I. The Sanctuary is a revolt against God

1. It was a very long series. How many times was the story originally going to run in Hana To Yume Magazine?
Well, maybe six times, twelve times? So I guess I imagined one or two seasons.

2. But you couldn't finish in twelve, could you?
Yes, that's true. It just wouldn't end. My previous title The Cain Saga was popular, and when I was finishing up, everybody said "Hey, dont!" So I thought if this didn't catch on (why the heck am I being this honest (laugh)), I could cut it off and return to the other series.

3. From that time, did you have the story planned all the way to the end in the Book of Heaven section?
Well, let's see. When I went over all the notes I written about the characters, I had things up through the death of Zaphikel scene. This was before I'd thought up the entire structure. I had decided things up to where Zaphikel gets tortured by Sevothtarte. Then I got the idea to have a young guy (Raziel) come rescue him.

4. Did you already have the stuff leading to it in mind, the Hades and Underworld storylines?
No, I didn't have those parts. Just some scattered pieces...
My job was to figure out how to get there. I had a bunch of scenes popping into my head that I wanted to draw, so to make them happen, I had to figure out what route to take to get there. That s why it was difficult for me to have to create a story that got me there.

5. Does that mean that if the story ended in 12 chapters, you wouldn't have been able to draw the parts you most wanted to draw?
Shocking, isn't it? (laugh) But I wouldn't know until I tried. That's why, just like my editor wanted, I packed so much into chapter one. It's got much more than the average first chapter, but that was on purpose.

6. Did you decide on the title Angel Sanctuary right at first?
No, I thought about it a lot. I wrote down a bunch of names--there were about twenty or thirty. I think I filled an entire sheet of paper. I also looked at dictionaries, movie titles, and song titles.
Whatever manga I do, I write a pile of titles, suffer to death over them, and discuss with my editor which one is right, and then decide.

7. So the title "Angel Sanctuary" was one you picked out of many, then.
At first, the title was "Coming of the Seraphim." I had this title floating around in my head for a long time. But actually, the Seraphim never really came, did they? (laugh)
What made us decide on "Angel Sanctuary" was that I wanted a title with some impact that made you think, "what's this?" And also, we thought we really ought to have the word "angel" in the title.
The word "sanctuary" gives a sort of aesthetic feel to it.

8. Aesthetic?
Strange, isn't it? (laugh) It feels like something has been forbidden. Like something against God, a kind of psychological treason, is what I thought.

9. In the story of Angel Sanctuary, what was the first episode you came up with?
At first, I thought what if the girl who was the main character's love interest jumped off a roof and died? What if the heroine died?! I got started thinking of a scenario where she was actually a living angel.
From there, I started thinking about making the heroine be like a little sister. She'd be thinking, "If I die, he will be saved," sort of a self-sacrificing psychological tearjerker.

10. And then, after the angel theme developed, is that when you came up with the Zaphikel scene?
Well...if there's too much close-up on Zaphikel, where will it go from there? There were a bunch of scenes.
For example, from the start I had some scenes of Kato and Setsuna joking around, those were there at the start. From early on I had the scenes of them in Hades, saying, "Well, what's done is done."

 

II. The Story begins with Sana

11. Who was the very first character that you created?
It was Sara. More than Setsuna, it was Sara.
At first, she had the name "Sana." Her hair was long and her skirt was short. I really wanted to draw a girl like that in a cute school uniform. I liked the hair and the uniform, so much I couldn't stand it. When I drew it, the girl was so splendid, I really was happy with it.

12. What's the origin of the name Setsuna Mudo?
The name Setsuna is pretty cool, has a nice ring to it. For a long time, I'd been thinking about using that name some day. It has a really cool meaning, too.
*Note: Setsuna translates as "a moment, an instant."

13. In Angel Sanctuary there are a lot of angels appearing. Are there any you came up with yourself?
Oh yes, a lot of them.
First, Alexiel, Rosiel... (longpause) huh?! Is that all?! (laugh) I also made up the names of the minor characters. There's even an angel named Af...
Something I regret now is that Raziel is such a famous angel, there's even a "Book of Raziel." So I wish I'd taken that character's name from a lower-ranked angel.
Ah! Kirie. There is no angel named Kirie. And no Katan, either.

