Interview with Tanaka Yoshiki and Fujisaki Ryuu

I don’t know where the English language LoGH fandom and discussions happen these days so I’m posting this here.

Disclaimer: 1. This is a quick & dirty translation intended to get across the gist of what is being said, so it’s rough around the edges. 2.  Neither English nor Japanese is my first language.

CN: Comic Natalie
Tanaka: Tanaka Yoshiki (author of the LoGH novels)
Fujisaki: Fujisaki Ryuu (author of the new manga serialized in Weekly Young Jump)
Original interview: http://natalie.mu/comic/pp/gingaeiyudensetu
The interview was conducted when only a handful of chapters of the manga had been published yet.

CN: It’s been 34 years since the first volume of The Legend of the Galactic Heroes [hereinafter: LoGH] was published, but it’s beloved even today, as shown by Fujisaki-sensei’s manga, and the new anime project coming up in 2017.

Tanaka: Back then I was mostly just wondering if something like this would sell at all. I enjoyed reading American space operas from the first half of the 20th century, but, brazenly enough, I felt that something was missing from them. I thought there should have been more to them. And I thought, well, if my next work doesn’t sell my career as a writer is over anyway, so I might as well write what I like! Fortunately, as I started writing I started hearing whispers which helped the story and the characters develop as if on their own, so even though the deadline was short I had fun writing it.

CN: Do these “whispers” come from within you?

Tanaka: Yes. Other writers refer to this as “god speaking to them”. But in my case it’s the whispers of the devil. (laughs)

Fujisaki: Not at all. (laughs) I met LoGH when I was in high school. I loved sci-fi by foreign creators, and as I searched for something similar by Japanese authors I eventually found LoGH. It was so good, I couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t wait for the next volume to be released.

CN: What did you find so captivating in LoGH?

Fujisaki: The space setting, the grandiose scale, the struggle between heroes, all those fascinating characters… There’s so many things to like! Reinhard is the ideal hero, while on the other hand Yang is a never-before-seen hero. Their fight is bound to be fascinating.

Tanaka: Thank you. Reinhard was created as an amalgamation of the good parts of historical heroes such as Alexander the Great who created an empire through conquests in the east, Charles XII of Sweden who defeated the Russian tsar Peter the Great when he was only 17 years old, etc.

Fujisaki: You said in an interview that Yang and Reinhard were created together.

Tanaka: Yes, they were born almost at the same time. The cool and the uncool. (laughs)

CN: Yang was the uncool one?

Tanaka: Yes, that was the idea. I even made him marry, thinking that female readers didn’t care about him anyway so he should have someone at least in the story… But it turned out that it wasn’t necessary. (laughs) He was surprisingly popular.

Fujisaki: Yang is my favorite. He’s awesome.

CN: He’s a bit similar to Taikoubou from Fujisaki-sensei’s manga Houshin Engi. Yang is a soldier who is called “Yang the Magician” for the cleverness of his tactics. Taikoubou is also a tactician whose skills surprise friends and foe alike.
(Note: Taikoubou is a character in Fujisaki’s manga Houshin Engi, also known as Soul Hunter.)

Fujisaki: That was greatly influenced by LoGH. I absorb everything I read, but I think LoGH has had the strongest influence on me.

Tanaka: I haven’t read all of Houshin Engi yet, but I definitely intend to finish it. It really surprised me to see this take on the classic Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi. Yokoyama Mitsuteru-sensei’s manga Inshuu Densetsu is also based on Fenghsen Yanyi but it has a more orthodox approach. One wouldn’t believe the two manga have the same source material! It’s like, there’s only so many food ingredients in the world, but different cooks cut them differently, mix sauces differently… So we can end up with countless “parallel worlds”.

CN: Tanaka-sensei, I heard that when a novel of yours becomes adapted into a media mix such as manga, theater, etc., you don’t make any requests regarding the content. LoGH itself had been adapted into a long-running manga before by Michihara Katsumi-sensei. What was your impression when you read this new, different LoGH?

Tanaka: I thought, “So that’s how it’s like!”

Fujisaki: (laughs)

Tanaka: The manga’s story is written from Kircheis’ point of view. By watching Reinhard from an “outside” point of view we see how he’s amazing but also a bit dangerous. Kircheis’ worry that without him who knows how far Reinhard would go comes across naturally, without being on-the-nose. I really appreciate this structure.

Fujisaki: I decided to go with Kircheis’ perspective from the start. I mean, Reinhard is a genius, there’s no way I could write from his point of view. (laughs) And even if I could, I thought the readers wouldn’t empathize with him.

CN: Reinhard is a beautiful young man with golden hair and ice blue eyes, and he has been called an “invincible genius”. Certainly, it would be difficult to empathize with him. From the characters who have appeared in the manga so far, is he the most difficult to handle?

Fujisaki: Well, all of them are difficult… but the most difficult is Annerose. I can’t have her wearing the same outfit all the time, and I had difficulties with her fashion as well.

Tanaka: Now that you mention, I also had the most trouble with Annerose. Writing delicate ladies is difficult.

