The Promised Neverland Fanbook: Vol. 0 Mystic Code - (2)
Translator's note: Everything I said in part 1 applies here! But I want to give a shoutout to @mygodisnorman for providing the fanbook and @eerippo for providing artbook and magazine scans, without their help, I wouldn't be reading or translating the fanbook today.
This chapter covers pages 61-99 (+ additional pages) from the fanbook.
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 1 . Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6+7
Chapter-2
The Search for Minerva
~: Commentary (ch. 38-64) :~
[Kaiu Shirai: TPN manga's author | Sugita Suguru: TPN's editor in charge | Posuka Demizu: TPN's artist]
About Ray's real birthday
Chapter 38 is Ray's birthday. Shirai highlights the author's comment from Volume 5: Ray's real birthday is different.
Shirai refuses to reveal his true date of birth. Isabella and Ray himself acknowledge January 15th to be his birthday, it will be considered the same in the future. The real date was changed because Isabella knows her son's date of birth, and the farm authorities didn't want Isabella to suspect Ray of being her biological son.
Although Ray has memories from fetal life, he doesn't remember it all to the details such as when he was born. Everyone has always celebrated his birthday on January 15th, so the real date isn't important.
Sugita remembers a conversation when the storyboard for this chapter was written: Ray starts his new life on this day and so it's like the day of his rebirth.
Until then, Ray lied a lot and had different motives. Sugita asked Shirai to add the vow "Emma, I'll live. I'll live and protect the family", as an assurance that Ray has changed, he won't lie. He was 'reborn' on this day, so January 15th is truly like his birthday.
Drawing without diverting the focus from the Main Characters
Anna was cute in the scene where she says "Nevermind that, happy birthday." Sugita's favorite characters are Ray and Anna. If he has any regret, that is not being able to make Anna an active character. Although Sugita himself advised Shirai to write the story without diverting the focus from the main characters.
Shirai thinks it could be great if his story resembled Haikyuu or My hero academia's character-focus formula, but he's unable to do it and he can't compete with the known titles. So, he was advised solely focus on the central protagonist (similar to the style of Dragon Ball). Sugita thinks a character-focused format wouldn't be suitable for TPN. Focusing on the main characters alone was complicated, so Shirai thinks it was for the best.
Initial, different post-escape plot
Chapters 38 and 39 display a strange ecosystem. These chapters clearly show that it's no more a miniature garden mimicking the human world but a fantasy world.
The post-escape story development plan at the early phase of serialization was very different. The outline was the same up to meeting Sonju and Mujika. After being taught various things, Emma's group would start looking for other escapees. There would be more escapees who made their own village. Befriending them, Emma's group would return to GF House to crush it and rescue Phil and the kids.
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Before reaching the escapee village, there would be a harsh story about survival with events such as Chris falling sick or some others getting injured. The 5-year-olds would suffer even before reaching their natural shipment age, so Emma would start questioning her choices.
Few other plans were touched on in the finalized story; such as hunting and realizing that demons also eat for survival, escaping from pursuers, and meeting the other escapees. But the escapees wouldn't all be good people. Emma and others would thrive to escape to the human world and save Phil and others, but one day they'd hear rumors. Before hearing the rumors, ~1 year would have passed on.
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| More unused character concepts |
The rumors would be, "Some new people who broke out from a farm on the West have been destroying all the farms and killing the demons very brutally", "There's really an amazing guy", "the guy was a research sample in a mass-production plant; a pet-like, inedible existence". Some time would have passed on, and Emma's group would meet the person. Both the readers and other GF kids would assume it's a new character, but only Emma would call out: "Norman." That's the early plan for Norman's reappearance.
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| Source: The Promised Neverland Artbook World |
Later, their friends would be captured inside a farm, and everyone would rush to save them. The escape would be similar to the western drama Prison break. But due to the existence of Minerva, developing this plotline was becoming difficult. (Although Shirai says thinking about it now, it could still be possible to write it).
Shirai jokingly informs when he proposed "Let's do it like jailbreak", Sugita said, "I won't let you!" "Why another farm escape? Let's take the fantasy route!" "It feels like the boy-meets-girl trope!" So, Shirai drastically changed in the direction of the story after the escape. He was at a loss in the middle of Vol. 5 trying to choose between adventure and suspense.
