Kouga Yun on Loveless
There was a short interview with Kouga Yun in the April Pafu. Being sick and laid up at home, when I was actually more or less coherent I decided that it'd be a great idea to translate this short bit (delirious any? ^^;). I only translated the part directly relating to the manga:
Q: Regarding the manga, it seems as though there were dramatic developments for various characters in 2005.
K: After this I am thinking of preparing episodes in which Seimei will become even more unpleasant and Soubi will become more hopeless (laugh).
Q: Are Seimei's speech and conduct "unpleasant?"
K: To me they are unpleasant.
Editor: When Kouga-sensei calls a character "unpleasant," it means she is pleased with that character.
K: Oh, really!? (laugh) Ah, and I plan on making Ritsuka even more cool.
Q: Speaking of Ritsuka, compared to when the serialization began he's gotten very good at handling Soubi, hasn't he?
K: I want him to continue working hard like he has been doing. Even though I'm the one drawing him, I feel that Ritsuka is pitiful (laugh). That his life sucks. Compared to scenes in which the other characters appear, the scenes in which Ritsuka appears often makes me gloomy.
Q: After all, the people around Ritsuka are Soubi and Seimei, who are slightly different from the ordinary person.
K: Soubi is a kind of airhead and has fallen away from normality a bit, but he doesn't think he's strange at all. Seimei is slightly more self-aware, but there's a streak in him that thinks, "I want to do [it] so [it's] okay." That's way more dangerous. Because Soubi is an airhead, I want him to be forgiven even if he's odd (laugh).
Q: As for future developments, what is on our minds is whether there will come a day when Seimei and Ritsuka will have contact with each other, and what will happen to Soubi at that time.
K: On Seimei and Ritsuka having contact, I can't state when but it will happen before long. As for Soubi when that happens...he'll probably be totally useless (laugh).
When asked what goals she had for 2006, she replied that one of them was to put out two volumes during the year. Wouldn't that be nice?...Except that it'd be two volumes closer to the end. ^^;
It's interesting to see again and again how manga artists can view adaptations into other media of their own work so objectively and distantly. They seem to think of the manga as their baby, and anything else as an associated work to be viewed with interest but not really claimed as theirs. Kouga-sensei expressed this view in this interview, and I've read other interviews of other artists where the same thoughts have been professed.
Q: Regarding the manga, it seems as though there were dramatic developments for various characters in 2005.
K: After this I am thinking of preparing episodes in which Seimei will become even more unpleasant and Soubi will become more hopeless (laugh).
Q: Are Seimei's speech and conduct "unpleasant?"
K: To me they are unpleasant.
Editor: When Kouga-sensei calls a character "unpleasant," it means she is pleased with that character.
K: Oh, really!? (laugh) Ah, and I plan on making Ritsuka even more cool.
Q: Speaking of Ritsuka, compared to when the serialization began he's gotten very good at handling Soubi, hasn't he?
K: I want him to continue working hard like he has been doing. Even though I'm the one drawing him, I feel that Ritsuka is pitiful (laugh). That his life sucks. Compared to scenes in which the other characters appear, the scenes in which Ritsuka appears often makes me gloomy.
Q: After all, the people around Ritsuka are Soubi and Seimei, who are slightly different from the ordinary person.
K: Soubi is a kind of airhead and has fallen away from normality a bit, but he doesn't think he's strange at all. Seimei is slightly more self-aware, but there's a streak in him that thinks, "I want to do [it] so [it's] okay." That's way more dangerous. Because Soubi is an airhead, I want him to be forgiven even if he's odd (laugh).
Q: As for future developments, what is on our minds is whether there will come a day when Seimei and Ritsuka will have contact with each other, and what will happen to Soubi at that time.
K: On Seimei and Ritsuka having contact, I can't state when but it will happen before long. As for Soubi when that happens...he'll probably be totally useless (laugh).
When asked what goals she had for 2006, she replied that one of them was to put out two volumes during the year. Wouldn't that be nice?...Except that it'd be two volumes closer to the end. ^^;
It's interesting to see again and again how manga artists can view adaptations into other media of their own work so objectively and distantly. They seem to think of the manga as their baby, and anything else as an associated work to be viewed with interest but not really claimed as theirs. Kouga-sensei expressed this view in this interview, and I've read other interviews of other artists where the same thoughts have been professed.