14. So there's no angel named Katan, then?
I got the name Katan from Katan Amano, the legendary doll maker. At first, Katan was called Katan Sensei... in the original plan, there was also supposed to be a school... Well, I guess there actually was a school. at the beginning of the series, (laugh) So the plan was to have Katan enter the school as a teacher.
But in the end, Setsuna and Sara were separated between a boys' school and girls' school. So the teacher character got cut out.

15. Where did the plan for Rosiel to be the Inorganic Angel come from?
I wanted organic and inorganic to be these opposite poles...for Alexiel and Rosiel to be like that.

16. The word "inorganic" can have several meanings. What did you want it to convey?
Natural things and created things...I wanted to show how we dont really know which is good and which is evil.
I mean, you can say that human culture is a bad thing. You could say that humans are destroying the planet, that humans are like a virus. But even so, the development of culture is inevitable. I wouldn't say it's a necessary evil, but I would say it can't be helped.
Take environmental damage, for example. It causes global warming, and it's like we're slitting our own throats. But we still have to do what we have to do.
So I'm wondering if the natural and the man-made can exist together. That's what I had in mind with the words organic and inorganic.
So it's more correct to say nature and science. The connotation is a little different. But I wanted to express that simply, so I named them the Organic Angel and the Inorganic Angel.

 

III. What I really wanted to draw

17. Was there any episode with such strong emotional attachments that it took you a long time to draw?
Yes, a lot of them.
To pick some examples, when Sara died, Zaphikel's death scene, Sevothtarte (Lailah)'s death scene. And then, the scene where Kira appears reincarnated as Lucifer, I was really anxious to draw that. Also, I really wanted to draw the scenes where Kato is reincarnated, and the comedy scenes in Hades. And then there's the Shateiel and Raziel episode, and the scene where Raphaël charges off to Sara's trial.
But whenever I actually try to draw them, I can't do it like I picture them in my head, and I'm never satisfied with them. I keep feeling I ought to write better dialog, draw better faces, make better compositions... I keep feeling that if I had more time and try harder, maybe I could come with dialog, better compositions, better clothes, a different fashion, that I could make better objects in the room and better atmosphere. But then the deadline looms, and I've got to focus and finish drawing. After I get them done, I think "Well, that's good enough, isn't it?"
Even more than certain episodes, there are certain panels I really want to draw.

18. Which panels did you want to draw?
The scene in the Hades arc, where Kato faces Enra-o, and says "I'm used to betraying and being betrayed!" Or the page when Lucifer is seen reincarnated. The panel when Kira says, "I'm the one who killed Kato." When Setsuna goes inside Alexiel, and the angel crystal is broken. Also, the scene where Lailah jumps. And when the Mad Hatter appears, Kurai has Oolong in front of her, and suddenly the Hatter is beside her.
Oh yeah, in volume 13 when Lil is beaten up, and against Sara's expectations, Lil greets her with a smile. There's no end to them. But it's hard to turn images into drawings!

19. Are there any color illustrations you particularly like?
The picture on page 10-11. Also the one page 14-15. That was the cover of the previous art book.

 

IV. Creation is a flash, of inspiration

20. The Evils are much like humans. Why did you design them like they are now? For example, why is the Anagura accent so much like the Kansai accent?
I didn't plan for an Anagura accent. I just had a funny image of little kids running around tall buildings speaking with a Kansai accent, and that's where it came from. So they started first that way and then developed into actual characters.
I wanted a kid like Kurai to speak with a boyish Kansai accent. And then that kid was a demon. I thought that it was kind of attractive. So that's how the Evils started speaking like that. It's actually a sort of fake Kansai accent. (laugh)

21. Sandalphon sees the world through a stuffed bunny doll that Meta-tron carries around. And hunting the I Children was called "rabbit hunting." Is there any meaning behind the rabbit?
Any interpretations of things like that were attached after the fact. Me, I just decide by feeling.
A violent scene popped into my head of Metatron carrying some kind of stuffed animal by the ears. It shows the cruelty of children. It doesn't matter since it's a stuffed doll, but carrying it by the ears is kind of scary. That's what I felt.
The kind of cruelty that children have, and the stuffed doll putting up with it as a pet, the pitiful feeling of those contrasting images is how I picture Metatron. Even though he looks so cute on the outside, that's how he really is.
So at first, you see the crying eyes of a stuffed doll, and in the end it's a rabbit. Moreover, that rabbit also gets dragged around, and it seems like it can't stand up.
The plan to have the I Children called rabbits came later. It was because Metatron and Sandalphon were supposed to be the kings of the I Children. So the I Children were also rabbits. And with the I Children's eyes being red, it connected them even more.

