Since October, a new "Seven Deadly Sins" adapted from the comic of the same name has come into everyone's sight. This work belongs to the fantasy genre and borrows a lot of stories from The Legend of Arthur. Creating such a work has always been the wish of the original author, Ao Suzuki. Recently, some Japanese media conducted a brief interview with him, from his mouth to understand the world view of his works and the behind-the-scenes story of creation.

In the story of this work, there is a country called the Kingdom of Leonis in the alternate continent of Britalia, set in medieval Europe. The paladins of the kingdom were preparing for the legendary holy war, but despite their sacred name, the atrocities of the group left the entire country in misery, and the angry populace even staged a coup d'état and imprisoned the king. Elizabeth, the third princess, who is worried about the current state of the country, pins her hopes for saving the country on the Seven Deadly Sins, a knight who was wanted for a serious crime ten years ago, and embarks on a journey to find it alone. However, there was no trace of the Knights along the way, but when the exhausted Elizabeth strayed into a hotel, she encountered a crisis, and at the critical moment, she was rescued by the owner of the hotel, and unexpectedly, the blonde boy was the leader of the "Seven Deadly Sins". After freeing the princess from the danger of her pursuers, they also embark on a journey to save the future of their country......

Although it is called a "great sin", the protagonist "Crime of Wrath" Meliodas looks like a childish teenager. The next appearance, "The Sin of Jealousy", looks like a tall giant, but in fact she is a cute girl with two ponytails. I believe that such an image is also beyond everyone's expectations. In fact, when the author Mao Suzuki serialized this fantasy work, he attached great importance to the creation of characters.

"In the first few years of my debut, no matter what subject I painted, I would be sent back by the editorial department. "The Seven Deadly Sins" is a fantasy work based on "The Legend of King Arthur", and I actually raised a similar theme at a serialization conference 15 years ago. However, at that time, I was stuck in a dilemma that many newcomers encounter, that is, I only thought about the setting of the fantasy setting, but completely neglected the character creation. So I decided that I would never touch fantasy works again until I could create characters well. ”

After that, Nao Suzuki began serializing a work called "Golf Story" with golf as the theme, and finally made his debut as a manga artist with serialized works. Since then, he has been involved in sports such as figure skating and kendo, as well as modern works such as martial arts.

"If the stage is an ordinary modern society, then if you can't draw characters with personalities, you can't move the plot forward. So naturally, I started to practice character building. ”

Before serializing "The Seven Deadly Sins", Suzuki drew more short fantasy works. After the editor of Weekly Shonen Magazine saw these works, he invited him to create a serialized fantasy manga. However, it may not be easy to serialize fantasy works in magazines.

"I was invited by an editor to create a fantasy work, and I was very happy at first. After all, I already have some confidence in creating characters. However, "Magazine" is also a publication with a large adult group among shonen manga magazines, so if you are not careful, you may be cut in half. So what do you do to create a fantasy that can be accepted by adults? In order not to offend adult readers, I avoided some fantasy terms as much as possible, and instead made the characters appear in a charismatic way. So, my serialization began. ”

And when creating the character, the problem that Suzuki realized was "accidentality". The protagonist's faction is a thief, and the enemy who tracks them down is a paladin. Normally, the setting should be reversed. However, this precisely reflects the particularity of Suzuki's style.

"If the paladins are the protagonists and portray the stories of them defeating the bad guys in various places, then we must not forget that their actions often come from orders from their superiors and do not have their own will. If you don't want to be bound by the organizational framework, then you should still look for the evil party as the protagonist. I think it's more interesting to play a role that understands one's own judgment and acts with one's own consciousness. ”