Boy’s Love series, topics, and mangaka are rarely given conventional spotlights and major coverage at US anime conventions, so I was excited and intrigued when Otakon announced they would host longtime BL manga artist Kyoko Aiba in 2023. Kyoko Aiba is a storied artist with over a decade’s worth experience creating BL and Josei manga, and whose recent works focus on socially conscious storytelling. Despite publishing many different types of series over her career, sadly only a scant few are available to read officially in English, and even those can be hard to find if you don’t know where to look.
Before Otakon, I personally was only able to find and read I Love You Enough to Tie You Up, a collection of about a dozen short stories often focusing on initially non-consensual relationships with power imbalances. It’s a difficult book to recommend because of its focus on non-con and sexual violence, though it conversely serves as a useful snapshot of the kind of content that was popular in BL in the early 2010s, and especially what types of works publishers like Digital Manga Publishing’s Juné imprint were primarily focusing on publishing.
But Tie You Up is also an interesting contrast to Aiba’s most recent work, in particular Derail, which is a one-volume psychological drama between two roommates becoming increasingly close and intimate with each other despite trying to emotional distance. What starts as a transactional and manipulative power-imbalance between the leads ends up peeling away many layers of facade until you find a tender heart at its core. It’s a surprising and thoughtful read, but alas, you wouldn’t be at fault for not finding the official release on Manga Planet before her appearance at Otakon 2023. Derail was only published in English on Manga Planet on June 15th, 2023, and to my recollection this information was not on her MAL page before Otakon, which was just six weeks later. Even now, when searching for it, the official Manga Planet link is buried under links for it on pirate sites.
Even more obscure is her salacious Josei one-shot, Harlem Knights on Renta, a short but mature adult love-traingle story between the daughter of a modeling agent and two handsome half-Japanese half-American brothers. Individually it’s hard to get a complete picture of Aiba as an artist from just one of her works, but together, these works demonstrate the variety in her style and storytelling sensibilities, and how the way she depicts and explores messy relationships in her works has matured over time.
Furthermore, though she is active on Twitter, there is scant information about Aiba available online in english-language sources. Anime News Network’s wiki only has news pieces about her work related to her Otakon appearances, and the only work of hers listed on her page is Young Carer Mienai Watashi, a Grand Jump Mucha one-shot and short serialization. The lack of coverage of Aiba’s work speaks to the critical underreporting about BL manga in the English manga community and the lack of visibility for BL manga artists as well as creators whose works are more niche and not as well known at US anime conventions. This information gap was something I wanted to redress by interviewing her, though consequently, I felt I lacked enough information about her to form a solid understanding of her work and career and ask good investigative, elucidating questions.
Thankfully, Otakon scheduled Kyoko Aiba’s Live-Drawing and Q&A panel the day before my interview with her, and I was able to attend and learn more about her career history, her influences, and creative interests, as well as witness how incredibly talented an artist she is in-person!
LIVE-DRAWING and Q&A with KYOKO AIBA | OTAKON 2023 PANEL REPORT
For an artist who’s works are relatively niche in the US, there was a remarkably good turnout of attendees who filled the room for Aiba’s panel who were fans of hers or genuinely curious to know more about her. As the panel began, Aiba started her live-drawing in Clip-Studio on her iPad. She noted she normally works on a PC, but it’s kinda difficult to move your whole desktop to the con. Aiba drew with the RoG pen in Clip Studio. She said she liked how it mimics the feel of hand-drawn ink pen lineart, whereas the default pens in CSP look too digital. Aiba still draws by hand on paper, but usually only for signboards for book stores. Otherwise she mostly draws her work on her PC. Aiba doesn’t paint, but she does draw with Copic Markers
Aiba started out in manga with a part-time job in the editorial office, she had no intention of becoming a manga artist, but a designer. But one day she was asked to draw something by a coworker, and her career took off from there. Aiba loves drawing people, she drew a lot of young men and women in BL, now that she’s moving away from that she likes drawing old people, giant robots, and animals like lions, even though it can be hard to draw.
Aiba reflected that the best way to improve your art and develop a personal style is to draw from reference and pay attention to detail. Practicing by drawing your favorite characters and what inspired you, and going from there. In the picture below, Aiba illustrated an example of how she learned to draw laces correctly by looking at reference (right) as opposed to by memory (left). Aiba is able to draw characters from imagination quickly and beautifully from being inspired by the people she observes. This cat boy maid she’s drawing was inspired by cosplayers she saw walking around the con floor.
