Year: 2016

 

Interview by Misaki C. Kido

For Hiro Mashima, making manga is his true calling. Just from reading his bestselling epic about the world of wizards, Fairy Tail, you can sense how devoted he is to his work. Meeting him in person, you encounter more to his personality that explains how he can make such a manga. He’s a forever-humble student of life as well as a big-hearted teacher, fascinated by the making of manga more than anybody. This perfect balance is the ultimate drive that keeps him working on a long-running—and sometimes even multiple—manga series.

This interview is for old and new fans of Fairy Tail, who wants to know a little more about the personal side of Mashima-sensei!

About Hiro Mashima
Born in 1977 and debuted as a manga-ka (manga artist) in 1998. His first long-running series, Rave Master, ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine from 1999 to 2005. He serialized his current series, Fairy Tail, in the same magazine since 2006. When Fairy Tail was adapted as an anime series in 2009, it became a global hit. Other renowned works includes Monster Hunter Orage, Monster Soul, and Mashima-en.

List of Awards
2009 Fairy Tail: Kodansha Manga Award/Shonen Genre (Japan)
2009 Fairy Tail: Japan Expo Best Manga Award/Shonen Genre (France)
2011 Fairy Tail: ANIMELAND Best Anime Award (France)
2011 Fairy Tail: ANIMELAND Best Dubbed Anime Award (France)
2011 Fairy Tail: Frankfurt Book Fair/International Comics Award (Germany)
2012 Fairy Tail: Salon del Manga Best Series Award (Spain)
2012 Fairy Tail: Salon del Manga Best Creator Award (Spain)
2012 Fairy Tail: Salon del Manga Best Guest of Honor Award (Spain)

“I love and am fascinated by the whole process of making manga.” —Hiro Mashima

Kodansha Comics (KC): What was it like when you were a kid?
Hiro Mashima (HM): When I was little, I was an indoor kid. I always loved doing something at home. Of course I liked to play outside with friends too, but I enjoyed drawing or playing video games, doing something that takes imagination at home.

KC: When did you pick up drawing?
HM: I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. I have an early memory of my grandfather showing me a manga magazine that he picked up somewhere. I thought the drawings in it was so cool, so I tried to copy it. That’s probably when I realized that I love to draw. And I still love to draw!

KC: Story or art; which one comes more naturally to you?
HM: That’s a tough one. They are both really fun. When I make a story, I’m rolling out my imagination to figure out what’s going to happen, and that’s really fun. When I draw, I go through a lot of trial and error to get something to look cool or cute. That’s also fun. I love and am fascinated by the whole process of making manga.

KC: Do you think about anything particular when you draw?
HM: I’m actually not very good at drawing female characters. I want to draw them so cute I feel a lot of pressure drawing them. In contrast, guy characters are easy. I can just draw them quickly.

KC: How did you come up with the world of Fairy Tail?
HM: It actually goes back to the series I worked on before, Rave Master. In one episode, there was a scene where a group of guys are hanging out at a bar. That was fun to draw. So I wanted to draw a manga with the feel of guys hanging out at a bar. I thought it’d be interesting to enter a world where characters have established relationships, like friendship. Usually a shonen manga starts with just a main character, who then slowly accumulates his or her allies as the story progresses. But in the world of Fairy Tail, everybody pretty much knows each other at the beginning. That was sort of what I was going for.

KC: Is it difficult to work with a story that’s set in a fantasy world with things like magic?
HM: It’s not hard, because in a world with magic, you can pretty much do anything! It’s actually harder for me to work on a story that’s set in real life, because there are a lot of restrictions. For example, in a real-life setting, in order to walk into a room, you have to open the door. But in a fantasy setting, you can enter the room however you want. Literally anything goes.

KC: How would you describe the main characters of Fairy Tail?
HM: They are real trouble. [laughs] At first I was trying to make the characters people I want to be friends with. But from anyone else’s eyes, they’re serious troublemakers. They won’t listen to anyone. Still, I want them to be people to look up to to for kids who read the manga.

KC: Do you feel like there’s some resemblance of yourself to the characters?
HM: I do. I think every character that I come up with is somehow a reflection of myself. Sometimes I’m fiery like Natsu, sometimes I’m serious like Lucy, take off my clothes like Gray … or not. [laughs]

KC: How do you keep your motivation for work?
HM: I try to have fun every now and then. I take a lot of breaks and do something else for a change. Also, I’m sure every creator feels this way, but the readers’ voices that I receive from fan letters are very encouraging to me. It makes me want to keep making manga that people can enjoy.

KC: Do you have a certain audience in mind when you make manga?
HM: I try to make manga that’s fun for teenagers, but I also want it to be interesting enough for adults too.

KC: I’ve heard that Miki Yoshikawa (creator of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches) was your assistant back in the day. What was it like to work with her?

