#natsumi is the No. 1 fan of the Yatagarasu series tbh

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Something tells me that if ever they decide to animate “The Crow of Paradise/The Paradise of a Crow”, this could be made into a film.

Or a live action?

I am on the first pages and I am seeing à la Wong Kar Wai scenes on my head with a young-ish Takuya Kimura as Hajime Yasuhara. (Okay, probably i am still holding on to his Howl voice, but he’s not only that.)

When it comes to manga adaptation, however, Natsumi Matsuzaki admitted that adapting it to manga is a challenge.

Matsuzaki : "The Crow of Paradise" came out right after we started the comic version of "Master"... I didn't know anything about the content of (Paradise), so after reading it, I thought, "I've gotten myself into something serious."

[Note: "The Crow of Paradise" is the first book in the second part of the Yatagarasu series, released in September 2020.]

… I was reading it at a café in Ikebukuro, and as soon as I finished reading it, I called (Abe-san) over... Abe was like, "Oh no, I've been called out!" (laughs). So, when I went to meet her, she looked at me with sparkling eyes as if to complain, and I thought, "Oh, good. It seems like 'The Crow of Paradise' will be okay..." (laughs).

Matsuzaki: But after that came out, and then the next one, 'The Crows of Remembrance,' I started to think, "This is getting difficult to adapt into a comic..." Is that so...?

…

Abe: From the perspective of the original author, this work is part of a series, so there is an overarching theme for the entire series. However, if you focus solely on that, each individual work might end up being incomplete.

Matsuzaki : That's right. It becomes blurred... The theme is too large.

Abe: That's why I create "major themes," "medium themes," and "minor themes." For a standalone piece, I focus only within that piece. For a main work, I focus only within that main work, and I resolve the "minor themes." But when you connect them all, a larger theme emerges... It's like creating a "mosaic picture."

Matsuzaki: But I haven't been told what the picture will look like. I try not to ask about the theme of a standalone piece, the theme of a main work, or the themes going forward. Instead, I interpret the words and events written in the current original work myself and try to create a coherent narrative.

(This q&a talk is included on the fourth volume of the manga.)