An interview with visual artist OMOCAT

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omocat_line

Her designs take tropes we know and love and turn them into something visually arresting. From her technicolor glitch art to creepy-cute original characters to the bold capital letters she uses to spell her name, OMOCAT‘s subversive take on anime, games, and manga aims to shock the senses.

I first discovered the OMOCAT clothing line during my yearly trip to San Francisco Japantown, where it was laid out at New People, a shop for up-and-coming subculture artists. Now her apparel has spread outside of California as far as Harajuku.

The artist behind the clothing is a bit of an enigma herself—she wouldn’t tell me her name or many personal details besides the fact that she absolutely loved this summer’s Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. When it came to her oeuvre, however, she was happy to chat. I sent her my questions through email, and this is how she replied.

What came first: your interest in art or your interest in anime?

I have memories of myself drawing when I was four. I also remember around that time that my parents would play me a lot of Ghibli movies, so I’m not sure which came first. In elementary school, I watched a variety of cartoons but was especially into Sailor Moon, Pokémon, and DBZ and a variety of shows they would play on Toonami and Adult Swim (Gundam Wing, Yu Yu Hakusho, FLCL), but it wasn’t until around 7th or 8th grade that I started recognizing these cartoons as “anime”.

When and why did you start combining the two?

Well I was always into drawing comics. I remember I would frequently make a comic of my friends and I in silly situations—like we would have weird special powers, or we were all stuck on a deserted island. I didn’t feel like I could openly like anime without being made fun of, so I always pushed “my own style” in an effort to hide my anime influence. Consequently, throughout high school, I went through a variety of style changes to find something that would sit right with me (but I never really found it).

I ended up going to art college because I couldn’t imagine being anything but an artist. There was a huge stigma around drawing anime there because it wasn’t considered “real art.” It wasn’t so much the teachers, but mostly the other students. At some point, I realized that if no one else was willing to draw anime at school, I would stand out by doing just that… so I guess that’s when I really started combining the two!

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Where does the inspiration for your clothing line come from?

Growing up, there wasn’t really clothing that I felt could represent me and how I wanted to dress, so my clothing line is basically “what I want to wear.”  I actually go online shopping a lot, and I of the time I never buy anything because I don’t like it enough; but through doing that research, I realize what I want so I make it myself.

Your mini-comic, Pretty Boy, took off in a big way. Why do you think that small story resonated with so many people?

Yeah! I was really surprised about that. I came up with the comic idea and finished all the drawings for it in one day. I wanted to capture a very big story in as least pages as possible (I actually cried drawing the last few pages of the comic myself). I have a lot of friends who like to read boy-love manga, but I could never really get into it. I’m not much for any type of smut myself (I think it’s distracting), so I wanted to make a story that would really be the bare-bones of any type of romance but have the characters be people who wouldn’t normally be accepted as a couple. I think Pretty Boy is about acceptance, and the idea of being accepted for who you are (for your entire life) really resonates with a lot of people.

You’ve had an extremely prolific career as an artist, between your anime quote posters, book, clothing line, and OMORI video game. But which of your accomplishments do you consider to be your “big break” and why?

I would say my “big break” is definitely my clothing line. The clothing really started as a hobby, so it’s the most fun to do; and right now, it’s become what most people know me for. I really love drawing fan art, but always having someone else’s work attached to my own became a little tiring. As an artist I wanted to create my own universe, and the clothing line helped me achieve that. In that way, it is definitely the most fulfilling part of my career right now (at least until my video game comes out); there’s nothing like randomly seeing people on the street wearing clothing that you’ve designed.

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What is your advice to artists who are just starting out? Do you think it’s especially important to get a degree or make friends with the right people or start a blog?

I think ideally, it’s best to make friends with the right people, but I was never good at making friends… My whole career really started out through the internet. I wasn’t good at talking to people in real life, so I used the internet as an outlet to build up my career because that was the only way I knew how to do it. A degree isn’t important, but experience in the art world definitely is. I may not have liked going to art school, but because I have that experience, I know what I like and what I don’t like, and that is definitely an important part of my creative process. For me the most important part is to start was to start a blog—and to basically let people know that you exist.

