This past February, Kio Shimoku did a live drawing event with fellow Rakuen: Le Paradis manga artist Minoda Kaidou as part of a series called “Oekaki no Jikan Desu,” or “It’s Time for Doodling.”

And by amazingly fortuitous coincidence, I happened to be in Japan at the time, and I couldn’t let this chance slip by. So I actually got to see Kio Shimoku in person for the first time!!

The Venue

Tonarimachi Coffee is a short walk from Nakanobu Station, and is located in a shopping district, down a short staircase. A number of attendees had already lined up when I got there, and unsurprisingly the audience was mostly older men. The seating area included trays to put your personal items. The “camera” used to capture the drawings for viewing was just a smartphone jury-rigged into a projector. Classic American music played on the speakers before the event started as well as during the break in between, such as “Stand by Me,” “Be the One,” “My Sharona,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Oh Carol.”

Event and Guest Details

Photos and video weren’t allowed in the event, so I took notes as the guests drew and talked to each other. Due to a combination of not having the best listening skills and them talking a lot of inside baseball, I didn’t catch everything, so if anyone happened to watch (in person or via the stream) and has more to add, I welcome clarifying comments.

The event was MC’d by a “navigator” (their term), Iida Takashi, who was a gray-haired gentleman in a nice suit and spoke with a fairly authoritative air. I later found out he was the editor of Rakuen: Le Paradis, with a long career working for the manga publisher Hakusensha. His experience includes working for magazines such as Young Animal and Hana to Yume, and he currently does freelance editing after retiring in 2020. 

Minoda, a female artist, was fairly short and had overall round features and dark shoulder-length hair. She wore a leather jacket and a red dress, as well as a facemask. Kio was a slender guy with gray hair. He had on a sweater, a scarf, and slim pants, as well as flip-top glasses. Later, they mentioned that the weather was fluctuating a lot that day, so it was hard to dress for. 

Minoda Kaidou’s Turn

Both Minoda and Kio drew bunny girls, which seemed to be both the theme of the event and something that other manga artists have done for Tonarimachi Cafe. I didn’t know this going in, but they announced that they were going to give every attendee a copy of the drawings at the end! Iida asked if regular copy paper was okay, to which Kio replied that it’s fine, and he’s had experience doing doujinshi on cheap photocopy paper (copybon).

Minoda was up first, with Iida and Kio providing additional commentary. She used a 2H pencil for the initial, which was so light that it didn’t quite show up on camera. Kio pointed out that a lighter pencil is easier to erase, but Minoda says it’s just what she’s used to. As she continued to draw, Kio got distracted by the fishnet stockings of Minoda’s bunny girl. 

(Iida briefly referenced the author of Houkago Play, Kurosaki Rendou, who was also published in Rakuen. I couldn’t catch it all, but Kurosaki does draw a lot of bunny girls, so maybe that’s why.) 

The topic of pens came up, and Minoda said that round pens are easier to use. Kio followed up by saying that digital art can’t capture the special feel of the G-pen, which is fun and has unique quirks. The digital G-pen setting has no feedback the way analog does. However, digital is great for filling blacks and applying screentones. Minoda and Kio also hold a G-pen differently from each other. Minoda said she probably does it wrong, but Kio basically said different strokes for different folks.

Kio said his right wrist was hurting, and that the wrist bone on the pinky side has issues. He mentioned that it was taped or bandaged, but I didn’t see the actual tape. Genshiken was drawn entirely analog, and Kio basically did it all himself. In fact, he was at a gathering at Kodansha, where Iida pointed out that Kio is one of the few creators who don’t use assistants.

Most younger artists apparently draw digitally now. Kio thinks it’s possibly because of COVID.

The drawing was going fairly quickly up to a certain point, when the pace slowed down because Minoda started meticulously drawing the fishnet stockings details. She really likes drawing the S-curve of a woman’s waist and hips. Minoda likes to use a Tentel brush pen with refillable ink for doing blacks.

Gundam and GQuuuuuuX came up briefly. Kio may have also drawn a Gundam doujinshi at some point.

Kio said that artists often struggle with how much ink to put in their pen. While Genshiken linework was drawn analog, coloring was digital. Back then, he didn’t know how to use layers in Photoshop. Someone then brought up the fact that Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, when working on the Evangelion manga, would apparently mke drawings and then discard them over and over.

