Finally the interview from Febri is finished! I like Kubo’s interviews but I swear I don’t want to see any more for some time… This one is also mentioning a lot of stuff that I haven’t read in other interviews so far. It’s a bit long but definitely worth reading!

Translation is under the cut. I might fix the format a little later on to make it visually better, now I have to leave to go to Wonder Festival… (who needs sleep?) .

If you have any questions about the interview feel free to message me.

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***Re-translating into other languages is ok but please mention that this post is the source***

Staff interview

Original plan / manga storyboard / character plan

Mitsurou Kubo

Mangaka Mitsurou Kubo is the one who, together with director Sayo Yamamoto, created the basis of the series. It was the first time that she worked on a story about sports and that she was involved with the production of an anime. We have asked her her feelings about this series.

—We know that this project started when you were invited by director (Sayo) Yamamoto.

Yes. Originally I only watched figure skating on TV whenever I felt like it, but when I talked about that on the radio director Yamamoto listened to it and contacted me to ask me “would you be willing to create an anime about figure skating with me?”.

—That was the first time you met director Yamamoto, and you didn’t know each other before then, is that correct?

Yes. However, and this is something that I was told later on, previously (Yasuyuki) Okamura-chan, when he was drinking with some members of the staff of the anime “Space Dandy” (broadcasted in 2014), messaged me on LINE to tell me that among them there was a person that was my fan. At a later time I found out that this person was director Yamamoto. I was surprised because I never even thought I had fans in the anime industry, and I would have never expected that one day we would end up working together like this.

—That is indeed a curious coincidence. When did you first become interested in figure skating?

I used to watch it on TV every once in a while since when I was a kid. But I didn’t really know the rules and the athletes, my impressions were really just like “this skater is so cool!” or “this performance is so moving!”. I enjoyed reading what one of my friends who loves figure skating wrote online. The reason I was talking about figure skating on the radio and on TV is that it was during the Sochi Olympics, and I was saying things like “Mao-chan (Asada) is so tough” or “what (Tatsuki) Machida-kun said impressed me”, in other words the typical level of a person who watches it on TV. I only started to look up the rules and technical elements when I began working on “Yuri on Ice”.

—Basically, you were not just interested in male figure skating, but in figure skating as a sport in general.

Yes. If Mao-chan was skating on TV I would watch her, and if (Yuzuru) Hanyuu-san was performing I would cheer on him. It’s a sport where Japanese athletes are doing great in international tournaments as well, so I really felt like cheering on them regardless of the gender.

—What do you find fascinating about figure skating?

Of course I also find it amazing that they’re challenging the limits of the human body, but what most attracted me is that, while being a sport, they dance to the music. On the ice you are also required to be a performer that expresses something. Bound by surprisingly strict rules, you compete to get the best score. I think that the unchanging charm of figure skating lies in how athletes are able to always surprise and give new emotions to the ones who watch them, no matter whether they’re people who don’t have much knowledge about the sport or people who always support it.

—When director Yamamoto talked to you about “Yuri on Ice” did you decide to accept right away?

Ever since the first time I met director Yamamoto I felt that it would be fun working with her, and that impression hasn’t changed. However, my knowledge of the sport was really basic, and since it’s a major sport with so many fans, at the beginning I wasn’t confident that I would be able to create something convincing that anyone would appreciate. I still decided to accept nevertheless mostly thanks to director Yamamoto’s enthusiasm. She knows so much about figure skating and loves it so much more than me, that I felt that with her I was willing to and would be able to create something. I too wanted to be influenced by her.

—This is the first time that you write a serious story about sports, is it right?

