#Noda Satoru

[class1akids]

For Shueisha's 100th Anniversary, the cover art for all 18 volumes of the educational Manga World History were redesigned by popular manga artist:

Volume 1: "Kingdom" by Yasuhisa Hara

Volume 2: Hiroyuki Asada "Letter Bee"

Volume 3: Kohei Horikoshi "My Hero Academia"

Volume 4: "Gokusen" by Kozue Morimoto

Volume 5: Yuuki Tabata "Black Clover"

Volume 6: Fusako Kuramochi "Natural Cockoo"

Volumes 7 and 18: Posuka Demizu "The Promised Neverland"

Volume 8: Io Sakisaka "Ao Haru Ride"

Volume 9: Teru Miyoshi "Moriarty the Patriot"

Volume 10: Hirohiko Araki "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure"

Volume 11: Yusei Matsui "Assassination Classroom"

Volume 12: Masanori Morita "ROOKIES"

Volume 13: Noda Satoru "Golden Kamuy"

Volumes 14 and 16: Shinichi Sakamoto "Innocent"

Volume 15: Tatsuya Endo "SPY×FAMILY"

Volume 17: Mari Yamazaki "Thermae Romae"

The pictures of all covers are here

[chilibees]

me reading golden kamuy when something bad happens

vs

me reading dogsred when something bad happens

[eyedelater]

noda-sensei's art peculiarities

(links are carefully selected example images from golden kamuy)

incredibly skilled with the human form; even difficult poses are rendered perfectly. (does he make everyone naked just to show off?)

babies are Not cute. they're ugly with puffy eyes and always look sleepy and disgusted.

clearly hates drawing teeth and the inside of mouths. notably just leaves the inside of mouths white most of the time. sometimes draws rough teeth, sometimes draws detailed teeth, sometimes implies teeth with shading, sometimes fills it in grey— it's not consistent at all. i think i've deduced that what he hates the most is calculating the position of teeth in the mouth.

despite the above point, he seems to always draw sofia's teeth because her tooth gap is an important part of her character design

sometimes zooms in and draws details (especially on hands) then zooms out and you can tell because now the line weight is a little different

3/4 view from behind (1/4 view?) of people's faces where you just see the funny bumps of their lips. and it always works

big round sweat drips that often have Texture and Shading.

incredibly skilled at drawing animals, even notoriously difficult ones like horses. though most of the animals die. especially horses.

amount of sparkle in the eyes is meaningful. more sparkle indicates the lightness of their spirit, and no sparkle indicates coldness or jadedness. best/worst example is reinvigorated tsukishima. asirpa is of course also a critical example. and i think ogata's eyes never have any sparkle his whole life.

he can draw wrinkles in the places where they would normally go on someone's face, and he can do it well. or he can decide to draw Other lines on someone's face, in any spot, and if someone questions it, the answer is that they're just like that, and you have to accept it. i really like this "they're just like that" approach to character design, and there are many examples in golden kamuy (e.g. ariko's square irises and pupils, ushiyama's forehead plate, tsukishima's nose)

really good at drawing the way strands of hair wrap over the top of someone's head. (look at tsurumi, ogata, hijikata)

he'll draw chapped lips that'll make your own lips feel real dry.

mouths are often shaped like that... but it works

eyes are usually black, but sometimes a character's pupils will get really small during moments of high tension and you can see their iris and it's light

this is just a hunch but i think he prefers drawing men over women

judicious use of lines going up from the corners of the mouth

he's not a coward: if a character's chest is exposed and the angle is right, he will draw that character's nipples, and that is right and just. he will apply the same principle to draw a character's butthole, which i don't have such a strong opinion about.

there are lots of men with very close-cut hair (bc it's the military) and that's not distinctive, so he gets creative with the hairlines. i think this is an underrated aspect of character design.

careful use of line weight on the corners of closed mouths has a powerful effect (of cuteness?) (look out for this next time you read the manga. it's everywhere and it's the best.)

