Comic Fiesta 2013 Exclusive Interviews

CF-exclusive-main-site

Exclusive Interviews with Danny Choo, VOFAN, Livetune, Redjuice and PPY

This is the final post on Comic Fiesta 2013, an event which has grown by leaps and bounds through the years. With more people and activities, a lot of VIPs graced the event with their presence and we took this opportunity to book some exclusive time with them. Though, it took time process all the content and this time there is no fancy video editing like before because well my MBP needs a lot of updates for now. Anyways, strap in for five major interviews, for which some of you availed the opportunity to ask direct questions through our advance postI’ll take this opportunity to thank TK and Toori for making this possible and for compiling these by spending half of their convention time interviewing these chosen guests. And as a reader, I hope you find this segment interesting because our celebrities were very candid and forthcoming. Don’t forget to read fully as most of the content is hidden under the spoiler due to interview length. Now let me hand it to our representatives~

TK2

Toori-iconGreetings folks! TKtakeru and Toori-chan here, bringing you a big slice of the Comic Fiesta 2013 experience. Due to media passes we managed to catch some time with five different guests so below we bring you an exclusive round of interviews for Metanorn. Hope you enjoy!

———————————————–

Meet Danny Choo

Danny (4)

Highlights of the discussion:

  • His views on the licensing model
  • Plans for Culture Japan Convention
  • Reasons for creating the Mirai Doll/Smart Doll (Titbit: He hopes that the smart doll version will replace smart phones in the future)
  • The origins of Mirai Water
  • Mirai Suenaga as a global brand
  • More on Mirai Millennium
  • Advice about living in Japan
  • His favourite colour!

Q: Hi Danny, we’re from Metanorn.net, one of the leading anime blogs, we have been around for more than 5 years and is still going strong with 10 million unique views.

Danny Choo: Wow.

Q: I believe you’ve visited the site back in 2008 and left a few comments there, which we will have some throwback trivia questions later but first I’ll start with some main topic questions.

DC: I think so. Okay.

Q: How much do you think anime blogging contributes in heightening the awareness of anime and Japanese culture?

DC: I think that, umm, I can tell you some stuff that I’m not supposed to talk about, I’ll tell you very straight. So the anime industry in Japan, their first and foremost priority is the Japanese market. The reason is that Japanese consumers would pay $600 dollars for a DVD box set, very few foreigners would pay so much for a DVD box set so that’s why they focus all the time in the Japanese marketplace. The licensing model, I would say, is pretty much broken, so someone overseas they could pay something like, $3000 USD for the license of the whole anime series, it depends on the anime series but then that company that buys the license can do anything they want, they can make products, they can make DVDs, so on, and what happens is that they sell an anime DVD box set for like $10 dollars, so that’s what’s broken about it. In this situation, many companies don’t really put enough effort in localizing the news or content, so it is very important why bloggers help get the news out in other languages and for people outside of Japan.

// Click to read more Show ▼

Meet VOFAN

VofanWe secured a group interview with the character designer and cover illustrator for one of the greatest novels in recent memory, Monogatari series illustrator, VOFAN. I’m sure that you know him by now after that short description. Why not pay a visit to his pixiv profile and check out his artworks and you’ll sure be enchanted by it. The following questions were asked by all sorts of interviewers so there is quite a variety in it. Enjoy!

Highlights of the discussion:

  • VOFAN’s humble beginnings
  • How he ended up collaborating with NisiOisiN
  • His opinions on the Monogatari series, both novel and anime
  • Difficulties he faced when designing the characters
  • His favourite character in the series, favourite anime and manga of all time
  • Details on how he handles his work

Q: What inspired you to start drawing?

VOFAN: My interest in drawing started from reading manga when I was young.

Q: How did you come up with your nickname VOFAN?

VOFAN: Well, back then I really loved a game called Virtual On, and the fact that I’m a big FAN of the game… I did not put much thought into coming up with a pen-name so I just used VOFAN.

Q: Were you a self-taught artist or did you take classes in school?

