Any news from RAITA?

[prosopagnosia]

Considering the game was created from one of his original sketches, I'm wondering if he's gotten wind of the entire thing and how reception's been in Japan.
I'm aware that there's some exposure due to the release of the art books, controversy around "Katawa", and the translated release of Act 1, but has this game gotten any positive feedback from Japan?

[Panty Supervisor]

Does RAITA know?: http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1578&p=14183
Has Raita ever commented on KS?: http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4568&p=62726

To repeat myself, yes, RAITA knows.
He has posted about it on his blog, but I'm yet to hear back from him personally. I'm not sure if he's played it.

Being an older quote, this refers to the demo version, of course.

[Ryto]

I would like to see the blog posts that exist, and any future ones that may come if he decides to comment on it after the full release.

[Guest Poster]

Unless RAITA actually knows english very well, I doubt he'd have any real comments other than "Congratulations on seeing it through". Guess we'll have to wait for the japanese translation to finish. Then he can take the blame for the game's awkward title whenever the japanese public objects to it.

[Free the Bee]

I'm not sure if we're ever going to see official comment from RAITA on the subject of the game. He's a successful professional artist now, and he may feel that KS (especially given the potential offensiveness of the name, which he himself came up with) is something from his past that he no longer wants to be directly associated with.

[Nekken]

I'm not sure if we're ever going to see official comment from RAITA on the subject of the game. He's a successful professional artist now, and he may feel that KS (especially given the potential offensiveness of the name, which he himself came up with) is something from his past that he no longer wants to be directly associated with.

This. The doujinshi industry has a peculiar relationship with the professional artists in Japan. Many artists got their start in doujinshi, and for the most part this is something of an open secret. But actually admitting to it, or connecting oneself back to it, is taboo.

[Benkei]

The doujinshi industry has a peculiar relationship with the professional artists in Japan. Many artists got their start in doujinshi, and for the most part this is something of an open secret. But actually admitting to it, or connecting oneself back to it, is taboo.

This seems like a sweeping generalization. I'm not sure if the artists I know of are merely exceptions to the rule or whether the rule isn't really a rule at all, but I can think of a few artists right off the top of my head who got their start with erodoujinshi, then got offered contracts to submit professional work in eromanga magazines, and who then got offered contracts to write non-ero manga for various publishing houses ... and yet who still carry on with their doujin activites. These include:

• Takeda Hiromitsu (武田弘光), the author and artist of the manga Maken-Ki!, who published and continues to publish doujinshi under the circle name Shinjugai (真珠貝)
• Satou Shouji (佐藤ショウジ), the artist of the manga Highschool of the Dead, who published and continues to publish doujinshi under the circle name Digital Accel Works or DAW

Granted, their professional works are still pretty sexual, but neither is overtly pornographic. Both have been adapted into television series, spawned merchandise, and so on. And neither guy has had to back down from his erodoujinshi origins nor has he had to quit doing what he loves to do -- draw sexy comics.

RAITA's inability to comment on Katawa Shoujo (if he even is unable to comment on it) may not be so much one of "I can't let people find out that I used to draw doujinshi" and may be more one of "I can't let people find out that I used to draw those kinds of doujinshi." This has nothing to do with a supposed taboo about admitting one's involvement with doujinshi in the past (or present!) and everything to do with the fact that the fetishes RAITA explored in his work are taboo.