Moto Hagio - Interview No. 1

Moto Hagio (Hagio) - Cartoonists Association Channel. Hajimemashite. Nice to see you.

George Morikawa (Morikawa) - Please show your face! This is Manga Artists Association Channel. This time, we have Moto Hagio-sensei here!

Hagio - Nice to meet you!

Morikawa - I'd like to introduce Moto Hagio and give him a representative work, but there are so many that I can't choose one, so what would you choose as your representative work? What would you choose as your masterpiece?

Hagio: It varies from time to time, but right now I am working on the continuation of "The Poe Clan," so please pick "The Poe Clan".

Morikawa - Yes, I am Motoi Hagio, the author of "The Poe Clan"!

The Poe Clan

Hagio - Thank you very much.

Morikawa - Today, I have a special guest. I'm calling Sho Kitagawa-kun. The reason why he is here is because he is "just a fan" of Hagio sensei.

Sho KITAGAWA - Yes, just a fan! Please say hello.

Hagio - Hi, hi. Nice to meet you, hi.

Morikawa - In the second half of the interview, Hagio sensei will be talking about her "Legendary Speech," and I would like to ask you to talk about it with Mr. Kitagawaki-kun. I would like to ask Ms. Hagio about the Manga Artists Association, since this is a "Manga Artists Association Channel. What is the Manga Artists Association to you, Ms. Hagio?

Hagio: I joined it because I thought it would be a group that would bring together cartoonists, manga artists who draw here and there in isolation and don't get to see each other very often.

Morikawa: Manga artists are very solitary, aren't they?

Hagio: Yes, that's right. There are various general meetings, and although I don't think they do it now, there are parties, once or twice a year. We also had the selection committee for the New Comic Artist Award and the Japan Manga Society Award, and I had a very interesting time meeting and greeting people I rarely meet.

Morikawa: I see. So, what are the advantages of joining the Manga Artists Association? You just explained it to me. I think I've heard enough about the Manga Artists Association!

KITAGAWA - Wow, that was fast!　That was quick!

Morikawa: The chairman of the board of directors, the president, Ms. Satonaka, and Mr. Chiba have been talking to me a lot about this. We are very happy when people who want to be our friends join us.

Hagio: Yes, that's right.

MORIKAWA - So, I have a question. I asked this question on Twitter to our readers, and we got a lot of messages.

Hagio: Thanks for your help.

Morikawa: Just a few excerpts. Hagio-san, there are already many fans of Mo-sama (Ms. Hagio's nickname). （モー様、モーサマ）

Hagio - Thank you very much.

Morikawa - There really are a lot of Mo-sama's fans. What should I do with this?

Question - "Do you have any plans to continue drawing "Piaris"?　I have received a question like "Are you planning to draw a continuation of "Piaris"?

Hagio - Thank you very much. I have an idea.
I have an idea, and I've been drawing additions to it, but I haven't finished it yet. I also want to bring in a big episode at the end, but it's not quite finished yet, so it will take a little longer.

Morikawa - Wow, I just heard something amazing!

Hagio - Oh, well, I shouldn't say too much. I shouldn't say too much.

MORIKAWA - No, that's fine, no problem at all! I'd like you to answer anything you can.

Hagio - I have seen that "Star Red" was drawn without thinking ahead.

Hagio - Yes, it is true. At that time, the weekly shoujo manga magazine was just on the borderline of changing from a weekly to a bimonthly publication, and the thickness of the book had suddenly increased, so Junya Yamamoto, who was in charge of the magazine, told me to give a notice within three days. I was told, "Give us a notice in three days. So, Mr. Junya Yamamoto, who was in charge of the book, asked me to give him a notice in three days. It's scary, isn't it? The character I drew for the trailer has a main character, but the guy I drew on the side of the main character almost never appears. So I said, "Let's make a storyboard for up to eight pages. Then I said, "Let's just make the storyboard for the first printing. It was really a tightrope walk.

Morikawa - No, that's an amazing story! I'm glad to hear this kind of thing.

Question - "I would like to know what content you are currently enjoying or looking forward to.

Hagio - Recently, I learned to read books and manga on my Kindle. Actually, I read the first 30 volumes of his masterpiece "The First Step" because I was told that it was a dialogue with Morikawa-sensei.

Morikawa - Thank you very much! What, you read 30 volumes?

Hagio: I read them very quickly. I'm really excited to read them.

Morikawa - What should I do, Kitagawaki-kun, I am so moved, right now.

