#Interview Translation

[kenmochi-toya-eng]

ROF-MAO Spice Interview Translation (May 22, 2022)

ROF-MAO is a male unit consisting four members of VTuber group "Nijisanji": Kagami Hayato, Kenmochi Toya, Fuwa Minato, and Kaida Haru, the four have been active in a wide range of activities, mainly variety shows and music on YouTube. On April 13, they released a mini-album "Crack Up!!!!" containing 6 original songs. SPICE had an exclusive interview with the busy group, which is scheduled to hold another live concert in July. We asked them about their thoughts on their activities.

――ROF-MAO was announced on October 21 last year, and on April 21, it was just half a year since its formation. Could you share with us miscellaneous thoughts about your activities so far?

Kagami: “What kind of scene will it create when we as VTubers do something akin to a live-action entertainment show?” I think this is the concept and theme of each of the videos that are being uploaded now. I feel that it is becoming more and more familiar to us, to our fans, and to the public.

――Like you're getting used to it, or it’s starting to get well received?

Kagami: Yes, that's right. I think people are starting to look at us not because we are "unusual", but because "the four of them went there!", not just fans but also non-fans are gradually acknowledging this in the past six months or so.

――I see. How about you, Kenmochi-san?

Kenmochi: At first I was filled with the fear that I would be made to give "fanservice" because it is a four man group.

――Asked to do fanservice (laughs) How was it in reality?

Kenmochi: I think I managed to get by with just a little bit of that after the reveal (laughs), also, as Prez (note: Shachō–Kagami's nickname) said, there was a strong mood of ‘new movement’ when it first got unveiled, the viewer reaction gave a sense of "Are you going to start something that is not Nijisanji-like?” However, now I feel that we were able to greatly expand the range of what can be expressed without changing the form and groundwork of "Nijisanji".

Fuwa: Personally, I’m surprised that it has already been half a year. I have been enjoying our activities with the same excitement I had when we first formed the group, and I still don't feel like I have been "active for half a year," and that is honestly it.

Kaida: For me, too, the past six months have been very hectic, and my impression is that I have become more involved with many different people. When ROF-MAO was formed, the viewers and even the four of us wondered what kind of unit it would become, but from that point on, it has become known that "ROF-MAO is this kind of unit!", this recognition of ROF-MAO as a unit is now well established. I think the past six months have only been the "prologue" of the group, and it’s been a half year for people to get to know what kind of group we are.

――What are some unforgettable things that happened during the past six months of working together? This could be something from the shows, behind the scenes, etc.

Kagami: I have a variety of special favorite times on the show. One that I particularly remember is the day when we had three outside location shoots, which was a lot of fun. Maybe I didn't mention this, but the "Go-Karting," "No Plan Drive," and "Private Boat" sessions were all shot on the same day. On a day that gave out "Let's have fun in Tokyo all day!" vibes, I was thinking “It's great to have this kind of shooting because of our activities....” in the car that Kaida-san drives.

(No Plan Drive Episode) ノープランドライブ　墨田～お台場付近

――How would Kaida-san describe your most memorable experience then?

Kaida: The Private Boat episode was so much fun that I remember every detail of the shoot. To begin with, I’m not the type of person who enjoys going out for leisure, so I don't think I would ever think of taking on a private boat in my life. Besides, after being active as a Liver for so long, I don't get to see the outside scenery as much, so that time when we took pictures while enjoying the night view was really memorable for me.

(Private Boat Episode) 【屋形船貸切】初心者の一眼レフ写真対決！

――How is it for Fuwa-san?

Fuwa: Well...like you two, I am attracted to outside shoots, partly because I don't usually go outside. I think Go-karting is the first thing that comes to mind in terms of having fun with everyone. The guest times are also a lot of fun, but I do have to pay attention whenever it is with a guest......

(Go-Kart Episode) 【クラッシュ】ゴーカートで日和ってるやついる？いねえよなぁ！？

――When it comes to guests, that reminds of syudou's times as a guest (laughs)

Fuwa: I was quite nervous that time, but I had fun doing it...

(syudou as Guest Episode) 【過去最高の緊張感】絶っっっっ対に失敗できない戦いがここにある・・・！

Fuwa: If I had to name the riskiest/most dangerous episode ever, I would have to say the "Safari Park" episode. Actually, I had to record this episode early in the morning after not being able to get much sleep because we had the "Paranormal Spot Location” shoot late at night the day before, perhaps this was the one time I was the most listless. Kaida was driving and wobbled me around, so I became even more quiet... If you are curious, please do check the episode out.

(Safari Park Episode) サファリパークで運転したら囲まれ舐められ大変なことに……

Kenmochi: If I could add a light story that hasn’t got caught on camera. But one time he fled from the shooting spot by boat at full speed, because of an urgent situation.

――By boat? (laughs)

Kenmochi: Looking back, surely it was a sort of dangerous situation, but I remember well everyone was enjoying the unexpected turn of events and it was a good time. I think it will eventually be made into a video in some form and get released. When it does, I hope you will enjoy it by all means.

Kagami: Actually that part is the one that definitely shouldn’t get released to the public.

Fuwa: Now that I think about it, we might got a little out of our mind too (laughs).

――I'll be looking forward to your weekly updates then, as it made me very curious about it. Now, on the mini-album "Crack Up!!!!" released a few days ago. Placed No.1 on the weekly album chart on both Oricon and Billboard, it was a great place to start off with.

Kagami: Honestly, there wasn’t much reaction from my surroundings to the fact that it got #1 position on Oricon and Billboard, which made me not feel special about it. Isn’t that the case with everyone? How is it?

Kenmochi: When I saw a big advertisement in front of the train station, or when I went into an anime-related store and heard our song being played, I still could feel the "Is this… for real!?” 

Kagami: That being said, there were times when I avoided going to CD stores on purpose, so I may have been completely oblivious to that.

Fuwa: You could also find huge advertisements for the album on station platforms.

Kaida: For me, it's actually the opposite. When I got a call that we had reached #1 on the Oricon and Billboard charts, I thought, "Huh? Could it be that we're actually popular?” (laughs)

Kagami: I see. It feels like the initial Spirit Gun in Yu Yu Hakusho*, it wasn’t only us, but also all the staff involved in this work, who put everything they had into this at one blow, which is why we were able to get such great results.

*(霊丸 / Spirit Gun, Yu Yu Hakusho MC’s signature move as he concentrates his Spirit Energy into his right index finger and releases it as a projectile)

――When it comes to the four of you, it seems that all of you is someone who has shown your passion for music and been actively involved in music even before the formation of ROF-MAO. Can you name one musical artist who has had the greatest influence on you and whom you respect?

Kaida: For me, it was the composer ryo, I was greatly influenced by supercell and EGOIST, including their vocalist.

Kagami: There are many artists who have influenced me, so this kind of question is difficult, but if I had to narrow it down to one person, I would say Moto Fujiwara of BUMP OF CHICKEN. Fujiwara-san is the first vocalist of a rock band that I was into in my life, so I’ll have to mention him.

Fuwa: I also have many favorite artists, but if I had to name one, it would be TAKUYA∞ of UVERworld. One time, I had the opportunity to perform at a live house as a hobby, and I heard from a staff member that he "always gives his all". I learned a lot from his attitude and stance and grew a strong admiration for him.

Kenmochi: Even though I have more opportunities to be involved with many people in the music industry now, I would say it is FLOW, with whom I had the opportunity to perform live together at last year's "Nijisanji Anniversary Eve Festival 2021”. I was able to experience firsthand how these amazing people have been working in this field for many years. In the midst of feeling like I’ve been allowed to stand on a stage that is beyond my capacity, I was shown "how to be on stage" and "where I should aim to be”.

――How did the mini-album "Crack Up!!!!" proceed in the making? Did you record the vocals while the tracks were already in the works?

Kagami: The production itself starts around the end of 2021? That was as far as I could remember.

Kaida: Vocals were basically recorded by two people at a time, with one group consisting of me and Prez (note: Shachō–Kagami's nickname) and the other group being Mochi-san (note: Kenmochi's nickname) and Fuwa-san, and so on. We would proceed in such a way that the first person that records the song would be the one to do the harmonizing, and so on.

――There are a lot of duets and harmonizing in the song, it must’ve been quite difficult?

Kagami: It was difficult.

Kaida: That’s right.

――Kaida-san also had some comical duet parts with Fuwa-san, Isn’t it?

Fuwa: When you say "duet" do you mean that part?* (the talking part in Let’s Get The Party Started!)

Let’s Get The Party Started!

――It's that part for example (laughs), it gives off all over the place feeling.

Kaida: That was me summoning "Imaginary Fuwa Minato" inside me and thinking, "Is this how he would act?" 

Kagami: Ah, I see, now that I think about it, that was recorded on a different day, wasn't it?

Kaida: That song was recorded with me and Fuwa-san in a separate group. I remember we recorded that song at a time when our schedules were quite tight.

――You have assembled a very splendid team of creators, including Q-MHz, KEYTALK's Shuto, syudou, Maeyamada Keniichi (Hyadain), Noi, and MONACA’s Keiichi Hirokawa. Did you get a chance to meet them in person for the actual recording and be given any direction?

Kaida: Everyone was present during the recording. I think it turned out to be a good recording session because they could clearly convey the passion in "this is how I would like it to be”.

Fuwa: Maeyamada-san's direction was so memorable because it’s so fast-paced. “OK!” “OK!” “OK!” It proceeds just like that. That was very interesting because the speed was totally different from the others.

――It looks like everyone was getting on board with what Maeyamada-san was seeking from the start. Now, this is not meant to be demeaning at all, but on the other hand, what song took the longest time to record?

Kagami: For me, it was “Shitteiru Tegami/Familiar Letter”.

Kenmochi:  That was the same for me.

Kagami: In a sense, this song is a literary composition that placed particular emphasis on the singing expressions. We each had our own views with Hirokawa-san's view laid out about the song, and then asked each other, "How should we do it?” We started the recording by singing the same phrase in several different patterns, using different voices and nuances, and the process ended up taking quite some time.

Kenmochi: While the other songs are energetic, this song has a slightly different flavor, so I tried various approaches to the song, such as emphasizing expressiveness in the way I sing it, and it took me a long time to grips the song.

知っている手紙

――I see. Now, please tell us one recommended song for each of the four of you from the songs included in "Crack Up!!!!".

Fuwa: I would recommend listening to any of them depending on your mood, but if I had to pick just one, I would pick "Shitteiru Tegami/Familiar Letter" 

It may seem like a follow-up from their answer (Kagami and Kenmochi's previous answers), but the interplay between the instruments, especially the guitar and bass in the second half, is really cool, so please do give it a listen!

Kenmochi: I would also choose "Shitteiru Tegami/Familiar Letter". I think this song has the "The ROF-MAO you can't grasp unless it’s through music" in it, that can't be conveyed only through ROF-MAO Cram School where we appear. I hope you will give a listen to it.

Kaida: I would have to say "Lack Hack". It is a song composed by Vocaloid P, Noi, with a very catchy intro and powerful grip in it. There are parts of the song where the notes go very high and the structure of the song was also difficult, so I practiced a lot for it at home. On the recording, I felt quite the sense of “I sang it well!”

ラックハック

――Kaida-san in “Lack Hack” is remarkably good (laughs).

Kaida: When we were recording together, Prez praised me so much that I left home with a big smile on my face (laughs).

――How about Kagami-san?

Kagami: I think it's "I wanna! You wanna!”. I simply love the song. The person who wrote this song was Shuto-san of KEYTALK, and of course I knew that he was known to be a band member with a lot of energy but I was surprised to find out later that he used to be a member of “the cabs”, and in that sense, I was deeply impressed.

ROF-MAO "I wanna! You wanna!"

――Shuto-san is well known for KEYTALK, but his work with “the cabs”(note *1) is also great, too.

Kagami: While the song is not something like the cabs, the bass right before the last chorus plays a ridiculous phrase, almost like it’s Billy Sheehan (*2).

――the Mr.Big bassist? (note *2)

Kagami: Yes, that's right (laughs) the part feels really wild as if messing around. During the recording, I was barely able to keep up with the music, and I was doing aggressive shouts from the top to the bottom, to the point where I thought, "Can I really go this far?”  It was fun to record the vocals.

the cabs: A three-member post-rock band that belonged to Zankyo Records from the mid-2000s to the early 2010s and was active with ‘te’, ‘cinema staff’, ‘mudy on the last night’, ‘highsinonasa’, ‘3nd’ etc. After the disband, Shuto focused on KEYTALK, and Kunimitsu Takahashi, who was also a member of the band, is currently working on a solo project "österreich”.

Billy Sheehan: American bassist active on the rock scene from the 1980s to the present. After playing in the Talas and David Lee Roth bands, he made his big breakthrough with Mr. Big and became the center of attention for his super plays. He is still active with various artists and is one of the greatest rock bass heroes with one of the best techniques of all time.