Until then, even though I was interested in drawing manga about sports, I couldn’t find the courage to try. First of all you need technical knowledge of the sport, and most importantly I had no experience in playing anything myself. Of course there are mangaka who draw manga about baseball even though they have never played baseball, but I’m too scared and would never be able to do it. However, one time when I consulted George Morikawa, author of “Hajime no Ippo”, about this, he told me “I’ve never been a champion, but I’m drawing a manga about a champion”. He made me remember that indeed, writing about someone that you would never be able to become is one of the basics of fiction, and the real thrill of manga is that it allows you to do something like that. I did have this strong feeling that I wanted to show people how interesting figure skating is, and since there are so many fascinating athletes even in real life I thought that if I was going to create something I would have liked to come up with anime characters that would also feel fascinating. I came to the conclusion that “I would never be able to do that alone, but maybe together with director Yamamoto it will be possible to work it out”. Therefore I accepted her offer.

—Would you have avoided this theme if it were a manga serialization that you had to draw alone?

No matter how much I love figure skating, I don’t think I would have done it alone. There’s an implicit rule in manga serializations, if they are popular they will go on forever, if they’re not popular they will be cut short, so I definitely wouldn’t be able to do it. You have to develop the story so that it’s always interesting while you have no idea whenever it will end, and at the same time you have to finish it neatly right away if they tell you to end it. It’s quite a feat if you think about it (LOL). Of course there are many mangaka that can do it just fine, so if you tell me “that’s because you’re not good enough” I won’t deny it (LOL).

—This time the story wasn’t made into a manga but into a 12 episodes long anime. Did it feel different?

It almost never happened to me to create a story whose length was already decided from the start, so it felt new. Also, if you are doing a manga serialization you can still adjust the course of the story based on the response from the readers or reflect other people’s opinions in it even after you have started it, but in this case when episode 1 aired my job was basically over already, so I couldn’t receive any feedback from the audience while I was creating the story and I felt a kind of pressure I had never experienced before. However, the method of deciding the ending first and then directing the story so that it would get more and more exciting until the final climax is something that I think was worth trying at least once as a mangaka, so I enjoyed that aspect.

—How did you create the plot and the characters, which are the core of the story?

The foundation of the plot is something that director Yamamoto already had in her mind when I first met her. The basic concept of a Japanese athlete as the protagonist, a foreign top skater that becomes his coach and the two participating in the Grand Prix Final hasn’t changed from the start. From that concept we decided the events and matches to show in every episode, and the conclusion where Yuuri ultimately cannot get the gold medal. These are all things that were fixed at an early stage. Regarding the detailed course of events in every episode, it wasn’t always the same. Sometimes we would discuss it together, and sometimes one of us would come up with a draft proposal and we would adjust it. There are editors who have a talent for creating stories, and it felt to me like I was working with that kind of person. Anyway, the scenario, including all the dialogues, was created by me and director Yamamoto.

—Didn’t you feel anxious that it was only the two of you creating the story?

We dissipated any concerns by assuring each other that it was interesting (LOL). Also, when I think that something is interesting, usually I’m right. I don’t mean to say that I have a special talent, on the contrary it’s because I’m an ordinary person with ordinary sensibility that many people sympathize with me. I know this from experience, therefore I wasn’t really worried.

—I heard that your storyboard for all 12 episodes was about 900 pages long.

Yes, it was more or less that. It took me a little more than a year, so considering the working pace I think I was actually pretty slow.

—Is there something you had a hard time with when you created the storyboard?

In every episode, especially in the early part, I had trouble fitting the characters into the story. I drew about 10 pages but it felt really incoherent, so I had to draw it again from the start. That happened over and over. The story was already decided, therefore I couldn’t change it a lot. I mostly changed the situation or dialogues, and tried again until it felt right.

—It felt innovative that the story becomes completely focused on the tournaments as it progresses, and at the same time it was also very fascinating.

Director Yamamoto really wanted to show until the Grand Prix Final, so the structure of the episodes naturally became like that. Also, I didn’t want to portray the other athletes like side characters that are obviously going to lose, therefore I tried to create a story where all characters would get their highlights. On top of that, the director was towing the series with overwhelming power, surprising everyone by saying things like “all songs must be newly-written” and “let’s use an orchestra to create the music”. Looking at her I thought I had to do my best too and so I tenaciously strived to incorporate all elements into my storyboard without making compromises.

