Weiology

A. I must admit, I love SF. DGM might seem at first to have religious themes, but for me, I have always considered it SF in a broad sense. At least, that is how I draw it. For instance, I am pretty sure everyone has heard of the Great Deluge, but as an SF lover, I love to imagine what it really hides. I am always thinking, “Actually, the thing they call the Great Deluge, could it be interpreted as…?” If the world has come to disappear with the Great Deluge, what kind of world could come after that? And it gives you a sort of parallel-world feeling. When the world axis is different… I think it is fun, in a way. The flow of history is different, or there are things that don’t exist in the real world, and so, as a setting, DGM takes the form of a fictional 19th century. In DGM, I don’t want to follow the Bible exactly, I want to create something that I like.

Q. What I really liked about the DGM characters is that even though the Noahs and the exorcists are fighting against each other, they still have some interactions. You also made the characters, even though they are enemies, talk and interact. Is it something linked to your personality?

A. The Noahs might seem very cruel, and they are, in a way, but when you think about the reasons why the Noahs are fighting against the exorcists and the Innocence, it is all because of their “Noah memories”. Think as if the Noah memory is just screaming “destroy the Innocence”. Before, they used to be normal humans, they didn’t become evil because of something they did themselves. They are doing everything they do because they are manipulated by the Noah memory, so that is why they cherish their human side as well.

Q. Is that why they have human friends? They are not just pure evil, are they?

A. The AKUMA are always screaming “kill” “kill” “kill”, so I guess they don’t want to become like them. Also, I love SF heroes like Kamen Riders, and even some Sentai series. Since my childhood, I was always attracted to groups with more than 5 people. I didn’t like when there were less than 5 people, it needed to be more than 5! I loved stories in which they go on an adventure with their friends. And the Noahs, there are 13 of them, and even more, they are a family. Actually, there is a reason why I am insisting so much on this familial aspect. I hope the readers can feel that too. I feel I need to make their personalities stand out.

Q. I understand very well. If they were just evil, without any feelings, it would be kind of boring. The readers would hate them very easily. In some other works, they also make evil characters hate each other to make them even more evil.

A. But actually, DGM has a bit of this too. The Earl tries to make the 14th one of them, but Sheryl gets mad and says things like “we should kill him”. The only one who knows why the Earl is so obsessed with the 14th is Road. I think it is interesting to see that not all the Noahs are on the same level, and depending on the Noah, the intentions differ.

(here, she speaks about an anime she liked when she was a kid and how the bad guys were actually fighting each other, and she loved it).

Q. Also, in DGM, the characters are fighting for their lives, but even in the middle of a fight, there are some comical elements.

A. I can’t draw something without putting a bit of comical element… To be honest, I was not good at drawing manga with a serious theme. (…) In DGM, there are wars, there is religion, so obviously the story becomes very heavy. So I am also inserting comical elements for myself, so I can relieve a bit. If even I, as the author, think the plot is too heavy, I am pretty sure the readers can feel the same. Maybe if it were someone else, they could fully embrace the dramatic aspect, but I am not able to.

Q. I really love the timing you use to insert those comical elements. It is in the middle of a very serious fight, they are battling for their lives, they are on the verge of dying, but actually, no, they are not dead yet!

A. Yeah, in real life, they would definitely be dead ahaha. There is no way they can get out of this ahaha.

Q. But I feel this is really cruel for a manga to end with death. Like, we talked about the bad guys actually having feelings, isn’t it the same? Like having a way to save the character, even from death? For instance, Allen’s sword doesn’t kill humans. I really like this about your story.

A. Even though Allen leveled up a bit, he will be a character who won’t be able to kill someone, ever. So I really had a lot of trouble showing he leveled up. When I was having troubles, I was wondering: What is Allen’s real enemy? What is the real meaning of exorcism? But at this time, I could not spoil the readers. I was afraid they would think Allen is too kind, or too weak.

Q. Indeed, when it comes to physical strength in battles, Allen is a bit behind. When you look at all the characters you created, they all have their weaknesses, their backstories. Some of them are really cruel, actually.

A. In DGM, the ingredients to create AKUMA are tragedy and love. So the theme of tragedy is omnipresent in DGM. Actually, I first imagined the character of the Earl of Millennium before I created the DGM storyline. DGM is born from this character I imagined, the Earl. But I could not use the Earl as the main character, which is why I created Allen. But because of the Earl character, who is at the center of the story, there is a tragic/comedic aspect. You might think it is ridiculous. But there is a reason why the Earl is so pityful. The tragedy side is the heart of everything, the AKUMA, the Innocence; this is how I am drawing DGM.

Q. Some of your characters are orphans, some of them had their parents killed, all the exorcists have a sad past. It must be very hard to write such sad things.

A. But to be honest, I don’t want to write such sad stories. Behind sadness, there are also happy things. I wanted to show that even in sadness, there is happiness. And it makes it even brighter. DGM is really a tragic, dark story. I like sad things, but I also like to express, through this, hope and happiness. It is very important for me. It is like the bonds between people and love.