difference between Japanese fans and American fans are that Japanese fans are more quiet and timid and American fans are more direct and get right to the point. Case in point, one of the first questions was a Remix question! And if I might add another difference is probably that American fans are louder. Everything was accompanied by a high pitched SQUEEEE that contributed mightily to a headache I carried around.

After the Q n A they gave out tickets to the first two rows for autographs. I was in the THIRD bloody row! But, as the gods would have it, a second autograph session for Sunday was set up for 11 am. I got there in line about 20 after nine and STILL had 30 people in front of me! But I got one of the last tickets they handed out for an autograph. Tickets meant you were guaranteed a signing, everyone else was at the discretion of the author. SOOO I GOT AN AUTOGRAPH! yayaya....I got her to sign my 1 + 2 Remix with the foil cover of Shuichi. They took us in five at a time and again, for such a small room there were like five staffers there. She asked me where I got my Remix and I told her last year's con and she smiled. I bowed, said thank you in my flunking Japanese and left. They were also handing out color 8 x 10s of Eiri and Shu in case you didn't have anything for her to sign. Some had nothing. Others brought their WHOLE COLLECTION. I was like dude...they're not getting all that signed and I was right. Convention staffers limited it to one item PER fangirl. No exceptions.

And that was Otakon this year!

I went to the Rave and can now officially say I've been to one. It was a bunch of kids standing or jumping around in a circle watching some guy with glow sticks twirl around.

I missed the yaoi panel at midnight cuz of my monster headache, but managed to get a couple more Remixes and see a hard copy of some Megamixes, including Capybara and several compilation books with all of the Re/Mega mixes in them so far! It had a cover I didn't recognize and the lady that had it said she got it in Japan.

I also met some fanfic fans and had a good time.

The end.

Wow hun you could seriously be a reporter or something ^_____^ This was a great account of your weekend and meeting Maki! There is no measure for the coolness of that!

It's great to hear of all the things she did and stuff she explained. HAHA! Salamanders? Weird XD

Too bad about Big Daddy v.v How could people forget about him?! Not surprising that people asked for Shu and Ryu lol. And horror movies for close ups of genitals?? *blinks* what kind of horror movies IS she watching? o-o LOL wow that's some info o-o

It's awesome you got an autograph..I'm sure you'll treasure that!

*snort* Raves... :P

Oooo Fanfic fans! I bet they were lined up for autographs just like Maki *smiles*


:dance:

ooooh Lucky ^_^ Thanks for the wee report!

I know what i would have asked at the Q and A

"excuse me...but why the hell does Hiro have an obssesion with trying to choke Suguru?!"

O.O!



...I Love You.

lol or maybe more like I hate you XD gah! OMG! I can't believe it!! You and Maki.. right there!! Hot damn! and you even got to talk to her?! ! you should've hugged her though, hug her! and dude you must've been writing this down! because I can't believe you were able to remember all that and share with us so much. Which i'm so GRATEFUL for by the way! It was like I was right there, sitting in the last row.. squealing, and even waiting in line. X D (since I just went through something similar) Haha I probably would've been the one to ask something fangirly like "Murakami do you know how cool you are?!"
-yes
"EEEEE"

lol. I'm uh.. ee i'm having trouble finding words to express the excitement in me. Though you mentioned why spain.. I think its because the Japanese and Europeans are very similar in the way they sell merchandise. Like they do sell bootlegs, VCD's and all that. Not here in the US though. Usually US companies grab only official/official looking stuff so something that's more "fan based" is probably overlooked here, or they just don't see much profit. Anyway as for the why the country itself.. i have no idea, maybe the spanish do it best. haha j/k probably demand was higher or fanbase was bigger or something. Thats my best guess. =)

And I bet her favorite character IS Shuichi ^.~ why else would she have him as a main character? =P


Glad you were there! ..sucks about the pics though ='( but either way that is just too cool! and now that you met Maki, you are THAT much cooler. :lol:

Shu Out!