VOFAN: Due to my parent’s request when I was young, I did not partake in art classes and did not learn about traditional art drawing. (He did not clarify but from the reply it’s quite obvious he’s a self-taught artist.)

Q:  How did you develop such a unique visual style to your illustrations?

VOFAN: I came across my current visual style around 10 years ago. Before that, I would draw and illustrate in the style influenced by my favourite artist at the time but as I kept on drawing, I managed to develop my own style and I stopped following in the shadows of other artists.

// Click to read more Show ▼

Meet Livetune

Livetune_2

We have with us one of the most renowned figures in the Vocaloid music industry: Livetune! He is a composer, DJ and music creator who first started off with Hatsune Miku and has recently been producing anisongs and other electronic music as well as more Vocaloid songs. The interview was conducted in a group as well so there are plenty of questions to go around so readers who would like to know more about Livetune, please read on and enjoy!

Highlights of the discussion:

  • Why Vocaloid?
  • The way he approaches music composition
  • The origins of the music circle “Livetune”
  • The reason for his appearance
  • Details about his collaboration with May’n and artists he would love to collaborate with in the future
  • His opinions on “Tell Your World”
  • Future of Vocaloid
  • His favourite anime and games of all time (being a DJ is his other hobby.)
  • His thoughts on all the lives he has performed

Q:  Why did you choose Vocaloid as a way to kickstart your musical career?

Kz: It was around 2007, at that time electronic music was very popular, I personally liked Daft Punk and Justice so what I initially thought was that what if I combined a Daft Punk-like style music and Vocaloid together, what kind of music would I be able to create? That was how it started.

Q: Which is your favourite Vocaloid character?

Kz: Well, I don’t really see them as an actual character, I see them as something I can adjust and use in a software. I’m actually not familiar with any other Vocaloid characters other than Hatsune Miku.

Q: What other softwares do you use to compose your music?

Kz: Ever since the beginning I have been using the software called Abletone Live and along with Vocaloid I’ve been using Auto-Tune. (Fun Fact: This is also the origins of the name “Livetune”).

// Click to read more Show ▼

Meet Redjuice

Redjuice

Redjuice was once again invited to Comic Fiesta and we also had the opportunity to have another Metanorn exclusive interview with him. There were two interview sessions, one was done in a group and recorded while another was a private session, where we asked some questions, which we couldn’t get answered on video and are transcribed into text. Do note that there is no I in this interview because of the translator being the medium between us and Redjuice.

Highlights of the discussion:

  • What inspired him to be an artist
  • His experience working on Vividred Operation
  • The most challenging aspect of designing an original character and how he solves it
  • Future plans/projects
  • Anime series which he is currently following and likes

// Click to read more Show ▼

Meet PPY

Ppy

Last on the line for Metanorn’s exclusive interview with one of Comic Fiesta’s special guests, PPY. As a fan of Osu! (sort of), Toori was really glad to meet the creator. Peppy (Dean Herbert) is the creator of a rhythm game called Osu! This year Comic Fiesta attendees, including a number of Malaysian Osu! fans were delighted on his appearance. Along with the interview, d check out and try playing Osu! if you are new to it, it’s FREE. You can also find his twitter and links here.

Highlights of the discussion:

  • His problem with servers and traffic when he first started Osu!
  • Osu!’s programming language and running platforms
  • Future plans or update for Osu!
  • Possible future mode for Osu!: Touhou mode
  • His advice for aspiring game developers

And that concludes the string of interviews we had the pleasure of conducting with all these prestigious guest of Comic Fiesta 2013. It was a very star-studded event, we can assure you that, so much so that we had to abandon the chance to attend other artist panels, autograph sessions and all the stage shenanigans to make it in time. So, we hope all these juicy details managed to make up for any shortcomings in our post. Many thanks to Kyokai and the CF committee for giving us this chance meet the guest first hand, and we hope you enjoyed reading our post. If you want to see more interviews pics, you can find them at Metanorn fanpage. Hopefully we’ll see you again, readers and guests alike in 2014!

