801 Media, Hinako Takanaga, Interviews, Juné
Dec 5, 2010
Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl
27 Comments

YAOI INTERVIEW: Hinako Takanaga, Part 2 of 3

 
 
As a reminder, this was transcribed with the conversational approach in mind. I edited a little more on this one but it's still written as close to how it was spoken as I could. This was the approach chosen by readers when I polled them on Twitter as it gives a more personal feel. Enjoy!
 
Part 2:
 
Jenny: I have some questions [that are] more towards the drawing process. [Fans] were asking an average drawing time for a typical page of manga or if it’s easier to answer it, how many pages in a week or a month that you may average?
 
Sensei: If you were to put it all together in the process of just getting the storyboards and everything ready and then doing [the] finished product, I’d say for about 30-32 pages it would take about two weeks.
 
Jenny: Wow… that’s a lot! [laughs]
 
Sensei: Usually 32 pages is like the monthly cycle for a magazine but there are also times that an artist would be doing two cycles in one month and so 32 pages here, 32 pages there, because 30 pages is the typical length for a magazine serialized chapter.
 
Jenny: And that actually goes into another question I had.  I’d like to know how you handle drawing more than one story at a time, I’m sure it’s difficult. It sounds like you do one then do the other or do you work combined on them?
 
[Sensei laughs]
 
Sensei: You definitely have a point; it’s difficult to switch between the two.  One of the things I do if I’m working on two projects at one time is… well, personally I say that I forget things easily so there’s that. Then there’s also the point where if I do a chapter of one project and then I have to do a chapter for another project, I’ll always go back and I’ll read the previous chapter and I’ll sort of remember it all and I’ll be like oh, ok… here’s where we are. Then I will go on with making the storyboard sort of outline and then write the final pages and that gets me back into it.  So it’s not like I’m constantly thinking of the other while I’m working on one.  I tend to focus pretty specifically on each.
 
Jenny: Have you ever had to censored yourself after writing or drawing something, something you felt was a little too hot for the story?
 
[Lots of discussion with her editor!]
 
Sensei: In terms of editing and everything like that, there’s always the process of storyboarding that comes first and in that process that’s when I usually am like this is what works and this is what doesn’t and I usually go through everything and so when I get to the actual drawing stages there’s nothing where I’m like, nah, and I cross it out or erase it.
 
Technically, there is a spoiler to volume 4 in the following paragraphs but not one that I think is major.  However, read at your own risk and I’ll mark with asterisks when it is ok to read again if you wish to skip ahead.
 
 
Sensei: There was one episode in the fourth volume of Tyrant where I was really, really not sure. There’s a fire and I wasn’t sure if the uke should help the seme or if Morinaga should actually go help the “tyrant” character and I was really, really, really, really, really wondering. I asked my supervisors, I asked my editors, but then I thought which one is more “BL”-esque and it really does have to be like well, the uke’s going to go to save the seme.  So uke goes and saves the seme and that’s how it went and in the end I was happy with that.
 
Jenny: That’s good… that’s a good answer. [laughs]
 
[Translated, and more laughs. Evan asks her a question.]
 
Evan: I was just asking her if she did it the other way, how would it be? What would be different?
 
Sensei: One of the things that I was really worried about and wondering about with that particular scene is that if I did have the seme going and saving the uke, if I had Morinaga going in then we could have that sort of moment of clarity where Tatsumi is thinking to himself, wow… I might die and that sort of causes him to think over everything in regards to Morinaga. Then when he sees Morinaga come to save him, there’s that moment in his heart, that “oomph” and he’s like, oh, here he is… he’s here to save me. That I thought was interesting and that’s why I thought about doing that and exploring that avenue but eventually I decided it would be better to do it the other way around because it’s more "BL"-esque.
 
No more spoilers beyond this point
 
 
Jenny: This is a fan question and it makes me giggle but I’m going to ask it. Do you ever get embarrassed drawing intimate love scenes?
 
[Funny/adorable side note, this was one of the few parts I clearly understood… I heard both Hinako Takanaga and her editor nearly in unison say “love scene!”, which sounded phonetically a lot like “labu sheeeeen!”.] :-D
 
[A lot of discussion and laughing among the three commences]
 
Evan: It’s gettin’ good! [laughing]
 
[More lengthy discussion and additional laughing]
 
Evan: It’s a long response but it’s filled with good sh*t! [Insert me cackling in the background here]
 
Sensei: For me when I draw scenes of people, you know, “getting it on”, it’s work to me because my goal is how can I make it as erotic as possible? And that’s when I just shift into a business mode where I’m like, ok, which tone is best for expressing this, which is best for this, what is going to get a reaction from the reader. So I don’t look at it like, oooo! oooo! They’re going at it! They’re f*cking!
 
[Apparently ‘f*cking’ is quite understandable because the room erupted in laughter! Or it could have been the hilarious way Evan said it]
 
Sensei: How can I get people into it? When I started doing my style, my style was very shoujo manga so I didn’t really see myself as applying that to sort of an erotic way because it was very "shoujo"-esque. But I loved reading stuff that was kind of erotic so one day I was like, hey, I’m just going to go ahead and give this a shot. Even though my stuff was kind of "shoujo"-esque and I didn’t feel it to be my style, I fought it and I decided I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this. Then I figured if it makes people happy then this is what I want to do and that’s why I started drawing more “into it” sex scenes.
 
There was one happening, one of my editors at Kadokawa said that you’re definitely our current erotic leader. You’re our "head pervert" [loud laughing and then “head pervert” in Japanese]. That was because there was one [time] where there was a special in a magazine where you have to cut the page to open it up. It’s a presentation style where people, if they read the magazine. they have to buy it so they can cut this thing open.
 
Jenny: Ooooh… to see the good stuff?
 
Sensei: Well the theme was newlyweds, and I thought it’s this "thing" (presentation style) so of course I’m going to make this as perverted as possible, I’m just going to slather it on. So I get the magazine back and everyone else, because everyone in the magazine contributed one with their characters, so I drew two guys in the tub, you know, sharing that first night of love with each other. I looked at everyone else’s drawings and some were making a meal together for the first time, they’re kissing each other goodbye and I look at it and was like Oh My God, what did I do? Then my editor calls me and says, “Hey Takanaga… good job”. [lots of laughing] That was a good moment but at that point I was a little embarrassed. That was when I was like, oh ok… that was a little embarrassing.
 
Jenny: Oh, I suppose. [laughing] But that’s ok… we enjoy it.
 
Sensei: “Congratulations… you’re a good pervert.”
 
Jenny: [Laughing]  Now I forgot where I was going to go after that one!
 

~Jennifer LeBlanc
 
 

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