Aiba was inspired to draw when she was in Elementary school by the designs on the Clow Cards from Cardcaptor Sakura and Yu-Gi-Oh cards, which influenced and helped her developing the designing skills and sensibilities she’d employ later in her career. Aiba’s artistic inspirations are Rumiko Takahashi and Hiromi Arakawa, but when it comes to storytelling, she feels that’s something you gotta come up yourself. Aiba was a big Ranma 1/2 fan, and her favorite character is Shampoo! Sadly, she turned down a request from the crowd to draw her. Aiba’s interpreter, Toshi Yoshida, bragged that he not only interpreted for Rumiko Takahashi twice at her only two ever conventions appearances in the U.S., but he also produced the entire English dub!
Regarding her career, Aiba said she was originally planning to be a shojo manga artist, but the BL department at her publisher moved her over there. Aiba’s been wanting to get out of BL for a while, but she found that when you work in BL you get a surprising amount of work, and she kept getting a lot of work, sometimes lined up out three years out, so it was hard to find a stopping point and so she kept going for 10 years. This live-drawing panel was one of Aiba’s few low-key recreational drawing experiences she’s had in a while, since she is usually too busy to draw for fun, though she loves drawing people’s faces on welcome boards of her friends’ weddings.
Aiba’s self-care practices include getting lots of massages and sleep. She fuels up by drinking a lot of Monster, Red Bull, and other energy drinks. When faced with artists block, she either goes to sleep or powers through to figure it out. Usually she ends up just sleeping, helps everything reset. She usually puts on a tv drama in the background while working, including a lot of US shows like Criminal Minds, which she’s seen all of like 50 times. She also likes Bones and a lot of crime dramas. Aiba’s favorite musicians are Eric Clapton and The Beatles, and her favorite anime is Ghost in the Shell. She mused how she seems to like stories where lots of people die.
As the panel was nearing its half-way point, Aiba noted that she usually leaves doing her characters’ legs for last, so she was almost done with her live-drawing. Commenting on how her drawing cut off right at the ankles, and Aiba explained that she really hates drawing feet. Yoshida joked that’s why you can’t see the feet in Aiba’s drawing! On differences between drawing men and women, she says she draws men with broader shoulders and bulkier hands and fingers than she would women. She draws her concept of a cool male character from a Japanese perspective, which may differ from a more muscular American depiction.
Observing that Aiba uses a lot of thin, loose line work, she noted that was because she’s live-drawing, her drawing is much rougher and looser than it normally would be.
Though the audience was impressed at how fast Aiba drew, she personally felt it went too slow, and that she could’ve drawn this in half the time on her PC. Finally, the audience was presented with Aiba’s finished drawing – A Cat Boy Maid in a (very) short skirt (and no feet!)! Aiba noted the “absolute territory” on her Cat Boy – the space between the bottom of the skirt and top of the stockings, a focal point for many Japanese fans. Aiba asked what the term is for the hair between the groin and navel in English; the crowd answered “Happy Trail,” but she prefer the term “Treasure Trail.”
Aiba then took a second drawing request to draw a chibi sushi chef girl! She had to look up reference for sushi chefs, since she’d never drawn one before.
Talking a bit about her personal life, Aiba noted has two pets – a chihuahua and a toy poodle! Houses are very small in Japan, so she has small dogs!
On the subject of A.I., Aiba said she feels that there is a proper use for it, but personally she wouldn’t want her art to be chosen as the keystone images to train the AI. She feels that it’s a powerful tool, but there needs to be a lot of checks and balances out in place before it is used. Since Aiba is on the side of creating what the AI would be used to create, she feels she has a different perspective than a company that is just a user. She personally wouldn’t use AI art in her work, though she feels if she did, everyone on Twitter would say it’s really good.
For those new to her work, Aiba recommends her newest title Young Terror, which was coming out on the 19th. Derail is her most popular title on Amazon. Aiba said she would prefer her new readers to seek out her non-BL work.
As the panel came to an end, Aiba showed off her finished drawings. She closed the panel by reflecting how she would like to live her life continuing to learn. She mused that when you stop learning, you stop living.
Hearing how Aiba began her career in manga, her artistic influences, her approach to her art, and seeing her draw gave me a great amount of questions in mind about how her experiences creating BL manga. And certainly, I was delighted to know she was a kindred Rumiko Takahashi and Ranma ½ fan! When I interviewed Aiba the next day, I asked about her experiences having worked in the BL manga market, how she saw it change and the trends that developed during the time she worked in it, how the BL market differs from the shojo and josei market, and how the trajectory of her career differed from her initial aspirations.
