MaruMA:special:interview
This Light Novel Author is Awesome! 03- Long interview Takabayashi Tomo
"Writing cool (kakkoii) characters makes me angry" (laughs)
Works: maruma series
The ㋮ (maruma) series is a fantasy and adventure series that has sold a cumulative 2.8 million copies worldwide[1]. The writing style has a good tempo, it's packed with gags, and contains a wide variety of layers. This time, we'll be interviewing the author of this series, Takabayashi Tomo. Each maruma volume includes moments of high tension, and the plot of each volume is never less entertaining than the previous one.
Rather than love, it's Boys' Gag. (laughs)
Interviewer: First, please tell us how you started writing novels.
Takabayashi: Or rather, why did I start writing novels? (laughs) When I was in university, I asked myself which one I was better at, manga or novels, and I realized my forte were novels.
Interviewer: Does that mean that up till that point you were doing both?
Takabayashi: Yeah, well, that would be a gray area. (laughs) Rather than novels at that point I was writing chapters, and it's not like my drawings were manga, they were more like scribbles.
Interviewer: And because you made that choice, you ended up picking the path of novels.
Takabayashi: Well, I get the feeling that I never left the "chapters" stage though (laughs). At first I thought about getting an average job, but then I thought :" I should really try writing novels", and I started doing that properly. After many twists and turns I ended up getting dumped on Kadokawa-san[2].(laughs)
Interviewer: I'd like you to give me some details about those twists and turns. (laughs)
Takabayashi: The first work that I wrote in the 'light novel' format was maruma, but before that I had written what people call "Boys' Love" pieces. Yet, that bud didn't blossom.... There was almost no love, you know? So it turned into "Boys' Gag" (laughs). But at that time there was no demand for Boys' Gag, and because of that no one cared if there wasn't a lot of love in it. (laughs)
Interviewer: And how did the maruma series start after that?
Takabayashi: I became friends with a pro writer and seeing how I was loose[3], she said: "I'm going to make you meet with an editor", and that's how I ended up going out for a meal with said editor. That's when I first met GEG[4]. And while eating lunch in a restaurant in Shibuya the ideas started flowing : "To make a good book, you need a hero that flies to another world. And it doesn't need to be a hero, if it's a villain it will be even more entertaining." And talking like that, is how the story came to be.... Since we were having lunch in Shibuya, the main character's last name ended up being Shibuya (laughs). If we had had lunch in Ikebukuro, he's be " Ikebukuro Yuuri", or if it had been in Shinjuku he'd be "Shinjuku Yuuri" (laughs).
Interviewer: I think that Shibuya sounds better. And then? Was the PLOT thought of during that meal?
Takabayashi: I wrote down many ideas in my notebook during the meal, and later, while looking at it I'd remember what we had talked about. I wrote them in my 'netachou'[5]. In it KEYWORDS like "flushed down the toilet" were written down. (laughs)
Interviewer: That was a very important point, right? (laughs)
Takabayashi: While meeting with editor-san for the first time I told him "I brought my netachou[6]" and then BAM, I slammed it on the table, this shocked GEG and he said: " I'm going to the bathroom...." (laughs). In that place the idea of " slapping someone on the cheek and getting engaged" bounced around, and I ended up including it, just like that.
Interviewer: After that meeting did you start the novel right away?
Takabayashi: When I wrote it, I wasn't even sure if it would end up being published as a book or not, but I wrote it as a self-conclusive piece. Although, unlike now, when I started, I wrote it in the third person.
Interviewer: In the third person!? It's difficult to imagine that considering the current style.
Takabayashi: When I had written about half of it, I showed it[7], and was told " This would sound better in the first person". " But I can't write in the first person" I replied. Despite that, I went back, fixed it, and kept writing it. I was writing a novel about beautiful people and fantasy, two things that I'm bad at and on top of that, I was writing it in the first person..... I kept thinking " I wonder how this will turn out" as I wrote it.
(to be continued)
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References
- ↑ Translator's note (T/N): This interview was published in April 2005.
- ↑ T/N: Kadokawa Shoten
- ↑ I'm going to guess this means, she wasn't working for any companies.
- ↑ Book footnote: This is the person that people discover once they become fans of the the series, editor in charge G-san, or GEG (Great Editor Gotochin). This person is also sitting right by her side during the interview. {picture of GEG}
- ↑ Netachou: It can mean a notebook where you keep your material (for writing a novel for example), but also 'joke material'. Conrad uses this same word when he talks about the little notebook where he keeps with joke material.
- ↑ Remember netachou can mean " notebook with material for a novel" or "notebook with joke material"
- ↑ It's not specified who she showed it to, and who gave her that suggestion, but I'm going to guess it was GEG.