[Part2] My Hero Academia and Kagurabachi Authors Discuss: Hands Are Essential for Expressing Emotion in Manga and What Hokazono Learned from Horikoshi’s Approach

“Genius-Level Composition”: Expressing Story Without Characters’ Faces

――Which character in Kagurabachi is your favorite?

Horikoshi
Hakuri. His personality, backstory, and position in the story are all compelling. He stays bright and never feels gloomy, which makes him fun to draw, I imagine.

Hokazono
Hakuri’s chapters are fun to draw.

Horikoshi
Chihiro’s scenes tend to be serious because of the nature of the story. Hakuri also has heavy circumstances, but his brightness balances the tone. His skills are strong too.

――Is there a technique of Hokazono’s you would like to emulate?

Horikoshi
His camera work and use of black shading are outstanding. The moment that made me say, You have to be kidding me, was the scene where Samura appears sensing the unsheathing of the enchanted blade. You see Chihiro’s hand in the foreground and Samura in the back, but Chihiro’s face is not shown. The composition alone conveys everything about their relationship, without showing expressions. It is genius level. It felt like a religious painting that conveys mythology through imagery alone. Being able to tell a story through composition is incredible.

Bringing Out a Character’s Coolness

――What is the key to making a character look cool?

Horikoshi
As you said earlier, not leaving the reader behind is important. If a character is about to strike a cool pose, it is essential not to make the reader feel like it is happening far away from them. Before that moment, you show the character’s emotions and situation clearly, so the reader can empathize. If the big moment does not resonate with the reader, the page is wasted. So you prepare readers emotionally in advance. That way the scene feels like it is happening right in front of them.

――When did you start being conscious of this in My Hero Academia?

Horikoshi
During the USJ arc, when Deku rushes out to save All Might. I made sure to clearly show that only Deku, who inherited All Might’s Quirk and received his guidance, knows All Might’s secret. I showed all that before letting him jump into action.

――What do you pay attention to when drawing villains?

Hokazono
I always try to include something that makes readers think, If things had gone differently, this person could have been on the protagonist’s side. Chihiro and Soka both admired Kunishige Rokuhira, but walked completely different paths. Hakuri and Kyora might have reversed roles if their parent-child dynamic had been different. Even for enemies, I want at least one thing Chihiro can empathize with.

Horikoshi
AFO and Shigaraki have to be the biggest obstacles to the protagonist’s goal, so I made them extreme in the opposite direction. If the protagonist wants to save people, then AFO wants to destroy everything. The idea is to create the enemy that would trouble the protagonist the most. I thought of how the protagonist should respond as I drew them. AFO was very fun to draw. Villains are easy because you do not need to worry about morals or rules.

Hokazono
It is fun. They can say the wrong thing and it is still fine.

Source : ORICON NEWS