Yamatogawa Interview
1
Likhos01
Monster Girl Lover
The following is an homemade translation from an interview of Yamatogawa by "Journal du Japon", published in December of 2014.
Source: Original Interview
Last edition of Japan Touch(french convention taking place in Lyon) had a theme as interesting as it is unusual: Japanese eroticism.
If the theme itself could be the subject of studies on the historic field as much as the cultural and societal field, let's for now focus on a fact still pretty rare here: the coming of a Hentai mangaka.
Famous for his mangas How Good was I, Tayu Tayu, or more recently Power Play, Yamatogawa was the guest of the editor Taifu on the convention, where he met great success during his signing sessions. It's during one of these that Journal du Japon has met the young author, very surprised by his popularity.
Journal du Japon : What were your artistic studies ? Were they specific to hentai ?
Yamatogawa : I first studied art in College for 4 years, then I became the assistant of a professional mangaka. It's when I worked with this person that I learned the most, for everything that I would use later in my manga.
Was there a mangaka that mattered in your inspirations?
There are many, I couldn't truly name one person.
The world of video-games, and more precisely RPGs and Tabletop games, have great importance to you. Could you tell us more details about it?
Of course I've been influenced by many mangaka, reading their works, but I love video-games and they helped a lot in my inspirations. For instance, I play a lot, and sometimes while playing I can stumble upon some situations and tell me : « Ha, I would love to see this situation in a manga, or using the same ambience ».
Censorship of erotica in Japan is not the same as in France, and even in Japan this evolved a lot. Do you think this censorship is bothersome or necessary?
This censure exist in the Japanese law, we can't go against it.
When I saw my mangas published in France for the first time, we could see everything, and that surprised me a lot.
In Japan I always saw this censorship on every manga, since I was a kid, and I realize it may be more erotic than when there isn't one.
For instance if you see a girl doing this with her skirt (he imitates a girl lifting her skirt) and one shyly hiding (he imitates an embarrassed girl hiding her intimates parts ), which one of those 2 is more erotic for you?
We get it! (laugh)
Toshio Maeda has, to bypass this censorship, conceived the « tentacles » genre (shokushu) with Urotsukidôji, among others. How do you feel about the « creatures and monsters » themes ?
I have already seen some of Toshio Maeda's works, including Urotsukidoji that I like a lot, and I already used shokushu here and there in my mangas. tentacles were indeed born with this goal, and I think it's a very interesting way to show things we couldn't see otherwise.
Are there sex scenes harder to elaborate than others ?
It's not necessarily the sex scenes themselves that are hard to draw. what's hard is to place the camera in an interesting spot, to no reproduce the same angles I already drew in my previous works. This is the challenge : finding new and interesting angles.
There is commonly more girls in hentai works, must the male character be worked upon as much? Which ones are the hardest to make?
When it comes to the girls, it's a bit easier because those I draw are characters I personally like. I search in my fantasies, my feminine ideals, and I draw this kind of characters.
So when it comes to building female characters, it comes off pretty naturally.
For men it's harder because we need characters we can identify with easily.
Sure, sometimes we want to be somebody else, to be fantastic, but I don't want my readers to think to themselves : « this hero, this is not me, I don't recognize myself in it ».
How Good Was I is centered around slice of life and Power Play explores Sci-fi/Fantasy. What are your favorite genres ?
I like both. What often happens is that I draw one, then two slice of life manga and after a while I'll, not really be bored by it, but rather tell myself : « I want to make some Sci-fi » and I'll direct my works toward this genre. The same way I'll do a few Fantasy works and then I'll want to draw some Slice of Life. In fact I draw what I want, when I want, when it comes to genre at least.
How does the making of a chapter look like? Do you have any assistants?
Conception is the most time-consuming phase. I'll think a lot about what will happen in the chapter, and then I'll start visualizing how I'll put my panels. but before I can ink it I have to show it to my editor to have his confirmation. that's why I don't want to spend too much time before knowing if it can be published.
When it comes to assistants, I don't have any. However, I sometimes get some help from friends, but I often draw alone, and I produce around a page a day. I'm a rather slow author and I get reprimanded by my editor to write faster (his tantô, editorial manager, bursts out laughing). The fastest people can write around twenty pages in three days.
Do you see yourself staying on the hentai genre? Would you like to aim for other demographics with non-erotic works ?
It's not that I don't have the intention to work on something where there isn't eroticism, but for now I focus on that.
Out of desire?
Like the previous question, if one day while drawing hentai I think I'd love to draw something else, I'll do it. but for now I draw erotic works and I still want to produce it, there are still resources in that genre.
If there is some mistakes, please tell me.
Source: Original Interview
Last edition of Japan Touch(french convention taking place in Lyon) had a theme as interesting as it is unusual: Japanese eroticism.
If the theme itself could be the subject of studies on the historic field as much as the cultural and societal field, let's for now focus on a fact still pretty rare here: the coming of a Hentai mangaka.
Famous for his mangas How Good was I, Tayu Tayu, or more recently Power Play, Yamatogawa was the guest of the editor Taifu on the convention, where he met great success during his signing sessions. It's during one of these that Journal du Japon has met the young author, very surprised by his popularity.
Journal du Japon : What were your artistic studies ? Were they specific to hentai ?
Yamatogawa : I first studied art in College for 4 years, then I became the assistant of a professional mangaka. It's when I worked with this person that I learned the most, for everything that I would use later in my manga.
