im into girls like megan thee stallion.

Q: Although she's a young girl coming from an ethnic minority, she never left the classic impression of being frail and in need of protection. Her firm and strong image when she declared herself as an Ainu woman of a new generation is truly admirable. Your female Ainu characters seem to be quite bold, in general.

Noda: If we were to assume that because back in the day Ainu women had a weak social standing then them being strong in my work is a bit unrealistic... It would be, as you noted, an outdated stereotype born out of ignorance. During my research I read a lot of stories about strong Ainu women who managed to overcome a tremendous amount of struggle. Besides, I wouldn't say that as I was growing up I've seen that many weak, useless female characters in the media I've consumed. Well, it's true that despite being a mangaka I haven't read that much manga myself, so I don't exactly have an accurate degree of comparison. I like reading about strong female characters, so I write mine as such. It's a universal thing regardless of the historical period, so I had no intention in tailoring the story to the modern audience's demands and values.

Q: Can you tell us in which ways you came in contact with Ainu culture as you were growing up in Hokkaido?

Noda: Despite being born and raised in Hokkaido I almost never came in contact with it. If it weren't for this manga I might have lived the rest of my life that way. Sometimes people will say that since they've lived in Hokkaido for decades without witnessing any discrimination it must mean that said discrimination is a thing of the past, which is a revolting statement. However, I can relate to the part of never having witnessing it myself. Areas in which there's a dense Ainu population vary a lot across the island, so the amount of awareness within Hokkaido itself is disproportionate.

Q: Did you feel any pressure regarding Ainu representation in your work back when you started?

Noda: I think a lot of the media portraying Ainu that has been flamed for being discriminatory ended up being like that because of the creators' ignorance. For this reason I had no reservations about representing the Ainu in my work as long as I put in effort towards proper research. On the other hand, I had concerns about deliberately making the villains Wajin (t/n: ethnically Japanese people). From what I read, there were a lot of Wajin presented in a good light, too, so I made sure to include Wajin characters who aren't prejudiced. Obviously we're all human, so regardless of being Ainu or Wajin, there's different types of personalities everywhere. What really made me feel pressure is having to create something that would be popular with readers.

Q: All of the manga volumes are accompanied by the words "Not one thing has been bestowed from Heavens without a purpose". What meaning do they have to you?

Noda: In the beginning this story wasn't exactly following these words, but I feel that gradually they became strongly representative of it.

Q: What do you find the most interesting about Ainu culture?

Noda: The way their aesthetic sense is so different from the Wajin one when it comes to designs. The embroidery on the clothes, the patterns on the carvings. I am especially fascinated with their short swords called makiri. Japanese swords are prized first and foremost for the way the metal was forged, but for makiri the carvings on the handle and the patterns on the scabbards have a lot of cultural value. As proof of that a lot of museums around the world have makiri without any blades on display, each delicately carved design having its own unique meaning. I find it very entrancing.

Q: You used a lot of Ainu tales in your work. Is there one you're especially fond of?

Noda: The one that was featured in the arc about the lightning and viper couple (t/n: chapter 105). The couple itself is not entirely fictional either, there's an article in the Hokkaido criminal records about a man who was nicknamed Lightning and his wife, a thief who had a viper tattoo. When I was just considering using them for my manga, I came across a folk tale very similar to them, so I think that it's easy to assume that either of those were my invention. It's very desirable for me to find ways to make the Ainu tales and my characters' stories mirror each other, but such opportunities are rare.

Q: Besides Hokkaido Ainu, you have written about ethnic minorities in Sakhalin, and your soldiers and prisoners are Japanese people from all across the country. What prompted you to take on such a multi-cultural approach?

Noda: It was important to make the story multi-cultural due to the historical period it's set in. Besides, if I were to write only about a deadly gold hunt, I feel like my audience would be limited. I'd get bored quite easily of such a story, both as a writer and as a reader; one shouldn't underestimate the value of casual, everyday life scenes. I also thought it integral to incorporate the cultural history of the time in order to add depth to the fighting scenes. I knew about Stenka from long ago and wanted to use it as a prop for fighting a prisoner, places like a paddle streamer and a beer factory must have ways to fight tailored specifically to them - I spent a lot of time polishing such details.

Q: You pour a lot of time and effort into your research. Is there anything that you wanted to use in the story but regretfully had no opportunity to showcase?

Noda: I managed to get my hands on a few old, precious makiri which I had no way to use in the story at all, and it's truly a shame. If you go all the way to the Amur river there's other ethnic minorities there, as well as on the Kurile islands, I wanted to write about them. Inuit people use a kind of peculiar snow goggles as sun glasses because they live in snowy areas, I find them stylish and wanted to use them. But I would have to come up with specific scenarios for the characters in order to go there, which I was unable to do.

Q: You have a tendency to do some corrections to the story when it's released as manga volumes. Is it because you feel regret towards the limits that come with releasing it in a weekly magazine?

Noda: My work as a mangaka will be remembered by the world in the form of volumes, so I don't think that adding corrections to them is a big deal. Besides I think that people who buy the volumes will be happier reading something slightly different from what was shown in the magazine. You might think that it's unfair towards those who only read the magazine, but I do try to do the best job I can in the limited time frame I have for the weekly magazine, so I wouldn't say that they're missing out on that much.

Q: Did you experience any significant life changes due to COVID?

Noda: Not at all, but it did become more difficult to do my research.

Q: What kind of picture books and fairy tales did you like as a child?

Noda: I was particular towards the translated version of "Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark" illustrated by Stephen Gammell, published by Poplar. They were so scary, back in elementary school I loved them so much I'd keep reading them until the books fell apart. Unfortunately only two of the three were translated back then, the third one was always out of print. Not long ago it seems that a different publisher took over them, but they used another person's illustrations. I'm very emotionally attached to those books since I read them as a child, so I wonder if Hakusensha (t/n: publishing company) couldn't republish them. They're very scary, so I'm sure they'd sell like hot cakes.

Q: Tell us about some interesting books or manga you've read recently.

Noda: "Alone with the Hairy Ainu" by Arnold Henry Savage Landor. Isabella Bird is a famous name, but there were quite a few foreigners besides her who explored in Ainu villages back in Meiji era. They weren't bound by any ideology and only wrote about what they saw, so these records are very valuable since foreigners had no invested interest in fabricating a certain depiction of the Ainu. I've read a few books by foreign explorers, and there isn't much of a difference between the things they say, and of course there's no much discrepancy from the Japanese authors either. Landor's book omitted his detailed descriptions of traditional tools, so I would like if it were republished in full someday.

Q: Please leave a message for the readers.