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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life — for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the
DFPN.
Thanks for watching!
What is up everybody and welcome to the
United States Department of Nerds where we
are for the people, by the people,
and of the people.
Some stories don't always begin in giant
studios.
Sometimes they start with a sketchbook,
a late night idea,
and a group of creators who simply refuse
to stop imagining it.
Across the world,
a new generation of artists is redefining
what manga can be.
Not bound by geography,
not limited by tradition, just passion,
creativity,
and the drive to bring new worlds to
life.
Tonight, we sit down with Akihiro Gouska.
Yeah.
Did I say that right?
Yep.
The director behind Frog Light Studio,
a rising indie manga collective focused on
building original stories and characters
from the origins of the studio to the
creative process behind the work to what
the future might hold for the next
generation of manga creators.
creators.
This is a conversation about art,
collaboration,
and the courage to create something new.
So settle in because the Council of Nerds
is now in session.
Akihiro, welcome to the USDM, my friend.
Hello, happy to be here.
So Daylight Savings Times got us today.
He Googled the time and Daylight Savings
Time got both of us because neither one
of us was expecting Daylight Savings Time.
It just come out of nowhere on us.
But we're here.
I wasn't even aware that was a thing.
Dude,
it is such a pain in the ass.
We keep hoping they'll vote to just
disband it because it's an old thing from
the past.
They used to help farmers.
Farming is now automated and daylight
savings time and the fallback in the fall
is no longer needed.
And it's just such a pain in the
rear end.
But let's dive into this, man.
And let's start at the beginning.
Who is Akihiro and how did your journey
into art and storytelling begin?
It started when I was writing
just mere fanfics.
And I wasn't even called Akihiro Gosuke
yet.
I was in the platform of Wattpad.
I'm sure you're familiar with that.
Yeah.
There was this new anime called Demon
Slayer.
It was getting really popular.
And then I discovered Wattpad and I saw
a lot of fanfics written about it.
And I said,
hey,
I want to write my own and I
have some cool ideas.
Then when I wrote it,
it wasn't really a good story because it
was more of a list of things that
I want to see instead of something that's
connecting A, B, and C.
But it was fun.
A lot of people enjoyed it and a
lot of people liked it, most of all.
And I got a,
I got like an ego boost with that
because, Hey,
I can write an interesting story.
And that was back in, in.
When it was locked down.
So it was, it was, um,
it was my way of coping with,
with isolation.
Um, it was, I wouldn't say it was,
it was a sad thing,
but it was very unusual.
to be in the house all the time.
So Wattpad was like an outlet for me.
And so that's where I started.
Also, regarding the name Akihiro Gosuka,
it's not my real name.
Akihiro Gosuka is an original character.
And I wrote him in a way that
represents me.
And just like other artists or other
writers, they either have a pen name,
a nickname,
I just wanted to follow that trend.
And yeah,
that's basically how I began as a writer.
So what were some of the manga or
creators that inspired you growing up?
Oh, it was the, I forgot her name.
It's the creator of Demon Slayer, but
I think it was Koyoharu something.
Koyoharu Gotoge.
It's hers.
Because of the simpleness of the story and
also when I was watching the anime,
I was reading the manga as well because
the anime had to catch up first.
And I was a little bit impatient with
the schedule they have.
So when it was taking so long,
so in between I was reading the manga
and I was very much ahead.
And I was looking at the comic and
I said, the art style wasn't,
it wasn't extraordinary at all,
but
I was so hooked and the art style
didn't even matter because in certain
scenes where it's like the characters are
so far away,
there's like little indicators of their
silhouettes and they don't even look good,
but you still know that they're the
characters and that's enough to convey
that the shot is so far away.
So I was fascinated by that because of
how minimal they do,
but say so much with the story alone.
was so great about it and i think
that's one of the reasons why my daughter
fell so in love with manga as well
is because the art is simple but the
stories really go deep into certain
aspects of things and she's like we
literally have a whole room dated
dedicated to manga
And it just shelves upon shelves from JJK
to Banana Fish to Demon Slayer,
Death Note, you name it, we have it.
And even some of the older stuff that
she's really into and that we've been
hunting piece by piece by piece because
it's so hard to find.
And she's been getting pieces from like
I forgot where she just got one from,
but it was a duplicate that she already
had,
but it was for sale for such a
good price.
