I am still alive

So I have not touched my blog for more than half a year. Time sure passes by quickly when you are lazy 😛

There are so many things going on and others which I am trying out and these things are taking up most of my time. It is so difficult to set priorities and plans because I never seem to be able to stick to them LOL

At the start of each year, I tell myself I need to work hard this year and get things done. End up slacking every year and getting nothing done at the end of the year. This cycle never ends… I always wonder how I managed to get so many things drawn in the past. Then I realize I have thought about this before and the cycle continues…

I need some motivation to get myself throwing out pages. Still trying to find that motivation, but I think I am doing a bit better compared to 2015 and 2016~ I still hope I can publish the next book soon~ I shall continue to work hard to fill half a shelf with my own books (that was the goal from when I started working on manga). Not sure if I am going to give up drawing manga after that though LOL

Have a happy new year~! Recently I am always on Twitter, sometimes on Tumblr and Facebook so feel free to catch me there. 😀

-Ki

Random

Ah, I have been neglecting my blog again. I just don’t know what to write but I actually have a lot of things I want to write about and then I get lazy and do not want to write…

It has been a long hiatus from manga making this time. It is hard getting back to drawing original work frequently now that I am drawing so many fanarts… I wonder how I used to draw my own pages and draw fanarts at the same time. I actually think it was because of school because I had so much free time during school back then and now that I am working I don’t even have 4 hours of free time a day.

Please grant me some motivation and perseverance to continue drawing my own manga… @A@

I keep getting new ideas and neglecting my unfinished works. There are plans to release something this year but at this rate I think I will be dead before I can release something…

Le Diable – If you have been following this series, I am still working extremely very slowly on this… it is planned to end at Volume 4 but I am having a hard time getting pages done I don’t know why.

Sakura Himitsu – If you are following this I am sorry but I have stumbled upon a large idea block and I have no idea what I am doing with this series right now because I cannot think of something in between before I can end it…

????? – I don’t even have a title for this one yet but I have drafted up some pages during my business trip and I kind of have the story thought out but I am so unmotivated to draw backgrounds…

Contradiction – I have been talking about the remake for this for like more than 5 years already… It always comes to “I will redraw this when my art is better”, but my art never got better ;_;

Also planning a few one-shot remakes as long as I can get the laziness out of me somehow…

-Ki

Aoharu x Kikanjuu

I know you saw this coming. It is only a matter of time before I start posting about AxK everywhere LOL For those who don’t know, Aoharu x Kikanjuu (translated to Youth & Machinegun) is a manga by NAOE about airsoft. I just like this anime so much after watching episode 1 and then I am now hooked on the manga…

I am so excited that the manga is finally licensed in Taiwan and I called my relatives the first thing after I heard the news and asked them to help me buy it and ship it here… LOL

Mattsun kawaii~~ Kawaii Mattsun~~ OvO

*hit!*

So there is this team of a host, a mangaka, a student and a person in unemployment (I don’t think Haruharu is employed) that aims to be the best survival game group in Japan, and vows to beat the other team that consists of a sadist, a masochist, a brother-complex and an impolite fangirl 😛 Okay, I can’t write summaries so whatever, go search it up and hope you will like it too~~~ 😀

-Ki

Happy New Year 2016!

Happy New Year~~~ I am 5 days late, but it is still the start of the new year~ Don’t really have any new New Year resolutions this year. I shall keep them the same as last year’s so I can keep working on them~ One major big thing is to try to get myself working on manga pages again… I have been slacking and getting so used to slacking that I find it difficult to get back to drawing. I wonder if there is anything that can help…

Anyways, a quick sketch for New Years greetings. I am under your care again this year 😀

Things I am trying to do and I need to find a way to keep myself doing them…:
* Draw manga. Throw out pages. I need more pages done.
* Retrieve my dead online accounts, like this blog… Not retrieving all of them but I am going to get a few more oftenly used ones and try to keep them active.
* I need more friends aside from the computer and the wall.

