Nakatani and Kusunoki Interview 2017/06/22

2017/06/22
http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/51548804.html
Interviewer: KarzuSP

—First off, congratulations on selling 400,000 copies! Did you foresee this level of success when volume 1 first went on sale?

Nakatani Nio: I wondered if it was really going to sell at all, but of course I also hoped it would because I thought it was worth drawing.

Head editor, Kusunoki Tatsuya: I knew it was going to be a hit, but I didn’t realize it would be this popular. We had to order a second printing for volume 1 right after it went on sale!

Nakatani: We were even thinking about the inevitable cancellation if it didn’t gain enough popularity. It was a big relief when the news about the second printing came in, because then I knew I could keep drawing it.

—There is a voiced PV for the manga now, right?

(Link to PV: https://youtu.be/JohoCyOiT1A)

Kusunoki: Nakatani-sensei talks all about it in the afterword of volume 2.

Nakatani: I was thrilled, but I also had trouble believing it was actually going to happen. I was sure it was going to get called off. I finally could believe it when I was in the recording studio, watching the seiyuu perform.

Kusunoki: How did it feel to hear the seiyuu say the lines you wrote?

Nakatani: It was amazing! (Laughs) It was an honor to watch seiyuu perform close up. They’re amazing. Not only can they convey slight changes in emotion with just their voices, but they can do it at the drop of a hat.

—There’s also a TV commercial, correct?

Nakatani: Sometimes it’ll come on when I’m watching anime late at night and it blindsides me! I freak out! (Laughs) I’m so embarrassed I still haven’t really watched it.

—You’ve also held three autograph sessions now.

Nakatani: There are people who have come every time, but now there are also people who tell me they’ve just started reading Yagakimi recently. I can tell it’s been two years since Yagakimi started publishing. I’m always nervous, but seeing my readers’ faces makes me really happy. A lot of fans from overseas come to them, too, which really surprises me!

Kusunoki: I’ve overseen a lot of autograph sessions, but Nakatani-sensei’s have the most overseas visitors by far. It’s quite astonishing.

Nakatani: A Chinese fan told me that Sayaka’s situation, where one girl confesses to another and they date, but then the original girl dumps her and says, “sorry, this isn’t right after all” actually happens all the time. I was like, “Really?! That often?!” (Laughs) It seems parts of the story resonate with overseas readers in a slightly different way.

Kusunoki: Right now, Yagakimi is also being published in Korean, Chinese, English, and Thai. I know the original lines by heart, so it makes reading the English version really easy. It’s a pretty good way to study English! Any students who need some help with their English should pick up the English version! (Sparkle)

Nakatani: “Senpai” is left as-is in the English version. I also noticed that “suki” is often rendered as “love.” In Japanese, “suki” is very ambiguous, and it’s easy to obscure what you may really mean with it. But in English, you have to pick between “like” and “love,” which can be hard. Oh, and I had to laugh at “Moyori Station.” The phrase “moyori eki” just means “nearest station.” It seems like the translator thought it was a proper name! (Laughs) [T/N: kek]

—What has made you happy over the past two years?

Nakatani: I’ve been happy to hear thoughts and opinions on Yagakimi from fans, and the positive response the series has gotten has made me happy, too. What makes me happiest is knowing that something I have drawn has influenced those who read it in some way. There are people who relate it to their own love lives, high schoolers who have come to Tokyo for the first time to attend an autograph session, and people who have created doujinshi or fanfiction of Yagakimi. All of that makes me happy. There was also a person who told me “Touko is my first love” at an autograph session. I was honored but embarrassed! (Laughs)

—What did you find difficult during this time?

Nakatani: Drawing people running for the sports festival was hard.

Kusunoki: You’d drawn three volumes by that point, but you found drawing people moving around hard? What are you, a beginner? (Laughs)

(Everyone laughs)

Nakatani: Sorry for the silly answer. (Laughs) Normally my characters don’t move around much, so when they do, it can be hard to transition. The play practice scenes were hard, too. Times like that, when there are a lot of people and the scene changes a lot are hard. I know this just sounds like something a beginner would complain about… (Laughs)

—What do you pay special attention to when you write your characters?

