Arina Tanemura was one of the manga-kas that attended this year's San Diego Comic-Con, as a guest of Viz.  Viz is currently publishing the shoujo series The Gentleman's Alliance and Full Moon o Sagash*te, two of Arina Tanemura's most popular series, and also at the show announced that they would be publishing some of earlier, shorter works.  I was able to briefly interview her at the convention, though we did the interview in a hallway which washed out part of my recording.  Any errors in transcription are my own.

(And that little icon is Arina Tanemura's self-portrait.)

Bill Aguiar: The first question that I like to ask is why did you become a manga creator?

Arina Tanemura: I loved drawing and knew since I was young that manga was my future.

BA: There are usually two ways that manga creators start, either they win a contest or start out as an assistant.  Which one was it for you?

AT: I submitted my work to a contest at Ribon, the magazine that The Gentlemen's Alliance is currently being released in, and won.

BA: From what I understand Ribon is basically shoujo, or girls focused, magazine.  So were you initially attracted to shoujo style stories, or since that was where you first had success, you continued there?

AT: I enjoy many other kinds of manga, but I have known since I was little that if I was going to create manga, I would be creating manga for girls.

BA: I've read some of The Gentleman's Alliance and Full Moon o Sagash*te and I have noticed that some of the characters start out very bright and cheery, but then we start discovering dark undertones to the characters.  Is that a particular theme you like to explore?

AT: I believe that everyone has both a dark and a brighter side and that characters need to have both so that the readers can connect with them.  I also begin with the characters light and cheerful so that way the readers will be attracted to them and once the readers are drawn in, they start to understand the dark side of the character as it is revealed over time.

BA: According to your biographical information, you are a big fan of the Lord of the Rings movies and karaoke.  Did you start out as a fan of the books or did you start with the movies ?

AT: I saw the movies first, then later went back to read the books.

BA: I have to ask, who was your favorite character from the movies?

AT: Aragorn, the king.

BA: I was interested how in the movies Frodo started out very cheerful in the first movie, then went very dark as the story went on.  Do you think that could have been influence on your own works?

AT: I think that is a basic way of showing a character.

BA: Do you have any other favorite fantasy works?

AT: Harry Potter.

BA: I don't myself see the attraction of karaoke, so I was wondering what was the attraction for you?

AT: I just love singing.  Even when I making manga, I sing.  I even sung one of the songs for the Full Moon o Sagash*te CD.

(We talked at about her favorite, underappreciated character, but the name of the character was lost in the background noise.  My apologies.)

BA: If you could ever cosplay a character, who would it be?

AT: Yuna, from Final Fantasy

BA: I understand that you are still releasing The Gentleman's Alliance in Japan, do you know how much longer you will continue it?

AT: I don't know when it will end.  Right now, I am just going to let the story continue and I will decide when to end it.

BA: After you finish The Gentleman's Alliance, is there any particular setting or type of story you will to tackle next?

AT: In The Gentleman's Alliance in Japan, Haine has reverted to being a Yanki (juvenile delinquent.)  I am finding that interesting, and maybe I will do a serious manga about Yanki's in the future.

To close I often let my interviewees ask me questions, and in this case Arina Tanemura talked about the skill of American artists (many of them are solely artists, not writers, which give them more time to practice their skills) while her editor was curious about why there were no American shoujo comics (the move of the American comic to comic shops killed everything but the superhero titles.)

To read reviews of some of the titles mentioned above, be sure to check out ProsperosManga.com review website that I contribute to that is updated Tuesday and Thursday and already has over 200 reviews.