By Divyana Das In this world, there are only a few things that come completely free of charge and without limitations. Dreams are one of them. Especially a child’s dream, that knows no bounds and knows no borders.
Now, let's travel across 3700 miles to the land of the rising sun. Japan is known for many things, anime and manga being two of the most popular among them. Japanese visual entertainment content like animation (anime) and comics (manga) have their own style which has earned them their own niche in the global scene. Japanese anime and manga have always had an impact on global pop-culture in the 21st century. Famous people around the world like Robin Williams, Quentin Tarantino, Elon Musk, all seven members of BTS and so many more are avid fans of anime and many of them have been very inspired by them. Indians are no different. Most 90s kids have fond memories of watching Doraemon, Shinchan or Ninja Hattori. Well guess what… They’re all animes that have been adopted from their respective mangas! You’ll see that you can find an otaku (avid anime/manga fan) in the most obscure and surprising places like our little friend in the Aarey colony of North Mumbai - Ujjwal.
Ujjwal is a Grade 8th student I met when we were having our online sessions of the After School Club. In one of our conversations during these sessions, he told us that he was a big fan of anime and that he wanted to become an animator. Me being the otaku I am, was as excited as I could be because finding people with similar interests is always great and I found someone with mine in such an unexpected place. Unexpected not because of where he was, but rather the circumstances which led me to finding this, through an online session during my internship. It opened this new world for me knowing this little kid all the way across the country shared my love for something from a completely different culture. In a country, where we are constantly being fed dreams of engineers and doctors, there was a little kid who was dreaming beyond those boundaries.
The fact that something from this faraway place had inspired him to dream of something like being an animator filled me with awe and a newfound respect for this art.
I had an interview with him to discuss this dream of his at length and here’s a few snippets from the same:
Q. How did you first come across anime?
A. I came across this video on my YouTube recommendations by this channel called “Triggered Insaan” and that guy was doing a review of the anime ‘Death Note’. I was intrigued and I borrowed my uncle’s Netflix to watch it and then I never stopped.
Q. How many animes have you watched so far?
A. I have watched at least 5-6 animes so far and that number’s still increasing!
Q. How often do you watch anime?
A. I watch it almost everyday, whenever it is possible.
Q. Do you read manga?
A. Yes.
Q. What made you decide to be an animator?
A. One of my friends recommended me a YouTube channel called “RG Bucketlist” who did animation. I got really fascinated by it and wanted to try doing that in the future. I even learnt to make and did make an animation pen at home by watching videos on YouTube.
Q. Were you always into drawing?
A. Yes. But after watching anime I got more into it. After reading manga, I want to see and help make more and more manga get animated.
Q. Would you ever want to go to Japan?
A. Yes, I would love to go to Tokyo one day!
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