Serialized for 20 years & over 400 issues! Horror? Gag? Interview with author Kouji Matsumoto on where the manga “Higanjima” is headed

A one-of-a-kind worldview…what kind of person is the author?

There are some manga that evoke images of the work by the items themselves, without the characters, such as the sword in “Blade of Demon”, the straw in “One Piece”, and the glasses and bow tie in “Detective Conan”.

Then, when you think of “logs,” do you think of ……?　I think there are more people than you might think who immediately answer “Higanjima”.

Higanjima” is a horror manga by Koji Matsumoto that has been serialized in “Weekly Young Magazine” since 2002. Set on the island of Higanjima, the main character Akira Miyamoto and his brother Atsushi battle against the vampire forces led by the master vampire Masashi.

In 2010, “Higanjima: The Last 47 Days” was followed by “Higanjima: 48 Days Later” in 2002, which continues to this day as “Higanjima: 48 Days Later…”.

The “log,” by the way, has become an internet sensation, with the famous line “You all got the log! It is a useful and powerful item that symbolizes “Higanjima” and appears frequently in the film, such as wielding it with one hand, holding onto it, or attaching it to the end of a light truck with a sharp point.

In addition to the “log,” there are many other symbols that are easily recognizable as “Higanjima,” such as the handwritten “hahaha” and the round glasses, mask, and hoodie of Atsushi, the older brother.

Why is it so original and so full of characters? How did this grotesque horror story with a mysterious worldview that is at the same time a gag, become a long-running series that has continued for more than 20 years? What kind of person is the author?

We decided to interview the author, Koji Matsumoto, and found him to be surprisingly honest, pure, and charming.

I was hoping for 10 volumes or so.” …… “Higanjima” birth story

When I originally finished the previous story (“Coup Club”), I had an assistant who loved zombie movies, and we talked about zombies all the time, so I wanted to draw something like that,” said Kouji Matsumoto about the origin of “Higanjima.

However, he says that he did not have an epic story in mind, and that he “never dreamed that it would become a long-term serialization,” and that he was ” grateful if it could be published in 10 volumes or so.

Although the story’s art and content had a strong impact right from the start, it was not very popular at first, and it was not until the main character’s older brother Atsushi appeared on Higanjima that the response began to reach people’s ears,” Matsumoto said.

The main character’s older brother, Atsushi, is the strongest character and symbol of the film. As mentioned above, his round glasses, mask, and hoodie are also characteristic of him. ……

I didn’t think too much about it. I drew it almost exactly as it appeared in the first book, “Saori,” and I wanted to use it in the right way. I also chose the older brother because I have an older brother myself, so I thought it would be easy to portray him as an older brother.

Another symbol (?) As for the “log,” he explains how it came to be.

I went to Niijima with two of my editors at the time to get a feel for what a country island would be like, although we didn’t use it as a model.

When we were walking around thinking that we needed a rural item for the painting, we came across a nice-looking house with a log on it. Logs are not common in the city, so I drew it by accident, and it just happened to become a weapon as the story unfolded.

Actually, I heard that “Higanjima” was partly inspired by Stephen King’s “The Cursed Town,” in which a town is consumed by vampires. But why did they choose to make it an “island”? There could have been many different settings for a closed space, such as a snowy northern country.

I chose an island as the setting because it was the most straightforward in terms of remoteness and closeness. I think there were many different settings, such as in the forest or in the mountains, but I think the most important point was that it was easier to understand that you can’t leave without a boat, rather than that there are roadblocks or that a bridge has fallen down.

What is even more shocking is the way they decided on the title, which can be said to be the life of the work.

I didn’t think much about it (laughs). (Laughs.) Then, my editor and I came up with a bunch of vampire-like titles, and we lined them up and said, ‘Isn’t this a good one? We then lined up a lot of vampire-esque titles, and I thought, ‘This is a good one.

However, we decided to make the island bloom with higanbana flowers because “higan has nothing to do with the story. The setting of the higanbana was decided by force from the title (laughs).

(Laughs)” What was decided in a lighthearted manner all the time turned out well, and before he knew it, the series had been running for more than 20 years.

Each character with a strong personality is …… “In my case, it’s probably the ‘emotion’ I want to draw.”

By the way, how was the main character, Akira, created?

In my case, I just start with the main character and then think about it. It’s like making clay sculptures. I think, ‘This is missing,’ or ‘I want it this way,’ and I tweak it little by little as I go along.

The starting point is neither the picture nor the setting, but in my case, probably the “emotion” I want to portray.

In the case of the main character, the first thing I want to depict is his complex toward his older brother, and then I think about how to fit that into the setting of the story. On the other hand, there are times when I have a scene in mind, like ‘I want to draw Tsutenkaku Tower stuck in Osaka Castle,’ and then I start thinking about the flow of the story from there.

