Felipe Smith: Manga, Comics, and Storytelling – Part 2

Felipe Smith continues his reflections on working in Japan as a foreigner in the manga industry, discussing the politics of publishing and the cultural rules of depicting violence

. He shares stories of meeting his hero Simon Bisley, lessons learned from Todd McFarlane, and the creative growth that came from collaborating with Tradd Moore On Robbie Reyes All New Ghost Rider.

Felipe also talks about founding the Cringe Musume podcast and his friendship with DJ 5DucK, working analog vs. digital, traveling abroad, and hints at upcoming projects.

DIRECT EDITION PATREON:https://www.patreon.com/davengersdirectedition

Follow Cringe Musume here:

https://www.youtube.com/@cringemusume

Felipe's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felipesmithart/?hl=en

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Welcome back to Direct Edition, a podcast about nothing and
everything. And I am your host, Dave.
Anywho, today I'm sharing with you Part 2 of the Felipe Smith
interview. If you watched last week, then
you learned a lot about Felipe. But there's more to learn.
And if you're watching for the first time, look, there's a

(00:29):
little thing right here. If you're watching on YouTube,
you can click it and watch Part 1.
You can go in the description below and watch Part 1.
Or if you're on Spotify, Apple, etcetera, just go back, go back
and watch Part 1. So I'm not even going to bother
doing anything other than sayinghere is Part 2 of the Felipe
Smith interview like. That's how hardcore it is over

(00:52):
there. And like, I don't know, I
considered myself someone prettyhardcore myself as an artist,
you know, like willing to just go like the extra mile, do all
this stuff, even, you know, learn another language or
culture moved somewhere else just by myself working hard and
still, and I might, it might have been those things like kind

(01:14):
of wearing me down, all these things.
It takes a lot. But then there, you know, you
got this editor that's just likepractically uncompromising.
That's just like, no, we can make this better.
And it's like, like we can, but like, I am going to die.
Like I need, like I need to sleep.
I need to, you know, but of course you can't.
I couldn't really even say that because there's thousands of

(01:37):
people doing that. It's just that and on a weekly
basis, not a monthly one. So it's like, what am I going to
be complaining about here? I should just be quiet and I'm
about, I'm about to go outside. Try hard, work hard, you know?
But a foreigner in a foreign land doesn't mean you can adapt
to the the, the, the system. You know, I mean you did, but.

(01:58):
Yeah, yeah. It's just it was just a matter
of like, you know, is this what I want to do?
But going back, we were saying about like creators kind of like
being or their work being representative of who they are
in Japan. You know, I, I assume that
because I had the experience of meeting artists, I met Bisley
and I talked to him many times and you know, it's great.

(02:20):
Bisley is one of my examples of the exception to never meet your
heroes and never meet your idols, right?
No, Bisley was awesome. He's so, and I'm glad I met him.
I've met other, I've been lucky,I've been fortunate.
I've met most of my art heroes. I have met in person and talked
to and stuff and at at differentstages in my life.

(02:44):
So when I was 13 and it was weird, 'cause I showed the
creator my work and I was one ofmy favorite artists and they
didn't believe me. It was mine.
They're like, OK, but where did you copy this?
And I was like, no, I didn't copy it.
It's mine. Like I said, it's my characters.
And like, I, I get it. I get it.
But like, who, where were you looking?
Where did you draw this from? And I'm like, it's my character.

(03:04):
And like, yeah, dude just didn't.
He was like, OK, whatever. And I was super frustrated and
then I went back home and it took me like 3 hours to get
there to to see this art. I took like multiple buses.
I was stoked. A friend of mine was
interviewing him for a high school project.
Oh wow, so he. Told me he was meeting him and
so he's like you want to roll with I know you like his work.

(03:26):
And so I went and yeah. And then so 3 hours later I get
back home and I was kind of bummed out.
I told my mom go like he he wouldn't believe me that my
characters were my characters and stuff.
And then she was like, well, it's because of your age, like
you're you're young and you're doing that stuff really well and
whatever. And I was like, I guess I don't
know, but I've met other artists.

(03:48):
You know, Bisley was awesome andin Japan I got to meet a lot of
artists too that I really liked and which was crazy and that I
know for a fact that OK, one of them is I was working at
Culantia. So they were published to
Culantia as well. So already great, right.
But also some of you know, some of them were either publishing
through the weekly or the monthly.

(04:09):
One of them published through mymonthly and they were artists
whose books I was buying at thislike used bookstore on Sattell
like close to the karaoke said to me.
It was like world's colliding, like how's the?
Circle. Yeah, I'm like, this is crazy.
Hello friends, it's your pal Dave, and I want to introduce to
you my brand new Patreon, West Coast Avengers and Direct

(04:33):
Edition, all under one umbrella.You can now support me by
joining the Patreon for $5 a month, and what you're going to
get is me wearing this shirt andnothing else.
I'm just kidding. You're going to get at least one
bonus episode of West Coast Avengers and one bonus episode
of Direct Edition per month as well.
I'm going to let you vote on thecontent of another West Coast
Avengers video where I flip through a rare book or a rare

(04:54):
magazine or something that you've never seen before and you
get to part. Part.
Yeah. And you get to participate in
what book it is as well. Every two months, I'm going to
do a private sale right here, Patreon exclusive.
And you're going to have first access to buying it well before
it goes live on West Coast Wednesday of my comic book claim

(05:15):
sale. So that's a little exclusivity
for you. So plop down 5 bucks a month.
It's not that much to ask, is it?
I'm. I'm waiting.
No, it's not. For five bucks a month, you can
help support and grow this community while we do some great
things together. West Coast Avengers and Direct
Addition. Fucking hell, let me do that one

(05:39):
more part over again. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
And many of them did, you know, reflect like their work.
But I met some people where I'm like, oh, here we go.
Like, you know, an editor's likeyou like so and so, right.

(05:59):
It's like, well, they're going to be at this event like at the
end of the year, they have this like Shi Nenkai or Bo Nenkai,
what's like end of end of year, beginning of year parties with
with the industry. And so it's like a huge thing
where like all the publishers rent out like different bars and
like restaurant like areas in, in like a certain area, I think

(06:19):
it's Boonkyoku where all the publishers are.
And so you're invited to the onethat your publishers is is
hosting. Right.
But you can invite other creators that you know to go
there if you want. It's an open thing.
It's all open drinks and food and everything.
And it's like, you know, it's like a, it's like a networking

(06:40):
thing and like a celebration thing and meeting like, you
know, creators and whatever. So I got to meet a lot of heavy
hitters. You know.
And, you know, I knew my place. I was just, you know, some of
them wanted to meet me, which was awesome.
But that's because I was a westerner doing manga and they
and they actually read my chapters, which was awesome.