So as part of retrieving this blog I may be posting random topics about stuff…

-Ki Hiwatari

Free Christmas Cards~~

Hi hi all~

This year I am trying to give out free Christmas/Holiday cards to everyone~ If you are interested in getting one, please let me know by filling in the form below~ If you are using your real name or an online handle which you don’t think I may recognize, please let me know who you are in the comment box~

This year we are having two options of the cards. You can either go with the default which features one of my own manga character (Ruya-chan from Contradiction if anyone remembers), or you can choose the fan art option of getting Yukki from Aoharu x Kikanjuu. Email and pickup delivery options are available, but sadly I won’t be mailing out any cards except for a few surprises to overseas friends 😀

Request for your free Christmas card by filling in the Google form below~
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1eO2lwZOPJqzDf0XTZdtnS_T3SQo5nElg6RqYKsQz1XQ/viewform?usp=send_form

Food~~

I am going to write a random post about food~ Yesterday and today I had the chance of gong to two very nice places and I recommend both places to anyone who wants to try them out!

First is Joe Fortes near Thurlow & Alberni~ They had a special this week where a few items are sold for their 1985 prices~ I got clam chowder (only $2.95!!) and fish (of course)~ Both are pretty nice *_*

Lighting was not very good when I took this pic. The sun is directly shining in from behind and I had someone in front casting the shadow on my soup…

Fish~ Enough said.

And the other one is a new ramen shop called Danbo west of Jervis on Robson. They don’t have many choices of flavours but you can choose your noodle and soup thicknesses.

I got a normal tonkotsu ramen with add on combo with gyoza and egg~~

One other good thing about them is that they have a stamp card XD 10 stamps for a free ramen~ That’s incentive for me o return LOL

-Ki

Stuff…

I haven’t been writing at all on my blog for the past few months… and here I just want to say I am still alive, but work has been overloading me too much, and although there were so many times I wanted to work on my manga pages I was just too tired and ended up doing nothing and the days passed…

Anyways, I have been thinking of writing a post post-AE and post-AR and since I am lazy awesome I am going to keep it short and cram everything into one post. There isn’t much to write anyways because I am going the smart way of using point form XD And of course we can’t forget MiniComi.

MINICOMI
* One day artist market so I don’t have a lot to say about MC.
* Venue was pretty good, at least it is bright and there are extra fans to help with air circulation.
* Truck arrived late for tables and chairs and we had a super rushed job setting up. Got a bit late but we have enough tables and chairs for everyone.
* Pretty similar compared to previous years so I don’t really have any complaints.

ANIME EVOLUTION
* At AE I was pretty much stuck in the Artist Alley for all 3 days. There were times I tried sneaking out but then I got called back almost immediately because someone wanted something made and my table-helper could not help…
* Crammed in a small room with two approximately 1.5 ft by 2.5 ft windows. Lack of light, lack of ventilation and it is like a sauna for a lot of people…
* There is this stupid thing of linking the lights in the artist alley with the bigger lecture room (?) beside us… so turning off the lights in the bigger room cuts off our lights too… I know this is not totally AE’s fault but they have not done a thorough enough check and understanding of their venue.
* Pre-AA email asks us to bring a small printout so we can stick it on a collage-like board thing but during sign in they never mention said board and it was not until the third day I found the board on the floor below looking like a ragged piece of cardboard with a few prints peeling off…
* No check during sign-in. Basically anyone can claim your pass as you.
* No formal sign-in process and no communication. Staff members came and asked us for our names and table names and asked us how we were doing on the FINAL day of AA.
* Poor security. It was after AA closing hours and the door was wide open with no one on the lookout, and staff did not inform anyone that it was time to close so most of us need to keep waiting due to the room not locking yet.
* While we are on the topic of closing, staff started reminding us so many times the AA is closing early the last day because any delay in our pack-up will prevent them from enjoying the closing ceremonies.
* Forgot to mention this earlier, but someone was smart enough not to plan how many chairs they needed for the AA, so we ended up having 1 chair each. There were a few extras which at first staff said would be given out first come first serve. With people fighting (calmly) to the front of the line they changed it to a raffle. They did not tell us to bring our own chairs.
* AA aisles too narrow a wheelchair cannot pass through at all.
* Too much traffic jams, staff not available when you need help. Information counter outside the AA was not obvious enough (I only noticed them on the third day although passed by there every day).
* Overall summary: No signage. Bad coordination. Inexperience staff. Everything was kind of messy.
* The only good thing about AE is the Japanese guest, Sakaguchi-san. He was a nice person and polite and he was humourous enough to join in our lame Gintama group XD

