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This fall, Evening will be publishing many new series in five continuous issues! We will be holding in-depth interviews with seven creators who will be releasing extraordinary new series.
Our final interview is with Yuzo Takada, known for Captain Alice and 3x3 Eyes! His latest series Lunfor will debut in the Nov. 12 issue, with the opening pages in color!
This time, we will introduce not only our interview with him, but also a movie of Yuzo Takada creating the opening color pages of Lunfor.
––When did you come up with the idea for your new series? Could you also tell us what motivated you to start this series, and the origin of the title?
I came up with the initial idea for this about seven years ago, but I had too little details to make it into a story, so the idea just hung there.
The experiences my father went through and talked to me about were the motivation for this series.The title came last (laughs).
I created the outline in 2010, and finally decided on the series at the end of 2011 after seeing the large painting in Sanboin at Kyoto’s Daigoji Temple. That piece of art was “Lunfor.”
It was about the sacred creature “Rancho to Houou (a mythical creature part Chinese bird and part Chinese phoenix),” which symbolises confrontation, being a counterpart, and having strong relations. It is said the term for all pungs in Mahjong originally had the name derived from that called “luánfèng sai mei.”
––Is there someone you modeled your main character after? Any thoughts on having a male main character?
I don’t have a specific model, but a male main character is easier to deal with. I want females to always be a mystery to me (laughs).
––I heard that you went to the Self-Defense Forces to gather material. Could you tell us any interesting tidbits you learned when “collecting data” for your manga, if any?
In the beginning, I was thinking of making it a story where the Self-Defense Forces get hit hard with monsters—like something out of a Toho movie. But as I collected material for my work, I started to warm up to them, and started to want them to fight a good fight (laughs). But still, I always have Ifukube’s Godzilla march playing in my head when I’m drawing (it revs me up).
––There is a line that says “70 years ago” in your work. The year 1943 was right in the middle of World War II, does that mean “war” will be one of the important keywords in this series?
This is an action/entertainment series, but I put some thoughts on “war” in the story. Just a little bit, though.
––A lot of quirky characters appear, even from the first chapter. It is rare that so many characters are introduced in the beginning. Could you share some of the fun and troublesome times you had when drawing this?
I had created many face samples previously, but I could not decide on the face of the main character Yusuke until the end.
When I received a request for a preview of my new work to be placed in the last volume of Alice, I was stumped and ended up drawing him with a mask on… I definitely think that has had a weird impact on the story (laughs).
––Is there anything you put weight on when creating characters? Also, it is often said that putting priority on the story stalls the characters - what is your philosophy on the relationship between the story and characters?
I leave everything to chance (laughs). I could write a whole book answering that question (laughs), but in the end, chance is the largest element affecting the manga.
A story has a short shelf life, so even though there is a lot of preparation that goes into it, you find yourself getting bored if everything is planned and calculated out. So that’s why I leave it to chance!
I need to find surprises in my work. I want to read it and exclaim, “So that’s what it’s all about!”
––In closing, will you send out a message to your readers?
This manga is “unpredictable” in both a good way and a bad way. It will not be a very long story, so it would be fantastic if everyone would stick with it until the end. I hope everybody enjoys it.
Source: Evening Official Facebook