My interview with Kyoko Aiba can be read below, edited in places for brevity, clarity, and emphasis.
INTERVIEW WITH KYOKO AIBA | OTAKON 2023
Manga Mavericks: Thank you for meeting with me today! I’m very pleased to meet you. How have you been enjoying Otakon so far?
Kyoko Aiba: There’s lots of firsts, so I’m very excited. It’s a very unique experience.
MM: I really enjoyed your live-drawing panel yesterday. Was that your first time doing a live-drawing?
KA: So yes, it was in fact the first time I did a live-drawing!
MM: Wow, you did an amazing job!
KA: (laughs) Thank you so much!
MM: So I wanted to ask you; You mentioned that you originally wanted to be a designer, and you were inspired by Pokemon cards and cartoons to decide to be an artist. What kind of design work did you want to go into?
KA: So, I didn’t exactly begin off with wanting to become a designer. Rather, I was doing design as a side job while I was doing manga, and I could. I believe that since I was doing design as a side job I thought “hey, I could do… designing is something I can do too!” Since I originally had a general passion for drawing, I drew some things inspired by CLOW cards from Cardcaptor Sakura, or Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, and designing was something that kind of brought out the feeling that “hey I could do this! I could do drawing as a job!” and kinda animated. However, it’s not something I originally began off with, wanting to do explicitly like a design.
MM: I see. You mentioned you were working in an editorial office as a former government worker and got like a drawing request that eventually led to your career as a mangaka. I was just curious to know more about like what your role was in the editorial office and then like twhat request was it that eventually led to starting your career?
KA: So the job was actually… The request that I had was basically a cover for another illustrator. In the magazine that I was being an editor for, there would be interview pages, and in the interview pages, at the bottom of the corner or something, there will be small drawings on that interview page. And I was asked if I could cover for another illustrator.
MM: Awesome!
KA: (laughs)
MM: You mentioned you originally wanted to get into shojo manga, but then you were asked to work in BL, and so I was interested to learn more about why your editors wanted you to go into BL and what they saw in your art that really made them feel that it would be a really, really smart path?
KA: So, I think it’s really because they saw me drawing “cool guys” and I believe that the pictures that the publishers wanted was “cool guys” for BL. However, originally I thought that for shojo manga. Shojo manga was basically somewhere that if you have cool guys and cute girls, you have children’s manga. However, the cool guys that I drew probably seemed a bit different from the cool guys that the shojo manga was expecting, and they probably saw that the cool guys that I drew were more along the lines of “sexy guys.” So, I think that might be something that they… that might be the reason why they decided “okay, you go into BL.” (laughs)
MM: Had you experienced drawing manga before being given that request?
KA: Hmm. So I did have, prior to going into BL, there was one manga I wrote about a romantic relationship between a boy and a girl, but that is way into the past and I pretend that I have forgotten it.
(everyone laughs)
MM: Nah, I understand. I’m also embarrassed of some of my earlier work…
KA: Embarrassed? (laughs)
MM: But yeah, you worked in BL manga for ten years, and you mentioned that you wanted to break into shojo, but you kept getting more work in BL. I was curious about what that pipeline was like, because you mentioned that you would get requests for things that were like two years out!
KA: Yes, you are correct, because the BL… basically, when I’ve been planning stuff for my BL, often we start three to four years into the future, and I think this is done because of the unique market that is the BL market in Japan, because it’s become standard practice in the BL market that people running it will have several different mangas that they work on for every month. So having those very different stuff that they’re working on, we would often go to “do this, next do this, next do this, next do this,” and you gotta really have something that you could do in-between, so that’s something. That might be something a bit unique to the Japanese BL market.
MM: Yeah, that’s really interesting!
KA: So I guessed! (laughs)
MM: Working in BL manga, what were other differences that you observed about BL and in the manga you were publishing as compared to other genres and demographics?
KA: So I believe that, as you say, multi-tasking is a very interesting part about the BL market, and also another interesting thing that used to be a thing was that there wouldn’t be as many media for BL because usually you’d have OVAs and drama CDs, and having different media contents basically. Having a full anime or a movie wasn’t a thing for BL in the past. However, I believe that that’s changing now and we do start seeing more BL topics that weren’t addressed in BL manga or BL cartoons being addressed in movie or anime now.
MM: We definitely have seen more BL media in the past decade, and yeah, I was just wondering your thoughts on or any other observations of how BL as a genre has grown in the past decade in terms of its popularity and its multimedia presence?