What’s next on the OMOCAT horizon?

For the next year, I will be working full time on my game OMORI. After that, I plan on having an OMORI fashion line and other merchandise… and after that, I plan on collaborating with a lot of artists and bringing other indie artist’s lines into the OMOCAT shop. As for original work after OMORI, I want to release my DONUT GIRLS merch line (a group of 8 girls based off donut flavors), and HAMBURGER-CHAN (a girl who eats hamburgers) merch line. And of course, I will create some other clothing for the OMOCAT collection in the process!

Read more interviews with anime fans on Otaku Journalist:

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 1

Writing

book_rainbowOver the next seven weeks, I will be writing the book I mentioned earlier. Obviously that’s going to cut into my blog writing time, so I figured, why not write about the book? Tune in every Monday to hear about how it’s going.

This week, I want to tell you about the differences between writing a book for a publisher and publishing a book yourself, like I did with Otaku Journalism.

Negotiating the contract

When I wrote Otaku Journalism, I didn’t have to answer to anybody. I could change the scope of the book, or deliver more or fewer words, and name it anything I liked. The result was that I had to create it, fund it, and publicize it entirely by myself.

A book contract takes off some of the pressures of self publishing while adding new ones. It (usually) guarantees that you will be paid for your work, no matter how the book does. It provides some ground rules for the book subject matter and how long it should be. It outlines your responsibilities and the publisher’s responsibilities so you can work well together.

I am extremely gunshy about contracts right now. I contributed a chapter for a book in May, for which I signed a contract. I cannot say anything else, but you may have noticed I haven’t blogged at all about having a chapter in an upcoming book soon.

Contracts have a lot of legal jargon in them, so it’s best not to be the only one reading it. This time, I had my sister, who is a lawyer, and my friend, who is a law student, read it over. I also found a book agent over Twitter to review it. I also contacted Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, a local organization that provides legal assistance to artists and writers.

Ultimately, I’ve realized the best thing to do is get a literary agent. An agent can tell if a contract is typical or not, and you only pay them if you accept the deal—they take a cut of whatever the publisher is offering. I’m starting my search here.

Should you self-publish or not?

When I first started putting Otaku Journalism together, my first thought was to look for a publisher. If a publisher likes your book idea, they can pay you an advance, provide you with a good editor and illustrator, and help you publicize it or go on a book tour.

Well, that’s what I thought. Publishing isn’t the sunshine and rainbows industry it used to be. As print book sales go down, today’s publishers are more risk-averse. They would never accept a book with “otaku” in the title, much less something as niche as a journalism textbook (already fringe) aimed at a select set of geeks who are into writing. And if they did accept my book, they might suggest changes to make it less nerdy or obscure.

In the end, it came down to that question, posed to me by a traditionally published author: “Why do this as a traditional book? It’s for a very specific niche and it’s something you would know way better than any publisher would.” He had a point. And in the end, I had a great time self-publishing and it will continue to be my preferred method for any ideas I have myself.

I have never traditionally published a book, so I don’t know yet if there are hidden advantages I don’t know about. Certainly it’s helpful to have access to a printing press. I could only afford to publish Otaku Journalism digitally, but I’m pretty sure the book I’m writing now, full of glossy cosplay photoshoots, will only be in print form.

Is there anything you’d like to know about writing a book? I’ll do my best to answer as this series progresses over the next seven weeks.