It was one of those where I'm just
going to buy it because it's so cheap
and then maybe flip it down the road.
But yeah, no, manga is definitely,
it focuses more on the story than it
does the art form for the most part.
Now the animated versions of it,
of course,
they're absolutely just beautiful
creations on the screen.
So at what moment did you go,
I'm going to do this and make a
studio and I'm going to do my own
manga?
That actually started way before I became
a writer.
uh that was when i was in first
year high school and my my friend patricia
and i uh she had she had her
own her own care set of characters uh
and she basically shared them as self
answers okay this is you this is me
and this is him my our other friend
and why not when i was looking at
the the the characters
I was like, oh, wait a minute.
This one,
these three characters kind of has
potential.
So I wrote a pseudo backstory for them.
And then when a couple of years when
we grew out of that creative phase,
the ideas, they never left me,
especially those three characters.
It kept bugging me that I'm not building
towards it.
And
I even had multiple dreams about it.
So when twenty twenty four rolled around,
I was like, OK,
I got to I got to go serious
with this because it just won't stop
bugging me.
And when.
I started in twenty twenty five with the
studio and I had no idea how to
start a studio, but yeah, but.
I just knew that I can write the
stories, but I can't do the artwork.
I can't do this alone.
And a project like this,
it's not something that should be done by
one person because it's not enough for one
person.
I mean, it's too much for one person.
So I posted that posting that,
I'm going to start a manga studio.
And originally it was called Goska Realms
Studio,
but we changed it along the way because
Goska Realms, after some thinking,
our studio manager, Kay Ortega,
she suggested the change because Goska
Realms sounds self-centered.
And even though I am called Akihiro Goska,
since we're now a group we don't really
want to leave i don't want to really
lean into selfishness selfishness now
because even though i own it but we're
a group i didn't i i started it
but i didn't build it alone so yeah
it doesn't it didn't feel right uh calling
it ghost around studio so that's why we
transitioned into frog light studio which
they the the artists honestly really loved
the the name change so that's a good
segue into what is frog light studio and
how did the studio really come together oh
the studio came together um it it was
a rough rough start uh they always are
yeah it
And I was really ambitious,
which is the wrong mindset when starting
these sorts of things because now I'm
pushing too hard.
And not all of the artists are going
the same pace as me.
So I have to slow down.
And it was really frustrating for me
because I feel like there's no work
getting done.
So when I was handing out tasks and
will take some some some of them weeks
some of them months uh i was i
was getting really frustrated because why
did i create the studio in the first
place if you guys can't keep up but
but i talked to my creative director ken
uh ken and he he said that we're
we're all students you you can't push us
and
Hey, Ortega, the studio manager,
also agreed that, you know,
you got to calm down.
You got to calm down, dude,
or else we all will leave you.
That humbled me because just because I
have a dream doesn't mean,
even though we're in the same group,
doesn't mean that I have the right to
push people.
Because...
it's, it's not, it's not just me anymore.
It's a group.
You got a whole team.
Yeah.
Especially.
And, and if I start barking orders,
it's more like a,
more like a boss thing instead of a
leader thing.
So when I did some,
let's say just self-reflection just to be
dramatic.
And then I was,
I was looking back on the messages.
I was like, Oh my God, I'm, I'm,
Am I allowed to curse?
I don't know.
I don't have a good word for it.
Am I an ass?
No, you say ass, dude.
You're good.
When I was looking back at a message,
I was like, oh my god,
I am an ass.
And then, you know,
it was a humbling moment.
And I'm glad that
the creative director Ken and studio
manager Kay Ortega was there because
otherwise I would have ruined the whole
studio because of my lack of leadership
skills.
you're twenty two years old and you just
learned a very important lesson, you know,
because sometimes you have to take a step
back,
humble yourself a little bit and
understand that other people have
priorities,
especially if they're in school and they
are students.
So it's I'm glad you got to learn
that lesson now rather than like over
three quarters of the way through this
project.
And then they go, you know what?
We're done.
We're out.
And you're stuck with a halfway project.
Yeah, and that's the problem.
I'm just glad that I learned that.
That's good.
So why the name Froglight and what's the
story behind that?
We had a meeting when Kay Ortega said
that we should change the name.
The artist had a meeting in Discord.
Then we
We kind of voted on what would sound
good.
And Frog is our actually lead artist.
She's the one who's...
Her nickname is Rotten Frog.