—How did it feel to see your storyboard become an anime and not a manga?

It’s not like I don’t think I’m one of the creators, but it felt more like I was simply “one member of the anime staff”, so in a way I was more worried that my storyboard would get in their way. I put my heart and soul into that storyboard, but I didn’t necessarily want them to do everything exactly like it, I was happier knowing that it could become a nice base on which to build the anime. It’s also the first time that I had someone else work on my drawings, but actually my drawing style has lots of lines, so it’s not really suitable for an anime. The most important thing was that the viewers would think the anime pictures were the best, so I was focused on watching the new fascinating style used in the anime and didn’t really care whether my art style would be maintained or not. Starting from the chief animation director (Tadashi) Hiramatsu-san, I completely trust the anime staff, so I told them to change anything they needed to make the art easier to animate. As a result, in some cases the characters’ expressions changed from the storyboard, and in other cases they were just the same translated into animation, but as a whole the pictures were improved compared to the storyboard and I’m really satisfied with the result.

—You also went location hunting to write the storyboard, right?

Yes. We went to China, Russia and Barcelona in Spain to watch actual figure skating tournaments.

—Did physically going to arenas and getting a deeper knowledge of figure skating influence the storyboard?

We couldn’t directly speak to the athletes in tournaments, therefore to recreate their feelings and thoughts in fiction we had to put together the pieces from the outside. We were planning to create a story centered around the bond of an athlete and their coach, in other words Yuuri and Victor, but before going location hunting we didn’t really have a clear image of that in our minds. If you put too much focus on expressing the bond people will say “it’s just a fantasy created by the mind of a woman, isn’t it?”. In fact, when I wrote “Moteki”, there were people saying “this manga doesn’t understand a man’s heart at all”, and at the same time I also received many comments like “how is it possible that a female writer understands the feelings of a virgin guy?”, but in the end there are no limitations as to how a person can interpret a work, therefore the only correct thing a creator can do is release their work into the world with a strong resolve. Either way, I thought that if I didn’t draw “Yuri on Ice” with very strong feelings I would lose my way, but I had a hard time deciding what would be the core of these strong feelings.

—I see.

At that time, a certain athlete said “I can skate for love”. In their case, “love” was probably referring to their lover, and they meant to say that even if they are apart they can do their best thinking about that person and this also helps them achieve good results, but when we heard this director Yamamoto and I felt shocked like we had been struck by lightning. We realized that indeed, in real figure skating many athletes express an overwhelming love and sensuality on the ice. I myself had never drawn a story about someone doing their best for love in such a straightforward way, but I thought that if I had to try my hand at it this series was the perfect chance. It’s a theme that can be dealt with in the sport of figure skating, and also it’s pretty classic to connect sport and love in fiction. Yuuri Katsuki doesn’t skate for his own love, but to prove all kinds of love, including Victor, and when as a result his strong desire for a gold medal was added to it, I had the feeling that this series had finally found its powerful core. I believed that any kind of love representation, if crafted with the utmost care, would feel interesting to the viewers. What was important to me and director Yamamoto was not “who to deliver this work to”, but to create a solid work that would “be able to reach as far as possible”, and one of the elements that contributed to make it strong was the representation of the bond called “love”.

—That is also something that is reflected in the characters’ personalities and dialogues.

I wanted to depict the athletes’ nature, their passion and dedication, with care. That’s why I decided to use lots of strong dialogues that are like a punch in the face, and surprise the viewers with their facial expressions and the situations. I did my best to pour my personal style into these parts, while of course being careful not to spoil the main story line.

—At the same time, the skating scenes are really realistic and contain almost no fictional elements.

I left the skating scenes to the animators who are in charge of them, trusting that they would be able to make them convincing. I was really pleased to see the final result, because they were able to create amazing scenes with the characteristic taste of an anime, so even if the story is fiction they took a very serious approach to it.

—I see. Who was the hardest character to write?

