The third day of Manga Class

Right now, I'm in the middle of  "2-weeks manga course", this is the third day today.

This one is not a course we offer usually. "C-chan" from France asked(send me messages) if she could have some during her summer vacation in Japan, and I arranged it. (You can ask if you'd like, too)

The class is 10:30 - 12:30 because the school had no vacant rooms in the afternoon during the period. Of course I prefer to afternoon class, it's a bit trouble taking a train in the morning in Japan, you know! Many commuters are jammed in the train. Because the peak of the rash hour was over when the time I got a train, so it was not really tough, but still you hardly get a seat.

It was exhausting more than I thought. I thought I should have wrote something about the school everyday, but I didn't take any photo of the class, and I was too tired to draw something. Drowsy... and you should go to bet for tomorrow, the teacher can't be late! (ideally)

The class is very exciting. C-chan has many knowledge about manga and Japanese art - maybe because she is an art teacher ? - it helps her understand manga composing, art style, history and so on. It's very interesting. I enjoy it, even I was sleepy.(not so much sleepy during the class, though! ;D )

Fortunately, the time table was changed to 11:30 from 10:30. It would be better! You can sleep one more hour, so I do this entry. I'll take some photos tomorrow...or Ustream, if it would be possible. mmm...drowsy... =.=

C-chan (in my memory)   I love coffee. I need Coffee.

I asked her "how about Nescafe? "( I mean "instant coffee")
"NO!" She answered with her nose wrinkling. XD

Put it on my lap

On my lap... uncomfortable -.-;

Post by Nao Yazawa's Manga Bangai-chi.

Annoying...eeek.

Post by Nao Yazawa's Manga Bangai-chi.

A refreshment

Post by Nao Yazawa's Manga Bangai-chi.

CINTIQ 12WX

The school doesn't have any Cintiq, and I'm not good at using a board tablet at all. ^^; Although I have an old Intuos2, but I've hardly touched it since I introduced my first Cintiq (2002).

The class is going to start from coming Monday.

The Door into Fair Sky

The summer of  "The Door into Summer" sounds very different from Japanese summer. It's something nice. If  you face to the humid, damp hot air when you open the door, the cat wouldn't go out.

The mystery of Kindle English edtition

I've just downloaded the sample of Moon and Blood 4 kindle edition from Amazon.

Then...I found the book started from the last page. I mean...

"The kindle edition of Moon and Blood vol.4 has to be read from the end of the book to the beginning or it doesn't make any sense." '(a review from Amazon.com, Moon and Blood 4)

I was surprised because Moon and Blood 3 which I bought for a while ago was different. It's started from the first page of the book., I read it in ordinary way.

Because this new style is "reversed one", so the page goes right to left different way of other kindle books, like Mizuki, The Isolated Zone. In these manga (and old version of Moon and Blood) , the page goes left to right, but you should read it right to left, in the opposite direction of English style. It could be confusing sometimes - this might be a good thing.

But - in this case, when you DL the sample, it means you got the last few pages. Mmmmm - is it nice?

And one more thing what I can't miss is - the images are weird.　The aspect ratio is wrong, they are vertically too long. :/　Awwwww.



See? The left is the new one, and the right is from my old file image.
It is not bad the image become bigger, but the drawing isn't shown correctly. 

I've asked if the image, the resolution can be get lager once, because I wasn't impressed the image quality of my kindle books from DMP. They said they can, I was pleased!

I wonder there was something wrong when they changed the date to high resolution. ???
A mystery. -.-

I e-mailed DMP and asked again, if they can fix it.

As long as I know - nobody has complained about this too long images. Why? The readers don't realize this? Actually, I didn't know it until one Japanese reader let me know, who bought this English version (he said because he couldn't wait until the release of the Japanese edition, btw. Wow! ^_^)

If it happened in Japan, many readers pointed out the fact. Or people have done, just I've not noticed ...? Kindle edition has many mystery, but this is also a big mystery to me. Western readers read manga in different way from Japanese reader...?

The biggest problem I have to e-books is the bleary image. The file can't be too large for DL/viewing , so the images have to be compressed, become in low quality. That is one of the reason I offered free Japanese edition of MB series. For people who bought English edition - having high quality book would be nice. If it was me, I'm sure I never miss the opportunity. 

But it isn't a very big issue for English readers, it seems...

The screen shots of  English and Japanese Kindle edition.

 Original size ↓

You can see how the image of Japanese edition is clear... no?

I'm not satisfied with this quality, but better is nicer.　(sorry my strange English ^^;)

My dad is in the hospital.

Then...

He is undergoing rehabilitation in the hospital, at the moment.

My dad went to hospital 3

His palm is like a baseball glove, honestly.

My dad went to hospital 2

A big bone is a big problem... :/

My Dad went to hospital 1

Now, he is staying the university hospital which he'd stayed several times before. Complains a lot. A grumpy old man!  -.-;;  We are searching a rehabilitation hospital which accepts him now. You can't stay university hospital long. Oh dear ! 

The free campaign has been over.

Thank you for RT and Tweet about this campaign !

