The origin of the ever-expanding worldview of the manga “Higanjima”…the origin of the ever-expanding worldview of “Higanjima”!　Manga “Higanjima”… The origin of the ever-expanding world view

“Although I thought it would be interesting if it worked, I thought, ‘How can I get to the mainland?’ ……”

In “48 Days Later…,” the story takes place in Tokyo after escaping from the island, but at what point did you start thinking about this development?

I didn’t think about it at all. I thought it would end after we left the island.

Then suddenly I was approached about making a TV drama and a movie, and I was told, ‘If possible, I would like to continue working on it for about two years until it’s finished, just to create a buzz. I was very grateful. It was unthinkable when I was not popular. So I wanted to get on board, but I was worried about what to do …….

Because the name that was ready at that time was the one that started the last day of the 47th day of “Higanjima: The Last 47 Days,” and the main character’s line was “Today I’m going to settle everything. It’s going to be the longest day ever.

My editor and I were both convinced that the manga would end in one more day of in-comic time. Spending two years drawing one day in the manga?　That’s impossible. Frankly, the timing was so bad that we all laughed.

When we decided to finish the battle on this island in about six months and then figure out what to do next, we had two main options.

One was to defeat the boss and settle the score on Higanjima, and then have a later story about the evil demons who escaped to another island and defeated them on their own island. 3 or 4 episodes would last 2 years.

The other is that the protagonist loses and the enemy crosses over to the mainland, turning all of Japan into a vampire island, and the protagonist becomes a vengeful demon and heads to Tokyo in a road movie style.

Personally, I thought that the latter story would be more interesting, but since it would be on a large scale, I was very worried about whether I would be able to depict it, and for a while I could not decide.

Every day since then, somewhere in my head, I have been mulling over what to do, but I decided on the latter because I came up with two scenes.

The latter two scenes came to mind: the scene at the end of “The Last 47 Days” where the enemy boss, Masashi, lands at the Kaminarimon gate in Asakusa, and the scene in “48 Days Later…” where the main character, Akira, has his right hand turned into a sword. I came up with an ending that I wanted to draw and a beginning that I wanted to draw, so I thought it would work.

You have continued to paint for a long period of time, almost without a break, over the course of three works in the series and more than 20 years.

I have never stopped drawing in earnest, but since I have to continue drawing every week for the weekly serialization, the most difficult thing for me is after I finish an episode that I thought was super interesting and put all my heart into drawing. I get burned out and suddenly nothing comes out (laughs). (laughs).

I still have a deadline, so I pull out my notes and other things I’ve kept in stock and struggle to entertain the readers until I find the next “thing I really want to draw.