Shirai brought up the idea of a shelter a lot back then. Sugita wanted to have at least one volume of survival-centric content, but another survival-based manga debuted in Jump. When Dr. Stone started serializing, Shirai figured he couldn't beat it if he took the survival route. Dr. Stone was supervised by the science consultant Kurare whose books Shirai read in college. And seeing his affiliation made him panic, "Oh crap, it's Hell Doctor's Kurare sensei! Now it's impossible!" and then he changed the route immediately.
The leader is Hayato...? Continuation of the old plot
The code on Minerva's pen was supposed to indicate the the resistance faction's hideout. Their village consisted only of humans who fled from the farms and disappeared; living quietly so as not to be exposed by the demons. There were supposed to be characters like Oliver and Hayato. There was also an old woman. Hayato was planned to be the leader.
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| The resistance leader boy. Sketch of Hayato and an elderly woman. |
Prototype Hayato was a serious and sincere leader who'd never betray; and was very different from the current version. At the resistance, there was supposed to be a character like Yugo (senior escapee and demon extermination specialist) to train them. Receiving training and accumulating power, Emma and everyone would have grown up and carried out the infiltration operation at GF House.
Isabella's survival route was decided already
Returning to the current version, chapter 38 shows Isabella admitting her mistake and surrendering to the HQ. Her survival and previous grandma's death were already outlined. Isabella was a good character, so there was a plan to reveal her again. That's why her punishment wasn't shown.
The Demon world's forest was modeled after the nature of Yakushima
The GF House is a luxurious plant built at a secured place restricted for demon's entry. Any demon who gets in would be killed. The plant is hidden deep within a forest that is usually avoided by ordinary demons. But these forests are used as an escape route by the demons who hide from the Royal government (ie. Sonju and Mujika).
Shirai had a short vacation and visited Yakushima, took photos as reference materials for drawing the demon forest. Sugita saw some gigantic trees during his private visit to Machu Picchu and suggested Shirai to incorporate ones like those in TPN.
Demizu Sensei's true skills demonstrated in the Post-escape Story
TPN's fantasy elments are revealed post-escape arc. The setting was no longer confined to a single House and thus, Posuka's skills could be demonstrated. The concept around ch. 39 was to develop a story that can use the best of Posuka's drawing skills. Back then, Shirai didn't watch the famous international fantasy movies. Sugita jokingly says they were using Hayao Miyazaki's works as a common language during their meetings. Shirai praises the storyboard for the anime's forest arc and says he looks forward to seeing how it looks in color.
Impact of Yu Yu Hakusho in the making of the bloodsucking plants
The bloodsucking plants were created to add suspense. Like Vida, these plants were modeled after the plants used by Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. (T/N: Princess Mononoke and Yu Yu Hakusho both seemed to inspire Shirai to create Vida).
Around this time, writing the storyboard was very difficult. The story suddenly changed and Shirai had crushing anxiety. But there were supportive fan letters saying, "It's okay, I'm still enjoying it!" The letters filled him with gratitude and convinced him the readers would still follow the story.
The cool and strong pursuer demon
The pursuer demon was in fact, very strong. Strong demons like him fend off stray demons and prevent demon civilians from approaching the farms. He was defeated because Sonju was just much stronger.
Marvine's story that you won't notice unless it's told to you
Shirai loves Ugo's pet lemur, Marvine. The panel of Ugo fighting against venomous snakes was initially drawn as a fight against sea snakes inside an underwater cave's air pocket. Shirai was inspired by the fight of General Blue in Dragon Ball manga. Later, he asked Posuka to remove all bubbles from the picture. But Marvine still looks like he's floating. It's a remnant of the draft where Ugo was fighting under the sea.
Sugita thinks adding sea anemones was a great idea. While researching for the story, Shirai learned various facts about nature that seemed like they're from a manga.
Sci-fi gimmicks are really cool!
Sugita likes Ray's panel from ch. 41 for the panel composition and his cool expression, and looks forward to seeing the owl hologram popping up with a buzzing sound in the anime. Shirai comments, the number of over-the-top requests he sent to Posuka increased around that time. In spite of the time limitation, Posuka never rejected the requests.
The grossness of stray demons felt by Shirai sensei
The first stray demon appeared in Chapter 41. This is where Shirai wanted to demonstrate what demons are. The stray demons are gross, their teeth aren't sharp and similar to human teeth. Their appearance was a result of eating various creatures and absorbing various traits that came out together.
