With one story already in a Japanese collection, two young Irish manga artists are making their mark on the form, writes Tony Clayton-Lea
It's a funny old game being played out there in manga/anime land. On the one hand you have the mainstream successes of Sailor Moon (a cute, safe-as-houses manga story about a 14-year-old school girl who fights the forces of evil), Ghost in the Shell (from manga big cheese Masamune Shirow, and a landmark creation that has been turned into two feature-length movies as well as a long-running television series) and the likes of mainstream movies such as Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
On the other hand, you've got what is known as H manga/H anime, which is rather more risqué (and a lot more besides) than normal, and involves sexual fantasy and imagery woven into storylines that, while on sale in many mainstream outlets in Japan, would find themselves either top shelf or under the counter in the western world. While a percentage of H manga is no more erotic than classic US pin-up posters (partial nudity, provocative postures), other areas focus on serious sexual images and
scenarios the like of which we'll withhold for fear of making you choke on your toast (tentacle sex, anyone? No, perhaps not.)
Into this strange, surreal, disturbing but occasionally breathtakingly imaginative world come two Irish women who seem intent on taking on the world's manga writers and artists (a club that is not as exclusively male as you might think) and winning.
Leeann Hamilton, from Duleek, Co Meath and Sinéad Lynch, Clologue, Co Wexford, are the creative partners behind the manga story Rose by Any Other Name, which is included in Rising Stars of Manga, a compendium of stories published by youth-oriented, multi-platformed entertainment company Tokyopop.
Currently in her second year of an animation course at Ballyfermot Senior College, Hamilton (21) was first attracted to
manga as a child, when television shows such as Samurai Pizza Cats and Speed Racer got her imagination running riot. In her teens, she became obsessed with the PC game, Final Fantasy, and has since stuck to her guns in her choice of career. Present interests include "sci-fi and fantasy, sometimes horror, and I'm now into detective stories".
Lynch (23) works as a childminder, but has a background in writing and animation (she studied the latter in Coláiste Dhúlaigh, and worked for independent comic company Wolfman Productions as a scriptwriter on the comic Havoc 21) that she would ideally like to utilise further. Lynch is
also big into fan fiction, or fanfic, a standalone genre of amateur, non-commercial creative expression that features characters from movies, television shows and pop culture in new situations and adventures; the vast majority of these are written by fans, who disseminate their work over the internet and via e-mail lists or newsgroups.
At the last count, Lynch says, she has "about 30 different stories floating around". The pair first collaborated on a "high action" Dublin-based comedy zombie story, but got serious last year when they started on Rose by Any Other Name (with Hamilton drawing, and Lynch providing a sci-fi spin on the Little Red Riding Hood storyline and dialogue). They were further spurred on by news that Tokyopop had extended the spread of its regular competition spot, Rising Stars of Manga, to the UK and Ireland for the first time. "So we gave it a shot," says Hamilton. "We started in July of last year, finished it within two weeks, and sent it off in August. We e-mailed it to the publishers and then we got the news in December that we had nabbed the runner-up prize."
With more than 200 entrants scrabbling for the top places, Hamilton and Lynch clearly know their stuff, and while Rose by Any Other Name might not break any new ground in the manga genre, it is nonetheless not just a highly serviceable introduction to the pair's talents but also a calling card for their future projects.
Both Hamilton and Lynch are keen to stress that their manga work is very much the type that appeals (primarily) to teenage girls, although Lynch reckons it has strong crossover potential. Lynch says she realises
the stronger strains of H manga (also known as eroanime) have a place in the market, but that she and Hamilton pitch a more "girly" equivalent.
"My storylines focus on internal emotional struggles, while Leeann draws round, swirly, flowing lines - unlike the male drawings, which are more pointed and angular."
New ideas, say the pair, are being pitched on a regular basis, and they are currently working on a pirate character-based manga comic (Bonny Buccaneers) that Tokyopop is considering. "If Tokyopop don't take that idea we've got loads of other ideas to work with," says Lynch. "We're constantly coming up with new storylines and characters."
Lynch is also working on a children's book and hopes to get that published. "I'm a much better writer than an artist," she remarks candidly and without a hint of bravado. As for Hamilton, she's optimistic that she can forge a career out of her passion for manga and anime. The awareness of it as a commercial art form is rapidly increasing, she reckons.
"Ten years ago there were more people watching women's curling than reading manga books, but that has changed. I've never seen so much of it coming out [as] in the past few years."
• Rising Stars of Manga is available in selected bookstores