Interviews/Stream Q/A 4

These are taken from http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nebu-kuro1

This page covers streams from 2018

Q - Questions by random stream audience

A - Answer from Murata regarding the question

T - From the translator himself

Murata - Whenever he speaks during the stream (Not answering any particular question)

15/1/2018
Murata: Switched to a new computer, forgot my Amazon password, had to call customer support to reset it.

Murata: For identity verification, they asked me to list my recent purchases in an email. My assistant sent email on my behalf.

Murata: Let’s see...it was JULIA’s photobook, Ayumi Shinoda’s photobook, and some other photobooks.

T/N: These are Japanese AV actresses.

Murata: JULIA’s body is like a manga character.

16/1/2018
Murata: Received rest of the storyboards from ONE Sensei. Only a few pages, but they’re super interesting, I might delay update till next Monday to include everything.

24/1/2018
Murata made a comment about Whirwind Iron Cutting Fist, said it works by manipulating air. Didn't say anything about whether Bang could or could not deflect energy balls.

26/1/2018
Murata mentioned on Jan. 26th stream that the dine and dash place Togas (トガス) is based on Cafe Restaurant Gusto (Cafe レストラン ガスト), a Japanese fast food chain. Murata just rearranged Gusto (ガスト) into Togas (トガス). Said he likes the food there.

Their homepage: https://www.skylark.co.jp/gusto/index.html

27/1/2018
Murata: ONE’s original Suiryu’s setting was very different. In the first storyboard, he was Lin Lin’s brother and uses Drunken Fist (酩酊拳) instead of Void Fist (冥躰拳). During the finale of the tournament, he gets drunk, goes all out against Saitama, but loses. Afterward, Lin Lin comforts him, telling him to work harder in the future. This setting was scrapped because a drunkard vs Gouketsu was deemed too comical and they wanted to show despair.

T/N: Murata didn’t say who changed the setting. The kanjis for “void” and “drunken” are homonyms in Japanese, both are pronounced “meitei," which is pretty cool. Suiryu also means water dragon, maybe there’s a connection there as well.

Murata: The animation team misinterpreted ONE’s intentions when animating the Ancient King fight. ONE only wanted Tatsumaki to drop a big boulder on Ancient King. Before the boulder hits him, Ancient King has a flashback of the meteor that destroyed his race eons ago and starts to scream. She was not supposed to pull a meteor from space, if she could do that, she should be able to bring down Boros's ship without difficulty. The meteor scene was supposed to be flashback only.

T/N: This technically downgrades Tatsumaki's power.

Murata: Season 2 anime will likely cut a lot of content from the Superfight Arc, making it 2 episodes or so.

T/N: The Fubuki drawing he’s working on in the last few streams was planned as a color cover page for next chapter, but this has been rejected by his editor due to space constraints, so now it will go in tankobon. Murata was sobbing on stream when he drew the kid meeting Garou again, did you guys see that?

28/1/2018
Murata: I am taking a risk drawing Saitama dining with Fubuki, female OPM readers might beat me up for it.

Murata: I don't think Fubuki is really needed in this scene, Saitama can always come back and pay for it later after beating Garou.

Murata: Maybe this meal is why Fubuki gets a bit down when Saitama calls her his acquaintance later. Saitama doesn't actually care about Fubuki.

11/2/2018
Murata implies that Zombieman's trench coat is special and can store tons of weapons.

Regarding volume 16 cover art: Murata wants to use Zombieman to increase sales, but since Bang & Bomb are the ones heavily featured in the volume he might have them on the cover instead.

Murata is still in discussion with ONE regarding Bug God's premonition powers, said they might reserve it for the future fight with you know whom.

Murata drew Dr. Genus' bangs on the wrong side, didn't see the chat but I think a stream viewer corrected him. Murata said ONE's storyboard had it on the other side and it misled him but the webcomic Genus has always been like that, no?

14/2/2018
Murata: Bug God's eye design is inspired by the mantis. It's ONE's original idea. I really dig the pseudopupils in some insects like the mantis, because no matter where the head is turned, the eyes always look like they're staring right at you. I am trying to make it look more realistic by doing some research on mantis.

8/3/2018
Murata: The scale of Saitama vs Garou will be much greater than Saitama vs Boros.

20/3/2018
Q: Mr. Murata, is Saitama considered a gag character like Arale or a parody character?

A: Yeah, Saitama is definitely drawn in a different way than the others, and he's obviously on a whole different plane compared to other characters in the manga (haha)

T/N: I don't think he means "drawn differently" in a literal sense though.

3/4/2018
Q: What's on the inside of Royal Ripper?

A: I don't know if it's like a normal person or a mixture of blood, flesh, hair, and gauze. I will need to confirm with ONE.

5/4/2018
Murata: ONE confirmed that Royal Ripper's inside is nothing like that of a normal human, but a mixture of hair, blood, and gauze.

22/4/2018
Murata: Bomb would have beaten the rat monster in one swift attack with whirlwind iron cutting fist before it can react. Garou hasn't mastered WICF, which allowed the rat monster's regeneration to kick in and heal itself after being attacked.

7/5/2018
Murata: The glow-in-the-dark charging indicator on Genos was going to be part of the next Tankobon insert. Unfortunately, the editor rejected the proposal due to production issues, such as needing an extra layer of coating would make the page uneven.

Murata: Garou in the coming chapter has finally left humanity behind.

Murata: Each one of Orochi's 8 horns can turn into a dragon, plus more dragons wrapped around his body. He instantly learns any move used by Garou. He uses Water Stream Rock Smashing Fists with his multiple dragons as arms against Garou.

Q: Murata sensei, here's a question from overseas, can Geryuganshoop actually create black holes by manipulating gravity? It seems like they care about this a lot.

