Scans by: aliasanonyme

Translation by: metaphoricalicecream

EDIT: Although I have previously referred to Harada using she/her pronouns, it has since been pointed out to me that no one really know Harada’s gender. I have edited out all references to the author’s gender in this translation, and will continue on using they/them pronouns as much as possible.

Note: I’ve only included the cover page for Harada’s interview section. Please visit aliasanonyme’s blog for full scans (Harada Interview; Full Book).

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P. 50, top right

P. 50, bottom right

There are many different ways to love. Without turning away from the dark and shameful side of those feelings, the talented artist Harada awes their readers with their gripping, erotic, and ingenious storytelling. Now, one year since their debut with their striking first comics, we ask the “revolutionary” who continues to push forward on the offensive to define the appeals of BL.

P. 51-55

The genre that’s much broader and freer than at first imagined:

—What started you on BL?

The first time I had anything to do with it was when was in middle school, and one of my classmates lent me a novel. After that, there was something that just slowly built up in me, and when I made my first doujinshi in 2011, I thought to myself “There’s no going back now.” *laughing*

But actually, I started seeking out original works of BL only after I made this my job. The first BL story that I read for work was Sakurabi Hashigo sensei’s “Toshishita Kareshi no Renai Kanriheki.” It was so sexy and cute and it shook me because I thought “I didn’t know BL was this interesting!”

—Has your awareness of how you write changed?

I used to think there was some sort of requirement for BL to be all lovey-dovey and have happy endings with a moderate amount of sex. But as I read many different works, I realized that that’s not necessarily true. Sex isn’t a requirement, and neither is a happy end. Other than the fact that it’s “a relationship between guys,” I discovered that it’s a genre where pretty much anything goes. I think I’ve just come to understand it more, rather than there being a change in my attitude toward it.

Adding a unique spice to mainstream stories as a foundation:

—On the topic of the “Yajirushi” chapter that was featured in the “Gesu BL” anthology, was there anything in particular that you were conscious about when you were writing it? (gesu = low grade; vulgar)

My first thought was “Finally.” I got all excited and asked my editor, “Is it okay for it to have a bad ending!?” My editor said, “It’s BL after all,” so I made it on the softer side *laughter*. I’m often told that a lot of my characters are awful people, but it’s not really intentional that I write cruel characters. So when I was asked to write something that fell into that specific category, I wasn’t sure how to express it and kept asking myself, “What exactly is gesu…?” But thinking back, I think I could have gone more extreme with it.

—So is “gesu” sort of special to you?

I love awful characters. It’s not so much that I like seeing ukes having terrible things happen to them… well, I guess I like that too *laughter*. But that’s not really the focus—what I love seeing is the seme’s regret after treating his partner cruelly. Like the kind of trash who gets all excited one-sidedly on his own, or good-for-nothing guys that abuse their partners but get all cowardly as soon as they think “What’ll I do if he leaves me.” I think gesu qualities just add that extra bit of spice to characters.

—How do you come up with all of your characters and stories?

I usually have a specific situation in mind, and broaden the story from there. Alternatively, I’ll write the story with the intent to include that situation. Once I have the story decided, I’ll start writing with pretty normal characters. But completely normal characters aren’t that interesting, so I add flaws and twisted elements to them here and there. It’s a lot easier to write them that way too.

I try not to add too much backstory or premise to them from the get-go; I start out with a very basic focal point and add layers onto that. I think that at their core, my stories tend to be pretty mainstream. I just put those situations and lines I tend to like here and there.

—“Here and there,” you say!

Little tidbits, here and there *laughter*. I just write whatever I come up with, so it really is just about letting myself go with the flow.

The hard part is turning all of the scenarios that I want to write into a coherent story. The characters and their backstories are all just plastered on later, so the end result tends to have a distorted feel to it. But I feel like that’s okay.

—Maybe it’s that distortedness that feels novel to your readers. How much time do you spend on coming up with the plot and the name? (name = rough draft)

It depends on the story, but I usually take a day or two on the plot, and two or three days on the name. I hole myself up in a diner or a café and write it all in one go. I’ll procrastinate if there aren’t any people around, so I choose places that are crowded with lots of people, and drink alcohol if it’s available. I usually drink while doing all of it—from the plotting to drafting to inking in…. *laughing*. I hold back on it when I have to really think, but it’s a lot easier to write when I’m excited from the alcohol.

—I get the impression that you publish at quite a high pace for a BL author.

Is that true? I just spend my days getting up, drinking, writing, drinking, and going back to sleep. I really don’t think of it as “manga writing = work,” so I don’t really reserve days off for myself. I have to keep up with deadlines right now, but even if I didn’t, I would probably continue writing on my own. When I spend too long on the plot and don’t draw for a few days, I’m like, “How did I draw again?”

—Do you ever have times when you can’t come up with a story or can’t seem to draw?

