O Ukoku

[louiselux]

Nii is bisexual! I think we really all might've had the teensiest inkling about this anyway, but athena8 very kindly translated the bit in Saiyuubito where he says so, in typically charming manner. Minekura also says some really adorable things about Gojyo and also really astonishing things about how she plots, like at the last minute! I don't know why I'm so shocked by that, but I kind of am.

Anyway, besides being astonished, being able read what she thinks about her characters just makes me very very happy.

Comments

[joonscribble.livejournal.com]

Oh, Ukoku. You so crazy.

No, really. You so crazy.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Hee! He is, rather.

[avierra.livejournal.com]

That stuff was pure awesomeness, thanks for the link.

(although I don't think Gojyo is stupid, I think he just acts that way.)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

It's just so good to get information like this from her, it feels like Christmas or something.

I don't think Gojyo is at all stupid either, but maybe he just looks that way from certain perspectives! He has more emotional intelligence than the others and he's very sharp otherwise he'd probably be a really terrible gambler.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

He lets his emotions overcome his better judgement sometimes and I don't think he's as educated as the others, but that's hardly stupid. He's the one who organized the retreat after their defeat by Kami-sama, too.

[avierra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he seems to be the last man standing a fairly good percentage of the time, which I think is interesting.

As far as his stupidity, I think its a means of concealment for him, like his hair. I don't think Sanzo even really thinks he's stupid, despite calling him a moron, but I can see why his behavior would be utterly exasperating to someone as rational (and rigid) as Sanzo.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely, it's a shield. I think Sanzo thinks he's as stupid as everyone else is, possibly himself included, so...no, not stupid, really.

[kickingrad.livejournal.com]

oh, Minekura. ♥

Thanks for the link! I love reading about what she thinks and feels about her characters. It gives you an awesome behind-the-scenes view of things.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I love her, she is sooo good and clever. Getting some of her thoughts just feels like the best thing ever!

[kickingrad.livejournal.com]

unrelated, I had a dream last night that you and I went to a Wagamama's type restaurant and had salmon and noodles. That was the extent of the dream.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the canon bisexuality was not a surprise but the 'oh, hey, I made him a big bad in volume 9' was a bit of a shock!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I know! That's exactly how I felt too. She has no masterplan! I'm sure she still has the drawer full of secret porn though.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that one's a given.

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Omg! That is so awesome. Canon confirmation of those sorts of things is always totally cool, because so few authors and artists actually have the guts to say 'yeah, so-and-so is bisexual/gay', even in series like Saiyuki where it's pretty much guaranteed that kind of news will be well-received.

I too am very surprised by the fact that Minekura apparently plots on the fly! She does an exceptionally good job of keeping her plotlines in order, if that's the case. I always suspected Saiyuki was the sort of series she must have plotted out extensively well in advance, but apparently not so much.

Also, her thoughts on Gojyo are just too delightful for words. He is cute, yes!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I was actually quite surprised that Nii gave us a definitive answer like that, because we are usually just kept guessing.

I also wonder exactly how much pressure she must feel plotting on the fly, because I'd be absolutely terrified!

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff. I'm vaguely unsettled by KM's loose way of plotting because I'm so fond of foreshadowing myself. OTOH I guess her approach is truly character-driven, which I think generally leads to the best kind of story.

It's odd. I'm not sure whether I like hearing authors/artists explain their work or not.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Yes, I understand exactly what you mean - it unsettled me and I had to wonder if she knew what she was doing?

That said, I've noticed in betaing other people's stories that good writers are often very clever and put in all sorts of details and things that can be read as foreshadowing without even realising that's what they're doing, and I imagine it's the same for Minekura. It's as if the writer's mind loves to make patterns in stories, without it even being on a conscious level. She works with strong themes too, both visual and story-wise, which must help in someway to give everything resonance. I love her strong characters - they're almost archtypes.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

*nods* What I fervently hope is that the story is so deep in her and that she believes in her ability to tell it so strong that she'll let it tell itself and not try to force it a certain way.

And she *is* a good story-teller, so hopefully the foreshadowing and symbolism will play out.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I think she must be really confident that the story will work itself out. Maybe she actually knows how it ends and so is slowly wending her way towards that, changing routes as she goes?

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

I hope so. Although I did recently read that she had (quote) "just figured out how Gaiden ends". That kind of thing makes me nervous. If I were only going on my Joss Whedon experience I might have more faith, but then I went and invested in Life on Mars and ended up wanting to strangle the writers!

[athena8.livejournal.com]

Hey! Thanks for the shoutout. X)

A lot of manga artists do plot on the fly, and you can see that by watching how their stories evolved. But I would not have suspected that of Minekura, so it surprised me, too! I should probably write this part out in more detail in another post because it's pretty interesting, but she says when she started writing Saiyuki, she didn't have any game plan at all! And even the flashback scenes she wrote in the first chapter were 'made up' - and she later came up with a story to fit those flashbacks, lol.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. I adore the fact that you translate things for us all. ♥

Wow, in that case, she's really done a good job of building on those initial random flashbacks!