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Anime Central - Day Two - Tsukasa Kotobuki
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Tsukasa Kotobuki is moving beyond his popular character designs for
the Saber Marionette series and is starting new projects - with more than
a bit of pressure involved. One of the projects is a major-multi-media
deal for the Kadokawa publishing house, which is hoped will be that company's
answer to shows such as Record of Lodoss War. "The president of Kadokawa
is determined to make this successful," said Kotobuki in showing the pressure
he'll face on this project. The other is a new Odeon anime which is schedule
to air this spring on Japanese TV; Kotobuki handled the mecha and character
designs for this show. |
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| Even with those forthcoming projects, Kotobuki spends much of his time
creating doujinshi. "I've spent half of my life immersed in doujinshi.
It was something I do with my friends to enjoy myself." Of course, Kotobuki's
friends include Kenichi Sonoda, one of the leading manga - and doujinshi
- artists. Still Kotobuki noted that there was a Kadokawa editor with him
at Anime Central, asking him when he'd be getting back to work. |
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Much doujinshi is erotic, and that's a part of the complex world of
japanese sexuality. Kotobuki said there's much less of a stigma against
erotic manga and doujinshi in Japan than there is in the U.S., where erotic
comics fight a constant censorship battle. Sexy comics are all but underground
in the U.S., but in Japan they're a major part of the manga market - and
Comic Market. |
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| How complex is that Japanese sexuality? "The argument in Japan is that
there are more people who are less interested sexually in real people and
more interested in fictional characters," he said. Kotobuki didn't mean
movie stars when he said "fictional characters," he meant manga and anime
characters. He mentioned that there are cosplay massage parlors in Japan
featuring women dressed like the most popular female characters, who provide
services that the artists never publically imagined (and whose use of the
costumes is not licensed by anyone in the manga and anime industry). Yes,
there are Kotobuki characters at those massage parlors, he said (nothing
for which he never gave his permission, of course). |
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