consistently skillful use of ink splatter effects for blood; similar splattery effects used for snow

eyebrows and other facial hair are usually drawn as multiple long, thin lines together, and for an eyebrow with emotion, you put a couple of perpendicular lines at one end or both

strands of blood or hair extend and curl around in unrealistic ways for dramatic effect. this effect is omnipresent.

occasional really, really choice faces that were obviously drawn either from photo reference or while looking in a mirror

character design by actually giving everyone different facial features, as opposed to character design by assigning different hair and accessories to uniformly pretty people. the latter is much easier, but he chose the thorny path of his own will! thank you for setting a strong example, noda-sensei!

[kkachi-rkcl]

NODA YOU MADMAN WHY ARE YOU OBSESSED WITH TANIGAKIS BAIT AND TACKLE???

[hotwaterandmilk]

I just think he's neat.

[piduai]

Cinematograph: Another Story

Asirpa: Alright, let us film the next story about Panampe and Penampe.

Sugimoto: Eeeh, are we doing that vulgar stuff again? Don't you have anything else?

Shiraishi: I'm with Sugimoto on this one! It sure would be nice if there were any, like, sorrowful love stories that pull at your heartstrings that we could shoot.~

Tanigaki: Sugimoto and Shiraishi are right. Haven't we had enough stories in which someone just stupidly dies in the end, Asirpa?

Asirpa: Fine, fine, I get it! Listen here, you'll definitely love the next one.

So, a summary:

One day, while Panampe was down at the river setting up a fish trap, he saw a penis sticking out of it.

Sugimoto: Just why?!

Asirpa: When Panampe asked if he should pick it up with his hand, it shook its neck in disagreement. When he asked if he should pick it up with his mouth, the penis nodded.

Shiraishi: Ouch... I hate this so much...

Asirpa: So Panampe put it in his mouth and went home, and when he went to sleep, he left it by his pillow. And at night, in the darkness, a scuttling sound shook up the entire house. When Panampe woke up in the morning, his house was full of treasure, and the penis has disappeared...

Seeing Panampe living so lavishly, Penampe has come to inquire how he managed to come by his riches. After hearing his story, Penampe has pissed and shitted a little all over the entrance of Panampe's house, and ran away.

Sugimoto: What the hell are you doing, Penampe?!

Asirpa: In the same manner, when Penampe was setting up a fish trap at the river, he saw a penis sticking out of it. So he asked how he should pick it up. When he asked whether he should pick it up with his hand, it shook its neck. When he asked whether he should use his mouth, it nodded.

Sugimoto: Don't you be nodding, that's fucking disgusting!

Asirpa: Penampe flipped his lid, grabbed that penis and blew it out of the water and onto the riverside, and has proceeded to kick and roll it on the ground until he got home. And at night, in the darkness, a scuttling sound shook up the entire house. Penampe woke up in the morning with a big grin on his face, but when he looked around... His house was full of various penises scattered everywhere in great amount.

Shiraishi: That's hell...

Asirpa: And no matter how he'd try to clean it up, new penises just kept falling on him. He exhausted himself out and died. Penampe died a stupid death.

Sugimoto: So he died after all.

Shiraishi: Which part of this was a heart-wrenching love story?!

Sugimoto: Does this Ainu story really exist, anyway?

Asirpa: Of course it does. It's an Ainu story passed down from generation to generation from long ago. It wasn't me who made it up.

Sugimoto: You sure?

Shiraishi: No, wait, but why can't it be made up? Not about Panampe and Penampe, but a new story made up by you, Asirpa-chan.

Asirpa: By me?

Sugimoto: Shiraishi, you sure know what to say! Hey, the stories of Panampe and Penampe were made up by someone too, right? So it's fine if it's something that you, as an Ainu, have come up with, Asirpa-san! It just has to be about the Ainu! If it's a story that can be passed down from Ainu to Ainu for a hundred, two hundred years, it's bound to become a real part of Ainu culture!

