About the Shokuhou Misaki Figurine
——What do you think now that you’ve seen the completed Shokuhou Misaki figurine?
The sense of volume from the front or the side is incredible! The stand, wings, and ears really give it a strong impression of being three-dimensional. When we first decided to make a Shokuhou figurine, it was supposed to be in her uniform, so I couldn’t help but think “This sure changed!” (laugh). I had suggested making it an outfit you wouldn’t normally see, so they must have wanted to see a three-dimensional Love Angel Bunny Maid.
I think she really likes to stand out and she probably doesn’t like clothes that hide her bodyline. I have a feeling she boldly exposes a lot of skin when she wears a party dress. At any rate, this unusual look at Shokuhou Misaki has a powerful presence to it and it’s worth seeing for the impact alone.
——I was worried it wouldn’t look much like Shokuhou anymore with the outfit changed so much, but I was relieved to see it was definitely her with the stars in the eyes.
To be honest, my original idea was for the pattern in her eyes to be digital contact lenses that become spirals or stars based on her emotions. At some point it settled on only being stars and became her trademark.
——One of the figurine’s notable features is the board that was designed by Akitaka-sensei.
The shape and coloring are really cool, aren’t they? The underside is really detailed (laugh). There haven’t been many flying machines in the main story, so I think it would really stand out if I had it show up there. But in a battle series, once you have one person flying, you have to have everyone flying. That would be taking everything to a new field, so I think it would be pretty difficult to have it show up… (laugh). Maybe if it was a limited-time-only item or something.
An Unprecedented Figurine Bonus! About the Short Story
——You wrote a short story as a bonus for the figurine, but I was honestly surprised at how serious a story it was.
I don’t like writing some simple slice of life story just because it’s only a bonus short story. They’ve also asked me to write novels as anime DVD bonuses and I’ve decided to take them all just as seriously.
——A story about “Misaki” who looks just like Shokuhou was perfect for a figurine bonus.
For a bonus story, I sometimes write things I wasn’t able to fit in the main novels, but this time I thought up something brand new once the figurine project was started. Since I had the opportunity, I decided to write a story that fit the project by focusing on dolls and figurines. It’s nice to include supernatural powers and technologies that make you wish they were real when reading about them, right? I came up with this while thinking that people who love figurines would probably love to have one that could move and talk like a real person.
——That is the ultimate dream of figurine fans (laugh). You wrote a story about Shokuhou in New Testament – A Certain Magical Index 11, but can we expect her to be involved even more from now on?
Before, I couldn’t just casually have her show up because I was afraid people would excessively suspect there was some deeper meaning behind it. But thanks to Volume 11, I think the readers will now view her the same way I do, so I think I’ll have her pop up in the slice of life scenes from now on.
——I hope you’ll have “Misaki” show up when you do (laugh).
Well, I hadn’t shown her room before this, so I do think I could have that figurine there in her room (laugh).
The Finale is Here! Looking Back at the 10 Projects
——How about we look back at the 10 projects for your 10th anniversary project?
When you continue doing something like writing for a long time, you tend to get too narrowly focused, so I want to begin a variety of projects and get involved in other industries to expand my own horizons. They’re all amazing, but the ones I directly worked on are the new novel The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign and the crossover novel The Circumstances Leading to a Certain Magical Heavy Zashiki Warashi’s Simple Killer Queen's Marriage.
Those started when I was speaking with my editor about wanting to do something for my 10th anniversary as an author. The crossover novel was originally supposed to be a magazine-serialized story, but we ended up expanding it because that many characters wasn’t going to fit in a short story.
——There’s also going to be an anime for your popular series Heavy Object, right?
Heavy Object was a series I began in between A Certain Magical Index 18 and 19. After writing nearly twenty volumes, I had built up a lot of material I was having trouble finding a way to use. I had enough to make a completely new story, so I did so as Heavy Object. It’s also possible I might not have made it into a new series altogether and instead thrown Quenser and Heivia into Academy City.
I’m glad the series is getting an anime for the important turning point of my 10th anniversary. I’m looking forward to seeing their idiocy reproduced in anime form.
(This interview is an edited version of one included in the January 2015 Issue of Dengeki Hobby Magazine.)