Last week I was able to get in touch with Hope Donovan. As you’ll discover when reading this interview, she’s been editing manga for a long time. I mean long enough to have edited (or copy edited) works like Chibi Vampire, GTO Early Years for Tokyopop, and today edits Toriko and Seraph of The End for Viz. Find out why she started working at TOKYOPOP, her role as Managing Editor, and stuff you should do if you want to edit manga.
Organization ASG: What did you believe you’d be doing instead of starting out as an intern at TOKYOPOP, and from there, editing manga for Viz?
Hope Donovan: With a degree in both Drawing and English, you would think that I’d always planned to go into comics, but I actually had no idea what I wanted to do. I had vague ideas about being a writer, illustrator, animator or museum curator. I only ended up interning at TOKYOPOP because I wanted a summer away from the Midwest and manga seemed fun. I wasn’t even a big manga fan at the time.
OASG: How did you find out about manga? What drew you towards the medium?
Hope: I was an anime fan first. I watched Cartoon Network’s Toonami in high school, where I discovered Sailor Moon and Gundam Wing. In looking online for more Gundam information, I became fascinated with doujinshi, fanfiction and fan art. That fueled my interest to engage with the source material. Throughout college I devoured tons of anime from Rose of Versailles to Fullmetal Alchemist to Azumanga Daioh. However, just about the only “real” manga I read before my internship was Battle Angel Alita and Ranma ½. Most of my indoctrination to manga came after I was already working in the industry.
OASG: What ultimately pushed you to try and join the manga industry? A certain manga title or was the opportunity too good to pass up?
Hope: After graduating college in 2005, I called up TOKYOPOP to see if they had an opening. I had been an intern between my junior and senior year and made a lot of friends with the great people there. They had a copyeditor opening. The position was only guaranteed for six months, but I sensed that manga was this wave and I wanted to ride it. Getting to witness a new industry’s rise (and then crest and crash) was an opportunity too good to pass up.
As to why TOKYOPOP, it was because they published the early BL titles FAKE and Gravitation. I wanted to be someplace that took that kind of risk.
OASG: Describe your time at TOKYOPOP.
Hope: In just three years, from ’05-’08, I occupied a lot of positions: copyeditor, then junior editor, then editor, overseeing the production of both manga and manhwa. I unofficially ran the OEL manga submissions department, did a ton of portfolio reviews, and started a number of beginning manga artists on their first projects. TOKYOPOP editors didn’t have a background in manga publishing, and few had a background in comics. There was a lot of trial and error, and it allowed you to learn a lot. I worked long hours, then went home and wrote adaptations the rest of the night. That glut of work allowed me to internalize manga.
I ended up getting the wave I signed up for. The first years, 2005-2006, were full of enthusiasm fueled by the manga boom. In 2006, CEO Stu Levy put an “06” on the back of the shirt we wore at cons to symbolize that in ’06 we were the top of the manga industry (i.e. above VIZ). Even then, and through 2007-2008 we wondered when the momentum would run out. It was sad when the wave crashed. People lost their jobs and artists lost their dreams. But here we are in a new sea of manga publishing. Manga wasn’t just a single wave.
OASG: How do you think the industry has changed since it had its downturn years ago?
Hope: The industry has gotten leaner and more responsive to fans. You can’t just print “manga” and have people buy it. You have to pick the right properties and release them at the right time. For people working in the industry, there’s less money and opportunity, but the companies that are left or have arisen and the people who work for them are pretty savvy.
OASG: What’s generally the process of editing a manga?
An editor hires a translator to translate, and a letterer to remove the Japanese, redraw sound effects and put English text in balloons. The editor coordinates their efforts, often adapts the script, copyedits drafts and sees the book through all stages of production.
OASG: How does a typical work day look like for you?
Hope: Answering lots of email. I’m now the Managing Editor, so I oversee other editors rather than work on my own manga series. I balance workloads, evaluate new acquisitions, communicate the department’s concerns to the rest of the company, go to meetings. Real middle-management stuff.
OASG: How often do you communicate with your fellow translators/letterers when working on a manga?
Hope: Sometimes the only communication you have with a translator or letterer is email notification that work is done or that corrections are needed. At the beginning of a series, you might have an email exchange about terms, or choosing fonts, but for the most part you leave translators/adaptors/letterers to their work. On the other hand, when I was doing weekly chapters for Weekly Shonen Jump, I would have slightly more engaged conversations with the translators and letterers. I think this is because we were experiencing something more intimate—this chapter of a series we cared about that was fresh from the author’s hand. Annaliese Christman, the letterer of World Trigger, was a huge fan and we would have lengthy email exchanges about our theories. A lot of great things came out of that, including the Unofficial Osamu Mikumo Fanclub, but that kind of interaction is rare.
OASG: What’s been the biggest challenge of managing a number of editors instead of editing a manga series?
Hope: Managing people requires different skills than editing manga. When you’re editing manga, it’s helpful to cultivate a strong focus and memory. Managing a department requires less micro-focus and greater awareness of the company as a whole. It’s less about the specifics of this panel and that panel and more about “Are we offering a decent variety of shoujo titles?” For me the biggest challenging is broadening my view after being focused for so long.
OASG: What advice would you share for those who would want to become an editor in the manga industry?
Hope: Get editorial experience. Most colleges have newspapers, magazines or literary journals you can edit. On the fan side, you can also put together print projects like anthologies. In lieu of direct editorial experience, find something to manage. A company wants to see that you’re good at project management as well as writing and making judgment calls. Also, the more ancillary skills you can rack up–such as reading Japanese, using Photoshop or Indesign, even sales and marketing–the more desirable you will be. And then, finally, it helps to know people in the industry. You can meet them through working at conventions or as an intern. You can also work as a freelancer first and then transition into full-time work.
OASG: How would you encourage people to check out a manga?
Hope: Check out what your friends are talking about. If their tastes are similar to yours, then they’re a great source of information. With VIZ, you can check out www.vizmanga.com for a free preview. If you like the preview, or just want to read a full volume, you can buy a digital version for cheaper than print, and VIZ has books available on almost every digital platform including www.vizmanga.com. And I would be remiss if I didn’t plug Weekly Shonen Jump. For just 99 cents, you can read the latest chapters of top series like Bleach, One Piece, and One-Punch Man, simultaneous with Japan. Last but not least, most bookstores and comic shops will have at least volume 1 of any series that’s recently come out. You can buy it or check out the covers to see if you’re interested.
OASG: Finally, What’s been your favorite manga to work on?
Hope: Toriko has been my favorite manga to work on, since I’ve been with it over 35 volumes since volume 1. I love adapting the humor portions of it and seeing what bizarre food monster Shimabukuro Sensei will come up with next. The weekly translation/lettering team are both TOKYOPOP veterans who I’ve known for a decade. The graphic novel letterer is extremely talented at redrawing sound effects. I’m so familiar with the series that I can edit it in my sleep. Another series I loved working on was Seraph of the End. I hired an extremely talented translator and letterer, so I hardly had to do anything. Editors love skilled freelancers who elevate the work to something better than we could have imagined.