Hagio - I know some people like boxing, but in essence, it's a fistfight. There are some things I just don't understand, but Ippo-kun is just so pure and cute, and when I follow him, he takes me into the world of sports and competition, so I was able to read the book honestly without being too nervous. I was like, "Hang in there, Ippo kun! I was like, "Go for it, Ippo kun! Just before that, I was going through a bad time and I was really stressed out. I was so absorbed in reading the book that by the time I finished it, all my stress was gone. I felt like I understood the real thrill of boxing.

Morikawa: Well, I'll tell you what... Did you listen to what she said? Morikawa, I'm extremely happy right now. KITAGAWA-kun, I am happy right now!

KITAGAWA - Excellent!

Hagio - I was just thinking how professionals really put their hearts and souls into their drawings.

Morikawa - What are you talking about, Hagio-san? (lol)

KITAGAWA - Ms. Hagio called you a "professional".

Morikawa: My heart is a little full of emotions (I am moved), but I'm the facilitator of this show, so I'll go on. This is a question about a piece of work that is so "Best Hagio manga" among us, KITAGAWA-kun and I.

Question - "How did you come up with the perfect manga "Half-God"?

Morikawa - "Hanshin, Half-God" really is 16 pages, and I think it's amazing.

Hagio - Don't stories and characters just come to you? One day, suddenly. When I was kneading my brain, kneading my ideas. I had originally drawn a manga called "Mozaiku Rasen" a while before that, in which there was a twin brother who was captured by a magician. The twin brothers are trapped in a small cage, and the younger brother is a beautiful boy. The younger brother is a beautiful boy and the older brother is ugly. He has a bandage wrapped around his face. I put them in the cage with the "contrast of beauty and ugliness," but the frame was too small, and the two of them got very close to each other as I was drawing them. They were so close together that I decided to call them twins and call them "double fetuses," or "-BETO-chan" and "DOKU-chan," as they sometimes are, you know. I had an old "Family Medicine" book at home, and since it was a little child, there were pages and pages of pictures of such cases. How did the cells look like? It was a "Family Medicine" book, you know. It was a "Family Medicine" book, so they would say, "This is the type of cell that will be produced if it is divided. I'm sure that nowadays, people would never touch such a thing. I think it was a medical book or something that the general public would never touch. At that time, I could read it. And I was looking at it thinking, "Wow, cells divide like this. I read it many times in elementary school. I was a little interested in the book and read it again and again during my elementary school days. I had forgotten about it, but when I thought about the twins, I decided to put them together. I thought, "Oh, this idea is related to something I read in a medical book I used to read. I wondered what would happen if they were really born attached to each other, so I came up with the idea of "demigods. I really liked the idea of "twins," and I had a bit of a crush on them. If we were twins, we would be able to play together, worry together, cry and laugh together, and not be lonely. But in the end, they are different personalities, so I gradually came to understand that it is not really like that. If there were a beautiful younger sister and an ugly older sister like that, I would be jealous of them, and even if I cut them off, even if they said to me, "The other one will die," I would say, "I will cut them off now, so it doesn't matter. I'm going to cut them off now, so it doesn't matter," or something like that. I thought about all kinds of variations of thoughts, and then I came up with the idea that since they are twins and were attached to each other, maybe it wasn't you who died, well, something like that.

Morikawa - So, how did you come up with the perfect comic strip "demigod"?

Hagio - I just came up with the idea. I was just spacing out and it just fell out.

KITAGAWA - Mr. Hagio often uses twins as a motif, and when I visited Masako Watanabe's exhibition of original artwork, she contributed to the exhibition, and I wondered if he was aware of the "Sakurako and Sumireko" motif.

Hagio: No, I was very much influenced by him. The same is true of "Yamabiko Shoujo. The same goes for "Sakurako, Sumireko. Satonaka-sensei also drew a story about twins, didn't he? Just the subject matter of "twins" is enough to get me hooked on reading them. I tend to think of it as something mysterious. I like twins.

萩尾望都先生（萩尾）- 漫画家協会ちゃんねる。はじめます。

森川ジョージ(森川） - お顔を見せてください！漫画家協会ちゃんねるです。今回は萩尾望都先生に来ていただきました！

萩尾 - よろしくお願いします！

森川 - 萩尾望都先生の紹介で代表作をあげたいんですけど、色々ありすぎて僕、選べないんで萩尾さんは何を代表作に選びます？代表作としたら。

萩尾 - その時々で違うんですけど、今ちょうど「ポーの一族」の続きを描いているものですから、「ポーの一族」にして下さい。

森川 - はい、「ポーの一族」の萩尾望都先生でございます！

萩尾 - ありがとうございます。

森川 - 今日、特別に呼んでる人がいまして。きたがわ翔君を呼んでいますけど。なぜ居るかと言うと、萩尾先生の「ただのファン」でございます。

きたがわ翔（きたがわ） - はい、ただのファンです！宜しくお願いします。

萩尾 - どうも、どうも。はじめまして、どうも。

森川 - 後半の萩尾先生の「レジェンドかく語りき」って言うコーナーがあるんですけど、ここをきたがわ君と対談方式でお願いしたいと思っている次第です。２人ともよろしくお願いします。それではですね、僕早く、きたがわ君と萩尾さんのお話を聞きたいんですけど、「漫画家協会ちゃんねる」なんでね、漫画家協会のことを萩尾さんに聞きたいと。漫画家協会とは萩尾さんにとって、なんでしょうか。

