Anime Brand Building In the American 21st Century

I’ve narrowed down my brand image quite a bit. My brand is my job and what I create and design. In other words, my brand is Mono and Parallax. Manga, fantasy, webcomics, anime just kind of go along with that, in terms of the context Mono is in. Mono actually makes for a pretty kick ass brand for me to utilize. It goes back to Branding 101. Why is Mono’s style a brand? Why do I consider it that? Because Mono sells. Whooping ass sells. Manga sells. The internet (if done right) sells. Action and fantasy sell. Up till this point, the longcoat thing has primarily been an cinematic Asian Triad and Yakuza thing, and a Highlander thing, ever since John Woo and whoever did Highlander created that fantasy archetype (the longcoat) in their movies, Highlander: The Movie and John Woo’s classic A Better Tomorrow. But up till this point, it’s primarily been the forte of Asian artists and filmmakers. I’m the first white American artists to draw longcoats in that way, other than, say, Todd McFarlane (Sam and Twitch) and Frank Miller (Marv in Sin City). Other than that, it was later the Wachowski Brothers with The Matrix trilogy, classic noir films, and cyberpunk’s own longcoat archetype, which was Blade Runner (which is almost guaranteed to stimulate an artists imagination upon watching it). Actually, now that I think about it, it is kind of hard to know WHO started it. But I’m participating, at the very least.