일러스트・만화 투고&SNS사이트 - ART street by MediBang

We interviewed Kingdomimi-san who loves "Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru"!

2020-03-24

Kingdomimi-san appeared on ART street during the "1st JUMP's Universal Illustration Contest". The passion Kingdomimi-san has for ""Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru"" has been a delight for ART street!
This is an interview project where we try to get to know the artists on ART street. What are they thinking when they draw? What part of the drawing do they focus the most? We will ask questions like these, so you can get to know the artists. Knowing them can make viewing art more fun!

- What is your age?

Kingdomimi : Secret.

- What is your occupation?

Kingdomimi : Secret.

- What do you draw with?

Kingdomimi: I paint using my finger on Android.

- When did you start drawing?

Kingdomimi : As Kingdomimi, I started since the Samurai 8 contest.

- Please tell us what you like, or don't like about ART street.

Kingdomimi: I can easily post freely, which I like.

- You seem to mostly draw smiles, is there a reason for that?

Kingdomimi : Why I like drawing smiles has a lot to do with Samurai 8.
I hope you read the comics for the details, but one of the themes of episode 12 is "smile". The main character Hachimaru's father protects Hachimaru from the enemy Ata and gets seriously injured. While Hachimaru holds his father with a blank expression, he has a flashback of his childhood. Hachimaru, afraid of being alone, was crying. Hachimaru's father tells him this.

"Want to know how to stop being a crybaby? Just pretend to be strong!! Tell your self, I won't cry!! I am tough! I will always keep smiling!"

This reminds Hachimaru the importance of pretending to be strong, not only for himself, but for others.
Hachimaru pulls him self together and fights. Ata damages him, but he doesn't stop.
Seeing how much Hachimaru has grown, his father smiles. Even though he is weak, his smile is bright.

"Hachimaru.. you are a strong boy"

Hachimaru smiles back at his father.

Prior to this event, the father's "smile" to Hachimaru always felt sarcastic, as if he is implying "You are a weak boy, so don't talk back. Just stay quiet". Since episode 12, the father's smile became more soft. This is the moment I got hooked into Samurai 8 and Hachimaru's father.
I learned the importance of "Smile" from Samurai 8. Your smile can give energy to someone else. That is the thought I have when I draw smiling artwork.

- You sent us 300 illustrations of Hachimaru's father. How much did it take to draw all that?

Kingdomimi:About 50 minutes.

- Where did you hear about "1st JUMP's Universal Illustration Contest"?

Kingdomimi: From twitter.

- When you first heard about the contest, did you just think you would send 368 illustrations? Or did you come up with that later?

Kingdomimi: I came up with it later.

When I first found out about the contest, most of the entries was about NARUTO, and I barely saw Samurai 8. I wanted more people to know about Samurai 8, so I decided to post.

My original plan was to submit a few fanart of my most favorite character, Hachimaru's father. Eventually I felt this doesn't do justice for Samurai 8. So I decided to post as many Samurai 8 fan art as I can. I thought, maybe this way people might notice and take interest in Samurai 8.
I planned to name the 100th fan art "Fin", and stop there. A week later, I thought "I could do more", and I made 100 more. When I reached 300, I thought maybe I should enter 300 fan art of the father. So I thought of drawing 100 more. Then I thought 368 is the perfect number. (In Japanese, 3 can be read "san", 6 can be "mu", 8 can be "hachi". Put that together and it becomes a pun "san-mu-hachi".)

- Tell us why Samurai 8 is so wonderful!

Kingdomimi: The story of Samurai 8 always goes beyond our imagination. For example, the part about Kenkasei's face. It might be presumptuous, but I knew from the start that the planet is laughing. I even made an illustration of the laughing planet. But I never would have guessed Santa and Ryu's exchange would lead to the planet winking. I thought to myself, I still have a long way to go.

The character development is also very interesting. For me, Hachimaru and Ann's relationship grabs my interest the most. Currently Ann sees Hachimaru as an older brother, and Hachimaru often sees Ann as a princess more than an individual. I can't predict if they are going to develop their relationship gradually, or maybe there is a big turning point.

Kingdomimi: The story of Samurai 8 always goes beyond our imagination. For example, the part about Kenkasei's face. It might be presumptuous, but I knew from the start that the planet is laughing. I even made an illustration of the laughing planet. But I never would have guessed Santa and Ryu's exchange would lead to the planet winking. I thought to my self, I still have a long way to go.

I think now is the perfect time to enjoy Samurai 8. If you have any interest in it, please buy the comics.

- If you have any ideas for a contest that you would want to enter, please tell us.

Kingdomimi: I am waiting for a contest that focuses on Samurai 8.

Here is an illustration by Kingdomimi-san of Hachimaru's father and Medi-chan (official mascot of MediBang Paint)!

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