SnK News: Isayama Hajime’s Bessatsu Shonen August 2017 Interview

Translation: @suniuz & @fuku-shuu

Please link back to this post and/or credit if you use any quotes!

Shingeki no Kyojin’s Isayama Sensei talks about the Marley Arc and the End of Everything!

- Now that the series is smoothly moving along, tell us your thoughts as you move towards the final chapter.

Isayama: The Marley arc has finally begun. I’ve been especially attentive towards my readers’ opinions towards Shingeki no Kyojin. Many fans have been supportive, and this series has undergone much growth itself. So now I feel a great responsibility to conclude the story properly.

- The circumstance of Grisha’s first wife being the Titan that consumed Eren’s mother is something you planned from the very beginning. Did you also conceptualize the Marley arc back then?

During the concept stages, the first idea I had was “Titans are actually humans.” But if that were the focus, then the story would’ve become a typical monster horror film. So on the Titan side, I added some elements of drama. Not only do we have “they’re actually humans,” but we also have the dilemma of them being companions, relatives, and friends. This was the basis of the Marley arc.

- We have many new characters making their debut in the Marley Arc. When you first create a character, what’s the level of detail you go into?

I definitely ask myself “what do they look like?” and I ponder upon that as I sketch. They should differentiate from existing characters as much as possible, so I draw with the thought of “we haven’t seen a character with this kind of expression yet.” After I finalize the features, I’ll think “someone with this kind of expression probably has this kind of personality” - and then the entire character is formed. At first, during Pieck’s debut scene, I had drawn her as a middle-aged man. But as I continued to work on the manuscript, she suddenly became female. Also Gabi - she has a similar feel to the female Eren I drew during a Bessatsu Shonen event.

Update (July 16th, 2017): Isayama Hajime shared this image below on his blog as the original concept for Pieck!

(More below the Keep reading!)

- If Marley Arc is progressing as you had originally visualized, then the ending of the whole story…?

Although I’m progressing towards the ending that had been set before, my approach towards the ending itself has changed from the original plans. Because now I feel responsible towards the reader. I originally wanted to illustrate something similar to the film “The Mist.”

- From the perspective of that film’s main characters, it’s hard to say that it has happy ending. The original ending for Shingeki no Kyojin originally went in that direction?

By the middle of the film, the story of The Mist is at the typical level of a B-list movie. But at its conclusion, it used the main character’s deep, intrinsic beliefs of what’s right to corrupt the main character himself, leading him to act in contrary ways. What the audience believed to be correct is also flipped upside-down. In the beginning, I spent a while analyzing how to imitate this style for Shingeki no Kyojin.

- When you say “in the beginning” you mean…?

At first I explored emulating The Mist, but now you could say that I’m moving in a more peaceful direction, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m not talking about whether Shingeki no Kyojin will have a good or bad ending - I only speak of my own attitude as the creator, as well as differences in my methods of ensuring that the readers enjoy the series.

- Are you heavily influenced by films?

It’s like this. The movie In This Corner of the World has WWII-era Japan as its setting, showing everything through the perspectives of people from that era to illustrate “what warfare is.” The story starts prior to when combat began, but at some point even the main character, whose livelihood is opposite from a battlefield, also became someone who heeded the calling “fight on!” And then, she was defeated by such a development. The movie doesn’t explicitly answer the question of “Is war a bad thing?” - and I think that’s quite innovative. For example, in order to express the notion of “discrimination is bad,” it first demonstrates existing prejudices, then dives into the recognition of this mindset, and then examines the opposing view - this makes the audience exclaim “whoa!” and understand the logic of it all. I’m also hoping to implement this storytelling method so that my readers can sympathize with the suffering of the characters.



- Contrary to the wars of human history, the victorious and the defeated within a manga is decided by its author. Can you determine what is right in the end?

Up until now, what I’ve drawn is Eren’s perspective of those within the walls, but for the Marley Arc, the same individuals appear as enemies of the Marley. Through that, the situation has evolved into how the Marley and the readers no longer know what the other side is planning. Until now, this role of someone who is unpredictable has always been given to the Titans. So by doing this, I have flipped the script on who is good or evil.

Ultimately, I don’t think the series passes judgment on what is “right” or “wrong.” For example, when I read Furuya Minoru’s “Himeanole,” I knew society would consider the serial killer in the story unforgivable under social norms. But when I took into account his life and background I still wondered, “If this was his nature, then who is to blame…?” I even thought, “Is it merely coincidence that I wasn’t born as a murderer?” We justify what we absolutely cannot accomplish as “a flaw due to lack of effort,” and there is bitterness within that. On the other hand, for a perpetrator, having the mindset of “It’s not because I lack effort that I became like this” is a form of solace. We cannot deny that under such circumstances, the victims’ feelings are very important. But considering the root of the issue, rather than evaluating “what is right”…to be influenced by various other works and their philosophies, and to truthfully illustrate my exact feelings during those moments - I think that’s what Shingeki no Kyojin’s ending will resemble.

T/N: Isayama is the master of saying everything yet nothing at all, lol…

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