This is an English translation of the second part of an interview conducted on November 26th, 2019 by Marumoto Daisuke for Excite News featuring Nakatani Nio, author of Bloom Into You. This part of the interview was released a little more than a week after the first part and includes major spoilers for the final volume. Please read it only if you have finished the series, unless you’re okay with spoilers.



The original article can be read here.



A translation of the first part of the interview can be found here.

Nakatani Nio After the Final Volume Of Bloom Into You Goes On Sale: “I finally got to draw them being flirty”

The 8th and final volume of Nakatani Nio’s popular yuri manga, Bloom Into You, was released on November 27th.

In the latter half of Excite! News’ interview with Nakatani Nio, we discuss the conclusion of the story about Koito Yuu, someone who couldn’t think of another person as special, and Nanami Touko, a girl who can’t fall in love with people who fall in love with her. There are spoilers for the 8th volume.

“Touko is the “I like what I like!” type of person, haha”

– From here on out, we’ll be discussing the contents of volume 8. In chapter 40, both Yuu and Touko are able to convey their feelings for each other. I think that the scene in which their feelings truly become requited is the climax of the series. Did you have an image in mind for the contents of their conversation before you wrote it?

Nakatani: In terms of Yuu, this wasn’t something I decided on at the very beginning of the series, but over the course of getting up to that point, I did think that I’d want to express her feelings of love while highlighting “this is the choice I made” as a key phrase. In terms of Touko, however, I really didn’t know what I was going to do until it was almost too late. I kept thinking about how I would define the feeling of “love.” But in the end, I thought that maybe Touko is the type who doesn’t really need to explain things in words. She’s an “I like what I like!” type of person, haha.

– She’s the type that thinks there isn’t much logic to it, huh.

Nakatani: That’s right. That way, it’s more like something Touko would do, and it meshes with Yuu’s emotions more. I only realized that her feelings were like that when I was really close to the deadline.

– The two finally conveyed their feelings to one another in the student council office. Did you decide on that beforehand?

Nakatani: When Touko told Yuu to wait for her, I had a bit of trouble deciding where they should meet up, but in the end, the student council room really was the only place it could’ve happened. It takes place indoors, so I did think that it was in keeping with the dramatic staging, or the imagery. Because the office, to the two girls, is where things kind of all began.

– In romance manga, there are works that end immediately after the main couple gets together, and there are works that extend into the couple’s relationship for a long time after that event. In your story, you show Yuu and Touko as girlfriends for about one whole volume.

Nakatani: If I ended it immediately, readers would probably worry about whether the two of them would have a long-lasting relationship or something. So I wanted to write enough for them to think, “They’ll be okay.” I was planning on 2 or 3 chapters, but it ended up being slightly longer than I imagined.

“I finally get to draw them getting flirty!” (laughs)

– Do you have any special feelings about finally getting to draw them as lovers?

Nakatani: I had this feeling of “we’ve finally arrived at this point.” It took so much for them to get there. I took their story so far, so I had to make sure their feelings of love were 100% apparent. After they confirmed their feelings for one another, I thought, “I finally get to draw them getting flirty,” haha.

– The few chapters after chapter 41 showing them as silly girlfriends and being flirty were really cute.

Nakatani: In the first part of the interview, I did say that I had that part more or less planned out, but what I had really planned out was when they confess their feelings in chapter 40, as well as the contents of the last two chapters (chapter 44 and 45). I didn’t think about what would happen between those points at all, so it was really just before the finale that I started thinking about what the two would be doing.

– On your Twitter account, you tweeted something along the lines of, “I’ve been revising the drafts for the book version, but my memories of drawing the finale were… hazy… so I was a bit surprised by myself over them. With chapter 44… for example…” Which parts were you surprised by? I was rather surprised myself by the events that occurred when Yuu and Touko had a sleepover.

Nakatani: How do I put this… It looked a bit more erotic than I expected, haha.

– As a reader, I was surprised by the same point, haha.

