SNK CHARACTER DIRECTORY: ISAYAMA HAJIME INTERVIEW (PART 3)

Translation: @suniuz​ & @fuku-shuu

Please link back and/or credit if any portions of this translation are used!

Index: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3



Isayama-Sensei’s Face-to-Face Interview with Questions from Mingeki!

– We collected questions from online fans from the official fan website, Mingeki. The first question is, “Even though very brutal battles continue on, for our characters, what places and moments calm them?”



Isayama: While in the Survey Corps, they constantly pace back and forth, but there aren’t many personal items in their rooms. Therefore, what calms them are probably the times and places they experienced together with their comrades. Basically, locations that are familiar to them. In tankobon volume one, there was actually a scene where some characters were setting up cannons together on top the walls, but not many opportunities like that existed. Even if you were able to keep calm while standing alone on the wall, that kind of unusual circumstance [in volume one] is even more calming. A soldier should not waste resources, after all. [T/N: Not certain what Isayama means by this last sentence, but it may have something to do with Sasha stealing meat?]

– Ah, so it’s like that. It’s true that even during off times, everyone is asked to maintain their military instincts. The next question is, “Please tell us about how the soldiers spend one of their days.”

Isayama: When the Survey Corps aren’t on an expedition, they will train for the next one - whether it’s practicing for extended journeys or servicing their weaponry. Depending on the person, there might be many meetings that they have to join. When training concludes, sometimes they could receive the privilege to visit their home.

– Since their nerves are constantly heightened, always on edge - that must be why there are cases like what you described before, when there is a sense of healing while spending time with comrades. Now to the final question, “Do the characters have special routines and diets that enhance physique and maintain health?”

Isayama: It has to be strength training. Even though calisthenics is good as well, the core of the soldiers’ fitness regimen is probably still anaerobic exercise, which can cause sore muscles in a short period of time. Reiner already had a brawny physique during his trainee days, but that wasn’t due to exercise and rather inherited from his parents. Reiner’s father, who debuted in tankobon volume 23, is also in pretty great shape. The MMA fighter Fedor Emelianenko has a strong build, but it also doesn’t seem to originate from training. Reiner’s somewhat similar to that. Just like hammer throw athlete Murofushi Koji and Hulk from Brazilian soccer/football, they were all fated to have that body type since birth. Speaking of which, the Marley Arc is set four years after the Battle at Shiganshina, so Reiner is still growing. Please prepare to update that character data [T/N: Isayama seems to be speaking to his editor here]!

– I understand! While we’re on the topic, if the 104th had an arm wrestling contest, who would win?

Isayama: First place is definitely Mikasa - she’s so strong it’s practically cheating. Then Reiner would be second. Eren and Jean tend to win at times but lose at other times. Even though they argue a lot with each other, but at times the two of them will agree to come to terms early on, as if initiating a sense of skinship.





Enough about “Robots?”

Drawing Close to Isayama’s Fixation with the Battle of Shiganshina and the Marley Arc!





– Looking back, there were a lot of interlocking, staggered scenes throughout the Battle at Shiganshina. It was truly an event that provoked reader reactions!

Isayama: I felt like I had released everything I had bottled up since the beginning. The Beast Titan tossing so many boulders was a scene I wanted to draw for a long time. They acted like canister shots propelled from shotguns, sending multiple, diffused onslaughts from a single direction. I really wanted to have the Beast Titan carry out this type of attack. Once I confirmed this detail, as well as the showdown with the Colossal Titan in Shiganshina district, I had hoped to extend the length of those scenes. When I first conceptualized the Colossal Titan’s appearance, even though his physical qualities hadn’t been finalized, at some point I decided that Eren and Colossal Titan’s duel “must be a closing battle that involves sacrifice.” If I had any regrets, it was that I wanted to explore Eren and Reiner/Bertholt’s relationship even more in-depth. I would’ve illustrated scenes of Eren being respectful towards Reiner, as well as how in Eren’s eyes, Reiner was someone “he could not surpass.” [T/N: This explains the various changes to SnK anime season 2 to give ReiBert some more early development!]

– During the interview within Shingeki no Kyojin OUTSIDE Kou, you mentioned that you “illustrated Colossal Titan and others as if they were giant mecha.” [T/N: Isayama uses the katakana for “robot,” but the genre he is describing is mecha in English]. The Battle at Shiganshina and the Battle against the Mid-East Union in the current Marley Arc can be described as “mecha-style” warfare, so they speed up the readers’ heart rate a whole lot!



