Akai Family Secret Archives: Aoyama Gosho Interview Translation
This interview was published in the Akai Family Secret Archives back in 2021. He answers questions about the Akai Family with a focus on Movie 24: The Scarlet Bullet, which was airing that year.
Aoyama Gosho Special Interview
We conducted an interview with the creator of Detective Conan, Aoyama Gosho! From behind-the-scenes production talk about The Scarlet Bullet to the secrets behind the creation of the Akai Family, get ready for the "backstage" reveal of this dangerous family!
PROFILE: Born June 21st in Tottori. Debuted in 1986 with Wait for Me, which was selected for the 19th Shogakukan Newcomer Comics Award. Won a Shogakukan Manga Award in 1993 with YAIBA and in 2001 with Detective Conan. His series Magic Kaito is currently serializing as well.
Q. How did you decide to have the Akai Family appear together in The Scarlet Bullet?
A. Since The Darkest Nightware was about Akai and Amuro, and then Zero the Enforcer was about Amuro, I thought, "Let's do a story about Akai too, and if we're doing that, let's have his family show up as well." I didn't want him to lose to Amuro in coolness- I wanted them to be equally matched.
Q. Please tell us some highlights of The Scarlet Bullet.
A. Akai's sniping scene. It was the screenwriter Sakurai's idea. It really fit well into the movie.
His one-liner after the scene was certainly memorable as well.
Originally, that was supposed to be the line in the teaser- "Let it reach far beyond the horizon." But I thought it was a little long, so I had them change it in the actual movie. That teaser line was actually my idea as well (haha).
I didn't realize that catchphrase was your idea as well!
Sera and Okiya's fight scene was my idea as well. If he were just fighting against Sera, Okiya would be stronger, but they're evenly matched with Mary in the mix.
Also, I was the one to request they add the post-credits scene- I drew the keyframe for it as well. It's a real highlight, so please watch until the end. Don't leave during the end credits! (haha)
Q. It's been over two decades since Akai Shuuichi made his first appearance in the manga. How has the way you draw him changed over the years?
A. The lines under his eyes might've gotten more uniform. They were all over the place at first, but the design is a lot more solid now, so it may be that anyone can draw him (haha). Aside from that, nothing has really changed. Ikeda Shuuichi-san's voice reverberates within me, just as always (haha).
Q. It took a long seven years for Akai to revive after his death at Raiha Pass. How did you decide when to bring him back to life?
A. At first, I planned to reveal he was alive around two years after his death. But my readers seemed to genuinely believe he was dead, so while I was trying to calculate when to do the reveal, I ended up forgetting about it (haha). But I started getting more and more comments like "Isn't Okiya Akai?", so I figured, "I need to resurrect him soon." It took quite a bit of time for Holmes to resurrect after his apparent death at Reichenbach Pass as well, so I think the timing worked out in the end.
Q. How did fans react to his resurrection?
A. They were over the moon. I was happy to see everyone so excited. It was worth forgetting about the reveal for a little while (haha).
Q. How did you create the character of Okiya Subaru, Akai's other face?
A. My thought process was: "Shift bit by bit away from Akai. But leave a bit of Akai-ness within him." That's how he eventually settled into that character. Though in the end, he does sometimes just feel like Akai narrowing his eyes (haha).
When he's disguised as Okiya, he's even kind to children, isn't he?
Akai is kind too! (haha) But well, when he was younger he'd say things like, "Tch! These brats are in the way..." (haha) Though he wouldn't say anything like that anymore. Perhaps he's gotten kinder to children as well after spending time with the Detective Boys as Okiya.
Q. You've stated in the past that you consider Shinichi to be Conan, so you feel as though Shinichi has been showing up all this time. Do you feel the same with Akai and Okiya?
A. Of course! Occasionally, an illustration of Akai looms behind Okiya, right? But even when I don't explicitly draw it that way, he's always there just like that (haha). That's why when I write a story with Okiya, I feel like I've just drawn a story with Akai.
Q. Now, about his little sister Sera Masumi. She's super friendly to Conan, but when it comes to Shinichi, she's much colder...
A. A cold shoulder, right? (haha) That's intentional. She loves the little Shinichi-kun she met when she was a child. When he's big, she feels like, "Who the heck are you?" (haha) She keeps them separate in her mind. To Sera, that encounter a decade ago was her first love.