(07:01):
And then they're like, yo, you know, I'm enjoying people too.
And I was just like, you know, and I think, you know, as
creators, we, I think we always have that where it's like we, we
all do the same thing. And you know, you'll see someone
else's work and then like, you kind of like forget that, you
know, you don't even think you're going to meet them.
You're like, oh, this is awesome.
Then you meet them and you some of these artists, like this

(07:23):
person has to be like a an animal, like a, you know, their
manga is so insanely violent andaggressive and just over the top
like tortured porn. Like, look, I'm like this
person's going to be a maniac and they're not.
And then I met them and they're like the quietest, like most
like just kind of like slight like person.

(07:45):
And just what does that mean? Slight person.
I mean, I guess build wiser, also slight, but just like
subdued, subdued. Yeah, there you go.
Like subdued and, and, and nice and polite and just like, I'm
like, you're just letting all the craziness out and but you're
just strictly just putting it inthe in this book.
And you're, you know, you're notlike this, you know, they so

(08:07):
it's weird. You get both, you get some
people that are just, they just,I mean, it's obviously part of
who they are asked in order to be able to do that, especially
consistently through years and years of like super hard work,
you know, so that was really interesting.
And yeah, imagine like the the the the editor that works with

(08:29):
them must have like a real laugh, like talking to them
because they're meeting, I imagine is was the way like my
conversation with them went, which is very kind of like nice
and chill. Like, yeah, yeah, dude, like,
man, BT is my favorite and like,you know that type of
conversation. Meanwhile, this comic.

(08:50):
Is like, right, Meanwhile there's, you know, there,
there's some crazy shit going onin the pages or something.
You know, I'm like lots of fucking or lots of violence or
both. Yeah.
I mean, I had crazy stuff and people to do for sure.
Yeah. And like, it's funny, I guess
also editors are used to all that kind of crazy stuff.

(09:11):
Like they're not, Yeah. Especially because there's so
much like horror manga is such abig part of it, so like the
weirdest, grossest, most fucked up stuff goes into that genre.
Yeah, definitely. The other thing I thought was
surprising was that when I was talking with my editors and I

(09:31):
was doing people chewing stuff, they always commented on how on
the on, I guess the violence of like Yakuza stuff or Gil, like
hanging out to people and stuff.And they're like, this is so
violent, so aggressive. And what I told them was like,
well, this kind of stuff in American comics is kind of like,

(09:52):
you know, nobody cares. But when it comes to sexual
stuff, you know, we don't do that in comics here and over
there. They don't care.
They don't, they don't, you know, like I I'd had like some
sexual stuff and whatever. And people chew and like there
was nothing didn't no feathers ruffled, like everybody's just
like nothing. But the minute, you know,
somebody got gutted something crazy like that, they were like,

(10:16):
yo, like what's why? Why are you so aggressive with
it? And I told him, like, yo, I
learned this from you guys. I learned this from like Fist of
the North Star and the killer and like all these things, you
know, like, I thought that was how you guys got down.
Like I, I never saw that in American comics.
I mean, you know, I never read like Faust.

(10:38):
Or any of those like that's the closest thing to it though, is
Faust. Right.
And I was at a convention recently as a guest and what's
his name? Is it Tim Vigil?
Tim Vigil. Tim Vigil was there across from
me. I didn't, I didn't know his
work. I totally like, I need, I need
to read that just cause friends told me about it.

(11:00):
They're like, dude, you never read that?
Are you crazy? That's it's insane.
So yeah, that type of stuff I guess Japan doesn't have when it
comes to like sex and sexuality,that type of stuff.
They're pretty kind of like, youknow, no big deal about that
stuff, which where it's oppositehere with that type of stuff.

(11:21):
People are very like no, no, no,no, no, we got to we can't do
that. But then when it comes to
violence, Japan does tends to not want it as much.
We're here. It's just nobody even questions
it, you know, like you'll have something like the boys or, you
know, invincible or something. It's just like, oh, OK, well,
you know, it's just, it's. Just blood and guts, yeah.
But and guts, right? Right.

(11:41):
Comics have a rating, like Shonen John.
All of these like comics, they have a rating and the violence
brings the ratings down. And yeah, like a young magazine
had like Gantz in it. Gantz was a comic I really liked
a lot. I don't know if you know Gantz,
but it's like. These I only know it by name.
OK, so it's like these people who die and end up in this

(12:01):
apartment room unexplainably with other people who died, and
there's a black ball in the center.
And that black ball knows who they are.
It deploys a suit and weapons for them and then sends them on
a mission, like, just like, teleports them somewhere for a
mission. And then, you know, if they die
on the mission, they die in reallife.

(12:22):
If they pass the mission, they come back, They get a point,
They get points like a score, and they're like, released back
into their normal life. But they get called back to do
other missions. And then the story goes on from
there. It's super violent.
Yeah. Ultra ultraviolent, you know, so
my editor was explaining to me that Shonen Magazine, which is

(12:42):
meant for like teens. So the Shonen Jump for kids,
Shonen magazine and then like whatever Shuasha has for like
even now that's that's Kolasha. But they'll have like a, a like
a, a same in adults line too. He told me their rating is super
low. It's dirt low because of all the
violence and stuff, but people, it's super popular so people buy

(13:06):
it. So the rating is, I forgot to
explain the rating is for convenience stores.
So they decide what they order. So if the rating is low, you
know they they won't go for the high rating because that means
it's going to sell and whatever.Except for this cases of certain
magazines which sell like crazy but have a low rating because of

(13:26):
the violence. So regardless of how popular
they actually are, they're just like, no.
Yeah, and so the people at the stores know what the reason for
the low rating is their top seller, which happens to lower
the rating, but sell them, sell them a ton of a ton of books.
Sometimes that happens with movies here in this country, so,
you know, yeah. Oh, they get.

(13:48):
Oh, oh, you mean like a like? A It's like a wildly popular
movie that has a very low rating.
It's like, well, these things don't make sense.
They don't make sense. Right, right.
It's interesting because the violent the IT seems like the
more outlandish the violence or gore is, the more acceptable it

(14:09):
is. Because I think about a guy like
Junji Ito, right? World famous.
You know, one of the most popular names in comics, period,
end of story, around the globe. And his stuff is wildly like if
Lynch just did straight body horror.
You know, that's kind of what Junji Ito feels like.
Weird and. Kind of, yeah.
Yeah, and it's like disturbing and it makes me feel disturbed

(14:33):
while I'm reading it, but I'm like, I love this because his
art is fantastic and it's something that you don't see
everyday. And so I think about how like,
how popular he is. And it's like, well, you may not
like the violence, Japan, but you sure do put out support
creators and make them famous, you know, like, I mean, Akira is
super violent. Oh yeah, heads popping, you

(14:54):
know? Yeah, like just mounds of like
intestine looking like mutant like growths and yeah, yeah.
Exploding, too, yeah. So I think we all understand,
from an outsider's perspective at least, that Japan may not
like violence, but they sure as hell love violence.
Right. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

(15:17):
I wanted to ask you because I, I'd be remiss if we didn't talk
about it before we talk about the podcast, but you and Trad
Moore, you know, create Robbie Reyes, Ghost Rider.
And, you know, Trad, I think is one of the greatest artists
alive, period. You know, I just, yeah, like a
little bit of background betweenworking with him.
Like, did you know him beforehand?

