乙女の道

Part 1: Upbringing and early influences

The interviewer noted that Inoue's BL feels very realistic, where men don't become "women" or more feminine once they fall in love. Inoue attributes this to her being surrounded by men as she grew up. She states that she was raised by her father and older brother (by 13 years) until the age of three, then lived in a men's company dormitory with her mother until she was eighteen years old. She spent time with men from a wide age range and was exposed to how men are authentically which was reflected in her work.

The longest non-manga job she held was working in the special effects department for TV commercials. She didn't know how to use a sewing machine, so she worked on practical props as opposed to costumes which was women-dominant. She did not look feminine at the time and got called "onii-chan" by child actors when she had a cigarette in her mouth.

On her own gender, she reflected that she heard many misogynistic insults towards the women in her family from her relatives growing up, and she started to think that she wasn't a woman. Though she also doesn't feel like a man despite understanding men's feelings. She believes that she's neither male nor female, but also simultaneously either male or female.

She spoke at length about the conflicting perspectives on BL between her and editors. the editorial department (Reijin, where she published from 2003-2015) told her to not portray men too realistically. Inoue said that she doesn't understand the idea that a man would crave another's love and devote himself entirely. Once published, she received positive feedback from readers on the realism of her characters.

Inoue started developing and drawing storyboards for 10 Dance since 2003, but her editor would go back and forth on letting her publish it or not, and this exhausted Inoue both mentally and physically. The ultimatum she gave was "if they don't let me draw 10 Dance, I will quit the BL industry". Even after serialization, she was told to focus on the romance and keep dance scenes to a minimum.

She had first hand experience with the ballroom dance world and atmosphere because her mother did ballroom dancing when she was young, and Inoue accompanied her to practices and parties around the age of 10-12. There, she observed the different mannerisms between Latin and Standard dancers and was fascinated by it. But there was a time when she resented ballroom entirely because her mother spent a lot of money on this sport and got into bad interpersonal relationships.

Inoue eventually turned it around and engaged with dancing in her own way by creating this work. At the time there were very few resources, and she couldn't understand dance magazines and the jargon used. The competition DVDs were expensive, but that was how she learned (Reminds me of Mukai!). Videos on Youtube had low resolution, so she had to imagine some of the angles of the body.

In the beginning, she showed her mother the manuscripts and got harsh feedback on anatomy from someone who understands dancing. Now that she has consulting dance teachers, she still finds surprises between how she'd thought the human body worked and what the teachers say.

Even though she started drawing 10 Dance with passion, repeated rejections from the editorial department gave her PTSD prior to the release of volume 3, and she was not able to draw manga at all. After the 1-year-and-9-month hiatus, she restarted serialization in Young Magazine where she had feared the same thing would happen, but things might be different in a general magazine.

Part 2: The movie, eroticism, and artistic influences

Since the movie involves many new people, from actors to directors, she thinks of it as "another 10 Dance". To not change it into a completely different story, she gave them three conditions:

1. The two characters must come together through romantic feelings. 2. There must be dance scenes in the movie. 3. There must be a sensual atmosphere.

She met Machida and Takeuchi a few times, and noted that Machida is stoic like Sugiki, while Takeuchi is a very lovable mood setter, and that he's even more like Suzuki off-camera. (What I thought as well :'))

The interviewer asked Inoue if she had a similar experience to the Shinyas where they encounter art so beautiful that they could unleash their own potential. Inoue answered with the time she saw the Mona Lisa in person more than 25 years ago. She was moved to tears and couldn't move as she felt life and mysterious charm in the painting. She was backpacking in Europe at the time, and the lives of the rural local people became the basis in her works.

When asked about how she is able to depict such raw eroticism in her art, she said that she delves into her inner self and immerses herself. She asks whether each line or dot she places down is erotic or not, and wants to depict the "humidity on the character's skin". She uses intuition and some outside inspiration to finish her artwork and often feels like an empty shell after completing it.

She talks more about the classic films and older movies that have influenced the eroticism of 10 Dance somewhat unknowingly, such as Casablanca or Purple Noon. This, she says, can be traced back to her parents who loved beautiful classics, so she grew up watching those movies and listening to jazz, blues, and mood music instead of anime or children's music until she was three years old; the first CD she ever bought was from Billie Holiday. The choice to name each chapter after a song is also due to her parents.