Nakatani: Of course, when I was doing the draft, I had to wrack my brains a lot over it, and it’s not like I don’t remember which drawings I put into it. But my memory of what kind of lines I actually drew and what tones I pasted when I was drawing got pretty hazy. So I was kinda like, “Oh, I drew it so it could give off this sort of feeling.” I guess it wasn’t so much surprise as much as it was just, “Oh, I drew it like this?”

– Just now, you said that you had pictured what sort of contents chapter 44 would have, but apart from thinking about how you’d portray it, did you feel like that kind of scene was something that you had to have in their story?

Nakatani: Yes. They both have those sorts of desires as well. There’s no need to suppress them, and in fact, I felt it was better not to suppress them.

– This might be a question about a very small detail, but during one of the panels in chapter 44 with no lines, Yuu is surprised by the cake that Touko brings over to her. Was it a cake that Touko made from the recipe Yuu’s sister, Rei, taught her earlier in the manga? Was Yuu surprised because it was the same cake that Rei makes?

Nakatani: Ah, yes that’s exactly it, haha.

– In chapter 42, there was a scene where Rei sent both the recipe and a picture of Yuu’s sleeping face to Touko. When she received it, there was a point where Touko wanted to set it as her background picture, but refrained. After they started dating though, I imagined that maybe she did end up setting it as her background. I loved how even small details like that ended up being a sort of foreshadowing.

Nakatani: I don’t know if Touko set that picture as her background or not, but she definitely saved and favorited it, haha. With the recipe, too, I didn’t exactly plan to use it when I first put it in, but I realized I could fit it in.

I had already thought about what everyone would be doing in 3 years

– In the last chapter (chapter 45), Yuu and Touko, now in university, visit their old school several years later during its culture festival and have a reunion with their friends. I love endings that show what happens with the characters several years later, but do you, as a reader, love that kind of ending as well?

Nakatani: I do. I wanted to see how they’d be as well. I love the works of Minakami Satoshi. In both Lucifer And the Biscuit Hammer and Sengoku Youko, he wrote wonderful epilogues. When I was drawing chapter 45, I had the final volume of Lucifer And the Biscuit Hammer right next to me, and I referenced its atmosphere quite a few times to figure out how to draw a “several years later” scene.

– In the final chapter, you also drew the future of several other characters besides Yuu and Touko. In just a few short lines, you reveal how their environment has changed. There’s a lot of new information delivered in that scene. Is that because you had a lot of things you wanted to draw, so you had to get creative when cramming in as many updates as you possibly could?

Nakatani: When I was trying to figure out how everyone would be at that point of time, it wasn’t actually for chapter 45. Volume 3 of Regarding Saeki Sayaka, which will be released in Spring of next year, takes place around the same time as the final chapter…

– Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka is a spin-off light novel featuring Touko’s best friend, Sayaka, as the protagonist.

Nakatani: As material for that novel, I had given the author, Iruma Hitoma, a description of how everyone would be like at that point in the future, so I already had the setting for it. So I felt I should show as much as I could of that in the chapter as I could. I did have to erase some conversations and stuff, but I did draw the things I most wanted to depict.

– How many years after chapter 44 does the final chapter take place?

Nakatani: 3 years.

– In that final chapter, which parts were the ones you wanted to prioritize the most in drawing?

Nakatani: I already had the conversation planned out quite in advance for the part when Yuu, Touko, and Sayaka are talking, and they talk about Sayaka having a girlfriend. I had already given Iruma-sensei the dialogue (as reference) back when he wrote Regarding Saeki Sayaka, so I thought I just had to put it in the manga. For the other scenes, I basically thought about what I could put in as I was drawing the manuscript.

– You showed in the chapter that, besides Doyama, Yuu and Touko’s friends all knew that the two were dating. In chapter 43, Yuu said in a monologue, “One day… I hope I can tell everyone about Touko and me.” Was the fact that their relationship is no longer a secret another point you wanted to show in the finale?

Nakatani: Yes, I really wanted to show that. I wanted to draw them looking happy, so I thought it’d be better for them to be able to talk to their friends about it.

– Another small detail is how Kodama Miyako’s cafe, Echo, is flourishing more than before. There are more staff members, and the 2nd floor, which wasn’t in service 3 years ago, is now being used, among other points.

