If your consciousness of “wanting to please everyone” becomes too strong, you end up catering to them no matter what.
Jin [Shizen no Teki-p], Kagerou Project creator, Interview [2018]
(bolding / italics / spacing mine for emphasis):
(INTERVIEWER): ――Are you not concerned about the fans’ reactions during the stages of production?
Jin: That’s right. If your consciousness of “wanting to please everyone” becomes too strong, you end up catering to them no matter what. I think you have not to do that but to pull them along through your work, like,
“It’s over here”.
Thankfully, the fans notice things such as,
“Why did Jin make a song like this?”.
For that part, they probably look at me severely, like,
“He’s at loss” whenever I hesitate.
A quick note on Japanese fandom terminologies for ships: “combination”
“Combination” (or Konbi) often relates to the term “pair”, a.k.a: ships.
(Note: OLD commentary. Please keep in mind if you read.)
“Pair”, as well as the “konbi” from “combination” can be used in replacement of pairing “smush” names (i.e. “ShinAya”, “HaruTaka”) in many various anime, manga, game or otherwise Japan-originated fandoms.
ex. in Hetalia fandom [or “that series with personified countries”] (linked: a crazy extensive list of Pixiv Japanese fandom pairing names of ages past), due to the hugely extensive cast of characters, this kind of tagging system is much more frequently used for pairings.
USUK (America/England) became “Bad Sense of Taste Pair”.
Japan/China became “Far East Pair”.
Greece/Japan, in comparison, who were implied to
canonically at the very least sleep naked by each other at least once,
if not WITH each other
(see: final manga strip at the end of the page. uh.... PG-16+ ? maybe)
... is “Cat Pair”.
Iceland/Seychelles, (a bit of a rarepair / crack ship, but notably never canonically implied to have known each other when younger, unlike USUK, for example),
in comparison, also (once) had a tag called “異色のコンビ “
or when translated, “Unique Combination”.
“ Konbi ” “ combination ”
(using the “konbi” part from the old otherwise known to English APH fandom as ‘IceSey’ ship.)
they are more recently known on Pixiv nowadays as “Fish Pair”.
compare “Cat Pair” (Greece/Japan):
“ Nukonbi ” or basically “ cat pair ”
(Japanese fandom’s name for the otherwise known to English fandom as “Giripan”, Greece/Japan ship. “Giri” was from “Girisha”, how “Greece” is translated into Japanese, “pan” from Japan, obviously
and to avoid offensive use of “Jap” on the English side of the fandom in most pairings with the character.
But in Japan / on Pixiv, a well-known Japanese art site similar to Deviantart, they’re more often tagged with the kanji/terminology above i.e. “cat pair”.
that is often because the two in APH canon are frequently seen together with or around cats, especially Greece [who basically has an army of them lol]).
The APH comparisons are only being used because of how frequently they (these terminologies for ships/pairs) are used by Japanese fandom -
APH fandom is / can also be considered a “megafandom”
(an EXTREMELY HUGE FANBASE) ... on the Japanese side as well as Pixiv.
It frequently took over Pixiv back in the day in ways similar to Kagepro at times, especially during real-world national holidays / character birthdays / pairing “anniversary” dates etc.
This was especially the case with the character of Japan, because, well..... Japan..... yeah. JAPAN LOVES “Japan”.
Similar Western hemisphere popular “megafandoms” nowadays include such fandoms like Marvel / MCU, Voltron, etc.
USUK’s pairing tag name translated, in comparison:
味覚音痴コンビ
Note the “konbi”. ( konbi: コンビ )
this is the most frequently used tag for the two on Pixiv,
more often used for romantically then not.
USUK is absolutely huge as a ship/pairing on Japanese fandom side
[note the total amount of fanworks
or times the tag was used on Pixiv: 24,014 results]
(though Asakiku, England/Japan, “Asa” from (Japanese pronounciation of) “Arthur”, England’s older “human name” and “Kiku” being Japan’s older human name, eclipses it by a landslide;
^ [34,728 total results]
in the Japanese fanbase, USUK eclipses FrUK, France/England, in comparison to the English fanbase, where FrUK is also very popular in recent years.)
[ FrUK tag there, known to Japanese fandom simply as “Nice Dover” for other reasons: 4049 results. ]
So, this kind of ship naming history is something you should keep in mind
whenever you see JIN mentioned in relation with “combination”
... by the Japanese side of fandom.
* a further quick note:
APH fandom has been a thing since around 2008,
or, a couple years before Kagepro [2010].
Jin: how can we make it any more obvious that Saeru (“Kuroha”) is (maybe) involved with the Heat Haze somehow (other than what he’s already done w/it) before we inevitably redeem him or otherwise at least “explain” him just like we’ve done with (almost) everything else in this entire song series
Jin: .... oh, I know !! Let’s give him the E X A C T L Y the same color hues in his new design as the Heat Haze!Hibiya had in Wannyanpuu’s old fan pv (which absolutely didn’t inspire us in any way at all even though we keep reusing thematic elements from it since the very start, nope !! ) We’ll even use the exact same gradient effect to emphasize this total unrelation!
Then in Manga Route 2 we’ll
a) have him possess Hibiya Amamiya, of all characters, who is totally unrelated to “Kagerou” still, and
b) give Saeru a chapter title of “no title” even though most chapter titles become songs, then we’ll not show the song in the actual album !
When we decide if we do want to release a song for him, we’ll do it when they least expect it, just like with Outer Science! We’ll go through all the trouble of giving Saeru an exciting new form and character design, a (single) backstory chapter in the manga (while still keeping things vague), and then not even include a song for him in the album to drive up the suspense !!
They’ll fall for it just like before !!
Sidu: perfect !! They’ll never guess it !!
Sidu: ( and then I’ll get to draw M O R E K O N O H A S )
( “one of the things we’ll never explain in the canon ! ” )
bonus:
“Me? Saeru? still having a connection ? haha, whatever makes you think tha”
“-- just a coincidence, they’re just INSPIRED, you see --”
“‘what ? that old ‘Mary’s Imaginary World’ mini manga is so outdated thou--’”
“that means NOTHING, ok, look, in the end, don’t they just repea--”
