The 11 interviewees selected for this focus group interview were fashion lovers of my stakeholders, 72% of whom had been identified in the previous survey as not reading manga in their daily lives or whose earlier reading experience had been at an early age. The remaining 28% of interviewees who read manga are more interested in the style and type of the manga themselves and do not particularly care whether the manga themselves are associated with fashion. It can therefore be ascertained that this group of interviewees tends to be more interested in fashion in their daily lives and is not influenced by manga as a related field.

The 28% of fashion lovers who read manga prefer short manga and do not expect them to be too close to real life, but see them as a means of leisure; most of their reading comes from early magazines and books and nowadays from mobile devices such as Weibo and Bilibili manga, etc. Even with paid-to-read habits, they still rely on apps rather than buying physical books to read, but will choose to buy physical copies of collectible art such as illustrated set books.

None of the interviewees had followed independent original manga and their development process, nor were they aware of how independent manga could take the form of collaborations with other fields.

When asked about collaborations like the one between Loewe and Studio Miyazaki, two attitudes were expressed, one being willing to pay for the sentiment and the other being highly disgusted by the lack of sincerity in the printing of uninspired designs.

When I asked the interviewees how they get their fashion information on a regular basis, the usual ways of marketing are nothing but social media and official promotions, and the usual ways of marketing are nothing but magazine photos and promotional videos. They don’t get tired and bored of brands or platforms using KOLs to increase brand exposure, they see nothing wrong with the brand’s existing promotional practices and if there is a way to appeal to them, they want the product to catch their eye in a context where it doesn’t belong. So I think fashion consumers are looking for excitement that is outside of the usual promotional channels and thinking.

Through the feedback, the respondents reflected on getting that the forms in which brands express content in videos and photos can be diverse and storytelling, often more relevant to their own identity and connotations. When a single item has multiple exposures, it does get their attention, but what triggers their thinking is the context in which it appears and who it is used by. The right item needs the right audience and the right promotion.

The combination of comics and fashion is in fact also a combination of artwork or artists and fashion culture. These two cultures, even if there is a crossover, the new combination I imagine or create is still a change in the way it is promoted and does not create a new twist. It remains a gimmick in a way. But any consumer is inherently at the intersection of different cultures, so it is logical to create more intersections or to bring consumers into new ones. To create cultural intersections is to help cultures merge, which can have the effect of expanding the original audience and reducing the distance between culture and audience.