Background of the demon's horizontal gene transfer theory
Till the first three chapters, the details of the demons' biological characteristics weren't finalized. Shirai's initial concept was "demons eat humans because they're delicious." Chapter 1's conversation about eating a stray cat is a remnant of that concept (In the current concept, the demons wouldn't talk about eating a cat because it'd affect their physical appearance).
Other series Sugita worked for (Toriko and One Piece) had a concept: 'you are what you eat.' Sugita wanted something similar in TPN as well. Sugita introduced the horizontal gene transfer theory to Shirai, which was eventually incorporated.
Escaping from the stray demon gives a glimpse of the children's growth
The children encountered the first demon in chapters 41-42. Only Emma saw a demon prior to this. Ray also had vague memories from his childhood. Both of them saw humanoid demons.
Don signals the kids while running and holding Rossi on his lap. Rossi is a smart kid who wants to be a doctor. Here, he wasn't just being carried by Don. He was keeping his eyes on the rear end and giving instructions. These chapters focused on the growth of the children trained for two months to escape into an outside world filled with demons.
Background of Ray's 'Volunteering to be a decoy' Scene
Sugita used to say the children wouldn't easily trust Ray's change in heart and would suspect he retained his suicidal tendencies. Shirai didn't particularly think about it, but after reading the readers' impressions, he reflected on Sugita's words and it helped him to write chapter 42.
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| Because killing yourself is an absolute no! There were many people who told me to remove this concept because it was dark, but my grandfather's brother who he was very close to killed himself; and my grandfather had trauma for more than 50 years. In his 80s, he's finally able to talk about it, but it's still traumatizing. So I want to say "Let's live and be happy, let's be happy!" -Shirai |
A front-page that perfectly shows the story's thrill
Reborn Ray's great success against the demons
While being chased by 5~6 wolf demons, Ray ran in small turns like playing chess. He made no mistake in the turns. If it were someone else, they would've died.
Mujika makes her debut in this chapter. Emma's collapsing due to her ear injury was in the 300-page prototype as well. She was saved by Sonju and Mujika, who she discovered after waking up. Her stay with the heathens was shorter as she was the only escapee.
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| A page from the prototype TPN |
Until the birth of a pretty girl in the TPN-verse
Sonju and Mujika were present in the prototype TPN to show the existence of demons who don't eat humans - which would reform Emma's values. This theme remained unchanged. However, there were disagreements about their designs. Shirai visualized the humanoid demon Mujika as "the pretty girl in TPN-verse". But Sugita suggested keeping the usual unpleasant demonic appearance. Otherwise, it'd decrease the impact of the realization that demons and humans are quite alike regardless of different appearances. Around this time, Posuka sent Mujika's draft design sketches where she looked very cute. Sugita reconsidered and agreed that it's okay for Mujika to look cute as long as she wore a mask.
In Sonju's case, it was decided to make him cool; unpleasant or not.
The more a demon resembles a human, the higher status they have in the demon world. Posuka was asked to make Mujika more human-like. Her design hints that she is special and 'sacred'.
Initially, Sonju didn't have a horse. Shirai asked Posuka to design a horse on a short notice to quicken the escape. Escape from the pursuer demons was done quickly to swiftly move to the next stage.
Being cautious about how Emma and Ray look
When Emma and Ray reunited afterward, their hug was drawn carefully. The hug Shirai drew in his storyboard looked similar to a hug between lovers, which prompted Sugita to ask for a change and to draw a proper sibling hug. Shirai then changed the posture to one where Ray patted Emma's head with one hand. However, Posuka's version of the previous hug didn't look romantic, so they could return to the previous version.
Sugita says it'd be misleading to interpret it as romantic. There may be people who would enjoy interpreting their relationship that way, but some others would find it uncomfortable. Shirai adds that, those who want to interpret their relationship like that can do as they want. But it's not the author's intention. Emma is supposed to be a hero, not a heroine.
Works that influenced Shirai sensei and TPN
Shirai revealed the biggest trigger behind the birth of TPN: Yu Yu Hakusho. In Yu yu Hakusho, the humans were sent to the human world when it was decided that the youkai won't eat the humans anymore. Reviewing it after growing up and watching the anime, Shirai thought "that's kind...if it were me, I'd just hide, cultivate and eat the humans." Having this thought, he added the concept of human farming to the manga project he had in mind and created the story of jailbreak.