ANIME REVOLUTION
* No AA table so I am writing in the point of view of an attendee.
* Crowded, although there didn’t seem to have many things going on at the same time.
* Good that there were several industry guests. Autograph line-up management was slightly better than previous years (at least they don’t line up in another room and don’t tell the people in the Vendors’ Hall about it).
* There was still a small problem because they did not schedule which line to open for line-ups properly. They ran out of space and told people line-ups for a certain guests will not open yet and asked people to come back 10 mins later. After some people left they opened the line and the people who left needed to go to the very back…
* Pre-event it was announced autographs for all Japanese guests were free on FB. During the event they stuck up a note when everyone was already in the line for more than half an hour that a guest actually charges for autographs…
* Not much to say because I am not in AA and I tend to see less flaws in the management XD
* They have an ero manga booth *gets shot*

-Ki

Le Diable Volume 3 Special Edition

I am still missing a dust jacket sample… but since I will be very busy in the next week or so, I figured it is better to post this now and edit the photos later.

The manga volumes for Le Diable 3 just arrived today! Therefore now we are opening preorders for the Special Edition. Special Edition is sold for CAD$40, and it comes with the following items~

A special separate dust jacket~ (this image will be replaced by the actual sample later)

Le Diable volume 3, which includes 212 inner pages and laminated glossy cover. Extra stuff includes a plastic charm (~2″ high for the charm + strap), an exclusive button, a mini post-it pad and a free bookmark.

The volume also comes with 4″x6″ colour prints for all the coloured covers in the volume (6 in total), without the logo and the chapter title ruining the image~ Preorders until July 5, 2015 will give you an extra calendar~

And lastly, you get a set of 12 semi-transparent stickers~
(image coming soon)

Order your volume now by using the order form on the store or email me at Ki.Hiwatari@gmail.com.

-Ki

New Merch for Summer 2015 (Part 3)~

Just because we have so many things there is a third post 8D

The last new item (as of now) for the coming MiniComi and Anime Evolution are pocket mirrors~ The mirrors are 3″ in diameter and are very handy to keep in your coat or bag. We have a limited run on these due to time constraints so grab yours quickly 😀

Mirrors are sold for CAD$6 each~

Currently available: Haikyuu (Kageyama & Hinata), Arima, Kawori, Kuroko, Midorima

Please use the order form on the store or email me at Ki.Hiwatari@gmail.com to get yours~

-Ki

New Merch for Summer 2015 (Part 2)~

We will be having a lot of new merch this year, so starting part 2~~

Introducing our new ink stamps! The stamps are pre-inked so you do not need a separate ink pad. They are approximately 1″ in stamp diameter (the actually stamped pattern, not the physical stamp container) and currently we have 6 characters from Free!, a shark and a dolphin~ The stamps come in different colours to suit the characters too! Stamps are sold for CAD$6 each.

Next we have coin purses! You can put in other things aside from coins too, such as using them as cardholders. They are made from fabric and measure approximately 4.5″ x 3″. Coin purse are sold for CAD6 each. It looks additionally nicer if you add an acrylic charm to it for just $5 more~

New let’s see what we have in stock!

Midorima and Kuroko from Kuroko no Basuke. The images are the same on both sides for these designs.

We have several designs from Free!. Aside from the group design, all others have different characters on both sides!
Group Design, Rin & Sosuke, Haruka & Makoto, Rei & Nagisa

Sohoku and Hakone from Yowapeda. The images are the same on both sides for these designs.

Haikyuu!! The images are the same on both sides.

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. We have Kousei on one side and Kawori on the other~

Please use the order form on the store or email me at Ki.Hiwatari@gmail.com to get yours~

-Ki