Ervin Johnson has always had an entrepreneurial mindset. Johnson, a native Michigander, grew up dreaming of starting his own company and creating his own videogame. After graduating from Oakland University in 2016, Johnson was able to make his dream come to life with Shining Otaku.
Johnson spent his young adult life conceptualizing his future business with vigor. His father embraced his goal and slowly taught Ervin the smaller steps of starting a business.
“Through high school, I still kind of kept that dream, but it kept transforming over time,” Johnson said. “It transferred into me wanting to build my own manga.”
With that, the idea for Shining Otaku was born. Shining Otaku is a company where manga artists and writers create and publish English-original stories with the same passion, structure and effort as their Japanese counterparts, shedding light on a niche category of manga.
Johnson has fulfilled his dreams of creating a business by drawing inspiration from his passion for creating and reading manga through Shining Otaku.
Shining Otaku’s next big project is an anthology, years in the making.
“We have an anthology project that is coming up — that’s really going to be our big one as we’ve been working on [it] the past few years,” Johnson said. “Our group is probably bigger than it’s ever been. It’s probably going to be the biggest project that we end up having come out in quite a long time.”
Shining Spotlight is a branch of Shining Otaku presented as a podcast with many special guests from the manga, video game and anime community.
“We’ve interviewed the voice of Naruto, we’ve interviewed the founder of Anime News Network, and we’ve also interviewed Todd Johnson, who sold more than any black indie manga creator,” Johnson said. “Our goal with that show has been to educate people as well as give people who are very skilled at what they do, who maybe just haven’t gotten highlights.”
For students looking to pursue a career similar to Johnson’s, the OU alumnus shared some tips on how to get into the manga-making business — and become professional with art in general.
“Everybody always wants to create these big grandiose stories, but I would say focus on your foundation and focus on making sure your writing is strong because creatively, you always want your debut to be good,” Johnson said.
Ervin Johnson is a shining example of how OU students can turn their dreams into reality with time, hard work and a strong passion.
