CLAMP no Kiseki Volume 10: Legal Drug
Since unknownusername over at Tumblr was kind enough to put up raw scans, I thought I might as well provide Tokyopop's translation for CLAMP's interview regarding Legal Drug. Note this has to do with the original version, and not the recent, revamped Drug & Drop.
Question: Legal Drug was serialized after Suki, but it has a very different feeling to it.
Ohkawa: At the time, a major thing we were all really into was underground stuff. Bondage, the underworld, tattoos...we were attracted to those kinds of gimmicks, and they affected the series.
Nekoi: That's also why there are so many pictures with the characters wearing silver accessories.
Negarashi: Nekoi always liked silver accessories, but at this time, all of CLAMP was into them.
Question: There are almost no women in the series; is there a reason for that?
Ohkawa: The series I had worked with Nekoi on up until then were all fluffy titles with girls or angels as the main characters, so we wanted to make something more tough and determined to have as many men as possible. Just the opposite of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. *laughs*
Question: What led you to decide on the title?
Ohkawa: At the time, we wanted to do something that felt really uncomfortable. *laughs* Our editor was quite opposed to the title Gouhou Drug. The correct English translation for that would be Legal Drug, but to emphasize the "justice" nuance, we made it Lawful Drug, but the title has nothing to do with we gav medicine. *laughs*
Igarashi: Apparently he (the editor in charge) didn't notice the leaves on the logo, though.
Question: Kazahaya has the same surname as Shuichirou Kudo from Wish. Is there any relation?
Ohkawa: It's a secret. *laughs* Kazahaya was a name that we wanted to give a character someday, and we had carefully reserved it. It was the same for X's Kotori.
Igarashi: We took good care of Kazahaya. Before, weren't there about three characters we gave to temporarily?
Ohkawa: First it was Kamui from X. As the story developed, his name took on a different meaning, so we gave it up.
Nekoi: Ohkawa also thought of using elusive novel Yume-gari.
Ohkawa: But in the end, I didn't... When I saw the character design for Legal Drug, I thought he suited the name best and decided on him, but the kanji we picked don't actually have the reading "Kazahaya". *laughs*
Question: What about Rikuo?
Ohkawa: We wanted to have it match Kazahaya ["wind fast"], so at first we named him Kuuga ["sky fang"]. But then Kamen Rider Kuuga [a superhero show] already existed...*laughs*
Mokona: That wouldn't work. *laughs*
Ohkawa: The name we thought of next was Rikuo. It's the name of the bikes used by the Japanese army during the War. Incidentally, right after we decided on the name Fay for Tsubasa, Kamen Rider 555 started. But this time we left him the way he was. *laughs*
Question: Were Kazahaya and Rikuo's characters easy to develop?
Ohkawa: Kazahaya was pretty hard to deal with. High-tension characters are hard. *laughs* I like manga where the characters don't talk. *laughs*
Nekoi: Rikuo was easy to draw. Kokuyo (Wish) is the same type of character and was also easy to draw. The more gender-neutral they are, the harder they are to draw. I have a hard time with characters as intermediate as Hisui (Wish). Compared to that, Kazahaya was easy to draw.
Question: What did you enjoy about drawing this series.
Nekoi: Legal Drug was the first series where we drew all-CG color illustrations, though we had dabbled in them before. IT was fun in that it was new. But, looking at it now, I catch a lot of things that were done poorly, it being the first time. The computers we were using weren't really powerful enough, and there were some missed saves. *laughs*
Ohkawa: We planned not to adopt CG, but we thought we could learn how to use it as a tool.
Nekoi: We had Katsuya Terada-snsei, Takeshi Okazaki-sensi, and director Takeshi Yamazaki teach us how to use it. It was quite an all star group. *laughs*
Question: So the series is currently on hiatus?
Ohkawa: When we heard that the magazine that was carrying it (Shoujo Teikoku was being discontinued, we took refuge at Asuka temporarily, saying, "At least three volumes worth." But Asuka went through a renovation and changed quite a bit... At this time, we want to find a magazine that will carry it so we can start it up again soon.
Question:What kind of developments might you be planning for the story?
Ohkawa: The story has only progressed about a fifth of the way through, becasue we planned to tie in Kazahaya's and Rikuo's pasts while resolving short episodes. But because it stopped after the infiltration of the boys' high school, the readers might be thinking, "What is CLAMP trying to do with this manga?" *laughs*
----
Well on that note, I haven't been able to read Drug & Drop, but let's hope they are able to finish the series this time around!