I had a hard time drawing the relationship between Yuuri and Yurio. Especially Yurio, I think he’s easy to grasp as a character and I was sure he would become popular, but for the same reason it was difficult to make him unpredictable. I wanted to depict him and Yuuri as rivals, however figure skating is mostly a battle against yourself, a sport where you fight to pursue your personal best, and after their direct confrontation in episode 3 they also become physically separated, so I was careful about the balance when making them think of each other.

—Yuuri and Yurio had a kind of relationship that made it difficult to tell exactly whether they were getting along or not.

We had already decided from the start that Yurio would hinder Yuuri’s victory in the Grand Prix Final, therefore I had to think about how to develop their relationship in a convincing way, so that the viewers would also feel a catharsis in that moment. When portraying rivals it’s important not to fall into stereotypes, that’s why I created the stir over Victor, Otabek and Yurio becoming friends in episode 10, and so on. It was for the purpose of reinforcing the fated connection between Yuuri and Yurio, and to consequently cause the viewers to want to cheer on Yuuri in the Grand Prix Final. However, at the same time the bond between Yuuri and Victor became deeper and deeper, and as I couldn’t really find enough place to put the spotlight on the rivarly with Yurio eventually Yurio stopped moving inside my storyboard, to my surprise. In that sense, I had to struggle to depict Yuuri and Yurio’s relationship until the end.

—Still, Yurio’s lines were all powerful, and I think he really stood out as a character. How did you create those memorable lines such as “I’ll make you into a borscht in Moscow” and “there are no gold medals for pigs!!”?

Just naturally (LOL). Sometimes lines are born because the story requires them, and some other times a line a character would totally say eventually connects to the story, so it doesn’t really feel like I came up with all the lines myself. Ideally I was aiming to create lines that people will want to say right away the day after the episode is broadcasted, that they will want to say out loud. It’s not just about Yurio of course, but since voice actors were going to read the lines out loud it was a good occasion to throw in lots of strong dialogues (LOL).

—The bond between Yuuri and Victor became more and more extreme by the end of the series.

Yuuri is just calling it “love” because of what he wants to express, without being afraid of the values arbitrarily decided by others, but I decided to go ahead and use any kind of representation if it was required by the story, without reserve. I believed that the buildup of such a relationship would lead to a special ending, I actually hadn’t envisioned their relationship from the start. In the end the bond between them became extremely deep, and I myself was surprised.

—The scene of the rings in episode 10 was the most outstanding example, it was quite shocking. Considering what you just said, was that also the course of events?

It wasn’t the course of events, it was necessary! At least, when I was writing the storyboard that’s what I thought, and I wrote it seriously. I had really been wanting to draw the scene of Yuuri and Victor’s reunion at Fukuoka airport, and at that time neither me nor director Yamamoto actually had in mind to drop any bombshells in episode 10 or 11. However, episode 10 was the last “break” before the Grand Prix Final, and as we were thinking about what to put in it to make it an absolutely enjoyable episode, we also wondered whether it was possible to further deepen their bond too. Since we had already done hugs and scenes like in dramatic TV serials* we thought we couldn’t go it any farther, but then I suddently thought that they might want an item for support when facing the Grand Prix Final. When I tried browsing the websites of ring brands I found out that engagement rings aren’t necessarily something for people who get married, but that they can be given as presents to soulmates too. And I thought, “this is it!”. Besides, looking through the material we gathered during location hunting in Barcelona I found pictures of a church with a choir, so I was like “this is the place!”.

[*translator’s note: In Japanese she says “scenes like in a getsuku drama”. “Getsuku” (月9) are serial TV dramas broadcasted on Fuji TV on Monday at 9 pm, hence “getsuku” which means “Monday 9”. Especially until a few years ago they used to be very popular, you might have heard the titles of some of the most known ones like “HERO” and “Long Vacation”, both starring Takuya Kimura. They mostly center around or include love stories, but not necessarily, and they tend to have lots of dramatic twists, so sometimes people will refer to dramatic or tense scenes in other works as “getsuku” because they remind of the typical developments of these dramas. In YOI I would say she is referring to either the scene in the parking in ep.7 or the one at Fukuoka airport in ep.9.]