(15:37):
Was it something that the editorsuggested or how does that come
about? Well, the editor suggested that
the editor asked for me to pitcha, a concept, an idea of like,
you know, which ended up being Robbie, which initially his name
was Ronnie and it became Robbie.There's a little thing.

(15:58):
I think that's the first time I ever mentioned that, but I did
the pitch 1st and I wanted to draw it, but I also wouldn't
have the time because I was alsodoing character designs for
Ninja Turtles, like full time atNickelodeon.
So he said, oh, we're looking for an artist, but like, you
know, give us your idea of what it would be.

(16:18):
And I believe he showed that pitch to tread more.
And he also showed MBQ to tread more and then tried Moore was
like, OK, yeah, like, yeah, I, Iwant to work with this guy.
For me. I did not know his work.
And an artist who actually is a Marvel artist and he's done

(16:38):
stuff for DC too. But he worked with me on Ninja
Turtles. Chris Anka, who I guess now he's
doing, I mean, most recently he did character designs for the
second spider verse movie. So he worked, he was a full time
character designer on that, but he knew his work.
And so he's like, yo, this guy'sthe Luther stroke guy.
This guy's awesome. And so then he brought me the

(17:00):
books to check it out and then Iread, I read them all and I was
like, oh, it's on, dude. Well, you know, for me, what I
what I was really excited about is that like, I like expressive,
like artwork and like, you know,really pushing things, you know,
and you know, that's not everybody, especially the big

(17:21):
two like Marvel and DC. There's kind of hot house styles
and you know, people are just weave in and out of them.
I mean, like I've changed the way I drew stuff when when I
started doing ghost writer stufflike my variant covers, they
look nothing like people chew. Like I've I changed kind of how
I do stuff to fit certain, you know, things, right.
I had to people choose a little bit different from MBQ 2 because

(17:42):
now I was in Japan, I had to do things more a certain way.
And so but when I write a story,I kind of imagine things a
certain way. And so that's the thing where
you know, when you work with an artist tried is the first time I
worked with a he's the first artist I ever worked with.
That was before that I'd always just written and drawn my own
stuff. So I learned a lot and I learned

(18:05):
a lot from being on Turtles. I mentioned Cyro Nielli, the our
showrunner. He, he went, he had meetings
with all the artists and he would run through and like, you
know their work and then, you know, give them notes or
whatever, or like ask, give themdirection and stuff.
And so I learned from him to like, be outside of your head as

(18:25):
an artist, observing another artist work and what it is that
they do and then working with that, not with your own like
aesthetics. Like some sensibilities.
And so because, because to me, you know, I don't know, I mean,
I don't, it's probably the same for other artists too.
But like before that, it was kind of hard for me to imagine
anything. Not the way I would do it

(18:47):
because I hadn't collaborated with anyone.
And that's I just did what I did.
Like, you got to draw a chick. Oh, well, here's a chick, you
know, but that's how I draw her,you know what I mean?
Like, you know, so seeing seeingCyril talking to all these
artists and stuff and like working with what they do and
then knowing his style as well. Like I started seeing like, oh,
OK. Like this guy's like

(19:09):
understanding things on a different level.
We're able to give direction to people who have completely
different aesthetics and, you know, sense sensibilities.
So with Triad, I was like, oh, OK, I got to do it.
What Cyril does on an animation show Like I got to, you know, so
and then from then on, I've, I've always asked artists like
what kind of stuff they like to draw, like besides beyond

(19:30):
storyline or whatever, regardless of that, what do you
like, like to draw? What do you enjoy drawing?
Because you know, that's going to they're going to give you.
So and, and I always tell them it could be anything.
It could be cars, animals, you know, you know, things flying
through the air, like whatever it is, just tell me.
Because I realized, OK, if I canwrite that into the story.

(19:53):
But now it becomes a more cohesive, kind of like shared,
you know, thing. So we tried seeing how like
dynamic and expressive his artwork was.
I was like, OK, because that's again, one of the things I liked
about doing manga was like, you could totally make a guy like
twice as big as he normally is just to show how hardcore he is

(20:15):
in this fight scene or whatever.Like, people aren't going to
question it because they understand that's a, that's a
part of your storytelling device.
You know, so, so yeah, no, it was great.
It was great. And like collaborating with them
was, you know, that after working for a bit, I realized
like what parts of the script I would it would, it would be

(20:36):
helpful for me to be more descriptive.
Usually character motivation, their expression, that type of
stuff, what they're doing with the left hand versus the right
hand, like deep little details that are part of the
storytelling. But then I realized quickly that
when it came to action, I could tell him, I could give him the
the story, basically the bullet points of what needs to happen

(21:00):
for this, for this thing to makesense, but also let him just go
not to not feel restricted by the script, you know.
So like we got to a point there where I was like, OK, for this
stuff, you know, we need these things to happen, but you can do
it whichever way you like, whichI think he probably appreciated
too. And some artists want more
direction. They want like sure, they panel

(21:22):
by panel shot wise, everything you know that it kind of takes
that out of. It's a person.
I think it's a part of a personality trait.
You know, either you you need instructions and once you've got
them, you'll you'll sing or you,like you said, you just here's
OK. We got Robbie driving through
the streets 150 miles an hour and you let him do what he did.

(21:46):
I mean, that was the thing that really took me with the artwork,
you know, because I had just read this, you know, strode
stuff too. But his sense of action and how
to draw. I mean, like a lot of artists,
I, I, I'm sure you've heard fromfriends of yours and, and
colleagues, like they hate drawing cars or motorcycles or

(22:06):
both or every vehicle. And my God, he did such a good
job. I could just like the just the
action was so fucking good. Yeah, he's really good, very
expressive. And I've seen his, I saw him, I
saw him at Comic Con a week ago briefly.

(22:29):
He was, he was signing at A at atable I ran over just to say
what's up and talk for a bit. But he's been doing, you know,
like his, his more recent work, like he's been kind of evolving
and doing like, you know, different things.
And yeah, it's really cool to see.
Yeah, I wish, I wish there was more of his work out there, but
I'm happy with what we have right now.

(22:50):
You know? I mean, it's the same with you.
I wish there was more Felipe Smith comics that I can own.
It's so hard to find this stuff,you know?
And I know that with reprinting this stuff is it's way out of
your hands. I'm assuming you know people
chewing him and BQ, right? Right.
Yeah, yeah. So those contracts, yeah, you

(23:11):
probably told me so much as a teenager, but still like.
Hey, look, I mean, the thing I love about Todd too is that like
he did get himself into a bunch of trouble with with that stuff,
but you know, he he settled everything, like everything, you
know, like the lawsuits, I mean.Oh, he didn't.
I didn't know he's in trouble. The two the two big ones is Neil

(23:33):
Gaiman sued him for the rights for Angela.
It was this whole big mess that anyway.
But then he was sued by the former NHL or Tony Twist because
Todd used a version of his name as a mob boss and it's like the
biggest bullshit lawsuit I've ever heard of.

