Drawn to Japan: Amanda Aro

Amanda Aro’s story is the furthest thing from linear. From an unexpectedly shut down animation studio to her own illustrations, or a cross-continental move from tiny Victoria, Canada to bustling Tokyo, Japan, Aro’s life has taken her across many surprising roads. Yet, through every step of her journey, every twist has been turned into a source of inspiration and expression.

Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Aro is no stranger to the art scene. In fact, she highly attributes her passion for the arts to her “hippie artist” hometown, fittingly nicknamed “the home of the newly wed and nearly dead.” Aro recalls being surrounded by art for practically her entire life, even growing up with her neighbors hosting makeshift museums in their garages with their art collections. “I like to think that cemented my love for visual arts,” she says, speaking fondly of her artistic upbringing and hometown.

Hoping to continue with the passion for art instilled in her by her upbringing, Aro enrolled in an art college in Canada following her high school graduation. At that point, she knew she wanted to continue pursuing visual arts, but wasn’t entirely sure exactly what in art she wanted to do. Thus, she began a two-year program that she describes “gave [her] a taste of everything”—meaning animation, graphic design, and more. Ironically, though, Aro felt most drawn to storybook illustration—one of the few categories of art that her university did not offer. Seeing as though her art college did not offer storybook design, Aro experimented with graphic design—what she describes to be the closest to what she wanted to do. Yet, graphic design didn’t offer her the satisfaction that storybook illustration provided her. “It was nice to create something, but it was too commercial,” she explains, recalling her dilemma between graphic design and storybook illustration.

After graduating from college, Aro had unexpectedly stumbled upon another category of art that she particularly enjoyed: animation. After exploring the program opportunities available in her university, Aro experimented and became especially fond of animation, and even planned to join her town’s animation studio upon graduation. Then, out of the blue, disaster struck: the Wall Street crash of 2008. The one animation studio in Victoria that Aro had her heart set on joining was forced into closure. Despite the building itself being located in Canada, the company itself was American-based, and thus suffered the losses of the recession along with nearly 2 million others across the United States.

Now forced to a halt and unable to continue with her original plans, Aro took important time to think about the next step. Eventually, she decided on something unanticipated: pursuing further education. Rather than taking on a job, for two years, Aro studied Art History with a Minor in Art, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree by the end of her time. Interestingly, Aro’s time pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree had led her to a new art career—something she hadn’t ever previously considered: teaching. “I was interested in learning more about it, but I also started to get into teaching as well,” she says.

Although Aro’s plans had deviated from what she had originally expected them to be, her unexpected academic pursuit soon unfolded into the shape of a new job as a teacher. She describes her role as being somewhat of an “edutainer,” mixing education and entertainment. Aro’s early classes were catered towards adults, but her company quickly noticed that the liveliness and engagement she brought to teaching was perfectly suited for a younger crowd. “The adults were like ‘She treats us like kids’,” she recalls, laughing. Before long, she transitioned into her natural-born role teaching children, where her creativity and energy found an even more genuine place. “So my personality is better for children I guess,” she says with a smile.

Prior to becoming a teacher, Aro did not yet have any formal experience, especially not with children. “It was kind of like baptism by fire,” she says, explaining how the process itself helped her become better at her job. Taking on a role as an “edutainer” with a client base of children required Aro to adapt greatly, learning how to create the most educational yet compelling lessons. “The clients were children so I learned to use illustrations to make it visually clear while teaching,” she says. “Sometimes I’d have puppets, too,” she laughs. She explains that timing especially was one thing that she had to learn to adapt to as a children’s teacher—a role that requires great flexibility and patience. Oftentimes, she would underestimate the time needed for an activity, leaving artwork only halfway done. “Sometimes I’d be like ‘We will do a painting today,’ and then we would only get halfway through it,” she describes. “It’s abstract!”

After years of growing and learning as a teacher, Aro felt ready for a new chapter—a chapter that would take her to the other side of the world. In 2023, she moved to Japan, ready to bring her talent and skills to an entirely new setting. Although Aro was brought up in Canada herself, she was never a complete stranger to Japanese culture. Not only was her family a homestay family to Japanese students throughout her childhood, but her husband, whom she met in Victoria, is also Japanese. In fact, it was with her husband that she decided to make this cross-continental move.

