Interviews with my mangaka
Kenshin Hiden Interview
Anime Con 2002 interview.
I was created for the sole purpose of giving Kenshin a buddy and to knock the guy into his sense. |D.
Wastuki feels he didn't write all he could have about Sanosuke, and that a character like him would make an interesting main character. - Mangaka loves me. ;o;
Kenshin Kaden Interview
The more in depth version of the interview.
My mangaka is evil for the following reasons
A) I had planned to end it with Kenshin leaving the Kamiya dojo to go to Kyoto. That was the ending I had in mind if… [Watsuki is interrupted by the interviewer]
B) On the topic of Kaoru's "death" - I was wondering what to do… I wasn't even sure yet by the end of the Kyoto Arc. But even if I was still hesitating, I thought about the fact that with Kaoru being dead, there wouldn't be a happy ending. Even if I had found a way that, in spite of that, Kenshin found his answers and soothed his wounded heart, without Kaoru, it would never have been a happy ending, so I decided to let her live. But I really had to struggle over that. To tell the truth, if I hadn't drawn the Kyoto Arc, I could maybe have killed Kaoru. But after having felt for the first time the need to draw real shonen manga during that arc, I understood that I needed a happy ending. Entertainment should, by definition, leave us happy and with a smile, and shonen manga are entertainment.
Loev mangaka. <3