Shirahama Kamome interview at Desucon 2025, Finland
had the honour of attending her live drawing/interview last weekend, it was an absolute blast and i still cant really quite believe i got to see that. didnt win an autograph ticket, but what i did do was take notes from the panel, so if anyone's interested to read, here they are <3
feel free to share, but please credit :)
[] means stuff the panelists have said, () is me rambling
text version/ALT under the cut since it's a lot
14.6.2025 Desucon
guest of honour's program: Kamome Shirahama and the magic of drawing
disclaimer: might contain mistakes even tho i've tried to be as accurate to my notes and memory as possible <3
on the table she was going to be drawing at there were the usual 2 brushbugs wearing qifrey and olruggio's hats, but also a hattifatten
*a picture of shirahama's two brushbugs, wearing olruggio's and qifrey's hats, and a hattifatten on a table (from tongariofficial's twitter)*
the program schedule hadnt included a live drawing, so i dont know if that was going to be a surprise for us of if it was a last minute decision. shirahama said "unfortunately the hat is in the way of seeing", since she had the iguin mask on the entire time. since we had a lot of time, she would be drawing coco and qifrey. (i initially took this to mean she could draw them both since she had time but my friend interpreted it as being "BECAUSE we have time she will be drawing" so idk. she had a cool ring, which looked like it could hold ink or smth.
[did you read manga growing up and what were your favorite manga and mangaka as a kid?]
- like all kids she read manga, but also liked novels and movies
- her favorite were x-men and star was comics- she read manga that was maybe targeted to an older audience
[did you always draw as a kid?] (didnt write down this question but i think it was smth like that)
- according to her parents yes, and also she's drawn since she herself can remember
[when did drawing become your job?]
-she studied design (? and smth else idk i accidentally wrote design in english and finnish lmao) in university, and alongside that she got small jobs to draw atuff for for example teaching materials and games, and realised you could actually make a job out of drawing.
[what did you learn alongside your studies?]
- she had graphics as her major, but was also interested in accessibility design and something else (i think this had smth to do with the environment, maybe environmental design? but i had just written "something")
[how did you end up a mangaka?]
- self published manga drawings, and at some point a publisher reached out to her like hey do you wanna come draw for us
[what kind of material do you like to draw with?]
- the sketch she does with a pencil, and then the actual drawing with an inkpen- corona has chabged stuff a bit because you have to take into account how much can you meet with your assistants, so more of the drawing is done digitally nowadays
- she prefers drawing on paper, but for example if a design is going into a game (=onto a screen) she will draw it digitally to fit
- she's also been challenging herself recently by drawing more stuff digitally
[do you draw all the details in the sketch, or just at the inking part?]
- the pencil marks distract the drawing process, so she will add the details in the inking part
- "you are going to see it yourself with this"
[where have you taken influence from to your drawing style?]
- fantasy, rpg, europe (i think i meant western here??)
- okay so i had written "role-playing-game-styled" but idk what that rly means lol
- the style of wood carvings is medieval[your works have been published in maby magazines, is there a difference between magazines what kind of manga you draw?] (i think that meant her drawing style depending on magazine not the manga's story)
- it's not really the magazine that changes stuff, the drawing style changes depending on the story
- witch hat atelier is story-book-like
- style will accommodate what suits a game the best
[where does the style come from for each story?]
- no (???? what he fuck did i mean by this im sure it made sense in the moment)
- if it's a digital media, she will draw with a computer, a japanese story she will use a brush, and for a western story she will use harder pencils
[do you change your style depending on the target audience?] (more in the ways of a country a person is from, for example western/japanese)
- she will draw what will be enjoyable regardless of the target group/audience
[does your style change depending on the age group of your audience?]
- it's more in the language then, so the dialogue's difficulty changes
[where did you get the idea for enidewi?] (this just read "enidewi idea?")
- she likes european gothic angels and devils and wanted to write about them. there are a lot of things she likes in enidewi- she likes to tell stories with girls in them
(no idea what the actual question was, i just write "enidewi memories?")
- it's about 2 girls on trips and they get into shenanigans
- she has travelled a lot so she pulled stuff from her own experiences/stuff related to her own experiences
- she does hope that she hasnt been as much of a difficulty as those 2
[when did you get the idea for witch hat atelier?]
- she was thinking of it while drawing enidewi
- the idea has been with her for surprisingly long, 6 years before publishing
[were you imagining the story or the worldbuilding then?]
- no plot, but the setting, world and themes
[was the drawing part of magic in the story since the beginning?]
- it's been in the story since very early on
- there are some people who are incredibly talented at drawing in our world, but everyone can draw at least a certain amount, so she wanted a world where the magic is in everyone's reach so to say
[how did you design such an intricate magic system?]
