 Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. Gio here, and today we're going to be talking about blank canvas, my so-called artist's journey. Stay tuned. Welcome back to the channel everybody, and yeah, big shout out to the folks at Seven Seas Entertainment for making this review possible. Thank you so much for sending a copy of the volumes my way so that I can talk to you guys about this excellent autobiographical Jose Manga written and illustrated by Akiko Higashimura, which came out around 2011 and ran for five volumes. Actually, I have with me volumes one, two, and three. Volume four comes out at the end of March 2020, and then volume five I believe is scheduled for the month of June, late June 2020. So what exactly is blank canvas about? Well, I said at the beginning that it's an autobiographical manga. You follow a specific time period and life of this mangaka Akiko Higashimura, all her trials and tribulations from a high school student all the way up to her being an adult and being a manga writer. Her journey is quite different than what you would expect. And when it comes to autobiographical stuff, typically there's not a whole lot room to improvise with things. Yes, you can sugarcoat things and you can change around a few aspects to, you know, for dramatic storytelling purposes. But for the most part, it's going to follow a particular beat. And sometimes when you have books like this, the outcome isn't exactly what you expect. It's not a it's not a make believe story. Because when you create a story, you can determine that outcome within biographical manga. It's got to follow the life and story of this accomplished writer. Akiko, I have to be completely honest with you guys. I didn't know much about her work. I was not following her work. I only knew about Princess Jellyfish, which is probably what she is most known for. Although she's done fantastic work all around. I actually researched all the different mangas and all that stuff that she's done. I love her art style very much. Her manga in blank canvas, her story, the way she's able to encapsulate moments in time of her memory in a way that everybody that's looking at it can relate and can enjoy. That's very hard to pull off. Also, if you're writing a life story and your reader can empathize, your reader can laugh, cry and cheer and see themselves in that situation like what happened with me. I consider that a roundabout success. I used to draw like many, many years ago. Probably when I was like 10, 11, 12 around that era. But I abandoned that completely. So I don't relate to the story from an artistic point, but I do relate it from a more human element of somebody that wants to accomplish a dream, a goal. And at the start of the story Akiko, she wants to be a shoujo manga artist, writer. And she has this inflated ego that she's going to write it when she's going to college and she's going to get famous and everybody's going to love her work and you know, you know, childish dreams that we all have. But the way that the story progresses is very wholesome. It can be a little bit chaotic as with any life story because once you leave high school and you know, you're in your formative years, I guess, and you set out to the world, into the world, I should say, and college and all that stuff. You were going for a straight line and all of a sudden you were met with endless curves and sways. And the end result is something completely different than what you set out to do. So I find that extremely relatable that she wanted to be a manga artist and her life just went in different directions. And it wasn't until she was older, I would say late 20s, early 30s, where she started her career as a mangaka. And for me that hit close to home because I've always been someone that I've had many dreams in my life and many ideas that I want to do. And I'm still trying to figure things out. I don't have all the answers. I don't know what I want to do. Yeah, I do have a career path and stuff I'm doing, but I'm not, I would say that I'm not 100% fulfilled with everything. And I'm still somebody that's trying to figure out my place in the world and how, because I love doing creative things. How I can shape or mold something different. How can I, in the case of YouTube, how can I do something that's not being done, whether it's be, whether it be reviews or halls or whatever I'm doing. I want to bring something unique to the table. I'm still trying to figure that out. I don't have all the answers. I don't know how all of it is going to end up, but that I guess is part of the fun of, the fun of it all and the fun of life. So in the case of Akiko, you see her from high school and entering this art school because she wants to get into, yeah, art school, college level and all that stuff. So she starts out practicing with a very interesting sensei that reminded me of J.K. Simmons in Whiplash very much. And the story, while mean and somewhat, I don't want to say mean in the negative way, but like sort of a little chaotic in nature, like I said earlier, it brings out the wholesomeness in someone that's trying to find her voice and trying to do her utmost best to accomplish a goal. Of course, she's gonna, she's gonna get sidetracked as with life, but the routes that she takes and the twists and turns of her creating her very first one-shot manga and getting it published and all that stuff and eventually, you know, creating actual manga that has been enjoyed by thousands of people for many years now is a very great endearing story that I think a lot of people will relate. Of course, her being a female creator will inspire and motivate a lot of female readers and as well as regular readers as well, you know. In the story, we follow Akiko as she wants to set out and do her dream of being a short job manga artist. However, she comes to the realization that it's not going to be as easy as it seems. Of course, you, when you grow up, you have all these fantasies in your head and when you