Nakatani: Yes. Miyako does have a line where she says, “Is the first floor okay?”

– When I noticed that, I was really impressed by your creativity in putting in so much information without using a lot of panels or dialogue.

Nakatani: Thank you very much. The fact that you noticed it makes me feel like it has value, haha.

I had a lot of feedback from the anime and novels

– In the final chapter, Touko is working as a professional stage actress. Touko, in order to become like her talented sister who suffered an early death, hid her true self and acted out a superficial front. She was able, through the culture festival play, to show that she has talent for acting. Did you have her plan to walk that path from the very beginning?

Nakatani: Touko continuing acting wasn’t something I decided on at the start of the manga. I knew there was a possibility, but I was pretty indecisive over it for some time. But in the end, I didn’t want to condemn the time period in her life when she wanted to become her sister, so I thought it’d be good to have something that connected with that. I decided on it around the time I was writing the events after the culture festival.

– The Bloom Into You anime that aired between October and December of last year captured the original work’s delicate atmosphere in its animation form. The stage play that was presented in May of this year was wonderful as well. When you were writing the finale for the manga, were you influenced at all by the anime or Bloom Into You’s other media?

Nakatani: The story I had planned didn’t change, but there were changes in the way I presented things. For example, (in chapter 34) I drew Yuu drifting through water on the chapter cover. That was the imagery I thought of after watching episode 1 of the anime. At the end of volume 7 (chapter 39), there was a scene where Yuu receives a LINE message from Touko and runs towards the student council office. That’s imagery I had already planned on before, but it perfectly fit the lyrics for the ending theme, “hectopascal.” Because of that, the imagery became even more defined. In addition, if I hadn’t read Regarding Saeki Sayaka, I think Sayaka’s confession and her monologue (in chapter 37) would’ve taken on a different shape. In terms of drawing, I think Touko’s legs might be a little bit longer compared to before I watched the stage play…? I received quite a bit of feedback from the anime, novels, and stage play.

For me, it feels very much like a debut work



– In the afterword of the final volume, you also revealed plans for the release of a short story collection and an artbook. Please tell us what kinds of books these will be.

Nakatani: The short story collection will contain the works published in (the yuri anthology) Eclair, which have no relation to Bloom Into You, as well as Goodbye Alter, a oneshot for which I received a Rookie Of the Year Award (21st Dengeki Comics Grand Prize : Gold Prize). There will also be new content. For the artbook, most of it will be related to Bloom Into You. However, there will also be some drawings that I did for Iruma-san’s novel. There will be quite a few detailed and focused parts within the Bloom Into You portions.

– What kind of existence is Bloom Into You for you, Nakatani-san? Or, as you continue to work as a mangaka, what kind of existence will it become for you?

Nakatani: From here on out, I might be able to write a lot of manga, and some of it might also become huge hits, but I think it will be the manga that represents me. I feel like it was a manga that feels exactly like a debut work. You could say I drew myself into it, or I drew what was inside myself.

– Consciously or subconsciously, you put a lot of your own self into it.

Nakatani: I didn’t write about my own experiences as they are, but in terms of the way I think about stories and stuff, I’m not embodied specifically in one character or another, but rather throughout the entire work itself. I’m probably seen as the type who can only draw well at the start of her career, and I do have that feeling myself. To be honest, I’m afraid that I’ll become a one-hit wonder right now, haha.

– This might be a little soon, but have you started thinking about or planning what your next work will be?

Nakatani: I did talk about it rather casually with my editor. I still don’t have the details for set characters or a story, though…

– Will you also draw a yuri manga for your next work?

Nakatani: I feel like I should say this early on, although actually I think I’ve said this before. I want to write, not yuri, but a different genre for my next work. I already wrote the manga I would want to write for the yuri genre, Bloom Into You, after all. If I don’t build up a lot inside me, or go through more changes, I don’t think I’d be able to write another yuri series. And if I did, it’d be pretty far in the future. Well, that’s what I’m thinking as I stand at the foot of this next flight of stairs, anyway. Even if I write for a different genre, I think there’s a possibility that it will still have a girl-girl couple in it, haha.

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