A: hm~, I'm not sure. Black holes seem too powerful. I won't know for sure without asking ONE. But his ability to control flying object should be above Tatsumaki, because he can eliminate the friction between rocks and air. If Tatsumaki throws rocks like he does, her output will be too powerful, the temperature increase due to friction and pressure, and evaporate the rocks in an instant. Geryuganshoop's psychokinesis can eliminate the friction between objects and air, the rocks will fly at sub-light speed*, that's the setting I based my drawing on. Tatsumaki can throw very large objects, but there's a limit to how fast she can throw them. Geryuganshoop is the greatest psychic in the universe after all. That's what I think. (he repeats this several times)

Murata: Saitama still beat him with a casual stone throw though. In Saitama's eyes rocks at sub-light speed is nothing, it's like a bad joke.

T/N: The Japanese used here is 亜光速, can mean sublight or near lightspeed.

11/5/2018
Murata: Orochi can breathe fire. His "released form" is drawn with Biollante in mind. I want to show Orochi using Gouketsu's techniques, I'm currently waiting on ONE's approval. I just had a long discussion with ONE on future plot development. Not everything has been revealed to me by ONE, but I feel Orochi will be shown to be a unique monster and handled with extra care.

14/5/2018
Murata: Garou evolves in this fight. The puncture wound will absorb black matter from air, spiral inward and close itself. He will evolve again when he fights Golden Sperm.

16/5/2018
Murata: Orochi's disaster level is "Dragon or Above"*

T/N: The Japanese used here is いじょう, meaning "greater or equal to", i.e. ≥. Doesn't outright say God, but that's the same phrase used for Boros.

17/5/2018
Q: Can Senior Centipede's carapace withstand Genos's blasts?

A: Genos can only damage Senior Centipede's armor using his upgraded attacks.

T/N: Murata is likely referring to his Spiral Incinerate set of attacks

Murata: I haven't asked ONE about using Gouketsu's techniques yet, but it shouldn't be a problem. However it's not happening in the immediate chapters.

19/5/2018
Murata: Not sure who's stronger, Orochi or Golden Sperm. Will need to ask ONE. Orochi definitely has better techniques though since Golden Sperm is all about speed and power.

24/5/2018
Murata: ONE told me more about what will happen to Orochi. He's going to show more abilities in the future. He's a top monster both in looks and power. However, I do not know how he'll die yet, usually ONE decides this while drawing the storyboards. For example, Gouketsu's last fight was skipped because ONE specifically told me so.

Murata: Orochi's Water Stream Rock Smashing fist is just as good as Garou's.

Murata: Too tired. I will do a full coloring of the title page and update later. For now I'll try cheat with a graphic tablet and simple American comic color palette.

Murata: Maybe Garou should hold a can of Red Bull instead of coke. It will give him wings. My assistants and I used to drink a ton of Red Bull during the Eyeshield days, we end up with a Red Bull pyramid every week, but energy drinks are bad for you.

Murata: Season 2 is coming soon, which means I have to supervise the artworks on a lot of merchandise. I hate it. In the past most of the designs sent to me were so badly done I had to correct everything. It was so tiresome. I just got this chibi Sonic design. Not sure what merchandise it's for, it's so bad I almost laughed. How could you turn a beautiful character like Sonic into this?

Murata: I'll be streaming signed artworks for Eyeshield 21 after I'm done with this chapter. It's for JUMP 50th anniversary exhibition.

25/5/2018
Murata: Orochi's attacks should have more collateral damage, in particular the walls of Monster Association should melt from the extreme heat of his breath. I didn't have time to finish that before handing the chapter in.

26/5/2018
Q: Monster King's design is so complicated how is it going to be animate?

A: I'm not worrying about it. In fact I will even make the drawings more complicated, more facy, more explosiveness. I'm not going to tune down the drawings for the animation. The animation team are professionals, they know how to find an easy way out to cover up the complicated design of such character.

Q: I've heard JC Staff is not good at animating battle scene, wonder if it's true

A: Hmmm....well hopefully they can keep it up...

Murata: Gyoro Gyoro will be burned to death by Orochi's fire if she didn't use her shield.

Murata: Garou will fight Darkshine next just like in the webcomic. Fighting Darkshine after Orochi is fine, Darkshine is super strong, you'll see! His muscles are amazing, he just lacks a little willpower.

Murata: Orochi is probably included to let Tatusmaki to get injured, so Psykos can use the opportunity to sneak attack Tatsumaki. Having her directly sneak attacking and injuring Tatsumaki in the original was a little far fetched.

Q: Sensei, how do you think the fight between Tatsumaki and Orochi is going to be?

A: The fight between Orochi and Tatsumaki? We'll see how that goes when I receive ONE's storyboards.

Murata: Orochi being Blast? Oh this is interesting. Blast is really strong, I don't want him to die. Plus Tatsumaki won't mention her relationship with Blast until much later, so he won't be making an entrance now, therefore that is not a possibility.

Murata: Orochi's tail is modeled after a sandworm. I went fishing during golden week earlier in the month and got bitten by the worms used as live bait. I found them particularly gross and decided to model Orochi's tail after it.

30/5/2018
Q: Is Choze German?

A: Genos looks German. Choze would be Russian. Suiryu would be Italian. Sweet Mask would be Korean. The Psychic sisters would be French.

Q: Can you draw formal wear Garou?

Murata: Garou probably won't wear something that restricts his movements like this, but it's still interesting to see how he would look in one for the contrast.

Acknowledgments
Great thanks to the following people for providing the translations
 * sysr23 and hdx514 from One Punch-Man subreddit for the Stream translations
 * rigel-rigel from ustream for the Stream translations