During Comic Fiesta 2017, THE MAGIC RAIN team was lucky enough to be able to interview Koré Yamazaki, a Japanese Manga artist who lives in Hokkaido prefecture. After she debuted in 2013 as Manga artist, she began serializing “The Ancient Magus’ Bride” in 2015. It became a best-selling title, selling over 4 million copies in Japan as of August 2017.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride has since been translated into over 14 languages and has been well-received by readers worldwide, even making it onto The New York Times’ best seller lists.
(Translations were made from Japanese to English)
Q: Were you inspired by works based in England like Harry Potter by J.K Rowling and which one inspired you the most to create your own manga?
A: Yes, I do take inspiration from authors such as J.K Rowling, but my main inspiration comes from Darren Shan. In my later years as I grew older, I also took inspiration from Diana Wynne Jones, the author of the well-known ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’. However, the biggest factor in me starting my own manga would be because of Minagi Tokuichi’s work.
Q: What are your favourite kind of scenes or aspects of characters to draw and are there any scenes that you’ve drawn thus far that gave you immense satisfaction?
A: Even more than human characters, I prefer to draw backgrounds and if I see a really good piece of scenery that inspires me, I want to be able to interpret it in my own way and incorporate it into my manga. I’m the type to forget the older scenes as I draw (laughs), but I have this mindset that every single time I draw a new scene, it has to be my best one yet.
Q: Are there any parts of the process of drawing that you find particularly difficult?
A: The process of drawing itself and bringing all my ideas to life in a way which makes myself satisfied, is one of the hardest process that I have to go through in my opinion. If I don’t keep drawing and creating manga daily, it’s possible that I might forget how to draw whatever I want to.
Q: With the recent release of the anime adaptation of your manga, what did you think of the outcome and would you like to see more adaptations?
A: Even though I went through a lot of consultations for the creation of the anime, the publication house is ultimately the one that has the biggest say on whether it becomes an animation, live-action or even novelisation. My main focus right now is to just release chapters and get the manga out into the public.
Q: What sort of role did you play for the development of the Mahoutsukai no Yome anime?
A: I wasn’t involved in the final process, but I was involved in setting the story such as what backgrounds to use, the colour scheme of the characters or background (as the manga was black and white), and even down to the voices. I didn’t pick out specifically who was to be chosen, but I gave recommendations like ‘Oh, make it someone that sounds like this, perhaps a higher voice for this character or a lower voice for the other’. So it was that kind of story setting or world creation that I was involved in for the anime adaptation.
Q: Instead of the usual human-human relationship, what made you decide to draw and focus on a relationship between a human and non-human?
A: Everything that I’ve read up to now has been a source of inspiration for me, but I particularly like putting in paper a relationship between a human and a non-human. As they have zero things in common, it is a lot easier to build a relationship between them, whereas if it’s between two humans, it becomes more complex. If you take that complexity away, the story becomes a lot more interesting as it helps to build and develop the characters.
Q: So the manga has garnered a lot of international attention and praise overseas, what was the most surprising reception that you’ve received?
A: The warm reception that I’ve received from my manga has become a very good motivator for me. Originally, the manga was created and catered towards the Japanese people, and the fact that it has been received so well overseas and translated into many languages was something that I am very grateful for.
With that, we’d like to thank Koré Yamazaki-sensei for the informative interview, and we at THE MAGIC RAIN look forward to see Mahoutsukai no Yome reach greater heights!
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