Maybe there was a bit of a struggle in that. That’s amazing, isn’t it?” I was shocked when Gotoge-sensei replied with something the likes of “Oh, is that so?” (laughs) And so I had to make sure that none of Gotoge-sensei’s strong points slip past. I remember saying “No wonder that enemy is all hands… everything’s connected. The enemy too has experienced his own sadness, and in squeezing his hand Tanjiro shows mercy. When I first heard of that scene, I thought there was no other main character quite like Tanjiro, and I got goosebumps. Although it was a really heart wrenching scene, Gotoge-sensei wanted to cut it out of the storyboard.

If I were to talk about something I has to be careful about… there was a demon called “Teoni” or the “hand demon”, wasn’t there? After defeating him, there’s a scene where Tanjiro holds his hand, praying that he would never turn into a demon again. (laughs) I guess that’s why I didn’t feel it was a struggle. He just keeps drawing and drawing, so much so that it’s hard to keep up. That’s probably because Gotoge-sensei is such a hard worker, and always puts his all into creating the storyboard. Honestly, I don’t remember struggling that much. That’s how Tanjiro and “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” came to be. I thought it wouldn’t be able to get through unless the main character wasn’t switched out, and so I asked Gotoge-sensei if there wasn’t a brighter, more normal character in the world he had created.

However, due to its serious tone, lack of comic relief and dark story, it didn’t make the cut for serialization.

With this we created a storyboard based on “Ka Gari Gari”, which came to be known as “Kisatsu no Nagare”. The stage was already set in “Ka Gari Gari”, the base was routed in reality, and the concept of the swords and demons needed no explanation to the Japanese audience. And so, we borrowed from a theme that everyone is familiar with. I thought without a clear motif to the outfits and other elements, it would be difficult to draw up a plan. With that in mind we chose to work off of his award winning debut title, “Ka Gari Gari”. I came to the conclusion that an easy to understand theme would be best. I continued to mull over how to make best use of Gotoge-sensei’s style and talent.

Afterwards he told me he wanted to create a series, and we started working on “Haeniwa no Zigzag”, which after failing to be serialized would become his third one-shot publication. At that time he had just finished his second one-shot manga in Jump, “Rokkotsu-san”, and I was the one who submitted it. In my fourth year at the company, I had finally returned to the editorial department after working elsewhere in the company, and Gotoge-sensei was one of the first manga artists I was put in charge of.

Koyoharu gotouge