KA: So, I believe that in the previous years, I felt it’s just like the idea of how previously “Boy’s Love” didn’t really happen in Boy’s Love [fandom]. It was in the otaku community. Inside the otaku community, you had the fujoshi community, and they’ll be aimed at. Or, be talked about as the Yaoi genre. It was something that you kind of hid from the public and you didn’t want to say that you were a connoisseur of the topic.
But, it’s just like the way how saying that you’re an Otaku [has changed]. Before it was kind of like something that you might’ve wanted to hide, but then right now it’s not something that you need to hide anymore. So, before BL might’ve been given the cold – this is a subject that really maddened me – given the cold treatment, but I think now it’s something that both boys and girls could openly enjoy compared to before, and I think that kind of signifies and that kind of embodies how much BL has grown as a genre.
MM: I see. Thank you so much for your time and insights on the BL manga market, I really appreciated it. I really enjoy your works, and I’m looking forward to reading more of your BL and your manga that are on their way out.
KA: [in english] Oh, thank you so much! (laughs) Thank you.
Afterward, I returned to the Press Room, where I caught up with Toni Sun Prickett, a contributor for ANN and Anime Feminist who also interviewed Kyoko Aiba for ANN earlier that day. Toni asked me how my interview went, and we had a really interesting discussion about our different approaches and experiences interviewing Aiba and how her work represents and reflects the evolution of the BL market. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it turned out that my audio recorder was still on and caught the bulk of our conversation, and I thought it would be interesting to share below for additional thoughts and perspectives on Aiba and her work.
Like our interview with Aiba, my chat with Toni has also been edited in places for brevity, clarity, and emphasis.
Toni: How was your interview?
MM: It went well! I had a really fun conversation.
Toni: Who were you talking to?
MM: I was talking to Kyoko Aiba, she’s an author of BL…
Toni: Oh yeah, I interviewed her! I felt very much, she’s very giving of her thoughts and unguarded, if that makes sense?
MM: Yeah! I know, I really liked that.
Toni: When I speak with a lot of these teams, like often it feels a little bit like people are trying to keep a look at the producer to try to like see what’s okay to say and what’s not okay to say. But when you speak to just a manga artist on their own often, especially with her, I found it seemed like she just has… she just loves talking about it! You know, she seems to love talking about her work and about BL.
MM: Yeah! I really enjoyed hearing her thoughts on the BL manga market and how she has seen certain changes in the manga that comes out now.
Toni: Ah! Oh, that’s so interesting that you asked her about the market overall. That’s such a cool angle! Like, so what did she say if you don’t mind me asking?
MM: She sees that there’s more mediums that BL manga gets adapted into, and now you have more products and more tie-ins that forms another source of revenue for artists.
Toni: So, things like?…
MM: Themed products of an anime and also other kinds of merch and things, like merchandising character goods. So yeah, there’s really been more of that for the BL that gets published on multimedia platforms.
Toni: Yeah, I’m thinking about… It’s also interesting what we consider BL versus what we consider just “shipbait,” right? Something like Bungo Stray Dogs, which is clearly for fujoshi right?
MM: Yeah!
Toni: But it isn’t BL, right? But that’s where that’s the sort of thing, the almost-like (laughs). Or like, I’m curious, what kind of multimedia franchises have you observed in the BL sphere?
MM: Like Semantic Error or Given or anything that’s which is considered a BL manga adaptation. There are like drama CDs and lots of sorts of interesting multimedia storytelling.
Toni: Ahhh! Yeah, so we’re actually seeing adaptations now?
MM: Yeah.
Toni: Which is not what was happening for a very long time.
MM: Yeah. And also, there’s just more stories that also have BL hooks that have been advertised through social media.
Toni: Right…
MM: And also there are more series that, conditionally, have more emphasis on the relationships and other certain topics.
Toni: I’m so glad that like me, you, and Vrai are all going to get such different angles, and the great thing about her is that she’s very clearly… she’s not like reading off talking points, right? She’s responding really authentically, and with really profound answers and insight. And I think that’s going to make it so that, even though we all are interviewing the same person at the same, we’re going to get such different articles. ‘Cause I focused very much on Derail. Have you read that one?
MM: No, the only work that I read of her was I Love You Enough to Tie You Up. It was the one that I found that was officially translated…
Toni: Ah yeah? So me and Vrai were talking, and we found Derail officially translated, and it is phenomenal. It’s like, I Love You Enough to Tie You Up is very like, classic BL with kind of, you know (sighs)… some rape fic, non-con fantasies, you know that sort of thing? Whereas Derail is much more interesting and psychological. I think it’s more similar I guess to something like The Night Beneath the Tricolored Window, or something a little bit more like that. But, more erotic, of course. You really know it’s a lot more.
