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 :D) 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
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14 Comments
But we all know girls stink! And guys rule!
Gasp! Hinano referring about me regarding the Hirano Aya posts!
>> I just start a rant about how blogging is starting to suck
I wonder when the anime community is going to cycle through another one of those phases and the accompanying “What keeps you going” and “Summary vs editorial” posts that come with it. It’s been a while since the last one.
I love those posts and I read them all, every year =D.
Haha, I knew it! It’s so easy to see what’s coming when you’re
stalkingvisiting Sea Slugs often.Anyways, I definitely agree with the “getting in the readers’ shoes” thing. I always love Hinano’s writing because she’s not afraid to say what everyone is really thinking. Actually, her flames on Airantou were what really made me a fan.
Also, I just noticed that these interviews’ images have captions…*goes back to look at the other ones*
Now where’s JP’s interview?
Same for me with her posts on School Days, back when I was so sure there would be no bad ending. The fact that Bad Ending was BAD made it so much sweeter.
You never noticed the interview images have captions?! We caption everything (well since like 2005, I think…)!
Hung bribed me to make sure that JP gets left out so the two of them can have something in common and make JP jealous.
“I wonder when the anime community is going to cycle through another one of those phases and the accompanying ‘What keeps you going’ and ‘Summary vs editorial’ posts that come with it.”
Maybe soon, since I haven’t really seriously seen anything like that I jumped onto the animeblogging bandwagon. Though it would be fun to jump onto the “summary vs. editorial” argument from how it seems. :P
I usually just tend to read the impressions rather the summaries on episodic posts because I don’t want to get spoiled. :P That and I want to see how people feel about the episode, and as a way to gauge the effect that watching it might have on me.
There also seems to be a nice rise of female anime bloggers lately, which is always good. Though I try not to think about who’s writing it and more of what’s being said. If the writing’s good, it doesn’t matter, right?
Yet another great interview. That’s some great insight into the lovely Hinano. :P
*bribes you to do an interview with JP*
Come on you know you want to!
it’ll be the most intelligent thing anyone’s ever going to read!!
Thanks for the interview. I often enjoy Hinano’s work. But I almost never share her opinions. And not about Hirano Aya, either, it appears. Lol.
w00t, I love interview posts!
Yay for rants!
Good stuff, nice to see some interesting links, too. * click click *
I definitely agree that it’s all about quality over size, although I do tend to be guilty of writing huge monster posts that take like 20 minutes to read. :P
EWWWW COOTIES!!!
jk! I love her photoshops! (I actually believed the School Days 11 one where Kotonoha is holding a knife behind Makoto’s back…I was really disappointed that it wasn’t true 
)
I’ve always wanted to know this: Do you actually meet the blogger in person or do you have the interview over email/aim/other chat programs? If you do meet in person, I have a serious question for Hinano…HOW GORGEOUS IS KABITZIN???!!! I MUST KNOW!!!! XD (and ya, I still stalk your site. Its not easy talking to a girl *blush*)
@ Orion: Yes, your posts always give me a workout *sweats*, but they’re enjoyable, so keep doin the thing you do playa-pimp! ^_^
Edit: Our smileys are green… Is it for Halloween? (or perhaps to celebrate the release of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA PHANTOM HOURGLASS FOR NINTENDO DS???!!!!)
LOL sorry it was an email interview so I can’t tell you the extent of Kaibitzin’s bishuonen level.
*sad* well…maybe next time. I thought maybe you did see him since in Kabi-kun’s second interview with Batezi (hehe, I also stalk his blog), he said:
Maybe he was just kiddin bout crossing the ocean.