Nakatani: I think everyone goes about creating a story differently. I know there are many people who create their characters first, but I start with creating the plot. After that comes the characters necessary to tell the story. When I create each character, I clearly define their self-interests by asking myself, “What do they want to do?” I always keep their motivations and the reasons for their behavior in mind. Kusunoki-san is the one who introduced me to the idea that self-interest forms the core of a character, and I have taken it to heart.

Nakatani Nio and her head editor, Kusunoki Tatsuya, discuss Yagakimi’s characters.

—Let’s start off with Nanami Touko.

Kusunoki: She’s the character who is most different from how she initially appears. Before reading the story, she seems well put together, but as the manga progresses, you start to wonder what’s wrong with her. I’m sure a lot of other people also thought she was well put together, but she’s really just a bad senpai. When does she make you wonder what’s wrong with her?

Nakatani: All the time? (Laughs) Especially when she’s in Yuu’s room, though. Like on page 110 of volume 2, when she asks Yuu if she wants to listen to her heartbeat.

Kusunoki: She gets disappointed when Yuu feels her pulse with her wrist instead. I wonder what would have happened if it went the way Touko expected. (Laughs)

Nakatani: I try not to think too deeply when I sketch out those scenes of Touko’s. Touko is driven by emotion much more than she seems. Logic doesn’t really motivate her at all, so I let my emotions guide me in those situations. Being rational wouldn’t work.

—Now, about Yuu.

Kusunoki: People think of Yuu as the nice girl of the story. I agree with that, but I also think about how hard it must be to portray “niceness” through art.

Nakatani: The lines between kindness, apathy, and thickheadedness can be very thin.

Kusunoki: Yuu’s quite the complex character, so it makes me happy to hear people can relate to her and think she’s cute. It’s a testament to how good you are at creating characters, Nakatani-sensei.

Nakatani: Some people felt bad for Yuu during volume three, when she was having to restrain herself. Like in chapter 13, when they took shelter from the rain. But that is how Yuu wanted things, so it was sad when people were feeling sorry for her. Yuu likes how it feels to be told “I love you” just like other people, so by staying silent she was preserving that situation. Yuu thinks Touko is unfair, but Yuu can be a bit unfair herself.

—Next, Sayaka.

Kusunoki: Sayaka took kind of an antagonistic role, from Yuu’s perspective, in volumes 1 and 2. She was like Touko’s legal wife and tended to say negative things. But she comes off much differently in volumes 3 and 4, and I think a lot more people like her now.

Nakatani: I can tell a lot of people thought that Sayaka didn’t know about Touko’s real personality and believed she really was the perfect student council president she appeared to be. But at the end of volume 2 it’s shown that she does realize Touko’s weakness, and readers are given a look into her mind, too. Even though it seemed impossible for Yuu and Sayaka to ever hold a conversation at the start of the manga, once they did, it put Sayaka in a new light for some readers by showing how she can actually be quite frank with Yuu.

—Continuing on with Miyako and Riko-sensei.

Nakatani: Since I can’t really draw Touko and Yuu being all lovey dovey, I have Miyako and Riko flirt whenever they can, like when Miyako kisses Riko while she’s on the phone. (Laughs)

Kusunoki: They’ve been characters since the very first volume, but it wasn’t until volume 3 that it was revealed they are in a relationship. I had to reel in my desire to be like, “Hey, readers! There’s some yuri with adults going on right in volume 1!”

Nakatani: They’re a hit with people who like yuri with adult working women. When I asked my assistant to help with putting down basic tones and backgrounds for volume 4, they asked me, “Is it okay if I shade Riko-sensei’s boobs? Just her boobs?”

(Everyone laughs)

Kusunoki: Sounds like that assistant is a Riko-sensei fan.

Nakatani: Maybe. I said sure, anyway. (Laughs)

—On Maki Seiji-kun, who has been called the audience stand-in.

Nakatani: His original purpose wasn’t to be the readers’ self insert. Rather, I introduced him to create a contrast with Yuu’s personality. But that’s what ended up happening after I considered how he would best fit in a yuri manga.

Kusunoki: Male characters are often ignored in yuri manga. Despite that, Maki-kun is actually some people’s favorite character. He’s a good person, so even yuri lovers have accepted him as an audience stand-in.

—About Kanou Koyomi and Doujima.