- first she wanted a simple system that even a child could copy but wanted there to be some logic to add extra effects
[what is your favorite symbol?]
- the one coco uses a lot, meaning sylph shoes
[i think we would all want a spell to fly with our shoes]
- shirahama would want a spell to easy stiff shoulders (she was i think showing a v bad posture drawing position lol)
[too bad those are forbidden]
(no idea about the question here lol i missed it bc i was explaining the previous laughing to someone, she also had to read the question again from a paper she had so hell yea me too)
- the fears of how to get better at drawing
- there would be a feeling of relatability
[so the series has the "good guys" wearing a pointy brimless cap and the "bad guys" a brimmed cap, so a different philosophy means a different cap. where did you get the idea/why is it like this?]
- she was vaguely pointing at her iguin hat and doing the muscle flex pose like woo
- she cant say, and it will be revealed as the series progresses (she had her hands clasped at her chest i had written that down soecifically)
- wait with excitement for the upcoming chapters (i THINK she meant like any future chapter but tbh i for a sec thought the translator said NEXT chapter but dont get ur hopes up. ANYWAY WHAT THE FUCK)
(smth about the desig of characters again was distracted by the whole thing before)
- she think it's fun to make the character designs, it's it's becoming hard because there are so many characters
- she will sometimes go to her artist friends with a character idea like hey this is what this character is like what would they look like
[all the fans here would probbaly go crazy for a finland inspired outfit, what would it be like?]
- well it would be warm at least
[furhat]
[does qifrey's hat tell something about his character?]
- it's a modified version of his hat as Beldaruit's apprentice so not really
[how has it been like creating the rules within the world?]
- it's been fun thinking of the fashion styles and clothes (literally the note says "fashion styles and clothes fun so nice to make <nonsense> that was fun" so idk take of that what u will. the nonsense might have been "work" but i honestly dunno)
[what has been difficult to get to fit?]
- she says the weaknesses and holes are hard to work into the system so that it's noticable that things are wrong but not too much into either direction
- bring to light something about the differences in people ("bring forward motivation into that different people kinda" what. anyway not sure what i meant here, also not sure if this is still to the same question but i didnt at least write a question in this part so idk)
- she thinks a lot (about what, idk i think there was a question here too i missed about maybe magic?), magic is a technology that tries to make human lives easier
[do you intend to raise awareness of real life problems?]
- partially, and that magic is a positive depiction too so that might inspire to fix the real life problems[inspiration for witch hat during the creation of the series?]
- during middleschool/high school/university she liked lord of rings movies, and peter jackson films (idk if it was like she liked those during that time and they still inspire her or like was this just not answering the question but anyway)
[are there any spcific details inspired by other serieses?]
- ghibli, the idea of nausicae (? not sure about this but like those were mentioned)
[witch hat atelier is peculiar/unique with it's use of art deco. do the page compositions come to your mind as they will be or are they modified as you work?] (notes said to the first line just "wha unique, art deco" so i think that's what it meant?)
- there are both instances, some will be completed like they first came into mind, and others get elements and other stuff added while drawing[how does it feel getting recognition outside of japan too?]
- she is very happy about that, that people enjoy and read her stuff and she is very honoured overall, and it's nice that that's the case also in other countries
[reading pictures is pretty universal, is it kind of like the manga's magic that it's for everyone?]
- she said it's kinda of funny with japanese because kanji are pictograms so they are also pictures in a way
[so your series has an official spin-off called witch hat atelier kitchen. where did the idea for that come from?] (a lot of thumbs up from shirahama at the mention of kitchen yay)
- she was approached by the publishing like oh hey we have this idea to draw a witch hat food series is that okay with you[are you how deep in the creation process of kitchen, or is it just sato's work?]
- sato creates it, sometimes they might workshop some world related stuff, for example the names of vegetables, and how to connect kitchen with the main series more
[do you have a favorite character or do you love them all equally?] (she was looking between the translator and the audience and reaching for the brushbugs like tadaa kinda)
- brushbug is easy to draw so that's why, and especially drawn with a brush
[there's also a very cute hattivatti]
- she had bought it immediately after arriving to finland
[hattifattener are probably the closest finland has to a brushbug]
- "yeah that's how it is"
[you have worked with marvel, DC and star wars. how did this start?]
- she liked american comics and attended cons in the usa too, and showed some sketches for a producer/editor (idk the word but like someone in the industry)
[have you gotten to draw any of your favorite characters?]
- her first crush was wolverine
- she also like batman a lot
- she at least hasnt had the opportunity to draw them together in a work
- she draws a lot of female characters for her work usually too
[what's the process for cover art, do you get precise instructions or do you have more free hands with the design?]
