AnimeNYC ran from November 18-20, 2022, and as my first “full” convention (working all three days) I have to say it went pretty well! A lot of diverse vendors, displays, and cosplayers made for a good time. With a reduced number of admissions, there were a lot of people who missed out on attending, but the trade-off was an easily-navigable showroom floor that only got choked up in a few sections of the hall. That made the overall experience much more manageable for vendors.
On Saturday the 19th, Azuki announced the next title on its manga subscription platform: Natsume & Natsume. I was fortunate enough to design the logo and covers for this series, which is my second title associated with author Shunsuke Sorato (空翔 俊介). The first would be The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes, on which I’m the main production artist and letterer. While I do handle most of the lettering duties for Sanpaku, I didn’t design the logo; amusingly, I don’t handle any of the lettering duties for Natsume, but I did design the logo. Funny how that turned out.
Anyway, both series feature a protagonist struggling to be understood despite their outward appearance. In Sanpaku Eyes, it’s Amane Mizuno, whose intimidating stare makes her so self-conscious that she can’t talk to her high school crush. In Natsume, it’s Natsume Shiranui who has a plain ol’ scary face. I can’t say too much about how Natsume & Natsume will turn out (seeing as I only handle the covers and not the actual comic) but if’s anything like The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes, it’ll manage to be inexplicably charming despite the apparently simple slice-of-life premise.
You can preview Natsume & Natsume here. Find out more about The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes on Denpa’s site.