For Webtoon Creator Mongie, Let’s Play is Personal

Leeanne M. Krecic Has accomplished many fan dreams: a studio is adapting her original story into an anime series. Krecic launches “Mongie” for the first time let’s Play In 2016, online comics on the Webtoon platform grew to 7.5 million readers, won the Eisner Award, and was selected by Allnight to adapt the live series. Now, Krecic moves the hit romantic comedy series to his new home in the fall (although she can’t share it yet). this let’s Play Anime series, by Pokémon Sun and Moon director daiki tomiyasu exist Ormwill be in crunchyroll October.

We talked to Krecic about her emotional relationship with the character, her early days as a Naruto Doujin Artists and let’s Play game, Everdate.

Can you talk to us about your journey as an artist? When did you start creating comics and what led to your creation let’s Play?

Leeanne “Mongie” Krecic: When I was 12, I wanted to be the youngest comic creator ever, and my mom said that wouldn’t happen, so I focused on other places. Then, I really like fan art because I prefer supporting characters more than the main characters, and my favorite supporting characters lack fan art. I really want to try [draw] It’s reasonable [the original creator’s] style. Then I created fan characters like many people and I started doing Doujinshi for [the] Naruto [series].

Then people thought, “This looks very similar to Kishimoto Masashi. Why don’t you do it yourself?” And then it’s like, “Why don’t I do it yourself?” So I got to the point where I paid off my student loan and left the company’s plan developer job. I can’t go higher in the company. I just said, “Well, I’m not young. Let’s pursue our dreams.”

Wow, that’s great. So when you say you are creating a Doujinshiis this what you posted online or did you actually create a printed copy?

Monkey: It’s Deviantart and Tumblr.

DeviantArt and Tumblr. OK I want to ask if you go Comiket Once or something like that.

Monkey: No, no, no. Actually it took me a long time to go [San Diego] Comic-Con Because I have social anxiety. Really, really bad.

Oh, is it?

Monkey: I always tell everyone that no one is more demanding about my art than I do. So it’s hard for me to get rid of the drawbacks, like “Read that comic!” Now, since then, I’ve learned to be a bigger advocate of myself and be proud of my book.

For those who haven’t jumped in let’s Play But how do you describe your character Sam Young?

Monkey: Sam is very smart and has severe social anxiety. She has no experience in love and is classified as death. She really had no romantic interest until she had emotional connection with them. This is an interesting exploration. I think a lot of people really appreciate this because it’s a little different, you know, it’s not the same story. A straightforward story type. Then she was full of passion. Her struggles are like social media, social anxiety, no romantic experience. She wanted to make games, but she had the opportunity to become CEO of her father’s company, a very successful company.

So she has this decision and we’ll see more as the series goes on. Just likedoi Follow my passion or doi What is comfortable and successful? So, is wealth better or is my happiness better? ”That’s similar to my own experience.

I would say it sounds like a personal one.

Monkey: Many are personal, I told them last night. let’s PlaySome expressions are manifestations of different emotional states of the characters. character let’s Play It’s my emoji. Sam is my anxiety, Monica is my sexy, Charles is my hurt trust, and Marshall’s people are happy. You know, they are all different aspects of me. So it’s like reflecting on me in many different ways.

How did you feel when you were approached to becoming an anime series?

Monkey: I didn’t believe it at first. I was shocking at the time, “No, really!?” I was shocked.

I just felt lucky that my shawl was cut. I’m grateful, I’m excited, but at the same time I’m scared and nervous because I hope it’s done well. And so do I, especially in this era, I think it’s worth it to smile on someone’s face for only 10 minutes a day. that’s all. It’s worth it to me.

tomiyasu-san, at your work Pokémon Anime series, this is a different genre. What about that let’s Play The series attracts you?

daiki tomiyasu: Pokémon It is based on serious fantasy, even inner language Pokémon It’s fake. This is not real language. but let’s PlayOn the other hand, based on real people, they have real relationships. Being able to work on this project and discover new aspects of my work through challenges that have never been seen makes a lot of sense for me and for an interesting thing.

