Not just Japan. The italian manga He has passion and talent and is becoming more and more popular. Our authors know something about it Federica Di Meo e Da Hosoi (born Daniele Magrì), who together with the Swiss author Gin ZarboI’m at Comicon of Naples con Star Comics to send a loud and clear message: manga can be done anywhere, also in Europe. Manga, Federica Di Meo states to Adnkronos, “is the language that young people now know best because it is a type of media that knows how to speak to them and knows how to create interesting storiesknows how to involve them and I believe that in the coming years we will no longer be the exception”. From ‘Ranma ½’, which marked the “first blow to the heart” for Federica, to the giants like ‘Naruto’ and ‘Dragon Ball’, who forged the art of Gin Zarbo.
Creating manga outside of Japan, however, has not been without its challenges. “The bigger problem it was related to whether or not I could make a living making manga,” he says Gin Zarbo who adds: “When I started, I did many other jobs, but I must say that my life experience helped me a lot: I channeled all my experiences into the creation of my stories.” Passion and dedication, therefore, can t
turn a dream into reality and “now, in Europe, the publishing houses like Star Comics which are giving space to European manga are giving voice to movements that until recently did not have the same possibilities, thus creating an international community – continues Gin Zarbo – It is precisely in this way that we can grow, showing to aspiring mangaka Europeans that theirs is a realizable dream”, even outside Japan.
“What we tell is what we know, what we have lived in and what we perceive every day”, says Federica Di Meo. So generally “the Our stories are not set in Japan, but in Italy or in a fantasy world. This is because to make manga you have to create something extremely solid and knowing all aspects of the setting, the characters, all the sayings and doings: we can’t create empathy between character and reader if we don’t know the basic terrain.”
Maintain a balance between respecting the Japanese manga tradition and the expression of one’s own cultural identity, therefore, is possible: “In our works, as much as we try to hide it, it is difficult not to bring out what is the our Westernness so I simply had to apply my cultural background, my knowledge and experience”, he says Da Hosoi who adds: “Manga is becoming more and more popular in Europe, not only in Europe typically Japanese manga but above all also the Western one. Understanding the basic techniques is allowing us to make progress also with collaboration with Western editors who are giving more and more space to European authors.”
With Star Comics, Federica Di Meo publishes ‘Oneira’a seinen dark fantasy scripted by the French Cab: the story, with a Gothic flavor and setting, tells of a dark world in which people’s nightmares become reality, transforming into creatures of the night that put the stability and security of the population at risk. Da Hosoi’s artistic adventure is instead strongly rooted in his love for storytelling and manga culture, passions that found recognition in 2017 when he won third place in the international Silent Manga Audition competition organized by the Japanese publishing house Coamix. Diablomachia, his French-produced manga, is on Italian shelves thanks to Star Comics. In the Diablomachia universe, due to their atypical character, benevolent demons live as outcasts in the infernal realm.
At the center of the story is Neve, a summoner who spends his time in the company of these good demons and who will try to save them by bringing them to Earth. Gin Zarbo, an emerging talent, earned a place in the top ten of the sales charts with Undead Messiah, a success that followed the initial self-publishing of her Doujinshi Cope Soul. Her latest work, The Secret of Scarecrowpublished by Star Comics, immerses readers in a kingdom threatened by the Crow, carnivorous monsters who spread terror among the inhabitants.