Nakatani: Koyomi is an author, so I naturally relate to her the most. I have a tendency to use her as my mouthpiece, but I like how similar we are.

Kusunoki: I think Doujima has the best personality out of the entire cast.

Nakatani: I agree. He doesn’t have ulterior motives, so it’s easy to have him innocently talk about things or use him as an excuse for doing something. He’s very helpful from a writing standpoint! (Laughs)

Kusunoki: Have you considered Doujima/Maki?

Nakatani: Canno-san said the exact same thing! (Laughs)
(Referencing http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/51522471.html)

—What are your favorite scenes from volumes 1-3?

Kusunoki: Well, of course I like it when Yuu calls Touko unfair, but I also really like page 134, when Yuu asks Touko, “Just how much do you love me?”

Nakatani: Having a line get voiced makes it leave an even stronger impression, huh. My favorite scene is the french kiss at the end of volume 3. It was fun to draw, too! (Laughs)

Kusunoki: I also really like pages 160 and 161 from volume 3. You’ll see why if you compare them to pages 24 and 25 in volume 1. I think the range of expression the characters have is part of what makes Yagate Kimi ni Naru so great.

—How about from volume 4? Without too many spoilers!

Kusunoki: Well… there’s only one answer to that.

Nakatani: Chapter 20.

Kusunoki: It’s the first and (maybe) last fanservice in Yagakimi. It’s the girls in the bath, with Sayaka trying not to think lewd thoughts, and Touko right next to her, thinking lewd thoughts. Enjoy it!

Nakatani: I had fun drawing the scene right before that, with them undressing, as well as the scene with the three of them sleeping next to each other, too.

Kusunoki: I was moved to tears twice while proofreading this volume. I’d like to talk to any fans out there who react similarly to me.

Nakatani: There’s a moment in volume 4 that left me feeling pretty self-satisfied when I finished drawing it. Readers will probably easily spot it.

A second volume of the yuri anthology Eclair is being released!

—Last year (2016), the yuri anthology Eclair went on sale.

Kusunoki: I had this flash of inspiration to have some yuri authors collect a book of one-shots. It was wonderful and I’m so glad I got to work on it. It was also really stressful, but it made me so happy that didn’t matter. I wonder about myself sometimes… I had trouble deciding who should draw the cover, but decided it should be Nakatani-san since Dengeki was publishing it…

Nakatani: That was pretty scary! Artists much better than me were contributing, but I was going to be the face of the whole thing…

Kusunoki: You also drew the cover of Yuri no Sekai Nyuumon, that yuri guidebook, though! (Laughs) You were introduced as “The author taking the yuri world by storm!”

Nakatani: I can’t help but laugh at that tagline now! (Laughs) Since I was chosen to draw Eclair’s cover, I made sure to give it my all. I think I’m pretty satisfied with it, especially the way the back and front covers reveal how their relationship changes.

—It was interesting that your one-shot for Eclair, “Shiawase wa Kizu no Katachi,” had a gyaru with a bad attitude. You don’t often see that in your manga.

Nakatani: I wanted the differences in their personalities to be obvious when they were together. Kai was the quiet, reserved one, so yeah. Torii was also really caring… did that make her seem gyaru-ish?

—So, a second volume of Eclair is coming out.

Kusunoki: Indeed. In an earlier interview (http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/51536605.html) I talked with Sasaki Katsuyuki-san about how hard it is to put together an anthology. You have to keep in contact with a large number of authors and you only have a short time to get everything done, which is utterly exhausting. When we finished the first one, I decided to never do anything that stressful again… But all of that bitterness evaporated when I learned we could publish another one. (Laughs)

—Are the same authors participating?

Kusunoki: Not entirely, but many authors did return. I didn’t think there would be enough people interested in participating again to put out another anthology, but almost everyone I reached out to said they would love to. I’m thankful for that. And everyone who couldn’t participate again this time was really sad about it. They were just too busy. It’s too bad I couldn’t ask Nakatani-san to draw the cover again! (Laughs) Fly-sensei, who is already well-known for drawing fantastic yuri artwork, drew the absolutely gorgeous cover.

—Why did you subtitle it “blanche” instead of numbering it “2?”