Kaida: When I heard Prez's chorus, I had a feeling that he really had fun recording it.

――Is there anything that you have become more conscious of or pay attention to in your daily life as you work in ROF-MAO?

Kagami: We have a regular ROF-MAO meeting about once a week, we and the staff have to come up with ideas to the point where we are all heaving with frustration to squeeze it out. It would be great if we could come up with various projects from our own ideas, so we start to look at our daily lives and think "This might be useful" or "This might be interesting”.

Fuwa: One thing I have learned in ROF-MAO is that I have to be very careful to get a good night's sleep the day before a recording session. Since the recording sessions sometimes start early in the morning and last until late at night, In fact, I have become much more conscious of this during other on-site recording sessions as well.

――You mentioned the same thing before. (On how the Safari Park episode was shot when he lack asleep)

Kagami: I think it really is such a huge deal for him. There was one time he slept really well, and he mentioned it maybe 13 times that day, "It totally feels different!!”, he kept saying it over and over (laughs).

Kaida: I get that (laughs) When Fuwa-san is listless, he looks like he could actually fall asleep in the middle of recording, so I can see it in his eyes.

――Haha (laughs) Kaida-san, do you have anything to add?

Kaida: I, the same as Prez, have started to look for ideas everywhere, and become more conscious of the video contents uploaded by creators. I also try my best not to get injured. ROF-MAO Cram School involves a lot of physical activity, so even a slight injury can prevent us from doing it at full strength. Of course, we take safety precautions during the recording, but I am very careful not to sprain or injure myself because I am the type of person who is careless and prone to it.

――How about Kenmochi-san?

Kenmochi: Something I become more conscious of, huh… I wonder... If I had to put it bluntly, I'd say that I try "not to be too conscious" of anything. I think being in this kind of showbiz industry sometimes makes you feel like you should give away your own true self for fame, but I’ll still make sure not to act too idol-like, flirty/giving fanservice, and push myself too much.

Fuwa: Like ROF-MAO’s last frontier?

Kaida: The one who wants to keep his beliefs intact and unwavering, right?

Kenmochi: Yeah, just like that.

――To wrap it up, Kuzuha & Kanae & ROF-MAO Three-Man LIVE "Aim Higher" is scheduled to be held on July 27th. I know it is still early to prepare for the event, but we would like to hear your feelings toward the live performance such as "I want to do something like this!” or “I want it to be this kind of live performance!”

Kaida: The strongest image of what I want to do is to show everyone who has supported me so far that "I can now do this!" This will be my first time performing at a live concert, and I am very excited to be able to sing on stage. I would like to experience the heat of the moment, which is something you can't understand unless you are there.

Fuwa: We ROF-MAO, Kanae, and Kuzuha are going to perform as three separate artists, so I imagined this concert as a battle of live performances. I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of performance we will have, and I hope we can give a performance that won’t lose to the other two.

――Thank you very much. Kagami-san?

Kagami: One thing I keep in mind is that it’s my defeat if the audience thinks, "It was good this time, too."

――Defeat? Why is that?

Kagami: I think we are at the point where holding live concerts in Nijisanji is now becoming the norm, in a sense. Except for Kaida-san, if the members who have the opportunity to perform on many live stages cannot excite the audience with something brand new and fresh, there won't be next time. Personally, for me, it’d be better not to consider "It was good this time too." as a passing grade. I want to aim for the live performance holding a certain sense of risk in order to go to a higher level.

――I see. And finally, how about you, Kenmochi-san?

Kenmochi: I have participated in various live performances since the early days of VTuber, and I feel that VTuber live performances have progressed rapidly. This is because not only the performers, but also all the staff behind the scenes, such as the one in charge of lighting, sound, and producers who plan the events, share the same attitude that I can sense from Prez's talk. Even the way we set up this 3-man live concert was quite aggressive, and it was the first time for the four of us to perform in a live concert. We are trying to present something new in terms of performance, and we hope to make it a new experience for the audience as well.

――Indeed, and with that, I'm sure to look forward to the July live concert! Thank you very much to all ROF-MAO members for your valuable stories today!

ROF-MAO: Thank you very much!

Interviewer ・Transcript＝ 草野虹

[berokind]

主持人：如果还有机会修改的话，你会修改哪一场戏，为什么？

兰晓龙：我也许会让伍六一进老A。

——观众鼓掌

兰晓龙：我觉得最强悍的两个男人能够在一起转一下，因为这个时候他转的结果是不由编剧左右的，他会是一个——我对他们俩都很、非常尊敬。我非常希望这两种我非常尊敬的东西碰在一起，能碰出一种能让我受益匪浅的东西。所以说我说的这个希望是完全为我。我非常自私的认为我自己考虑，就是说希望我的人生经验或者说编剧经验里面能多家这么一这么一条。

主持人：能够碰撞更加强烈的火花。

兰晓龙：对。

主持人：啊，当然，你的这个假设显然是得到了我们观众的普遍认可，是吧？要不然有那么经久不息的掌声。

兰晓龙：我没想到这么经久不息。

——观众鼓掌

主持人：所以说啊，这又是一条经验。你看看，虽然没有改，但是这个经验已经给你了。如果这么去改的话，大家一定喜欢。

Host: If you had the chance to make changes, which scene would you modify, and why? Lan Xiaolong: I might have Wu Liuyi join Old A. —Audience applauds— Lan Xiaolong: I think it would be interesting to see these two men—the strongest of the bunch—come together. At that point, the outcome wouldn’t be something the writer could control. I have immense respect for both of them. I really hope that these two qualities I deeply admire could collide and create something that would benefit me greatly. So, this hope of mine is entirely selfish—it’s for my own sake. I’m thinking purely from my own perspective, hoping to add another layer to my life experience or my experience as a screenwriter. Host: It would create even more intense sparks, right? Lan Xiaolong: Right. Host: Well, of course, your idea has clearly won the audience’s approval, hasn’t it? Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such long-lasting applause. Lan Xiaolong: I didn’t expect the applause to be so overwhelming. —Audience applauds— Host: So, this is another lesson. Look, even though you haven’t actually made the change, the idea has already been planted. If you were to make this change, everyone would definitely love it.

FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW CLICK HERE.

3 YEARS LATER: 《MY CHIEF AND MY REGIMENT》

THE LONG AWAITED COLLISION OF WU LIUYI AND YUAN LANG FINALLY THERE, IN THE FORM OF YU XIAOQING AND LONG WENZHANG:

sparks✨....

[maxedes]

max verstappen on sky germany post-race, monaco 2025

translation:

interviewer: how was it?

max: not a lot going on. very boring, i‘m a little bit glad it‘s over.

interviewer: what has made your life hardest today?

max: sitting in the car for so long.

[violentdelightshavevioletends]

“Dain is just an imperfect 21-year-old kid who trusted his dad, and is a little over-protective telling his chronically ill friend to sit the fuck down.”

[room-surprise]

New Ryoko Kui interview dropped!!!

(This is a quick and dirty translation made using machine translation, and which I've lightly edited to add clarity. I'm not fluent in Japanese so I may have gotten things wrong. I'm sure others will do a better job later.

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT: This article is from a Japanese gaming magazine, like the previous interview in Famitsu, so they focus on video games and don't discuss other influences, even though they do get mentioned and are clearly pretty major.)

Kui was able to write "Dungeon Meshi" because she was not good at eating food and participating in human relationships. In this interview, we dig deeper into the influence of games, and how Ryoko Kui focuses on things she likes and dislikes while writing. [Writers of the Gaming Generation]

Dungeon Meshi.

This manga is attractive for its unique theme of "dungeons, defeating monsters in the labyrinth, and cooking them," as well as the unique characters, detailed human relationships, and deep worldview depicted in the labyrinth. It is currently being made into an anime, and adventurers from all over the world are fascinated by the world of "Dungeon Meshi."

So I thought , "I wonder if this work was drawn by someone who loves food and people." The depiction of such delicious-looking food and the construction of delicate human relationships and characters. Surely, it must have been drawn by someone who absolutely loves it.

However, in reality, the author, Kui Ryoko, says that she "is not good at either food or relationships."

So why was he able to continue drawing things she was not good at?

During the roughly 10 years of serialization, Kui has continued to confront "things she dislikes." This interview delves into Kui's unique creative techniques... and at the same time, it also delves into her "favorite things."

That's the "game"!

Those who are familiar with the subject may already know this, but Kui is also a big gamer. And it seems that "Dungeon Meshi" is heavily influenced by RPGs such as "Wizardry."

As a result, this interview turned out to be "I asked Kui a lot about her likes and dislikes." Likes and dislikes. They are the source of all interests and curiosity.

So how do we use this knowledge in our creative endeavors? How does this knowledge manifest itself in Dungeon Meshi?

How were those charming characters and the deep world created? We spoke to the original author, Kui Ryoko, and the editor, Masaru Hiroi, about things they could only talk about after the series was completed.

This is a game with the volume of a great labyrinth. I hope you will explore it all the way to the final floor!

Dungeon food. It's eat or be eaten. There is no superior or inferior, to eat food is simply a privilege of the living. Dungeon food. Ah, dungeon food.

First, I want to ask about how Kui first encountered video games.

--What are some influences from games in Dungeon Meshi? What was your first game, Ms. Kui?

Ryoko Kui (hereinafter referred to as Kui): I played traditional RPGs such as [blank?] and "Final Fantasy."

I think the first game console I ever played was a Famicom, which my parents won in a lottery . So before I knew it, we had a Famicom at home. I think my parents bought me the Super Famicom and PS1 after that...

After that, I took a break from games for a bit around the time of the PS2, but around the time of the PS4, I was finally able to buy games with the money I had earned myself .

--Why were you able to stay away from games around the time of the PS2?

Kui: I was too busy with exams, so I thought, "Well, I shouldn't be playing games," and left. When I started living alone after that, I couldn't play games because I didn't have a TV. My computer was also a Mac. [Macs aren't compatible with many games.]

--What was the trigger that made you think, "I want to play games" again?

Kui: I think the biggest thing was starting the serialization of "Dungeon Meshi."

Fantasy stories all have different settings, but at the same time, there are also things they share in common. For example, if you want to create a fantasy work, but you only know "Dragon Quest," it will end up resembling "Dragon Quest." It's scary to copy the setting of only one work.

So I just wanted to play a ton of different fantasy games and get an idea of ​​what the most common general understanding of fantasy is.

--Did you start playing it while you were still developing the concept for Dungeon Meal?

Kui: That's right. If I'm going to talk about "eating food," I have to play a game that has a system for eating food .

So I was interested in "Dungeon Master." However, at the time there was no easy way to play "Dungeon Master" on a real machine, so I played "Legend of Grimrock", which can also be played on a Mac.

["Dungeon Master," is a computer RPG released in 1987. Time passes each time you take an action in the dungeon, such as moving, fighting, or resting, so its biggest feature is that the game progresses in real time according to the player's actions. "Legend of Grimrock," is an action RPG released in 2012. It has a game design similar to "Dungeon Master."]

Until then, I had felt that overseas games and games played on PC were too difficult, but I felt like I had overcome one obstacle there. I thought, "Oh, this is pretty easy," and started playing a lot of different games.

-- Those two games are quite heavy even among RPGs, I think, so did you actually have that much difficulty with them?

Kui: No...I would say that my impression is more that best-selling games are easy to play (laughs).

I'm not that good at games myself, so I usually play games that allow you to adjust the difficulty on a super easy setting. So, games that allow you to lower the difficulty are always a lifesaver.

-- I've heard that apart from RPGs , you also like games such as "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" and "Paranomasite FILE23: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo ." Do you have a favorite genre, Mr. Kui?

Kui: I guess I'm just not very good at games that require you to use your brain through trial and error.

But in RPGs, if you just level up and keep tapping, you can win and progress in the game. Also, in novel-type games, if you read the text, you can progress. By this process of elimination, I quite like RPGs and text-based games .

Personally, I like games like Disco Elysium the most, which are text-heavy, top-down, and have maps to explore.

...Even I think that's a pretty negative reason (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Hiroi Masaru (hereinafter referred to as Hiroi): But, Ms. Kui, you have really played quite a lot of games, haven't you?

Kui: No, the reason I'm able to play so much is because I play in a pretty callous way ...

I often buy a game, play it, and then just don't play it. So there aren't that many games I complete... I only complete a few a year. I play around 40 games, and if I complete 5 or 6, that's good.

When I asked if I could draw at Comitia, I got scolded.

-- Have you had any exposure to fantasy outside of digital RPGs?

Kui: I think it's not just games, but also the fact that I've always loved foreign fantasy novels . I was given books like "The Neverending Story," "The Lord of the Rings," and "The Chronicles of Narnia."

-- Dungeon Meshi gives off an atmosphere of Western fantasy like gamebooks or tabletop RPGs, rather than the typical Japanese fantasy games like Dragon Quest.

