– What do you think of Umino-sensei’s artwork?

Miura: Umino-sensei is actually really, really fast at drawing. I was able to see her draw right in front of me, but she manages to draw such amazing stuff all in one go.

Mori: It’s always said that Umino-sensei’s stories are really good, but I think it’s her artwork that’s amazing.

Miura: Yes. And yet, she can draw this without spending too much time, so she’s probably able to spend a great amount of time on the manga storyboard and character relationships.

Hoshi: The way she draws is quite free and effortless, right?

Miura: Yes. She doesn’t particularly draw a rough sketch before hand either.

Mori: The same can be said for you as well, can’t it?

Miura: For me, it’s impossible.

Mori: Because your rough sketches are really just outlines, aren’t they!

Miura: But if I don’t have that, I can’t draw!

Mori: Normally you’d draw more of a rough sketch! And despite that, you start drawing ‘Guts’ with just a circle, a cross and some jagged lines! I can’t believe it!

Hoshi: Ahahaha!

Miura: You don’t have to talk about me anymore. But with such a method in drawing, it’s amazing how Umino-sensei’s drawings become three-dimensional.

Mori: Also, her drawings are immensely cute.

Miura: If it’s a flat drawing it’s quite possible, but when three-dimensional it’s really difficult to make it cute, isn’t it?

Mori: Her drawings always move a lot as well, don’t they?

Miura: Maybe this is why many people surprisingly haven’t noticed how good she is at drawing.

Mori: I think so.

Hoshi: There aren’t many action scenes, so I guess it doesn’t stand out as much.

Mori: There are many who just think she’s got a good sense.

– By the way, the editor thought wow when they heard Umino-sensei say “lines that look cute, really exist”

Mori: Well said.

– She apparently said “Within a number of lines there will be some that look cute, so it’s just about practicing and learning this”

Miura: You know, a genius sculptor might say that to sculpt all you need to do is look at a rock and try to bring something out of it. This is the same sort of thing.

Mori: Just to say, it’s normal not to notice a cute-looking line. Just, when you get to Umino-sensei’s level, you can probably see many more things, like something hyperdimensional.

Hoshi: Then, I wonder how she views the the world around her.

Mori: She’s just a real monster, you know.

Hoshi: Which reminds me, there was a certain incident where Umino-sensei was angry after you compared her to a certain character, wasn’t there?

Mori: Ahh, the time she got angry after I called her “Frieza-sama”.

Hoshi: Yes. She was even angry on twitter as well (laughs).

Miura: What’s this?

Hoshi: Well, during the after-party of the Hakusensha party, we were all talking about manga whilst drinking.

Mori: Then Umino-sensei said “for 3-gatsu, I’m still in third gear”.

Hoshi: She’s still nowhere near using the top gear with 3-gatsu.

Mori: She said she was yet to use the fourth and fifth gear, so we were all quite startled.

Hoshi: Then she asked us “There’s still something I haven’t done in 3-gatsu, but do you know what that is?”.

Mori: I knew. What she did in Honey and Clover but hadn’t done in 3-gatsu!

Hoshi: Then Mori-san suddenly started shaking, whilst going “haaaaah” (laughs). We were having such a fun time drinking before Mori-san started trembling (laughs).

Mori: That was, quite scary. So in other words, Umino-sensei was yet to show her true strength so that was why I called her Frieza-sama. The 3-gatsu now is basically Frieza-sama before his transformation! When I realised this, I just couldn’t stop shaking. This is awful, I thought.

Hoshi: I was shaking as well.

– In the Young Animal contents page Mori-sensei, you commented “I have now decided to call Umino-sensei Frieza-sama”, didn’t you?

Mori: Yes, yes.

– Then in the next issue, Umino-sensei commented “I feel there is a need to have a long chat with Mori Koji-sensei the next time we meet” (laughs).

Mori: Scary…… (laughs). But to think there was still a third and fourth gear left for 3-gatsu…..

Miura: Thinking about it, if you were to say 3-gatsu is still setting up characters, then it is just that.

Mori: That’s right. It’s like Antonio Inoki having yet to use the grapevine stretch and enzuigiri.

Hoshi: She hasn’t even started fighting yet. The fear I felt when I heard that.

Mori: When I heard that, I just wanted to go home.

Hoshi: It was such a fun drink before that as well (laughs). She also casually said she didn’t feel satisfied unless she challenged herself with something new with each page. Who is this person? I thought.

Mori: That’s why she’s always putting in the highest level of effort into her work.

Miura: Umino-sensei is quite a logical person. I heard a story that she loved Tezuka Osamu-sensei so much she took apart ‘Black Jack’, page by page, so that she could analyse and study the storyboarding.

Mori: I did that as well, but with a different work.

Miura: You also do things quite logically, don’t you? You really are the same type as Umino-sensei.

Mori: No, no. There’s too much of a gap in talent.

Hoshi: No, you are.

Miura: You both are analysts and are both poetic. You’re similar, you really are (laughs).

Miura: Oh yes, we should probably talk about what happened to Hoshi, shouldn’t we? That one about Amazon (laughs).

Hoshi: The time I lost all hope, right? One time the first volume of ‘Schaferhund’ reached fifth place on the Amazon seinen comic rankings. At this time, Sangatsu, which was released 10 days before ‘Schaferhund’ was fourth. Although ‘Schaferhund’ was in a more advantageous position having been more recently released, when I saw Sangatsu just one position above I was so happy and thought “Yes! I’m nearly there. To think I’ve come this far! Yay!”. But when I saw the number of copies sold, I lost all hope. Sangatsu had sold 35 times more than the first edition of ‘Schaferhund’. Just hopeless……

– This story of Hoshi-sensei losing all hope, it’s apparently one of Umino-sensei’s favourites.

Hoshi: Damn….(laughs). And yet, soon after that I was contacted that additional prints were needed for ‘Schaferhund’, so I was really happy, but then Sangatsu also required additional prints, the same number as the total number of copies of ‘Schaferhund’ sold. It really felt like I was having a hard time. Ah, this is the taste of hardship, I thought.

Mori: Umino-sensei’s just too strong (laughs).

Image: http://3lion-anime.com/special/endcard/