Yes I know it’s been a while and I’ve neglected my blog again. Well this time I want to give an update on my manga Dodge Battle High.
The story centers around Akihiro. A high school freshman but not at an ordinary high school. It’s Dodge Battle High where your grade and schooling are all about dodgeball. People see dodgeball as only a game but if you think about it, there’s team building, working together, leadership skill building and more.
So why did this gaijin decide to become a genkushuka (manga writer)? Well I do watch a lot of anime, I do read manga and have an affinity for the Japanese culture. Japan still has a culture where respect and loyalty means something wheres here in the US they mean nothing. I’ve always had in interest in samurais and ancient Japan and new Japan too which still hasn’t become what the US is now where no one respects each other and every nutcase has a gun. Now I’m not going to say writing a manga is an easy task but as a teen I used to write and draw comics so it’s not something foreign to me. Though full scripting for someone else to do the drawing is.
Now a little more about the story. Akihiro is a kid who has become disinterested in the world. He lost his parents at an early age and kind of went into a shell. His older sister Kazue has done her best to keep them together and be somewhat of a parent. What makes the task even harder is they have younger siblings, twins named Akiko and Akira. I don’t want to give too much away but there was someone who got Akihiro to come out of his shell and turn him into someone very family orientated but that person also was “lost” just not in the same way as his parents.
Some of the other characters who play an important role are Hoshiko (Akihiro’s friend), Jin (another friend of Akihiro), Aoi (another student at Dodge Battle High), Tom (Akihiro’s arch rival) amongst a list of many. All the names I have to come up with, daaaaaaaaamn.
The characters in the book will each has their issues that they work on during the course of the manga. They’re teenagers so it’ll be some of your typical teenage issues like lonliness, bullying, depression, shyness, etc. Why? Because while it’s a comedy manga it’s not your typical comedy without content besides comedy. Actually it hits several genres like slice of life, harem, sports, romance but there will be gags and comedy all over the place too. It’s to be expected with teens.
This is a sketch of Akihiro
More Akihiro
This is a sketch of Hoshiko
This is a “neko” Hoshiko sketch
This is a sketch of Jin
This is a sketch of the twins though they appear a bit older than they are at the beginning of the story
You can look here for some other sketches and info.
http://iamkillswitch.com/?cat=6
Soon I will be starting to get some pages drawn and preparing for a possible Kickstarter. And a note about the art. I am a big fan of art as most people know. I appreciate art in many forms especially fan art because it shows that people like what you’re doing. If there is a Kickstarter (most likely will be) and you do some type of art then surely let me know. Tweet me, I’ll probably retweet it as long as it’s tasteful. If it’s hentai then I won’t. If it has the kids in sexy poses or compromising positions then I won’t. I know some places might even find it okay to see kids like that but I personally don’t and you won’t see that in the manga and if it becomes animated it will be at the top of my list of things to say to the animation studio. Obviously I’m not stopping you from doing what you do but it’s just my personal stance.
So a gaijin genkushuka from the US, potential artist from Spain, trying to break into a market that’s mainly in Japan. Easy task? Not at all. But I’m damned sure going to try.