Hiroi: I think I went to Kui's house before the series started. At that time, we were discussing the name of a sci-fi manga called "Drawing Inside the Brain," which I had rejected many times.

Ms. Kui said she wanted to serialize this sci-fi manga... and when he was on the fourth draft, he said, "No, this isn't going to work," and when I looked at the scribbled notes next to her desk, she had already drawn the original version of "Dungeon Meshi" ! (laughs)

Kui: ……………No, I don't remember much (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: But I had wanted to draw a manga about exploring a dark dungeon, like Wizardry .

Since I was in elementary school, the manga I drew in pencil in my notebooks were all fantasy stories about swords and magic, so I had always wanted to draw a proper fantasy manga. However, there weren't as many fantasy manga in bookstores at the time as there are now, so I wondered, "Maybe fantasy doesn't sell."

Hiroi: At the time, there were a lot of people in their teens and twenties posting fantasy illustrations on online communities for artists, such as pixiv, and Kui was one of them.

I thought, there are so many people who want to write fantasy, so if she writes a fantasy aimed at this generation, it might sell.

And when I saw Kui's notes, I thought to myself, "Let's make a straight-forward fantasy manga, without making it weirdly twisted."

Kui: I originally thought of making this "dungeon exploration manga" as just a hobby... When I asked Hiroi if I could draw it at Comitia first, he got angry.

[Comitia is a comics convention in Japan for original self-published comics.]

Everyone: (laughs).

Hiroi: I said, "If you're going to draw at Comitia, then make sure you draw it as a proper serialization!" (laughs)

However, at that time, Kui had already published two collections of short stories, and they were being reprinted. In other words, she had a certain number of fans even before the serialization began.

So I decided, if Kui creates a pure fantasy for those fans, we can't fail badly. If it doesn't work, we'll just learn that fantasy is difficult to sell after all.

--By the way, were there any discussions between you and Ms. Kui about the fact that fantasy doesn't sell?

Kui: I remember vaguely talking about how fantasy manga doesn't sell well and how difficult it seems. I don't know much about light novels, so that might have been there for a while.

However, since a lot of fantasy manga were coming out around the same time, it was probably a "transitional period ." Maybe it was just when people started to feel more and more like they wanted to draw and read fantasy.

Not everyone is that interested in the things I like

-- I feel that "Dungeon Meshi" is a title that has breathed new life into the fantasy genre. How did you go about creating the setting and world when dealing with fantasy?

Kui: I try to think, "Not everyone is that interested in the things I like."

I like to think about pointless settings endlessly, but there are times when I think , "When this setting is actually made into a manga, people probably won't be interested in this story." So I try to include things that will make people interested, and cut out things that will distract people as much as possible.

For example, in "Dungeon Meshi" I initially wanted everyone to speak various languages. On top of that, I wanted to make the characters "only able to communicate with each other in one language"... but Mr. Hiroi said "Don't do that" (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: Even when I'm drawing it myself, I think, "It takes more than six panels to explain this setting...", and if I explain the setting more than necessary, it slows down the pace of the story.

Moreover, since "Dungeon Meshi" was a monthly serialization, unlike a weekly series, there wasn't much time for extraneous stories. Specifically, I had to draw one episode of about 30 pages per month.

In that case, there was no time to add in settings like "Actually, he was thinking about this behind the scenes" or "Actually, he can speak two languages." So, rather than there being any clear choices, there were quite a few times when "there was no time to do things normally." If it had been a weekly serialization, I might have included more.

--Does the scene where Chilchuck yells insults in his own language feel rather "forced"?

Kui: That's right (laughs).I thought, this only takes one frame...it's my chance [to include information about language]!

--So you haven't thought through all of these "fictional languages" yet?

Kui: If Dungeon Meshi were to be my life's work and I were to spend my whole life creating this world, I think it would be more fun to think about it...but initially, I thought that Dungeon Meshi would end in a few years.

Hiroi: Initially, I said, "It'd be nice if it continued for about five volumes" (laughs).

However, Kui's first draft really had a lot of material... so the editors cut out a lot of it. I understand that it's the parts the readers want to read, but I cut out the parts that deviate from the main story. So it's a battle between the "author who doesn't want to be cut" and the "editor who wants to cut."

--By the way, what kind of discussion took place between the "parts you want to cut" and the "parts you don't want to cut"?

Kui: There were a lot of them every time, but I can't remember them specifically now...it was just small, unimportant details that got cut.

In the scene where the hams made by the Red Dragon go back into the pool of blood, I remember saying, "You don't need these," and they were about to cut them off, but I remember desperately stopping them by saying, "We'll need them later!" I'm glad they weren't cut off.

But once I think of the setting, I want to include things, and then they get cut out, so at first I didn't want to expand the world too much.

I also wanted to complete the story within the dungeon. I didn't want to reveal the name of the country, and I didn't want to give the characters surnames. But in the second half, Hiroi-san told me, "The world is too small, so you should make it bigger," and I was like, "Are you sure?"

--Mr. Hiroi, why did you say that?

Hiroi: As the story progressed, it became clear that "Dungeon Meshi" was no longer just about saving a sister in a dungeon. So I decided that it would be unconvincing if the story had no involvement with the outside world, since what was happening in the dungeon was something that would affect the fate of the whole world.

For example, in real life companies, the more important a decision you make, the higher your superior's rank becomes, right? When I thought about it that way, I felt something was off about the idea of ​​Laios and his friends deciding the fate of the world on their own. "How can they make that decision without anyone knowing about it?"

The fact that the Canary Team was there meant that there must have been a system of reporting, contacting, and consulting here, because that's how "society" and "organizations" work.

In short, I think we were thinking about the situation and asking, "If an organization were to get involved in saving the world, how persuasive could they make it given the society that exists in the story?"

Kui: Well, the plot hasn't changed at all.

From the beginning, I had intended to write a story about saving the world, but I also thought it was possible for the world to be saved by only a select few people in the dungeon who knew the circumstances. Changing it was what Hiroi-san thought would make it more persuasive.

When I was drawing the first half, Hiroi told me, "You don't have to decide anything yet." I was in a hurry to move the story forward and explain the world and story setting, but he told me, "It's better to limit it to introducing the four main characters until about the fourth volume." But in the second half, he said, "Introduce more people and expand the world."

Everyone: (laughs).

Hiroi: Kui-san was like , "That's not what you said originally!" (laughs) But both had meaning...

Kui: I was the one saying, "If we expand the world there, the story will never end, right...?"

After drawing it through to the end, I realized that the balance between holding back and expanding didn't work the way I had expected. I think this is one of the reasons why the serialization of "Dungeon Meshi" took so long.

-- But there are a lot of characters in "Dungeon Meshi," and the relationships between them are complicated. I heard that you also created the relationship diagram for "Taikaishu" [※3] ...

Kui: No, I haven't made one [I didn't do that?]!

[Taikaishu is a full-color web comic by Funako Tsukasa that began serialization on a website in 2005 and is still ongoing. Its unique worldview has earned it a loyal fanbase, especially on the Internet.]

-- Eh? Is that not the case?

Kui: To be precise, I just created an account on the fan wiki.

When I started reading "Taikaishu," I struggled with the complex setting and the large number of characters...and I thought "it would be easier to read if there was an explanation or a list of characters."

So I searched for a bulletin board where readers were sharing their thoughts and asked if there was a summary, but they said there wasn't. So I thought, "Maybe if there was a place where someone with more knowledge could summarize it," and I just made a wiki account.

So I didn't actually edit it. It seems like I've been given credit for someone else's work, and I'm sorry about that...

Dungeon Meshi was created from a sense of guilt about food?

-- "Dungeon Meshi" started off with the catchy theme of "cooking monsters," but little by little the darker aspects and deeper world were revealed. Was the structure of "little by little revealing the darker side" something you had in mind from the beginning?

Kui: I thought I needed a theme to serialize it so I thought I'd try "food education." There were a lot of gourmet manga at the time, but I felt like there weren't many that focused on food education.

-- Considering that the theme is "food education," it makes sense that the nutritional value of the dishes in the story is clearly written down.

Kui: With the theme of "food education," I also thought up a rough outline of the story. Rescue the kidnapped princess, defeat the evil wizard, defeat the final boss, and become king... the framework is pretty simple.

But when I actually tried to proceed with the plan, I realized, "No, this story can't be done so lightly..." At first, I thought I could draw it in a more light-hearted manner.

Hiroi: At first, you were trying to finish the fight against the Red Dragon in one episode, right? I was like, "is that possible?" (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: When I tried to actually tell it in one episode, it ended up feeling like a very brief summary... In order to tell the story I wanted to tell, I had to tell it more thoroughly than I originally thought.

-- Did you have any special thoughts about the theme of "food"?

Kui: No... well... if I had to choose, I'd say I have a strong grudge against food.

Since I was a child, I was a very picky eater, and mealtimes were a pain for me. I hated eating in front of other people, and there was a time when I hated seeing other people eating, so I would look for toilets that were rarely used and eat my meals in the toilet.

When I was doing it, the word "toilet meal" didn't exist, so when the term actually appeared in society I was so happy, thinking "everyone was doing it!"

[Toilet Meals are a social phenomenon in Japan.]

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: I was thinking, "This is so terrible, right...?" but it was a relief to realize that other people were doing the same thing.

--So what made you choose the theme of "food education"?

Kui: My parents, who were struggling with my picky eating, taught me many things, including the "triple eating" method, but it was no use and I continued to be a picky eater into adulthood. My parents had instilled knowledge about food education in me, but I was not able to put it into practice.

[Kui might be talking about Triangular Eating but I'm not sure.]

So the only thing that remains is that I feel an enormous amount of guilt when it comes to food and eating...

Hiroi: If you think about it objectively, the series starts off on a very negative note.

Kui: But now I've gotten over the habit of eating with other people... or rather, I've come to like it. My editor takes me to lots of delicious places.

--When I was a student, I was trying to leave my udon bowl at school, but my teacher found out and made me eat the packet of udon by myself. There was no soup, and it was really hard to eat the udon by itself.

Kui: It must be tough. I tried to hide it, but my teacher found out and I got really angry.

Hiroi: I've tried to hide it in a drawer before. Then, something dried up came out of the drawer... (laughs bitterly).

How can I draw things I hate?

-- Or rather, is it the fact that you're not good at it that gives you a higher level of insight into the food?

Kui: I think it's because you're interested in it that you either like it or dislike it. Inevitably, you spend a lot of time thinking about it.

Since "Dungeon Meshi" depicts a lot of food, one might think "Do I like eating?", but in fact there are many times when I draw it because I dislike something .

--Aside from food, do you also draw things that you dislike?

Kui: Maybe. For example, human relationships, modern times, fashion...?

-- Perhaps the relationships between the characters in "Dungeon Food" are portrayed so delicately because the author is not good at dealing with human relationships?

Kui: I've always been very curious about things like, "(This person is usually so cold, but has such a charming smile in front of other people)" ...

I feel the same way, but I think people are different in the way they show their true colors. I think it's strange that it stands out to me...

-- I have a simple question. When you draw something you hate, how do you feel? No matter how much you hate something, do you find it fun to draw it?

Kui: The events in the manga don't directly involve me, so I don't dislike the things I'm drawing as much. Also, when I draw while looking for the good parts, it can lead to new discoveries.

Also, I think it's scary to draw only what I like.

In my work, the important thing is "what to capture with the camera," and there's no need to go out of your way to capture filthy things, but at the same time, I think the world will look bigger if you keep in mind that "there are a lot of inconvenient, dirty, and unpleasant things outside the camera." That's the feeling I have when I paint/create manga.

When playing a game, if I have to choose between a game where I only feel like I'm in the world inside the game screen, and a game where I feel like there are lots of people living on the other side of the screen, and that the people in that world could travel anywhere they wanted, I think the latter is more fun to play.

I'm always thinking about how to express that "sense of the vastness of the world" ...and I personally like games that have "a world" to them.

-- Do you ever incorporate elements from the game into your manga?

Kui: On the contrary, I think that is a part that cannot be adopted .

The best thing about games is that each person has a different experience. Games that have lots of endings are also a result screen for what you've done up until that point. When I see something like that, I think, "That's so cool."

Personally, I think that's the game's greatest appeal, and something that could never be replicated in a manga that doesn't have players.

If you're so busy, when do you play games?

-- I'm personally curious, how do you find the time to play games? Even though you're busy with your work as a manga artist, you play quite a lot of games.

Kui: I often use the Steam Deck before going to bed or during breaks between writing manuscripts. In fact, I almost only use the Steam Deck now. I keep it by my pillow, so I can take it and play before going to sleep, or during breaks...

--Is Steam Deck really that convenient?

Kui: I recommend it. The screen is small, but it can run Cyberpunk 2077 .