Kusunoki: We didn’t want people to think that if there’s a 2, that means there’s a 1 they have to read first. Both Eclair and Eclair blanche are made up of one-shots, so you don’t have to read the original Eclair before blanche. I’d love if people would think of the Eclair series as a catalog of yuri they can flip through in any order to find a story they like.

—Nakatani-sensei, you drew “Itsudatte Yokogao” for it.

Nakatani: My previous one-shot was kind of twisted, so I decided to go full fluff this time. It’s a short 8 pages, so please give it a read! One-shots are kind of difficult because I don’t have time to get used to drawing the characters, but I like creating short stories so I had fun.

Kusunoki: I would also recommend Kawanami Izumi-sensei’s one-shots, one in each Eclair. She received an honorable mention for her entry in the 22nd Dengeki Comic Prize contest, and her new yuri manga, “Kago no Shoujo wa Koi wo Suru” is starting in this month’s edition of Dengeki Daioh (on sale June 27th). You should definitely check it out if you love yuri!

—There are a lot of yuri manga in Dengeki Daioh now. How does it feel to be the vanguard of that?

Nakatani: That makes me sound like I’m an army officer or something! (Laughs) I guess that’s what it looks like, but regardless, I’m just happy that there’s more yuri in the world. Even series that aren’t categorized as yuri in particular but still have yuri elements seem to be on the rise!

—What yuri manga do you recommend?

Nakatani: “Tatoe Todokanu Ito Datoshitemo” by tMnR-sensei. It’s about a girl’s one-sided love for her older brother’s wife, and three of them live together. There’s no way her feelings could ever be returned, but at the same time, I have to see how it turns out. It has a calm ambience and everyone’s feelings are portrayed with care, so I think Yagakimi fans will like it too.
I also recommend “Watashi wa Kimi wo Nakasetai” by Fumio Aya-sensei. It’s not officially yuri, but it’s a story about two girls, so I enjoy it in a yuri way. I just love how the characters have personalities that are completely contrary to how they look. The girl who acts like the perfect student is actually an awful person, and the girl who seems like a delinquent is actually a sweetheart.

Kusunoki: I second “Tatoe Todokanu Ito Datoshitemo.” I couldn’t believe I had no idea a yuri mangaka this good existed when the serialization first started! That was pretty frustrating! I am also a fan of “Watashi no Yuri wa Oshigoto desu.” I love Miman-sensei’s other work as well.
Also, Musshu-sensei, who drew a one shot for Eclair blanche, just started a new series in Dengeki Daioh called “Furidashi ni Ochiru!” I am also a big fan of Musshu-sensei, and this series is about high school girls, so I’m really excited. I’m not the editor so I don’t actually know if it’s going to have yuri, though! (Laughs) I’m looking forward to it!

—What non-manga yuri series are you currently into?

Nakatani: It’s not recent or anything, but I started playing Fate/Extra because of Fate/Grand Order. I’m playing as a girl and picked Saber as my Servant, which turns it into a yuri game. Yuri fans should definitely play Fate/Extra as the female character.

—You recently drew a cover for a novel as well, right?

Nakatani: Right. I don’t want to sound like I’m just promoting myself, but I drew the cover for Iruma Hitoma-sensei’s novel “Shoujo Mousouchuu.” I personally really enjoyed it. If you like Tokiwa Midori from Tamako Market or Yayaka from Flip Flappers, you definitely need to read it.

Kusunoki: That was really specific! (Laughs)

—Do you have anything to announce?

Kusunoki: More Yagakimi merchandise is coming soon, so keep an eye on the official Twitter account or the magazine itself for info on that. I also started using Twitter recently, so if you’re interested, please check it out.

https://twitter.com/yagakimi

https://twitter.com/kusunoki_amw

—Any final comments?

Kusunoki: I believed Yagate Kimi ni Naru was great as soon as I read the rough draft of the first chapter. My belief was proven true when volume 1 went on sale, and now, two years later, the series has reached more people than I ever thought possible. I am so incredibly happy. Of course, I want it to keep going and reach even more people. Having everyone continue to support Yagakimi would make me very happy!

Nakatani: More people are reading Yagakimi than I ever imagined, and I am so grateful for that. It seems that even people who like non-yuri romance are enjoying it, which I am very grateful for. Volume 4 is a lot of fun, but it also has some very important plot development. I hope you enjoy it!

—Thank you for your time today.