Geekscape Interviews: FAKKU is Back for Anime Expo ’16!

Next week Anime Expo returns to the Los Angeles convention center and FAKKU will be there! I interviewed Mike Ingraham, Creative Director at FAKKU, about their exciting new changes and special event at AX 2016!

No idea who/what FAKKU is? Read our 2014 interview with them to learn all bout this hentai website/company.

******WARNING***** Adult content discussed below!

Gearing up for AX 2016, how do you feel?

Haha, what’s the best way to put this? Nervous yet excited. It’s another big year for us and there are a lot of odds and ends to wrap up before the big weekend!

What can fans look forward to at the expo?

FAKKU has a lot going on this year at Anime Expo 2016! Where to start… Besides our booth in the Exhibit Hall (booth #705), we are bringing out two Japanese guest artists, Napata and saitom. They will be doing signings and panels over the course of the weekend so be sure to come check them out! We have some limited merchandise including a dakimakura with art by Napata, and a 6 doujinshi box set of saitom’s work. Really excited to have those for the convention!

This year, FAKKU is also an official sponsor of Anime Expo! We’re throwing a big party on June 3rd at Lounge 21 at the convention center! It’ll be from 9PM-1AM and we’ll have an area for photos with the guests, drinks, giveaways, and live music! There will be three sets by HentaiDude, Revolution Boi, and Meishi Smile. It’s the first time we’ll be hosting an event of this size and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m ready to party! And anyone who comes through the door gets a free 7 day subscription to FAKKU. Be there!

Since our last interview, FAKKU got into publishing. How has that been going?

It has been quite a year for FAKKU publishing. Not only have we published 24 books but we also launched our magazine subscription service. The magazine service publishes ~1,200 pages of brand new content straight from Japan every month. We get comic Kairakuten, Shitsurakuten, and X-EROS that have some of the most top tier artists. A subscription costs $12.95 a month and that’s roughly the same amount it would cost to purchase these 3 magazines in Japan.

Any other new changes?

As most people know, FAKKU removed all unlicensed content some months ago. It caused somewhat of an uproar but we are proud to have made this change.

What started these new changes for the site/company?

It was inevitable that we would have to take down unlicensed content . Hosting unlicensed content is how we started to combat the service problem of getting high quality hentai in English but we have now gone through the motions to remedy that. We now have new content flowing in every month where the artists get royalties from us.

Were there any difficulties in changing things up?

There were no immediate difficulties other than hiring enough people to put out this much content haha. Our team has grown significantly over the year and I’m happy to have everyone that works for us. People were upset that we lost so much free content and that’s perfectly understandable. But we have a lot of support and subscribers and I’m thankful for that. It keeps us afloat and gives FAKKU the potential to grow and do even more things in the future.

What are you most proud of regarding FAKKU’s new adventures?

I’m proud of everything FAKKU has done! Seeing our people work on daily magazine releases, new books, t-shirts, web development, and everything that makes FAKKU run is truly inspiring. We have some passionate people here and I’m proud of us. If I had to pick one recent project that I’m personally proud of, it would be the saitom box set that we are selling at Anime Expo. It was awesome speaking with saitom and his design team directly and working to bring this set to fruition. The last doujin in the set is Wrapping 2, which will be released by us before Japan even sees it. That’s a major milestone in my mind and I’m happy FAKKU has the opportunity to be a part of it. I hope you all enjoy it!

What are some of the recent conventions FAKKU has had a booth at? And how did things go with the fans?

FAKKU was recently at Phoenix Comic Con, Kawaiicon, and Fanime to name a few. We love going to conventions and meeting all the fans that support us. It’s kind of funny because our convention staff is typically just our work staff. When you go to a con you will meet the people who are working in the office. Graphic designers, typesetters, project managers, etc. All the people who are working on the content itself are the ones selling your hentai! Most people don’t know that and we are always happy when customers are happy with the product we worked so hard to create.

How has the feedback been from fans online and at the conventions?

The feedback has been great! It’s really something when, in one way or another, people let you know they’ve fapped to your work haha. But the fans make it all worthwhile. I love it when people come up and talk about the content we’ve published, offer some suggestions for books, or just stop to say hello.

Anything else new that you can share?

We just recently put up a Kickstarter for Toshio Maeda’s Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend. We’re super pumped to have the opportunity to work on Toshio’s work! There’s a lot of really cool tiers including original artwork by Toshio, and even dinner with him in Japan! I hope we get enough backers so we can release this awesome series for everyone. Of course, we have some secret things in the works that we hope we can announce the second half of this year.

Where can people find out more?

Be sure to check out our website (www.fakku.net) and follow us on Twitter (@FAKKU)!