Interview with Aka Akasaka by Natalie Comics

Interview with Aka Akasaka by Natalie Comics
https://natalie.mu/comic/pp/kaguyasama/page/1
Translator: moegamisama

NOTE: this is just a brief summary of the interview, which I wrote in like an hour. I tried to capture the main points, but I could have made minor mistakes in translation or left out some small details. If you want something clarified just @ me in discord.

The parts are divided by the red headline parts on the website.

Part 1:
- getting an anime adaptation has been one of aka's goals (he likes anime)
- he'd even been drawing sayonara piano sonata and ib with the goal of an anime adaptation in mind
- he was already thinking about making a new original series after being told ib would be cancelled after vol 3 because he was worried he'd be unemployed
- but then ib went to 5 volumes and he had to work on 2 series for a while
- he was a huge evangelion fan in his 2nd year of middle school, which inspired him to write ib. But he also likes drawing a variety of genres and he just kind of happened to choose romantic comedy this time around.
- he proposed a bunch of really dark ideas (stories with lots of people dying, 	melancholy stories, murderous demons, a death game in hell, etc) for about 3 months before his editor asked for something a bit lighter and he came up with the basic idea for kaguya.

Part 2:
- idea for kaguya came to him while smoking meat at home
- How that happened:
	- "why am I smoking food at home...there's so much smoke"
	- and then somehow that reminded him of his youth
	- First thing he thought of for the story is two students walking home from school trying to kind of flirt with each other and get a confession or something out of each other. Basically just two tsunderes
	- then he added the student council and other such details.
	- At first he didn't plan on them being geniuses, but he figured the premise would make the most sense in the context of smart students at a prestigious school.
- At this point the "war of love and brains" bit is less central to the story.
- Lately he's more focused on drawing out emotions from the characters.
- Example: in the chapter when fuji cheats at cards, his main idea was "someone gets caught cheating and they're embarrassed"
- He figured cards would be the main type of game where someone would try to cheat, and from there he started thinking of possible ways for a character to cheat.
- That example shows that now kaguya is more focused on comedy.

Part 3:
- he started to change the focus to emotions because he really liked kaguya's emotions in chapter 5
- at first he didn't know why he found it so funny, but after thinking about it, he realized it was because he was pulling out the characters emotions.
- so from then on he started thinking about how he could make them embarassed/have them "blow their fuse"
- he tries to bring out emotions in characters by "cornering them" in the story, so that they are forced to express their true feelings.
- he keeps a list of emotions he hasn't touched on yet, and then thinks about things like what situation, characters, setting, etc. would be good for those emotions.
- he never really starts from factors like setting because it restricts the kind of ways that he can make character's emotions "explode"


Part 4:
- he's not good at coming up with immediately interesting characters, so at first shirogane and kaguya were quite stereotypical
- instead, he hopes that people start out seeing them as a template but gradually get to know them and their thoughts/feelings
- he had decided from the beginning that iino would be desperate for attention/recognition, but first presented her as a really serious girl for about 10 chapters.
- he did that because he thinks it takes about 10 chapters for readers to feel like they've got a character figured out. once people have that opinion set, he "breaks down" or adds a new dimension to the character (similar for kaguya and shirogane)
- really the first time he started trying to do that was around the arc when the french sister school visited, because Hayasaka started acting as a tsukkomi, so the boke side of kaguya's character came out for the first time.

Part 5:
- Shirogane is his favorite character (because shirogane is smart and gets things done)
- doesn't want to draw things that he can't understand/relate to (thus, characters need more depth than just being geniuses)
- He hates harems.
- he hopes kaguya-sama can have some impact on reader's lives. "like if kaguya-sama became a technical term in psychology"
- or even if just something happens in real life and people are like "this kind of thing happened in kaguya too, didn't it"

Part 6:
- he is against panty shots.
- They narrow one's audience too much
- his ideal is to write a manga that 29 year old office ladies can read after work and laugh out lound
- Also, he's gotten fan mail from elementary school girls before and show panty shots to elementary schoolers is bad.
- He also doesn't want to write a Fujiwara monologue.
- Fujiwara might actually be thinkiing of something terrible, and she might have more inner turmoil than anyone realizes.
- he's already done a bunch of forshadowing for it, and plans to do more in the future. Eventually it's all going to explode with a BANG

Part 7:
- His dad is a game developer, so when he was young he wanted to make games when he grew up.
- But he was shocked when his dad switched from being a programmer to a producer.
- When he realized there were lots of parts to game dev and you couldn't do just one, he became less interested.
- through evangelion he also got into several light novels, including haruhi and kino's journey. He even started writing his own novels.
- In high school he liked school rumble, and even wrote some dojin novels.
- he still had some interest in games, so he made dojin games too. things based on higurashi or type-moon games.
- he did the art himself, and that practice was what led him to being a mangaka

Part 8:
- He's not sure how much he should be involved in the anime production, but he doesn't want to be a pain so he's going to try and stay out of the way for the most part.
- He's seen the script, but tries not to be demanding about it. instead, he just makes small suggestions.
- he suggested that they do a radio drama to build hype.
- "I'm not good at drawing so just that fact that someone is drawing the characters so well gives the anime adaptation significance"
- Hopefully the anime sells well
- He says the readers should all get their hopes up (but admits that's a bit irresponsible of him)