Audio (Compares Mujika's dress to flower patterns and about Shirai's inspirations behind TPN. The exact conversation isn't written in the fanbook.)
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| A rough sketch of a demon's world by Demizu sensei, studying before the serialization began. |
Shirai's works are greatly influenced by Yoshiro Togashi, Naoki Urasawa, and Hayao Miyazaki. The setting of an orphanage may be inspired by 511 kinderheim from Naoki Urasawa's "Monster". Creating suspense and paneling are influenced by the style of Naoki Urasawa, and shounen elements are taken from Yoshiro Togashi (Hunter x Hunter, Yu yu Hakusho) and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece). Shirai thinks his demon concept was greatly influenced by Yu yu Hakusho's. Basically, 'demons' were created from the original concept of demons in Japanese folktales. The world where Emma and her friends are in is a world of fairy tales that is separated from the real world.
Hearing about a world of Demons from Sonju
Chapter 47 finally reveals the background of the demons, the two worlds, and the promise. The questions asked in earlier chapters about humans outside were answered. TPN's similarities with Yu yu Hakusho's concept became clearer, but Shirai was surprised to see no one making a connection with the said series. The works theorized (by the readers) to be TPN's inspiration included titles Shirai never read/watched before. Ishiguro Kazuo's "Never let me go" was mentioned by the readers many times. The prototype was said to be similar to Kishi Yusuke's "From the New World." Later, Sugita read this book and could notice the similarities. Eating and sacrificing humans is a common motif approached by different creators from different perspectives. In reality, there are very few ideas that are completely unique and original.
Apple and the forbidden fruit theory
Chapter 48 starts with a nice front-page where the two species are separated on the halves of an apple. Initially, there was a 'forbidden fruit' motif: humans are equivalent to forbidden fruits. Eating them made demons a terrifying creature. They could become rich but also had to carry the consequence of their actions on their backs. Posuka might have drawn this illustration with this in mind.
Time to revisit the setting
Chapter 48 reviews the information revealed in the previous chapter for easy understanding. But reader surveys evaluate the chapters weekly, so it had to be done in a way that isn't repetitive. It was necessary to show the new information from Emma's side's perspective.
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| Around here, there was an unpublished extra where Thoma and Lannion were teasing Ray, saying things like "Ray and his death wish." (Published in the fanbook, check the bottom of this chapter) |
The demon letters are designed by Demizu sensei
The demon language words that appeared in chapter 48 were designed by Posuka. Sugita created demon god's name, but every other text from the demon language\\ was Posuka's creation.
A little unpleasant? Mujika's eating scene
Mujika's eating scene was inspired from Sugita's earlier suggestion to make Mujika look unpleasant. Shirai thought the idea was nice, so he asked Posuka to draw an extra. Shirai and Sugita both think it was cute. Emma's punchline ("even the bones?") was nice, too.
A chapter that Shirai sensei always wanted to draw
Ray being a good cook was a great idea. Shirai liked the phrase Sugita used as chapter 49's intro note ("Mr. do-it-all") and used it in the story.
Even though writing the chapter was challenging, Shirai likes ch. 49. He's glad the idea of Gupna ceremony was added in ch. 1 which could lead to the hunting scene.
Sugita likes Emma saying "it's nothing", and Ray being the only one to pay attention to her expression. Referring to this specific panel's expression, Shirai points out, Emma has a certain 'monster-like shadow' on her face and he likes to draw her with it.
Geelan-faction's opportunity to play an active role
Chapter 50 has Sonju's explanation of the farms and the gruesome visual explanation of the mass-production farms. The thieves mentioned here are Geelan's group (Reminder: Geelan is the fallen royal demon who attacks the Capital in the final arc)
Initially, Shirai didn't have plans to use Geelan's story to the extent it was used later. The children by themselves wouldn't be able to fight on par with the demons, so the thief demons were supposed to come out during Grace Field raid (final arc) to 'steal' from the farm. At that time, Shirai's plan with TPN was to write up to 10 volumes.
Emma's photos, livelier as they increased
Shirai reminds, Ray is the only one absent in the photos because he's the photographer. The scene of Emma showing photos to Mujika was present in the 300-page prototype. Back then, it was just a single photo of Emma and Norman. The number of escaped children increased in the serialized version and the number of photos increased along with it. (T/N: The photo of Emma and Norman was different from the one in the finalized version.)
