Until I brought DURRUN to life.
February 4, 2025. That was the day I posted the very first episode of DURRUN on a web manga platform.
"This is the story I can keep drawing."
Before arriving at DURRUN — the story that finally gave me that conviction — there were countless "scrapped" manga. Some were killed at the plot stage; others I drew through the entire first episode with high hopes, only to bin them anyway.
While starting out, I learned a hard truth: even the legendary masters behind the world's most famous manga (the likes of Oda-chi and Inoue-chi) spent over two years just trying to make their debut. Despite that, with zero prior experience, I unleashed DURRUN into the wild on my own terms within a year of starting. (I first picked up a pen to draw manga around March 2024.)
I did have a brief stint where I won a small award from Shogakukan for a manga titled Kokorozashi, and worked with a professional editor for a while. That experience was a crucial turning point — it's what made me realize, "Ah, I'd rather just do this on my own." Experiencing the vibe of the manga publishing industry firsthand was a great lesson. (Mad respect to Hori-san.)
I've glided through my "debut" as a self-proclaimed manga artist pretty smoothly here — keeping it light and breezy — but since I've skipped over a huge chunk of my background, I'll keep writing this specifically for those who already know me as street artist AITO KITAZAKI.
If that's the case, the question on your mind is obviously this:
"Wait, why manga all of a sudden? What happened to the street art??"
I can feel those questions — and the confusion — being pelted at me like beans during a Setsubun festival. More than the creative process of DURRUN, you probably want to know: "Where are you, and what on earth are you doing?"
There's a complex, yet somehow universal, set of emotions involved in this transition from street art to manga. If I had to condense all that intensity into one simple, easy-to-understand sentence, it would be this:
"Because I want to draw manga."
There you go. A satisfying answer for everyone.
People often say, "You have to put things into words, or they won't understand." But honestly? I think even if I put my feelings into words, they still wouldn't truly get it.
When I moved to the Netherlands in November 2023, I never dreamed I'd end up aiming to be a manga artist. The state of mind, the current situation, and those "pure-hearted emotions" (Junjo na Kanjo) are things I can't possibly exhaust with mere words. The only way I can communicate them now is through the story and characters of DURRUN — just like the messages I used to pour into my murals and paintings.
Eventually, this manga will fuse with my street art. But explaining exactly how that will look isn't exactly cool, so I'll just let the work speak for itself when the time comes.
"This is the story I can keep drawing."
This resolve reflects how I feel about my own life through the lens of DURRUN.
After closing the chapter on ten years of life as a street artist with my collected works, I wondered… what kind of story should I live for the next ten years?
My soul felt like its engine had cut out for a moment. But now, it feels like manga has become a new kind of gasoline, pouring in and jump-starting the system once again.
For the sake of my own joy, and for the joy of others, I will keep drawing DURRUN.
I look forward to having you along for the ride.
AITO KITAZAKI
Comments
Post a Comment