22. What was the origin of your idea for the Creator God?
The idea for the Creator came from one source, the story of Cain and Abel. That was all.
There are probably a lot of religious nuances there, but just hearing the story, you kind of feel "What's up with this God?!" He favors one and rejects the other. So when one kills the other, it feels like it's God's fault. That's the image I get.
So this Creator, the God of my world, is an egotist. But that kind of God is very human.
Actually, I think God is such a huge thing that there's no way we know whether it has a personality or not. But it would be impossible to understand such a huge impersonal God, and moreover I get the feeling it wouldn't be interesting in a manga. It's too spiritualisme. We'd have to think cosmically of its existence. So to keep it from being too big, I decided to think of it like I did.

23. What was your first encounter with angels? How did you know about them, and why are you so interested in them?
Well, the order is a little different. When I decided to draw a story about angels, I needed to start researching them. In a book called Yaso, it said that there was a large hierarchy of angels. It said there were a bunch of different ranks, like Seraphim and Cherubim. I thought, "Wow, there's a lot. I didn't know that." So I decided to put them all in.
Even so, I dont like angels at ail, or have an angel fetish. Actually, I even doubt whether they even exist.

 

V. To be needed by somebody

24. It seems one of the themes of Angel Sanctuary is forbidden love. Please tell us your perspective on love.
Something I've been thinking about recently is how it's often said you can only be madly in love for three years. After that, it's just maintenance. Whether it's just brain activity, or for propagation of the species, anyway there are all these boring explanations for it, and it makes me think maybe there is no love... maybe it's just an illusion. That's what I've started thinking recently. (laugh)
The line between loving and not loving is pretty vague. For instance, there's the kind of love that grows. Sometimes someone does feel love for the other, but they try going out, and it works out, and gradually they grow to love the other one. I think that happens a lot.
In reality, I think it's very rare one to say "I love you!" and the other says, "me too!" I think that's just a preconceived idea.
So you start out not liking them at ail, then you go to not disliking them and going out, and then it grows into love. It's not exactly fate, but that doesn't matter, does it? I think that's common.
So the kind of predestined meeting you see in manga is pretty improbable. It's not that it doesn't exist, it's just unlikely. Not to be pessimistic, but...
Still, I can't say fated love doesn't happen. I want it to happen, and maybe it does. But when they say love is an illusion, it probably is.
I get the feeling that there are a lot of hidden possibilities I dont know about. (laugh)

25. Then, according to you, what is the most important thing people need to live?
Money?! No, Just kidding. (laugh)
For me, I'm the type who really wants to feel that what I'm doing now is meaningful, or that it's important to somebody. But when I ask other people, they say they've never thought like that. I thought everyone thought that.
But I still think it's important, (laugh)
I'm always thinking all kinds of things at once, so I can't really choose one. Actually, I can't even choose between good and evil, so it's really hard for me to answer. (laugh)

 

VI. Stories are born at night

26. Please describe your schedule up through completion of a project.
The storyboards take three days. I finish it while crying that I can't do it. Then the pencils take three days. Then the inks take one day. With my assistant helping, final completion takes five days. While I do the inking nonstop, my assistant puts on the tone and draws the backgrounds.

27. I've heard you're very scrupulous about keeping your deadlines.
Yes. Recently the storyboards have gotten late, and push back the pencils, so I've drawn some wild pencils, but I always make my deadlines. After all, it's my fault if I'm late. In the space of two weeks, we get into color requests and CD checks. I do it all in a real flurry. Without a break, I keep drawing in front of my editor, thinking I'll die, crying "Waaah...." I cry once every three months. (laugh)

28. What's your daily schedule like?
I'm a night owl. Maybe a vampire. When the sun goes down, I think it's time to get up. Around six o'clock. Of course, when we're finishing up, my sleep time disappears.
That means we work until morning until it's finished. And for some strange reason, my concentration is better at night.

29. Is there a time when you're bogged down with the storyboards? What's your remedy then?
I'm always bogged down. (laughs) No, I escape, I guess.