Fujisaki: And in the novel both Reinhard and Annerose are described as having “golden hair”. It’s not just plain blond, right? In my mind they’re both really gorgeous. It takes one hour per scene to get the sheen of Reinhard’s hair just right, two hours for Annerose.

CN: You must have really struggled with the parts where they’re still living together.

Fujisaki: Tell me about it…

Tanaka: I’m very sorry. Actually, I don’t know how many times I’ll give you a hard time in the future, so let me just apologize for everything in advance.

Fujisaki: Please don’t, I went into it prepared for everything. (laughs) Reinhard had this character design right from the start, and Kircheis also looks like what I had in mind while reading the novel. Characters like these two, whose image comes from what I had in mind when I read the novel are fine, but for example in case of Yang the image I have stuck in my mind is from the anime.

Tanaka: I see.

Fujisaki: The novel says he “looks youthful”, but in the anime he doesn’t look that young. (laughs) So I needed to “reset” the image from the anime in my mind.

CN: When Yang first appears in the novel he’s already 29 years old. In the manga we see his face in the first chapter, is that the 29 year old Yang?

Fujisaki: No, he’s a bit younger than that.

Tanaka: So far we’ve only seen his face in that color image. I’m looking forward to seeing Julian as well.

Fujisaki: Actually, currently I’m having trouble with Julian’s design, I’ll have to decide on it very soon. (laughs) It’s difficult, because eventually he’ll grow taller than Yang.

CN: In LoGH we have the Galactic Empire where Reinhard lives, the Free Planets Alliance where Yang lives, and the third power the Phezzan Dominion… It’s like in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there are a lot of characters.

Fujisaki: Oh yes. They have to be easy to tell apart, so it’s quite difficult. I’ll have to decide on Mittermeier’s design very soon, too…

Tanaka: I’m really sorry. It’s easy for me to say this, but I really look forward to seeing them. (laughs)

CN: How did you come up with the costumes?

Fujisaki: I gave them quite a lot of thought. For example, I did a lot of research on past European fashions for the Imperial uniforms. But if I just copied the outfits there would be no futuristic feel to them, so I did various versions based on the descriptions in the novel.

CN: So you wanted to be faithful to the novel but also add a futuristic flavor?

Fujisaki: Well, I had to change a lot of details about them, so they’re not all that faithful. (laughs)

Tanaka: I really don’t mind. Besides, in the novel the description is usually along the lines of “it was richly decorated” so that’s not a lot to go on.

Fujisaki: I often think “if only it was phrased differently!” Hahaha. (laughs) Still, even though I work within limits I’m having lots of fun with it.

CN: Regarding the spaceships and other mechanics in the manga, they’re based on the designs by Katou Naoyuki that were featured in the first edition of the novel and the anime as well.

Fujisaki: Indeed. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do better than Katou-san. I mean, he drew the covers of the novels that I loved so much - it’s impossible to get away from his designs.

CN: Since you liked The Legend of the Galactic Heroes so much, how did you feel about creating the adaptation?

Fujisaki: At first I thought “I can’t do this, I love it too much.” But then I thought what if someone else did it…

CN: Did it take you long to agree to do it?

Fujisaki: About 3 minutes.

All: (laugh)

Fujisaki: After it was decided, I drew a draft up until about the third chapter. The storyboard started with the Battle of Astarte where Reinhard and Yang confront each other for the first time, but then I thought no, that’s not quite right.

CN: At the start of the novel Reinhard is already 20 years old, but the manga starts when he’s still a child and meets Kircheis for the first time. The structure is different from that of the novels.

Fujisaki: When I did the adaptations of Fengshen Yanyi as Houshin Engi, and Ono Fuyumi-sensei’s Shiki, first we had to decide on the overall style. For Houshin Engi, it was adapting a Chinese classic as a Jump manga. For Shiki, it had to be realistic, set in a farming village. In case of LoGH, during one of the meetings the words “taiga drama” came up, and it fit perfectly.
(Note: taiga drama are grandiose, sweeping historical fiction drama series that traditionally air every year on NHK.)

CN: So the plan is to turn LoGH into a taiga drama?

Fujisaki: Exactly, and taiga dramas start with the hero’s childhood. So I had to start Reinhard’s story at the beginning.

Tanaka: So that’s why. I liked the scene when he and Kircheis met.

Fujisaki: I’m glad to hear that. I really like taiga drama, and it’s fun to draw one myself. Another reason for starting at the beginning is that this way it’s easier to understand.

CN: The manga starts with the meeting described in the side story Golden Wings and the first volume of the novel, and continues after the two have graduated military school, with the The Silver Valley arc. In the short story Fugenberg is the villain, but here…

Fujisaki: Not so much. Also he went from lieutenant to corporal. And I incorporated another storyline from the anime into his scenes with Reinhard. (laughs) I thought it was important to have it here for Reinhard’s growth.

Tanaka: I like that dispirited air about Fugenberg.

Fujisaki: By contrast, I turned Herger completely into a villain. After The Silver Valley story is over, I will switch over to Yang and Julian. After that, it’s back to Reinhard, and so on, this is how I plan to proceed. Also, I plan to write Yang’s arc from Julian’s perspective, not Yang’s.

