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

I’m anxious to see what happens next and how it all ends… …

It is said that when you cannot see what you want to draw, you “struggle,” but on the other hand, when you have something you want to draw and you cannot express it or wonder how to express it, “struggle” opens up new possibilities.

You mentioned the recent development of the brothels. My wife happened to be reading something like a girls’ manga about a brothel in the countryside somewhere, and as we talked about it, the first thing that came to me was the feeling that I wanted to include a sense that these women were unhappy, but they were living hard because of it.

When I thought, “What should I do with that feeling in “Higanjima,” since it’s a totally unrelated story?

To be more specific, I thought that if Yukapon was kidnapped and forced to work in the brothel, it would be natural to depict the inner workings of the brothel and the women who work there, and it would also be natural for the main characters to go there to help them.

Matsumoto says that if readers want him to continue, and if he wants to continue, and if he can keep coming up with new stories, he would like to continue drawing for the rest of his life.

By the way, do you ever have an ending in mind?

I don’t know. I’ve thought about it a few times, but I don’t know if it will turn out the way I want it to.

When I ask him if, after more than 20 years of drawing the same characters and the same settings, he ever feels the urge to draw a new manga with a completely different idea, he replies …….

He replied, “No, I don’t get to do that very often (chuckles & puzzled). I’m not really interested in drawing a new manga, because when I have an idea, I think about how to put it into “Higanjima,” as I did with the brothel story.

I feel like “Higanjima” is like a box into which I can put any element, even if it is from a completely different world.

For example, if I wanted to depict the history of an actual brothel, that would be impossible, but I am not interested in that part of the world, and I extract only the nuances and sensations that I want to depict.

Matsumoto further analyzes the root of this process with a straight and clean eye.

I think I have a different sensibility than most people.

When I was talking about zombies with my assistant, he said, ‘The key to a zombie movie is to eat human flesh with all your might, but if you draw it in a comic book, you’ll get angry. But if I drew that in a comic book, he would get angry, so I couldn’t draw zombies.

Maybe that’s the way zombie movies are supposed to be. What I am interested in is human emotions, such as what people do when they are trapped, or what they do when their relatives are changed by the infection.

If I wanted to depict specific scenes, I would probably have to change genres, but if I want to depict human emotions, I can replace the specifics with anything. That’s why I can bring almost anything to this place (“Higanjima”).

When I find a new theme, I put it into “Higanjima” as if I were drawing a new manga.

When I first started serializing the story, I was repeatedly told that the main characters, such as Akira, were just bizarre murderers from the enemy’s point of view, and that it would confuse the readers.

However, after continuing the series for such a long time, the worldview has become firmly established, and even if the storyline turns the worldview on its head, the readers can understand it as a new perspective. There are things that I can do now that I have continued this long.

I feel that I will be able to continue drawing as long as the things I want to draw keep coming up inside me.

Higanjima” is like a black hole that continues to expand endlessly, swallowing up any element, any setting, and any worldview.