Petit Miracles Hub

mayamada January 19, 2015 No Comments

2015 was off to a great start as we moved into the Petit Miracles Hub, a new retail location in West 12 Shopping Centre.

mayamada @ PM Hub

Launched in December, Petit Miracles Hub is a new store for new independent brands and we’re happy to say that we’re one of them.

mayamada @ PM Hub

You can now find our line of anime inspired clothing and comics in store. The Petit Miracles Hub is also the only retail location where you can find the limited Collector’s Edition of the book!

After releasing the complete edition of the Samurai Chef manga book, we put together a limited edition for the collectors out there. Only 30 Collector’s Edition copies have been printed, which comes with a new cover, 4 additional pages of story and an exclusive badge set.

Samurai Chef @ PM Hub

Make sure you stop by and say hi to us or any of the staff doing who have been doing a great job of pulling everything together and managing the different brands.

You can find the Petit Miricles Hub on the first floor of the West 12 Shopping Centre, opposite Westfield. Just look out for the mayamada banner in the window.

Stay tuned for news on an upcoming event at the store in February where we’ll be teaming up with the social enterprise Strip ClothingS. You will also see the launch of a new characters and story with Blake Serious.

 

Samurai Chef Complete Edition

mayamada November 23, 2014 No Comments

It’s been months in the making and we’re so excited to finally have the complete edition of the Samurai Chef manga now printed and in our hands!

Samurai Chef Manga

We’re forever grateful for the support of everyone that backed our Kickstarter campaign, it’s because of you we were able to get the book done when we did.

It was disappointing to see our first Kickstarter get so close but fail to reach its goal. After it ended we still had people contact us to ask how they could support the book and that led to us launching a second Kickstarter that was successfully funded on October 27th 2014.

Managing the Kickstarter was barely half the battle as we still had to illustrate and edit the book once it was written. Thanks to the amazing efforts of both Pinali (illustrator) and Lara-Lee (editor) we managed to wrap up everything in time to showcase the book at Hyper Japan Christmas.

This edition includes Samurai Chef volume 1 & 2 in 144 pages of action-comedy goodness. It’s printed on 120GSM uncoated paper, 300GSM silk and gloss laminated cover with perfect bound spine.

Samurai Chef Pages

We’ll start shipping special Kickstarter editions of the book this week. If you didn’t back the campaign, you can get your copy of Samurai Chef online right now.

This book brings the Samurai story to a dramatic (and messy) conclusion. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the characters, but we’ll begin working on new stories with other mayamada characters in 2015 so stay tuned!

Pharrell “It Girl” Video

Nigel October 17, 2014 No Comments

Running mayamada has given us plenty of opportunity to see all kinds of reactions to the phrase “anime and manga”. There have been some interesting reactions over time, luckily most of them positive.

Although we know anime and manga does have a strong following, it has lived largely outside of the mainstream since the days of regularly watching Dragon Ball Z and Naruto on TV. This despite the massive growth of events like London Comic Con and Hyper Japan.

That’s why it was great to see Pharrell, arguably the biggest music star on the planet right now (sorry Kanye), release a new video for his single “It Girl”. It’s a great visual mix of anime and old school video games, and fun to watch.

Seeing such a big artist delve into our world was a pleasant surprise. But the video wasn’t without controversy and several major websites have highlighted the “Lolita Complex” theme running through the video.

Admittedly, there are parts of Lolita fascination that can be considered creepy to people already familiar various anime and manga subcultures, so it’s easy to see how a mainstream audience would find it so troubling.

But beyond that is the wider implication of anime and manga being discussed in the mainstream at all which shouldn’t be ignored either.

We started mayamada to help increase the awareness of anime and manga, our goal is to show that it’s not a collection of weird stereotypes, but another valid form of entertainment and storytelling. Our line of clothing and comics go some way towards changing perceptions, and we’re always excited to see other people use the style in creative ways.

Between Pharrell’s “It Girl” video and the new Jordan Brand Slam Dunk Collection, the awareness of this part of Japanese culture will only continue to grow and that’s a good thing.

But maybe try using some older characters in your next anime video Pharrell? Just to be safe.

Kickstarter Comic Book

mayamada September 27, 2014 No Comments

Aaaand we’re back! Our first attempt to kick start Samurai Chef Volume 2 fell short of its goal but that didn’t stop us from progressing. We have begun making the comic and have now launched a new Kickstarter for the combined Samurai Chef Volume 1 & 2 comic book.

Our goal is to raise funds to print the combined edition of Samurai Chef containing volumes 1 and 2. This 150 page book will be released in November 2014.

Samurai Chef Kickstarter

The first and second volumes will be combined into a single book, so even if you missed it the first time around you won’t be left out. We’re creating original manga and if you can get involved and contribute to the Kickstarter right now.

British GQ Magazine

mayamada September 8, 2014 No Comments

We’re so excited to see our new Samurai Snapbacks in the October 2014 issue of British GQ Magazine!

Look out for the cover with Pharrell Willams on and pick up a copy for a special promotional code.

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How To Create Your Own Manga

mayamada August 26, 2014 No Comments

“How do I create my own manga?” is a question we’ve come across several times at the different conventions we’ve been to.  There are so many people looking to create their own manga and for good reason.  With all the tools, tutorials and platforms available today, it’s much more feasible to create your own manga story and get it out into the world.

Since the release of Samurai Chef Volume 1, we’ve created Samurai Chef Origins and are working on our next manga comics for 11th Hour and Hot Lunch which will be released in 2015.

Alcon Banner

Next month we’ll be at Leicester’s Anime and Gaming Convention where we will host a panel on how to publish your own manga.    We’ll be giving tips and advice on putting together your own manga story, plus some insight into how we create our own.

And after the show, we’ll put all the information here on our blog for everyone to check out whenever they like.  Come and see us at the event next month or stay tuned to our blog for more details soon.

 

The Golden Youth Movement Fashion Up Project

mayamada April 6, 2014 No Comments

Earlier this year we were introduced to The Golden Youth Movement a group of ambitious youths doing positive things.

TGYM Fashion Up is TGYM’s first fashion based project designed to connect ambitious youths from London with established and upcoming clothing lines and we were happy to be a part of the project.

Check out a selection of photos show the TGYM guys and girls wearing some of the latest mayamada tees and sweatshirts.

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Make sure you follow TGYM on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.