Asirpa: I see! Since I'm a new age Ainu, I can just make a new Ainu story!

Shiraishi: Exactly!

Asirpa: Alright! Sergeant Tsukishima, come here and write down the story I'm about to come up with!

Tsukishima: Hm? Why me?

Koito: Just shut up and do it, Sergeant Tsukishima!

Asirpa: Okay, here I go... Once upon a time, at a certain place, there was a giant penis...

Sugimoto: Hold on. Just let Panampe and Penampe go! Haven't we decided that you're going to make up a new story from scratch?

Asirpa: Easy for you to say... Alright, Sugimoto, you help me out then.

Sugimoto: Huh? Me? Hmmm... Well... Alright, as the setting, first of all... On one night, a gleaming vessel has descended from the skies. On it lived a family of bizarre Kamuy. The child Kamuy comes down and gets lost. It's left behind in the human world.

Asirpa: Yeah, that's good. What next?

Sugimoto: And by chance, he meets an Ainu boy. They become friends, but since that Kamuy has a weird appearance, they need to steer clear of adults and keep it hidden.

Shiraishi: What would a Kamuy with a weird appearance look like?

Sugimoto: Ugh, well... Uhhhh... Let me see... It'd be stark naked, its face and body covered in creases like on Asirpa-san's mouth, it'd have no hair, its legs would be very short, and its arms and neck would be very long.

Asirpa: That'd be a strange Kamuy indeed.

Sugimoto: The Meiji government officials hear of that Kamuy, and they want to catch and study it. But the Ainu children and the Kamuy run away on a dugout canoe!

Asirpa: That's so interesting! What next?

Sugimoto: They're about to get caught, but the canoe takes flight! With the help of the powers of that creature! And they fly over the big, round moon!

*he starts singing the theme song of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial*

Asirpa: I like that it has extraordinary powers! What if it could heal people's wounds just by touching them?

Sugimoto: That sounds like a beautiful scene! The boy hurts his finger, and the Kamuy...

Asirpa: Grows a penis out of the wound, and its tip is shining!

*she also starts singing the theme song of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial*

Sugimoto: Wait a second! Why are we back to Panampe and Penampe?!

Asirpa: Oh, we can't?

Sugimoto: Haven't we just agreed to cease the dirty stuff?! Why can't we make this a nice, lovely story!

Shiraishi: You know, when I think about it, something bald, with a long neck, that looks like a naked granny, it sounds pretty gross in the first place. It's disgusting and nobody would want to look at that.

Sugimoto: Oh, is that so?

Narrator: Sugimoto, however, had a premonition!

Shiraishi: But if it was something more fun, it would become known from word of mouth and lots of people would want to watch it. Nobody wants to look at a gross little creature. Asirpa-chan's goal here is to make people at large aware of Ainu culture as a means of leaving something behind, right?

Asirpa: Shiraishi is right. Isn't there anything else? Hey, Second Lt. Koito, you think of something, too.

Koito: Me? Hmm... Let's see... What if the Kamuy was cuter? With fluffy fur, a round shape. A very cute creature.

Sugimoto: Like Tanigaki?

Koito: No, no, I mean something smaller, a cat-like thing. Also... Alright. It's something the main character's Father buys for him as a gift. In Hakodate, which is full of foreigners, in a sketchy shop.

Asirpa: Good, good, then what?

Koito: But there's three rules for keeping that Kamuy in the house. Rules you can't break no matter what.

Asirpa: And those rules are?

Koito: First, it cannot abide light. If it gets exposed to the sun, it dies.

Asirpa: Oh, that's an interesting Kamuy.

Koito: Second rule is that it can't come near water.

Sugimoto: Does it die?

Koito: No, it doesn't die, but... It multiplies. It becomes two!

Shiraishi: From even one drop?

Koito: That's right! It multiplies from even one drop of water!