The color page thoroughly reviewed
Chapter 51 is the series' first anniversary. it became a norm to add a single-page story review for the new readers along with the color pages. Shirai praises the beautiful color spread. The light was well expressed. Norman alone somewhat shining, the lamp Mujika was holding-everything was clean. Krone, who died, stood behind everyone.
Since the old mysteries are mostly solved, it was essential to add new mysteries to keep it interesting. Shirai was reluctant at first, but he introduced the future plot points (Seven walls and the second promise) following Sugita's suggestion.
A foreshadowing that was abandoned due to unexpected reactions
TPN is said to be heavy with foreshadows. To Shirai, hints that the readers immediately pick up are cliffhangers, and 'foreshadows' are additions that one can notice only after revisiting the story after knowing what happens later. In Yugo's introduction scene, Shirai wanted some readers to mistake Yugo as Minerva and think: "Wait, Minerva is actually like this?" But almost everyone concluded this person isn't Minerva, so Shirai had to abandon this foreshadow.
The similarities between Yugo and Minerva were sprinkled in the page for misguiding the readers: the pen's checkered pattern, cookies that appeared in the IQ test bonus manga, and the teacup being held in his left hand. Shirai wonders if the hints were too subtle.
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| I drew Chapter 52's cliffhanger expecting reactions like, "Who knew that William Minerva, who had the image of a British gentleman is actually a wild old man?" But no one thought this way.... (Shirai) |
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| T/N: The bonus manga for the winners of the Official IQ test which was released in early 2018, introducing 'William Minerva'. |
This 'William Minerva' from the IQ test extra was Norman. His future reappearance as Minerva was decided already. Shirai wanted Norman to reappear as someone who seemed to be a completely different person. However, Posuka's version of the future Norman didn't seem very 'different', so Shirai scrapped off that idea as well.
The initial setting's decent Yugo
The Editorial department asked Shirai to add an adult character to the story. As a result, Yugo was introduced. The introduced adult, however, turned out to be childish. Yugo was supposed to be more decent as per his initial setting, but he had gone through many twists and turns.
The character Yugo was difficult to deliver
With Yugo's appearance comes the story of the sad and lonely tea party once suggested by the girl Yugo liked. In spite of being depicted as a man with a bad personality and rugged appearance, he was chasing after the memory of his friends. There is a sense of incongruity in the scene which was a hint of his truth. The broken teacup was Posuka's improvisation that Shirai liked.
Yugo's personality was extremely bad when compared to the GP kids. The omake about throwing poop was directly copied by Posuka from Shirai's manuscript and added in volume 8. At first, Sugita was stressed about the appearance of such a troublesome character. But he turned about to be well written.
The story of a critical hit
Emma in this scene moved spontaneously. Shirai explains, Emma was restrained and Ray couldn't save her, so she swung her arm and it happened to land on Yugo's private region. (Sugita jokingly quotes Shirai's "happened to")
Shirai came up with it thinking "isn't it how it'd be if Emma tries to shake off Yugo in this situation?"
The expression on Yugo's face Posuka drew was marvelous.
Reward time for children who have seized freedom
Chapter 55 was a rewarding time for the children.
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| This spread is one I dumped on Demizu sensei for her care. Rich in childlike individualities. She dressed them really nicely. (Shirai) |
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| Shirai's storyboard |
When creating the bunker's concept, Shirai figured that garbage being thrown outside could expose the kids to demons, so it's better to recycle. It should be difficult to generate electricity to this scale with organic wastes in current technology, but maybe that's possible in their future timeline.
Nat plays piano in this chapter. Sugita tried to persuade Shirai to make Anna play instead. Shirai thinks Anna isn't afraid of insects because she does gardening in Posuka's arts. Nat is afraid of insects, but he's a boy with artistic talents. Sugita recalls Nat's finger being broken in the final arc, it was a cruel depiction.
The story's spice Yugo and heading towards GP
There's a 'food deepens friendship' theory: everyone gets along well when they eat together. Some mangaka (Eiichiro Oda etc.) use this motif a lot. In chapter 57, Yugo didn't come to eat with the children.
Regarding the nicknames of the children featured in chapter 58 front page, Shirai only gave the nicknames used in the story, The rest of the names were decided by Posuka. Shirai comments he should've let Posuka decide the nicknames for all of them.
