Amin Abbas

DUBAI: Anfal Al Rghailan, known as midorima_art, is a self-taught artist and mangaka from Kuwait who is known for the “Beyond Destiny” manga. Al Rghailan has worked as a book cover artist as a freelancer and participated in the Manga Al Arabia contest 2022 with a one-shot manga.

“The story is about our main character, Kei, who gets kidnapped to another world that is filled with elves that are chasing him because of the gem that Kei possesses, and he struggles to get back to his world. On the other hand, we have the human side that is trying to reach Kei. It is a story that combines fantasy and reality in an interesting narration and focus in the characters’ journey so the readers can live and enjoy it at the same time,” Al Rghailan told Arab News Japan. 

“I had a lot of challenges as I worked by myself. I had to be the author, artist, editor, letterer, and marketer, along with managing my Instagram to promote my manga. Working on the first volume took a year and a half, and it changes depending on the progress and the amount of drawing,” she added.

About the feedback and response for those who read the manga, Al Rghailan said, “I was feeling intimidated by the feedback at first, but they were encouraging and supportive. It helped me recognize a lot of things and helped me evolve.”

The artist was introduced to manga and anime through watching Spacetoon. “I figured out that (manga and anime) were from Japan. I fell in love with the details and the emotions that mangaka artists have shown in their manga, and I have always wanted to draw my original manga.”

“I started digital art in 2018 and shared my fan art illustrations and got involved in the art community. Then, I started to study writing along with manga paneling. I published the first chapter of ‘Beyond Destiny’ in 2019. It was my first try; I got a lot of feedback that helped me improve a lot… then I got to redraw it multiple times between 2019 and 2021 until I was satisfied with it,” she added. 

Al Rghailan mentioned that her focus these days is on continuing the manga. “The story of ‘Beyond Destiny’ is a long story; it’s my biggest project that I published in Arabic and I’m working to self-publish the English version of it. Also, I’m planning to learn animation so I can animate my characters,” she shared.