Sugimoto: So if you dropped it into a lake or something it would have been great trouble.

Koito: Obviously!

Tsukishima: Would it multiply even if it got a bit of its own pee on its leg?

Koito: Pee?! I'm telling you it's water! Pee is not water.

Tsukishima: Since it doesn't get triggered if there's impurities present, won't it not multiply if it comes in contact with lake water, which is full of impurities?

Koito: Shut up, Tsukishima!

Asirpa: Just ignore him and go on, Second Lt. Koito!

Koito: Hmpf. Third rule is that you cannot feed it after midnight.

Shiraishi: What happens if you do?

Koito: It transforms into a monster. It becomes a ferocious beast that attacks humans!

Sugimoto: That does sound cool!

*theme song of Gremlins starts playing*

Tsukishima: Please wait a second. What if it starts eating right before midnight, chews the food thoroughly, and the clock strikes 12 just as it passes through its throat? What then?

Koito: Uh!... Well...

Tsukishima: What if there's some food stuck between its teeth, and it manages to get it out and swallow it after midnight? Does it transform into a monster in that scenario?

Koito: What an annoying bastard... You're really one for nitpicking, Tsukishima!

Sugimoto: It does seem that the setting is a bit complicated... The audience could have trouble keeping up with a convoluted story.

Koito: Ugh...

Tanigaki: Can I try, too?

Shiraishi: Ooh, Tanigaki Genjirou-chan! You thought of something, too?

Tanigaki: How about this? One day, an astronomer was observing the sky and noticed that a big asteroid was approaching...

Sugimoto: An asteroid? Oh, that sounds like a grand story.

Tanigaki: The government officials fall into a panic and try to come up with ways of the military shooting it down, but they fail. It's huge, so it can't be broken apart. If that asteroid manages to hit the Earth, it will surely wipe humanity out.

Koito: So? What do they do?

Tanigaki: So they ask the coal miners for help. They figure that if they manage to dig a whole and put explosives there, they could blow it up. It's the same as using dynamite to blow up the ground when mining for coal.

Sugimoto: Oh, I see, they want to blow it up from the inside.

Tanigaki: The miners jump onto the meteor, and start digging...

Tsukishima: And how exactly do they manage to get on that meteor, Private First Class Tanigaki?

Tanigaki: Huh? Um... Maybe they use a hot air balloon or something...

Tsukishima: Well then that would be impossible! A hot air balloon can only go as far as there is air. There is absolutely no way it could approach an asteroid, that comes shooting straight from space like a bullet. No way.

Tanigaki: Ugh... Well, what about shooting the coal miners onto the meteor using a giant cannon?

Asirpa: What if there was an extended penis? Everyone straddles it and shoots right into the sky...

*she starts singing the theme song of Armageddon*

Sugimoto: Asirpa-san, just forget about Panampe and Penampe.

Tsukishima: So that's a no for Tanigaki, too. The premise itself is so ridiculous you can't even focus on the story. Not captivating at all. Go back to Akita.

Tanigaki: Oh... I see...

Koito: And are you able to come up with anything, Sergeant Tsukishima?

Tsukishima: What? Me?

Koito: Obviously! You think of something too, instead of turning down everything! Even a moron can sit around and criticize something someone else has made!

Tsukishima: Well... Alright... What about the main character being... a young, poor... painter? He... manages to get hold of the cheapest ticket on a luxurious ferry ride, and is on his way back to his homeland. On the same boat there's a beautiful woman who is being forced into a marriage with an arrogant upper class guy. She doesn't want that marriage, so she tries to kill herself by jumping into the night sea... But she's saved by the main character, and the two of them fall in love.

Sugimoto: Oh my, that does sound lovely!

Shiraishi: What next, what next? Tell me more!

*theme song of Titanic starts playing*

Tsukishima: But the boat hits an iceberg, and as the passengers notice that they've started gradually sinking, the situation on board becomes dire.

