Koge- Donbo is the creator behind such ‘cute’ titles Di Gi Charat, Pita-Ten and Kamichama Karin.  Di Gi Charat has been brought to the US by Broccoli Books, while Pita-ten and Kamichama have been published in the US by TOKYOPOP.  She attended Anime Expo this year, promoting anime based on her works, but did give a press conference that covered a wide array of topics and this article is based on notes of that press conference.  She is a very private person, and asked that no audio recordings be made of the press conference, so these notes by their nature are a trifle disconnected, if for no other reason than my shorthand is not what it should be.

As one can imagine, one of the first questions that she was asked was that considering her focus on cute stores and characters, what did she consider to be the important aspect to focus on while working on them. Her answer involved the character’s youth, that the characters need to be young to be cute.

When questioned about the about the possibility of more Pita-Ten anime, she could not answer, saying that was in the hands of the studio, Broccoli.

She was asked about how have the characters of Di Gi Charat maintained their consistent looks over the years, she pointed out that they have been around for ten years now, and their existence is normal for her and easy to draw.

There was no specific art or story influence that drove her to the cute look, that was just the way she worked, starting from elementary school when she was attracted to manga featuring active young girls.

There was a discussion about the differences between how fans look at the cute concept.  Koge-Donbo believes that men and other otaku see cute in the terms of the cuteness of small pets, something to be looked at, while young girls admire it and see it as something they want to be.

When asked that since Di Gi Charat has characters that shoot eyebeams, does that mean that girls want to have those also, Koge-Donbo’s response was that they want to be feminine and strong, and using eyebeams is just a way for them to get the upper hand, in the manga.

Koge-Donbo is her second pen name, and she changed it from the first for no other reason than that her first name sounded too weird after a while in Japanese.

In her mind, her journey to becoming a pro was slightly unusual.  She drew manga in college, sent in some of her work and won a prize that included the possibility of being published.  But that is when she stopped drawing for a while, rather than follow up on the offer.  It was only later, when she was doing doujinshi, that she was noticed again and got professional jobs.

When asked what she went to college for, she revealed that she majored in zoology, something that does not come into play often in her work.  While she did mention it would nice if she could find something that would take advantage of her knowledge, she is not too worried about it.

She is a big fan of Harry Potter, and when asked what would her reply be if she was ever offered a chance to work on a Harry Potter manga, she got slightly flustered and described it as an impossible, incredible honor.  Not that such an offer had been made.

She has worked on and drawn projects and characters that are not hers, something she considers as a fun change of pace, but it is something that has be undertaken with care, since she has to try to capture the original’s essence.

When asked what would be her dream project, her reply was she already had a lot of freedom, but she would like to try something that was very rooted in the Japanese cultural experience, so it may be hard for foreigners to understand.

She does computer coloring on some of her work, but hadn’t noticed that she had used a lot of mellow red/blue shades until one of the reporters attending the conference asked why she did so and didn’t have an answer.

The last question that the press asked was that she since she has done several monthly titles was there a temptation to do a weekly title, and while she admitted she did think about it on occasion, she was currently satisfied with her output and its quality.