Also, personally, I've gotten tired of having to turn on my PC to start up a game...with Steam Deck, I can just turn it on and it starts up instantly, even when I'm lying down. How do you writers usually play games? There are times when you have to play games for work, aren't there?

--When it comes to work, I calculate backwards how long I'll be playing before I start playing...If it's a game that can be completed in about 60 hours, I usually estimate that I'll play for 3 hours a day and complete it for 20 days in a row.

Hiroi: It's a lot of work!

Kui: That's amazing... You really are a gamer.

I've always thought that I have a talent for playing games ... but I'm not really good at that. If I'm given a game that's a little difficult, I get tired of it right away, and I'm not very good at trial and error. The range of things I can enjoy is very narrow.

I wonder if game developers around the world are also struggling with the question of "Should I make my games accessible to a wide range of people, even those who aren't particularly gamers?" or "Should I make games that are challenging and can be played deeply?" The same problem exists with manga, too.

When there's a game that I can't play well, I feel happy because it means the creator decided that there's no need to pander to people who can't keep up.

-- By the way, when you play games, do you do it as a normal "hobby"? Or do you play more often to find material for your manga?

Kui: Of course, a big part of it is that I play games as a hobby, but it is alleviated by the fact that playing games might be useful for my work (laughs).

Even if I'm not that interested in a game, if I think "it might be useful for work," I'll find the courage to buy it, and no matter how expensive a gaming PC is, I can still buy it if I think of it as a work tool. So the hurdles for many things related to games are lowered for the reason that it's "for work."

--So, when you read manga, do you feel like you're reading it for work?

Kui: In my case, manga has become my job, so when I read it I can't help but think of work.

However, I still enjoy gaming as a hobby . That's why I don't want to lose this hobby... and I don't think I'll be able to enjoy it as much if I get involved in games as a job, so I don't take on any games-related jobs.

Does the depth of the world come from the fact that it is "not decided"?

-- I heard in advance that "Dungeon Meshi" was written with a clear awareness of "what should be explained" and "what shouldn't be explained," so could you tell me more about that?

Kui: Having read a variety of fantasy novels and games, I thought that the "moment of discouragement" was the "repeated use of foreign words." When you write something like "XX of XX of XX," if there are three or more katakana characters, there is a high chance that it will be skipped over by Japanese readers.

That's why I try to refer to town names as "the neighboring town" whenever possible, and refer to characters who appear in flashbacks as "uncle" rather than by their full names, so that readers can understand without having needing exposition.

The magic used during battles in "Dungeon Meshi" is depicted in such a way that you can "understand what kind of magic it is just by looking at the picture."

-- What other aspects of Dungeon Meshi are there that you deliberately left out of its concrete settings?

Kui: Numbers and language are the settings I avoided touching. For example, just by deciding the month of birth, it is first determined that there is a moon in this world. From there, it is also determined that there is gravity.

What's more, just the concept of a "birthday" means that there is a division into a "year" and that the world is determined to have a 365-day cycle. It quickly becomes complicated.

But on the other hand, if I were to set the details and make it something like "This country's currency is 1 gold, which is worth 5 yen," it would be a burden on the reader. When reading the work, the reader would be forced to convert it into "1 gold = 5 yen" in their minds every time. That's why I try to write it with "readability as a priority" as much as possible.

However, if you're creating a "fantasy" in the truest sense of the word, it would be better to create something that corresponds to that world's calendar or metric system in order to really immerse yourself in that world, so it's difficult to get the balance right...

-- I think that style of "deliberately not giving explanations" is quite amazing.

Hiroi: I think that 's definitely partly because "Dungeon Meshi" is a silly title.

The "mindset" of the reader is a little different...I think that from the very beginning, the reader is made to recognize that "this work isn't going to say anything too difficult."

Kui: Also, we had to give a bit of thought to coming up with the character names.

For example, the main characters in Wizardry are given names that correspond to their professions, such as "Warrior" or "Wizard." The "Senshi" in Dungeon Meshi was taken from that ... I named him after thinking, "I want that person to play an active role."

That's why I wanted the overseas version of Senshi's name to be "Fighter", but I was worried that overseas readers would be like, "What does that mean...!?" so I kept it in my head.

--The character names in "Dungeon Meshi" tend to be around 3 or 4 letters long and fit nicely.

Kui: If the name gets too long, it won't fit in the speech bubble...It's generally said that a line in a speech bubble should be about 7 to 8 characters long to be easy to read.

So "Chillchuck" is really long... I actually thought that the abbreviation "Chill" could be used more, so I named it that way, but it didn't work out so well, so in the end I just kept calling it "Chillchuck". Even I was thinking "that's long" while drawing it (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: Anyway, there are quite a few manga-like circumstances where "maybe four characters would be enough."

--By the way, are there any rules for naming the characters in "Dungeon Meshi"?

Kui: It's not detailed, but there are "settings within the story" and "meta-settings that are just for my own enjoyment."

For example, [if Dungeon Meshi was a game] the Shuro party has names that would be given by a certain type of player. When playing a games, some people give their characters themed names that follow self-imposed rules. In that sense, meta-wise, the Shuro party is played by a player who names their characters with a plant-based restriction.

Also, since the player likes girls, the party members are all girls, and so on... (laughs).

Hiroi: Oh, I didn't know that!

Kuon: ...While it's fun for myself, I also create characters by asking questions like, "Why is the party mainly made up of women?" or "Why do they all have similar names?"

However, even if I revealed these settings in the story, it wouldn't have made the story any more interesting, so they are merely "settings that only exist in my own mind."

-- What are some specific examples of "settings that you deliberately didn't reveal"?

Hiroi: I still remember when I said, "I want you to depict the elven kingdom in more detail," Kui replied, "That's going too far."

The dwarven country was depicted quite a bit, so I personally thought it could have been shown a little more...

Kui: I felt that if I depicted that, it would limit the reader's imagination.

There are definitely "lines that suggest something might happen," and when it comes to parts that are better left to the reader's imagination, I often choose not to draw them.

Also, even when we present settings that readers think they can just skim through, they often try hard to remember them...

It all started with the manga "Eating soba through your nose."

--Let's go back to the topic a little. How did Ms. Kui and Mr. Hiroi meet?

Hiroi: I think we scouted her.

I saw a short story that Kui had posted on Pixiv and sent him an email asking if I would like to draw a manga. I remember that he had a really funny four-frame manga called "Eating soba noodles through your nose ." It was about a character eating soba noodles through his nose and crying out in pain... I think I was drawn to his drawing ability, which made me feel like "Wow, that looks painful" when I saw it (laughs).

And from that point on, we have come to this point.

[This may not be the exact comic that Hiroi is talking about, but it's a comic Kui posted on her blog about someone eating soba through their nose.]

Kui: Oh, is that so? Isn't it something like "Shugaku Tenshi" [※4] ?

Hiroi: No, that's not true! The manga about eating soba noodles through the nose was made before "Shingaku Tenshi". By the way, that manga was planned to be published in "Rakugakihon" , but when I asked Kui-san "Can I publish this?", she was very against it...

Kui: No, that's fine, but... I didn't think other people would find it that interesting.

Everyone: (laughs).

Hiroi: But that was more than 10 years ago...

--By the way, was Mr. Hiroi the first publisher to contact you?

Kui: Before that, an editor at East Press had contacted me. I was originally publishing fantasy manga that I had drawn as a hobby on my personal website. I compiled them into a self-published original comic and exhibited it at Comitia, and they asked me, "Would you like to publish this long manga as a book?"

However, after the editor asked around to various people, it seems he was told that "this will be hard to sell"... so the plan was dropped. Instead, it was decided to release a "short story collection" of short manga that had been published at the same time . This is "The Dragon's School is on the Mountain: A Collection of Works by Ryoko Kui" published by East Press.

I was contacted by a few other people as well, but the two people I still keep in contact with are Mr. Hiroi and the editor at East Press.

-- When you went from drawing short stories and web comics to starting a commercial serialization, did you study anything like "how to draw a serialized work"?

Kui: I learned almost everything about how to draw manga from Mr. Hiroi and the editors and writers at Harta .

I had absolutely no understanding of whether panel layout was good or bad, so up until the middle of the serialization, I would rearrange the storyboards one panel at a time, and I would get lectured like "Don't put a panel like this here."

I was also impressed when I was shown original manuscripts by other artists. They look beautiful in print, but the real thing is even more impressive. This is what it means to be good at drawing manga.

It didn't finish as I expected

-- Speaking of "serialization," you mentioned earlier that you initially intended to end it at about volume 5. Did "Dungeon Meshi" continue longer than you had anticipated, Ms. Kui?

Kui: First of all, I didn't really understand what a "serialized" comic meant, so I didn't even know how much of a story I could get done in how many pages. So, I thought I could wrap up the story nicely in about five years, in five volumes.

But I never quite got around to finishing it. It was so hard... (laughs).

Hiroi: To be honest, when I first heard "Volume 5,"I thought to myself, "(Are you kidding me...?)" I didn't say it out loud though (laughs).

--Honestly, even as a reader, around the time of the fight with the Red Dragon in volumes 4 and 5 I was starting to feel like, "Huh? It seems like it's coming to an end soon..."

Kui: From the beginning, my goal was to "defeat the Red Dragon at the halfway point." However, I was supposed to fight the Red Dragon in Volume 4, even though it was supposed to be 5 volumes. So I thought, "Huh? It's not over yet," and I gradually lost interest.

By the time I got to around volume 10, I felt like no matter how much I drew, it would never end. I didn't want to drag it out, but no matter how much I drew, it just never seemed to finish.

Hiroi: Even from an editor's perspective, it seemed like Kui was getting very anxious from around volume 10 onwards.

-- Having finished the long-running serialization of "Dungeon Meshi," did you experience any changes in your mindset?

Kui: I think it was great to have the experience of learning that it would take 10 years to draw a story of this scale. And when I think about my lifespan and how many more works I can draw... it makes me dizzy.

Hiroi: I feel like I'm constantly fainting...

-- Ms. Kui, are there still any works you want to draw in your mind?

Kui: Not that much. But I love drawing manga, so I want to draw a lot. I don't know if I'll have the stamina to continue for another 10 volumes, but I want to continue working as a manga artist somehow.

But maybe... I don't think it will sell that well next time...

Hiroi: Stop! Don't say that!

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: In that respect, "Dungeon Meshi" sold well, so I was able to draw what I had imagined to the end. Next time, I think it would be better to consider the opposite scenario of "if it doesn't sell" and make it shorter.

That's the next new challenge.

-- In addition to the expectations for your next work, do you feel any pressure?

Kui: In my case, the first collection of short stories I published was fairly well received. For a manga I drew for the first time, that's about it.

That was a relief, but at the same time, I felt that "Ideally, the reputation of my next work will also steadily increase, but there will definitely be ups and downs." If the reputation of the next work is bad, will I be able to continue drawing without getting discouraged? I realized that the "battle with myself" had just begun , and I was terrified when I read the first volume.

What game has cute illustrations, in your opinion?

Kui: This is a completely different topic, but you 've played SaGa Frontier 2 , haven't you? Aren't the pixel art in SaGa Frontier 2 really cute?

--The pixel art in SaGa Frontier 2 is...the best!

Kui: The illustrations in "SaGa Frontier 2" have such exquisite balance... if you try to express that in a picture, you can't reproduce that cuteness. It's like "exquisite head-to-body ratio."

-- In your opinion, Ms. Kui, are there any games that have cute illustrations?

Kui: The first one that comes to mind is definitely SaGa Frontier 2. Also, I still remember how cute the character designs were in Final Fantasy Tactics.

But back in the day, I used to trace characters from FF7 . I thought, "There are so many cool designs in the world..." (laughs).

Hiroi: Nomura (Tetsuya)'s drawings are amazing, aren't they?

Kui: I traced Cloud and Aerith on tracing paper and quietly said to myself, "So cool..." and got really excited. I noticed something while I was working on the "Dungeon Meshi" anime...basically, games and anime are made by many people, aren't they? So I always thought, "Many people must be giving various opinions to make them."

But when I got involved, I realized that one person's power is quite large. This was quite surprising. I thought that there were multiple people who wrote the script and storyboards, and that each person had their own responsibility, but... the power of one person is quite large.

──No matter how much the work is divided up, it's important to have a director or supervisor who brings it all together.

Kui: Yes, in the end, it depends on the power of the person who takes the lead ...

However, at the same time, I think that the division of labor between scriptwriting and storyboarding is something that would never be possible with manga. In the end, you have to create everything in one person's mind, so "bias" inevitably arises. So personally, I don't like the idea of ​​it becoming a "world created in one person's mind."

Hiroi: However, not only in manga but also in novels, the individual author's personality is strongly expressed. I wouldn't go so far as to say "ideology"... but the person's way of thinking is strongly expressed.

