Atsushi Ohkubo is the incredible mangaka behind popular titles like Fire Force and Soul Eater, both of which being series that capture an incredibly intriguing and intricate world with equally as interesting powers and abilities. He has also lent his design and art skills to video games such as Lord of Vermillion, Bravely Default, and Bravely Second: End Layer. This year, as part of Kodansha House, we had the opportunity to speak with Ohkubo-sensei and do a deep dive into the world of the Fire Force manga. We discussed some of the origins of different aspects of the manga, different elements of its characters, some of Ohkubo-sensei’s own inspirations, and his reflections on the artists he himself would go on to inspire.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity. This interview was conducted with the assistance of an interpreter. This interview contains minor broad plot spoilers for Fire Force.
Q: Fire Force handles the impressive task of having many abilities primarily based on fire while still keeping them unique and refreshing. How did you approach coming up with new abilities and was there any difficulty making sure they weren’t too similar to one another?
A: When I think about the abilities with fire, I don’t think about a variety of abilities. Usually what I focus on is: how can I make a certain thing happen with the ability of fire? For example, Arthur’s plasma sword. I wasn’t originally coming up with a plasma sword. Instead I was thinking, how could I make something like a lightsaber with the power of fire? So that’s usually the logic that I think about. How could I stop time using the power of fire? Usually what I want to do comes first, and then I try to apply how to do that with the functions of fire. There are still limitations that go with the fact that everyone uses fire, but even without the use of water, there’s a way to make ice with fire too. So there are always some ways that I thought of working out these ideas. However, it was also a limitation at the same time. So I do agree that it was a difficult process.
Q: Religion ends up being a foundational aspect of Fire Force and represents one of the more powerful factions of characters alongside others like the White Clads. What was behind the decision to make religion and faith such a strong focus of the series’ world?
A: In Fire Force, oftentimes the themes are around self growth of a character, or their partners, or their team and how they interact with each other. I do focus on the internal aspects of the characters. However, I also wanted to draw from more broader, external ideas, such as humanity or higher consciousness, where it’s like a realm of the Evangelist. These are more external worlds that are created by humans as a collective. So when I thought about writing about this theme, I thought maybe it is necessary to include elements like religion, because that is also like a collective creation of humankind.
Q: How did you approach the design of your characters? Some, like Shinra, have features such as a devilish smile that affect how others perceive and talk about them; did you originally intend on giving characters memorable features like that?
A: That’s been an ongoing thing since Soul Eater. Some characters in Soul Eater also had jagged teeth. That has become sort of my icon or my signature look for my characters. So when I was developing the main character for Fire Force, Shinra, although he’s a very good guy, he would still have this strange habit of grinning that he’s known for. That became part of his personality. And when I think about this character being on the cover of a book, for example, I wanted them to stand out and to be iconic as my work.
Q: When crafting the story, how much of it was decided from the very beginning? When creating the ending, at what point had you decided exactly how the story was going to end?
A: I had a broad map of how Fire Force would go all the way from the beginning. But how I express it and execute it is another story. For part of it, I was making it up as I went. As for the ending of Fire Force, and how it connects back to the world of Soul Eater, I originally wanted to keep it sort of ambiguous, just enough to hint that it was connected to the world of my previous work. However, as I was working on it, I was still thinking about how to make this ending work. At the same time, as I said earlier, I had a broader idea of how the story was going to go from the beginning. But that also evolved as I continued to progress in my story. So I can say that both yes, I planned it from the beginning, yet I also didn’t plan it all the way to the end. Usually when I think of stories, I think of the phenomena that happen in our reality — what is happening in the world, and how would I express that in the world of manga? That’s usually how I process some idea into manga. For Soul Eater, it’s heavily skewed toward a very fantasy setting story. However, Fire Force is a little bit closer to our reality. Elements like science come in, and I think that’s what makes it closer. But in my story’s setting, reality ended because of a natural disaster, and it became the world of Fire Force. That was also ended by a disaster and then it goes into the world of Soul Eater. That process is like turning up my lever of how much I want to skew from reality towards fantasy.
Q: Fire Force has a very wide cast of characters. Were there any that you wish you had more time to develop?
A: There were many characters — particularly the side characters — where I really wanted to expound on their stories. But Shinra is still very much a main character and the protagonist of the story, so I didn’t want the side stories to interfere with the main line of the story in this manga. It would’ve been very interesting to expound on the backstory of a character like Captain Obi. But, especially for those characters who are adults, if I started to go into their backstory, it would be much less of a Shonen manga. That’s part of the reason why I hesitated to go in that direction. I have all of these ideas for backstories in my mind, but, because I didn’t want to interfere with the main story, I decided not to include them.
Q: A lot of the relationships between characters in the series are either literally familial, like Shinra and Sho, or quasi familial, like Charon and Haumea. What made you decide to center family and relationships in the way that you did?
A: When I decided to work on a story that is focused around fire fighters, I wanted to focus on the team and the teamwork. So in order to do this, I almost portrayed the whole team as a family. For example, characters like Obi and Hinawa are very much closer to a father figure. Maki is like an older sister figure. This was definitely an ongoing theme that I had in mind as long as I knew that I was going to be writing a story about a team. In order to create contrast, their opponent’s side also has to be convincing and have a strong contrast to the team of heroes around the protagonist. And yet, the relationship between characters like Charon and Haumea is also just like a family, like a parent and a child. That is also very intentional to create a contrast with the main group.
Q: What sorts of fictional or fantasy works have been the biggest inspirations for you?
A: For manga, I can say that the reason why I fell in love with manga and decided to become a manga artist was because I read the works of Akira Toriyama: Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball. So I can say he has a great influence on me. As for other types of media, I was very much influenced by film directors like Tim Burton and David Lynch. I really love their world views and how they express themselves and their stories.
Q: How did you approach working in humorous moments into what is a pretty serious story?
A: It’s simply because I’m a very silly person myself. I’m almost like a prankster; sometimes it can be too much. I know I need to do something about that. But when I’m writing a story, I try to suppress my prankster side so that I won’t interfere with the main line of storytelling.
Q: You’ve had the opportunity to work with and mentor many who have gone on to become successful mangaka themselves. How does it feel to be part of generations of strong media like that?
A: When I became a mangaka, although I knew it was going to be a difficult path, I still wanted to be a one-of-a-kind artist. So I worked very consciously to make my own style and maintain it. And those people who come to work with me as an assistant, or the artists out there who say they are influenced by my work — I feel like I have been recognized just because I have been persistent with keeping my own style. Which makes me very happy, because that was my goal altogether. To see the new generation of artists who were influenced by me and are doing really well also makes me very happy because I feel like that means that my work mattered.
We’d like to thank Atsushi Ohkubo for taking the time to speak with us during Kodansha House and thank Kodansha USA for hosting such a wonderful event this year. This year during the event, Ohkubo-sensei appeared for a Fire Force book signing and Q&A, continuing Kodansha House’s pattern of bringing mangaka to meet with their fans. While Kodansha House for this year has ended, you can still check out the Fire Force manga and the wonderful world within it here on Kodansha.
© Atsushi Ohkubo/KODANSHA LTD
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