Aro’s new home of Japan became one of her biggest sources of inspiration. Her interest in Japanese tradition as well as the experience of living in a different culture brought her to be surrounded by new ideas to incorporate into her own work. “I’ve always liked Japanese art,” she says, explaining how she had initially been drawn to it through both her study of art history as well as her homestay hosting experience. “The homestay families would show me their magazines or their manga that they would bring.” Living in a new country, surrounded by an overload of inspiration, Aro decided to branch outside of her comfort zone, into something she had always been compelled by. Previously, Aro had stuck to art that was quite minimalist, catered towards the interest of her young students. “It was more simple and kind of cartoon network styles,” she describes. “Kids would show me what they liked and I would be like ‘Okay!’.” Because Aro was required to draw for her students during her art classes, she tended to deviate towards what was most appealing for children. “For their maximum attention and for them to focus on me I would just draw art that they liked,” she mentions. However, Aro knew that she wanted to go beyond the simplistic nature of the art she was used to. “I really admired artists who can do everything like figures and backgrounds—mine was just a lot of character art for kids,” she explains. “So I decided to challenge myself and do more storytelling.”

And she did just that. Aro now describes her art as being her “love letter to Japan.” Whether her inspiration comes from “really long” walks around her neighborhood, or from taking a train and finding a place that makes her think “Oh, I like this area,” her art reflects not only the beauty, but the nuances of Japanese life and culture. Aro’s art often tends to center around yōkai, a class of supernatural creatures and spirits in Japanese folklore—or what she calls “the monsters of Japan.”

Aro’s “love letter to Japan” is, for the moment, written in her own sketches, but she hopes that they will make their way into the hearts of others as well. “Right now I’m still very much in the trenches here in Japan,” she laughs, “My network is very small; I don’t really know any artists here compared to back home.” While at the moment, Aro describes being a smaller artist, she hopes to get the chance to display her art for others to see in the near future. “Once I have an established voice, I want to reach out to the art community in Tokyo,” she says, explaining her dream to be a part of local art shows. “I’ll try for that eventually.” Moreover, she hopes to touch the hearts of children, especially, with her art in the form of a picture book. “When I was younger I really liked the Magic School Bus,” she recalls, explaining the theme of her future children’s book. “So again, kind of like ‘edutainment.’” Aro hopes that her future project is not only interesting, but also something that would teach important lessons to children—similar to her own past role as a teacher.

Beyond her art, Aro has also been adjusting to life in Tokyo—especially Japan’s summer weather. “I’m pretty much an indoor person when it comes to summer,” she says, smiling. “So lots of reading.” When she’s not illustrating, you can find Aro studying Japanese and anything about the culture. “I’ll live here for the foreseeable future and would just love a culture exchange and to have a bridge between Canada and Japan,” she explains. When asked about the biggest differences between her new home of Tokyo and her hometown of Victoria, she laughs: “The culture shock is real.” Aro explains that the population size was something that took some time to get used to, especially considering the adjustment between her hometown’s population of around 90,000 versus Tokyo’s population of over 40 million. “It’s just the crowd level and how close you are to people, because in Canada you have a lot of personal space,” she describes. “So I’m not used to being so close to people.” Aro shares that the unexpectedly large crowds have led to some pretty embarrassing moments. “I remember waiting one day to go to language school in the morning and it was my first time doing the rush in the morning; I wasn’t expecting so many people,” she recalls. “So when we were waiting for the train and it came, my hair blew all over the person next to me—a Japanese salaryman.”

Despite the occasional blunder, Aro has settled in and continues to enjoy her life in Japan—a place she has found to be full of wonder and inspiration. Both in life and in art, she has experienced her fair share of experimentation, and encourages aspiring artists to do the same. She emphasizes that especially today, in such a rapidly changing world, being comfortable with multiple mediums of art is important. Despite Aro’s perfectionism and constant desire to erase and re-draw, she challenges herself to stick to the traditional method of illustrating with paper and pencil/markers rather than a screen. “I would train both traditionally and digitally,” she says, outlining her wisdom for artists hoping to break in today. “I feel—this is just my opinion—that because of what AI is becoming, traditional work will come back because it’s less perfect and more human. If you see my illustrations, they’re definitely not like a perfect digital shining print.” For Aro, that very humanity and experimentation is what makes her art, and even what brought her to Japan.

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