insaneneko

The December 2008 Pafu has an interview with Sugiura Shiho. Some of the interesting tidbits:

-When asked if the story is proceeding as she'd planned initially, Sugiura-sensei responded that things were going smoothly. The only problem she has is that there are so many characters she needs more pages than expected (such as one chapter's worth of story taking three chapters to draw out).

-According to Sugiura-sensei, Rakan sees Chigusa as "honest" and "open," a "friend" (as opposed to "pervert" or "weirdo" like the other characters XD). She plans on developing that relationship further, so stay tuned.

-When asked if there was a significance in Rakan wearing a gakuran instead of a blazer-type school uniform, Sugiura-sensei responded she wanted to connect the reader to reality in some way. A gakuran immediately conjures up "school uniform." She also just likes gakuran. She likes manga in which the characters fight in gakurn. She'd always wanted to draw someone fighting in a gakuran at least once.

-Rakan is supposed to be the most powerful sanome (ever?).

-Chigusa can't read people's minds, but he can sense the aura or atmosphere around people. He puts that aura together with a chart in his head that associates certain auras with certain emotions and figures out what a person is feeling. It's something all people do, he just can do it much better.

-Sugiura-sensei finds characters with no darkness, who are only happy or cheerful or gentle, to be rather unnatural. She thinks that having a negative side along with that positive side is more balanced. She likes to see people who lack something realize that emptiness and fill it.

-There is no connection between the "thousand" character in Senrou and the practice of giving names with numbers in them to extraneous children. She hadn't even realized it until after she'd established the numbered children idea.

-Until chapter 35, the Prince had never been interested in Kinrei. He'd only thought of Kinrei as someone who did what he was told to do. Sensei compares the Prince to a hamster that becomes attached to the person who feeds it...

-When asked which character is the stupidest, Sugiura-sensei responded with two characters. Hakubi in an adorably stupid way, Yoruaki in a pitiful and unfortunate way. When Hakubi turned out the way he did when she'd tried to write a smart enemy, she realized she can't write a smart character...

-The Prince's "voice" in people's heads essentially sounds like Rakan's voice, with differences in tenor due to their differing personalities.

-The interviewer points out that none of the characters can be described as pure bad guys. Sugiura-sensei agrees, as she prefers stories that do not feature black and white good and bad and thus seems to write that way as well. She does try to write truly bad guys, but she can't get their personalities down and has a hard time with them.

-Things Sugiura-sensei would like to do with the various cute animals that appear in the manga: She'd give Kou a fast-moving, furry toy to play with. She'd ride Kuro. And she'd like to brush her. Give the birds fruits and take a picture of them. She'd like to wet the stone creatures with water...

-Sugiura-sensei does love her characters but they don't hit her moe points (if Rakan's grandpa had been completely bald he would've done it, tho). Instead she gets excited over things like futon. If she could've made it work within the story, she would've liked to have Rakan and company have a big pillow fight. Just thinking about the pillows filled in with cute tones excites her.

-Sugiura-sensei's favorite character is Rakan since she created him when she was in high school.

-Yoruaki makes Sugiura-sensei feel sorry for him. His name is "night," he's into a blond, he speaks politely...He reminds her of Nei from "Koori no Mamono."

-When asked if there were characters that "acted on their own" or wouldn't easily get moving, Sugiura-sensei mentioned the Prince and Chigusa. She hadn't planned on the Prince cutting his own throat, but when it happened she agreed that he totally would've. Chigusa often ends up looking out quietly from behind in everyday life, but when she makes him say something he never says something reasonable...

-Sugiura-sensei apologizes to each of the four main character: Rakan, for not drawing him in cooking scenes more. Chigusa, for writing him as more like a chick (baby chicken) instead of the black panther she'd intended to. Narushige, for turning him into a mother-in-law type instead of the cool, gorgeous, smart young man she'd meant to. Touji, for intending to have him teased from the beginning and actually going through with it. And as a bonus, Kinrei, for always putting him in the same clothes. She'd wanted to put him brighter colored clothing, but he is laughably unsuited for such things.

-Sugiura-sensei's favorite scene so far is the entire latter half of the last story in volume 4 (I don't have my manga so I don't know what happened). The scene she'd most wanted to write is yet to come.

-Sugiura-sensei thinks Chigusa is the character that's grown the most, even though he's still incomplete as he's without his memories.

-Sugiusa-sensei has drawn storyboards up to volume 17. She feels the series is about 75% complete. She hadn't taken into account the sheer number of characters she'd have to give some kind of end to...In any case, the manga has entered the final stage.

The one thing that Silver Diamond 13 needs more of is close-ups of Chigusa. XDXD I totally enjoyed this volume, as I do with every volume of this series. I love the oddly leisurely pace...( among other things. )

Hakkenden drama CD coming out 9/21! The cast is as follows:

Inuzuka Shino: Paku Romi
Inukawa Sousuke: Morikawa Toshiyuki
Hamaji: Kobayashi Sanae
Satomi Riou: Narita Ken
Osaki Kaname: Miyano Mamoru

I was actually kind of disappointed that Paku Romi was cast as Shino initially, but after some thought I'm taking a wait and see attitude. I think Paku Romi is very talented, but I have a negative impression of her because I don't like her singing voice. I figure she won't be singing on the drama CD, so...

All the others I approve of wholeheartedly. I am not familiar with Narita Ken...I know he played Sesshoumaru, but it's been so damn long since I've watched Inuyasha I don't remember his voice. ;_; Miyano Mamoru of course playing the botchan! XD Morikawa Toshiyuki playing the ever-patient (except when he gets pissed off) guardian type! I have no idea how Kobayashi Sanae will play Hamaji, but I trust her considerable talent to do justice to the part.



And on the subject of drama CDs, the next Shonen Bride one comes out on 7/25. (I don't think I've mentioned it before, but the first two are available at bl_dramas  here and here). Initially, I was very taken aback by Suzumura Kenichi's voicing of Shinobu. His voice was not even close to what I imagined Shinobu would sound like, but after a while it grew on me. He's talented, I'll give him that. ^^; Toriumi Kousuke was dead on as Kohji.

These drama CDs were very enjoyable to listen to because there's a lot of action and adventure and not too much sex to skip. Yeah, it's not going to be for a lot of fangirls (who seem to be into the hot and heavy?) but for someone like me it was perfect.


What totally needs a drama CD is Silver Diamond. I'd love all the fun gags and the touching and silly interplay between the four come to life! Who'd voice the different characters? Hmm...

Being insane as usual, I translated the Sugiura Shiho interview that was in the November 2005 Pafu. Well...I only translated the first half that was of interest to me. The second half was about the artist, and I frankly don't really care about personal details. :P At least...not enough to translate it. I worked on this for the last couple of months at work and finally gave up on it. I could work on it forever. I don't think I'm really meant to translate interviews...In any case, some cool insight into Silver Diamond, as well as some references to Koori no Mamono no Monogatari. XD

( the interview )