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Showing posts with label Shouji Sato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shouji Sato. Show all posts

Friday, January 4, 2013

Some News from Shouji Sato

In a very rare update to the Diary section of his personal website, Shouji Sato gave us a bit of news to end what has been a barren stretch of no information. He announced Triage X Volume 6 will be out February 9. I guess this is the first official announcement, though volumes are usually announced earlier. He also announced that Volumes 5 and 6 of the Highschool of the Dead Full Color Edition will be released some time in the future. There is no date, but it appears he has begun working on them. Thus it seems Yen Press wasn't acting alone entirely, which is a good sign. This also means, however, that the ad seeking artists was possibly just looking for people to help color the new Full Color Editions. This wouldn't necessarily be proof he is not also working on new Highschool of the Dead. In fact, he could be hiring extra people to take over the coloring process entirely so that he can focus on drawing for two series again. We will have to wait and see.

I am almost certain he also talks about the HOTD manga itself in the post, but I am waiting on some translation help to see exactly what that is about. I can assure you there are no specific dates or time frames. I will update this post as soon as I have more information.

UPDATE:
I don't really have much more information yet, but I did promise an update. The post by Shouji Sato does not mention HOTD returning. I saw "HOTD" and "thirty" in the post and got excited, but after further investigation, it appears he is simply pointing out how Triage X has passed thirty chapters, thereby surpassing HOTD in number of chapters. He notes his development as an author and artist while working on Triage X.

I hope to have more for you in my monthly Dragon Age update, which should come in a few days. See you then.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

AnimagiC 2012: Shouji Sato on the HOTD Hiatus

Over the weekend, Shouji Sato attended the AnimagiC 2012 anime convention in Bonn, Germany. The convention was July 27-29, and Shouji was there autographing on Saturday and Sunday. He also held 30-minute Q&A panels on both days. In an earlier post, I said it would be interesting to see if Shouji gives any news about the HOTD hiatus since the question would obviously come up. Well, after vigorous searching, I finally found the following information from the panel. It's a bit ambiguous, but it at least tells us more than anything in over a year.

As we expected, Shouji was asked about when the manga would return from hiatus. He answered that he is busy right now working on Triage X and doing research for future Highschool of the Dead chapters. This research involves studying weapons, vehicles, and other things so he can draw with the high level of technical detail for which he is known. He asks that fans be patient and give him time to bring us the same high quality we have come to expect.

This answer seems to put the long delay on him rather than Daisuke Sato. To me, it sounds like maybe Fujimi Shobo wanted Triage X to be monthly to boost its popularity, they chose to put HOTD on hiatus because it would be too much work for Shouji, and now he is doing the preliminary work for chapters Daisuke already has planned out so it will be less work when HOTD returns and Triage X doesn't then have to go on hiatus itself. That's just speculation, though it does sound more plausible than other theories I've had in the past. In any case, things are looking very hopeful now that we know work is being done on the series.

He was asked various other questions during the half-hour panel. When asked if any main characters will die (like in other zombie media), he replied that he doesn't know, which makes sense since he isn't the writer. He did say he hopes the main group will survive, though. He was asked how long Shido would be around in the future, to which he again responded that he doesn't know but hopes he will die soon. Someone asked him if he liked Takashi, and he does but says his favorite character is Kohta Hirano. This is obvious to me considering their shared fascination with guns.

In a question unrelated to HOTD, Shouji was asked when he started drawing. He said in grade school he became very ill and had to stay home for a long time. He couldn't do anything active, so he started to draw a lot and really liked it.

This information came from ~Abbadon82 at deviantART, an attendee of the convention. You can see the original post here.

Triage X Volume 4 will be ready very shortly. Look for it within the next day or two. See you soon!