The weapon room is introduced. Minerva stored the weapon as preparation in case there's a war. In truth, it was mainly for self-defense. Sugita says it's fun to think about a worldline where Emma chose the Bazooka and brought it to fight against Leuvis, maybe she could've cracked the mask if she did.
Through trial and error, Emma and Ray found the demons' weakness. Shirai enjoyed working on the chapters from this part because he could finally explain the observations established in the jailbreak arc.
Yugo's stance finally revealed
Emma's face in chapter 63 was drawn this way because Sugita suggested expressing their extreme struggle until they were completely worn out. It was a tough trip, but it couldn't all be fleshed out in the manga. After consulting with Posuka, it was decided to hint at their hardship in a worn-out appearance.
The title of chapter 64 is "What could have been me". Sugita explains, both Isabella and Yugo are what Emma could've been. Isabella is what Emma could've been if she didn't have companions, and Yugo is what she could've been if she escaped with her friends who perished in the scary outside world that Isabella previously warned her about.
Yugo's position was finally explained. He's an adult who failed and didn't have the luck in spite of being capable. This chapter also shows Emma doesn't simply proceed forward by working hard - she's a girl filled with anxieties.
GP arc begins here. Minerva built a shelter for the escaped children, but Peter turned it into a place where the children who searched for Minerva would die.
There was a concept of Yugo training Emma which was removed in the finalized version. Around here in this course of the plotline, Yugo was supposed to reveal his name. His name however wasn't Yugo, it was Ugo. This topic will be further discussed in the GP section of the fanbook.
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| Shirai's storyboard |
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| Posuka's draft |
~:Character profile:~
(Profile TL credit to 14thNeah!)
~:Initial Character Concepts:~
~: Shirai Sensei’s QnA Pt. 2 (Answering the Readers) :~
Q. Does the horse-like demon Sonju and Mujika have eat horse meat? If Parvus doesn't eat monkey meat or the pigeon demons from the temple don't eat squab meat, will they become like other animals? Does eating plants have no effect on traits?
A. He eats horse meat. But retaining and losing the previous animals' traits varies among species. A humanoid demon will lose its human appearance if it doesn't eat human meat, but horse and monkey demons can retain their traits relatively well.
Q. What kind of encounter did Sonju and Mujika have? Why are they running away together?
A. It's revealed in novel 3! There is a story behind their encounter that is based on the background setting of the original story. (T/N: here's the novel translation.)
Q. Why did you name them Mujika and Sonju?
A. Because they sounded nice.
Q. Does Mujika and Sonju stop in the villages during their trip? Are they in disguise?
A. I think they hide their faces so they don't stand out. Even if they don't wear a disguise, civilians don't seem to recognize and remember the faces to immediately report. It's bad if someone recognizes their faces, though.
Q. There's an illustration of Mujika eating something like a roasted chicken in a single bite. How does she swallow even the bones without chewing?
A. Because she's a demon!
Q. Tell us about Ugo's adventure, what was the concept, if you have a mental image of it? Are the names of the characters meaningful? Did James write the main part of Ugo's adventure? Does he have literary talent?
A. "Ugo's adventure" was written by multiple supporters. It's an adventure novel where Ugo the explorer and his buddy Marvine the lemur travel through unexplored regions of the world. As many readers may have already noticed, if you rearrange the spelling "Marvine"... (T/N: you get "Minerva".)
Q. Do the general demon folks know that there's a high-class farm near the forbidden area?
A. They do.
Q. Why didn't the shelter have clothes for children below 5 years? Is it because James didn't expect the little ones to escape?
A. It appears so, he didn't expect. Who would've expected, really?
Q. Do you have any references for blood-sucking and water-storing plants?
A. Nothing in particular, but I remember talking to Sugita san about things like cacti and firefly squids. I mentioned it in the commentary, but I think there's definitely an influence of Yu Yu Hakusho which made me easily think "there can be things like these!"
Q. Are the blood-sucking plants some evolved demons?
A. Those too are evolved demons.
Q. The morse in Ugo's adventure read "Promise", and there's a torn page...was it removed for some reason? I'm also curious about the content of the torn page!
A. The one who removed it was either Minerva san or one of his supporters. There was a story setting: if you connect the second half of the torn page's sentence to the sentence from the page below it, it becomes a hint (or a code for the pen); but this setting wasn't used and it remained as it is. The page was torn with such intention.