Was there a mangaka that mattered in your inspirations?
There are many, I couldn't truly name one person.
The world of video-games, and more precisely RPGs and Tabletop games, have great importance to you. Could you tell us more details about it?
Of course I've been influenced by many mangaka, reading their works, but I love video-games and they helped a lot in my inspirations. For instance, I play a lot, and sometimes while playing I can stumble upon some situations and tell me : « Ha, I would love to see this situation in a manga, or using the same ambience ».
Censorship of erotica in Japan is not the same as in France, and even in Japan this evolved a lot. Do you think this censorship is bothersome or necessary?
This censure exist in the Japanese law, we can't go against it.
When I saw my mangas published in France for the first time, we could see everything, and that surprised me a lot.
In Japan I always saw this censorship on every manga, since I was a kid, and I realize it may be more erotic than when there isn't one.
For instance if you see a girl doing this with her skirt (he imitates a girl lifting her skirt) and one shyly hiding (he imitates an embarrassed girl hiding her intimates parts ), which one of those 2 is more erotic for you?
We get it! (laugh)
Toshio Maeda has, to bypass this censorship, conceived the « tentacles » genre (shokushu) with Urotsukidôji, among others. How do you feel about the « creatures and monsters » themes ?
I have already seen some of Toshio Maeda's works, including Urotsukidoji that I like a lot, and I already used shokushu here and there in my mangas. tentacles were indeed born with this goal, and I think it's a very interesting way to show things we couldn't see otherwise.
Are there sex scenes harder to elaborate than others ?
It's not necessarily the sex scenes themselves that are hard to draw. what's hard is to place the camera in an interesting spot, to no reproduce the same angles I already drew in my previous works. This is the challenge : finding new and interesting angles.
There is commonly more girls in hentai works, must the male character be worked upon as much? Which ones are the hardest to make?
When it comes to the girls, it's a bit easier because those I draw are characters I personally like. I search in my fantasies, my feminine ideals, and I draw this kind of characters.
So when it comes to building female characters, it comes off pretty naturally.
For men it's harder because we need characters we can identify with easily.
Sure, sometimes we want to be somebody else, to be fantastic, but I don't want my readers to think to themselves : « this hero, this is not me, I don't recognize myself in it ».
How Good Was I is centered around slice of life and Power Play explores Sci-fi/Fantasy. What are your favorite genres ?
I like both. What often happens is that I draw one, then two slice of life manga and after a while I'll, not really be bored by it, but rather tell myself : « I want to make some Sci-fi » and I'll direct my works toward this genre. The same way I'll do a few Fantasy works and then I'll want to draw some Slice of Life. In fact I draw what I want, when I want, when it comes to genre at least.
How does the making of a chapter look like? Do you have any assistants?
Conception is the most time-consuming phase. I'll think a lot about what will happen in the chapter, and then I'll start visualizing how I'll put my panels. but before I can ink it I have to show it to my editor to have his confirmation. that's why I don't want to spend too much time before knowing if it can be published.
When it comes to assistants, I don't have any. However, I sometimes get some help from friends, but I often draw alone, and I produce around a page a day. I'm a rather slow author and I get reprimanded by my editor to write faster (his tantô, editorial manager, bursts out laughing). The fastest people can write around twenty pages in three days.
Do you see yourself staying on the hentai genre? Would you like to aim for other demographics with non-erotic works ?
It's not that I don't have the intention to work on something where there isn't eroticism, but for now I focus on that.
Out of desire?
Like the previous question, if one day while drawing hentai I think I'd love to draw something else, I'll do it. but for now I draw erotic works and I still want to produce it, there are still resources in that genre.
If there is some mistakes, please tell me.
0
Cheers for that. I have two of his books in my small collection and I've never read an interview with Yamatogawa before.
It's still a bit staggering to see that a lot of artists are so surprised that they have fans abroad. This and the usual question about the censorship, where they always reply that the law is the law and has to be obeyed.
It's still a bit staggering to see that a lot of artists are so surprised that they have fans abroad. This and the usual question about the censorship, where they always reply that the law is the law and has to be obeyed.
0
animefreak_usa
Child of Samael
Likhos01 wrote...
Censorship of erotica in Japan is not the same as in France, and even in Japan this [color=red]a[/color] evolved a lot. Do you think this censorship is bothersome or necessary?
Remove the 'a'
3
Likhos01
Monster Girl Lover
animefreak_usa wrote...
Likhos01 wrote...
Censorship of erotica in Japan is not the same as in France, and even in Japan this [color=red]a[/color] evolved a lot. Do you think this censorship is bothersome or necessary?
Remove the 'a'
fixed, thanks.
@Nawoi For censorship, here's someone else's opinion.
Spoiler:
0
Well that was a good read.
The part about a major internet retailer removing this arstist's tankoubon made me feel pretty depressed. Freedom of expression and all that.
Makes me want to support this artist even though I don't know their work. Is it lolicon? If so, even better! Not really my cup of tea but I hate the idea of not being allowed to read whatever the hell I want.
The part about a major internet retailer removing this arstist's tankoubon made me feel pretty depressed. Freedom of expression and all that.
Makes me want to support this artist even though I don't know their work. Is it lolicon? If so, even better! Not really my cup of tea but I hate the idea of not being allowed to read whatever the hell I want.