Kui: Speaking of which, people who create games alone, such as indie games, are amazing.

It's often said that manga artists "come up with everything, from the art to the story, all by themselves," but I don't think they can compete with independent game creators who create the music, programming, and art all by themselves.

Moreover, even more than manga, no one can give their opinion until the game is completed. If you think about it that way, making a game by yourself is really a "one-man battle." At the same time, what I like about games is that there are quite a few "works that are not made with much consideration for cost" ... I enjoy it a little bit.

-- Do you ever think, "I want to make a game?"

Kui: I once bought RPG Maker , but it ended up being a complete failure... (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Love for "classic RPGs" was a major influence on "Dungeon Meshi"

-- I'd like to ask you, Ms. Kui, since you play a lot of titles on Steam and other platforms, have you ever had any problems playing a game?

Kui: Simply put, a "game that doesn't work" is a problem (laughs).

This sometimes happens with games made by individuals on Steam... they don't have any reviews, so there's no way to deal with it other than contacting them directly. There have been a few times when I've been stuck and wondered, "What should I do?"

Other times, I'll buy a title that just happens to pop up at the top of Steam's rankings. Sometimes I'll play it thinking, "The graphics are kind of cute, so I'll give it a try," only to find that it's incomplete beyond the framework.

--So now people are playing titles that aren't that major.

Kui: Also, when I played Planescape: Torment, which is said to have influenced Disco Elysium.

While playing, I came across a character who was suffering from a terrible curse that made his whole body smell and become sticky. A quest was triggered to ask the NPC who had cast the curse to lift it, but when I asked them to lift the curse, I ended up being cursed with a curse that made me have constant hiccups ...

So when I was walking around the town, the "hiccup" dialogue started popping up all the time. What's more, every time it happened, I would freeze up for about 0.1 seconds. All the dialogue was filled with "hiccups." Anyway, it was a troubling curse.

I had no idea how to deal with this either, so I decided to just kill the NPC who had put the curse on me. The NPC also challenged me by saying, "Maybe if you kill me, the curse will be lifted?", so I tried killing him, but... it didn't lift the curse at all (laughs).

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: I thought maybe the quest would progress in other places, so I walked around here and there, but the curse was not lifted after all. I was really curious, so I looked back at overseas information exchange thread online, and I found someone had written a lecture that said "You know what happens if you kill an important NPC without thinking about it, right?"

So I realized that this curse can never be lifted again. Even if I wanted to rewind, it was an auto-save, so I had to go back almost to the beginning... I was really... in trouble!

-- But "Planescape: Torment" hits a pretty impressive spot. Was it something that just happened to catch your eye while you were browsing Steam?

Kui: I originally liked games in the same genre as Baldur's Gate, so I think that's how I got into Planescape.

Also, I saw information that a huge amount of text in Planescape was translated by one person... I'm not very good at English, and games like Planescape have a lot of text to begin with, so I'm at a loss if it's not translated into Japanese .

However, when extraordinary people like those who make Planescape use their precious time from their lives to accomplish great things, I feel very grateful.

-- So, Ms. Kui, do you prefer games that are closer to the classics?

Kui: That's right. The first game I played was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and it was so much fun that I searched for "games similar to Skyrim" and played a lot of the games that came up.

All of them were completely different games from Skyrim, but they were fun. However, I don't like "old games". I think that newer games are generally more polished and well-made.

-- Wizardry, which influenced Dungeon Meshi, is also a classic work.

Kui: When I was a child, I saw my father playing Wizardry V : The Heart of the Maelstrom. As time passed, I remembered that there was a game called Wizardry. The game I played at that time was Wizardry VI: Forbidden Pencil.

I also played Wizardry V , but it was hard to see the map unless I chanted a spell. I was directionally challenged, so even though I had a guidebook at hand, I couldn't progress.

--By the way, were you more interested in making a manga out of "Wizardry" than the tabletop RPG "D&D" ?

Kui: When I was researching fantasy, "D&D" was often mentioned... but I had never even heard of "TRPG" before. First of all, you can't play it without friends, and I was shocked to find out that lots of people have friends they can play with like this...!?

Everyone: (laughs).

Kui: So when I looked up TRPGs on Wikipedia, I couldn't imagine that people actually played this kind of game. I was more confused and thought, "How can people really role-play in front of other people?"

After that, I watched replay videos on YouTube and it was only then that I understood how games like D&D worked.

Games, manga, novels. What is the purpose of all creative works?

-- What was the last game you played?

Kui: Recently I played a school management game called "Let's School." It's made by a Chinese company that also made "My Time at Sandrock."

Hiroi: You really like that kind of game, don't you? (laughs) Oh? Haven't you played "FF7 Rebirth" ?

Kui: I'm thinking about playing the remake of FF7 once it's completed.

Hiroi: No, no, if we don't do it now, we'll never finish it! It'll be a long time before we do it!

--Honestly, I also thought it would take about 10 years for FF7 Rebirth to be released.

Hiroi: I thought it would take about that long too... I really wanted it to be completed while I could still see. So, please do it!

Kui: Once it's finished...I want to play it all at once (laughs).

--Do you and Ms. Kui often talk about games?

Hiroi: Ms. Kui sometimes says, "I want to talk about this game, so I want you to play it." I played "Red Dead Redemption" because of that. Also, a long time ago, Ms. Kui recommended "13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim."

Kui: Whenever there's a game I want to discuss with someone, I always recommend it to Hiroi.

But maybe I haven't been playing games as much lately. Until now, I've been playing games because I thought of it as "for work," but now that the serialization of Dungeon Meshi has ended, I've been playing less games.

Moreover, I'm not the type of person who gets that into one game...I don't generally play through a game in repeated playthroughs, and I'm usually satisfied once I've finished the story.

Hiroi: Then we have to start [a new ] serialization soon.

Everyone: (laughs).

-- I'd like to ask you personally, do you have any "recommended indie games"?

Kui: I highly recommend "Papers, Please" and "Return of the Obra Dinn."

First of all, "Papers, Please" is a simple "spot the difference" game, so I didn't have high expectations at first. But when I played it, I felt like there was a proper "world" to it . Also, I was curious to see how the story continued.

And "Return of the Obra Dinn" had a great atmosphere. There were hints to solving the puzzles if you looked closely, but there was also a good balance of being able to force your way through, and the music and production were cool.

Hiroi: Come to think of it, you read quite a bit of the novel after the serialization ended, didn't you?

Kui: Ah, you mean "1984" by George Orwell? That was good...

I've always thought that creativity isn't necessary for life... It's entertainment, so it's not essential to life. But after reading "1984," I thought, "I guess creativity is necessary after all."

Humans need stories to experience things that should never come true, to prepare for bad things, and to prepare for understanding other people... You might think, "You should have already learned that when you were younger," but I was deeply moved by this realization.

Anyway, I feel that it would be great if people could learn things they didn't know before through this work.

Hiroi: ...Overall, it just felt like we had a fun time talking about games (laughs).

Kui: We just used the interview as an excuse to talk about the game (laughs).

-- No no, thank you very much for sharing your valuable story! (End)

I think I can understand a little bit about being interested in things you hate.

It's easy to analyze "why do you like something?" when you like it, but it's surprisingly difficult to analyze "why do you dislike something?" When you understand the reason, it seems that "why do you dislike it" is often more meaningful.

Perhaps creative works exist in part to help us understand the things we dislike.

I was able to hear a lot of deep "creation stories" that made me think about such things. Also, Ms. Kui is a huge gamer. Mr. Hiroi also likes games quite a bit. Since serious talk and game discussions alternated, the content may have been emotionally confusing. But I feel like "Dungeon Meshi" has a similar atmosphere.

If you haven't read "Dungeon Meshi," please take this opportunity to read it. It depicts a fun adventure. On top of that, it may help you prepare for difficult things that might happen in your life someday. Of course, it's also extremely interesting as a manga. I think it's definitely one of the best "entertainment" of our time.

Why does the body want to live? What does the mind want?

This is because we have a "desire" to pursue what we like and dislike. In fact, "things we dislike" are just as important as "things we like." By understanding our own "likes and dislikes" through creative works and entertainment, humans can prepare for things that happen in their future lives. Food and creative works are equally important for human growth.

...That said, I'm not sure if it has a nice punchline, or maybe not.

To eat. To experience creative works. These are truly the privileges of life. In order to live, we must continue to eat.

Now it's time to eat. What shall we eat today?

[0nsyu-archive]

Ugaki’s influence on Majima’s character in Yakuza 0

[yingdu-lover]

Croded doing GOD'S WORK

I really crode 😭 (happie o⁠(⁠(⁠*⁠^⁠▽⁠^⁠*⁠)⁠)⁠o) your translator's notes 🐥🩷

thank you thank thank uiu soosiso much agaain <3

Hopefully Mostly Accurate Translation of the Link Click Art Book Interview with Director Li Haoling

thank you very much to @yingdu-lover for the initial post+tag and also the interview!!

I made a chinese transcript of the entire interview and goddamn it was 4 Google doc pages long 😭this is going to be a long post but let's go :)

Blue text=interviewer, white text=Director Li (small text=little translator notes. don't worry they won't pop up too often :))

About the production team and production process

Q1. The main production team of Link Click is an internationalised lineup, can you introduce the members of the team and their usual responsibilities to the readers?

---About Link Click's main production team's structure, I am the screenwriter and director, the executive director is (Zhang) Yuxia, his position is equivalent to the assistant director. Our work distribution is I mainly work on content creation and overall control; he leans more towards communicating, interacting and executing the created content. The members in the country (China) also include Studio LAN, who have overall control of the production process. Their work includes Chief Producer, original design, mid-term character modeling et cetera. Besides, there are also our colleagues in the Japanese branch taking part in and leading the post-production work.

As for the pre-production process of the show, INPLICK-laoshi* from Korea was in charge of the character design. She is a very well-known illustrator. On the art aspect, since we have previous cooperation experience with Shinkai Makoto-laoshi's* team, the process was quite enjoyable, and we established a long-term cooperation relationship, so this time we also invited Tanji Takumi-laoshi* to help with the art supervision and design; whereas Tenmon-laoshi* is in charge of the music. This is roughly our team configuration.

*In the original interview, Director Li added -老师 to the ends of the names of these other creators. Much like Japanese's sensei, this is used as an honorific, used to indicate respect. I don't think there's an English equivalent for these honorifics, so I kept them in rough Pinyin 🥹 I'll keep it like this for the rest of the translation too

Just now you said the assistant director was Yuxia-laoshi, is this the same person as Yu Xia from episode 2, "Secret Recipe"?

Correct. Actually there are a lot of character names in the show that are the same as our friends at work. But in the real world, Lin Zhen and Yu Xia are two guys. They're college classmates.

*Director Li says 工作里的小伙伴 in the part that says "friends at work", and 小伙伴 directly translates to "little partner", so it's like a bit cuter? lol :') also noodle lesbian name lore?!?!

Q2. Sounds like the team atmosphere is quite relaxed, can you further introduce how the usual work atmosphere is? And how is the state/condition when communicating with overseas teams?

---Because Link Click is an original donghua, so there is a higher freedom in the creating process. Like the part with using the names of work friends as character names, I also think it is more relaxed this way, and more meaningful. As for communicating with overseas teams, because we have a greater experience in cooperating with overseas teams, the process is quite smooth. For example, we have had several indirect cooperations with Tanji-laoshi from the Shinkai Makoto team. At the time, we mentioned that we wanted to do some new challenges and content, and they were willing to take part in it, they also thought it was something new and were very interested. The more novel it is, the more enthusiasm they have to give it a try.

Q3. Going back to Link Click, what was your (Director Li's) original intent during the creation of Link Click?

---At first it was because I saw a photo one time, that time I thought the people in the photo were particularly happy, but the person looking at the photo was not that happy. At that time I felt that photos were quite a unique thing, through a piece of paper, it connects two different worlds, different states of yourself. Because of this feeling, I got the idea of using photos as a base for a story's script, and then from there, I thought about if I could go back to a certain scene or time in a photo, what kind of feeling would I have. I took the thoughts I had while trying to figure out this kind of feeling and expanded them further, and it slowly formed into Link Click's overall story.

Q4. The impression that photos give us is mostly warm, so how come you thought of using a theme that carried some suspense to fill in each episodic story?

---If we're talking about only setting an ability that can enter photos, I imagine there definitely isn't a shortage of similar themes, so I wanted to include an even more interesting setting.

Take the point of entering a photo to change the past and save the future for example, there are actually many ways to travel through. When setting the plot, my first thought was to separate/disassemble this ability. The more imperfect the ability, the more it can create changes and plot conflicts. Like how we see that even though Cheng Xiaoshi can enter photos, but he doesn't know what will happen in the photo, so him inside the photo will become an unstable factor; whereas Lu Guang is outside the photo, he can see what is about to happen in the photo, but he has no way of completely controlling Cheng Xiaoshi's actions. Both of their abilities are imperfect, so they must cooperate to sufficiently utilize each other's effect. I expanded the later plot based on this point.