- she gets mostly free reign, and does something to suit the character
- sometimes there will be instructions/asks to include something, for example if the story takes place in japan to put fitting elements there
[is there much of a difference working with foreign works compared to japanese ones?]
- not really, most differences depend on the work itself
[how much time do you get to making a cover?]
- she's been busy lately (👀👀👀) but usually the deadlines arent super specific, she will usually make one a month
[you worked in character design for the star wars: visions -series. how was the experience?]
- on top of all, the series is an animation, it was nice to get to work with other people
- also amazing to get to see her designs come to life
*a sneeze*
[do you have to take into account that the characters will be animated when making the design?]
- there wasnt as much creative freedom since star wars is a established franchise so a lot of the design elements already exist
- okay so i didnt hear if she said "you didnt have to simplify the designs" since it's animated or that "you did have to simplify the designs" so like uhhhh sorry for not being able to answer that :( i feel like it mighta been "you didnt really have to simplify" but oh well
[do you draw witch hat characters from a reference at the beginning until you memorize the design, or does the design change along the story?]
- she had made a few designs beforehand (i think this meant like of one character like a few versions)
[you also drew the comic adaptation for Star Wars: Visions. did you get strict rules for it of were you allowed to change stuff?]
- the story was completed so that wasnt changed- she kept the same visual spirit as in the animation
[is there a foreign work you would still like to get to work with?]
- a lot of eeeeeee pondering noices, she was holding her hand on her chin like when you think bout something
- she said it's a difficult question, but she would like to work with a tabletop rpg or boardgames (excited hand gestures)
[well im sure everyone here would at least love to play those]
- she mentioned she's done work with Pokemon cards and Fate/grand order
[there is a witch hat anime coming. what's your role in its production?] (excited hand gestures again)
- she says she checks the stuff the animators have done, and gives corrections if needed
- since the manga is black and white, she gived advice on the colourschemes, for example with what kind of coloring techniques the characters have access to and therefore what the clothes will look like
[is this the first time you've thought about the colours of some stuff?]
- there have been a lot, for example coco's dress in chapter 1
- she will ponder with the team what would work best
[how (much?) are you waiting for the anime?]
- "a lot, and also very excited that all of you will get to watch it"
[are there any serieses/games you like right now?]
- magus of the library (someone from the audience provided the english translation, the translator said "big wizard of the library" (in finnish). thumbs up from shirahama at that), it's very interesting
[well nice we're getting recommendations here]
[the world of witch hat atelier is rpg-styled, is there any videogame elements?] (something about videogames and witch hat world at least lol i kinda missed this bc of again the previous question)
- there's not really any video game elements, since there is no level ups or magic points
- more closer to fantasy literature
[you said you read manga before becoming a mangaka yourself. has making your own manga changed this hobby, are you tired of manga outside of work?] (many excited hand gestures again)
- she actually reads more manga now than as a kid- as a kid she didnt dare buy a lot if she didnt know the story that well (or like being way more cautious of what to buy), but now she feels like "she has permission" to read manga
- "oh it's part of the job i can buy and read manga"
[do you look back to your works and think a lot about what succeeded and could have been done better?]
- when she starts a new part in the series, she will read the previous one and think about what might have been left unexplained and try to broaden and explain the stuff later
[has the way you engage with and judge other people's manga changed after becoming a mangaka? do you think like "oh this could have been done differently" "oh this was really cool"?]
- she said she isnt "skipping school" when reading, she does look at novels too with new eyes now
[is it good to read others' fantasy works, or do you do it just because you like it?]
- she does keep up with what other people are writing, and says it's good to know what's going on so as not to write absolutely similar stuff
[oh it does look like the drawing is finished now.] (this was 12.17, the panel started at like 11, a few minutes over most likely)
- you could really see how she added the details with the ink pen and not with pencil (dont remember if this was shirahama or the panelists, but still so true and amazing to watch)
- "i erased the pencil marks out of the way"
- "thank you for having the patience to watch me draw"
[well this is going to turn into a thanking contest but i do think the pleasure is completely ours/thanks are completely on our side, thank you for drawing for us] (literally no thank YOU tetia core interaction)
[does anything come to mind that the finnish manga and anime -fans would be interested to hear that we havent realised to ask?]
- "thank you so much", she says it's nice to feel that people like the same stuff as she does, that even if we're from different countries that we are all fans of manga
[how has it been visiting finland for desucon?]
- she arrived a few days ago in helsinki, and the food and weather has been very good (this is hilarious she managed to come here on the 4 consecutive days when it's been sunny and so warm and not raining at all this whole year i feel like what. anyway glad she liked the food yayy)
- she still hasnt had time to properly visit desucon yet
when she left the stage she waved the hand of the brushbug that had oru's hat at the audience <3