And so it’s super interesting hearing about like the trajectory of her career from something so erotic and traditional BL to something that’s much more nuanced. And she talked about wanting to break out of the boundaries and out of the expectations of traditional BL. You’re following the – I forget whether it’s the seme or uke that’s the one that’s being pursued – but you’re the following the one who you’re normally in the mind of, the person who is being assaulted or whatever. You know, titilating that fantasy, right? But Derail is more from the perspective of the Pursuer. But, it’s more complicated than that, because it’s not just like a non-con fantasy itself. It’s much more, it’s more of a kind of portrait of a complex relationship.
And I found it so interesting to hear about what inspired that, because she talked about liking Sherlock Holmes, and Sherlock Holmes was one of her biggest inspirations.
MM: Wow! That’s so cool. It’s interesting, she also said that she liked Criminal Minds and Bones when it aired on Japanese television.
Toni: Oh yeah?
MM: I was at the live-drawing panel where she said a lot of interesting things about her experience and the influences around her.
Toni: How was that?
MM: It was a lot of fun! Like, I’m always impressed with live-drawings and people who draw really incredible portraits in less than a full hour complete.
Toni: I, yeah, I wish I had gone to that.
MM: But yeah, like you’re just saying, she was very free with the answers she gave, both in terms of answering questions and sharing all about her experiences.
Toni: I want to try and go to her next session…
MM: Her next one is at 3:15!
Toni: Uh-huh.
MM: It’s all about manga publishing and manga distributing.
Toni: I want to go to that! I wish I’d gone to the live-drawing, ‘cause I relied on online which is probably like mad out of date and it said that one of her favorite manga is Junjo Romantica, and I asked her about that.
MM: (laughs)
Toni: But you know, there’s just not a lot of easily available information in english about her.
MM: Yeah…
Toni: So I had to go off of her manga, which I think led to a really good angle, right?
MM: Yeah!
Toni: But I also think that maybe limited me in terms of questions like you’re talking about, like about the process, and that sort of thing.
MM: Yeah, she had a lot of interesting insights about working in BL manga, so I’m glad I focused on the industry.
Toni: Mm-hmm.
MM: But I wish I could have found Derail. I didn’t realize it was officially translated!
Toni: I think it’s on Manga Planet…
MM: Oh, it’s Manga Planet?!
Toni: But, Vrai sent it to me. You know, me and Vrai were kind of collaborating because we’re both AniFem people, and so we were just talking about what questions we’re gonna ask, and what resources we have to use. And you know, Vrai told me about Derail, and that it was actually really good! You know, because I’m not super into non-con fantasies, it’s just not my thing. And so I read it, and I was like “this is really impressive!” Like, I was less excited about the interview and then like that I’m like *slams table* BAM! I know what my angle is, you know? (laughs) It’s like, I know now what I’m going to ask her about because it’s so rich. It’s such a rich text to ask about, and I think it’s so telling about the direction of BL.
This was effectively where our conversation comparing our experiences interviewing Aiba concluded, though Toni and I continued to talk about the experience of doing press interviews with guests or on a topic you don’t know much about, which we may publish separately.
But I heartily share Toni’s sentiments about interviewing Aiba, and think they aptly characterized how thrilling it was to explore the works of an artist whose style and storytelling has developed so much over the course of her career. I really enjoyed seeing Aiba’s live-drawing panel and learning more about her, her inspirations and thoughts on being a manga artist, and getting insight into her career journey and drawing BL manga! I hope more manga of hers will be translated in English, and that more informative content and coverage of BL and niche manga creators will be hosted more often at Otakon and other US anime conventions.
Otakon is hosting Kyoko Aiba once again this year, featuring her on a panel on Friday where she’ll live-critique fan-designs from the audience and another on Saturday with manga artist Hinoki Kino discussing the process of adapting an original work from another medium into a manga. I’m hoping to attend and cover both of these panels and posts reports about our experiences here on the site, and we’ll hopefully have another chance to sit down with Aiba-sensei again for another interview.
I’m so glad to have had an opportunity to interview Aiba, and that there is now so much more awareness and information about her and her work that is now available to find thanks to ours, Anime Feminist’s, and Anime News Network’s coverage. Even still, I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what there is to talk about regarding Aiba’s works and career, and I’m so excited to continuing exploring her ever-evolving ouvre in what will hopefully be many more stateside convention experiences and licensed works to come.
