A few hours ago, volume 14 of Negi Haruba's Go-Toubun no Hanayome manga went on sale in Japan. And to commemorate the release of the latest volume, Kōdansha's Shūkan Shōnen Magazine has conducted a special interview with Negi Haruba and Yae Utsumi.







In the interview, Haruba said: "When the publication of the manga Rengoku no Karma (written by Shun Hirose) started, I was introduced by the editorial department and they asked Mr. Utsumi to join us as an assistant. And when I called him, I thought, 'What should I do if he's a scary person?,' but the voice I heard was thinner than I imagined, and I thought, 'Oh, I don't think he's a scary person. It was a good thing," he explained with a smile.







Utsumi also said, "I've never heard of him. And I was thinking it was a good time to learn about manga again when the Shinkai Tsuzuri no Dokkairoku (Kaoru Hakkai) series had ended a week ago. At that time, I was very happy that Haruba-san invited me as his assistant."





With regard to making mangas that are adapted to anime, Haruba said: "It is very difficult to draw the end of a story and betray the reader's expectations. For example, I think the development of 'Go-Toubun no Hanayome' was very disappointing for many readers."





"The idea to surprise the reader was that 'I was thinking of two alternatives'. On the one hand, I wanted to surprise them with a sudden event, and on the other hand, I wanted to leave a clue in advance," said Haruba. "In the first alternative, Fuutarou was going to discover a photo in which he remembered meeting the quintuplets on the Kyoto trip five years ago. And in the second alternative, I was going to leave a clue so that Rena's identity would be revealed in advance. I wonder if that would have surprised the reader from the beginning."







In response, Utsumi asked: "Do you think that Go-Toubun no Hanayome was a work that generated many predictions among the fans, especially, in the part of who was going to be chosen at the end?," Haruba answered with a yes.





"During the serialization of the manga, there were many theories, which was a real pleasure. It made me happy to know that the fans were trying to predict the end of the story, and that left me very satisfied, as it made it easier for me to do my job. But the most difficult thing was to create a story that would make the readers think and believe that it was a good development even though the ending was not as they expected," said Haruba.





In addition, the magazine revealed that Haruba is already working on his next work, which the same author said "will not be a romantic comedy."





It is worth mentioning that the manga Go-Toubun no Hanayome has sold a total of 12 million copies.