Well, we’re not going to lie. Before the emergence of his manga in the head of sales as a sales out, on November 18, we (the oldest of us, heard) did not really know who was hiding behind the funny stainless appellation. Good souls told us about the recent ascent of Everest by a young streamer, which vaguely reminded us of an info dispersed in the flow. But we did not yet know that the native of Levallois-Perret (raised in Orgeval, Yvelines), Inès Benazzouz (his real name), was classified 12th in the 2024 barometer of the personalities who make the opinion, just behind Victor Castanet but before Michel Houellebecq or Thomas Jolly; And we had not taken the measure of the 8.8 million subscribers to the 23 -year -old Streamer channel; In short, we had not calculated (as young people say) this meteor whose first publication, Instinct (Michel Lafon), borders on the 500,000 copies. A feat for a French manga!
To meet the star of generations Y and Z, you have to go to Levallois-Perret in the L’Antre de Webedia, this mega company media-tech owner, among others of the sites Allociné, Jeuxvideo.com, MGG, Puremédias, Purepeople, Terrafemina, Easyvoyage, and associated with Michel Cymes or even Jamy Gourmaud. Following the first Stars Youtubers (Squeezie, Cyprien, Natoo, McFly and Carlito…), Inoxtag joined the white liner of rue Vaillant-Couturier where he has his private studio. With his team (four to five twenty -year -olds), it is here that he fomes, in an atmosphere of studious roommate, his wildest projects, of which Kaizen: one year to climb Everest (Documentary with 42 million views), records her gaming videos and designs her manga – three volumes ofInstinct are already programmed. “With Basile Monnot, the director of Kaizenwe had dreamed of it for a long time. I have been swimming in the manga since I was 13 years old. I read all the volumes of Dragon Ballof One Pieceetc., I appreciate their values, respect, surpassing oneself, friendship, they are part of my education, “explains this son of the boss of a company of drivers of Algerian origin and a norman anesthesiologist. respectful, he is too, too much, to give you” madam “to the shovel.
But let’s continue: “The click was during an agricultural fair. Charles Compain came to see me with a portrait of me in hand, we discussed, he too was burning to make a manga. And the next day, ‘In instinct’, we did business.” Compain resigning from his job, draws one page a day, coached by the Toulouse mangaka Tony Valente (Radiant); Inès, with Basile, refine the canvas (in the greatest secrecy vis-à-vis his “communications”, translate community) while physically preparing for his Nepalese expedition and devouring a few books by Sylvain Tesson and Maurice Herzog, the hero of Annapurna. The main lines ofInstinctbetween SF and existential quest, are fixed: Haki, a 17-year-old student, has the gift of guessing the intentions of those around him, a gift that rots his life as they are sinister and false. In his amphitheater, Luna appears, who intrigues him (ô miracle, he does not perceive his aura) but which is ejected because suffering from the noctus, a pandemic disease expressed in the form of a black spot which extends nine months and ends up stopping the heart. Haki, in his turn touched, worries about his adored father, and finds himself … in Purgatory, where he falls on Luna, responsible for making him pass an exam at the end of which he can possibly join Agartha, an ideal underground world and that, without cheating or stealing. Each competitor shows an exacerbated meaning, it is that of touch. “Me, the one I prefer is the sixth sense, the instinct,” says Inès, with a big smile.
In any case, it has that of marketing. It was during his first trip to Japan, in October-November, rich in various meetings (Yamamoto, high spiritual priest, samurai …), that he announces to his “communications” via an animated band the exit of his manga fifteen days later. At Michel Lafon, the publisher of Ki & hi, The manga series of the youtuber Kevin Tran, we believe in it as long as Elsa Lafon, the boss, planned a first draw of 200,000 copies. “It was dazzling,” she recalls, we sent 350,000 before the end of the year. ” At the end of the three volumes of the series, Inoxtag dreams of seeing it translated in Japan. He also dreams of a cartoon adaptation. Wishes not necessarily more inaccessible than the 8,849 meters of Everest!