**Potential Spoilers for Rakugo Shinjuu and The Great Passage**

Click here for Part 2

Click here for Part 3 (final)

– ‘Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu’ has won many awards but, I would like to congratulate you for winning 7th place on the ‘このマンガがすごい！オンナ編’ ranking.

With the final volume, I am very happy to have been chosen again. I am under the impression that everything changed since being placed 2nd for the 2012 ‘このマンガがすごい!’ ranking, so I am very grateful. Due to the ‘このマンガがすごい!’ ranking, it has provided more opportunity for people to read my work.

– Around 7 years to complete. In more ways than one, it has become a grand piece of work.

Looking back, I feel glad that it was able to come to an end. Still, even now I feel I can draw anything with the characters of ‘Rakugo Shinjuu’. Yakumo’s story has however come to an end¹.

– So the characters live on firmly inside you, even after the serialisation has ended.

Not just ‘Rakugo Shinjuu’, it is also the case with the characters from my short pieces. Whether from my debut or older pieces. Once I make a character, they live on inside me, so that when I call for the character, they’ll come out².

– The population must be increasing.

Whether the character is alive or dead, they are all living in the ‘Kumota world’ in my head. When I make a new character, I might draw a sketch, but these characters aren’t truly alive yet. It is only when they start moving within the manga that they become a solid and true character.

– Is it easier for you to draw male characters?

Yes, because it’s fun (laughs). For example, Rakugo Shinjuu’s Konatsu or Miyokichi weren’t characters that I really wanted to draw, but rather characters that ended up being born out of necessity. So whilst drawing these characters, there was always a part of me that was hesitant. Recently I have finally started to think this isn’t right. It might be nice to draw a girl where I can think ‘I want to draw her’ and maybe it will be possible for me to draw in this way.

– Also as a reader, is it easier for you to empathise with male characters?

That might be so. But as a reader, there are also many female characters I like you know. Just, when drawing characters I seem to lean more towards those that are easier to draw. I haven’t once drawn a manga with a female protagonist.

– Perhaps it’s easier for you to synchronise³ with a male character?

I don’t draw in such a way as to synchronise with the character. So maybe they’re just simply more fun to draw. It seems I lost my manga muscles to draw girls (laughs). Maybe creating an attractive4 female character will become a theme for me from now on.

Notes

1. Couldn’t quite work out whether this phrase should be interpreted as ‘although Yakumo’s story has ended’ or ‘however Yakumo’s story has ended’.

2. Kumota tends to use …感じ or …という感触 to express ‘it’s like’ or a feeling. I couldn’t quite work out how to get this across into English.

3. キャラとシンクロする was used here. Not sure what it means so I left it as it is.

4. 魅力的 which I translated to attractive also extends to the personality.

Source: http://konomanga.jp/interview/112908-2

Image: http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/product?isbn=9784063623406

*made some changes due to suggestions offered by laika:

(笑) ⇒ (laughs)