Q. How did you decide to create their mother Mary?
A. I was thinking I wanted to make another shrunken character, so I figured I might as well shrink Sera's mother and introduce them together. And since I was introducing them, I figured I might as well flesh out their character profiles as well. As you can see here, I have a lot of notes on them.
Woah! Don't tell me there's details there that still haven't been revealed...?
Yes. For example, Tsutomu... whoops, I almost let something slip (haha).
Q. Regarding the second son Haneda Shuukichi, in The Super Secret of the Road to School, which released quite a while before his first appearance, Yumi mentions her ex-boyfriend. Had you already thought of Shuukichi by then?
A. I had already decided that Yumi's ex-boyfriend was usually childish but actually pretty amazing. But him being a shogi player and a member of the Akai Family was something I decided later. I was thinking I wanted to have a shogi player character as a connection to Haneda Kouji, so I stuck that character backstory onto Shuukichi. But Yumi is in trouble. She's going to marry into that Akai Family (haha). Well, it's Yumi, I guess she'll be fine.
Q. Will Shuukichi and Yumi see any further development...?
A. Aren't they getting married? Though I don't know if I'll draw their ceremony (haha).
Q. Do you have any new information on the Akai Family...?
A. Tsutomu is cool! ...Though that's a given (haha). I can't wait for him to get a voice actor in the anime. Haneda Kouji is also cool! Though I don't know when I'll be able to show him... (haha)
Q. I can't wait for their secrets to be revealed. Please leave a message for all Akai Family fans!
A. They call them the world's most dangerous family, but they get along pretty well, so (haha). Please enjoy their mysterious parts as well. I'll be counting on your support of them, including Tsutomu!
my hottest detective conan take is that I think the movies are written better than the manga and it’s a good thing aoyama doesn’t have complete creative control over them.
I Executed The Demon Lord With One Flawless Strike And After A Brief Power Struggle The New Demon Government Is Substantially More Committed To The War Because Of Some Reason I Don't Know
Hi Iris <3 For the forced proximity prompts, I'll send you:
“I can’t breathe…” “As someone currently pressed up against your chest, I can hear you breathing just fine.”
To see what you make of it. :)
Hello PT, here's a little bit of AkAm from the DNA testing AU.
"I can't breathe."
Now, as someone currently pressed up against the sniper's chest, with distractingly warm breaths brushing past his neck so gently the hairs on his nape rise up, Rei considers this statement to be blatantly untrue.
If Akai actually stopped breathing, that might make the situation easier to handle. Disposing of a corpse is a familiar task, after all.
Rei presses in closer, stifling airflow for the both of them. He wastes some of his breath to hiss into Akai's ear: "Be quiet, will you? Or are you trying to get your sister to find us?"
He wishes he could just slap his hand over Akai's mouth to make him shut up; but he is still wearing Okiya's get-up, and if the mask slips out of place and Sera finds them, then all of their efforts will have been for naught.
"What's the harm in letting her catch an eyefu-nnght."
Familiar footsteps echo down the hallway to the archive; so when Akai keeps talking, Rei shuts him up in the way that has saved countless spies before them.
By pressing his lips to Akai's, and the both of them as deeply into the industrial bookshelf as possible.
He can't focus on the warm lips on his, caught open mid-sentence, nor the way Akai's tongue licks at him, too soft, begging for entry. No, his attention is on the door, on the quiet steps of Sera Masumi as she pokes her head in, scanning the room.
For just a moment, Rei is sure their eyes meet, that she can see through the shelf's metal skeleton. That there's the ghost of a smile on her lips.
But then she turns, closing the door behind herself, steps fading with distance.
And Rei is stuck kissing Akai, without further distractions.
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love. 💙
I took a long time thinking about this because I've written a few fics over the years... apologies for the late reply, and thank you for the ask!
In no particular order, because I'd take another week to answer if I ranked them:
Cracks in a Gilded Cage
🦊 [Senyuu] A story where Ros is living a completely normal, idyllic life in Originia and nothing has gone wrong, ever. (Don't worry about Ros feeling like something is off.)
I had a lot of fun writing the eventual reveals in this fic, and swapping the canon albatross dynamic in ways with Ros chasing Alba.