The topic then shifted to Rakuen Issue 50 (the final print volume), and Iida said the art for Spotted Flower looks amazing, especially when it comes to all the different “connections” being shown. I didn’t understand this at the time, but now that I’ve read it, I can see what he means. (More on that in a future post.) Kio talked about how Spotted Flower started with only a few characters, but the cast kept growing. 

During this, Minoda was adding little dots to the intersections of the fishnets. With the finishing touches done, everyone got to see her drawing up close. We then got a 10-minute break before the next session started with Kio’s turn.

Kio Shimoku’s Turn

At the start, Kio was asked what some of his preferred drawing tools are. His answer: Air-in erasers and Prockey pens. One thing I noticed is that Kio extends his fingers and grips the pen high when drawing.

He also asked who he should draw as a bunny girl, to which Minoda replies “the wife” from Spotted Flower because she loves that character. 

During this session, Minoda accidentally got a bit of water on her own drawing because Iida was advising her to erase the pencil and they accidentally bumped a cup of water. 

Kio said he wished he could take a screenshot, but that this was analog. When asked about her own process, Minoda does her manuscripts digitally. However, she does drawings analog but backgrounds digital. 

Kio got to inking really quickly compared to Minoda, taking only 11 minutes. His head kept accidentally showing up on camera and blocking the drawing, until he was informed by staff. Kio showing he’s not afraid to draw hands at odd angles.

Other bits of information: Minoda finds taking a blank page and filling it with black very satisfying. Iida’s manga god is Toriyama. 

Iida and Minoda were very impressed by Kio’s drawing. The wife has sexy curves and wide hips. He used different copic markers with different grays to add shading. Minoda also found Kio’s thin gray lines to be amazing. 

Kio struggled some with erasing the pencil: the perils of working with paper. Iida then talked about using screen tones in the 90s, and about non-photo pencil—a kind of blue pencil that doesn’t show up when copying and printing. Iida also pointed out that grays are easier with digital. [Personal query: Is it because they automatically can become tones when printed?]

When asked how he feels about drawing analog these days, Kio replied that while he does all digital for his work these days, he has drawn analog for signboards. He uses Copic on those.

Seeing both Minoda and Kaidou draw, Iida was reminded of those shows on NHK where they show the old vs. new way of doing something. Minoda mentioned that being so up-close to Kio was a learning experience. Iida meanwhile was impressed by the details on the hands in the drawing.

Late into the drawing, Kio commented that it kept getting more erotic. He also added the little dots to the fishnets. Minoda brought up the angle of the eyebrows on her own bunny girl, possibly because she wanted to fix them. Other revisions she would make if she could do it again would be to have more of the legs and less of the bunny ears. Kio responded that he can’t draw legs well aside from the thighs. After some finishing touches (including some white out), his drawing was done. One really cool thing was that Kio actually used a hand mirror to look for errors, like a low-tech version of the “canvas flip” command in Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint.

At the end, they took questions from the audience.

Q&A

What is the fate of the artists of Rakuen?

Iida: Can’t say anything yet. Wait.

I’ve never seen a bunny girl before. How do you draw the chest, upper body details? 

Minoda: I do what I want to see 

Kio: But there are photos you can reference. 

What software do you use? 

Both: Clip Studio Paint. Kio uses version 4 from when it used to be Comic Studio.

(There seemed to be a question about one of her manga, which is set in Hokkaido.)

Minoda: Seeing people wear not much even in the cold of Hokkaido shocked her.

Will you draw a sequel to your Hokkaido work?

Minoda: Yes. Wait for it.

Kio, did you feel your drawings change from doing adult work? 

Kio: Not really, but it made me really impressed by everyone else who does 18+ material.

Minoda and Kio then made some closing statements:

Minoda: It was fun getting to draw for everyone. 

Kio: Thank you. Could feel myself trembling as I drew.

Closing

After all the attendees and I got our copies of their drawings, I decided that this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and I actually went up to Kio Shimoku to talk to him. I told him I was a big fan ever since Genshiken and thanked him for all his work.

As I walked back to the train station that evening, I picked up some discount sushi. As I ate it, I marveled at how lucky I was to have had that experience. If ever there was a moment to be grateful to be a Maniac for Ogiue, this was it.