(23:54):
Sued him for like 6 or $7,000,000.
And what happened? Nothing came of it.
I think they settled. Todd had to sell out of court.
Yeah, it's some, you know, it's just, it's ridiculous because
the guy Tony Twist, whose name that Todd used, a version of, he
was an enforcer in the NHL, literally his job was to rough
and beat the crap out of playerscoming after Wayne Gretzky and

(24:16):
Brett Hall, his teammates. Right.
So he got mad and it's such a it's such yeah.
But anyway, Todd, Todd won anyway, Todd wins in the end
because we're still talking about him and he still, you
know, he he revolutionized the comics and then he
revolutionized toys. So.
Toys. Yeah.
No. Yeah, absolutely.

(24:38):
Yeah, he's the reason why I loveart in general is McFarland.
So. So before we get going, I do
want to talk about the podcast that you have with with Duck.
How'd you meet? You guys met in Japan, right?
Or did you know each other? Before, No, we, we met, we met
in LA around the time I was, yeah, we met in LA when I was

(24:58):
working at the karaoke bar and we had a friend in common,
Brian, who's the guy who works at the karaoke bar in MBQ, the
Japanese American dude. That's that was our friend we
had in common. And then Duck was a DJ on his
rap group, which is Rhyme Lounge.
And so I would see if I went to their events, you know, I would
see Duck or, you know, I would see them like having a meeting

(25:22):
close to the karaoke. So we also tell people.
But I really got to know Duck. Well, once I was in Japan
working and he would go to Japanto do his shows.
And, you know, he hit me up. He's like, hey, you know, you
mind if like maybe some night, like after a show or whatever, I
crash at your place when I'm in Tokyo.

(25:42):
And I'm like told him that as long as I live here, you got a
place to stay, dude. Don't worry about it.
So after that, you know, whenever you had like shows, he
would just stay by me. And then we got to know each
other well because he, you know,he spoke Japanese and I mean,
you know, growing up with Koreanas well, like he knew kanji and
stuff like he could read. So, you know, he was wasn't new

(26:05):
to Asian culture. But again, Korean culture and
Japanese culture are not the same.
They're similar in many ways, but they're also different in
other ways. And those differences can, can,
can make it hard to navigate too.
So we kind of, you know, he, he,he had, I could, I could compare
notes with him. Basically.
That's the thing. When I was in Japan, it was just
me. And then it was with my Japanese

(26:26):
friends and then my editor. And it was just all Japanese
people. So there were certain things
where like I couldn't really, you know, talk about because
they wouldn't know #1 like they would feel bad.
Like if I went through somethingthat it was like, yo man, what
the hell, They would feel bad. They would understand what would
happen. But also, you know, if I had

(26:47):
anything that, like, I wasn't jiving or whatever, I didn't
want to talk to them about it because they would feel bad for
me. They'd be like, oh, yeah, I want
you to love our country and our culture and all this stuff.
I understood that. So I refrained from like talking
about certain things just because, you know, I didn't want
them to feel uncomfortable. I feel like I was having a bad
time. But then we'd talk like Duck
would hear all of it because I, you know, I, he was my American

(27:10):
buddy that was there. He also understood the language
and the culture and had gone through like the same things and
at some point or other. So, you know, we compare notes.
I'd be like, oh man, like they told me this and this happened.
Like, what do you think? And he's like, yeah, no, it
that's that's what happened. That's why you got to do this
or, you know, that type of stuff.
So, yeah, it was great. And, you know, not by his

(27:33):
choice, but he he became an assistant for people to.
So he's got he's credited in theback.
You'll see. That's right, that's right.
He's in there. Yeah, and it's because he and
actually we're doing an episode right now that I got to edit,
which will be my first episode. I edit on this like, I think we

(27:54):
got like 57 videos and they're all 100% edited by Duck.
I've helped with like, you know,compiling images or doing little
like little animated things and whatever.
But like, it's, you know, he runs, he runs the show the way,
you know, he's the the director,producer.
But he showed up and I was in that I was in a crazy deadline.

(28:17):
And you know, it was the fear ofhaving the series cancelled
because you got to make your deadlines.
So they just cancel them. And he gets there and I told him
like, you know, and he knew how to get there and everything, so
I didn't have to go find him at the airport.
So I'm working and then he gets there and then I'm like, hey, I
greet him and like, how was yourflight?
Whatever. And I see he has a laptop under
his arm. And I'm like, yo.

(28:39):
And I asked him, I'm like, tell me you have Photoshop on that
laptop. And you know, he's, he's a music
person, right? So sure.
But I just thought I'd add, that's how desperate I was.
And he happened to have Photoshop on that laptop.
He was like, he's like, yeah, yeah.
Why? I'm like, OK.
I'm like, oh, dude, oh, man. I'm like, all right, all right,
I'm going to teach you how to dosomething, like, I need you to
help me. And he was like, what?

(29:01):
And I'm like, I'm going to teachyou how to do tones on
Photoshop. It's real easy.
And he's like, what do you mean?I'm like, don't worry about it.
He's like, I don't, I've never done that.
I'm like, you're, you'll do justfine.
Don't worry about it. And then I showed him, I showed
him layers and I showed him like, this is my line art.
I scan it and then I'm going to send you this file.
And then what you're going to dois you're going to make another
layer. And on that layer you're going

(29:22):
to do a flat. So I showed him what flats were.
And I'm like, that's going to be.
And I told him I use these 5 Grays and like I gave him a
chart that showed like, OK, thisis Milton's skin tone.
This is the so and so skin tone.This is for dark objects.
I just gave him that, which is what I gave my assistance
because I had assistant. I had an assistant seven days
out of the month. That's what I could have.

(29:42):
The rest I had to do myself. And so, you know, and he figured
it out. It's not that hard.
I think a regular person can figure out layers on Photoshop
and how to select areas. And he read manga too, so he
knew, you know, like people. That's the other thing in Japan
is people read manga. They know what it's supposed to
look like. They they've read it their whole
life. They know how like the tone,

(30:05):
what, what, what, what, where tones go and stuff.
It's not going to set up, you know, like I just got to put a
tone on someone's face for no reason.
Like it's just not going to happen.
So yeah, he and he totally savedme.
He saved my ass. I was like, dude, you don't
understand how much you're saving me right now.
Dude, I was so stressed always and lines and stuff, like he was
crazy. So I got to know him there.

(30:28):
So what you're saying is if you have a base knowledge of manga,
you can be a manga assistant according to Felipe Smith?
100 percent, 100%. I think I love Japanese.
I think other Japanese artists would tell you the same.
Sure. Like as long as you can like, I
mean, digitally, you know, you got to know how to use that.
Like I think we were talking about this with Duck the other

(30:50):
day, that like still at least half of manga artists work on
paper using screen tones. Then the other half might do
what I did, which is digitally do the tones but draw on paper.
Well, and some people actually do everything digital, you know,
but when I was there that wasn'tthat common.