HM: Miki Yoshikawa always had a great imagination. For example, whenever I ask an assistant to draw a background in a panel, I’ll usually give some specific direction of what I’m thinking. But every time she drew something for me, it’d always surpass my expectation. She’d add tiny little details in the scene—even something simple like a duck in the background—that I didn’t ask for. She did this constantly. She was still pretty young back then, so she knew her art still needed some work. But I don’t really remember teaching her anything, because she already had what it takes. I think we spent most of the time doing fun stuff, like playing video games together. Although, I always hoped that she’d start her own manga series someday.

KC: How many assistants do you work with now?
HM: Recently we’ve lost one person, so there are three assistants now. It’s tough not having a full team.

KC: Do you like to use digital or analog tools for drawing?
HM: Most of my manga is drawn by hand. But sometimes I do try to play around with illustration programs like Photoshop and ComicStudio. Even then, I try to make it look like it was drawn and colored by hand. I try to avoid using any effects that are only possible by digital tools. My favorite tool is still Copic pens though. But it’s a very hard medium to work with, and there are people who are better at it than me. I know the limits of my own ability, so I try to make the best of it.

KC: Have you been playing any video games recently?
HM: Yes I have. I’ve been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. I don’t know why they have to release it when I’m so busy! [laughs]

KC: What’s your zodiac sign?
HM: I’m a Taurus! Actually, there’s a character names Taurus in Fairy Tail. So I wanted to make sure he’s super-powerful.

KC: If a new person wants to get into reading Fairy Tail now, how would you recommend they dive into the series?
HM: I think the best way to get into Fairy Tail is to find your own favorite character. I try to make every character to be unique, so they may appeal to different kinds of people.

KC: Do you have any comments for fans?
HM: I feel so happy people outside of Japan read and know about Fairy Tail. When I’m on Twitter, I get comments from fans all around the world. That’s really encouraging. I don’t understand other languages too well, but sometimes I try to read and write in English. Or sometimes I try to post some art, because language doesn’t matter. It’s one of the ways to give back to the fans. I hope you guys will continue to enjoy and support Fairy Tail!

KC: Thank you!

Want to watch Mashima-sensei in action? You can watch the sketch video here.

You can also win the autographed sketch Hiro Mashima draws in the video.

All you have to do is take this survey.  

Fairy Tail volumes 1 through 51 by Hiro Mashima are available from Kodansha Comics.

New to the world of Fairy Tail? Catch up to the story with the 5-volumes-in-1 Master’s Edition!

Also, don’t forget to check out the spin-off series of Fairy Tail!

Fairy Girls

Fairy Tail Ice Trail

Fairy Tail Blue Mistral

Also the latest chapter of Fairy Tail is available on Crunchyroll Manga!

Interview by Deb Aoki and Misaki C. Kido

Miki Yoshikawa has exceptional talent. Not only because she’s a female mangaka who’s succeeded in shonen manga, but because her approach to manga is so genuine. If you ever get lucky enough to meet her, you’ll quickly realize what makes her a such a unique person is also what makes the characters in her manga so much like real people. 

To help kick off the release of Volume 6 of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, we're reprising Yoshikawa-sensei's interview with us during her memorable Anime Expo 2015 visit, where she shares her thoughts and experiences as the creator of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. Relive some of the excitement—and check out some pictures—from her last Stateside event!

About Miki Yoshikawa

Miki Yoshikawa made her pro manga debut in 2003 with Glory Days, a one-shot in Kodansha’s Magazine Special. After a stint as an assistant for Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail), she published another one-shot, Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, in Shonen Magazine Wonder in 2005. Thanks to its deft comedic touch, Yankee-kun went on to become a short series and later Yoshikawa’s first long-running series in Weekly Shonen Magazine. It was adapted into a live-action drama in 2010-11. Yoshikawa’s best known work, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, started serialization in 2012 and has since sold more than 3 million copies. It’s been adapted into a live-action drama, in 2013, and a TV anime (streaming on Crunchyroll), in 2015.

Kodansha Comics (KC): How did you become a mangaka?

Miki Yoshikawa (MY): When I was nineteen, I just drew a manga and sent it in to a contest. I sort of studied other manga and picked up how to draw. Then one day, my current editor called me and asked,“Do you want to become a mangaka?” Out of pure excitement, I said,“YES!” [laughs] That was the beginning of everything.

Yoshikawa and her editor at Anime Expo 2015

KC: What was the editor's advice at the time?

MY: I remember telling my editor this was actually the first time I’d ever drawn manga, so it might be a little rough. He totally agreed with me. [laughs] I appreciated his honesty, though. I know he wouldn’t give me false praise if the manga wasn’t actually interesting. That’s what make it so easy to work with him. We’ve been working together ever since—leading up to my debut and also on my current series.

KC: You’ve also worked as an assistant for Hiro Mashima (the creator of Fairy Tail).