Additionally, about returning to the last through photos, that itself already carries many elements of suspense. Everyone probably has had this experience before: you're all smiling when the photo is taken, but the you at the time might not actually feel like smiling, deep inside. In that photo, everyone looks very happy on the surface, but maybe there are different thoughts in everyone's hearts. It's actually quite interesting. To me, this is also a kind of suspense - what's the real meaning behind the photo?

So a conflict between appearances and the inside?

That's right. What's truly beneath those appearances, the process to unearth this in itself will carry suspense, I suppose this is also a main point that I abided by when I designed the story to go towards suspense. This is one of the reasons. Another point is that there are very few donghuas in the country (China) that use a suspense theme, I wanted to try to break through, and do a fresh theme.

Q5. Link Click is in the form of an episodic show, with every episode having a different story, what is your original intent when picking stories? What is your starting point?

---Some stories were already thought out, but actually every story was not "picked out", but instead expanded from several angles. For example, the story of "Farewell" (s1e5 T_T) first had a narrative inspiration: everyone says going back to the past is to change the future, but if you went back to the past and made changes, only to find out in the end that nothing had changed in the future after all? I will assume this situation: it changed, and yet it didn't. As long as there is this hypothetical, there will be a lot of plot conflicts. The emotional level will also be very high. I think this is a plot core for having something interesting happening, and the story "Farewell" sprouted from this point.

Let's take another example of the special episode, "Marrying by Contesting". It originated from a story I read before. At that time there was a news report, saying that in a certain place, a girl was banned from something by her family*** and gave up her whole life. After reading, it left a deep impression on me, something like this actually happened, so I used it as a main theme to create. And the episode about kidnapping, "Aunt May" as well, I hope that through this donghua I can not only show entertaining content, but also embody some social value.

***GUYS IM SO SORRY for this part, the word was NOT eligible in the picture of the interview log 😭the closest (and only) thing I could think of when I saw that blob of pixels was the word 锠, but the phrase 禁锠 had no meaning. I looked it up. Nothing. 禁 means ban, so the general meaning of the sentence is that the girl's family banned her from something and she gave up on her life. I don't know what they banned her from 😭 so sorry once again

Q6. From the OP and ED, we can see that Link Click's art style is quite intense, how did you think of using this kind of style to make a donghua?

---About the style of the OP and the ED, the earliest intention was to create a sense of trendiness. I invited many teams to work together with, like INPLICK-laoshi, her art style can give people the impression of trendiness. Aside from characterization, the backgrounds were also considered to be stylised a bit, and not just done in a realistic style, because a realistic style will make it look heavy and serious. I hope that the backgrounds can be made to have more personality, more tactile, with a more artistic effect, so I discussed it with Tanji-laoshi and the artistic design done with this target in mind had a stronger drawing sense.

Q7. In the episode "Marrying by Contesting", a quote by Edward Weston appeared, and we understand by communicating with the team that there is a quote in the beginning of every episode, what is the purpose of this setting?

---Because we're making a theme based on photos, so I hoped to take the quotes of world-famous photographers and pick appropriate quotes for each episode, it's mainly an expression of form.

When I saw that line I felt quite moved, I was touched.

Yes, we had this intention. The intentions of animators making animations are the same, people who like the content often have this kind of empathy, we all hope to unearth the differentness of the world through our content. Just like how war photographers are willing to give their lives to document reality, to be able to capture that moment in time with your own life, that spirit is quite a great thing.

Q8. We heard that the donghua had been accepting fans' commissions since it began airing, and the donghua also showed everyone's submissions and story collections, like the Time Photo Studio really exists, can you talk about the purpose of this setting?

---This was the first thing we thought of. We could really open a Time Photo Studio and find real-life stories, restore them, help people complete their commissions. I think this is rather romantic. We have also been doing this continuously, collecting everyone's stories, be it in the mini-theatre series (it's The Daily Life in Lightime chibi series!) or in the later plot, we'll show them in future parts. The saying of "breaking the fourth wall" might be a little cliché, but it does indeed have the feeling of breaking "the fourth wall".

About the characters and the setting

Q9. This question may have been asked quite a few times on other occasions, how did you (Director Li) decide on using a double male protagonist setting like with Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang?

---As I mentioned earlier, I wanted the powers of the protagonists to be imperfect. The abilities must be split into two halves and be distributed to two separate people. This is the first point. Secondly, we had discussed at the time, if it were a male-and-female setting, putting the two characters together will have one problem: should we give them a romantic storyline or not? Later on we found that this problem was too complicated/troublesome, and couldn't be resolved well no matter how we tried to do it, and there were things to consider in every aspect of the matter. So in the end, we ended up with the double male protagonist setting that we have now.

Regarding Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang's personalities, I mentioned it earlier as well: Cheng Xiaoshi is an unstable factor, since he can enter the photos but doesn't know what will happen next, whereas Lu Guang is a stable factor. The two of them must partner up and complement each other, then only can they utilize their abilities perfectly.

Q10. About this female character Qiao Ling, how did you (Director Li) adjust the character relationship between them and the interaction atmosphere?

---The audience has always cared a lot about Qiao Ling. Although she doesn't get much screen time, her existence is still very important. To express the kinship* between two boys, this isn't much of a problem, but to make these two boys open their hearts to each other is not as easy. I want to set a link that allows there to be emotional communication between the boys, such as Lu Guang wanting to know how Cheng Xiaoshi sees "me" (Lu Guang), Cheng Xiaoshi wants to know how Lu Guang sees "me" (Cheng Xiaoshi), how is Cheng Xiaoshi's thoughts towards "me" (Lu Guang), how is Lu Guang's thoughts towards "me" (Cheng Xiaoshi), all these thoughts can be converted and conveyed through Qiao Ling.

*(sorry in advance for the long tl note) this "kinship" might be more of a "tacit understanding", which is 默契 in Chinese. I don't think there's an English equivalent that sounds as good, so basically 默契is where people work together so well they don't even need to talk to each other to do something together. Think something like maybe you and your best friend turn around to high five each other at the same time without looking, or when you do the same action (e.g. tilting your head a certain way, saying something, closing a book etc.) at the exact same time in the exact same way. That's 默契 :) in cxs and lg terms, it's them passing the ball around to each other flawlessly and dogwalking the rest of the court without even really looking at each other or communicating verbally. They just do, and they work together seamlessly without even trying. 默契 babyy

Is it equivalent to Qiao Ling between them balancing their views towards each other, balancing the relationship between the two of them?

It isn't balancing their relationship, but rather she is a path for their communication. The communication I mean is core communication between hearts.

Is it the more sentimental/emotional part?

Yes, for example episode 10, where Cheng Xiaoshi possessed Xu Shanshan and listened to Qiao Ling talk about how Lu Guang saw him at the time. This kind of trope can only be conveyed and converted very well through her.

Q11. Among all the characters, who do you (Director Li) like the most?

---This is like asking which of your children is your favourite, it's kind of difficult to choose. You ask which one I like, I can only say I like them all; but saying I like them all, this answer seems kind of boring. I'll be honest, I still like them all, they each have their special characteristics.

Then let's talk about the points of the three main characters that shine/stand out.

Cheng Xiaoshi is righteous, and he's very genuine. He's a very naïve person, and naivety is commendable. In the current society, naivety is becoming increasingly scarce.

Lu Guang is calm, knowledgeable, and very smart and mysterious. He's a rather perfect male image.

Qiao Ling cannot simply be said to just be a "girl next door", instead she has more of a big sister image, and can hold the trio. While she has a rational, strong side, she also has a very soft side, the future plots will also bring out these virtues of hers.

Q13. You (Director Li) seem to have a soft spot for the word "light"(光), what meaning does the word "light" represent? Outside of the donghua, what does this "light" repose?

---"Light" is a symbolic hope, or maybe energy, giving people an uplifting feeling. Personally as a practitioner of animation, the reason I chose such a difficult job was because this job could bring people some direction and light. I also think I'm a little delusional* when it comes to this aspect, the people watching animations usually aren't very old, planting a little bit of light in the hearts of children, I think this is the lovable part of animation and the value of its existence. So at the time I kept bringing up "light", including many characters' names have something to do with light, the theme is also related to light, it all comes from this kind of thoughts.

*he says 中二. which is basically chuuni, for chuunibyou (中二病) and is usually known as "delusional disease" or "8th grade syndrome" but the gist of it (though I think yall know what chuunibyou is 😭) is that he's calling himself delusional here lmaoo

Q13. During the process of creating Link Click, what were the parts where you felt the happiest?

---The happiest part is still the good overall creating atmosphere. The creation of Link Click began in 2019, at that time I had the rare chance of creating without much concern, purely creating for the sake of creating. So Link Click getting everyone's approval in the end is partially because that time the conditions for creating were good.

Q14. Can you reveal some details about Season 2, some details that everyone wants to know.

---Season 2 is mainly suspense. The storyline of pursuing the culprit was a very large tension/cliffhanger in Season 1, Season 2 will definitely go through this tension/cliffhanger till the end. I saw a lot of viewers wish to keep some things from Season 1, such as the episodic stories, and some portrayals of real-life stories. So I'm also thinking of a way to satisfy the condition of Season 2 being suspenseful and following a main storyline while also adding these elements into it.

Will it be more angsty* than season 1?

As the audience, are your expectations wishing for it to be "angsty*" or not "angsty*"?

It's hard to say, this mentality is quite dilemmatic.

Personally, I think a lot of Season 1's content was real-life things, so its "angst*" is an "angst that hits close to home*", akin to the regrets in real life. But in Season 2, since it has a storyline of pursuing the culprit, so some parts with emotional concentration will be different from Season 1, the feeling of "angst that hits close to home*" will be weaker.

*(hoo boy this will be a long one) so the words they are using here are Chinese internet language/slang: 刀, which means knife/blade, is used to mean something that makes your heart hurt when you read it. Yknow, like cxs dying! Chen Bin falling! Chen Bin's wife walking down the funeral hall in her wedding dress! S1e5 in general! That kinda stuff. That's 刀. It makes you cry, it makes you hurt, it makes you sad. So I ended up using "angst" with the definition of the fanfic term here since that was the closest thing with that meaning. With the "angst that hits close to home" part, he used "贴肉刀" which directly translates to "knife that sticks to meat" and like... basically it's blade that cuts you deep (emotionally) because it's something you've experienced? something like that? the closest thing I could think of was "hits close to home" :') sorry this particular section is so confusing. its like 50% chinese slang

Q15. One last question, say something to the readers that are eagerly awaiting Season 2, increase the anticipation.

---Just like the creating process I mentioned earlier, I wish to be able to tell a beautiful story in a quiet, peaceful condition. I also hope the viewers can be more calm when treating/regarding this work, whether everyone likes it or dislikes it, I accept it all, but sometimes the feelings of the audience becomes a form of pressure on the work. The original intent of this work was to present it in a quiet, good condition, so I still hope that in the future, everyone can maintain a level head towards Link Click.

Thank you, Director Li. Thanks for all your hard work.

-interview end-

that's the end of this VERY long post! :'D translating is kinda fun ngl

I tried my best to keep it as accurate as possible, forgive me if there are any mistakes :') (especially the "girl was banned from something by her family" one... ooh. I am on my knees apologising for that one I am cringing at myself)

and also sorry for the longass translator notes in the middle of some segments... I hope it didn't disrupt your reading too much 🥹

[911onabcbts]

New picture of Ryan alongside a new interview ✨

[slutforpringles]

This isn't a photo, but a screenshot (taken from the raw footage) that I love. We were in Mexico, maybe after the race in the pen. I swear I don't remember the details, but I do remember that Max was answering Sky Sports when Daniel, in his usual way, walked up and started chatting with him. At this point Max also asked him a question, so Rachel from Sky thought it best to give him the microphone and let him do the Ricciardo interview. We all laughed a lot at this point, but Max - being the out-of-practice reporter that he was - didn't hold the microphone up to record Daniel's answer, which the Australian tried to compensate for with strangely awkward hand gestures, and because Sky Sports didn't have a second microphone, I put mine in his hand. But two microphones, recording sound into two separate cameras, for two completely different countries' channels, was in fact a completely unnecessary process. This was when Max and I really started laughing, when he looked at me and realised that we had all run into the "microphone" forest. Good moment, I loved it.