A. Nutrient intake.
Q. What type of nickname would Yugo give Norman?
A. "Bean-sprout Genius" (もやし ジーニアス)
Q. Did everyone from GF have someone to cut their hair after escaping the House? Anna grew her hair, but Emma's hair remained short so I'm curious. I was wondering if the children cooperate with each other in this area, as well, is there anyone who is good at cutting hair?
A. Gillian, Anna, and Nat! This was what I revealed in an author's comment, but if Emma and others really wanted to have a haircut during their journey, Ray cut it for them. Ray's hair was trimmed by Emma, Gilda, or Zack. Don's hair was also cut by Ray and others during the trip, but the change in hairstyle after two years was thanks to Gillian's suggestions and changes.
Q. Why do the demons avoid wilderness around the shelter? Is it because there's no food? Was the dummy shelter made in such a place?
A. Because there are no food, nothing to obstruct lights, various instinctive and religious reasons. All shelters including dummy ones are built in these places.
Q. When Sonju and Emma went hunting, Sonju gave Emma a Vida. Does he always carry them? Or did it grow in the wild?
A. To an extent, he always carries them. They also grow in the wild.
Q. It seems you can find information from the pens but are there satellites in the demon world? Or, is the demon world somewhere inside the human world?
A. You don't always determine the location by Satellites, you know~
Q. The pursuer demon looked at something like radar as if he knew the location where he's going to catch Ray. Was it like a smartphone in the demon world that has a map?
A. It's a transmitter monitor, the demon version of the ones Moms use. He could see the position because the minion demon has a transmitter.
Q. Why did Mujika seem to hide when giving Emma the pendant?
A. Because she knew Sonju saw Emma's group as foods (can't eat their generation, though).
Q. Ray describes the farm ID's positions in the body during their stay in the shelter, but what's the placement of ID for Goodwell Ridge farm?
A. I've forgotten....I think it was the ankle or the waist. Maybe not...? Sorry about that.
Q. From Vol. 8 page 158-159- the spread of escaping from Alva Pinera. There are large creatures flying over the vast land, are there plenty of creatures like that?
A. Yes. There are many large and small demons in the demon world. In the forests, the number of living things decreases as you go deeper.
Q. Did you instruct Demizu sensei to draw weapons from the shelter's weapon room assuming the human world weapon designs from around 2030 (James era)?
A. The designs of the weapons were certainly not specified or requested by me. Looking at those manuscripts now, I threw in rough outlines of various things like the treasure troves from the pirate movies.
Q. Ray's cooking talent was awakened after being taught by Mujika. Did his mother Isabella have a dormant cooking talent as well?
A. Now I think she'd be able to do it if she tries, but my old memo from the initial phase of the serialization has it written that Isabella's only weakness is cooking.
~:From Demizu sensei: “This was amazing, Shirai sensei!” Pt.2:~
Dialogues
It's very easy to read. Even though there's a large number of dialogues, it doesn't feel that way. Shirai sensei said he could do it without studying Japanese...did he see a lot of works and learn it naturally from everyday conversations?
The lines that particularly impressed me were chapter 37's "Hopefully there will be light beyond that" -I cried. Similarly, "All of them were so small"-a lovely piece that comes to mind when I see small children. Chapter 24: "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do now, Ray." Impressive line. Too cool. I want to say something like this.
Chapter 161: "That's why humans are strong"-I reviewed this page many times during subsequent drawings, so it remains in my heart. By the way, I really love that chapter's title (Never be alone).
The lines that particularly impressed me were chapter 37's "Hopefully there will be light beyond that" -I cried. Similarly, "All of them were so small"-a lovely piece that comes to mind when I see small children. Chapter 24: "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do now, Ray." Impressive line. Too cool. I want to say something like this.
Chapter 161: "That's why humans are strong"-I reviewed this page many times during subsequent drawings, so it remains in my heart. By the way, I really love that chapter's title (Never be alone).
Chapter 127 page 166 upper row (the last page): Norman's triple line speech. Really scary. When I imagine refuting someone, it feels good to imitate his eyes from this scene. Also, the Queen's lines.
~Posuka Demizu
Thank you for translating, I love learning all the extra details!!
ReplyDeleteYay, I'm glad! :)
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