(31:13):
I mean in my magazine I was one of two people that did tones
digitally. Everybody else in the magazine
just did everything with on paper using the zip tones and
everything. And which that saved me.
It gave me like 2 more days to work on my stuff because I could
send it to the, I could e-mail it to the printer.

(31:33):
Yes, it was huge because I couldjust FTP the files to the
printer and that was it. So that like totally helped me
out because I could, I needed those extra 2 days, you know?
So yeah. But yeah, I got that's how I got
to know. Duck is just just sharing,
sharing these, these pressure, high pressure moments with the

(31:57):
manga because he, you know, it'sfunny, he told me something I, I
never, I never thought of until that moment is he would go out
and do his show. So he would leave like during
the day, maybe like noon or, youknow, in the afternoon, he would
go rehearse, do a show, drink, party, do all the stuff and then

(32:18):
come back. And I would still be in the same
spot I was when he left doing the same.
Thing going at it. Yeah.
And I didn't realize that. Like, I never thought about it,
but like, yeah, like I just sat in that apartment and worked
like 18 hours straight and then would crash.
And like, he would see moments of that where he would pop out,
do live a whole day of doing a bunch of stuff and then he'd

(32:40):
come back and I'm still there, like just drawing pages.
That's like something from a that's like something from a
comedy movie or something. It's just like sun up guys doing
a thing, roommate, whatever goesoutcomes back.
Sun's already down the lights on, still still doing the same
thing. Yeah.
I mean, that's, you know, I, I mean it's not just manga, but

(33:04):
it's, it's also American and create comic creators
everywhere. A lot of them, you know, that if
they don't take care of their health, like that's what kills
them is those 18 hour days for months and months and years and
years. So flash forward to about a year
ago at the OR so you guys come up with a podcast out of nowhere
and you start following it and let's in your words, what is I

(33:30):
mean, what is the genesis or thebasis of cringe Mussame?
The the actual YouTube channel. Yeah, like the show, like what
you guys are doing? Yeah.
Right. I think this is an idea Duck has
always had the back of his head,just wanting to do a channel

(33:52):
talking about Japanese culture, pop culture, just the living in
Japanese. That's the Japan experience
through a Westerners perspective, right?
And you know, we've always talked about these types of
things, just just normal like scenarios like home up or we
just always talked about these things.

(34:13):
And he, I guess he just thought it'd be cool to have a channel
where you cover these things. And then, you know, people can
kind of have that perspective aswell.
You know, now with social media,YouTube, TikTok and all this
stuff, you get, you get to see what it's like to be, I mean, I
haven't been back since a good couple of years now.

(34:35):
I think last time I went was like 2017.
But I can see, you know, I can see Shibuya right now, like just
by going online and looking at certain things and then TikTok
videos and everything. I guess the difference between
Cringe Musuma and some of these channels that do that is that we
talk about, I guess like what your experience living there is

(34:59):
like understanding already partsof the culture and stuff and
like like relationships and those type of things.
Pretty interesting because you know, you do have a different
culture. You are able to understand how
things work that way, but you'realso not raised there.
So they're always, there's always going to be something
you're not aware of or some kindof context that you don't have.
And so it'll get you in some pretty comedic situations.

(35:21):
Sometimes We like to talk about those.
But yeah, it was something that he we talked about for a while
and then I guess we shot footagefor a year before we even
started the channel just to get just to get to like a feel for
it, like being on camera talking.

(35:42):
I think we've gotten a lot better.
Oh, for sure. Then like when we even when we
first started actually uploadingvideos, but like we have like a
year of videos where it's like we, we couldn't even put them
up. Like you look at them and you're
like, Nah, this is, this is not,it just doesn't cut it, dude.
Like it's just, you know, we just step over each other.
Yeah, talking and like kind of it's different.

(36:05):
It's also the technical stuff, like we do it remotely so we're
not in the same room recording and like that's.
Like this? Right, it has it's set of things
where you know, you were you were in the same room, you're
kind of reading an energy somebody's talking like you can
tell immediately when they stopped.
This might have like a millisecond delay or whatever.

(36:27):
So, you know, like you're hearing things or you know, so
we got used to those things at each other's paces when talking
certain things like if you can tell someone's winding down,
then you can, you can also find a way to talk and let the other
person know you're winding down so they can jump in, kind of
make it more dynamic. So we've been figuring those
things out. It's just now I got to, I got to

(36:51):
start editing stuff as well. You know, he's like we had, we
had to talk. He had like we had a, we had a
very Japanese fashion. We had like a bunenkai like end
of the year celebration drinkingslash meeting.
There's never drinking and now there's always some meeting
going on, right. So you know, I went down, we

(37:15):
went to this spot in K town thatthat we usually go to and hang
out. And so we're talking.
I quit drinking like couple years ago.
Congratulations. Thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, I enjoyed drinking.
A lot. 11 years sober myself so.Congrats.
All right, cool. We're doing pretty good.

(37:38):
So, but you know, it's a whole new thing when you don't drink
and you're hanging out with people who are drinking, which
I'm fine with. I don't have a, you know, I
don't, I don't feel like I want to drink or anything.
But, you know, then you start seeing like the, the, the, the
transformation, you know, all the slowing down, the, you know,
all that stuff. And of course I'm the designated
driver now. And, and so, you know, he, we

(38:01):
were talking about all this stuff we're talking about like
cringe Musa man, like, OK, well,what kind of cool videos can we
do? Do we do, you know, technical
stuff like, you know, what can we do?
Like make it entertaining or addsomething to it?
And then, you know, when it was time to go home, you know, I'm
going to get in the car and I'm going to drive him, drive him
down to his place. And then first thing he does as

(38:27):
he peels, we got these cringe moves from his stickers that
that I give to people. It's our logo.
But I give those to people when they subscribe at, at any
convention I'm at, you know, Andso like he takes a sticker out,
he gives me my pack and then he takes and he just like peels it.
And then like I'm looking at him.
And then he's going to put it onmy dashboard, like on my, in my

(38:48):
car. I'm like, dude, what are you
doing? And he's just like, he just
looked at me like I was crazy. Like just look at me like that,
you know, And I'm like, no, dude, don't put that.
And I'm like, no, no, I don't put stickers in on my car, dude,
don't, don't do that. So he's just looking at me.
I took it from him. I put it, I put it on the back
of my phone. There he goes that.
But then he said, he said he said something in Japanese.

(39:13):
He was like, all right, so we'vebeen we've been planting seeds.
You know, he got real serious and he's like, we've been
planting seeds for this year. It's been a good year.
A lot of covered, a lot of ground.
We put those seeds in and he's like, he's like, now, now it's
time to see some flowers bloom, right?