Always With You
🦊 [Senyuu] Normal villager Alba wanders into the fae realm and promptly has his name stolen by one Ros, who's willing to help him find a way back to the human world regardless. Five years later, they're still journeying, but Alba no longer wants to leave.
I like worldbuilding but I've never been the type to be interested in worldbuilding without characters and a plot, so I'm always happy to write in a fun universe with a fun setting... I loved the underwater city here.
Take the Fall
🌟 [Tales of Vesperia] A canon divergence AU where both Yuri and Flynn die at Zaude, but they reincarnate centuries later after Estelle and the rest of Brave Vesperia successfully push back the Adephagos, though at great cost.
This kind of secret identity plot is my guilty pleasure. I especially loved writing Yuri and Flynn as famous historical figures to 'modern day' people.
...I'll finish it... maybe... one day... I enjoy re-reading it as it is too though.
Slip Past the Moon
🕵️♀️ [Detective Conan] A fantasy AU ft. Demon Lord Rei, Hero Akai, and a tournament for Rei's hand that Rei is unsuccessfully trying to rig.
Also filled with my indulgences. I love hero/demon lord and I love identity porn and I love tournaments and I love my faves being OP.
...I'll also finish it..... one day............
Your Hand On My Throat
🕵️♀️ [Detective Conan] Rei kills Akai. He gets better. Rei does not.
It was really fun writing Rei getting to actually kill Akai and then falling apart because of it, and Akai being totally oblivious to both his own issues and (at first) Rei's. Hehe.
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love. 💜
Oooh. Okay. Now I have to decide things.
(Also re: passing it on. I'll send it out, but if you get this more than once feel free to ignore mine. Difficult to know who has and hasn't gotten it when it's via ask rather than tagging.)
Helianthus (AkAm & HiroRei; soulmate AU - marks on their bodies variant) - This one has to be first on the list, because I consider it my behemoth (I mean, it's only 57k words, but given that prior to this and like one other fic, I hadn't posted fanfic in over a decade, and nothing ever nearly this long, and the fact that it took me almost an entire year to complete... I think behemoth feels right for it). I reread this a couple months ago to see how I felt about when I was a little more removed from the project, and I still loved it.
Kismet (AkAm; soulmate AU - names on their body variant) - Ever sit down to write an approximately 5k soulmate AU and then suddenly a week has passed and it's 16k? That's this fic. This fic has so many little ideas that I wanted to write over the course of the year or so that I'd been writing akam fic at this point, so I just threw them all in and somehow it worked out surprisingly well (in my opinion). I am so proud of this fic.
Sunday the 15th (AkAm; WPS lives) - Exactly 1000 words of Rei reacting to Akai's (faked) death... in front of three of his friends. The style I went for with this feels almost like Rei has dissociated from himself and is trapped inside his own head for most of it. I just really like how this turned out.
Narrowing down these last two was difficult. I almost included something from the Best Strangers series, but decided against it in the end. And I skipped stuff posted only on tumblr.
Let Your Heart Be Light (AkAm; fake marriage AU Christmas fic) - Feels weird to pick one that's chronologically in the middle of the series (and is the most recent one I've finished for the series), but this one really is my favorite so far. It gets into Rei's actual feelings, and strongly hints at Akai's, plus The Gang is there. It's fairly light and fluffy, but with the drama of Rei's feelings brewing under the surface and building up. So. I think it's fun.
Glowing Embers (AkAm; getting-back-together fic; WPS lives AU) - It was actually quite difficult picking between two fics with similar concepts, but in the end, I picked this one, for the Rei & Matsuda banter, and the non-linear narrative. It was fun to work with.
I'm gonna be completely honest, it feels really strange to say "hey these fics that I wrote are good, go read them," but maybe we should all get more comfortable doing that. Anyway. Thanks for this, made me think a lot about which ones I'm most proud of. <3 (And like I said, it was hard to choose. There are several others I would've put here if it didn't say 5.)
gah. so whilst I love characters who lie for the bit, I am getting so increasingly sold on characters who don't want to be liars and yet are nonetheless forced to be. those who are actually pretty good at omission and avoidance, but pray they're not directly confronted, because they know the chances are high they'd crumble at the slightest pressure and they can't afford that.
Every poll on this blog is about fictional characters only. This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds
