Q: What was your inspiration for writing Bokurano? Please tell us if a particular manga, anime or movie influenced you.
A: I don’t think anything had a direct influence on me, but everything I had seen since my childhood built up, creating a foundation for my work. I’ll list some representative examples of what I was watching during my kindergarten and elementary school days. That should give you an idea of my tastes. I think I’ve seen almost all of the anime and special-effects movies from that time period.
- Ultra Q
- The Ultraman Series (up until about Ultraman Ace)
- The Kamen Rider Series (up until about Kamen Rider Amazon)
- Five Rangers
- Mighty Jack
- Mazinger Z
- Thunderbirds
- The Godzilla series
- Space Battleship Yamato
- Heidi, Girl of the Alps
- 3,000 Leagues in Search of Mother
Q: Bokurano really keeps its readers in suspense. How did you come up with the idea for the story? Did you determine the whole story at the very start, or did you make it up as you went along?
A: My original idea was about a girl with magical powers. Whenever she used her magic, it would steal life from those who were important to her. That became a story about a robot who risks its own life in order to save others.
At first I thought of about 50% of the story—the main points. I thought up the more detailed elements as I worked.
A concept sketch of the male protagonists of the series
Q: Many of the characters in Bokurano face tough ethical decisions. May we assume that this work addresses ethical themes? And if so, what is it you would like to convey to readers?
A: The themes present in a work are not something that the author should put into words apart from the work itself. Rather, the correct interpretation of a work is what each reader gets out of it.
As an author, I will determine themes, to a certain extent, as I work, but if readers hit upon different themes, I don’t view that as a problem. It’s only natural, and I think it’s interesting.
Q: When Bokurano was made into an anime, how involved in the process were you? Also, to what extent did the anime production team discuss changes to visuals and story with you?
A: I had very little to do with it. When it came to changes, I just reviewed them afterwards.
A concept sketch of the robot
Q: Before beginning work on the Bokurano serial, did you like stories about mecha (robots)?
A: Yes, I love them. In my high school days, mecha and robot anime were popular. You could say I was baptized in them. That was when the word mekafechi (“mecha-fetish”) came into being. It was the Golden Age of robot anime, whose works, such as Gundam, Aura Battle Dunbine, VOTOMS and L-Gaim, have lost none of their luster today.
Q: When it comes to mecha anime and manga, Neon Genesis Evangelion often comes up. The commonly held opinion is that Evangelion was a revolutionary work that drastically changed the mecha genre, dividing it up into pre-Evangelion and post-Evangelion. Do you agree with that?
A: Evangelion is one work in the continuous lineage of robot works since Mazinger Z, so in that respect I don’t think you can divide works into pre- and post-Evangelion.
I do think, however, that the reason Evangelion stands out from its peers is the immense enthusiasm the production staff poured into it. Only rarely can something be made with such passion. The Evangelion TV series was the last great work not to rely on cutting-and-pasting before the rise of computer graphics.
Q: When did you begin drawing manga? Even as a child did you want to become a mangaka, or did you decide on that later? Did you ever work as an assistant? And could you tell us something about your debut work?
A: I started about the time I was in fifth grade at elementary school. I did want to become a mangaka at that time, but it felt so far away, like a dream as impossible to achieve as reaching out and touching the stars.
Kitoh sensei’s workspace
I did work as an assistant. It was for Shouta Kikuchi. My debut work was a short submission called Zansho (“Late Summer Heat”). Until that time, I’d been submitting works that had strong elements of science fiction or alternate-world fantasy, but my debut work was slightly more grounded in the real world. I feel like with that work I achieved a solid foundation for my own manner of creating manga.
That doesn’t mean, however, that everything went smoothly after that. It took another ten years before I could write manga as a profession, so there was a lot I couldn’t do back then.
A layout sketch for one of the manga pages
Q: You are known for your challenging stories and the precise psychological portraits of your characters. Are you purposely attempting to achieve such a style, or do your works just naturally turn out that way?
A: If I had to choose, I’d say it just happens naturally. If I tried to force myself to do something I’m not naturally equipped to, it wouldn’t work out. I take my everyday thoughts and, using the tools at my command, try to express them outside myself. I come up with most of my starting ideas naturally, too.
Q: Is there something besides work that you are absolutely passionate about? Do you have any hobbies? Are you deeply interested in something? Are you involved in any activities?
A: Right now I’m really into bicycling, especially road bicycling. I’m not particularly thinking about the environmental aspect of it, but rather, I like the way I don’t have to overreach myself and can approach it with a comfortable degree of effort.
But I suppose I give most of my time to child-rearing. It’s hard, but nothing is more fun. Is it all right to consider child-raising a hobby?
