YAOI INTERVIEW: Hinako Takanaga ~ Part 1 of 3
It's finally here! After many hours slaving over my digital recorder, I've finally finished transcribing the whopping 81 minutes of interview I recorded. If you don't think Sensei loves her fans, think again! She answered nearly every your of my questions [WAY more than I ever thought she would] and her answers were lengthy and thoughtful.
Before we get to the interview, I want to thank a few people that made this possible for me as well as for all of you. Of course, the biggest thanks to Sensei for taking the time out of her busy and I'm sure quite taxing schedule to answer all of these questions. A big thanks to Digital Manga for even thinking of my site and giving me the opportunity to meet and interview the gracious Hinako Takanaga. Michelle Mauk, who has since moved on in her career, was the one to contact me and give me the opportunity. Thanks Michelle!
After Michelle left, Evan Miller stepped in and without missing a beat got in contact with me and took care of scheduling the interview as well as giving me proper interview etiquette when I asked and providing his services as interpreter for the actual interview. Wow! What an interpreter! Not only does he sound like a native [I couldn't stop staring at him as he was speaking Japanese XD Creepy, I'm sure. ], but he was very thorough with the answers and at no time did I feel like he was just condensing the answers down to make his job easier. If you've ever had to listen to interpreters at YaoiCon panels, you'll appreciate this trait. If there was anyone else at DMP responsible for giving me this opportunity, I and my readers will be forever grateful [Hi Yoko!].
Without further adieu, let's get into the interview. Just to give you some insight, I literally transcribed straight from a digital recording of the interview. Keep this in mind when reading as it is very conversational, which means proper sentence structure sometimes goes out the window [guilty as charged]. 
I also included some personal notes to give you a feel for the interview itself, like when there was laughing or extra discussion about something. I included those parts in brackets like [this]. Lastly, the interview was very lengthy so I have broken it down into three parts to make for easier reading. There's so much good stuff in here, you do not want to miss out! Ok, I'll stop talking now… enjoy!
I also included some personal notes to give you a feel for the interview itself, like when there was laughing or extra discussion about something. I included those parts in brackets like [this]. Lastly, the interview was very lengthy so I have broken it down into three parts to make for easier reading. There's so much good stuff in here, you do not want to miss out! Ok, I'll stop talking now… enjoy![In the room is myself, Evan Miller who translated, Hinako Takanaga and her editor, Mayumi Murata from Kaiousha]
Jenny: Well first, of course, I want to thank you for doing the interview.
Sensei: Thank you very much.
Jenny: I just want to let you know that I asked the readers of my website to provide questions for you so they’re all fan questions and I took the most popular questions so… the fans are very eager, there was a big response to ask you questions.
Sensei: Ahhhh…
Jenny: So the biggest question they were asking is if volume 7 of Tyrant… this one [I had the book next to me!] is the last volume, and if not, is there an end in sight?
[Giggling from her editor, what I think is an explanation to Sensei, an “Ahhh!” and then laughing]
Sensei: Seven won’t be the final volume. It’s definitely going to go into a 7th and 8th volume based on just how long it’s going to be serialized. From there it’s… we’re trying to figure that out.
Jenny: They wanted to know if there’s any chance of an art book of your work
Sensei: Ahhhh…. Mmmmm….
Jenny: They would love one.
[Laughing from all three]
Evan: This is her editor from Kaiousha [gestures towards her editor who is sitting to her right]
Jenny: Yes, please… they really want one! It was the second most popular question.
Sensei: We’re not to the proposal stage yet but we are getting a lot of the same requests from Japanese fans and we know that a lot of people are interested in it so we’ve definitely talked about it, but we’re not at the point where we’re ready to just start in and work on it.
The other thing is that I’m a freelancer 'technically', I do my work with a lot of different publishers, Kaiousha, Libre, Kadokawa and other things so getting the rights to sort of pull everything into one book is going to be a little tricky. Japanese legalities are not fun but that’s something that I’m still… that I really am interested in doing.
Jenny: I heard already [that you] kind of touched on the scanlation question. Some of the fans had asked how you feel about scanlators who use the excuse that they’re helping by getting your work out there so their question is how you feel about that reasoning.
Sensei: Mmmm…. They do have a point there that there [are] definitely people that are going to read a fan scanlation and they are going to think, well this is awesome! I’m going to go buy the book. I’m not going to go as far to say that there aren’t people that do that because quite clearly there are, but I can’t say that it’s really the best way to help the industry. It isn’t what the creators want first and fore mostly, and I think that there’s a happy medium, like by putting a little bit up and then telling people to, you know, if you want to check out more read the actual book or telling people to write publishers and saying you should pick this title up and things like that.