(39:34):
And I'm like, I knew exactly what that meant.
And he was like, OK, now you gotto start.
Editing videos too. What a way to say it too.
What a way to say. It yeah.
So again, I'm like, you know, I got to I got to do that this
week. We got a video.
Actually, it's funny. The stuff we're talking about

(39:55):
right now is some is part of it.We talk about my my my apartment
in Kawadaai. Where he showed up and I saw
that laptop and I was like yo dude, like you got to help me
out so. Well, that's I mean that I let
me let me give you a little praise on first of all, yes, you

(40:17):
guys got great pretty quick withit.
Like when you start doing the longer episodes is when I was
like, oh, these guys are, you know, like getting their flow is
getting a lot better. But I think what I yeah, what I
find fascinating is a listener watcher.
It's it's the mundane shit that you guys managed to make

(40:41):
interesting. The the combini talk, the
noodles talk. Like, you know, talking about
certain, you know, like when he went and started recounting like
a noodle spot or I forget what the.
Oh yeah. It was Fuji solo for sure.
Fuji solo and he's like, is thisone still open?
And you guys like, to me, I, I love that because I talk about

(41:02):
comic stores in the same way in the country and where I grew up
in New York that don't exist anymore, like the things that
used to be on Long Island, whereI grew up that aren't there
anymore. And it's just part of who we are
as beings is to kind of like tieour memories to the mundane
stuff that when we recount it, there's people that don't know

(41:24):
how to make it interesting. And then there's people that do.
And you guys are really good at,at, you know, making things that
I think if you were just to say,oh, we did a podcast about
Convinis. And so you're like what you
know, but when you but when you listen to it, you're like, Oh,
this is because this is two different perspectives that are
from here, but you guys are two different people.

(41:46):
So, you know, you've got and I, I really appreciate the making
something that shouldn't on paper be interesting, very
interesting to hear two people talk about.
Oh, nice. Well, thank you man.
I really appreciate it. Yeah, I, you know, I, I think
what we were talking about before, you know, like how, you

(42:08):
know, it's just like there's so much available to us now,
whether it's on YouTube or it's on TikTok or it's in the movie
theater or whatever, right. I think that like if, if I have
a really good attention span in general.
So if I can find something interesting and share it with
people like your podcast and my audience, I'm sharing with, I

(42:30):
think other people will find that and fascinating as well as,
like you said, ask anybody if they find Japan, the idea of
Japan fascinating. And most people these days are
going to say yes. Yeah, that's something that
really surprised me. I guess it surprised me not
because it's not a fascinating place, I understand that.
It's just that for the longest time I understood that to be.

(42:54):
That's kind of the weird thing like Fedipa's into and he's
learning that language and whatever.
Like people around me will just kind of if it wasn't video games
or anime, which, and those were artist friends, if it was
anybody else, they're like Japan.
They're like, I don't know anything about Japan, like.
But I mean, maybe that's the great thing about one of the
very positive things about the Internet and YouTube and social

(43:18):
media in the last 1015 years is that we can share places that
were only made available to us via just photographs or
documentaries. You know, like I've been to
Scotland like 3 or 4 Times Now and I find it fascinating and I
love it there. And the more I tell people about
it, the more I hear people respond like, yeah, I've always
wanted to go, but I don't know much about it.

(43:41):
And so there's that, too. I mean, I cannot wait to go back
this year to Japan and spend a month there and just not be
here. What did you say?
Yeah. Yeah.
What am I going probably around?Like right before Thanksgiving
up until about right before Christmas?
OK. All right.

(44:03):
Yeah, last year I was there fromNovember.
Yeah, I went well. I basically built the Trip
around Japan Art Expo in Tokyo Comic Con, so that's what I'm
doing again this year and my food is coming with me and he's
going to be a Tokyo Comic Con. Oh nice, when's?
Tokyo Comic Con, either first orsecond weekend of December.

(44:25):
We. Can't remember but.
The. You know, it's, it is what it
is. Like for most part, I would say
like the Comic Con is boring, except for the fact that there's
an entire artist, Sally of people that I may never ever see
again, you know, and and be exposed to art that I would
never normally see. So for me, I don't care about

(44:47):
the celebrities. I'm there for the art.
Have you been to comic game or or like?
That not yet. I'd like to.
I'd like to go to that one too. And how How large is the Artist
Alley in the In Tokyo comic? It's decent sized.
It's decent sized. They would say it's comparable

(45:08):
to maybe like Emerald City ComicCon, maybe a little bit smaller.
OK. And it's like artists from all
over the place then, right? Yeah, like last year they
brought in a couple of Americans, you know, like, or a
couple of American well known American artists like Will's
Portacio. And actually there wasn't too
many, but Peach Momoco was the biggest name there in my eyes.

(45:31):
And she doesn't, you know, she doesn't do much outside of Japan
anymore because why should she? She doesn't.
She doesn't do. What do you mean?
Oh, convention wise you're saying?
Yeah, yeah, she's kind of over that, but Tokyo for her is super
easy. But you know, like they'd see CB
Sabolsky was there, they had a couple Marvel people and but you

(45:54):
know, there was guys that are more or both men and women that
are more likely to never do American cons and just be there.
Right. Right, right.
So but it. Was yeah, the whole, the whole
concert is something I did not have a chance to, to, to see
when I was working over there because it's just no time.

(46:17):
But but I'd like to I'd like to check it out for sure.
Yeah, I mean, you should see. I mean, they should invite you
and they should reprint. People chew and then right.
Boom. Like, yeah, I mean, I haven't, I
haven't talked to the publisher in a long time.
The other funny thing is this like when I still when I was

(46:37):
still living in Japan, I remember I did People Chew and I
did those 3 volumes in a year and 1/2, which was insane
because I was like 700 and that was 750 pages, which I wrote
through Inked and then, you know, toned with an assistant.
But after the series was done, you know, it's funny because

(47:01):
they were like, OK, like, you know, we want to do your next
series. So like, you know, take takes,
take a break and then then we'llget back on the next one.
And I was like, OK, cool. And then they're break.
What they meant by break was like a week.
I was like a week, dude. I was like, when that series
finished, I was like ready to fall over dead.
Like, I mean, at that point, youknow, I was already like having

(47:25):
like, like through the series, Iwas having the health issues
just because I wasn't moving around.
I was just sitting down all day,just drawing, right?
So I told them like a week. I'm like, well, you should come.
Parina got what she did. Now I'm like, one week might not
be enough. And then they looked at me.

