Saw this on Twitter and I obligatory need to share it

So she actually said that she does not see the appeal in Senshi at all and that the panty shots weren't intended to be horny - she just has a neighbor who looks kind of like him and does laundry in his underwear. Which she finds kind of weird and offputting, and put into his character to be funny.

But that's the thing. She doesn't exaggerate or grotesqueify or alter people's bodies to fit some standard. (Except insofar as she draws different species differently, and those are exquisitely practiced to ensure they have the same diversity of appearances that humans do.) She just presents people exactly as they are, complexities and oddities and all.

It just so happens that when you present people exactly as they are, what you present will be beautiful and alluring to many. Even the things you yourself might find weird and offputting. Honestly I think it's a touching example of how you don't have to see the beauty in everyone for the beauty to be there, simple honesty is enough to let the wonder of people's humanity shine through.

#i think we should put this post next to the interview where she said she doesn't want to eat the food in the series cuz she's a picky eater#and file them both under 'you don't know an artist from their work'#and maybe you don't need to!#maybe all you need to know is that ryoko kui is Good At What She Does#idk I don't like the implication that artists (and women especially?) can only create from personal life and feelings#some people have imagination and craft#kind of a tangent but. there you go.

no but you're very correct

I've reblogged this before and I'm going to do it again because it really, really, REALLY cannot be emphasized enough that you do not know who an artist is just based on their work.

I could trot out any number of pop culture saints who have turned out to be monsters, which is perhaps the big reason why you should be wary of projecting what you see in a person's work onto the person who made it. You get taken advantage of, sometimes in horrifying ways.

But on the less horrifying side, this is also just... one of the things that's really cool and arguably the POINT of art?

Ryoko Kui draws things that don't appeal personally to her with a deep dedication to craft, and that dedication creates images and artwork which appeals deeply to the people who ARE into whatever it is she is drawing.

She has no idea what it's like to be a person who is into bara hairy men, and yet she makes images that sing like music to that exact group of people. Isn't that fucking magic? Isn't that enough?