萩尾 - あちこちで孤立して描いててあんまり、会うことがない漫画家を繋ぎ合わせてくれるようなそういうグループとかなともって入ったんです。

森川 - 漫画家、孤独ですもんね。

萩尾 - はい、そうですね。色んな総会があったり、今はやってないと思うけど、パーティーがあったり、年に１回か２回か。それから、新人賞とか漫画家協会賞の選考会なんかがあったりして、そこで滅多にお会いすることのない方々にお会いできて、ご挨拶できてなかなか面白い時間を過ごしました。

森川 - なるほど、はい。で、漫画家協会に入るメリットとかは。。。今、説明してもらったもんな。もう、漫画家協会のことはこれでいいや！

きたがわ - え、早っ！　早い！

森川 - 理事長とか会長とかね、里中さんやちばさんにも、随分言って頂いているんでね。友達ほしいなって方がね入ってくれるとすごく嬉しいですよね。

萩尾 - そうですね。

森川 - で、質問なんですけど。これ、読者の方にTwitterで呼びかけたら、ごちゃっていっぱい来たので。

萩尾 - お疲れ様です。。

森川 - 抜粋して。もう、萩尾さん、モー様（萩尾先生のニックネーム）のファン多いんですよ。

萩尾 - ありがとうございます。

森川 - 本当にモー様ファン多くて。。これどうしよう。

質問 - 「ピアリス」の続きをお描きになるご予定はありませんか？　といった質問が来ているんですけど。

萩尾 - ありがとうございます。構想は
あって、ちょこちょこ追加を描いているんですけど、まだまとまらなくて。それと、最後にちょっと大きなエピソードを持ってきたいんですけど、それが上手くまとまっていないのでもうちょっとかかります。

森川 - うわ、なんかすげぇこと聞いちゃった！

萩尾 - あ、そうか、あんまり言わないほうがいいですね。こういうの。

森川 - いいです、いいです、全然！可能な限り何でも答えていただきたい。

萩尾 - 「スター・レッド」は先を考えずに描かれたとのこと見たことがあるのですが、本当ですか？

萩尾 - はい、本当です。あの時はちょうど週刊誌の少女コミックが週刊から隔月刊になる境目で、急に本の厚さが大きくなったっていうので、担当の山本順也さんが「３日以内に予告を出せ」って言われて。。。えぇ。。。「３日後に予告出せ」って言われて、何かネタあります？怖いですよね？予告編に描いたキャラクターってのは主人公はいるんですけど、そのサイドに描いた男の人はほとんど出てこない、というそういう展開で、カラー表紙描いて（笑）。２色カラーが８枚かなんかあったのかな？それで、８枚までネーム作ろうって。それから、１回目の活版のネームだけ作ろうって言って。本当に綱渡りでした。

森川 - いや、すげぇ話だな！こういうの聞けるの嬉しいですね。

質問 - 「萩尾望都先生が現在楽しまれてる、あるいは楽しみにしているコンテンツを教えていただきたいです」

萩尾 - 最近、Kindleで本や漫画を読むことを覚えて。実は、森川先生と対談だからって言うので、代表作である「はじめの一歩」を最初３０巻読んで。

森川 - ありがとうございます！え、３０巻も読んでくれた？！

萩尾 - あっという間に読んじゃって。すごくワクワクしながら読んでいます。

森川 - どうしよう、きたがわ君、ちょっと、今、胸が熱くなってしまって。

萩尾 - ボクシングって好きな人もいると思うけど、要するに殴り合いでしょう。どうしても理解できないところがあるんですけど、一歩くんはとにかく純粋で可愛くて、この人を追っかけてると、スポーツの世界、勝負の世界に持って行ってくれるもんだからあんまりハラハラしないで素直に読めました。一歩くん頑張れ！って感じで。そのちょっと前、私ちょっとあの、嫌なことがあってすごくストレスフルになったんですね。ものすごく夢中で読んでしまって、読み終わる頃にはストレスが全部消えてたんです。ボクシングの醍醐味をね、あ、これかって分かった気がしました。