MY: After my editor contacted me, I really thought I could be a mangaka. But I also knew that I had to get better. At that time, Mashima-sensei was looking for an assistant, and I knew I wanted to work with him.

Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima

KC: Why did you want to work with Mashima-sensei?

MY: Maybe our taste in art was sort of similar? At that time, there weren’t that many artists that drew in that kind of clear and simple style for Weekly Shonen Magazine. Other manga in the magazine were drawn very intricately, and with shiny eyes and stuff. So I thought to myself, if I’m going to become a mangaka’s assistant for Shonen Magazine, it has to be under Mashima-sensei.

KC: Was it hard to be an assistant for Mashima-sensei?

MY: Actually, not at all. We got along really well and shared a bunch of interests, like in movies and video games. Frankly, at that time, I didn’t have any skills as a manga assistant. But he didn’t really care about that. What he cared more about was if you could get along with him and his staff.
 

Yoshikawa doing live drawing on the Crunchyroll stage at Anime Expo 2015

KC: What did you do as an assistant for Mashima-sensei?

MY: I worked with him for about four years, with four other people. I usually worked on backgrounds, inking, drawing patterns or applying screentones, and some hand-drawn letters. But all the characters were drawn by Mashima-sensei himself.

KC: Did you draw your own manga during that time?

MY: I was working on my own manga while I was doing assistant work for Mashima-sensei. But to be honest, I was slacking off on my own work, because it was just so much fun to be his assistant.

KC:  Could you describe the work environment at that time?

MY: Everybody was quite chatty. During breaks, we just played video games together. There were always five of us, so we played multi-player games for Nintendo, like Mario Kart or Mario Party. Everybody got so serious, it got pretty intense. Some days we just spent playing games and completely forgot about drawing manga. [laughs]

From the first chapter of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches

KC: The first chapter of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches starts off as a typical romantic comedy. Then you realize pretty quickly it’s not going that way at all. Was this intentional?

MY: Yes, totally. [laughs] Early on in the series I received a lot of fan mail predicting it was going to be another typical, easy-to-understand romantic comedy. Reading those letters, I couldn’t stop smirking, because deep inside I knew their expectations were going to get upset eventually.

KC: Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is about witches who are students in a normal high school who deal with real-life problems, instead of just magic. How did you decide each of their powers and the underlying struggle?

MY: If you really think about it, all of the witches’ powers are psychological instead physical. I really hope someone in junior high or high school will read this manga and feel sympathy—or realize they aren’t the only ones who are dealing with these issues. If this series was focused on physical power, then the message would be completely different. Instead of working on a manga about a full-on fantasy world, I wanted Yamada-kun to be set in a reality where magic could exist.

Yoshikawa taking to fans during the signing

KC: Do you ever get stuck making manga?

MY: Of course I get like that almost every time. I always ask myself a questions like,“What’s going to happen next?” Or,“Where am I going to take this?” But it’s not exactly about what I want to do with the story. Each character has a different personality and course of action. When I focus on thinking about “What would this character do?” or “What would this character do in this case?”, usually I don’t have to be stuck.

KC: Do you ever talk to the characters?

MY: When I’m drawing them, I am not me. I completely become the character. For example, Yamada is sort of a “bad boy” character who speaks roughly. When I’m drawing Yamada-kun, my language becomes really rough. [laughs] People think I’m always mad or something.

KC: Do you like the “bad boy” characters?

MY: It’s actually not a conscious decision. But when I draw a main character of a shonen manga, it always turns out to be a sort of “bad boy” character. It’s probably because of where I grew up. Everybody sort of spoke roughly. To me, they’re not scary at all. But if you weren’t from that area, those guys might look kind of scary to you.

KC: Shonen manga is usually by boys for boys. How does it feel to be a female mangaka in this field?

MY: Well, I was never really a girly girl to begin with, so I never really thought about it like that. All the friends I grew up with were boys, and I only read shonen manga—like Dragon Ball. When I started to draw manga, I didn’t really feel like I could draw manga for a female audience.

There are many kissing scenes in this series

KC: There are scenes in Yamada-kun, like two boys kissing each other. Did you think it was going to be controversial?

MY: That was a total gamble. [laughs] Most of the readers of Weekly Shonen Magazine are boys, so I wasn’t sure how they’d feel seeing two boys kissing, so I took a chance. But actually, people thought it was funny. It actually made the series more popular. I couldn’t have predicted that.

KC: Do you have an ending in mind?

MY: Yes, and no, because it’s always changing as the story progresses.

KC: Any message for the fans?

MY: I knew there were fans of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches overseas. But coming to America, and meeting some of them, made me realize it’s really true and encourages me to work harder. I hope you support my manga in the future.

KC: Thank you!

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches volumes 1-6 are available from Kodansha Comics

Hurry! Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches Volume1 is available for a limited time
for only 99-cents on Kindle, iBooks, nook, Kobo, and comiXology (sale ends on 1/21/2016)!