30. Escape?!
I used to be obsessed with online chats. Of course I wouldn't say I was a mangaka. Ever since my computer broke, I don't do it at all anymore.
Otherwise, I read manga, or take a lot of baths.
But I break down if I go outside, so I have to figure out how to change my mood while staying indoors. When I go outside, it changes my whole mindset. I can't reconcile how I think when I'm doing storyboards and how I think when I go outside.

31. What kind of manga do you read?
Right now I dont have time to go buy them, so I dont read much, but the one I do read is Oishimbo. I own the whole series, (laugh) I buy Oishimbo at the convenience store.
And then, when I'm eating, whether it's rice soup at home or some-thing I had in the cupboard, that's what I have on my plate while reading Oishimbo. (laugh) I'm saying to myself "That looks great" while I'm eating this instant food. Really, it's true.
*Note: Oishimbo is a famous manga about gourmet cooking.

 

VII. Emphasize the main character

32. What's the most important thing about doing the layouts?
Putting in the main character every time, of course! (laugh) This might seem strange, but sometimes in a long series, there are some manga where the main character doesn't appear that much. But in my case, I always make sure they appear. And in order to emphasize the main character, there are a lot of scenes where they say "I am (blah blah)!"
Then I always make a start, a climax and a lead-in to the next episode. For example, if we put something like a poem at the beginning, I make it something that penetrates that episode through to the end. Or else I construct it so you think "What did that line at the beginning mean?" and at the end you realize "Oh, I get it."
It's not perfect in every episode, but I aim to build climaxes in each story. Because it's a long series.

33. When drawing the pictures, what's the thing you have to take the most care with?
To have action happen from multiple angles as much as possible... to have unusual compositions that are still easy to see... (laugh)
And then, to draw the characters as beautifully as possible. If they're shouting or something, then of course they're not so beautiful, but otherwise...
If I'm not careful, they get dull, so I work to make them as flashy as possible.

34. What do you play as background music while you're working?
Whatever song I'm into at the time, the same one or two songs endlessly over and over. Or else, a song I think suits the scene in my opinion. I'll listen to one or two songs thousands of times, until I get sick of it, and I do get sick of it. Recently I listened to Luna Sea's song "Gravity," and before that, it was Gackt's album "Mars" that I listened to constantly. It's rare that I listen to albums, though.
If I have too much change, my mood gets interrupted. If I had to say why I like a certain song, I'd say it's because it fits the feeling of that moment, and I dont want to listen to anything else. I have to maintain the tension, the same thought.

35. Is there anything trendy at your workplace, anything you're hooked on?
Oolong Tea. They say it burns fat. Everyone here is dieting.
Otherwise, we're hooked on this ice cream made from rice. They only sell it at a supermarket really far from where I live. It gives me the feeling that this ice cream comes straight from the dairy farm to just that one shop. The package is all white, and it just has "Hitomebore" written on it. It's sort of like a gelato ice cream, but made from Hitomebore rice, kind of crunchy, but a texture difficult to describe. totally into it now.

 

VIII. From the scenario to the designs

36. There's an OVA and CD on sale now. Do you have anything to do with production of them?
Yes, in picking the cast and other things. The hardest part was editing the script. I was checking a script that had already been completed, but sometimes it seemed a characters personality was different, or I was surprised how they'd cut a scene. So that was difficult.
The time in an OVA or a CD is very short, and there's no way you can fit it all in, so there's an awful lot of cuts. But the production side is the production side, and I had to insist that certain things get put in, so it was difficult to come to some compromises.
For the original anime, we drew up a lot of character designs. Originals, with really detailed elements...like how to draw their eyes. For example, if there's a close-up on Kurai's eyes, they're like a cat's. I thought I'd better explain that kind of thing. Also, stuff about earrings.
I was also involved in color direction a little bit.

37. Even in color direction?!
The production side wanted to add a lot of color to keep things from being dull. I myself am a black-white-red type of person, so the image was very different. But it can't be helped. In a black section, if there was a shadow it would be jet black and not visible, so we had to think about that.
Still, that was only in the first episode... if there was more time, I would have done the clothes... I wanted to plan Sara's clothes.

