Horror Manga Creator Minetaro Mochizuki Prefers the Darkness

Manga creator Minetarō Mochizuki—the decorated creator behind titles like Hauntress, Dragon Head, Maiwai, and Chiisakobee, was recently honored at the second annual American Manga Awards, held in August at the Japan Society in New York. The award is presented to creators for innovative and compelling storylines. Readers interested in experiencing Mochizuki's storytelling and artistry themselves can check out the reprint of Dragon Head, the first volume of which is slated for a December release by Vertical Comics.

In addition to the awards ceremony, which was an invitation-only event, Mochizuki was also a guest at Anime NYC, where he sat down with Anime News Network for a special interview.

Minetarō Mochizuki: In my adolescent years, I read a lot of works from authors such as Joseph Conrad and William Golding. A lot of their themes were also based on darkness and shadows. Because of that, I've always wanted to write a piece that was similar in nature. One thing a lot of these works had in common, and something that I wanted to accomplish as well, is that it's not just about the darkness, but how humans react within darkness. That was mainly my driving force in creating Dragon Head.

On that note, in Dragon Head, the characters experience a lot of stress, terror, and madness almost immediately. What made you want to explore those themes?

MOCHIZUKI: I prefer the darkness over brightness. I'm more of an indoor person. Also, I think that when you're an adolescent, there's a bit of admiration for the darkness. Another aspect of it is that it wasn't something that I necessarily intended to do, but when I wrote Dragon Head, the financial bubble had just burst. Money had become this worthless piece of paper in the span of a night. That feeling of depression or uneasiness kind of seeped into me, I guess. So I never really fully intended to write Dragon Head like that initially, but I think it had a lot of those themes because I was affected by those feelings in general.

One of my favorite parts of Dragon Head is that, even when the characters are out in the open, the manga feels very suffocating at times. Between the environments or the thick smoke, everything feels very enclosed. It's a very difficult artistic vision to pull off. How were you able to accomplish this?

MOCHIZUKI: When I was writing Dragon Head, I decided that I really wanted to make sure that the story progressed through the viewpoints of the main characters. And so, I never wanted to express an outside perspective. I wanted the readers to experience what the characters are feeling directly. I think the feeling you were feeling was because of the characters, because the story is so focused on the characters' perspectives and how they're feeling in those scenarios.

One aspect of the manga that was very important to me was that I didn't want to show too much. I felt that things shouldn't be shown too clearly. It was important for the characters to be able to imagine or create in their mind how to move forward into the unknown. And so I felt that it was very important that you couldn't see too much about the future, and too much of what was happening.

In terms of the stuff that you could see, in terms of the environment, it's very industrial and very detailed. What kind of visual research did you do for this? And what was the inspiration to focus on that industrial decay?

MOCHIZUKI: This might be a little different from the answer you probably want, but I've always focused on the details when it comes to stories. For example, if I saw a picture of a car and the details were even slightly wrong, it would break my immersion and make me not enjoy the work as much as I should. So when I was drawing Dragon Head, I put a lot of effort into the details. This isn't limited to just the industrial environments or buildings—it was also the characters' clothes, their shirts or their shoes, whose buttons are done or undone. I remember putting a lot of effort into the details.

I can't help but contrast Dragon Head with Chiisakobee, for instance. Compared to the former, Chiisakobee is more minimal in its art, but heavier in its prose. Even though they both tackle human emotions like loss and grief. Do you think that contrast is purely because of the story you wanted to tell with Chiisakobee, or do you think it reflected a change within yourself as a storyteller?

MOCHIZUKI: I love hearing these perspectives from other people because I don't always recognize them myself. But at least for me, I feel like the difference comes from wanting to try something different. Around that time, when I was switching publishing companies, I also changed the way that I wrote my name. I went from writing my name in kanji to writing it in katakana. I think that came about a little as a change of heart, or like a new mindset, a refresh. So even though I don't know the exact difference in the way that people might perceive me, I feel like maybe it came about from me wanting to try something different—something that I wanted to challenge myself to try.

You've adapted works to manga, like when you worked on Isle of Dogs, but you've also had your works adapted to film. What have you learned as a creative from being on both sides?

MOCHIZUKI: The short answer is that everything is based on the people who work on a project. That's the most important thing. So when it came to Isle of Dogs, I really loved Wes Anderson's work, and that was the driving factor. And when my work was adapted, I had very skilled staff, and those people had a very clear vision of what they wanted to do. So, everything, when it comes to adapting or getting my work adapted, people are the most important part of that.

Last question—even in your darkest chapters, there's always hope in humanity. Would you consider yourself an optimist for a pessimist?

MOCHIZUKI: An optimist!