Aki-T NEO RONINS

Animanga: Hello aki-T (Darrien Gibson)

Aki-T: Hey!

Animanga: We hope you don’t mind, but can we ask you a few questions about NEO RONINS and yourself?

Aki-T: Sure thing

Animanga: Ok that’s great! How did you get into anime/manga and when?

Aki-T: well I used to watch shows like Pokemon and Digimon when they came to the UK when I was about 7 or 8, however I used to call them ”cartoons from Japan!. When I was about 10 I then went to boarding school were a lot of the students were Asian. I used to watch them playing all the anime styled games and anime shows in Japanese with Cantonese subtitles but I was fascinated!

Animanga: when did you start to draw manga?

Aki-T: Well my dad showed me Akira when I was about 13 and well it scared the hell outa me.(laughs) I had never seen sutch a violent “cartoon” but in other ways I was amazed at the use of colour and lines and it inspired me to draw A LOT! My dad told me that it was called “manga” I went to my computer and looked it up and I drew Gohan from Dragonball Z So about 13.

Animanga: can you give any advice to people starting to draw?

Aki-T: well yeah, obviously you must draw a lot! You wont improve if you don’t draw and try different styles. I tried so many different styles and then now I cant stop drawing my own chibi styled comics (laughs)

Animanga:> Ok so now moving on to “NEO RONINS” how did you set up the group?

Aki-T: well it was all down to NEO magazine and their forum I had been using it for almost 2 years and I thought “I really want to get some were with my comics” at the time I was reading “comic party” and that really inspired me to get going. I posted a thread in the manga art section asking if anyone would like to make a doujin group and well yeah that’s how we started. I couldn’t have started to make the group without Luke Pierce so YAY thanks Luke!

Animanga: You also have your mini series, “Kimiko Good Deeds”, how is it going for you?

Aki-T: well I love drawing this comic because kimiko was my first proper character I ever made and well I have drawn quite a lot of comics with her as the main charater. But I really like the randomness of the comic it’s a blast to draw.

Animanga: what can we expect from you in the future?

Aki-T: More kimiko and I’m hoping to do some work with other artists from the group.

Animanga: Ok one last question: What do you want to do in the future?

Aki-T: Well I want to get a job in the manga world obviously and well I want to move to Japan for a year and teach English and see what life would be like living in Japan.

Animanga: That’s great aki! We hope for the best for NEO RONINS.

Aki-T: Yeah, same here.