Hungarian F1 reporter Ádám Szeleczky remembering this hilarious Max/Daniel interview from the 2019 Mexican GP | via

[theysangastheyslew]

It's gotta be the reason behind this ⬇️ right?😂

I know everyone probably forgot about this release already but I sure didn't lol. Lord knows they both deserve a little pampering 🥰

[wooltoesocks]

Shirahama Kamome interview at Desucon 2025, Finland

had the honour of attending her live drawing/interview last weekend, it was an absolute blast and i still cant really quite believe i got to see that. didnt win an autograph ticket, but what i did do was take notes from the panel, so if anyone's interested to read, here they are <3

feel free to share, but please credit :)

[] means stuff the panelists have said, () is me rambling

text version/ALT under the cut since it's a lot

14.6.2025 Desucon

guest of honour's program: Kamome Shirahama and the magic of drawing

disclaimer: might contain mistakes even tho i've tried to be as accurate to my notes and memory as possible <3

on the table she was going to be drawing at there were the usual 2 brushbugs wearing qifrey and olruggio's hats, but also a hattifatten

*a picture of shirahama's two brushbugs, wearing olruggio's and qifrey's hats, and a hattifatten on a table (from tongariofficial's twitter)*

the program schedule hadnt included a live drawing, so i dont know if that was going to be a surprise for us of if it was a last minute decision. shirahama said "unfortunately the hat is in the way of seeing", since she had the iguin mask on the entire time. since we had a lot of time, she would be drawing coco and qifrey. (i initially took this to mean she could draw them both since she had time but my friend interpreted it as being "BECAUSE we have time she will be drawing" so idk. she had a cool ring, which looked like it could hold ink or smth.

[did you read manga growing up and what were your favorite manga and mangaka as a kid?]

- like all kids she read manga, but also liked novels and movies

- her favorite were x-men and star was comics- she read manga that was maybe targeted to an older audience

[did you always draw as a kid?] (didnt write down this question but i think it was smth like that)

- according to her parents yes, and also she's drawn since she herself can remember

[when did drawing become your job?]

-she studied design (? and smth else idk i accidentally wrote design in english and finnish lmao) in university, and alongside that she got small jobs to draw atuff for for example teaching materials and games, and realised you could actually make a job out of drawing.

[what did you learn alongside your studies?]

- she had graphics as her major, but was also interested in accessibility design and something else (i think this had smth to do with the environment, maybe environmental design? but i had just written "something")

[how did you end up a mangaka?]

- self published manga drawings, and at some point a publisher reached out to her like hey do you wanna come draw for us

[what kind of material do you like to draw with?]

- the sketch she does with a pencil, and then the actual drawing with an inkpen- corona has chabged stuff a bit because you have to take into account how much can you meet with your assistants, so more of the drawing is done digitally nowadays

- she prefers drawing on paper, but for example if a design is going into a game (=onto a screen) she will draw it digitally to fit

- she's also been challenging herself recently by drawing more stuff digitally

[do you draw all the details in the sketch, or just at the inking part?]

- the pencil marks distract the drawing process, so she will add the details in the inking part

- "you are going to see it yourself with this"

[where have you taken influence from to your drawing style?]

- fantasy, rpg, europe (i think i meant western here??)

- okay so i had written "role-playing-game-styled" but idk what that rly means lol

- the style of wood carvings is medieval[your works have been published in maby magazines, is there a difference between magazines what kind of manga you draw?] (i think that meant her drawing style depending on magazine not the manga's story)

- it's not really the magazine that changes stuff, the drawing style changes depending on the story

- witch hat atelier is story-book-like

- style will accommodate what suits a game the best

[where does the style come from for each story?]

- no (???? what he fuck did i mean by this im sure it made sense in the moment)

- if it's a digital media, she will draw with a computer, a japanese story she will use a brush, and for a western story she will use harder pencils

[do you change your style depending on the target audience?] (more in the ways of a country a person is from, for example western/japanese)

- she will draw what will be enjoyable regardless of the target group/audience

[does your style change depending on the age group of your audience?]

- it's more in the language then, so the dialogue's difficulty changes

[where did you get the idea for enidewi?] (this just read "enidewi idea?")

- she likes european gothic angels and devils and wanted to write about them. there are a lot of things she likes in enidewi- she likes to tell stories with girls in them

(no idea what the actual question was, i just write "enidewi memories?")

- it's about 2 girls on trips and they get into shenanigans

- she has travelled a lot so she pulled stuff from her own experiences/stuff related to her own experiences

- she does hope that she hasnt been as much of a difficulty as those 2

[when did you get the idea for witch hat atelier?]

- she was thinking of it while drawing enidewi

- the idea has been with her for surprisingly long, 6 years before publishing

[were you imagining the story or the worldbuilding then?]

- no plot, but the setting, world and themes

[was the drawing part of magic in the story since the beginning?]

- it's been in the story since very early on

- there are some people who are incredibly talented at drawing in our world, but everyone can draw at least a certain amount, so she wanted a world where the magic is in everyone's reach so to say

[how did you design such an intricate magic system?]

- first she wanted a simple system that even a child could copy but wanted there to be some logic to add extra effects

[what is your favorite symbol?]

- the one coco uses a lot, meaning sylph shoes

[i think we would all want a spell to fly with our shoes]

- shirahama would want a spell to easy stiff shoulders (she was i think showing a v bad posture drawing position lol)

[too bad those are forbidden]

(no idea about the question here lol i missed it bc i was explaining the previous laughing to someone, she also had to read the question again from a paper she had so hell yea me too)

- the fears of how to get better at drawing

- there would be a feeling of relatability

[so the series has the "good guys" wearing a pointy brimless cap and the "bad guys" a brimmed cap, so a different philosophy means a different cap. where did you get the idea/why is it like this?]

- she was vaguely pointing at her iguin hat and doing the muscle flex pose like woo

- she cant say, and it will be revealed as the series progresses (she had her hands clasped at her chest i had written that down soecifically)

- wait with excitement for the upcoming chapters (i THINK she meant like any future chapter but tbh i for a sec thought the translator said NEXT chapter but dont get ur hopes up. ANYWAY WHAT THE FUCK)

(smth about the desig of characters again was distracted by the whole thing before)

- she think it's fun to make the character designs, it's it's becoming hard because there are so many characters

- she will sometimes go to her artist friends with a character idea like hey this is what this character is like what would they look like

[all the fans here would probbaly go crazy for a finland inspired outfit, what would it be like?]

- well it would be warm at least

[furhat]

[does qifrey's hat tell something about his character?]

- it's a modified version of his hat as Beldaruit's apprentice so not really

[how has it been like creating the rules within the world?]

- it's been fun thinking of the fashion styles and clothes (literally the note says "fashion styles and clothes fun so nice to make <nonsense> that was fun" so idk take of that what u will. the nonsense might have been "work" but i honestly dunno)

[what has been difficult to get to fit?]

- she says the weaknesses and holes are hard to work into the system so that it's noticable that things are wrong but not too much into either direction

- bring to light something about the differences in people ("bring forward motivation into that different people kinda" what. anyway not sure what i meant here, also not sure if this is still to the same question but i didnt at least write a question in this part so idk)

- she thinks a lot (about what, idk i think there was a question here too i missed about maybe magic?), magic is a technology that tries to make human lives easier

[do you intend to raise awareness of real life problems?]

- partially, and that magic is a positive depiction too so that might inspire to fix the real life problems[inspiration for witch hat during the creation of the series?]

- during middleschool/high school/university she liked lord of rings movies, and peter jackson films (idk if it was like she liked those during that time and they still inspire her or like was this just not answering the question but anyway)

[are there any spcific details inspired by other serieses?]

- ghibli, the idea of nausicae (? not sure about this but like those were mentioned)

[witch hat atelier is peculiar/unique with it's use of art deco. do the page compositions come to your mind as they will be or are they modified as you work?] (notes said to the first line just "wha unique, art deco" so i think that's what it meant?)

- there are both instances, some will be completed like they first came into mind, and others get elements and other stuff added while drawing[how does it feel getting recognition outside of japan too?]

- she is very happy about that, that people enjoy and read her stuff and she is very honoured overall, and it's nice that that's the case also in other countries

[reading pictures is pretty universal, is it kind of like the manga's magic that it's for everyone?]

- she said it's kinda of funny with japanese because kanji are pictograms so they are also pictures in a way

[so your series has an official spin-off called witch hat atelier kitchen. where did the idea for that come from?] (a lot of thumbs up from shirahama at the mention of kitchen yay)

- she was approached by the publishing like oh hey we have this idea to draw a witch hat food series is that okay with you[are you how deep in the creation process of kitchen, or is it just sato's work?]

- sato creates it, sometimes they might workshop some world related stuff, for example the names of vegetables, and how to connect kitchen with the main series more

[do you have a favorite character or do you love them all equally?] (she was looking between the translator and the audience and reaching for the brushbugs like tadaa kinda)

- brushbug is easy to draw so that's why, and especially drawn with a brush

[there's also a very cute hattivatti]

- she had bought it immediately after arriving to finland

[hattifattener are probably the closest finland has to a brushbug]

- "yeah that's how it is"

[you have worked with marvel, DC and star wars. how did this start?]

- she liked american comics and attended cons in the usa too, and showed some sketches for a producer/editor (idk the word but like someone in the industry)

[have you gotten to draw any of your favorite characters?]

- her first crush was wolverine

- she also like batman a lot

- she at least hasnt had the opportunity to draw them together in a work

- she draws a lot of female characters for her work usually too

[what's the process for cover art, do you get precise instructions or do you have more free hands with the design?]

- she gets mostly free reign, and does something to suit the character

- sometimes there will be instructions/asks to include something, for example if the story takes place in japan to put fitting elements there

[is there much of a difference working with foreign works compared to japanese ones?]

- not really, most differences depend on the work itself

[how much time do you get to making a cover?]

- she's been busy lately (👀👀👀) but usually the deadlines arent super specific, she will usually make one a month

[you worked in character design for the star wars: visions -series. how was the experience?]

- on top of all, the series is an animation, it was nice to get to work with other people

- also amazing to get to see her designs come to life

*a sneeze*

[do you have to take into account that the characters will be animated when making the design?]

- there wasnt as much creative freedom since star wars is a established franchise so a lot of the design elements already exist

- okay so i didnt hear if she said "you didnt have to simplify the designs" since it's animated or that "you did have to simplify the designs" so like uhhhh sorry for not being able to answer that :( i feel like it mighta been "you didnt really have to simplify" but oh well

[do you draw witch hat characters from a reference at the beginning until you memorize the design, or does the design change along the story?]

- she had made a few designs beforehand (i think this meant like of one character like a few versions)

[you also drew the comic adaptation for Star Wars: Visions. did you get strict rules for it of were you allowed to change stuff?]

- the story was completed so that wasnt changed- she kept the same visual spirit as in the animation

[is there a foreign work you would still like to get to work with?]

- a lot of eeeeeee pondering noices, she was holding her hand on her chin like when you think bout something

- she said it's a difficult question, but she would like to work with a tabletop rpg or boardgames (excited hand gestures)

[well im sure everyone here would at least love to play those]

- she mentioned she's done work with Pokemon cards and Fate/grand order

[there is a witch hat anime coming. what's your role in its production?] (excited hand gestures again)

- she says she checks the stuff the animators have done, and gives corrections if needed

- since the manga is black and white, she gived advice on the colourschemes, for example with what kind of coloring techniques the characters have access to and therefore what the clothes will look like

[is this the first time you've thought about the colours of some stuff?]

- there have been a lot, for example coco's dress in chapter 1

- she will ponder with the team what would work best

[how (much?) are you waiting for the anime?]

- "a lot, and also very excited that all of you will get to watch it"

[are there any serieses/games you like right now?]

- magus of the library (someone from the audience provided the english translation, the translator said "big wizard of the library" (in finnish). thumbs up from shirahama at that), it's very interesting

[well nice we're getting recommendations here]

[the world of witch hat atelier is rpg-styled, is there any videogame elements?] (something about videogames and witch hat world at least lol i kinda missed this bc of again the previous question)

- there's not really any video game elements, since there is no level ups or magic points

- more closer to fantasy literature

[you said you read manga before becoming a mangaka yourself. has making your own manga changed this hobby, are you tired of manga outside of work?] (many excited hand gestures again)

- she actually reads more manga now than as a kid- as a kid she didnt dare buy a lot if she didnt know the story that well (or like being way more cautious of what to buy), but now she feels like "she has permission" to read manga

- "oh it's part of the job i can buy and read manga"

[do you look back to your works and think a lot about what succeeded and could have been done better?]

- when she starts a new part in the series, she will read the previous one and think about what might have been left unexplained and try to broaden and explain the stuff later

[has the way you engage with and judge other people's manga changed after becoming a mangaka? do you think like "oh this could have been done differently" "oh this was really cool"?]

- she said she isnt "skipping school" when reading, she does look at novels too with new eyes now

[is it good to read others' fantasy works, or do you do it just because you like it?]

