Golden Kamuy - Satoru Noda Interview (2/4)

I believe all characters should function as plot devices that move the story forward. Behind every character is a specific role that the story requires them to play. This holds true for all manga, no matter the genre.
But the most important thing is how you flesh them out. Your characters need to be living people who your readers can relate to, not characters that feel artificially created by you.
In the process of fleshing out those characters, inspiration can come from anywhere—novels, manga, movies, or observing the people around you. The ability to pick the right one from among those choices determines your skill as a manga artist. At the end of the day, the characters you create reflect your own values and artistic sensibilities.

When it comes down to it, “Golden Kamuy” is Sugimoto's story. To that end, I did my best to make him the most appealing so that readers would like him the most out of the entire cast.

I didn't want Asirpa to be a helpless girl who always needed to be protected by men. Of course, there are many scenes where she gets taken away by force, which can't be helped given her small stature and age. But, even so, she remained someone who forged her own path courageously, just as I intended.

I think I might have had Lupin the Third in mind when developing Shiraishi as a character. He turned out to be kinder than Lupin, but less sophisticated.

I thought the story could use a cool guy with some gravitas, so I portrayed Hijikata as an imposing character.

First Lieutenant Tsurumi was more than enough to fill the "mysterious character" slot, so I depicted Ogata as someone whose principles and personality would become clear to readers by the end of the story.

I loved the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I was especially captivated by how Jeremy Brett portrayed the titular role so elegantly on the TV series. That elegance is an important part of what makes Lieutenant Tsurumi who he is.

You could say no one in the story grows more dramatically than Koito does as a person. By the way, if you were to compare each character to a dog, he'd be a Doberman Pinscher.

Many say Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers is perfect, but I have to disagree. Just look at how little hair he has on his face or body—he is the complete opposite of Tanigaki. I doubt he even has chest hair. If God had blessed Shohei with lush hair, though, I'd be mad with jealousy. I'd have to cross the Pacific with a bat in my hand, determined to make sure that such a perfect being does not continue to exist.

The key is to let your readers get a glimpse of how your villains treat those weaker than themselves with kindness. In my case, I made sure my villains were kind to children, as Hijikata and Tsurumi are to Asirpa and Cikapasi.

At the end of the day, your manga's popularity depends on how compelling your characters are, so my answer is yes. No matter how much effort you put into setting up the world, or how skilled you are at drawing, your manga won't resonate without relationships between compelling characters. There's no doubt in my mind about that.