And we call her Frog most of the
time.
And she's the one creating the comic
illustration.
So it was only right to give her
the honors of representing the studio.
And we...
We landed on a few different names.
First was Pond Light,
which I said it was really good.
But then it got switched into Frog Light.
And I thought about the symbolism of frogs
and ponds.
Maybe it's because of the lily pads.
The lily pads represent different worlds.
And then the frog is like the...
the vessel or the vehicle that will take
the audience through these different
worlds.
So I thought about it.
And then I, I eventually agreed.
I really, I really liked pond light,
but they, they were so, it was,
it was, it was all against one.
So I just, I just had to agree.
Pick and choose your battles,
pick and choose your battles.
Yeah, it's either that or they leave me.
So no, I'm kidding.
But Froglight, I eventually grew with it.
And then when I saw the logo design,
I was like, oh my God,
my heart just warmed up because it was
so cool.
Yeah, no, it really is.
And I was just like,
because I'm going to be fair to you.
When you first emailed me asking to come
on for an interview and everything,
I'm like, who in the hell is this?
I'm like a manga studio outside of Japan.
I'm like, is that a thing?
So naturally you have to go,
like I do every guest that sends me
an email to request to come on the
podcast.
I research and I'm like, okay,
they really are a brand new manga studio
from the Philippines, getting their start,
getting their feet wet,
creating their first piece of work and
their own to come up.
And once I had seen that,
I was like, yeah,
I got to talk to these guys because
it's such a cool thing.
And to be outside of the Japan realm
of what manga is,
is a really cool concept.
And I don't know how many of them
there are out there.
I didn't really research that part of it.
But just to see somebody at least trying
to make a manga outside of Japan is
really cool to see.
And like I said, when you came on,
I had to ask you if you're old
enough to be here.
And at such a young age,
I'm doing this,
and we're going to do this as a
collaborative effort between yourself,
your office mates, and your artist,
which is really cool to see that you're
doing this.
And so far, it's so good, right?
Yep.
I eventually found the flow of them,
and it's going smoothly.
Dude, that's cool,
especially because so many different
artists work at such different paces.
And the fact that you got to learn
that early on is really good.
Yep.
So what roles, like,
kind of walk me through a day-to-day at
the studio.
Like,
what roles and responsibilities do you
handle versus your office manager versus
your creative director and whoever else
you may have there on staff?
For me,
I, we were really like separated.
We're connected online.
So when, when I'm handling tasks,
I would inform them beforehand, uh,
maybe two or three days.
So they can tell me if they have
some schedules,
they have some personal plans.
Maybe there's some, some,
something comes up that,
that I don't know about.
So, uh, if, if they can't.
they can't do the task i'll i'll just
hold it back or if they can i
will give them less of it just so
they won't get bombarded with something
and for when for the greatest director um
i usually give them the task of seeing
inconsistencies um especially with with
characters and then for our studio manager
uh i would
I would often give her the role in
marketing because she's also the marketing
manager, by the way, I forgot to mention,
um,
she would, she would plan out these,
these public posts, these pub masters.
So we stay, stay relevant in,
in the public spotlight so that the
algorithm won't go like, Oh, this,
this guy's quite been.
Yeah.
And trust me, dude,
that that's the hardest part of all this
marketing will always be the hardest part
of anything you'll do that money.
The two M's marketing and money.
It's the, it's the bane of our existence.
Us creators.
It's.
Oh yeah.
If you, if,
no matter how good that piece is,
no matter how good the story is,
if the marketing is, is BS,
it's not going to work.
Yup.
But, um, so let's,
let's slow it down a little bit and
talk about the creative process.
How do you stories typically begin?
Did you start it with a character,
a world, or this just idea?
Oh, for, I,
I'll give you a bit of backstory in
this.
Um,
As for the three characters that I
mentioned earlier,
the other one I made her Chinese,
the other one Japanese,
and then the other one,
I wasn't sure who that's supposed to be.
And that's Christian, by the way,
the main character now.
Okay.
When I was developing their stories,
I already had the name, the story,
the background for the Chinese and the
Japanese characters.
But for Christian,
I had no idea how to handle him.
And I was kind of getting stuck.
I was like,
either I get rid of this character or
I just continue with the other ones.
