2009 Japan Media Arts Festival Manga Division Encouragement Prize hesheit aqua

Encouragement Prize

hesheit aqua

Story Manga

Artist : Wisut PONNIMIT

(Thailand)

Thai comic author Wisut PONNIMIT, a.k.a. Tam-kun, has been drawing this story since his debut in 1998. This is a Japanese translation of 11 short stories from eight volumes already published in Thailand, as well as the author’s inside story, and commentary. It’s freely drawn without being bounded by genres, themes or number of pages.

Wisut PONNIMIT

Wisut was born in Thailand in 1976, and is also known as Tam-kun. After graduating from the Decorative Art School of Silpakorn University, he debuted in Bangkok in 1998. He lived in Japan for three years from 2003. Currently he has serials in Gekkan IKKI (Shogakukan), cut (Rockin’ On) and others. His other works are Buranko, volume 5 (continuing) (Shogakukan), and Tam-kun to Epun (Shinchosha).

The work that received the prize was published in Thailand 7 years ago. In Thailand there was no manga award and all I got was feedback from readers. But in Japan, it’s the other way round and people cherish the work, and I noticed that this award was not because of “the work” but because of “the people who read this.” Of course I’m very glad to receive the award, but it’s also a good thing for the Japanese readers who found culture, works and artists outside Japan. And, I have come to want to make more good works for people.

Wisut PONNIMIT has been active in Japan as an animator and artist, and draws manga serials for magazines. This work is a Japanese translation of hesheit, which has already been published in the artist’s home country of Thailand. The roughly drawn sketches of young people and the author’s roots impart a vivid sense of the spirit of Thai youth. The influence of Japanese manga abroad is never consistent but has great diversity. This work shows one such aspect that is not well known in Japan.

What makes you create a work?

Sometimes you learn about life from whatever you do in a day. When you are eating, when you are sleeping, when you are walking, talking, listening, and feeling, a kind of “study message” enters your head at some moment. It may be something wonderful, or doubt, or maybe nothing, but I want to make a note of it. That “note” is a work. Sometimes I get a work by looking at the world as if I belonged to a different generation, or I give the work to other people. And it’s enjoyable to make conversation with people in other generations, so I’m always making works.

What tools do you use the most at present?

Pilot super petit (thin), copic, posca

What do you place greatest value on in your work?

I try not to make useless things for the earth.

I try not to make works that will make readers angry, or make their hearts dark and hopeless. I try to produce works that will allow readers to find a hint about to make their darkened hearts bright.

What personal concept runs through your creative activities?

Not to try to do what I can’t do, and to do what I can do.

When you create a work, in what way do you think of a presentation using technologies or media as a means to communicate?

A technology is just a shape. Humans have various stages and shapes, but the messages in their hearts are about the same things. What I am concentrating on is always the message of the heart at every stage.

Could you name a person, a work, or an event that has most influenced you?

I was ill-tempered in the past, but I recovered after reading the works of ADACHI Mitsuru, because I thought the characters in his works were so gentle and cool, and I wanted to be like them and changed myself.
And I wanted to write manga that is good for people’s hearts, and I started writing manga with a good message.