Tanigaki: That's rough...

Tsukishima: As the giant boat fills with water, the two are desperate for a way to save themselves...

Koito: And then? What next? What happens to them, Tsukishima?!

Tsukishima: The boat gets split in two, and sinks... They're thrown into the freezing winter ocean.

Shiraishi: No way! How could that happen...

Tsukishima: The main character manages to put his girlfriend on a broken floating door and save her, but, as he loses all his strength due to the cold, he succumbs to his death, sinking into the freezing dark water... After that, the woman calls herself by the dead painter's surname in order to avoid that dreaded marriage, and the story ends with her, all old now, telling everyone this tale.

Sugimoto: *while sobbing* What a tragic, beautiful thing! They will come! They will all come to watch it! You're the best, Sergeant Tsukishima!

Asirpa: Woudn't it be better if the woman rode the main character's enormous testicles instead?

Sugimoto: I told you to stop bringing up Panampe and Penampe, damn it!!

Asirpa: The painter was a tanuki in disguise! Wouldn't it be better if his balls became huge and everyone survived?

Shiraishi: That would be awful, actually. You're ruining it, Asirpa-chan!

Koito: What is that...

Tanigaki: Horrible...

Asirpa: Well, anyway, this whole thing has nothing to do with the Ainu, so it's a no from me. You lot really have no eye for this thing at all.

*everyone is upset*

Asirpa: Alright, now back to Panampe and Penampe...

[osomanga]

[glorifiedwalkinggun]

exhibit a: noda satoru practicing self-control

[reavenedges-lies]

[writerobscura]

Gokden Kamuy trailer

[lifesruiners]

and that’s how i met your father

scanlation credit

[all-golden-kamuy-offical-art]

[smillingcartoonist]

Golden Kamui 2 #

[your-everyday-obsessionist]

Hello?????

[doma3681]

hm.

[piduai]

Q&A corner with Noda Satoru from Shueisha Online

things that didn’t make it into the fanbook. i combined them into one post after all, part 2 is at the bottom. scroll a bit if you've already read part 1. original here and here

posting anywhere is fine, but please credit me.

Q: Please tell us about the characters "secrets" that 99.9999% of the readers would be happy to know.

Noda: Sure. When we were creating the official fanbook, we asked people to send in questions, and we received and incredible amount. I read through about 2200 of them, and the most common one was "please tell us the characters' penis size rankings".

"Oh my, how lewd", I thought.

Q: Considering there was only one question per person allowed, why would they waste such a precious chance on such a thing?

Noda: I have no clue. But I gave serious thought to the question regardless, because this is what the readers want to know the most, after all. So, I will announce the most recent penis size ranking:

Ushiyama > Tanigaki > Boutarou > Kiroranke > Kikuta > Ariko > Ienaga > Vasily > Nihei > Lightning Bandit > Tsukishima > Tsurumi

The rest are roughly the same. Sugimoto, Ogata, Usami, Hijikata, Koito are all average-sized. Shiraishi's is a little smaller than average.

Q: In the official fanbook, you named Tanigaki, Ushiyama, Kiroranke and Kikuta as the "four heavenly kings of having big dicks", but it seems that Boutarou has leapt to the top. Ariko Ipopte also looks like he'd be packing... Hmm, very interesting indeed...

Noda: Yes. Boutarou is tall and has long and slender limbs, so naturally he'd also have a long and slender penis. It wasn't simply about the size though, it was more about how good the dick is.

Q: I see. Were there any other question that piqued your interest?

Noda: Alright, using this chance I'll just answer some questions that couldn't make it into the fanbook due to the page limit.

Q: In volume 20, during Koito's kidnapping, why did Ogata, disguised as a Russian, put his hand on Koito's back and leaned in close when the latter was on the phone with his father? Was it because Ogata, who wasn't loved by his father, saw himself in Koito during that moment?

Noda: Exactly. But he also had a huge smile on his face under his mask during that scene.