(47:45):
And then there was kind of all this week, weak ass foreigner,
like they're just like, OK, so how much like you, you was like
a month. You want 4 weeks?
And I was like, at least dude, at least I've been working
nonstop with three days off of amonth for a year and a half.
Like, obviously I didn't say it that way, but I've been in my

(48:07):
head. I was like, yes, please, at
least a week. Give me a week or I mean a
month. A month, yeah.
So I got my month and then I pitched and I pitched for like 2
years and eventually I came up with something that they were
cool with and I, I was like, I'mgoing back to the states like
like, well, because I just firstof all, the, the, the, the idea

(48:27):
of going through the same thing again, I, I did it.
I know what it's like the idea of repeating that I just wasn't,
you know, I mean, when I came back here, especially a lot of
people, a lot of artists and animation were like, aren't you
bummed out? You're here now?
And I'm like, absolutely not. And then they're like, don't you

(48:49):
wish you were over there? Then I'm like, no, I do not.
I'm glad I'm back here. And you know why I know that
because I did it. So I know like.
Yeah. You know, and the, the other
thing was while I was there and I was pitching, I met with some

(49:10):
editors. They were drinking.
They're like, I'll come out and drink and whatever.
And so we're talking to people and stuff.
And then someone, you know, was like, oh, you know, like, oh,
you're a manga artist too. Like we were sitting there and
I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. And then one of the editors is
like, Oh yeah, he published. He published a series with us a

(49:31):
while back. A while back, dude.
Like it wasn't even it wasn't even a year dude.
Like it's it means nothing. Yeah, once it's out, I kind.
Of like that over there, though,like when when an artist
finishes the series, it's like they got to jump on another one
just irrelevant and to keep it going.
And I mean, I guess it's not that's everywhere, I guess,

(49:54):
right? It's just to me, the pains.
Part. And here it's it's the same
thing everywhere, like, you know, And also the other thing I
realize is buying the work and reading it versus doing it are
completely different. They're completely different
things. I remember thinking, you know,

(50:14):
you said like, you know, you wish there were more for some
artists. You wish there were more books
out just so that you could, you know, see this stuff.
And I always felt like that growing up, like I really liked
Simon Bisley. And there were a couple things.
There was like the judgement on Gotham, like Judge Rod Batman.
There was Slain the Horn God, which was three books, The other
one was one book. Then there was Lobo's back,

(50:35):
which was four issues 5 maybe? I think it was.
Four. It was four, Yeah.
OK, And then what else was there, Bisley, for me growing
up, Like, that was it. And those were my Bibles.
And I would always get whenever I went to comic shop.
I'm like, do you have anything Simon Bisley?
And whatever they had, I alreadyhad.
And that was it. And I remember thinking, man, I

(50:58):
wish this dude did more work because this is all I want to
look at. And then when I saw Japanese
books and I saw like they had like 60 volume series and you'd
find an artist that you like. And then they did like 8 series
and I was like what? And I was like, this is amazing.
Well, now I know why. Yeah, 'cause they.

(51:19):
Can't all they do and they don'tever stop.
So it's a, it's a, you know, it's like, it just depends on
like how, how, what's the word I'm looking for?
Like how invested you are in this is the only thing you want
to do, you and your, and this isall you're doing.

(51:39):
Then like your readers will 100%appreciate it.
You'll be the best and you can'tstop, you know, right, That's
what you're doing. Which I mean, I think most of
the artists I met, I mean probably all of them, the comic
artists that I met when I was inJapan, once you start drinking
and you start talking about whatever, they always had this
one question like, what would you do?

(52:00):
Like, where do you want to be when you die?
They always ask this one. And once the drinks have been
flowing and they all say at my desk, drawing.
Yeah. And I don't know if I feel the
same way. I don't know.
That makes me like less of an artist, weak ass, whatever.
I I don't know. But it's the thing where I'm
listening to that and like, I felt like I was dying over there

(52:25):
because of like just my health while I was drawing.
And I'm like, you know, how is this worth it?
Is it like what I mean, is this what I'm here for?
That's the other thing is like, is this what I'm here for?
I used to think that like this is what I do, I draw, I tell
stories like that's what I do, you know, Now I don't know,

(52:46):
maybe, maybe age and things thathappen, life.
Well, I mean. It's not beat you into like
different directions, but like I'm, you know, I always think
about that stuff. I do too.
I do. And I think of it in different
way. I mean, like I'm, I think about
what I'm doing now. And you know, I, I hear, you
know, you hear stories about guys like Kirby and you hear

(53:07):
most recently I was listening toan old interview with Anthony
Bourdain, who's like 44 when he got his first break.
And I'm 45. And it's like, man, if I keep
interviewing people and having conversations that are
meaningful to the people I'm having with and the people
listening, like, is this what I want to do?
Do I want to die in front of a microphone?
Might, might be cool. Right.

(53:29):
I mean, that's The thing is finding something that's like
the right, the right percentage of enjoyable or ratio of
enjoyable versus work. If it's the right ratio, then
that's the thing. And I think, you know, these
artists, they you know, they, they found that that's all they
wanted to do. The other thing is, again, like
I think I told my editor this a couple of times, but like I

(53:53):
would tell him, I'm like, I don't feel like I'm balanced or
stable. Like I feel like I'm fighting
standing on one foot because youknow, if I would have, if the
comic book industry was the way it is in Japan, here in the US,
no problem, right? And the reason I'm saying no
problem is because I know I can create a genre that's like,

(54:19):
that's like a known that I'm known for that I'll find an
audience more likely than not that can support the kind of
projects I want to do because that's the way it works in
Japan. You don't have to be one piece.
You don't have to be Dragon Ball.
You don't have to be, you can bea series that most people
haven't heard of and keep their audience and just, and you have

(54:39):
an audience and that's it. Like that's one thing one of my
editors told me is like, you just need to have something that
is strong enough in its own niche and its own voice.
And then the the audience will be found.
Some niches have different sizedaudiences, some of them may be.
Your niche isn't really niche, it's what everybody wants and
you end up doing something huge.But you don't have to do

(55:02):
something huge to live comfortably being a manga artist
in Japan, right? If it would have been here, no
problem because I understand American culture.
I understand like what people are used to within the medium to
begin with. So I kind of have some tools to
do something that I'm pretty sure people aren't going to be
ready for like those kind of things, right.

(55:24):
Where Japan, I had to rely on myeditor a lot like what do people
normal people think about this like that down.
It's like, how would they see this?
Would this be shocking or would this be funny?
So it was like a extra steps to in order to do the same thing.
And you know, at the end of the day, it was like, I wasn't
that's why I had three days off.It's because it's not because

(55:46):
the monthly comic schedule is that crazy for a Japanese person
is definitely less crazy than a weekly schedule where you have,
you put out 18 pages a week, which is 2 less than the big two
here in a month. And you have to do them in about
3 days. You have to draw on ink and
finish 18 pages because it's usually around 4 days for the

(56:08):
meeting to fit to really lock down what your chapter's going
to be about. Right.
So those people have it super hard.
But monthly people, no, they gotlike at least you got like at
least two weeks to do your, you know, between 406036, between 36
and 60 pages is what you'll find.

(56:28):
Mine were between 40 and 60 a month.
Well, you know, two weeks doing that, you know, 14 days.
See, it's still a lot. But like you feel that for me,
that was the the least hard partof doing comics was actually
doing drawing that like that's when I felt like I had a

(56:49):
breather. I would just like run a DVD or
something, some show and then I would just just draw.
All I had to do was draw. Like I knew this story was taken
care of. Like I knew like I didn't have
to worry about it. I just had to finish this on
time and I had my own system. You know what I would do?
Like sometimes I had days where I did 3 pages.
Yeah, and drawing is a happy place for you, I guess.

(57:12):
You know, so so. The rest of it was where it got,
you know, brutal. Fuck, I I, you know, I'd like to
remind people also in the, in the mind of what Felipe just
said about weekly versus monthly, I'd like to remind
people that Katsu hero Toma was serializing Akira weekly.