Isayama: After I completed the panels, I felt, “It would be just fine even if I stopped drawing these robot-looking things” [T/N: Isayama is expressing the fatigue/frustration that he felt back then]. A human face contains emotions and other softer points, and I can change up my illustrations rather smoothly. However, to draw rigid things such as robots, I have to portray them from countless angles. It’s really challenging.

– I never thought I would see actual machinery in Shingeki no Kyojin!

Isayama: It’s like this. For the earliest battle in the Marley Arc, I felt overpowering anxiety even before I drew the scene - even now I can’t seem to erase that feeling. In the first chapter of the Marley Arc (Volume 23′s Chapter 91), drawing the armored train was truly so difficult. We had discussed many, many different designs - some were even more complex than the version we selected. But once we considered the situation, we decided on a simpler model. Even so, I still ended up dangerously close to my deadline after rushing to finish the manuscript. Outside of that, the story’s setting transitioned from the “fantasy world” of pre-Marley Arc to an imitation of our real world from about 100 years ago, so the amount of research involved was quite extensive as well.

– I was quite astonished when the Cart Titan from the Battle of Shiganshina District changed up her gear!

Isayama: That was an influence from when I really liked Zoids. Chapter 92 had a whole page dedicated to the Cart Titan’s debut, but by deadline day that page was still completely blank! To give the Cart Titan that mask was me stealing from my own high school sketches, so the design process was pretty smooth. However, the equipment on Cart Titan’s back was hard to draw…I contemplated how the Titan would carry that weight, and I created the concept of having ropes secured upon a column in four directions, which lifted the machine gun turrets that were being operated by soldiers. Despite the difficulty, sketching the draft of this was still fun.

– The Marley Arc not only takes place in a different setting, the characters are brand-new as well. For an ongoing manga, this was putting all your eggs in one basket…

Isayama: When I drew the first pages of tankobon volume 23, I had reassessed the structure of SnK’s entire story. Even though there were scenes I absolutely had to portray at that point, I still felt quite uneasy, because I didn’t know if the readers could accept that kind of development. I was very certain, however, that this feeling was different from the unease I experienced when Shingeki no Kyojin first started serialization. Back then, my anxiety was much more intense. I wasn’t sure whether the series would become tankobon, and I didn’t know whether I could become an author for a living. “For sure the serialization will be halted near the beginning…” I had thought the probability of this happening was fairly high. But despite my nerves, I didn’t just naively continue my work up to the current storyline - rather, I kept challenging myself while I drew. It has been a pretty enjoyable experience.

– Is that because what you’re drawing now is a different world from before?

Isayama: To begin with, illustrating new characters felt fun. They basically took the places of the main cast, but rather than regarding them as brand-new, I drew them under the notion of “I’ve seen these people somewhere before.” We hadn’t witnessed what rested on the other side of the sea until now, but in reality, these people’s livelihoods are similar to those within the Walls. Hence, even though I had decided that Marley Arc would be us looking at Gabi’s growth from Reiner’s perspective, I still didn’t center the story around Reiner during the arc’s first chapter (Tankobon volume 23′s chapter 91). Since that was the beginning of the Marley plotline, I ensured a story composition where no character had been previously seen by the readers.

– In chapter 95, all the Titans, from the Armored Titan to the Jaw Titan, have “defensive” and “offensive” types of responsibilities. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that. I’m anticipating a deep exploration of the Titans’ new sides!

Isayama: I had always wanted to draw what kind of kids Reiner and them were, how the military utilized the Titans’ abilities, who their opponents were, what they were fighting for, etc. But it was pretty hard to draw battles where the Titans actually used strategy.

– So that’s how it was! But I’m sure the readers were anticipating that, too. I want to ask what scenes you wish to draw from here on out…

Isayama: If the opportunity presents itself, I would probably like to portray Armin’s development. He was never the most apt at fighting, but his current position basically forces him to the frontlines - and he even acquired the Colossal Titan’s ability. Up until this point, he faced all struggles with the motivation of “seeing the sea,” but from now on, he will need to confront everything as actual problems. I have many moments that I want to depict, but if I describe them out loud now, they do all involve future developments, so…I’m just going to present everything through drawing the manga!

Index: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