But when I was developing...
story about him being in high school it's
not even supposed to be fantasy at first
it supposed to be in high school supposed
to be this insecure dude who suddenly
gained some powers and suddenly when
someone bullies him he accidentally
activates his powers and when he flicked
his hands like this and then an ice
wall came up and the bully gets injured
very very badly and that's when he gets
scared and runs away but when
When I was writing that,
it didn't feel right for the character
because it felt too small.
In high school, really,
when I was writing that,
I was talking to myself, not high school,
it's supposed to be something else.
And then eventually I came up with the
kingdom of Kaldarheim.
It's a realm where it's like,
Basically,
when you take a country and make it
a world in itself.
Yeah, yeah.
Where it's, like, floating.
It's inspired by Yggdrasil from Norse
folklore.
Okay.
Norse mythology, I mean.
Sorry.
And then when I got that idea,
it felt right.
But now I have to think about what
his internal conflict will be.
Um...
what will be Christian's internal
conflict?
If he's in a kingdom,
he's either going to be the king or
the prince.
So I made him the prince.
So he has like a goal to achieve.
But then I thought to myself,
that's very typical.
That's very lion king.
So I gave him like this,
instead of being excited to be a king,
like most other kings,
characters are i made him like very very
scared very insecure he's not ready to
step up even though he's at the right
age he's not ready to step up however
because of something something bad
happening he has no choice but to step
up he has to step up reluctantly and
i i i guess the the message of
this story is accepting your role even
like for example if if the if your
parent
is suddenly not able to function uh as
well as they did before and then you're
so used to being at home um maybe
going back and forth to school but now
you see your parent struggling to even to
even walk walk the hall without bumping on
something um
then you have to make a choice.
Either you continue with what you're used
to or you add something in your routine
that will honestly break you.
Because now,
without the parent functioning properly,
without your parent being able to function
properly,
the family is slowly falling apart and you
have,
you have to step up even if you
don't want to, that's,
that's part of growing up and that's what
maturity is.
Even if you don't want to,
you have to do it.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
So what does the collaboration product or
collaboration process look like between
yourself as the writer and your artists
out there?
Like what,
Like I'm guessing you already have a few
stories already done and they're working
on the art right now.
Like what kind of direction do you give
them?
Do you just give them a story and
just tell them to go?
Or do you actually give them like the
play by play for the panels and stuff
like that?
I actually give them a play by play
because I treat the pages like it's film.
Yeah.
I treat each panel with care.
Unless the particular shot is a bit too
difficult to recreate,
I just simplify it and then have the
same meaning for the shot.
However,
regarding if I have finished stories and
they're just writing it,
we're going one at a time.
We're focusing on Christian for now.
And all of the characters that has been
shown, they're all part of the same story.
They're not like separate things.
What will be separate is those three
characters that I mentioned,
the Japanese and the Chinese characters.
And so we're focusing on Christian for
now, Christian Frost.
And we're actually near finishing chapter
one.
It's a slow but smooth process.
I don't rush them now.
I think you've learned your lesson on
Russian, bud.
How have you been approaching blending the
manga storytelling with your own creative
style?
Every writer eventually develops their own
style.
How have you taken the manga storytelling
style and developed it into your own?
For that,
because I used to write novels in Wattpad
as well, not just fanfics.
So I'm kind of wordy.
So I'm having a difficult time writing
dialogues because they're too wordy.
And for... What was it you say again?
For the...
Just kind of like how do you approach
the storytelling of it from like
traditional manga style and then kind of
making it your own style?
Oh, okay.
For that,
I generally follow the footsteps of others
just so because it's my first manga.
It's our first manga.
So for now,
I'm still following someone else's
footsteps.
Yeah.
Just so I can get the,
I can get the hang of it.
No.
And that's smart.
I mean, why,
why go against a system that's already
been in place for years and years and
years when you can just do the same
thing,
but with your own story and your own
sense of art and style to it.
Yeah.
If it's not broken, don't fix it.
Right.
Yep.
So your first story is I believe snow's
warm embrace.
Yep.
So what can you tell us about that
story in particular?
I know it's your first one.
It's going to be centered on Christian and
his unlikeliness to want to be king.
Yeah.
And it will be about role acceptance,
like I said,
and also recognizing your own weakness as
a leader.
Because Christian right now has it rough.
thinks if he's king he's supposed to know
everything and that puts a lot of pressure
on him um yeah he thinks he's supposed
to handle these he's supposed to handle
the the people and then the army but
he doesn't he doesn't still know that he's
supposed to instead dedicate skilled
people yeah who can do those while
listening to him so because right now his
his
His internal conflict is if he's not
hands-on, he's not useful.