I have quite a few ideas stocked up, so I don’t think that’ll happen. My biggest problem is with the special issues. Libre has a lot of very impressive themes like “Coming right at the moment he puts it in,” and “tentacles,” for their special issues, so I always have to rack my brain to figure out how to use the ideas I have stocked up for them.

—Do you have all of your stock ideas recorded somewhere?

I just have a collection of scenarios I want to write about in little two to three-line notes. I record them on my Pomera (digital memo) as soon as I come up with them. Sometimes I’ll read them over and not be able to remember what the original idea was supposed to be, or there’d be ideas like ones that involve “mob characters” that don’t really work for publishing.

—A lot of the main characters of your works don’t have names, but is there a specific reason for that?

That’s right. Giving the characters names makes me feel like, “Oh, I’ve actually made a complete character,” and it’s a little embarrassing. When I wrote “Henai,” I submitted the character sketches and the plot without naming them. It went through without a hitch, and I thought “I’ve done it!” *laughter*. So now, most of the characters from my Libre works don’t have names.

For the “Hikizuru Oto” story from my “Yajirushi” book, I gave them names because I needed it for the plot. In “Pierce Hole,” the seme narrates the entire story from his point of view, so I gave a name just to the uke. The seme only ever refers to himself as “watashi.”

—Do you just call your characters “uke” and “seme” when you talk about them with your editor?

For the most part, yes. Other than that, I might refer to them by their defining features. One of the characters in “Koukai no Umi” was “Eyelashes,” and the uke from “Yajirushi” was “cocksucker” *laughter*.

—That’s awful! *laughing*



Harada’s “Atonement Strategy” of writing romantic stories for redemption:

—I hear a lot of people say that they’ve discovered new “interests” by reading your works.

It makes me happy that there are people out there who discover something new about themselves. I’m sure that quite a few people find my works a little hard to swallow. But I do have a broad range of types of works, so when I put together my shorts in the books, I try to combine works of different tones.

I hear comments like: “That one was too much for me, but I enjoyed this other one,” a lot, and if you talk with your friends about which of my works are the ones you enjoy, I’m sure you can figure out: “Oh, so that’s what you’re into,” *laughter*.

—I totally understand *laughter*. Do you make a conscious effort to keep a broad range of styles and tones?

I personally tend to want to write light-hearted stories after I’m done writing a serious piece. Even I get tired if I only write heavy stories, so I like writing ridiculous stories sometimes.

I call my story-writing pattern of romantic stories after cruel ones my “Atonement Strategy” *laughter*. I feel as if I need to repent, like: “I’ll make this one all lovey-dovey, so please forgive me.”

My editor helped me out a lot on deciding the order of shorts to include in my tankobons. In the case of “Henai,” I started with the light-hearted stories, and dropped the really serious one at the very end, but for “Yajirushi,” there were a lot of dark ones, so I finished it off with the fun, romantic one. I’ve received feedback saying, “The last one was cute and it left me feeling good afterwards,” but that’s all thanks to my editor.

—Do you have any other interesting behind-the-scenes stories involving your works?

Well, this has to do with the in-art censoring, but my editor from Tokyo Mangasha told me, “The company got us graphics tablets just so we could work on doing the censorship for ‘Suki na Hito Hodo.’ I always wanted one, so thank you.” But the people from Takeshobo were telling me, “We went through two full cartridges of correction ink when we were censoring ‘Yatamomo’.” It seems it’s become a legend because of that. I’m very sorry. *laughter*

—I’m sure there are many readers who are fans of your dynamic-yet-detailed artwork, but censoring is a pretty big issue, after all.

I’ve always been pretty blatant when it comes to drawing those sensitive areas, but I think the readers would be disappointed to see so much of it blotted out with white ink, so I’ve recently been changing up the angles and positions of the speech bubbles so there won’t need to be as much correcting. But there are a lot of authors who’ve always done that. I was kind of like, “Aren’t I really late to the party!?”

The world of BL is full of readers with eyes for a good story—it’s almost a waste not to read BL:

—Lastly, what is your image of the “BL” genre?

It really is difficult to write BL. I have to write a complete story with the get-together and sex and romance within 30 pages or so… I don’t think the readers will be satisfied without the complete package. So I think that a lot of BL authors must be really good at constructing stories to be able to do that every time. I’ve come across so many works that I’ve come to love in BL, and I keep thinking, “Why have I never read BL at all up until now?”

But there are people out there who are biased against BL, aren’t there. One of the seniors at my old workplace mentioned one time, “My friend’s into books about gay guys and it’s a little creepy. Even though I was thinking, “I’m writing one of those!” I tried to play it cool, saying, “Oh, but I’ve heard they’re quite popular. I know a lot of people who read those.” I think that even if someone refuses to accept it, if there are people around them who read it, they won’t be entirely uninterested. I think it’s fine for people to discover the appeal of BL just little by little.

