Patrick>> Hey! Thanks for the clarification on my shitty Japanese. SOFT and FEMALE. Got it! By the way, my living in Japan wasn’t “amazing” at all compared to how long you have been living over here, and kicking ass!

At the animation studios in particular it was hard to even get an interview. They had their own unique way of working and my experience in western animation wasn’t much use to them, especially as I would be hard to communicate with. That attitude changed when the project was in English, for an American client, as was the case at Toei.

However the magazine art-directors were much more receptive, because they sometimes worked with foreign based illustrators when they were looking for a certain style, and thus were open to working one who lived locally, for the right gig. The jobs tended to have a “gaijin” FLAVA (such as the English text book job) and far from wanting me to draw in an ANIME or MANGA style they specifically hired me to draw in a “western” style.

My first illustration gig was for an English Language monthly called TOKYO JOURNAL, where the art director spoke English, so it was pretty easy. Then I was contacted by an art director I had met earlier, who worked for MAGAZINE HOUSE, a huge conglomerate of Japanese magazines (I think they assembled about 10 different magazines in that one building) and I did some illustrations for POPEYE and BRUTUS. Communication was definitely an issue but the reason he hired me at all was that he was looking for some “western” cartoon style, so he tended to let me do my own thing.

The English language text book gig was relatively easy too, because the text was all in English, and the editor spoke some Japanglish, so along with my Englinese we communicated pretty easily. Once again they were looking for a “western” look so they left me to draw in the style that I wanted.

I never got a lot of work, just a few regular monthly gigs and certainly not enough to live on. Perhaps if I had stayed in Japan a few years longer I would have gained enough contacts to make a living off of illustration? But unfortunately my visa eventually ran out and I had to move on.

John>> I hear you; The me-of-now is jealous of the me-of-then, too!