*If you just want the invite to get into Pixiv.com’s alpha testing group, skip down to the bottom of the article.
Maybe you’ve heard of DeviantArt. It’s a big art website that people like everywhere except Japan. Even though DeviantArt has some great artists (no denying that!), DeviantArt also feels so amateur. Pixiv is also a site for artists, but the overall feel is a little higher-quality. Oh, and Japanese-style. I’ve never been able to get into DeviantArt, personally, but I do think Pixiv is pretty frickin’ awesome, and I think some of you will love it too. Makes me wish I could draw better than this.
What Is Pixiv?
This is what the current “Japanese” Pixiv looks like
Way back a long time ago, when you and I were just wee babes, the creator of Pixiv as it is today, Takanori-san, made Pixiv because he was having trouble keeping track of all the artists he enjoyed following. So, he was like “ugh, I hate having to keep track of all this, I’ll make a site that allows my favorite artists to post their art up on a site where I can see it all in one place” … and Pixiv was born.
As it turned out that there were a lot of great Japanese artists out there, just wishing they could do the same thing, and lots and lots of Japanese artists joined to share their work. Because of all the Japanese artists in Japan, as well as all the people who loved looking at those artist’s art, Pixiv became one of the fastest growing websites and startups in Japan. It’s really that popular (Japan loves their art), even though most non-Japanese have never heard of it. As of right now, Pixiv gets 20-30 thousand new pictures uploaded every day and has around 22 million pictures total.
It’s become a place for both professional artists and aspiring artists alike to post their things. There are people who create their own manga series on the site, and people wait eagerly for the next page or section to come out. Text more your thing? You can also submit your novels or stories for people to read and enjoy.
Sometimes, you even hear about an aspiring artist getting picked up by studios / publishers, and then they’re no longer “aspiring” anymore. Seriously, like one in three Tofugu people who email me are like “I’m gonna be a mangaka when I grow up, blah blah blah.” If that’s you, then this is probably one of the more realistic ways of getting there. Step 1: Become an awesome and/or incredible artist (the most important step). Step 2: Post your stuff up on Pixiv and get really popular. Step 3: Become a Japanese mangaka slave.
Being a mangaka isn’t what it used to be…
Now, there is a lot of amateur-level stuff on here too, but the overall quality is pretty amazing, I think, especially considering the number of people using and posting on the site. I actually went ahead and did a survey of non-Japanese artists who use Pixiv (in its current, Japanese form), because I wanted to know what actual artist-users thought about Pixiv (because they’re already using it even though it’s a Japanese site). They tend to concur with my feelings on quality.
You can find a lot of professional artists here, and this isn’t something that you can find anywhere. It makes me happy to know that I can give some encouragement to my fav artist
I tell my friends that some of the best anime art can be found at Pixiv only, and that it’s well worth browsing if they don’t mind using a guide to get around.
The Only Place Were I Could Find Really Good Quality Manga And Anime
You are able to see other pictures that amazing artists draw. Also I find the art more interesting than any other art I have seen.
Most of the site does tend to be drawings in Japanese (Manga/Anime) style art (with a few exceptions), though there are a decent amount of aspiring novelists posting things up as well. Writing can also be an art, after all.
As of right now, while I write this, the original Japanese-site (Pixiv.net) is only partly in English. But, pretty soon there will be an English (and soon after, Chinese) version of Pixiv, making it “international.” Want to get in on that action early before everyone else? Keep reading.
Pixiv Is Going International
You can see a preview of the International version of the new Pixiv right now in image form (above). If you want to see it in real life, you’ll have to be one of the first 222 people to sign up for the Tofugu alpha testers list below. If you’re not going to use it, don’t take someone else’s spot though, please!
For a long time, Pixiv was Japanese-language-only. But, Pixiv started noticing a lot of international traffic, both from artists who wanted to post up their work on Pixiv, and also from people just looking at and enjoying all the artwork.
About a year ago, they made it so a lot of the menu items were in English (when they detect you’re from an English speaking country). That was a start, and made it easier for international users to use the site, but now they’ve kindly let me know (and provided closed alpha-access keys to you, the Japanese-art-savvy Tofugu reader) about their international version, Pixiv.com, coming out very soon.
The site itself is going to be in a much more “international” design (not to beat up on Japanese web design too much… but it’s generally pretty old fashioned), and have all the same art and user information as Pixiv.net (the Japanese version). So, everything you’ve loved about Pixiv.net will be synced over and be exactly the same – only the interface will be different (and easier to use for us Muggles). So, content consists of the same good stuff, it’s only the way you access that content that’s different (which is good news). From what I’ve seen so far, it’s better than the original (in my opinion), but I’m kind of a snob when it comes to this sort of thing.
Tofugu Readers Get Special Closed Alpha Access
Sure, you could sign up for alpha access normally, but then you’d have to wait in the back of the line with all those chumps who don’t read Tofugu. Luckily for you, we have special priority access for you guys. While it doesn’t necessarily mean you get to sign up right this minute, it does mean you get in before anyone else. Pixiv said people should start getting invites around Christmas, so, consider this a present from Santa (just as long as it isn’t this Pixiv Predator Santa). Anyhoo, here’s how you get into the alpha.
- Go to Pixiv.com and add “tofugu” in as your priority code (or, alternatively, you can just click here).
- Go check out their Twitter Accounts (Pixiv English and Pixiv Regular).
That’s all there is to do for now. Just know that it’s the first 222 people who sign up through this link that get in to the closed alpha, so if you want in, you ought to sign up fast (these’ll go pretty quick, and I have no way of knowing how many people have signed up for closed alpha at any given point). If you’re not even a little excited about Pixiv, you should probably let someone else have your spot. But if you are interested, definitely sign up now and not later, or you’ll have to wait until who-knows-when to get in (probably until they switch to beta or public mode).
So that’s about it! Pixiv.net is going international with Pixiv.com. If you like art, especially Japanese-style art, then this is great news. If not, well… then I still love you, I guess, if I have to.
What Do You Think?
How do you think they’ll do in the rest of the world? I think with the popularity of anime, manga, and everything Japan here in the US (and other countries around the world as well, I’m sure), it has a pretty good chance. A lot of aspiring artists in non-Japan countries also tend to put their focus on anime-style art, probably because that’s what they enjoy / that’s what they grew up with. Pixiv in the rest of the world may be a somewhat niche thing for a while, but I can see them growing pretty steadily outside of Japan as more people find out about the site. It has quality, it has content, and it does everything pretty well. It’ll be pretty fun to see what they end up doing.
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