Other than that, we have to be honest that there are going to be people that if the whole series is available, they’re just going to read the whole thing and be done with it. People are different, some people are going to want to actually go out and buy a paper copy and other people are just going to just view it on their computer and close their browser and be like, ok, I’m done. And they need to remember that there are rights associated with this and we do put a lot of time into creating that and that’s something that we want to be respected. We don’t fail to understand the other point of view; we just want people to sort of strike a balance between the two so that both sides can be happy.
I draw my own doujinshi so I am familiar with the kind of problem and a lot of Japanese fans, even though some American fans might not know this, that we understand that because doujinshi in and of itself, unless it’s an original piece, is something where you’re essentially taking your work that already exists and you’re doing your own spin on it. Because it is your own spin, because it is something new it’s something that we sort of are allowed to get away with and people don’t make a whole lot of money off it so it’s not like we don’t understand where fans are coming from. I’d say on the contrary that we really do, but again going back and reading the whole thing is bad.
What we want to say is that if you really want to support my work you should tell us. Share your feelings, contact us, contact publishers, ask them to publish these works, share your feelings and your support with us by buying the books, supporting the titles that are out there because that’s the way that we can finally understand where the fans are coming from.
Jenny: That kind of leads into my next question. You recently had Awkward Silence released straight from Japan
Sensei: [I think] that there’s always going to be people that are just like, well, it’s free [via illegal download] and I can get it so I’m just going to get it. It would be foolish for us to ignore the fact that a lot of people, they go online and if they have that manga available [legally]… I mean it’s already in their own home and it’s easy to get, they don’t have to go to a bookstore or anything like that, and I think that maintaining that sort of a close connection is crucial and it would be fantastic to have more of my work… I would love to have more of my work available in that kind of a digital format where it’s a legal route where people are available to get the work digitally. Perhaps have a version that’s a little cheaper than the paper version that they can download and I think that if that kind of method is available and people can get it that way legally and it’s easy to use then I think that the number of people using it will pick up.
Jenny: Do you know if any of your titles maybe going in that direction with being translated into English straight from Japan
[Some discussion with her editor]
Sensei: I think that right now it’s really great that there are a lot of people doing more, going a more digital route and actually she [editor] commented that yeah, Digital Manga, is also going a digital route and there’s going to be a future in that but right now it’s kind of in a weird spot where it’s… everyone is hand over foot trying to get into the digital distribution game and I think among the companies that are getting into it there are a few that are just not that good and so I think it’s going to take a little time, not forever of course, a little time before things sort of shake out and we find companies that we can work with and you’re kind of weeding out the bad apples from the bunch so to speak.
There’s a lot involved with rights or rights that were held for certain properties. Rights were held by one and now they’re held by another and so things like that can be complicated. Right now for Tyrant Falls in Love in Japan
Jenny: Great! That’d be great.
Sensei: Thank you, thank you…
Jenny: It’s very exciting. I don’t know if you can answer this or if you can just be vague about it to give fans a little something, are any of your other titles not currently licensed in English… let me back that up… are you working on anything being licensed in English, any new titles, even if you can’t give the information of what, but is there anything in the works to be released over here in English?
Evan: That we don’t know about yet?
Jenny: Yeah, that the fans wouldn’t know about yet.
Sensei: Actually I’m pretty sure that everything that I’ve been working on is already out or it is in the process of coming out in Engligh. There’s nothing that I don’t think hasn’t been announced. Libre has their player that they’re trying to pioneer, Challengers is already available, Little Butterfly, Tyrant Falls in Love, Devil’s Secret, other things like that. I don’t think that there’s anything that the fans actually don’t know about.
Jenny: Somebody asked, and I didn’t see this one put out, Awkward Silence, the one we talked about early, I don’t think is actually out in English.
[Some surprise]
Sensei: I gave the ok to Libre to do it. I don’t know if Libre hasn’t put it out or if Libre hasn’t licensed it out, that would be something that I don’t really know about. I know that it’s already available in Germany America. R
[More discussion]
Evan: They actually think that Libre may be doing an English download of Awkward Silence.
Jenny: You mean like with the KINDLE?
Evan: Possibly in the future with the KINDLE. Libre’s platform is KINDLE, right?
Jenny: Yeah, they put it out in Japanese already on KINDLE.
Evan: They think that they are probably working on one in English and it’s weird that it hasn’t, she’s a little surprised that it’s not out because the thing that she did after that is Devil’s Secret and that’s already out from DMP, 801.
Jenny: Yeah… yes, the fans were very interested in that title. [laughing]
Sensei: I’ll ask somebody over at Libre. [laughing]
~Jennifer LeBlanc
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It’s a great interview and I love how honest sensei was about the scanlations question. Thank you so much for this!
