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Indonesian Creator's Manga Posted by Shogakukan
posted on by Kimberly Grace
The publisher Shogakukan posted Vivian Wijaya's Kokkyonaki Gakuen (Campus Dwellers Without Borders) manga on its Club Sunday website on November 4. According to The Japan Times paper, Wijaya's slice-of-life comedy story is the first Japanese manga by an Indonesian female author. Shogakukan also states that the work is the first simultaneous trilingual publication of a comic in Japanese, English, and Indonesian.
The manga follows 15-year-old Hajime Tomono as he adjusts to cultural gaps while attending a boarding school with students from more than 50 countries. Wijaya, also known under the pen name DrVee, used her personal experiences as a high school student in the United Kingdom to compose the story.
Born in Tokyo, Wijaya loved manga since childhood, but her doctor family discouraged her from pursuing a career as a manga artist. Unsatisfied with her job as a medical doctor, Wijaya attended the Jakarta-based Machiko Manga School and Tokyo's Nippon Designers School to pursue her dream. After graduation, Wijaya's teachers told the aspiring author that she had little chance of becoming a successful manga artist. However, Wijaya served an apprenticeship with the Hayate the Combat Butler manga creator Kenjirō Hata that helped her to improve and commercialize her works. The Indonesian manga creator's next project will target high school students, according to The Japan Times.
Kokkyonaki Gakuen's first chapter will be available on Shogakukan's Club Sunday site in Japanese, English, and Indonesian until January 5, 2012.
Source: The Japan Times via InsideJapan Tours
Image © Vivian/Shogakukan 2011
