One of the more memorable first episodes of anime this fall was Talentless Nana, a thriller series starring a young student with a dark secret. Curious to see why my friends were excited about it, I did some research of my own and found something bizarre in the process. Talentless Nana was based on a manga whose story was written under a pseudonym: looseboy. “Could this be the looseboy I know?” I posted on Twitter in a daze. “looseboy, the porn game writer?”
Like the main character of Talentless Nana, as a young student, I too had a dark secret: I played visual novels. I read all three routes of Fate/stay Night. I soldiered through Muv Luv. I sought out the anime Humanity is Declined specifically because the source text was written by visual novel luminary Romeo Tanaka. These games could be overstuffed, repetitive, and deeply sexist. But don’t underestimate visual novels. YU-NO upended conventions in 1996 in such a way that modern games steal its twists and are still labeled forward-thinking. Infamous video game auteur Hideo Kojima cut his teeth working on spin-offs in the hugely influential Tokimeki Memorial series. And Hajime Isayama, the creator of Attack on Titan, admitted in this interview in Brutus Magazine that he had been inspired by the 18+ mecha epic Muv Luv Alternative.
I recommend reading that interview in Brutus too. It’s interesting seeing a guy, the creator of Attack On Titan, who’s borderline otaku and seemingly estranged from a lot of the world be so open about it. His interviewer is a Japanese psychologist, which helps.
–When was it that you started getting into manga and video games?
Isayama: Junior high school. I’d watched anime and read manga up until then as much as the next kid, but I didn’t know that there was this whole world of otakudom out there until I became friends with a Sega fanboy in junior high.
–What was it about that world that attracted you?
Isayama: I liked how it put reality off to the side. I liked the idea that this might be a world produced by electrodes stuck on our brains. I thought it’d be awesome to actually be a battery for machines like in The Matrix.
–There’s a scene in The Matrix about how illusionary steaks still taste good. Would you say you’re okay with being unable to ever eat a real steak?
Isayama: I’d say I’m the type who actually identifies more with the illusionary.
–Did you see reality as painful back in junior high school?
Isayama: Yes, I hated how pathetic I felt I was. You can see it in my manga, too — if there’s a character to my work, I think it’d be a sort of “endless adolescence”.
That Tumblr it’s posted on also has a bunch of other translated interviews/discussions that are worth checking out. Nice little trove of stuff on manga/anime creators.