Shingeki no Kyojin Anthology Interview Part 1
Animenewsnetwork has published the first part of an interview about the upcoming Shingeki no Kyojin Anthology, out Fall 2016.
In the first part of this interview, ANN interviews Jeanine Schaefer (Former Marvel Comics Editor), Ben Applegate (Head of Kodansha Comics Editorial and Production Departments) and Kana Koid (General Manager of Kodansha in an effort to learn more about the origns of the project, Hajime Isayamaās involvement with the collaboration, and what the creators have prepared for the anthology.
Below are various intercepts from the interview:
So thereās no Attack on Titan ācanonā that these creators have to stick to?
Ben Applegate:
No, no ā I mean that they can feel free to kill off any of the characters that THEY create for their stories. In order to make it feel like Attack on Titan, no one can be safe. For the reader, it canāt feel like they can pick out āthis character is going to live, this one is going to dieā while theyāre reading these stories, because if it was, it wouldnāt be like Attack on Titan. We wanted to preserve this feeling.
So what did they immediately say 'Yes!ā to, and what did they kind of hesitate, feel a bit more uncertain about?
Ben Applegate:
Everyone was VERY enthusiastic about the idea from the very beginning! From the Japanese creative team up through the people at the very top of Kodansha. This could not have happened without their support ā especially Kohei Furukawa, (Vice President and Head of Rights, Advertising, Digital and International at Kodansha) who was from the very start very supportive of this.
Tell me more about the interaction, the collaboration between the creators and Isayama. How has that been working out?
Kana Koide:
Iāve been sending the proposals from the creators to the International Department at Kodansha in Japan. Also to the editor whoās in charge of Attack on Titan. The editor, and Isayama-sensei are both very flexible, very open to new ideas. They approve these ideas very quickly, so that makes it easy for us to go forward.
Ben Applegate:
So far, what weāve gotten back from them is, 'This is approved, but in the future, keep an eye out for this issue and that issue.ā For example, one thing weāve heard from the Japanese editor is, 'Be careful about using this character, because he might dieā¦" that kind of thing. So we need to figure out where the story will take place in the Attack on Titan timeline and stuff like that.
Weāre still at the very early stage of story development ā havenāt sent them scripts yet.
So at the panel, you said 'no restrictions, anything goesā¦ā
Ben Applegate:
By 'no restrictions,ā we mean weāre not putting any genre restrictions. So right now, we have everything from very serious stories that make you care about characters and then we kill them, to really off-the-wall, wild stories! Faith Erin Hicksā story is a real genre-buster; you think the story is going to go a certain way, and then something else happens!
More can be seen at the source below. The second half of the interview, which will be published Thursday, will feature top executives from Kodansha USA Publishing and Kodansha Japan: Kohei Furukawa, Yasumasa Shimizu and Hiroaki Morita.