Tanaka: I see, so like you wrote Reinhard’s from Kircheis’ perspective, you’ll write Yang’s story from Julian’s perspective. Julian is writing a diary, after all. (laughs) So he and Yang will be like Stubbins and Doctor Dolittle.

Fujisaki: Exactly. Julian’s Iserlohn Diary provides a good setting. I plan to make him start writing his diary a bit sooner.

From this point on there will be spoilers.
Stop reading now unless you want to be spoiled about character deaths.
CN: Julian, who is Yang’s ward, is a smart and reliable boy. He’s dedicated to supporting Yang who lacks the ability to take care of himself. Thinking about it, both Julian and Kircheis - who follows Reinhard who is dead-set on his goal - have it pretty hard.

Tanaka: Definitely. I created Kircheis because Reinhard was too dangerous, and needed someone to keep him in check. So I thought, let’s pair him with a more ordinary character, and thus Kircheis was born. When I killed him in the second volume, the number of letters saying “I’m a fan of Such-and-such, please don’t kill him!” increased…

Fujisaki: I thought about how I could make him live a little longer. He dies fairly early on in the story, but later on there’s no point where he could die.

Tanaka: Actually, I considered a version where he’s so distraught over Reinhard’s actions that he parts ways with him.

Fujisaki: You mean making them break up and leaving Kircheis alive?

Tanaka: Well, if they broke up he would’ve eventually died anyway.

CN: Right now the manga does a beautiful job of showing their friendship. For those who know their fate, it’s so beautiful it hurts…

Fujisaki: That’s the point. (laughs)

Tanaka: I really look forward to reading that scene. (laughs)

Fujisaki: For fans of LoGH Kircheis’ death is old news, but I’d like to ask you to add a spoiler warning for those who are only familiar with the manga version.

CN: Of course. Looking back on LoGH now, what is the scene that left the strongest impression on you?

Tanaka: Carefree as I am, even I realized that I should be very careful when writing Yang’s last scene. But as I kept rewriting it, the scene always ended up getting too long, so in the end I limited myself to 4 manuscript sheets, starting from when he gets shot.

Fujisaki: I was very sad when Yang died. It took me a while to get over it. Aside of that, it’s Kircheis’ death, it took me a while to get over that, too. (laughs)

CN: While no deaths are pointless in the story, Tanaka-sensei is infamous for killing off his characters.

Tanaka: It’s better to be infamous than not be known at all. I received so many letters about the characters’ deaths… To put it in a very positive way, maybe death suits a lot of my characters.

Fujisaki: I agree.

CN: I really look forward to seeing Yang. As you draw Reinhard’s childhood and adolescence, is there something you pay special attention to?

Fujisaki: Making him angry at least once per chapter. (laughs)

Tanaka: Hahaha! I guess a Reinhard who is not angry is not Reinhard. (laughs)

Fujisaki: Exactly. One of the good things about Reinhard is that he’s very expressive when it comes to his feelings. I want to make a grand display of his emotions, so I make him angry once in every chapter.

CN: Reinhard is surprisingly passionate, after all. Since LoGH has many large-scale battles, what scenes do you expect to be very difficult to draw?

Fujisaki: If you mean upcoming scenes, it’s those taking place inside Iserlohn.

CN: The ongoing scramble for the strategically important Iserlohn is one of the novel’s highlights.

Fujisaki: Yes. Iserlohn has this air vault that is 100 floors tall. I’ll make some fireworks there, hahaha… (laughs)

Tanaka: Please do whatever you like. After all, I’m doing the same. When I was writing the novels I thought I should really read up on space warfare, so I read a lot of mooks on the topic. The first volume was published in 1982, around the same time as the Star Wars movies, so there were a lot of related publications.
(Note: mooks are large, illustrated publications on a certain topic, kind of like thick magazines.)

Fujisaki: I see.

Tanaka: And every one of them said different things. (laughs)

Fujisaki: Hahaha. (laughs)

Tanaka: In the end, after much thinking, I thought, “nobody has seen an actual space battle anyway, so I’ll just make it the coolest I can.” Like, if I’m wrong then go ahead and prove it!

Fujisaki: Thinking of Iserlohn, I feel so overwhelmed. How to go about drawing it… I don’t even fully understand how spaceships dock at Iserlohn. But it’s a lot of fun thinking about it.

CN: Iserlohn has already appeared in the manga. Just when I thought “oh, is the Iserlohn arc starting?” they passed it and went on to Kapcheranka, for The Silver Valley.

Fujisaki: That was the manifestation of my feeling that I’d rather be drawing Iserlohn.

Tanaka: So as if saying “I’ll get around drawing it eventually”. I left LoGH in your care, so I won’t interfere at all - please draw LoGH the way only you can! I’m sorry about all the “brats” in the cast, though.

Fujisaki: It’s like when Chung Wu-Cheng told Yang to “Just do what you feel is best”, hahaha. (laughs)

Tanaka: I want to read your LoGH for a long time, so I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines. Do your best!

Fujisaki: Thank you very much.