#itw

Uroro was inspired by Howl's Moving Castle. Additionally, the throne element of his design was Usazaki's idea, because "it's the king magic"

WHM is designed as the complete opposite to Ichi. Nishi's inital design had them a more gentle, smiling character (early Kiriwo like maybe), however Usazaki designed a cold eyed, not smiling character, and Nishi thought that fit best, so they went with that.

On the subject of Majiks, Usazaki likes Kizashi bcs of their movement expression options and less human design.

Witches each have their own motifs (which we already knew but its neat to see them mention) , like plants and animals and stuff.

Nishi says that Majiks are not necessarily enemies, and that she wanted to have the freedom to have Majiks be enemies and allies so that readers wouldn't get bored.

On the question "What's a memorable scene you put a lot of work into", Usazaki says the end of the bakugami arc with that battle and all. Nishi backs this up saying that while Usazaki is known for beautiful quiet scenes, she can also draw excellent battles, and that everyone can see how wonderful they are and praise her.

In terms of pairing up for Ichi the Witch, Nishi started Ichi conceptually while working on Iruma, but as she was working on Iruma, she said she wanted Usazaki to do the illustrations, and an offer was made to her. At the time, Usazaki had been doing her own storyboards so wasn't sure about having someone else do them. She asked to meet and talk with Nishi, and was interested by the storyboards she received.

Nishi says that, as a writer, she'd always wanted to try writing for Jump. After she started trying to do that, she found Usazaki was illustrating for Jump, so everything worked out really well there. Having serialized Iruma for eight years (plus it getting an anime and 4 spin offs and one of those spinoffs is getting an anime and--) she feels pretty secure in that so she wanted to regain a sense of urgency, which she definitely feels in jump, where she can't let her guard down. She's happy about this. (nishi sensei mentioned wanting to challenge herself in a magazine interview about mostly iruma and a bit of ichi a few months ago. terrifying nishi. you're amazing we love you.)

[Usazaki on becoming a Mangaka] She grew up reading magazines like nakayoshi, hana to yume, and then jump. She really liked One Piece, and joined the art club at her high school. From there she started posting on Social Media, etc.

[Nishi on becoming a Mangaka] She always loved drawing, and after knowing a guy in high school who wanted to be a mangaka, she submitted a manga to an award and recklessly moved to Tokyo after graduating. She won that award, got a serialization, struggled a lot with that serialization and then became an assistant to learn more.

Usazaki cites "Tsubasa" by CLAMP, and "NGLife" by Kusanagi Mizuho as inspirations.

Nishi cites "Hellsing" by Hirano Kouta as an inspiration

In terms of mindset, Nishi says she doesn't assume people will read what she writes, and so she works to make eyecatching illustrations and spreads, and making something people Want to read.

Nishi also says that whenever Usazaki submits a really good manuscript she wants to write an even better story, so it synergies well.

Both of them say they want to go as far as they can! Please support the series (I WILLLLL!!)

Notes on all the characters!

Ichi: "Completely different from the character I first designed, who loved magic and wanted to be a witch." (Nishi)

WHM: "Fluffy clothes and hair." (Usazaki) "At the end of their fight with Ichi, they looks like they're smiling. I wonder why." (Nishi) (YEAH I WONDER.)

Desscaras: "I just told Usazaki to design her with the 🥺 emoji and black hair and Usazaki came back with the perfect design. Genius!" (Nishi) "She's a strong and cute character, I love her." (Usazaki) Her design was completed within 5 hours of Nishi and Usazaki's first meeting. (perfect from birth...)

Gokuraku: "He was originally going to be a tsundere, but instead I made him a 'sexy older brother (oniisan) lol'" (Nishi) (I swear on my life that is exactly what she said. I would never lie about Nishi calling Gokuraku sexy.) "I love his freckles they're so cute" (Usazaki)

Kumugi: "We made her at the same speed as when the seralization started" (Nishi)

The article also mentions the giveaway they're doing but lets be real none of us are eligible so! That's the end of that! Thank you for reading all this! I would post the full article in jp but that is against tos and I'm not trying to get banned from jp newspaper archive. If you're interested in the raw though, shoot me a message and Ill try and help you find it! This is most of the interview, though some things that were just laying out the setting or repetitive I opted not to mention. you're not missing anything.