Do you feel the storm approach as the end draws near?..
20.06.2017 в 07:46
Пишет Bernadett-e:Интервью ТанакиURL записи
Пропустила, несу себе в закрома.11.10.2016 в 18:57Пишет NikaDimm:
А между тем нам обещают новый ЛоГГURL записи
всего через год, осенью 2017. А пока потихоньку раскручивают англоязычное издание романа.
И как-то смутно намекают на старый ЛоГГ с переводом на английский?
Интервью Танаки для Форбс
Japanese Sci-Fi Novelist Yoshiki Tanaka: 'I Love To Imagine Alternate Realities'
www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2016/04/18/jap...
One of more interesting contemporary authors in Japan is Yoshiki Tanaka. With a long and gilded career, he’s penned hugely successful literary works like The Heroic Legend of Arslan and Legend of the Galactic Heroes to name a few. What with the recent Western release of the latter series, I was lucky enough to catch up with Tanaka to talk with him about his work.
If you don’t know much about Tanaka’s body of work, his approach to narrative is a unique and comprehensive one. In the case of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the series spans 10 novels as a galactic wide conflict is played out in intricate detail.
It’s this juxtaposition between the detail and the galactic setting that gives this series such an epic scope, to the extent that it makes Frank Herbert’s Dune feel somewhat provincial.
Thing is, Tanaka’s novels all have this huge scope coupled with both political intrigue and intricate strategy. It’s what has made his work so compelling for his readers.
So it may come as no surprise, that Tanaka admits to being a quiet pensive child that loved to read, building these huge worlds in his head. As he explains, “I hail from a place called Kumamoto, on an island called Kyushu in the southwestern part of Japan. It is known for its beautiful castle, magnificent volcanoes, and delicious ramen. I have been told that I was a quiet child who would read whatever he could get his hands on.”
I was curious as to how he started out writing fiction and he was happy to clarify that, “My university had a magazine, and it was running a fiction contest with a 10,000-yen prize. I wrote and submitted a short story hoping to win the money. That was my first piece of fiction. By luck, my work was selected. The magazine then guilted me into accepting 8,000, claiming that they didn’t have any money.”
“In terms of my favorite literary works, I enjoy works such as Jean Ray’s Malpertuis and Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series where reality takes a backseat to the magical and marvelous. I also enjoy novels that deal with Chinese history.”
Gormenghast is definitely an interesting choice, as those novels were partially inspired by Peake’s childhood in China, with its culturally intricate landscape. So it make sense that Chinese history also has an important place in Tanaka’s literary preferences.
This historical focus is also something that has helped guide Tanaka’s work in terms of inspiration, as he says, “When I read about history, I always find myself wondering why a certain person made a particular decision at a given time. I love to imagine alternate realities where things might have turned out differently.”
“In the case of Legend of the Galactic Heroes’ battles I took historical events and imagined someone making alternative decisions, then extrapolated them from there.”
The size and complexity of the battles is something that has helped to define Legend of the Galactic Heroes over the years but it seems that the planning of that flows very naturally.
“First of all, I think of what a single volume will include. Then, I split up that volume into ten chapters and decide what story I want to tell in each of them. My pen does the rest on its own.”
The fact that now after nearly thirty years since the Legend of the Galactic Heroes novels ended we have a Western localized release is really quite momentous, which is something that Tanaka definitely concurs with, “I’m elated! To start with, I didn’t want to write something that only appealed to a specific group of people in a specific country. If my work can be enjoyed as something with universal appeal in English-speaking countries as well, that makes me incredibly happy.”
© 1982 by Yoshiki Tanaka
Cover Illustration © 2007 Yukinobu Hoshino
The other part to the success of these novels is the amazing decade long anima adaptation it received, an adaptation that will receive a Western release in the near future. However, Tanaka wasn’t directly involved with its production, as he explains, “I have no involvement with the anime adaptations. Once I approve the project, I leave the rest to them and stay out of it. I simply look forward to seeing the finished product.”
At this point Tanaka’s manager Hirofumi Adachi was quick to comment, “As was mentioned earlier, Mr. Tanaka had no involvement with the OVA version of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, directed by Noboru Ishiguro. Production continues on the new Legend of the Galactic Heroes anime, scheduled for release in Fall 2017. For this project, we have set up a system whereby Mr. Tanaka reviews the notes from each meeting that involves important elements of the series composition and other elements essential to the core direction of the project, and can order any changes that he deems necessary. However, Mr. Tanaka has yet to exercise these rights or offer any guidance.”
Adachi also helpfully clarified the situation regarding the cover art for his various novels, “As far as Japanese publications are concerned, the editor at the publishing company is in charge of all aspects of book production, including the cover illustrations. His editor selected them knowing that both Yoshitaka Amano and Naoyuki Kato would do justice to the covers. Mr. Tanaka has had cover illustrations drawn by many other illustrators as well, and all of them have done incredible work. We are very thankful.”
Tanaka was also quick to add that, “I left everything regarding the original covers to my editor at the time, and everything related to the design work for the anime to the animation staff. I had no involvement with them, and thus I’m not sure of what went into those decisions at the time. I apologize.”
With the success of the anime in Japan and its now future release in the West, I was curious if Tanaka would be interested in a Hollywood adaptation of his work, “Of course! It makes me a little nervous, but I would definitely be interested!”
One of the final points I curious about was the various Legend of Galactic Heroes games that had been released and whether Tanaka was familiar at all with the Homeworld series. The response wasn’t what I was expecting, “This may seem unbelievable, but Mr. Tanaka still uses pen and paper when writing his manuscripts. He doesn’t use a computer or the Internet, so he doesn’t really understand about this game.”
Finishing off I asked what Tanaka enjoy doing in terms of hobbies and what hopes he had for the future, “I enjoy bundling up in bed and napping during the winter or when it’s cold. Right now, I’m pretty captivated by the American presidential election.”
“As for the future, it may sound a bit audacious, but I would like to continue writing things that people all across the world could comfortably enjoy at any given time in history.”
Thanks to Yohiki Tanaka for agreeing to do the interview. The first volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes is now available in English via the Haikasoru imprint from VIZ Media at places like Amazon.
Омг, наш любимый Ядовитый Гад до сих пор пишет ручкой и на бумаге и не пользуется компьютером!
Как мило.@темы: LoGH