Shoujo Nemu 11

Page 248
Character Design Gallery

The cut [splash?] when we were announcing the new serial. This was also used for the cover of the first volume.

A cut used for the first volume.

A cut used for the same first volume. In uniform, casual.

Page 249

Characters drawn as a test before serialization

Page 250

Commentary ~Okumura Katsuhiko~

On March 28th, the author of "Shoujo Nemu" Mr. Kizaki Hirosuke passed on. The cause of his death was said to be an imperfect heart. He was 35 years old at the time of his death. ... Is that right, it's been more than 10 years since I met him. But I still remember it clearly. I was still at Akita Shouten, it was when I was doing the preliminary screening for the new authors award. And right in the middle of that screening... Suddenly, my head went completely white, and all the hairs on my body stood up. His manuscript had that strong of an impact. Its images carried overwhelming power and the manuscript was beautiful giving off a feeling of ephemerality as if it were about to disappear. I just couldn't stand there and wait, the following day I set off toward Nagoya where he lived. Well, he was the kind of guy you'd like at first sight. And so, I met the man himself. ... And I was really surprised. He was extremely reticent. He didn't speak at all. It was enough to make you say, "enough already!" Just like his manuscript, he himself was a character that made you feel a sense of ephemerality. So we continued to exchange conversations regarding his names and developed a number of his short stories. I had transferred to Ascii but, we still continued our association.

And that's how "Shoujo Nemu" came about but, honestly, even though I've been in charge of all sorts of different mangakas, without a doubt he took the top rank in degree of difficulty. There has never been a mangaka that was as difficult to communicate with. Well, despite that, while advancing like I was fumbling through a minefield, somehow we kept it up, and I even felt like I was getting some response. However, suddenly the declaration came from him that he, "Couldn't do it anymore."

No matter how good of a serial it is, the mangaka's frustration piles up while it keeps going. And at the stage when that reaches a certain limit, the mangaka thinks, "I don't want to do this anymore," and in many cases, the serial ends there. In Mr. Kizaki's case, that limiter came precisely around the point of when he got past the first tankoubon. You could say that it was ridiculously earlier than the average mangaka. So, it doesn't matter whether or not that manga is the original, or if it's just based on the original, or a mix of mediums, that time will come. With that, his serial came to a close after 3 books compiled into one tankoubon in an exceptionally unprecedented manner. He had unbelievable talent when it came to creating manga but, it appeared as though had no ability to finish his manga. Perhaps, if he were able to bring those 3 serialized books to a clean conclusion, I think his popularity would have risen an extraordinary amount.

However, at the same time, I also thought this. "It was precisely because that it was him that was drawing it, and with that sense of ephemerality, that a kind of transience may have been able to be expressed." ... After I learned of his death, all sorts of things were running through my head but, it was with those words that I tried persuading myself.

That's right, when I saw his first manuscript, at the end of his manuscript he wrote his pen name. "May fly"... I'm certain that it was the name of a bug that died the day after it shed its skin, becoming an adult. At that time I thought it was too fleeting so I had him change his pen name, but thinking about it now... Well, no matter what I say now, it doesn't matter, at the very least I pray that he [has become a Buddha and] has achieved happiness in the next world.

(I thought a lot about it but, in the end, I believed there was nothing else but to write something similar in content so, I apologize for it being the essay that I wrote on that one occasion. The contents published in the June volume of monthly Comic Beam will make note of such.) [I guess this article and the one in the June issue overlap somewhat]