Even though someone else does it for him
after he said the order,
he doesn't feel useful because I just said
something and I'm not doing it.
So what am I doing?
That's his mindset.
It's learning how to do that delegation
and delegate it to the person who knows
how to do it.
Yeah.
Yeah, for that,
and that's what Christian is struggling
now.
And for the villain,
he eventually successfully invades the
kingdom,
and Christian has to start from the bottom
up.
And this villain,
I'm not going to reveal his name yet,
but I'm sure you saw his lore card.
He was the final panel in the hype
video.
Yeah, he's...
He's just a shadow for now,
a smiling shadow with question marks on
his paper.
And I'm not going to say his name
yet because I want him to be a
surprise for now.
But what I can say about him is
that he's very powerful.
He's nearly unstoppable.
And he's inspired by the Victorian era
from Britain, the UK.
So now there's like a technology
imbalance.
Christian and his army are still using
bows and arrows, but this villain,
his army, is using guns and cannons.
So now I've created an unfair power
dynamic, and I like that.
I like making my villains very powerful
and the heroes very weak.
And I think that makes for a very
cool story in the end because the good
guy always wins, right?
So it's how he gets there.
The journey is always more fun when the
hero looks like they could actually lose.
And I like that about a story is
when it looks like that hero is actually
going to lose.
Only to figure it out and then pull
off a successful victory.
So that's really cool that you're doing it
that way.
So...
What kind of audience are you looking to
attract to Frog Light Studios,
like your normal manga audience?
Are you looking to possibly go beyond that
and possibly get into the comic world of,
like,
try to pull in some of those types
of people?
For now,
we're building our community and
attracting the audience that are
interested in magical battles.
Those who are struggling internally as
well with who they are,
with what their role is in their family
or in their workplace or even in their
friendship.
That's the type of audience that we want
because if this story can reach their
hearts,
it can eventually help them make good
decisions instead of making very bad
mistakes that would
would often ruin someone.
And it's like,
it's like my mission as a writer to,
um, to,
to make my audience feel like they're not
alone.
Yeah.
No,
that's really cool that you're not just
trying to just put out an entertaining
story, but also, you know,
provides some type of, um,
relief to them like they aren't alone in
that hey other people and you know going
through similar struggles in your stories
and that's really cool that you're doing
it that way so we're seeing more creators
making manga outside of japan and like i
said you were my you're my first one
that i've discovered but i'm sure there
are many more why do you think this
movement is growing the way it is outside
of japan
Because a lot of people love manga,
and a lot of people love Japan in
particular.
And oftentimes,
a lot of people love to adapt certain
cultures, certain practices.
And I believe manga is not anything
different than that.
It's a culture that a lot of people
want to be included in, want to follow,
because it's a very cool culture.
No, it really is.
And it's one of those things where you
look at the world as a whole and
what countries and cultures have given to
the world.
Japan's given us manga, Godzilla,
thankfully.
I love Godzilla.
King Kong.
Me too.
Korea's given us K-pop, you know,
mukbangs.
And so it's really cool to kind of
take a step back and see kind of
like the cultural shifts over the last
like,
five years maybe from like really where
manga really started hitting and then
followed by K-pop almost around the same
time when I feel like these things both
kind of took off at the same time.
Right.
So it's been kind of cool seeing that.
And I've lived both places.
I've seen both places.
And for me,
it's like just kind of cool to just
see the rest of the world catching up
to what I already knew.
So it's been fun in that regard for
me.
So what kind of challenges do indie manga
creators are facing?
Because I know there's a lot of big
studios out there producing a lot of big
things.
So what's been your biggest challenge in
getting this started?
It's getting recognized.
That's the biggest challenge now.
Because in the Philippines,
it's often comics.
It's not particularly manga.
there are a lot of big comic studios
here in the philippines too oh really i
didn't know that yep i was actually
something i was going to ask you like
after the fact is like what's the comic
book scene and like what's the manga scene
like there i didn't realize that you know
you could go down and go to a
comic book shop there in the philippines
yeah they're they're mostly online now so
okay
They're online selling instead of... Okay.
But they do exist.
They do exist.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For our biggest challenge right now is,
yeah, going against those big names.
