Minamata Story: And Eco Tragedy
What was the creative process in deciding how to tell the story?
A key thing is often about not putting overly complicated information and experiences in the book. A good way to do that is to have a figure in the book who sees things more or less as the reader will. So, in this case we have a young college student exploring the issue, meeting the people, seeing the places. And as he learns and sees all this, so does the reader. It’s a classic technique in storytelling.
Having written many different manga genres, how was producing this one different?
The key difference here is that many of the people in this book are still alive, and here in the same areas as I live in. Therefore, I could engage in some direct anthropological style research for this book.
What made you decide to take up the project?
What made you decide to take up the project?
A friend of mine who is an environmental campaigner has a few of my books on social issues and suggested that I do the next one on Minamata. I had heard of it before and thought it was a good idea.
So, he took me down to Minamata to meet with the disease sufferers and those who care for them. They took me on a tour of some key places connected to the issue, and I learned a lot.
Then, we both researched it, for facts and visuals. So, hopefully our book should be largely accurate.