(57:32):
Go look at that fucking book andfigure out how that was done,
because I don't understand that.Yeah, you, you look at that.
And so to do it monthly also with the demands and just like
you said, you don't have a lot of space, I think maybe if you
were, I don't know if you had more space to just move around

(57:52):
when you weren't sitting. Maybe.
Oh yeah, because that's the other thing the apartments are
like. Yeah, you're in a you're in a
box, you know, and, and that's, that's probably the only thing.
Well, maybe not, I may eat my words.
But if the if I ever moved to Japan to be done with this
country forever, I think the space would be my only issue.

(58:17):
Well, I think if you went out tothe countryside, but then you
got, it's a trade off, If you went to the countryside, you'd
probably find more space for sure, and cheaper.
But you, you know, you'd have tomaybe take a trip, leave, you
know, maybe travel, take a boarded train.
Yeah, yeah. Every once in a while or
something. You know, I have friends who
have moved to the countryside ofJapan 'cause they're, they're

(58:40):
selling properties for, you know, really affordable prices
because of many reasons. I mean, one of them is just the
population. It's just keeps the crazy there.
A friend of mine, she told me she wanted to get her, her
driver's license renewed and they closed down her DMV in her

(59:02):
district in Tokyo. In Tokyo, they closed it down
because they just said they closed down the schools and that
they just didn't have enough enough people there to merit
having like a DMV there and not some other district.
So, so the house is the same thing.
There's a bunch of houses out inthe countryside that are just
empty and they're like, well, let's just, let's sell them.

(59:24):
There's full towns I think that are just empty, which is not,
well. Maybe I'll maybe I'll explore
looking into it when I'm there this year and see.
Right. I just, I don't, we don't, we
don't need my listeners know my views on this country and what's
going on here. But yeah, this place is fucked.

(59:45):
Yeah, there's a lot going on. Sure.
Well, you know, what's what's what's I was going to say what's
funny is not funny. It's actually the opposite of
that. But like a lot of countries are
not in a great, great spot rightnow economically.
I mean, Japan has the most foreigners it's ever had in
history right now in 2025. And it's because of the economy

(01:00:09):
not being great that they need to really have tourism.
Be one of the main things right now.
You know, they, they used to be,I mean, they've always been
historically super strict about who gets in.
I mean Codancha, which was the big publisher at the time I went
there, it took him six months toget me a work visa.

(01:00:31):
Wow. So like, you know, I, I went
there, I luckily a friend of mine put me sponsored my visa
the first six months I was therethrough through his company and
I did some stuff for him. It was also like entertainment.
So it was the same type of visa.But yeah, I mean, when the
biggest publisher has, has a hard time bringing in a Fort or

(01:00:53):
to do something Japanese people do, you can tell that they're
pretty strict. But now, I mean, there's people,
I see videos sometimes we watch some of these videos for Crazy
Wilson and like the type of foreigner that's going there on
vacation, you wonder why they'reeven there.
Like they don't seem to know 'cause it used to be people who
went to Japan on vacation. They really liked something

(01:01:15):
about Japan, whether it was anime or manga or pop history.
Or. History or the temples, the art,
you know, whatever it was, there's something they knew.
And if you like something about Japan, you're going to know
other things. You know a little bit, you're
going to have an idea. But I see people and their
behavior and stuff is not, they don't know the first thing about

(01:01:37):
Japan, but they're just there and they're making a mess.
They're just doing, you know, all sorts of stuff.
So, you know, it's crazy. Seeing Shibuya now is insane.
I, I I. Yeah, it's like not that's like
that's like the new Lo Pongi, dude.
Lo Pongi was like the area whereall the foreigners just
craziness. That's Shibuya now.

(01:01:58):
Like it's insane. It's it makes me laugh when you
guys talk about that because I'mbecause I don't drink.
My nights are done by like 930 ten O clock in Tokyo and I'm
like, I'm like up at 6:00 in themorning.
I'm one of those people and and I'm just like, I am so glad I am
not that person. I am like I had a lot of you

(01:02:19):
know, people would ask me what am I doing here?
You know, if they spoke a littlebit of English when I go out to
eat and I'd be like, Oh, I'm here buying manga and going to
comic conventions. So like, that's it.
I'm like, I, that's what I love.I'm going to see art galleries.
I'm, you know, and they're like,oh, that's amazing.
And, and you know, like, you like Japanese comics.
I'm like, I'm learning to love them.
I don't just like them, I'm learning to love them.

(01:02:40):
And, you know, it's all about just being respectful of other
people's cultures, which Americans typically aren't.
Right. Yeah.
I mean, it would seem, it seems pretty simple.
Yeah, you would think so, but yeah, no, it's hilarious.
It is. It is so.

(01:03:00):
OK. So do you have anything coming
up that you'd like to promote? Any cons?
I knew you were just at, you know, San Diego.
Are you doing New York or anything?
I'm not doing New York. I need to go to New York again.
That's a good convention. Yeah, I mean artists.
It's that artist alley. It's just one big room of just
artists that amazed me when I went.

(01:03:22):
I've only been there once or yeah, I think it's only once.
Yeah, I've only been there once.And yeah, everybody in that room
is there to get work from artists and yeah, it was great.
No. Do I have anything to announce?
Not currently. I'm working on something I can't

(01:03:42):
talk about for the night. And then I mean, if we've got
cringe hallucinate going on. That'll be on the description
below. All the links will be readily
available. Oh, all right, sweet.
And then I mean, yeah, I'm on social media mostly on
Instagram. I'll do.
I'll get on Twitter X every oncein a while, but like I'll post

(01:04:03):
stuff on Instagram, new art and whatever.
But yeah, it's pretty much what's going on.
Just working on secret stuff right now.
Secret stuff OK, well, you can find I like I said to to my
listeners, no matter where you're listening to this honor
watching the link for cringe Moussa may will be in the
description below Felipe socialswill be in there.

(01:04:23):
But man, I had such a blast talking to you.
I can't believe this has been two a little over 2 hours, which
is wild. Yeah, likewise dude.
It's been a good combo. Yeah, and I, you know, I'll have
you back on at some point. Maybe I'll get you and and duck
on them and I'll we'll talk about the podcast a little.
Bit. Oh yeah, yeah.

(01:04:43):
Cool. But thanks for doing this,
Felipe. I really appreciate it.
Oh yeah. Thanks for having me, man.
Yeah. Thanks for watching all 2 hours
and 10 minutes of both interviews.
You can follow Felipe's Instagram.
You can also follow the Cringe Moose May podcast which is
available on YouTube. No matter what you're listening

(01:05:04):
to or watching this on. You will find the link for
Cringe Moose May YouTube channelin the description below, as
well as Felipe's Instagram rate review.
Leave a comment. Do whatever you can to interact
with it. Any interaction with you, my
listener and my watcher helps usgrow, helps us get out to people
that may not know that I exist. Not that I want everybody to
know I exist. That's too many people.

(01:05:27):
This has been Direct Edition, a podcast about nothing and
everything. I'm Dave and I'll see you next
week.