Question: Legal Drug was serialized after Suki, but it has a very different feeling to it.
Ohkawa: At the time, a major thing we were all really into was underground stuff. Bondage, the underworld, tattoos...we were attracted to those kinds of gimmicks, and they affected the series.
Nekoi: That's also why there are so many pictures with the characters wearing silver accessories.
Negarashi: Nekoi always liked silver accessories, but at this time, all of CLAMP was into them.
Question: There are almost no women in the series; is there a reason for that?
Ohkawa: The series I had worked with Nekoi on up until then were all fluffy titles with girls or angels as the main characters, so we wanted to make something more tough and determined to have as many men as possible. Just the opposite of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. *laughs*
Question: What led you to decide on the title?
Ohkawa: At the time, we wanted to do something that felt really uncomfortable. *laughs* Our editor was quite opposed to the title Gouhou Drug. The correct English translation for that would be Legal Drug, but to emphasize the "justice" nuance, we made it Lawful Drug, but the title has nothing to do with we gav medicine. *laughs*
Igarashi: Apparently he (the editor in charge) didn't notice the leaves on the logo, though.
Question: Kazahaya has the same surname as Shuichirou Kudo from Wish. Is there any relation?
Ohkawa: It's a secret. *laughs* Kazahaya was a name that we wanted to give a character someday, and we had carefully reserved it. It was the same for X's Kotori.
Igarashi: We took good care of Kazahaya. Before, weren't there about three characters we gave to temporarily?
Ohkawa: First it was Kamui from X. As the story developed, his name took on a different meaning, so we gave it up.
Nekoi: Ohkawa also thought of using elusive novel Yume-gari.
Ohkawa: But in the end, I didn't... When I saw the character design for Legal Drug, I thought he suited the name best and decided on him, but the kanji we picked don't actually have the reading "Kazahaya". *laughs*
Question: What about Rikuo?
Ohkawa: We wanted to have it match Kazahaya ["wind fast"], so at first we named him Kuuga ["sky fang"]. But then Kamen Rider Kuuga [a superhero show] already existed...*laughs*
Mokona: That wouldn't work. *laughs*
Ohkawa: The name we thought of next was Rikuo. It's the name of the bikes used by the Japanese army during the War. Incidentally, right after we decided on the name Fay for Tsubasa, Kamen Rider 555 started. But this time we left him the way he was. *laughs*
Question: Were Kazahaya and Rikuo's characters easy to develop?
Ohkawa: Kazahaya was pretty hard to deal with. High-tension characters are hard. *laughs* I like manga where the characters don't talk. *laughs*
Nekoi: Rikuo was easy to draw. Kokuyo (Wish) is the same type of character and was also easy to draw. The more gender-neutral they are, the harder they are to draw. I have a hard time with characters as intermediate as Hisui (Wish). Compared to that, Kazahaya was easy to draw.
Question: What did you enjoy about drawing this series.
Nekoi: Legal Drug was the first series where we drew all-CG color illustrations, though we had dabbled in them before. IT was fun in that it was new. But, looking at it now, I catch a lot of things that were done poorly, it being the first time. The computers we were using weren't really powerful enough, and there were some missed saves. *laughs*
Ohkawa: We planned not to adopt CG, but we thought we could learn how to use it as a tool.
Nekoi: We had Katsuya Terada-snsei, Takeshi Okazaki-sensi, and director Takeshi Yamazaki teach us how to use it. It was quite an all star group. *laughs*
Question: So the series is currently on hiatus?
Ohkawa: When we heard that the magazine that was carrying it (Shoujo Teikoku was being discontinued, we took refuge at Asuka temporarily, saying, "At least three volumes worth." But Asuka went through a renovation and changed quite a bit... At this time, we want to find a magazine that will carry it so we can start it up again soon.
Question:What kind of developments might you be planning for the story?
Ohkawa: The story has only progressed about a fifth of the way through, becasue we planned to tie in Kazahaya's and Rikuo's pasts while resolving short episodes. But because it stopped after the infiltration of the boys' high school, the readers might be thinking, "What is CLAMP trying to do with this manga?" *laughs*
----
Well on that note, I haven't been able to read Drug & Drop, but let's hope they are able to finish the series this time around!