He says that he “jots down ideas as they come to him,” but “it’s messy, so when I look at it after a while, I often have no idea what I’m talking about (laughs).

Such a feeling gave birth to “Miyabi-sama,” the strongest vampire, who wears elegant Western clothes and sometimes speaks with a charming tone.

I love the rock band Queen, and when I was in high school, I used to doodle in an imitation of their “Overture to Madness” outfit. I thought it looked like a vampire. I remembered that, and in the first episode, I arranged it to look more ferocious and made it appear. That made some kind of impression on me, so I thought, ‘Well, let’s make him the boss.

Masa-sama, despite being the boss of the enemy, sometimes sees Akira as another version of himself, isolated from the world as he was back then. However, he immediately answered, “I don’t really think about that characterization.

The starting point for Masa-san is the feeling of ‘I hate people. I think the reason I dislike people is that I probably like people when I step into it. ……

In the beginning, I really didn’t have anything in mind. During the meetings with the editor, when he asked me what kind of guy Masa-san was and what I wanted to do, I thought hard about it, and I think it gradually solidified.

Perhaps it is because the film was not planned and created from the beginning that it became so enigmatic, playing with the viewer’s mind.

In addition, Akira would later become strong and inhuman through the training of his “master”. Regarding the impact of the Master’s character, with his huge body and scary mask, and the fact that underneath the mask he is a handsome, austere man, he says, “I looked at various Japanese masks and came up with this one.

I looked at a lot of Japanese masks to come up with a visual for the master.

At the time, most masters were small and smart, like Yoda from “Star Wars,” and the editors seemed to think so, too. I thought it would be more interesting to have Ming being pissed off at the big guy.”

The master is also a surprisingly mischievous, screwed-up, and unreadable character. ……

When I write about various things, I wonder why, for example, when I have a plan, the persuasive power of the master’s delivery is totally different from that of the character who is a goofball.

The truth is that I came up with the plan, so the content is exactly the same, but when Kato tells it, it feels like it’s going to fail in some way when I read it. That’s a little bit interesting, and it makes me think, “Which one should I have someone say?　I think about it. I enjoy using the persuasive power of the characters.

I would be grateful if readers find the overall result of this interesting.

By the way, who is Matsumoto’s favorite character?

I know it’s a boring answer, but I always like the character who portrays the strongest emotion at that moment. Because I get into it.

For me, whether a manga is interesting or not depends almost entirely on whether or not I get into it. You don’t know what will get you into it until you try it.

I’ll try something that I think my future self will like, like “Let’s try this,” or “Let’s make this character move away from the character,” or “Let’s draw human sexual desire. So I like the characters who are eating the most at that time. Right now it’s Akira and Koharu.

Horror?　Gag?　The truth is…

In “Higanjima,” the tension is always high, even in serious or grotesque scenes, and sometimes it even looks like a gag. When asked to what extent he is aiming for this, he said …….

‘I hardly aim at all,’ he says. Recently, I started to see what readers think of my work on Twitter (now X), and I’ve noticed a lot of things that make me think, ‘This is how people perceive it (the way I do).

After many years of doing this, I’ve come to think that if I’m going to go to the trouble of drawing, it would be more interesting to exaggerate both the scene and the emotion.

For example, if there is a scene in which a person suffers from “Smell! I think it is more interesting if the scene is very stinky. The more exaggerated the scene is, the more interesting it becomes. As a manga artist, I want to write something that no one has seen before.

However, as I exaggerate various things, there are moments when I suddenly think, “This looks really stupid when I look at it calmly. But I didn’t really want to let those thoughts out, and I was enjoying it as a one-man game.

I had never seen a scene in “The Last 47 Days” in which the main character hugs her boobs, which are bigger than a human body, and drinks her mother’s milk like crazy. I couldn’t stop laughing when I drew it.

It’s one of my favorite scenes, even when I think back on it now. But I didn’t tell anyone about it; it was completely a one-man game. I had no idea that there were readers out there who would enjoy the same meta-play.”

In fact, it seems that the author was not trying to be funny, but rather, the thoughts he was quietly enjoying and the thoughts of his readers overlapped.

The reason why it looks like a gag manga to some readers is precisely because it has been serialized for over 20 years, always seeking “something never seen before” and continuing to exaggerate. In other words, it kept getting funnier and funnier, and kept evolving.

In the second part, we will hear about the “starting point” of the author, Koji Matsumoto.

In the second part, we will hear about the “origin” of the manga, “Higanjima,” which has been serialized for more than 20 years! 　The origin of the infinitely expanding worldview of the manga “Higanjima” ” is here.