One of the elements of this series is memes, which can vary greatly between countries. Is it challenging to incorporate memes into the anime series and hit the right comedy notes?

tomiyasu: Everything that appears on the screen, whether it’s on a TV or a computer let’s Playwe realize that this must be true for both audiences. So, for American audiences, Heather crunchyroll It really helped us provide advice on resonating with American audiences. And, when adjusting it to Japanese, we have to think about how to translate them accordingly so that they hit the same situation. However, many Japanese viewers use it to watch American or English content with subtitles. So, I think there is already a culture out there, which makes the transition easier.

How do you describe the visual approach let’s Play? What is the method of color palette?

tomiyasu: The producers gave us a keyword when developing the series: Retro Pop. So we thought, “Well, what is that? How do we make this life come to life?” When we did some research, we realized that many American audiences felt connected and loved the art of Japanese 90s anime. We looked closely at the thickness of the outline, how to draw it, the colors used when film was used, and chose bright colors that aroused nostalgia in the 1990s.

So, a lot of experiments were done there and researching what kind of art and colors brought this nostalgia.

Did this have an impact on you in the 1990s?

Monkey: Yes. If I can do it let’s Play Without a smartphone, I would have it completely. Flip the phone at most. But I think, I need it. Because the game and the ribbon go hand in hand [with that technology]it doesn’t make sense to put it in an earlier era.

But when we talk about doing urban popular themes, I like City Pop, right? I’ve entered [anime with] Killer and Sailor Moonthat era. I am a millennial elder.

Correct. We may be the same age.

Monkey: We probably are. The three of us are almost in the same age group. I feel very nostalgic about all of these things.

One thing I want to expand slightly. You mentioned Narutobut what are some of your other comics and web images that may affect you?

Monkey: The first network channel I’ve read is The wilderness girl. It’s a battle, like a girl, but they are all female warriors of different forms. This is why I introduced vertical scrolling media to me. I was like, “This is great!” Even the effects you can do, and you can rotate your phone while reading and scrolling. I thought that was too cool. I’ve been reading comics online for a long time, where you like, you’re zooming in [and pinching your screen].

But other effects are Naruto,bleach. oh, Vagabond Art style. Since I didn’t do much hatching, I really didn’t do any hatching. but [Takehiko Inoue is ] It is really encouraging to have such an excellent artist, putting more of himself into it. I think the art style let’s Play In three years, comics have become so much. I can’t even stand the old stuff. I looked at something newer and thought I had come a long way.

Another comic has similar effects. If you read the old version Oh, my goddess!you will see the art changes a lot throughout the process.

Monkey: this Naruto The pilot is so different from the release and then change it again Shorten Once the anime comes out. But it improved. It’s getting better and better.

Was Sam’s career as a game developer something you wanted to pursue in the first place?

Monkey: Since I have a degree in computer science, I’ve been playing. I always wanted to play games for a day. But we’re doing Everdate;I don’t have a programming game. I’m doing writing and art, but I can still develop it so I can put it on my bucket list.

Can you tell me a little Everdate?

Monkey: This is part of the visual novel, part of the card game. There are 12 let’s Play The characters there. There are 35 pairs. If you want to explore relationships like Uma and Monica, you can do this with a visual novel story. Then, the date itself is a card game where you can build your own deck, but each character has its own abilities and traits that they can build. Just like, Uma has a high level of creativity and low sexiness. You can then do it on this date and overcome the date deck challenges. So it could be like your phone dies, or it’s bad music, or it’s bad food orders, something like that. You are overcoming it together.

Oh, it’s very interesting.

Monkey: I thought of the slogan. It’s “Find your player two”.

Oh, that’s cute. Are you talking about the time of publishing the window?

Monkey: We have KickstarterI think this was a few years ago. I believe we will make a 0.1 release at the end of this month. I think we’ll do it as soon as possible steam.

Well, thank you very much for your precious time. It’s great to talk to you.

Both:Thanks.