But even though it's our biggest
challenge,
I don't know why it doesn't bother me
that much because... That's good.
Yeah.
It's a potential...
I wouldn't, I don't want to say enemy,
but, uh, opponent, I would say, um,
competition.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, that's the word competition.
Uh, it,
it's a potential competition and a big one
at that,
but it doesn't bother me that much because
I, I don't,
I don't want to sound egotistical,
but no one does it the way we
do.
Um, I mean, sure.
We're, we're sharing, uh,
we're taking notes on how this person does
it, how this certain studio does it.
That's called learning.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's learning.
And also,
I wouldn't say it's arrogant to say that
we're doing it our way.
No, if you don't do it your way,
then you're copying.
So it's best to learn what they do
and then make it better and make it
yours.
Yeah,
and that's a lot of the starting studios.
I can see a lot of them.
Even in Facebook, in Facebook groups,
there are upcoming studios.
And a lot of them, I would say,
struggle with originality.
And it's something that,
that I personally struggled with as well.
And it took a bit of coming to
terms that I can't be too different or
else the audience wouldn't feel safe in
discovering whatever I have to show them.
Yeah,
it's one of those where you have to
establish yourself
and then later once you're established and
people are then you can start tweaking
things and making things maybe a little
bit more out there a little bit more
different than what maybe the status quo
yeah it's like it's like um here here's
how star wars do it oh here's how
i do star wars and then then let's
mix up but then once i get gained
their attention with that
um here's i do star wars with with
a bit of a harry potter aspect so
it's like it's like mixing and matching
things that yeah that a lot of audience
some of them haven't thought of oh my
god this certainly works and that's that's
a that's a very uh good feeling to
have because it's
It's them recognizing the skill and the
connections that you have made.
No, that's really cool, dude.
You have no idea how cool it is
to just sit here and talk to you
and just...
The enthusiasm that you have for what it
is that you are attempting to do is
absolutely infectious.
And I really do hope that more people
start coming online to what it is that
you and Froglight are trying to do, man,
because it's really cool.
So what's the future look like?
Is the plan just to stay with manga
or do you have future plans to maybe
expand it into animation as well?
Yeah.
Actually,
I discussed this with our creatives
director.
And he suggested that if we're going to
grow, when we're going to grow,
we shouldn't call ourselves some like,
you know,
There's certain studios that call them
like the last name of the creator and
then comics, the word comics.
And so we went with studio because we're
not just limited on manga.
We're going to soon transition into
animation.
Maybe simple animations like three or ten
second animation just to show what we can
do.
i like it and that's how it that's
how it starts man you you drop them
samples like so you have issue one of
your manga about to release you animate
thirty to forty seconds of that or ten
to twenty seconds of like maybe two three
or four panels and um so many of
them are doing it now even the comic
book world
it's going into that direction as well to
where when the next upcoming issue of
something they will go and animate like
the first like two to three pages of
it and it's been really cool to kind
of see for me being a comic book
guy just to see like the evolution and
how the marketing is working because it's
a great marketing technique so
But so let's look ahead for a minute,
man.
What projects is Frog Light Studio working
on right now?
I know you have Snow's Warm Embrace,
but what else do y'all have coming down
the pipeline?
After Snow's Warm Embrace,
we're going to focus on,
we're soon going to focus on the Japanese
world.
And the Japanese world is called Hino
Sekai.
And it's basically ruled by a shogunate.
And the main character for that particular
story is Hinote Sato.
And he's a guy who lives peacefully.
And then I took inspiration from World War
II for that story,
where he's suddenly pushed in
Reluctantly and you you can see that the
way I do things that they these characters
don't want to do The things that they're
going to do.
Yeah,
that's that's um The the trend that I'm
following with with my own writing if it
works it works right and I think every
writer has their their own Their thing,
right?
Like for you, it's the reluctant hero.
So it's really cool to see that.
You always look for that, right?
When you're reading a comic book or you're
reading a manga, you kind of like,
especially when you read multiples of
them,
you start to pick up what it is
that writer, like what their thing is,
because they all have that thing they
like.
So that's really cool that that's your
thing.
Yeah.
get pop up some of them.
But, um,
so what's the vision right now looking
like for frog light?
Like what's the,
the long-term visions like five, ten,
fifteen years from now,
what do you see frog light studios?
Uh, I see,
I see frog light studios being its own,
its own self-sustaining studio.