This time, nevertheless it is Japanese book, some people DL Moon and Blood 2. Not so many - 8 in US, 5 in De, 1 in UK.

Next campaign will be about one month later, when Mooon & Blood 4 Japanese edition is released. If you are learning Japanese, it would be nice that you have both English and Japanese edition - in free.Right? and it has some extra pages.

After that, I'd like to start Shinku Chitai (The Isolated Zone), Japanese edition could be faster than English, you know! ^^; I'm going to split it 2 part, "part1 and part 2" with high resolution. 

There is a on-line publisher(in Japan) which is interested in, so I'm not sure if I can publish the series from KDP, but I wish I distribute it in Kindle edition - for reading device, to the world.(and low price/high quality, for people who buy the English version) 

You can't buy the book if the site is "Japanese only".  

Let's see how it goes...

Free Book Campaign Day 3

This is the third Free Promotion Campaign/KDP, Go Go Nao-p!, Nozomi, Moon and Blood Vol.1
The last time, 30 people DL Moon&Blood 1 Japanese edition, but there is only 4 people who done it so far. -.-;

I hope that people who bought the English version DL it, because of the image quality. They payed for English version, you can't say the resolution of images is not excellent. If I were the reader, I would complain about it. I wonder - American readers don't care the quality of the images ...?


It turned up Moko could jump if he wanted. -> A picky old cat

Free promotion campaign of Moon & Blood 2(Japaneses)

Moon&Blood 2 Japanese kindle edition is free now.
Moon and Blood 2(Japanese Edition)

I always have troubles with APP which I don't use much often. Poor memory! :/

Moon&Blood 2 Japanese kindle edition is free now.

Here you go, the free promotion campaign has started since yesterday (Friday, 12th) Because I've just published Moon&Blood vol.3 Japanese Edition.

This time, the free book is Moon and Blood vol.2 Japanese edition.

If you read Japanese, you can enjoy it (not only the manga, but also some my note I wrote for the book)  and might find the difference between the original and the translation.

Even if you don't read Japanese, it's still worth to DL because the image quality is quite high level of this version.

I hope you enjoy my offer! :)

Moon and Blood 2
Although the title goes "Moon and Blood?" on Amazon.com, it's vol.2. I can't fix it for some reason...

Moon and Blood 3 Japanese Edition is on sale now, of course you can wait the free promotion - it will be around 1 month or so.  

Moon and Blood 3

Vol.2 has no special pages, but I added something to Vol.3. Characters' design drawings and their setting ideas. There are some untaken ideas, such as Nastuki no-glasses version.  I picked them up from the drawings/words I sent to the editor of DMP. If you read Japanese, it must be interesting reading, I think. :)

Manga School online class

Nevertheless there has been nothing new on my FB page of my Manga School recently, the page has got new likes now and then. I've felt sorry for no progress of this manga class project. The bottlenecks are financial and technical matters, the school has taken no act to solve the problem, unfortunately. 

But you can't just sit here and do nothing. I've asked sometimes "How is your plan going?". There are some people who are waiting !

I've been thinking about interactive on-line class as well actual manga class, but I have no experience of it. I have no idea what you can do and you can't do with on-line. I had had a test twice, but it's not been continued. It doesn't mean I give it up. I'd like to have another try with Google+ hangout to accumulate the experiences.(and they might be a kind of demonstrations) 

Even if I couldn't reach anywhere, still I can do something nice for some young artists, at least. (I want to reach the goal of course, though!) 

Are you interested in it? If you are, spread this post and leave your comment, let me know your idea/opinion/thought, like what the subject you want to learn. 

My plan is like this. It's kind of a Manga lesson. The plan hasn't completed yet, let me know your idea. They can be good references to build this plan. How many people want to try? What kind of subject which young manga artists want to learn? It depends on your help this plan can start or not.

20-30 min /session (once or twice /a month)

One student

One subject from  the request of the participant
(Or I choose one subject, like "This month's theme" and choose one or a couple of students from whom raise hands)

The class video will be posted (youtube/my channel) after the session. 
Because the class is a test, it's free.

I and the participant talk and show each other drawings about the subject via a video chat. Make the class effective, the participant send e-mail about the material which he/she wants to learn beforehand. I can take both digital/analog skills, but my screen shows only my desktop (my cintiq screen) because  I don't have any web camera/cameraman. 

Subject : Whatever, but it will be very fragmentary, because of the session time (20-30 min). 

Such as...

*Shiny hair painting

*Hands
*Elderly people

*Tone work for a particular scene.

*Illustration

*Story board/ For instance : I require you 4 pages storyboard. I'll give you suggestion about the composing/directing. Actually, you can't say anything about one part of the story manga, but it will give you some ideas how the manga storyboard(frame work/angle) are composed.

*Choose a (some) drawings up from the album of the FB page and I tell you some particular techniques.

Here is a link of my blog post about Manga School. It might give you some idea of what I'm trying. 

http://nao-yazawa.blogspot.jp/search/label/Manga%20School

Any technical suggestions are very welcome, too. So far I don't have any special equipment for video session. I might need to find someone else who is a partner or sponsor for this project, because the school have no will to take any act for it. :/