TK2// About TK Takeru: I’m a Type-Moon fanboy and a massive Touhou-fag. Known as an avid procrastinator and appreciator of Heavy Metal. Loves the horror mystery genre and sometimes animes that makes no sense. You can find me @ TwitterGoogle+ & dA.

———————————————–

Toori-iconAbout Toori-chan // Anime Otaku, who watches literally everything, genre isn’t a problem as long as the story is good. I’m a Black Rock Shooter fan that goes crazy seeing anything related. Newbie procrastinator. You can find me @TwitterFacebook & Google+.

———————————————–

About

The combined forces of Metanorn and their buddy sites. We come together on special occasions to celebrate, discuss and share fandom love.
Blinklist BlogMarks Delicious Digg Diigo FaceBook Google MySpace Netvibes Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Twitter

18 Responses to “Comic Fiesta 2013 Exclusive Interviews”

  1. Foshizzel says:

    Awwweesomeee work! I can tell those character designers pull from a lot of resources to get inspiration and usually they are more self taught which always blows my mind~

    Thanks again for these interviews <3

  2. BlackBriar says:

    I envy you guys being able to get so close to these anime designing badasses. More respect to you all!! Redjuice is current my favorite. The guy did well for Guilty Crown and Vividred Operation.

  3. Kyokai says:

    Good job again on compiling these interviews. It was fun knowing what gave inspiration (or non-inspiration) for their screen names, getup and even their art. :3

    • T.K. says:

      Glad you enjoyed it. Vofan sort of gave us a trivia on his pen-name, almost all of us didn’t know what is Virtual On. XD

  4. lvlln says:

    Good work guys, and thanks for delivering some of my questions to VOFAN! I liked reading what he had to say about Akio Watanabe’s takes on his designs, and they certainly ring true. Great selection of questions overall to all the guests. Danny Choo’s response about illegal aniblogs was pretty amusing.

    • T.K. says:

      Thanks! Vofan is a pretty awesome troll in person, very fun to talk to and Danny is as informative as usual. I really hope Vofan gets to work with Makoto Shinkai in the future, could turn out to be something fresh.

  5. AllenAndArth says:

    Oh!MY!GOD! It’s LiveTune!i’m a total fan of him! Tell Your World is awesome, by the way it’s my iphone tune… couldn’t help that music is awesome…it would be nice to make music like he does…i’m reaaaally bad at it though… T.W

  6. akagami says:

    Yes, I now like VOFAN, because we both like Shinobu~~~

  7. Highway says:

    Nice interviews. 🙂 I do think it’s maybe a bit of a stretch to think that the SmartDolls will replace smartphones. Maybe for some people, but seems a little too niche / maybe weird.

    • T.K. says:

      Yes agreed, there will have to be some form of cultural and technological advancement to take place before that can happen. it’s still a pretty cool idea though.

  8. d-LaN says:

    I think its pretty obvious that I’m a fan of VOFAN art when I bought a LN just because he’s doing the art for it. (It ain’t Monogatari btw) His work on Time & Eternity videogame is amazing too. Thanks for the interview!

    And I think I need to start listening to more livetune vocaloid works. Where should I start? Not exactly familiar with the whole vocaloid thing.

    • lvlln says:

      Have you played Time & Eternity? The visuals piqued my interest, but the reviews seem mixed at best, esp regarding lazy palette swaps and such. Still, I’m curious about picking it up.

      • d-LaN says:

        I don’t have a PS3, but I did watched the playthroughs of it on Utube. I can’t accurately pinpoint it but I will try my best.

        Personally, color swaps/gameplay aside I find the other aspects like OST/characters/plot/etc to be fine. Nothing groundbreaking but nothing too awful either. I find the MC to be hilarious (YMMV depending on whether you like perverted MC or not) and his relationship with Toki/Towa to be nice. Some of the side character are es[ecially entertaining like Ricardo/Makimona.

    • Kyokai says:

      Miyu has done a four part coverage on Vocaloid music here (Part I, II, III & IV), which might help you for starters. :3

  9. […] went to even more Anime Conventions, and landed exclusive interviews with Danny Choo, VOFAN, Livetune, Redjuice and PPY at Comic Fiesta […]

Leave a Reply