It took me 3 days to translate this monster of an interview (~3.5k word count lol), but it’s finally done! My hands need a break after typing for so long…
Thank you to the interviewer Kashima Yui for asking some really great questions, and BuzzFeed JP for making this interview happen. I really enjoyed seeing Ishida and Takahashi banter back and forth, you can really tell that they’re great friends, and I’m happy to have witnessed a sliver of their relationship.
Also, I’m far from perfect, so if I’ve made a mistake or mistranslated something, please let me know.
Edit: Fixed a line from Takahashi saying, “You did it,” to “He did it.”
The reason why I bought the TG manga was not just because I wanted to own a story I love, I also wanted to support the person who caused that I had a good time. Ishida had been then of course luckier than a lot of other mangakas because his story got so popular that it probably didn’t matter after a while if everyone buys the manga. But not so well known mangakas will suffer because of scanlations. While my post won’t change anything at all, I just don’t understand why people insult an author for stuff like that. He has the right to complain if this causes that he has not enough income because of not being so well known.
Like I admit, if I would buy every series I read on the internet then I would be poor now, but exactly for this reason I feel a bit guilty. Like the people who read scanlations should be grateful for being able to read it at all and feel a bit guilty for not supporting the person who causes that they have fun instead of being rude.
(sorry for re-reblogging) I don’t know what happened, if Koshke sensei is the one who got criticized or if Ishida-sensei was also hit by something similar lately, but anyway: even tho’ it’s a form of enjoyment for us, it’s a way to make a living for them.
Of course, not everything is released in every language or country (or the official translation in your language is not always the best, I speak as a first hand witness for several French official translations which are horrid), but English remains the language in which most series are translated across the internet and that’s how they are made illegally available.
So an alternative, I find in general less expensive or taking up space than owning a material copy in English/Japanese/your language, would be to buy the Japanese digital version: it’s a way to support an author + you can still keep up with the English illegal releases across the internet and understand what’s going on.
It gets more and more expensive the more series you enjoy, I know, but try to do this as much as you can or for the series you really are looking forward to every release: again it’s how these people whose work we read can make a living.
And if you can’t for financial reasons, just please simply be grateful.
Do you ever just love Ishida more then tg and just get upset that no one sees him as a human being but just a machine for their entertainment
Ishida has given us such an incredible piece of work with Tokyo Ghoul.
But he’s also given us some amazing glimpses of the PERSON behind that. We’ve seen him being so incredibly humble, so incredibly sweet and kind, silly and funny, hard-working, geeky as any of us, and everything in between.
He’s a guy that decided to make a comic about a superhero with a penis for a head.
He’s awesome at word-play and silly puns.
He jokes at his own expense, and teases his assistants in comics.
He has great taste in music, and has introduced me to some really neat artists I didn’t know before he mentioned them or got them involved with his work.
His style has developed over the years, and it’s a joy to see him grow as an artist. His personal style of artwork that reminds me of watercolors is so incredibly unique and beautiful. He does these fantastic, realistic portraits of people as well as breathtaking, impressionist pieces.
He’s such an incredible person, and it’s an honor to have gotten to witness him sharing those pieces of himself with the world.
Of course I love his works. But he, the person making a silly post, also makes me smile.
hmm to be honest I wouldn’t be able to tell regular kimono from those worn in a traditional wedding. I feel like someone would have mentioned that if it were the case so I’d say no. But just in case, here are all the times Ishida has drawn Touka and Kaneki together in traditional clothing!
Please let me know if there are any mistakes. You can read the article that I translated from here.
Also please note, I’ve only seen pictures of the first page, but I’m 99% sure there’s another page based on the content from the interview excerpt that wasn’t included, and the lack of closing statement from Ishida. So I (and my pounding headache) would appreciate it if people didn’t jump to conclusions like they did for his afterword last time…
I’ll shut up now. Thanks and hope you enjoy~
(btw if anyone has the rest of the interview, please send me a message)
Please let me know if there are any mistakes. You can read the original article here. Also, this is just a part of the full interview, so if anyone can provide me with the full interview when it is released I’d be more than happy to translate it.
Author Ishida Sui speaks for the first time about the conclusion of Tokyo Ghoul
The popular manga “Tokyo Ghoul”, depicting the battle between humans and the species that devours humans, has finished serialization after seven years. Over 37 million copies have been sold cumulatively. The author, Ishida Sui, has chosen to accept an interview with Yomiuri Shimbun. This is the first time Ishida has spoken in depth about his work through an interview with the media. Why did ghouls come to be? What kind of a person is Kaneki Ken? What are his thoughts on the final chapter that surprised fans? Details of the interview will be posted in the Yomiuri Shimbun morning paper on the 21st. An excerpt is shown below. (Culture – Kawadoko Yayoi)
“It’s like I’ve been dispossessed of an evil spirit now. During serialization it felt like I’d been taken over by a different person,” said Ishida. The interview was done over Skype. It appears that meetings with his editor are normally done over Skype.
“This happened recently, but one day I woke up in the morning and I had no clue on what I should do because there was no manuscript to work on,” Ishida said, laughing on the other side of the screen. Over the course of an hour and a half, he occasionally answered the enthusiastic questions of a reporter who was an avid fan of Tokyo Ghoul.
Where did you come up with the idea of ghouls, a species that can only survive by eating humans?
I thought about drawing villains who were part of a minority. It’d be too simple to have them be mere cutthroat murderers, so I thought it’d be interesting to have a species of them that live among humans.
Regarding the protagonist Kaneki, how did he come to have such a character?
At the time I liked shy protagonists with weak personalities, so I made him into a timid and inconspicuous character without putting too much thought into it. As a result, surrounding characters like Touka (the female ghoul) and Tsukiyama (the gourmet ghoul) distinctively stood out. Kaneki was a bit of a self-insert, so he was a difficult character to write until the end.
Ghouls are terrible monsters to humans, but they were written as an oppressed minority.
Maybe there’s some part of me that sympathizes with the minority. My parents moved around a lot and were Christians, so when I was a child I felt alienated being in a family that was slightly different from everyone else’s. I myself (just like Kaneki) feel like I am a part of both the majority and the minority.
I think that many readers were surprised by the happy ending in the last chapter. A girl was born between Kaneki and Touka, but it looked like Touka’s belly was big again…?
Yes, that’s right. It [the second child] was going to be a girl at first, but I think this time a boy would be nice.
There are many attractive human and ghoul characters, but is there a character you are particularly attached to?
Of course I want to say everyone, but appearance-wise it’s Hairu, the ghoul investigator. The girl with pink hair.
Huh? Didn’t you brutally kill her off?
Yes, that’s right. I regret killing her off, she was so cute too. It’s haunted me for a while.
There are many famous people who are fans of Tokyo Ghoul, such as the figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru.
Rather than focusing on having famous fans, I’m just happy to see that there are people who read it. To be honest, there are times when I wonder if there really are any people reading the series. So even receiving a letter from a child that says, “I’m reading Tokyo Ghoul,” makes me very happy.
midnight-in-town 
