Freecell - Kato Shigeaki (highlights)
FREECELL 03.2013 - Shige's interview highlights
Writing: Shige began thinking to the new novel since the release of Pink&Gray and began working on it 2~3 months later.
Saga: He had in mind to write a "Shibuya Saga" and he thinks that in order to call it like that he has to write at least 3 novels.
Setting: Pink&Gray was mostly set in the Shibuya of the 00s, while Senkou Scramble describes the area in the 90s, because those are the years that Takumi and his girlfriend Yuu lived.
Music: The theme songs of the novel are by Nakamura Kazuyoshi and Pizzicato Five, those artists were representive of Shibuya in the 90s. Shige being born in those years didn't know them well but he researched a lot about music of that time. Nakamura is the favourite artist of the main character Takumi, while Pizzicato Five are the favourite band of his girlfriend Yuu. Being the two artists very different in genre they show the good balance the two lovers had.
The song "Cannon ball" by Nakamura Kazuyoshi contains the line "I don't want to live as if I'm already dead" which became a main theme and the poster's line for the novel.
Determination: Shige felt the need to write more about the entertainment world, but he was afraid that creating another male idol character people would think again he's writing about himself. It happened for Pink&Gray and he didn't want the story to repeat.
The first half of Pink&Gray was dedicated to the description of the background and then quickly developed to the end. He heard that somebody stopped reading it bored by that first slow part. That's why this time the novel is longer but he tried to make the plot more entertaining and easier to read.
Pink&Gray was the work that signed his change of skin, with Senkou Scramble Shige thinks he can finally become an adult. Anyway he still has to thanks NEWS because without the group he wouldn't have been able to do any of this. He prefers to not be a professional writer, he likes to have a wider point of view thanks to his job. The interviewer says that Shige's similar to Asai Ryo, a non-professional writer that won the Naoki Award this Winter and that Shige admires a lot.
Akiko & Takumi: Shige thinks that the world of female idols it's very difficult and painful, way more than the world where male idols work.
Akiko and Takumi are two suffering people, they end up together because they need to fill each other's emptiness. The message of the book after all is that you're the only one who can save yourself.
Takumi sees Akiko as a shiny superstar but she doesn't think of herself like that at all. Shige thinks that's common to everybody, even normal people: The way we see ourselves can be completely different from how other people see us.
Shige also points out that Akiko is not Kato Shigeaki. She's one of his characters so of course he put some of himself into her but they're not the same at all.
Juniors: The interviewer said that there were many Juniors that started to respect Shige reading Pink&Gray. Shige's answer:
"But the kids who want to be like me immediately give up! It's so sad, really so sad! The kids who said "I wanna become like Kato-kun" the next month already forgot about it. If you want to be like me don't give up! My virtue is that of surviving!"
Future: Shige said that writing a book perfect to be turned into a real movie is another of his dreams.
About NEWS he said he wants to go on having lives and releasing things. Soon it will be NEWS' 10th anniversary and it seems they're planning many interesting things.
Flowers: An important scene of the book involves a Dahlia, Shige said he's not an expert of flowers but since he receives a lot of them in various job occasions. At first he didn't care and didn't even have a flower vase but then he bought one and decided to always keep flowers at home (because the empty vase was kinda sad XD) so he started to buy them too. Little by little he got to know about flowers more and Dahlia is one of his favourites so he wanted to use it in the novel.
Excuse me for this, the Freecell interview is very long and contains mostly maniac comments about writing, literature and music so I thought that maybe not many people would be interested in it. If you are sorry >< I don't have much time~
Enjoy this little bits of Shige's mind and Senkou Scramble's world.
I'm actually waiting for my copy to arrive to me, when it does I'll read it and post here a review and a plot post as I did for Pink&Gray so don't worry~
Writing: Shige began thinking to the new novel since the release of Pink&Gray and began working on it 2~3 months later.
Saga: He had in mind to write a "Shibuya Saga" and he thinks that in order to call it like that he has to write at least 3 novels.
Setting: Pink&Gray was mostly set in the Shibuya of the 00s, while Senkou Scramble describes the area in the 90s, because those are the years that Takumi and his girlfriend Yuu lived.
Music: The theme songs of the novel are by Nakamura Kazuyoshi and Pizzicato Five, those artists were representive of Shibuya in the 90s. Shige being born in those years didn't know them well but he researched a lot about music of that time. Nakamura is the favourite artist of the main character Takumi, while Pizzicato Five are the favourite band of his girlfriend Yuu. Being the two artists very different in genre they show the good balance the two lovers had.
The song "Cannon ball" by Nakamura Kazuyoshi contains the line "I don't want to live as if I'm already dead" which became a main theme and the poster's line for the novel.
Determination: Shige felt the need to write more about the entertainment world, but he was afraid that creating another male idol character people would think again he's writing about himself. It happened for Pink&Gray and he didn't want the story to repeat.
The first half of Pink&Gray was dedicated to the description of the background and then quickly developed to the end. He heard that somebody stopped reading it bored by that first slow part. That's why this time the novel is longer but he tried to make the plot more entertaining and easier to read.
Pink&Gray was the work that signed his change of skin, with Senkou Scramble Shige thinks he can finally become an adult. Anyway he still has to thanks NEWS because without the group he wouldn't have been able to do any of this. He prefers to not be a professional writer, he likes to have a wider point of view thanks to his job. The interviewer says that Shige's similar to Asai Ryo, a non-professional writer that won the Naoki Award this Winter and that Shige admires a lot.
Akiko & Takumi: Shige thinks that the world of female idols it's very difficult and painful, way more than the world where male idols work.
Akiko and Takumi are two suffering people, they end up together because they need to fill each other's emptiness. The message of the book after all is that you're the only one who can save yourself.
Takumi sees Akiko as a shiny superstar but she doesn't think of herself like that at all. Shige thinks that's common to everybody, even normal people: The way we see ourselves can be completely different from how other people see us.
Shige also points out that Akiko is not Kato Shigeaki. She's one of his characters so of course he put some of himself into her but they're not the same at all.
Juniors: The interviewer said that there were many Juniors that started to respect Shige reading Pink&Gray. Shige's answer:
"But the kids who want to be like me immediately give up! It's so sad, really so sad! The kids who said "I wanna become like Kato-kun" the next month already forgot about it. If you want to be like me don't give up! My virtue is that of surviving!"
Future: Shige said that writing a book perfect to be turned into a real movie is another of his dreams.
About NEWS he said he wants to go on having lives and releasing things. Soon it will be NEWS' 10th anniversary and it seems they're planning many interesting things.
Flowers: An important scene of the book involves a Dahlia, Shige said he's not an expert of flowers but since he receives a lot of them in various job occasions. At first he didn't care and didn't even have a flower vase but then he bought one and decided to always keep flowers at home (because the empty vase was kinda sad XD) so he started to buy them too. Little by little he got to know about flowers more and Dahlia is one of his favourites so he wanted to use it in the novel.
Excuse me for this, the Freecell interview is very long and contains mostly maniac comments about writing, literature and music so I thought that maybe not many people would be interested in it. If you are sorry >< I don't have much time~
Enjoy this little bits of Shige's mind and Senkou Scramble's world.
I'm actually waiting for my copy to arrive to me, when it does I'll read it and post here a review and a plot post as I did for Pink&Gray so don't worry~