French publisher Glenat, recently put out an interview with Tokyo Ghoul and Choujin X manga author Sui Ishida on their website. In this interview, Ishida revealed that he wanted to have a superpower to draw manga fast, like Osamu Tezuka.

The author was asked about the abilities he would like to have, if he were to become a choujin. In response he said that he wanted an ability that can make him draw manga faster.

“If I could become a manga choujin who could draw faster, I would like to become like Osamu Tezuka and have at least four more series ongoing,” Ishida said.

According to Ishida, he is a lazy person who gets bored very quickly. He preferred working on a variety of things, without having to worry about deadlines. This freedom is something he has aimed to achieve while serializing Choujin X.

“With the web medium, I can create at a free pace, unlike the weekly series that appear in magazines. Then I stopped hiring assistants. I had to check the drawings, give instructions and calculate their salaries… All these tasks to maintain my working environment impacted my life too much (of course, when I was on Tokyo Ghoul, they helped me to produce great drawings and I am very grateful to them. I still wish they would help me). I decided to cut out all those hours and be able to produce everything by myself,” Ishida said.

Ishida got the idea for Choujin X when he was serializing Tokyo Ghoul. He first envisioned it as a series having fights using kanji (Japanese characters) as power. That idea went through a transition phase, and became the manga that we see today.

“I wanted to place the action in an open and free world, mixing Japanese and Western influences, unlike Tokyo Ghoul, which is limited to a fictional Tokyo. This first idea then went through a transition phase, where I resized certain parts, modified the contours, the title… until it took the form it has today.”

Choujin X has been irregularly serialized on Shueisha’s Tonari no Young Jump website since May 2021. It was also briefly published on Weekly Young Jump from October 2021 to February 2022. The chapters of the manga have been compiled into 4 tankobon volumes as of September 2022.

Glenat is currently publishing Choujin X manga volumes in French.

Source: Glenat