
Manga duo makes a SMILE blooms on readers faces: the Siblings Factor – Hello Award Winners! #20 YUKIRA
13/10/2017
16 min read

- ABOUT YOU

AKIRA & YUU (YUKIRA) self-portrait
YUKIRA it’s a manga team, made of the siblings AKIRA (artist) and YUU (scriptwriter). Nice to meet you!
1) How did you begin creating Manga?
Since we were kids, we’ve got a great influence from manga
Still young, we learned how to draw by ourselves. Then, AKIRA suggested that maybe we could start to create our manga. At first, we drew manga as a hobby, but later the determination to become manga creators in Japan born in us: we did our best every day to improve our style!
At some point, YUU became busy with personal projects, but still keep on supporting AKIRA’s passion until now.
3) What is your working environment like? Are you an analogue or digital person? Any unique tools you use to draw?
Most of the time we work at home. Both of us are analogue people. We admire the spirit and persistence of the manga creators that still want to create manga in an analogue way, even though digital is much faster and easier.
AKIRA uses traditional manga drawing tools such as G- pen, Maru-pen, multi-liners and brush pens to draw.
- ABOUT YOUR PART OF THE WORLD
5) Anything the world should know about where you live? Interesting events/sights/foods/culture etc?
We live in the centre of UNESCO heritage site in Penang, Malaysia.
The area has pre-war buildings and old charming streets. Ever since we were young, we are living under a vivid art influence around us: British, Japanese, Malaysian and Chinese cultures were mixed into our state. That artistic diversity honed us and influenced our style!

Crowded street in Penang
6) Popular comics/manga in your country at this moment?
At this moment, the most popular comics/manga in our country are mostly from Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Some of the popular Japanese manga are “Boku no Hero Academia”, “Tokyo Ghoul”, “Haikyuu!!” and “One-Punch Man”.
8) Are locally created comics/manga popular in your town? Do you know any local creators?
Compared to locally created comics/manga, Japan manga are much more popular in our country.
Most of the local comics/manga are greatly influenced by the style of Japanese manga. Some of the creators we know are our friends, like Xu You Li, Santa Fung and Black Jellyfish.
9) What are your favourite manga?
AKIRA – My favourite manga are “One-Punch Man”, “Naruto”, “Bleach”, “Ajin” and “Oyasumi Punpun”!
YUU – My favourite shounen manga are “Naruto”, “Kuroko no Basket” and “D-Gray Man”. My favourite seinen are “Vagabond” and “Mushishi”. 😀
- ABOUT YOUR ENTRY


“When Hopes Blooms”, original pages!
12) Where does the story take place?
The story is set during in a post-apocalyptic era. Since the apocalyptic war happened globally, the story setting is a undefined big city. We did not plan to express any local culture, instead we wanted to show the contradictions between the once flourishing era and the currently dying world.
13) What is the protagonist’s mother disease?
It is a mutated tuberculosis disease since the air is polluted due to the apocalypse. That’s why the mother coughs out blood quite furiously.
14) Are there any reasons for “September 17th?”
Well, our mother is born in September, so we used her birthday as a reference for the mother in our story. The date “17th” was randomly picked! 😅

15) When they were young, the boy and his mother wear a similar looking clothing. Are they traditional outfits?
No, they are not uniforms. However, we used similar concepts for the designs to express futuristic and post-apocalyptic elements.
16) How long did it take to create the entry?
It took us a month to finish the two entries for SMA7 (“Breakfast That Day” and “When Hope Blooms”). Since we worked on them at the same time, for “When Hope Blooms” we spent approximately two weeks.

AKIRA – I liked “Taste Better Than Brain”! I always loved zombies and the horror genre in general, also Dekirewee chose to develop the story in a very interesting way. I loved it!
YUU – My choice is “Grandma’s Flavour”, by EUDETENIS. The story seems so real… It managed to touch my heart.


- ABOUT THE FUTURE
Thank you, YUKIRA! Please, do not break any hand and keep on supporting each other! You can keep on challenging yourselves one more time by joining the next SMA!
SMA9 themes announced!!! “FAIRNESS”, “RESPECT” and “TEAMWORK”! Choose one, two or all three! COMBINE them to create ONE, TWO… SEVERAL entries!
Create your Silent Manga and join the competition of the LARGEST MANGA COMMUNITY IN THE WORLD! See you next time! Bye bye~