But please, change the color of sensei’s answer, it’s hard on my eyes, I almost cut the text and paste in my notepad to be able to read.
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Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
November 9th, 2010 at 5:52 PM
I’m working on the font color but I’m limited due to the gray background.
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Great interview. I’m really looking forward to reading the next parts.
Might I suggest changing Sense’s font, though? Some of it was a bit hard to read.
Also, I think the article will only benefit from having an editor. There were quite a few grammatical and punctuational errors.
[Reply to this comment]
Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
November 9th, 2010 at 5:54 PM
Keep in mind, it was transcribed direct from a tape. I didn’t change the grammar intentionally. It’s written as spoken, which means grammar and punctuation are what they are, which I mentioned at the beginning of the interview.
As far as the font color, I’m working on it. I’m limited on what works with this background color.
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wow
sensei answered quite in detail… I like how she answered scanlation subject..it will be cool if more of her works ( in English ) are available in digital format…
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Great interview, there are some more info that I expected its awesome. I can´t wait for the 2nd and 3th part. Very thanks really!
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[...] that out. If you want to read the whole Interview with Hinako Takanaga go here ===> Click Here Club Owner ~Koisuru Boukun Club~ ~Art Club~ ~The Book [...]
[...] that out" If you want to read the whole Interview with Hinako Takanaga go here ===> Click Here Club Owner ~Koisuru Boukun Club~ ~Art Club~ ~The Book [...]
Thanks to you and Takanaga-sensei for doing the interview, and thanks to the DMP and Kaiousha staff for setting it up!
Was Evan the guy who translated for the panel? Because he was great there too.
Aside from Awkward Silence, the other unlicensed (so far) title is Turning Point. Hopefully someone will pick that up soon…
[Reply to this comment]
Well, I’m one of those fans that reads scanlations first, but I have every intention to buy Little Butterfly, Tyrant, and Awkward Silence!
And I’m anti-ebook/kindle, I want a real book in my hands
[Reply to this comment]
Faye Reply:
November 15th, 2010 at 9:34 PM
I completely agree! It would be great for Awkward Silence to be available as an e-book in English, but it definitely isn’t the same as having a paper copy.
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Wornderful interview! Many thanks for all the hard work. =3
Very interesting, its wonderful to see that Hinako Takanaga is so in touch with current topics (scanlations-publishing) and her fans.
I myself only found Hinako Takanaga work “The Tyrant Falls in Love” via scanlations and in doing so fell in love with her work and bought/pre-ordered “Tyrant” on Amazon and then went on to buy “Challengers” from DramaQueen (They still have them in stock!). So I see both sides of the story for and against scanlations. ^^
Can’t wait for the next installment.
Many thanks!
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Thank you for this! It was a great read, especially the bit about scanlations. Definitely looking forward to the next installment.
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Awesome, so many questions answered! Sensei is just awesome, haha. Great interview, thank you for doing this! I’m looking forward to reading the rest of it
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Thanks for posting this! I can’t believe you got to talk with the lady who drew The Tyrant Who Falls in Love. I remember that was one of the stories that first got me into yaoi!
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omg! that’s so awesome! i’m so jealous! great interview! 81 minutes! that’s mind boggling! and for you to have to sit thru it and translate it too! thank you so much for your time and effort! can’t wait for the rest of the interview! thanks again!
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Thanks so much for this interview!! she is so kind…looking foward to the next parts!!
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I got to see sensei’s panel at Y-Con and she was so amazing! I loved the stories she told, like when she got mowed down on her skooter trying to make her deadline and called her editor from the ambulance. She’s so devoted
Thank you for posting this! I’m glad we get to see answers to questions that weren’t asked in the panel.
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Thank you very much for your work, it’s awesome, I really wish to read de 2dn and 3rth part.
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[...] INTERVIEW: Hinako Takanaga, Part 2 of 3 Part 1 of 3 can be found here. As a reminder, this was transcribed with the conversational approach in mind. I edited a [...]
[...] Read the article and interview here [...]
[...] Tomei algumas liberdades e cortei poucas partes do texto que achei desnesserárias, mas quem preferir ler o original: http://theyaoireview.com/2010/11/09/yaoi-interview-hinako-takanaga-part-1-of-3/ [...]
I can’t believe it’s on the Kindle! That’s so awesome
Now I can read it without people pestering me because of the cover. haha. And I can bring all the volumes of manga with me ^^
Downloading them now!
Great interview, it was really interesting to read. Tyrant is one of my favorite mangas.
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woooooooow~ awesome interview!! loved how she replied everything in length and honesty
thanks~!!
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[...] although she stated in her interview with me that it would continue past volume 7, it appears it will not be. Well, perhaps the continuation she [...]
I wish koisuru boukun is not ending so early
(
[Reply to this comment]