Um, where,
we don't depend on these big names who
can potentially take advantage.
Maybe even put the original artists out of
work.
And that's what I want to prevent is
that if they started with me,
they're going to go with me.
I don't want any of them to be
screwed over by someone outside of our
studio that
wasn't even here when it started.
So looking now is that for the future,
I see the studio as, like I said,
its own body with the same artists.
Well, not exactly the same artists,
but the original ones joining,
still with us.
And that's basically...
how I see it and the animation aspect
as well.
I don't really see too much too far
in the future because I... Yeah,
the here and now, right?
Yeah,
it takes my attention away from the
present and I want to focus on the
things now.
No, that's smart, actually.
Get yourself set,
get yourself established.
And then once things are flowing the right
way,
that's when you can kind of stop a
little bit.
The work's not going to stop.
It's already flowing.
But you yourself,
as the director of Froglight, can go,
okay, now I can breathe and look two,
three, five years down the road, maybe.
But no, that's a good approach to it.
And
Dude,
you got a lot of life ahead of
you.
So I'm looking forward to seeing what it,
what, what you do,
what the studio is going to do,
but for everybody who's going to be
listening either later when this releases
on YouTube or later when it releases on
all the podcasts and platforms out there,
where can people follow frog light
studios?
Oh, um,
We currently have our Facebook account,
Frog Life Studios,
and it's the same for different platforms
as well, Instagram and TikTok.
We actually have something big planned for
Twitter or X or whatever that platform's
name is now.
For X,
we plan to create different accounts for
all these characters so they can like,
the audience can immerse themselves in how
this character speaks in this account and
how this character speaks in that account.
Oh, that's really cool.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like a personal,
it's like the characters.
It's like the new AI chats, you know?
Yeah, yeah, that too.
The audience can ask these characters
questions too and the characters will
answer.
And it's an immersive thing.
That's really cool.
I want my audience to be immersed with
the world and the characters as well.
I like it, man.
I'm telling everybody right now,
go over to Facebook, go to TikTok,
go to Instagram, follow Frog Life Studios.
Over the last...
couple of weeks three weeks maybe a month
they've become very active on social media
and sharing their art and sharing just the
day-to-day processes that are going on
over there and it's been really cool to
see you know that and just follow along
with what y'all are doing over there
you've released some more panels some some
of the story panels it's been really fun
and honestly when you had sent me the
um
the character sheets, I was like,
that's going to be a really dope,
hype video because I can take those
character sheets, line them up,
and kind of put your, you know,
that's how I'm going to advertise your
appearance, right?
And I thought it was just such a
cool thing to be able to grab those
and use those, right?
So appreciate you sending me all the cool
panels, all that stuff.
I know the first cover is done.
It didn't get done in time to be
included in the hype video,
but it's going to be a really cool
surprise for when people go to watch the
short clips from this and get to see
that cover for the first time.
That's going to be really dope.
Yep.
I'm actually really excited to see it.
It was like, like,
It was one of those where I was
kind of sad that I went, oh,
this would have been so cool to do
for the hype video.
But then I was like, no,
it's going to be even better because when
the clips start coming out and when I
send you the clips and people are going
to see that cover for the very first
time, like, dude,
that's going to be really – what better
way to introduce that first cover than
with the release of the clips from this
show?
I think that's going to be really awesome,
and I'm excited for that.
so but everybody tiktok instagram facebook
frog light studios they are not hard to
find go give them a follow they are
a group of kids i'm saying kids in
the most polite and most respectful way
possible because they're literally i'm old
enough to be their fathers more than
likely but
But give them a follow.
Join this journey with them because it is
going to be something fantastic to watch
these kids grow and learn and evolve in
this business that really wasn't designed
for them,
but they're still taking it head on.
But Akihiro,
thank you so much for joining us tonight
and sharing the story behind Frog Light
Studio.
and the creative journey you're building
independent creators are constantly
pushing the boundaries of storytelling and
it's always exciting to see new studios
new voices step to the front if you
want to follow akihiro and see froglight
studios and creating net and what they're
creating this make sure you check out the
links down in the description
And to everyone watching and listening,
thank you for supporting independent
creators and the stories they bring to
life,
whether it's comic books or a brand new
manga studio.
Until next time,
the Council of Nerds is adjourned.
This has been the USDN Podcast,
where indie comics come to life.
Y'all be safe out there.