Starting about 20 minutes late, attendees streamed into the large, spacious hall of Live Programming 1 to see and hear Saito Chiho and Nightow Yasuhiro talk about their lives as published manga artists in Japan. But even before either had a chance to speak, they must have been blinded by the flashbulbs of the many fans who ran up to the front to take pictures of them. Ms. Saito is probably best known for her manga REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA while Mr. Nightow is best known for his manga TRIGUN.
This panel was conducted as a Question & Answer session.

Q: Ms. Saito, what is your favorite task when creating a manga?

Saito: I think after the pencils have been finished and I do the inking. That part is most fun because I don't have to think.

Q: There seems to be a lot of dark, gothic motifs used in manga. Where do you think this influence comes from?

Saito: I do like European themes, fashions and other things from there so I believe that I am influenced by them. Throughout manga, there are so many motifs, but I just happen to be working in one of them right now.

Nightow: Recently, there have been more gothic motifs because that seems to be what's most popular right now. But in Japan, there is so much manga—manga about fishing, about cooking, etc. What you are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg.

Q: How do you dream up the stories for your manga?

Saito: It depends on the length of the story. If it's short, say less than 100 pages, I'll determine the story carefully before drawing. If it's longer, even if I plan carefully, the story seems to change anyway. Characters will change and something new, which was never before thought of, might develop. Sometimes, the characters lead and the ending comes out by itself.

Nightow: I am finding this discussion very educational for me. I, myself, don't have much of a work strategy. I just like to dive in and draw and see what happens. If I have been given a set number of pages to fill, as I draw, I'll keep in mind the remaining number of pages left and I'll try to gauge what I can accomplish with the amount of space left.

Q: How long will it take from your first sketches through layout until you're finally done?

Saito: It really depends on the number of pages. Say it is 30 pages. That would take me five days to plan and come up with the story, two days to draw and another three days to ink. I use the help of five assistants to do backgrounds and other such work. But when inking, I only get about three hours of sleep each night.

Nightow: For me, if it is the same 30 pages, it would take me about two weeks (perhaps more) to complete the entire job. For the first week, I do whatever I have to do to come up with a story and storyboards. For the second week, I will go through pencil and inking cycles. I'll also pass some work over to my assistant. For me, I can't allow myself to let other people draw anything, even as dull as rocks, etc. My shoulders hurt a lot, but it seems that I get more sleep than Ms. Saito.

Q: Does it bother you to see fan art of your work?

Saito: It is a copyright issue, that's for sure, so legally, it is a problem. But personally, I know fans like drawing fan art, but I also feel an obligation to say something. But people who are making money from selling fan art, this is very distressing to me.

Nightow: This topic could take up an entire panel to fully discuss it. Personally, I've seen those fanzines full of fan art and I must say that I do like them. But if people are making money from it, then I think I have a problem with it. There has to be some limit to fan art, but I'm not totally against it. I have a pretty liberal view of the realm of dojinshi so I usually turn a blind eye to it.

Q: Are you offended to see hentai dojinshi of your manga?

Saito: Personally, I have heard of their existence, but I've not seen any. I'm interested in seeing some of them, but the people around me are probably keeping them away from me!

Nightow: I haven't seen too many, but I have seen a few. What I'm most surprised with is how they can come up with the storylines!

Q: How did you like the anime versions of your manga?

Saito: It was amazing to see Utena turn into a car! At first, I thought the director had lost his marbles, but when I thought about it, it really was a great idea.

Nightow: Luckily for me, none of my characters have turned into cars! Generally, I think the anime versions are quite good. New ideas that I could never have thought of find their way into the anime.

Q: Is there anything you do to help yourself be more creative?

Saito: I try to destroy what I had done in the past so I never repeat the same thing twice. I think it's important to be interested in everything and anything, because inspiration comes from everywhere.

Nightow: For myself, my creativity hit its limit when I came to Anime Expo! In order to work well, it is important to look, touch and feel everything. So I try to watch movies, look at photos, read books, etc.

Q: How do you feel about artists taking your art style (but not necessarily your character designs)?

Saito: In a sense, I'm happy when I see that. (Imitation is the best form of flattery.) But in a sense, I get bored with my own style, so when I see someone imitating it, I worry about his or her future.

Nightow: Since I've been influenced by others, I can say from experience that to copy someone else's style takes a lot of effort. One fear I have is: "What happens when the person who copies me becomes more popular than me?! Then, am I the copycat?"

Q: How do you portray themes of sexuality in the UTENA manga?

Saito: I do take some ideas from my past work on this matter. I must admit that I have a strange preoccupation with incest, so maybe that's where it comes from?

The panel was scheduled to end at this time, but the interpreter felt that this was not an appetizing question to conclude with. So the audience was allowed to ask one more question.

Q: What percentage of good manga artists never make it? And how much do you pay your assistants?

Saito: Well, to answer the easy one first, I pay my assistants ¥1500/hour plus transportation.

Nightow: I take a more "masculine" approach. I pay ¥10,000/day. Transportation not included. And to answer your first question, it is very difficult to tell how many good artists never make it. There are simply too many manga available to know how many people are drawing manga in the first place.

Saito: It is a very competitive field to be sure. I'm not sure why I'm here while others are not. I guess I should thank God for my good fortune to be able to make a career out of drawing manga.

And with that answer, the panel concluded on a more appropriate note.