- she does keep up with what other people are writing, and says it's good to know what's going on so as not to write absolutely similar stuff

[oh it does look like the drawing is finished now.] (this was 12.17, the panel started at like 11, a few minutes over most likely)

- you could really see how she added the details with the ink pen and not with pencil (dont remember if this was shirahama or the panelists, but still so true and amazing to watch)

- "i erased the pencil marks out of the way"

- "thank you for having the patience to watch me draw"

[well this is going to turn into a thanking contest but i do think the pleasure is completely ours/thanks are completely on our side, thank you for drawing for us] (literally no thank YOU tetia core interaction)

[does anything come to mind that the finnish manga and anime -fans would be interested to hear that we havent realised to ask?]

- "thank you so much", she says it's nice to feel that people like the same stuff as she does, that even if we're from different countries that we are all fans of manga

[how has it been visiting finland for desucon?]

- she arrived a few days ago in helsinki, and the food and weather has been very good (this is hilarious she managed to come here on the 4 consecutive days when it's been sunny and so warm and not raining at all this whole year i feel like what. anyway glad she liked the food yayy)

- she still hasnt had time to properly visit desucon yet

when she left the stage she waved the hand of the brushbug that had oru's hat at the audience <3

[arminthada]

Peterpan's Interview for iQIYI Exclusive Reset Special Clip 2 - English Translation

(Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese subs available on iQIYI) note: this clip isn't the full interview, just a highlight, you can watch the full interview on iQIYI, translation may contain inaccuracies.

On Thada's personality

Khun Thada is a calm, profound, and mature person. On the outside, he seems to appears cold, but when it comes to love, he has something very innocent and adorable about him, with a little bit of warm "oppa" vibes. His expression when he's with others is often like him wears a thick protective armor. But when he's with Armin, Thada appears somewhat smaller [t/n: Pan uses tua lek lek so he's trying to describe how Thada softens up like a cute smol guy when he's with Armin]. Armin is someone who can make him smile more easily, one could even say, more than anyone else in this world.

On his feelings when receiving the role of Thada

Pressured. Really really pressured. Pressured from the moment I knew this series was adapted from the novel Reset: The Star's Rebirth of author Crystaljade. And knowing it had millions of views made the pressure even greater. Actually, credit must also be given to the film crew. Why? Because the crew members knew that Thada and I are really quite different, whether in terms of age, personality, emotions, or lifestyle and everything. From a child who's just over 20, I had to "leap" to become someone nearly 40 years old, with my own company, a CEO, having to run an entire company. Plus, he also has a knot in his heart that he has been through a lot with. I had to do a lot of homework. The reason I said I have to thank the film crew is because they... every time I came to the set, if there was a heavy scene that day, to keep the character, not to break character, they always tried to help me immerse the world of Thada and Armin. I had to adjust my character to be more mature, speak slower, be more confident, when sitting, I had to straighten my chest and shoulders. Because almost 95% of the costumes I wear in this series are suits. Always having to look "smart", always having to be "cool." Therefore, to truly reach the deepest core of the character, from the external appearance to understanding the story behind it, everything is connected. This is something I always have to continuously adjust. Actually, even now, even though filming is done, Thada's personality is still within me. It has partly helped me mature. Thank you, Khun Thada.

On stepping into the role of Thada

Being a fan - someone who loves another person wholeheartedly, I wonder what that person would be like. So I started trying to observe my surroundings, starting with the people around me. Starting with noticing my own lovely fan club, "Tinker Bell House of Peterpan," or even the fanclubs of all the actors in this series. I tried to observe their loveliness, their support. Tried to put myself in that mindset. Another thing that clicked with me very strongly that I myself only realized not long ago. I feel that when I was little, when I loved a cartoon character, for example, I really loved Toy Story. Last year, when I went to Disney[land], when I got to meet the Toy Story characters right in front of me, tears just started falling down my face from emotions that I didn't even realize. Then I felt perhaps this is the feeling of being close to someone, and that person sees me, they acknowledge me, so that makes me feel like I understand what it means to love something with all your heart. I tried to put myself in that place. Using that to adjust, to apply to how Thada supported Armin from the very first day he met this person.

On different personalities in each part of the story

Yes, there are. When I got the role of Thada, his personality was already partly different from mine. When vieweing his exterior, one will see a certain personality of the character Thada. But when it comes to scenes that require a certain cuteness, I also had to find the character's personality in that direction. Here, credit must be given to the director, who always adjusts Thada's character to fit the script, while still adhering to the original identity/spirit of [the character in] the novel. [If you asked] whether it was difficult or challenging, there was a little bit. Because Thada must be calm, mature, but when he meets Armin, who always flirts and teases him, comes knocking on the door of his heart. If you imagine it cutely, it's like a kitten or a puppy rubbing up against you. And how do I react? It's like having to keep myself from a high position like this, "Mr. Thada" of Crown Enterprise and then [his walls are] gradually be broken down little by little. I always have to do my homework for that. That's right.

On the first collaboration with Pond Ponlawit

So, which aspect should I talk about? The first time we met was in acting class. From that moment when I met Pond, I immediately felt that this person had some kind of glow on him (t/n: Pan uses แสง so the direct translation is light but glow or aura feels more apt in this description). He has passion, he has determination in everything that he does in his life. Especially regarding acting, how he develops himself to embody his character. Or even his seriousness towards his everyday life. That made me feel that when I met him like this, it really impressed me from the very first meeting.

On his feelings when acting with Pond, any impression of Pond

Pond is someone who is a very hard-working person. He works hard when working, and plays hard when playing. He has a very good source of energy. On filming set, everyone wants to be near him. He gives off the feeling of a little puppy, which makes me see the professionalism in him even more. One could say he is one of the most prominent actors of this era, like in respective to fellow peer within his age. This is something that impressed me greatly. When we worked together, it motivated me to develop myself even more. This is a person worth following, Khun Pond Ponlawit. You're awesome! Seriously!

On any memorable scenes for him

Oh! That's a difficult question. I can't choose, there are so many. I find every moment meaningful. There are many moments that I want everyone to watch. I want everyone to see the simplicity, the rawness of the characters in this series. The fact that we get to sit and chill chill with someone, I find those moments lovely, even more important than the grand moments in life.

Behind vs On Screen

If everyone watches our behind the scenes, they will see that behind the camera, many people might ask themselves: "Huh, is this the same person as the one in front of the camera?" Because in our series, there might be some very serious scenes. Therefore, the way for both of us to relax after filming that scene is to play around with each other after such scenes.

Anything Pan wants to share about or with Pond

Let me talk a bit about his cuteness. Pond is a person who is very disciplined in everything, even when it comes to his eating. When he doesn't have a filming schedule, he has a disciplined eating habit, which is to "eat wholeheartedly." That's his joy. But when he has to appear in front of the camera, like he knows that there's a scene that week where he has to show his physique, then oh my, he's extremely strict with his diet. But, once that scene is over, he eats deliciously. That's a moment when I saw it, I felt that if you eat and you're happy like that, then I'm happy too. One day, there was chili paste and mackerel, and also fried vegetables. Because he's like a Singaporean boy, like an international school kid, doesn't eat much Thai food, so there are some dishes he's never eaten, like fried vegetables, for example. He tried a bite and said: "Hey, it's pretty good." The bowl that was initially filled to the brim, he was like, "I'll have another bite," and ended up eating the whole bowl. He even took his manager's portion and kept eating. This is his cutesness. He's the type of person who makes eating look delicious. Looks quite adorable.

On Pond as his acting partner

I feel that Pond is a really great partner in this series. No matter what scene we act together, no matter how intimate the scenes are, we always talk to each other, always ask for permission from each other beforehand, and then together give our best in every scene. In the later stages, I felt we almost didn't need to think about what Armin and Thada had to do anymore. We even improvised more, like this is what Armin and Thada would want to convey, for everyone to see the loveliness, the depth in the characters' personalities. Which sometimes is even far different from the novel I have read. That makes me feel that I can keep going. I believe in the skill of Teacher A Natthaphong Wongkaweepairod (the director) and my partner Pond. Pond... my Pond. Oh, ah, Armin of Thada.

[sophaeros]

I rushed into the arena for My Chemical Romance, and found the front of the stage to be extremely crowded, humid, and hot. I looked up at the new band logo and was moved. Then, as the band appeared and suddenly played “I’m Not Okay”, I nearly fainted and was pushed out of the circular mosh pit, but somehow managed to hold on. My Chem’s second time at Summer Sonic was a rare stage appearance, coming just after they had finished their long-awaited new album. And as symbolised by Gerard’s dazzling blond hair, they loudly proclaimed the beginning of a new chapter. Mikey, the bassist, who has taken off his glasses and looks more manly, moved fiercely around like a different person, while Frank the guitarist seemed to concentrate on his playing more than usual. Ray’s guitar sounded sharper, and Bob’s drums roared with his long bangs blowing in the wind. Two new songs were performed that day, the first of which was “Dead”, a dance-inducing number with a riff reminiscent of the first album’s “Headfirst For Halos” (Gerard's comical movements were also great). “House Of Wolves”, following the same beat as the first song, felt like a new frontier with its glamorous and dramatic development like a musical. I enjoyed the bliss of listening to a new song live for the first time, fully activating every cell in my body to take in the melody and lyrics that I will continue to listen to and sing tens of thousands of times in the future. After explaining that he’d decided to quit drugs after Summer Sonic two years ago and was grateful to come back clean, Gerard said, “Arigato.”Despite injuring his leg while shooting a new music video, he ran from one end of the stage to the other to speak to the audience. The sound they played, reborn and standing on the Summer Sonic stage again, was full of confidence and pride. That’s why “The Ghost of You” was such a grand song that had so many people waving their hands from side to side, and “The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You”, which was performed live for the first time in Japan, caused a wave of simultaneous jumps and shook the stadium. And when the last song, “Helena,” ended and the whole venue responded with screams to Gerard’s words, “Sing it as loud as you can to reach the heavens!”, my heart was beating so fast that I couldn't wait to see the new world that My Chemical Romance will show me.

Even though Gerard and Bob had injured their legs while filming their latest music video, My Chem still came to Japan and showed us how much they've grown. They looked like they were in pain at times as they went through the minute-by-minute filming and interviews, but when the camera was pointed at them they smiled like this (impressed). Mikey liked the canned coffee so much he drank two cans in one go, saying, "This is so good! And strong! Why don't they have this in America!" We asked them about their powerful new work and got a real glimpse of how close the five of them are in the November issue of Rockin'on!

my chemical romance in rockin'on buzz, october 2006 / summer sonic, tokyo (x x) ph. 1 & 2 mishima takayuki, 3 & all text amida yukiko

[tharatorns]

AOUBOOM'S WORKING GOALS 🌼🧸 #FEEDxAouBoom | translation cr. ©

[romantic-revolution-iv]

This is a small excerpt from Diego's interview with journalist Ana Claudia. (@andorerso , thank you for previously sharing the link to this interview with us ❤️‍🔥).

…CLAUDIA: But, as a fan, I have to ask one question. I always had the impression that there was a very special connection between Cassian and Jyn Erso in Rogue One, even if not romantic (because they didn’t have time), but in that elevator, it felt like there was a kiss we didn’t quite see. Now, knowing everything we know about Cassian and Bix, was it just romantic imagination? [Diego starts laughing] Don’t break my heart.

DIEGO LUNA: Without a doubt, Rogue One takes on new meaning when you watch Andor. But you also have to accept the complexity these characters have, and how it reflects in Rogue One, allowing them to be contradictory. I’ll let you answer the question yourself because I think all the information is there now. You have all the tools to decide what that moment, and every moment in Rogue One, means, and what lies behind the words he says and the choices he makes. [laughs] The only thing I can tell you is that yes, Rogue One becomes more complex once you have Andor in mind.

CLAUDIA: Okay, I’ll stick to my imagination: there was a moment, I’m a romantic, and after all, those were their last moments…

DIEGO LUNA: [laughing] …I’m a romantic too! I’m a romantic, and I think Cassian is a romantic, even if he doesn’t seem like it.

[It’s official: Diego Luna has allowed me to fantasize about the elevator kiss between Cassian and Jyn! Laughs]

CLAUDIA: So now I have more hope that it wasn’t just imagination. But… knowing what we know now from Andor’s final surprise (which we won’t mention here), do you think Cassian would have done anything differently if he had known?

DIEGO LUNA: [surprised, then after a long silence, reflecting]

I don’t know. That’s a good question… I think not, I think not…

CLAUDIA: It’s something that changes Rogue One’s ending quite a bit…

DIEGO LUNA: Yeah! [thinks some more] But I don’t think so. I don’t think Cassian would have done anything differently, but, well, we’ll never know…

…Well, Diego leaves the choice up to us, and that’s wonderful 😏 And I love Diego's embarrassed laugh when he's asked about the elevator scene ☺️

P.S. It’s so heartwarming to see journalists who are RebelCaptain shippers. Ana Claudia, I officially adore you, and thank you so much for asking Diego these questions ❤️

[lingerdingdong]

Marc Revelado Documentary clip and English transcript