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 6

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 5

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 4

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 3

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 2

Photo by Dawn Endico

Otaku Links: Hint hint

Otaku Links

mom-ships-it

  • Bakumatsu Rock, one of the shows I am reviewing for ANN, ended this week. I was more disappointed by the ending than by the show overall. I also wrote about Nobunaga Concerto 9 and a very Australian episode of Free!
  • It’s only mid September, but if you want to join the Reverse Thieves’ sixth annual anime Secret Santa, now’s the time. All you need to participate is an open mind for overlooked or undervalued shows.
  • Remember when the History Channel tweeted the events of the Titanic in real time last April? Now some ambitious soul is live-tweeting the One Year War, a fictional conflict that makes up the basis of the Gundam franchise.
  • There are still two spots open on the ultimate fujoshi tour of Japan: the 11-day BL Teafighter Tour. It gets its name from Teahouse and Starfighter, two of the Web’s most artfully drawn BL comic series.
  • Finally, as the summer season winds down and you find yourself in between series, I highly recommend taking a break to check out some manga. I can’t put down My Wife Is Wagatsuma-san, which I love for its hyperbolic humor and sympathetic portrayal of losers as the heroes of their own lives.

Screenshot via Free! Eternal Summer.

Reporting on subculture with empathy and understanding

Fandom, Journalism

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I like to think of the Small Press Expo as one enormous Artist’s Alley. For a weekend, the Marriott Bethesda’s largest ballroom is devoted independent artists and publishers from all over North America. In 2010, I wrote this blog post about it. In 2011 and 2012, I wrote about it for the Daily Dot. Last year, I just bought stuff. 

You have definitely heard of at least some of SPX’s exhibitors, but what I like best is to discover new cartoonists I’ve never heard of. Two years ago John and I first met Evan Dahm when I interviewed him; now we buy his latest graphic novel every year.

This year my favorite discovery wasn’t just one artist, but an entire collection of them. I bought SubCultures Comics Anthology after talking to its editor, Whit Taylor. Contributors shared 37 different stories about fan communities that edge on the bizarre, from Steampunks to cryptozoologists to Real Doll connoisseurs.

Each cartoonist had their own approach to the community they covered. The author of the Esperantists chapter methodically interviewed members. One cartoonist actually became a hostess at a Japanese bar to cover hostess culture, which I deeply appreciated having once become a maid to investigate maid cafes. There were many methods, but the most poignant chapters were the ones that portrayed the cartoonist’s empathy.

That’s why my least favorite chapter was the one that portrayed Juggalos, fans of the Insane Clown Posse, as lawless pre-criminals without speaking to any Juggalos themselves. Juggalos’ reputations precede them, but it gets really interesting when you talk to individuals about why they feel like outcasts everywhere but here. 

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My favorite was about Reborners, women who play with lifelike dolls. The chapter notes that while a prolonged adolescence is the accepted norm for men, “‘Play’ for adult women is still regarded as inappropriate and symptomatic of female pathology.” While outsiders find the realistic dolls creepy, community members embrace them to overcome stillbirth, infertility, or just as an escape from normal life.

I have frequently reiterated that Otaku Journalism is about empathizing with the community that is the subject of your reporting, instead of depicting it as a faceless Other. I strongly believe that being a member of a subculture personally can help reporters to reasonably depict similarly niche communities.

It’s natural to have an immediate visceral reaction to any subculture and assume it’s the weirdest thing ever. But covering it from that angle is the easy way out. I was at a Civil War reenactment some years back and I saw this in action:

“Have you noticed that the TV reporters here are only looking at the most beautiful and weirdest people they can find?” [the journalist] said. “I saw the Channel 7 guy interview the most gorgeous southern belle followed by the most scraggly bearded soldier.”

Empathic reporting doesn’t mean giving subcultures a free pass—GamerGate is a fresh example of why we can’t even let the fandoms we love off the hook. But it does mean giving members of the community a chance to tell their own stories before we write them off as just the latest weird thing to expose for the entertainment of mass media audiences.

Screenshot via American Juggalo

 

Otaku Links: Epic stuff

Otaku Links

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  • In this beautiful short film, two Anime Expo attendees share why they cosplay.
  • It’s one thing to prevent kids from reading porn; it’s another thing for Canada to arrest a man for watching hentai on child porn charges. A decade ago, we had to convince people that not all anime is porn. Today, we need to convince people that not all anime porn (or even most of it) depicts minors.

Illustration via Ms. Marvel, found here.