About The Way to Your Heart :
About Visual Kei/J-rock :
About The Author :
About The Way to Your Heart
This is a shoujo style, visual kei inspired story about a girl prodigy named Yumi who transfers to a new school and literally bumps into the lives of a rising J-rock band named Orochi. As the musicians and the genius are suddenly thrust into the same world, emotions run wild in a torrent of teenage angst and passion.
The idea to create this story came about when I was in high school. My major obsessions were drawing, anime/manga (especially shoujo), and J-rock/visual kei (Japanese visual rock music). Ever since middle school I'd been attempting to draw comics and had created a very extensive story line for a series called "Universe of Jewels," but was feeling a strong desire to create a different story that more fully focused on my J-rock obsession. Quite frankly, I wanted to read a shoujo manga about a visual kei band... since I couldn't find any, I set out to create my own!
The initial inspiration for TWTYH was "Hana Yori Dango." In fact, the very first renditions of the story paid homage to that series (my favorite at the time). That's why the early pages had such a HYD/F4 feel. TWTYH was never meant to be anything more than just a fan-made homage/something to work on for fun. I had NO idea at the time just how popular it would become!
In December of 2002, during my first year of college, I posted the very first page of TWTYH online. Somehow it gained in popularity and a devoted fanbase started to emerge. Recognizing the gain in popularity, I decided to put full effort into TWTYH and redrew all of track 01 in 2005. I really started to push myself to draw the pages more seriously and to constantly strive to improve as an artist and story teller. Not only that, but the story itself took a very far leap from its humble HYD homage beginnings and became something wonderfully original.
The characters don't necessarily resemble anyone I know, though Yumi was loosely based on me and my husband just happens to share a lot of the gentlemanly qualities that Toshio has. ^_^ They're mostly just the mad-workings of my imagination come to life on the page. Orochi has been inspired by several real J-rock bands, like X-Japan, Girugamesh, D'espairsRay, Schwarz Stein, etc. and ~PHANTASM~ is mostly inspired by Alice Nine.
I do have sample mp3s available throughout the concert scenes for readers to listen to and imagine what these bands might sound like if they were real. I think that's a great way to make the story come to life!
There is no question, my artwork has improved TREMENDOUSLY
since I began TWTYH. If nothing else, it's been worth creating this comic just for that. :3 The biggest inspiration for the art of TWTYH came from the work of my favorite mangaka Hiroyuki Asada and, of course, staring endlessly at beautiful J-rock pictures. Even though I consider TWTYH to be a shoujo manga, I'm actually not a huge fan of the stereotypical shoujo manga art style. I actually prefer the shounen style of Asada-sensei and others who incorporate the stylized manga aspects to more of a realistic overall style that focuses greatly on detail and accuracy. My hope is to one day be highly skilled at that as well! TWTYH has definitely been an excellent "stomping ground" for me to practice my abilities. My future projects will be even better!
As of 2010, TWTYH has become a hugely popular online comic/webcomic with a massive following all over the world! Several of the "tracks" (because this is a music comic, I like to think of the chapters as tracks of a CD) are posted on WOWIO.com in hopes of generating an even larger fan base and income. These past several years have been so incredibly rewarding for me as an artist, and I want to thank each of you who have read and enjoyed TWTYH. Your support and patience with me over the years has been phenomenal--I couldn't have kept this going without you! Thank you, and please look forward to the future of "The Way to Your Heart!"
About Visual Kei/J-rock
It is amazing to me how many times I've had readers tell me that "The Way to Your Heart" has gotten them interested in visual kei, and Japanese rock music in general! It has been wonderful to be able to share my interest and to have that interest sparked in others!
While thinking of how to best describe what visual kei is, I came across this great Wikipedia article. It explains better than I could about the genre of music I have loved since the late 90s.
(Taken from Wikipedia)
Visual kei (ヴィジュアル系, vijuaru kei, lit. "visual system") refers to a movement among Japanese musicians...(read more!)
About The Author
::Facebook::
::Twitter:: ::deviantART:: emily.muto@gmail.com
My name is Emily Muto. I'm a a freelance comic artist from Seattle, Washington. Born August 9, 1984, I've been drawing from the time I could hold a pencil and became enchanted with anime and manga when I was about 10. I first started experimenting with drawing comics in middle school and began to create stories and characters that kept all of my friends hooked and wanting more. By that early age I knew I had found my niche... drawing comics!
I am happily married and working vigorously on "The Way to Your Heart" in my spare time. I also work part-time at an institution for higher education and hope to one day be able to focus all of my attention on comics. My greatest desire is to finish "The Way to Your Heart" so I can pursue other story ideas!
My domain emi-art.com was started in 2004 and hosts all of my presently completed and ongoing comics. I am a completely self-taught artist and web designer, creating my webpages the "old school" way by writing out HTML and CSS code in notepad. I use Adobe Photoshop CS3 to edit, tone, and letter all of my comic pages and color some illustrations. My other tools of the trade are Copic Multiliners, Copic Sketch markers, .3mm and .5mm mechanical pencils, erasers, and a Wacom tablet.
Comics are my life, but they are only second after my husband, my religion, and my family. I have a strong belief and testimony that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I love my husband and my family more than I can ever express and thank God every day for the countless blessings I have been given.