Q: Share what are your top 3 favorite scenes with Genjirou.

Noda: Chapter 120, where the emotionally unstable Genjirou-chan kept confusing bokke with bokki (boner). 60 points on the cuteness scale.

Chapter 146, where Genjirou-chan's fully stretched dick is rapidly cooled on the ground after he exited the Russian steam bath, banya. 80 points on the cuteness scale.

Chapter 230, where Genjiro-chan is carrying Inkarmat and encouraging her by telling her that everything is going to be okay. 100 points on the cuteness scale.

Chapter 43, where Genjirou-chan is trying to express his gratitude to Huci for helping him after being attacked by Ogata, and ends up crying. 20.000 points on the cuteness scale.

Q: Please tell us of some mundane things about Superior Private Ogata that only the 7th division members know.

Noda: One time Usami pulled his leg; he called Ogata to the training grounds and stood him up. When he got there nobody met up with him, and Ogata ended up waiting alone for a long time.

During the Russo-Japanese war, he didn't notice that an enemy bullet left a small hole in his mess kit, so the rice he put there ended up being dry and hard.

Q: What was the intention behind making Tsurumi a Second Lieutenant instead of a Lieutenant Colonel or something?

Noda: Because he wouldn't have fought personally in the war if he were a Colonel. There's a difference between a superior officer who fights side to side with his underlings, covered in blood, and a superior officer who commands from the rear. It would have had an effect on the attitude of Tsurumi's subordinates towards him.

By the way, intelligence officers received about two ranks higher the amount of pay than regular Second Lieutenants, or so it seems. So he was esteemed as a Colonel anyway.

Q: Ushiyama's modus operandi seems to be just throwing stuff around. How does he feel about ghosts and such, things that wouldn't yield under physical attack?

Noda: He was bad with stuff about ghosts. Sugimoto's shitty ghost stories seemed to scare him.

Part 2

Q: Has Tsukishima kept the letters he got from Igogusa-chan during the Sino-Japanese war?

Noda: He threw all of them away. I decided against them ever meeting again, even on accident. Tsukishima is the best when he can concentrate on his duty. However, given that what he threw away was just too great, I wanted him to give his all to Tsurumi; I wanted him to sacrifice his everything in order to achieve his goals.

Tsurumi's monologue that Tsukishima eavesdropped on was everything that he ever wanted to hear, this is why there was a sparkle in his eyes. I wanted him to enter the last battle at Hakodate full of determination.

Q: At times, when Koito goes on his rants, the text is absolutely illegible, but you can hear what he's saying in the anime. Is it anime original, or do they follow the instructions that you have given them? Will that happen in the future too?

Noda: Of course, the anime staff always asks me what lines they should use there.

Q: In chapter 243, Kikuta commented that Ogata and Hanazawa seemed to have gotten along well. What would the two of them talk about in their time together?

Noda: Yuusaku would talk about exciting daily life occurrences, about things he liked, about delicious things he ate while out in the city, about the weather. All Ogata did was ask questions about their father.

Q: If the cast were students, what school clubs would they be part of?

Noda: Sugimoto would be forward in ice hockey. Shiraishi would be in gymnastics. Asirpa-san would be in middle-distance track and field. Ogata would be center in volleyball. Ushiyama would be in hammer throw, as you could have guessed. Kiroranke would be in basketball. Tsukishima would be defender in soccer, and Koito forward. Kadokura and Kirawus would be in table tennis.

Tanigaki and Boutarou would be on the water polo team, and Tanigaki would get stuck in the pool this one time after Boutarou ripped his pants. Inkarmat, on the concert band, while cheering on him would witness that and be like, "Oh my, look, there's an oboe there!".

Tanigaki would get beet red and hide behind his teammate Ariko while trying to get out of the pool. However Usami from the opposite team would push him back into the water, and before you know it both their dicks are out, and then they’d be like, “Oh, this is so embarrassing”. Morons.