{"id":502,"date":"2025-12-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.boundless-art.com\/?p=500"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:58:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:58:01","slug":"interview-art-transcends-language-and-borders-acky-brights-grand-dream-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.boundless-art.com\/?p=502","title":{"rendered":"[Interview] \u201cArt Transcends Language and Borders.\u201d Acky Bright\u2019s Grand Dream – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Starting out as a \u201cfree, behind-the-scenes\u201d creator whose name never appeared in public, Acky Bright stepped into the spotlight in search of fulfillment in his work – and eventually crossed oceans. What he encountered there was the reality of the limited global reach of Japanese anime and manga. Drawing on his experience moving between the expressive worlds of manga and American comics, this series explores his creative philosophy and meticulous approach, as well as the essence of making things in the age of AI as seen through his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Acky Bright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

American Comics vs. Manga: What Sets Them Apart<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Procreate POPUP TOKYO \/ Promotional Visual<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having worked on both American comics and Japanese manga, where do you feel the most fundamental differences lie in how they are made?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acky Bright – The process itself is fundamentally different, so the way the work is output is completely different. In Japanese manga, it might be an oversimplification to say you start with the speech bubbles, but at the storyboard stage you first decide where the dialogue goes and design the path of the reader\u2019s eye. To make sure it\u2019s read, the images you want to show have to exist along that flow created by the speech balloons.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

American comics, on the other hand – often referred to as graphic novels – are created with text and images conceived separately. The writer provides a script that specifies the number of pages and panels, along with descriptions of the scenes, the dialogue, and even directions such as \u2018this panel should be the largest.\u2019 The comic artist then focuses solely on drawing, without adding any speech balloons or onomatopoeia. The placement of balloons and the choice of fonts – lettering, are decided later by a separate specialist known as a letterer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, I didn\u2019t know how it would work in the world of American comics, so I added all the speech bubbles myself, using the Japanese manga approach. But when I saw the finished version, they had been placed in completely different positions anyway.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PLANET OF METAL\uff0fASTERISM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do these different production styles influence your artistic style and the way your work ultimately looks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acky Bright – When I\u2019m drawing American comics, reviewers often say they can feel the influence of Eastern manga. And when I work in Japan, people tell me my art feels \u2018very American-comics-like.\u2019 Having a place in both worlds might mean that I\u2019ve managed to maintain a sense of originality.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I work on American comics, I don\u2019t start with storyboards. I begin by translating everything into a script before moving forward. Even when I\u2019m also serving as the writer, I don\u2019t jump straight into drawing rough layouts the way Japanese manga artists often do. To get through editorial meetings, I follow the American comics script format, specifying all the dialogue, scenes, and panel structures in text. At a fundamental level, what you\u2019re doing in manga and American comics isn\u2019t all that different, but the processes are. That difference also affects panel flow and layout, so at the output stage I consciously adjust and change those elements myself. Ultimately, I\u2019d like to fuse the two approaches, but for now I\u2019m still in a phase of experimentation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DC Comics\u300cKNIGHT TERRORS\u300d\/ BTS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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BRIGHT WORKS TOKYO STUDIO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Redefining \u201cCreativity\u201d in the AI Age<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With discussions around AI unfolding across the globe, what do you believe is the \u2018essential\u2019 challenge that creators need to confront in this era?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acky Bright – I get asked this question wherever I go, and I\u2019ve come to find one answer, which I like to explain using cooking as a metaphor. People who draw, people who make things, are essentially enjoying the process itself. But with the rise of social media, it\u2019s become much easier to obtain external validation – the \u2018results,\u2019 like collecting likes or landing big jobs – and reaching those outcomes has started to feel like the ultimate goal. AI is a tool that makes achieving those results incredibly easy. But the real joy was always in the act of drawing itself. That\u2019s the joy I cherish: I enjoy the process of drawing, but once a piece is finished, I\u2019m not particularly attached to it. The same applies to cooking. It\u2019s wonderful to cook something yourself and see people enjoy it – but serving instant food isn\u2019t the same as cooking. Having AI produce things for you is closer to serving instant food. Asking an artist what they think about AI-generated art is like asking Usain Bolt, \u2018What do you think about the new Ferrari?\u2019 No matter how fast cars become, the value of a human running fast doesn\u2019t change. That\u2019s also why I do live drawing. I\u2019m not asking people to evaluate the level of completion of the artwork; I want them to see value in the act of drawing itself, in the process as it unfolds. So before debating AI, regulations, or rules, I think creators need to return to something more fundamental: asking themselves why this work was fun in the first place, and confronting their own sense of ethics. Without that, I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s possible to continue this kind of work for the long term.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Core Essence of Creation and the Philosophy Behind Character Design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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ONI MASK \/ Collaborative work with Chuo-machi Tactical Craft<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What do you consider the most important \u2018core\u2019 of your creative work, and which aspects do you care most deeply about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acky Bright – At the foundation of my work is the act of creating something from none to something. In terms of visual style, I\u2019m particularly committed to expression using black and white and to character design. That said, there\u2019s a reason my early work was rendered in black and white.<\/strong>
When I first started running the design company, I was secretly drawing my own work as an artist during office hours. If I had been coloring digitally or working on something large-scale, it would have been obvious to others that I was working on \u2018something\u2019. So all I could use was a mechanical pencil and plain copy paper. Of course, that wasn\u2019t the only reason. Combined with the fact that my roots are in Japanese manga, black and white gradually came to be recognized as one of Acky Bright\u2019s defining styles.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Procreate\u925b\u7b46\u30d6\u30e9\u30b7\u306e\u7fd2\u4f5c<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did you develop your signature style of combining mechanical designs with female characters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acky Bright – Honestly, it started from a sense of insecurity – I felt I wasn\u2019t very good at drawing girls. Even back when I was working anonymously, I did draw female characters, but those were mostly for corporate projects, where there was no need to make them especially appealing. When I began trying to draw female characters in a way that was meant to be attractive as an artist, it felt a little embarrassing to just draw straightforward, portrait-like images of women. So, almost as a way of disguising that discomfort, I started adding horns or mechanical elements. That approach ended up going viral on social media and became one of my signatures. To be honest, even now, I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m \u2018good at drawing girls.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MONICA \/ UNDERVERSE \/ ACTION FIGURE DESIGN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to character design, what aspects do you place the greatest emphasis on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acky Bright – My goal is to create characters that can be recognized by their silhouette alone. Rather than the typically Japanese approach to character design – changing hair color, eye style, or outfits – I\u2019m drawn to the philosophy you see at studios like Pixar or Disney, where a character is identifiable purely by their shape. I was very conscious of this when working on WcDonald\u2019s<\/em> for McDonald\u2019s North America. When designing multinational characters, I don\u2019t just change skin tone; I pay close attention to ethnic characteristics such as bone structure, musculature, and facial shape, and make sure they\u2019re reflected accurately. I once read an anecdote in a book where a manga artist was told, \u2018When you reduce your characters to their skeletons, they all look the same.\u2019 Since then, I\u2019ve strongly believed that characters need to be identifiable even at the level of their bones.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TIRORI MIX 3 \/ McDonald’s \/ MV CHARACTER DESIGN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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