38. What is your evaluation of the Original Anime and CD, and is there anything you'd like to point out?
I went to the voice recording, and it felt like it sprang to life before my eyes. The images were almost all done, too. When it was finished, I felt "Wow..." And when I saw the commercials and ads, I felt "Wow, it's really done."
Afterwards, the people around me liked it even more than I did. Even at the recording session, when I saw the images for the first time, I was surprised at how fast they changed, how fast they moved. I thought the images were really beautiful.
But to be honest, anime is fine as anime, but I became aware how fundamentally different anime and manga are. For example, a slightly comical scene in some manga can make me feel a little embarrassed. But when I see it with moving pictures and voices, it's got a totally different tempo that when reading it as a manga... so even though it's mine, it feels like it's not really mine... it belongs to the whole production staff. I'm not the one who strived to create it.
Now, I want to congratulate everyone for their hard work. I want to say thank you very much for a good job.

39. What about the CD?
The CD cast was excellent. Shiozawa-san died, but I met him before that... I love Shiozawa's voice, and I was shocked that he died.
So they had to change the voice. Jurota Kosugi will do it. The feeling totally changes, but I can't think of anyone that can capture Shiozawa's atmosphere. Of course, Kosugi is also incredible, and it will be a different, rough, sexy voice. Among all the candidates, I thought he left the strongest impression, so we decided on Kosugi.
On the CD, we have to portray everything by voice alone, so more than the original anime there are a lot of touch-ups to the script, and a lot of additions. It was really interesting to watch all that happen. Even more than the original anime, the CD's dialog belongs to the voice actors, and it felt like a storm of ad lib. They were also careful about the tempo. They worked really hard not to make any slip-ups. The dialog went along bang-bang-bang at a good tempo, and it was fun to hear. If you like a free performance, then this CD is for you.
But not all the actors from the anime were picked for the CD, and listening afterwards, I was surprised at how different the image of the characters were.

 

IX. Deciding to go pro in grade school

40. When was it that you decided to be a manga artist?
It was in elementary school. In kindergarten, I liked pictures. In elementary, I wanted to be a pro, I wanted to publish. From that time on, I drew story manga.. .from the early years of grade school.

41. What kind of pictures did you draw in kindergarten?
In kindergarten, I drew princesses, and for some reason I drew a lot of coconuts. Coconut trees...palm trees. I liked the shape. Why coconuts? I dont know. (laugh)

42. At the time, who were the manga artists you liked?
Ryoko Yamagishi, Shinji Wada, Suzue Miuchi, Yasuko Aoike. I loved Ryoko Yamagishi's manga Arabesque. But it was a series that ran before I was born, and when I found that out, I remember going "Huh?!"

43. Apart from being a mangaka, what did you want to be when you were young?
A movie director. But the road to being a movie director is hard. I didn't think I'd make it, but if I could I really wanted to.
The reason I wanted to is, when I watched movies, I'd think "Such great material, and yet you ended it like this?! If it'd been me, I'd do it like that, at this scene I'dd put in this music..." I'd get ideas like that. That's what I meant by wanting to be a movie director.
I really liked movies back then. Nowadays I'm way too busy to watch movies. But back then I just loved them. I'd think about how I wanted to do them.

44. What is the origin of your pen name?
I had to pick one in a hurry, and just then I was watching TV, and Yuki Saito was on. So I picked Kao Yuki. But I didn't like a four-character name, so I stuck one more character on, and added "Ri" to make it "Kaori."
Afterwards, I thought about changing it, but my editor at that time said "The pen name should be close to your real name," and wouldn't let me.
At first, I was going to use "Eri Minase." (laugh) The reason was, I wanted to use a name that was totally different from my real name. And I thought that one would be cute.

45. What are your plans for your next work?
I want to get a little rest, and draw a few one-shots. Then I'll do a sequel to The Cain Saga. My readers may not believe it (laugh), but I'll draw "Cain."

46. Do you have any final message for your fans?
I want the fans to know how much I value them, and that I can't express how much I like and treasure them.
This was the most important manga in my life, and the readers cheered me on, they said it made them cry, they gave detailed things about what they liked, they made web pages about it, they sent me various presents, and some even sent me cute rings that they bought on their school field trip. When I saw all that, I was so happy that I cried.
It's really tough for me to draw manga, but because there are people who read it, it keeps me going on.
Right now I'm just living for the moment. From here on I hope to have a little more freedom, but this is all I've got right now. So if it weren't for the fans, I dont think I could live with how hard it is. Thanks to the fans being there, I can go on living, and thanks to the fans I can draw the manga I love.
I hope to draw more manga you like. As long as you're there, I'll keep drawing.
I'm not the one who made my dreams come true. You fans did it for me.