Kabitzin on September 29, 2007 · in Interviews

We caught up with the lovely and talented Hinano from Ex-Fansubber Hitorigoto and had a chance to talk to her about some of her many interests in the world of anime fandom. Whether it be cosplay, fanart, fansubbing, scanlating, or anime blogging, Hinano has dabbled in nearly every anime fan activity you can think of. I’m sure many of you will find you have a lot in common with Hinano, especially in how you both enjoy eroge for artistic inspiration. So go ahead and visit her site, buy her doujinshi, and make sure to request really intense hardcore fanart when you buy a commission piece.

Deep Thought Questions

Starting with the obvious question, as one of the premier female anime bloggers, what is it like being the voice of reason in a sea of smelly boy otaku?

I think there are female otaku who are just as bad as the “boys” with their raging yaoi fetishes and cosplayer glomping at anime conventions. To be honest though, I think being within male bloggers is fun though, since it seems a lot of the males who actually keep blogs are fairly intelligent (except the ones who keep writing posts about Hirano Aya *cough* j/k). While often within female fandom every post is about how how an idol/character is – regardless – or how X should buttsecks Y and how dare that female get in the way of their passionate love! *gag*

In what ways is blogging better/worse than your other fan-content mediums (AMV, fanart, etc.)?

Blogging started as a way for me to basically express how I feel about anime shows I watch. I used to do it on my private journal, but you just don’t get the same input and discussions as you get from a public blog. It’s great to be able to interact with people beyond the comments of “I like your fanart” or “nice AMV“. Sometimes though, blogging gets tedious when the show you watch just goes down the toilet and other activities (like fanart) start to become more prominent again.

Many of your posts are only two paragraphs or so, and one screenshot. However, you get a lot of readers and commenters on a regular basis. Can you talk about how it is not the size of your post that matters, but how you use it?

I basically put myself into the reader’s shoes. What got me to start a blog is when I used to go to the AB Antenna and read everyone else’s (including yours btw ) blogs. The blog which had a funny/sarcastic tone within their summary or something humorous about certain parts of the episode… were the ones I loved to read the most. Most of the time I wouldn’t even read the summary, but just the impression and maybe glance over the screenshots. I figured, if I don’t wanna read my own lengthy summary, why would anybody else care to? In the end, people just wanna know the good parts. They don’t care that Sekai was cooking dinner for Makoto, they just wanna know when and where he got stabbed.

How do you manage reader expectations when they make blogging feel like a chore?

I had this happen to me before, and typically I just start a rant about how blogging is starting to suck because the shows I’m watching are sucking, what should I do? I get a pretty good input from all the readers which helps me decide how to continue and whether or not to drop some of the really bad shows (like Nagasarete Airantou good god.) Also going from my summary + 4 screenshots, to 1 screenshot + quick blurb hasn’t really changed the comment input that much. I figure if people like a show, they’ll read anything about it, whether you give them details about someone’s flowing hair strands, or tell them the big event of the entire episode in a couple sentences.

Quick Shots

Which series did you think was the greatest thing ever back in the day, but now you realize it actually kinda sucked?

This one’s hard because I used to watch a LOT of shows back then, and every time I saw a new one I thought it was better than the one before. But as an example, I used to think Outlaw Star was so awesome, but recently when I tried watching it again and showing it to JP, it just didn’t have the same oomph as it did 7 years ago. Maybe the space thing has just been overused.

Was there a particular artist you looked to for inspiration when you were learning to draw? Who is your favorite artist right now?

Back in the day all my inspiration came from manga artists, particularly Tanemura Arina (She did Full Moon wo Sagashite and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne). Nowdays, my inspiration is definitely from eroge lol. I’d say my favorite style probably resembles anything that comes out of LEAF. Recently though I’ve been inspired by Ito Noiji‘s coloring style.

In an eroge, which stereotypical girl do you go after first? And who do you go after first in otome games?

I always just go for the main girl, probably the one that’s always in the center of the game cover pic lol. In the otome game, I go after the cutest guy…or the cutest guy who has glasses . (Although most of the time those glasses guys have the freakiest stories lemme tell ya.)

Favorite anime blog besides your own?

Hmm… this is tough. I’m probably the only person on Anano who doesn’t “subscribe” to blogs, I just look through everyone’s headlines and read them if they seem interesting. But if I had to narrow it down, I’d pick Ashley’s. Every entry has made me roll around laughing, and some of them have nothing to do with anime. What can I say, I like to be amused! (I just wish she’d update more often!)

Best part about blogging?

The discussions I have with the commenters. It’s great when we all start bouncing back & forth with silly comments about a particular event or prediction.

Worst part about blogging?

When the show you’ve been watching for a while just turns into crap and blogging it becomes a total drag. Not fun at all .

If I approached you at an artists alley and requested Sasuke sucking face with Sakura, would you draw it, or would you throw Prismacolor colored pencils at me?

I’d say no because I don’t draw outside my computer. My analog art phails. But in all seriousness, for money I might draw you hent4i. Any takers? :’D