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Anime Central - Day Two - Chiho Saito
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Revolutionary Girl Utena is the crowning achievement for manga artist
Chiho Saito, but it's only one of her works - and not the most recent one.
When Utena was finished, Saito started a new series, Lady Masquerade. That
meant a new round of the hard work required to beat deadlines and keep
a manga series interesting. It's even harder for manga artists because
most of them write and draw their stories, while American comics have several
writers and artists. How does Saito overcome a case of writers' block?
I take a hot bath and try to relax," she said. |
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| It was easier for Saito to learn how to draw than to write a convincing
story. "Writing manga is extra difficult. At first I didn't know what to
do - it took me a while to learn," she said. The problem comes in making
the story fit in the pages allotted to the artist by each publication in
each episode. Although successful manga can go on for thousands of pages,
individual stories are much shorter because they have to share a manga
issue with other stories. But, "After eighteen years you get used to it." |
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The art came more naturally to Saito, who is a self-taught artist (something
shared by many female manga artists). "When I create manga, I want the
images to be like they're moving," said Saito. And the glowing, dreamy
look is deliberate. "I try to draw with a softness to it. Shojo manga has
a sense of openness. It's not realistic. I try to draw so you can feel
the sunlight and the wind blowing." |
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| Think about drawing manga as a task more like producing a movie than
any other form of art, said Saito. A film has a director, cinematographer,
art directors actors and costumers - dozens of people to create a film.
Manga artists have to do the same thing on paper, and pretty much by themselves
(although most major artists have assistants to help them produce their
pages). |
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