森川 - いや、ちょっと。。。今、YouTube見ている皆さん、聞いていただけましたか？森川、ものすごい幸せです、今。きたがわ君、今幸せです僕！

きたがわ - 素晴らしい！

萩尾 - プロの方って本当によく心を込めて心酔して描かれるんだなぁと思って。

森川 - 何を言ってるんですか、萩尾さんは。。（笑）

きたがわ - 萩尾先生が「プロの方」って。

森川 - ちょっと僕、胸がいっぱいになっちゃったんだけど、一応司会なんで進めますね。これちょっと、僕ときたがわ君の中でも「ベスト萩尾」って言うぐらいの作品のことを質問されているんですけど。

質問 - 「半神」という完璧な漫画をどうして思いつけたのか。

森川 - 「半神」本当に１６ページで、すげぇって思うんすけど。

萩尾 - なんだか、ネタとかキャラクターってぽーんと何かやって来ません？ある時、ふっと。色々自分のアイデアこねて、脳をこねてる時に。で、もともとはそのちょっと前に、「モザイク・ラセン」っていう漫画を描いたんですけど、その時、魔法使いに捕まる双子の兄弟ってのがいたんですね。で、その魔法使いに捕まる双子の兄弟は、狭い檻の中に閉じ込められているんですよ。で、弟は美少年で、お兄さんは醜い。顔に包帯をぐるぐる巻いて。「美醜の対比」でもって檻の中に入れたんですけどね、コマが小さくてね、すごく2人がくっついちゃったんです。描いてるうちに。きゅうきゅうくっついたもんで、双子なんだけどくっついてることにしよう、いわゆる「二重胎児」って言うか、ベトちゃん、ドクちゃんとか、時々ね、ありますよね。家に古い「家庭の医学」って本があって、昔のことですから、そういう症例とか写真が何ページ化に渡って載ってるんですよ。で、どんなふうに細胞が。。。「家庭の医学」ですからね。分割されたらこういうタイプができる、と。多分、今ではもうきっとね。医学書か何かの一般の人には決して触れないような本だと思うんですけど。当時はちょっと読めた。それで、細胞ってこんな風に分裂するんだ、へぇ。。とか思いながら見ていて。ちょっと小学校時代に何度も興味があって読み返しっちゃったんですね。その記憶があって、それ忘れてたんですけど、その双子を考えたときにくっつけちゃえ、っていうんで。あ、このネタって私が昔読んだ医学の本に書いてあったのと関連してるなって思って。本当にくっついて生まれちゃったらどういう風になるんだろうっていうんで考えたのが「半神」なんです。で、私、「双子」って言うのがすごく好きで、ちょっと憧れていたんですね。双子だったらお互いに考えることがツーカーで、寂しくなくて、一緒に遊んで、一緒に悩んで、泣いたり笑ったりできるだろうな。だけど、結局別人格だから、本当はそんなことはないんだって言うのがだんだんわかってくるんですけど、なんか、そういう、美しい妹と醜いお姉さんがいたら、やっぱり相手に嫉妬するだろうし切り離しても、「相手が死んじゃうよ」って言われても、「もう切り離すから関係ないわ」とか冷たくおもったうかもしれないな、とかね。色んな、思考のバリエーションを考えて、でも、双子なんだし、くっついてたんだからもしかしたら死んだのは、お前じゃないかもしれないじゃないかっていう風に話を持って行ったんです、まぁ、そんな感じ。

森川 - じゃ、「半神」という完璧な漫画をどうしておもいつけたのかってことなんですけど、思いついちゃったからってことでいいですかね？

萩尾 - 思いついちゃったからねぇ。ぼーっとしてたら、落ちてきたというか。

きたがわ - 結構、萩尾先生は双子のモチーフが多いんですけれども、以前、わたなべまさこ先生の原画展に行った時に萩尾先生が寄稿されてまして、「さくら子、すみれ子」とかあの辺、すこしやっぱり意識されてたのかなと。

萩尾 - いや、ものすごく影響をうけました。「山びこ少女」もそうだし。「さくら子、すみれ子」もそうだし。里中先生も双子の話描いてますよね。ちょっと「双子」っていう題材だけで私、のめり込んで読んじゃうところがあるんです。神秘的なものとついつい思っちゃうもんで。双子が好きなんです。

Tired 👉 Nap
Sad 👉 Music
Stressed 👉 Walk
Angry 👉 Exercise
Burn out 👉 Read
Feeling lost 👉 Pray
Overthinking 👉 Write
Anxious 👉 Meditate