get a crash course in reality, you suddenly realize, oh crap, it's not going to be as simple as I thought. She is very good at painting and art and wants to enter a college art school, if you will, but not before being recommended to take some extra lessons outside of class from a friend and she meets her sensei. He's very strict, but has a method to his madness and that friendship that forms out of that chaotic environment will redefine who that character is, who the author is. And you see that through the course of the three volumes that I am reviewing now where, you know, she starts out in high school, then she has to face college exams and how to deal with that and enter the actual schools and stuff, entering the college lifestyle and falling off the bandwagon, if you will, falling off her dreams and dealing with procrastination, which is something that I face on a constant basis and it sucks. So I really relate it to that aspect. You know, you have all the motivation in the world and all it takes is one simple thought of, I'll save it for later, to completely screw you up in just hideous fashion and that aspect really spoke to me and it's something that, like I mentioned, I deal with when it comes to stuff online and hell, even the way I market this channel and stuff. So yeah, even though I'm not a manga artist, I really did appreciate her being so raw about her emotions and growing up in that environment, that mental state, if you will. There's obviously a running thread through the manga with the future or, I guess, our present timeline, if you will, at the time that she made the manga that gets resolved further along. I'm not going to spoil it, but just rest assured that all of that comes to fruition later on and you do get an outcome out of the back and forth. I love that aspect and how unique her story is and the settings, I believe the city was Miyazaki and the beach settings and all that stuff, it really sets it apart from typical biographical stories and if you're doing things in Japan, they usually take in like foresty areas or like the big city, so to see something like that, even from the freaking covers, which are gorgeous, I love the covers for this series with the palm trees and stuff, it really exudes something different. That other manga of similar nature simply do not have or don't do. The sensibilities of the art style really do the story justice because it can go from really realistic, pardon the usage of that word, to more comedic and cartoonish effects when she's overreacting to the news or her sensei acting a certain way towards her and this chemistry that forms with her teacher, which she considers more than a teacher, more of a mentor and a sensei in all the sense of the word, I guess. It's really pretty to look at, the natural progression of the art. Obviously drawing herself as a young kid, a teenager and an adult, you see that evolution and you see how different her art style is compared to other mangaka in that genre and all that stuff, so I really appreciated that. I love the artwork and the landscapes and everything were really well done. I genuinely had a great, honest to God, good time reading this and I cannot wait to read volume four and five. I read volumes one, two and three which cover a good portion of the story so I can sort of tell you how fantastic it all is, so I am eagerly waiting volume four which is coming out soon as of this video. The thing about autobiographical stories, you sort of know how the story ends if you looked up the creator's story, but it's still fun because you get her insight. I love her fourth wall breaking moments and how she addresses the audience and everybody reading and paying attention to things like how the national exams work, how mangaka do their thing and their one shots get published and now she turned in the script at the last minute while she's working at a customer service telephone company and she earns some top prizes and stuff and it really is a charming look at a non-linear feel good story. The zine transitions are pretty well done, it's a smooth read all the way through and nothing feels like a chore because growing up your life won't exactly be made for a motion picture, you know what I mean? We always have mundane weeks and months and years where nothing really memorable happens and I think that the author is able to capture her life story in a very fun, concise way where you're not bogged down by the minute details and the story flows around and the story flows pretty well in my honest opinion. I think you're gonna love it, fantastic artwork, a really quirky, unusual autobiographical story that will pull at your heartstrings, will make you feel good about yourself, will make you laugh and just distract your mind off of things happening in the world. So if you can, please check out Blank Canvas, my so-called artist journey. I will put a link in the description below for more information about the manga title. Once again, thanks to Seven Seasons Entertainment for making this review possible and it's truly awesome and I cannot express my gratitude enough. Thank you so very much. If you would be so kind, go ahead and order these books. You're gonna have fun time, it's a great addition to any library and yeah, you're just in time. Volume 4 and 5 are coming out soon as of this video so I'm very much looking forward to what you guys have to say. Let me know down below if you've read the series before, if you're gonna read it for the first time. If not, let me know what are some of your favorite autobiographical comics or manga. Very interested in finding out. Thank you everybody for tuning in. As always, hit the bell icon so you know when new videos pop up. As always, follow me on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. Like, comment, subscribe, all that jargon that you're used to by now. Thank you so much for tuning in. I've got to go. I've got more videos coming up for you guys so I will catch all of you on our next episode.