—It’s like everything connected naturally, as if it was meant to happen.

It was a period where I was at my wits’ end, but I drew this part all in one go. It was before the anime started, so I didn’t know what kind of response the anime would get and how this would be interpreted. Even if someone said “this makes no sense!” I wouldn’t have cared (LOL).

—As a result, the viewers were ecstatic.

If it were a manga I think that scene would have actually looked much lighter and less important, but I was positively impressed to see how much impact it could have when in an anime.

—Still, the response from the public got more and more terrific with each episode.

What surprised me the most after the end of the series is that my father was actually watching it. He has never read any of my manga except for the 4-koma ones, yet he was watching “Yuri on Ice”. He said “at the beginning I felt a little sick*, but I watched it until the end. Will you make a sequel?” (LOL). I was moved thinking that my father, a 70 years old Kyushu man, managed to overcome nausea and was able to enjoy the anime. Anyway, this series received response from such a wide range of people, something that could not possibly happen in my life as a mangaka. I feel a lot of fervor coming from both the positive and the negative opinions.

[*translator’s note: It’s a bit vague, but based on how it’s worded I think they are referring to motion sickness probably caused by the skating scenes.]

—When did you start realizing that you were receiving a huge response?

I’d say from around episode 5, when the real tournaments started. I was a bit tense because in manga it happens often that people will say the everyday life parts are more interesting than the competition scenes, but I was very happy to see that in fact we were getting more response after the tournament started. Also, after episode 7 I realized it so clearly that I even began to think “this is reaching too many people”. On Twitter I saw lots of comments like “I cried so much I feel sick” and I thought “people’s autonomic nerves are going crazy” (LOL).

—Now that the series is over and you are probably less burdened by work, how do you feel looking back on “Yuri on Ice”?

More than the sense of fulfillment for being able to express what I wanted to draw, I feel so undescribably happy that I could help director Yamamoto build the world she wanted to create. I was contacted about this series right after I finished my serialization of “Again!!”, and it was a time when I was thinking about what kind of manga to draw next and my mind was completely blank. Like Victor in episode 1, I couldn’t feel any motivation to start my next work and I wasn’t able to come up with any idea. Just at that time I met director Yamamoto and I was able to deal with things I had been avoiding, like the theme of “doing something for love” and “a series about a sport I had no experience in”, and I was able to reach a level that I could never have reached alone. However, due to my nature, I absolutely don’t think that “now that I gained this experience, I will use it as a weapon to draw lots of interesting manga!” (LOL). I can see myself worrying about lots of things again the next time I sit at a desk, but still, I believe that I earned something thanks to this series. I feel that even if you leave your area of expertise, if you have the sensitivity to find something interesting and enough luck, you can create something that other people will sympathize with, and I also think that getting away from my usual work of manga serializations helped me notice many new things.

—So, did it help you gain more confidence?

It’s not that simple (LOL). If you become too sensible you will lose your ego as a mangaka and the works you create might actually become boring. Sometimes I think that to write manga you need to become like a rabid dog. There are surely many things I earned working in the production of an anime, but whether I can put them to good use in my manga is another story, and at this moment I still can’t tell.

—I see. Lastly, many people are hoping for a sequel to “Yuri on Ice”. Could you tell us your current plans and whether you have a desire to continue?

Even between me and director Yamamoto, we still haven’t discussed about it concretely. Besides, we cannot create an anime alone, and we do not know whether the important anime staff will have their schedules free. But we cannot move forward until we create something that will allow us to say “we have come up with this sequel, please follow us”, therefore, as one of the main creators, the first thing I want to do is conceive an interesting sequel. Actually, I’ll be going on a trip abroad with director Yamamoto soon. It has nothing to do with location hunting for a sequel, but like when we first discussed about “Yuri on Ice”, I hope that we can start to gather the external pieces while talking about figure skating every day. I think that the characters are out there somewhere, waiting for a chance to move again, and we are going on a trip to look for them. I hope we can find them.