Interview

Questions and answers about the series, from the creator himself

The following interview was taken from the pages of the official Chrno Crusade Super Guide (translated by Kuroe). It is a part of a much longer part... I will be posting the rest of it in the following weeks (Translator's notes are put between brackets [ ] ).

Interviewer: Firstly, I want to ask about the context from which 'Chrno Crusade' was created. What led to the creation of this series, which was first serialized in '98?

Moriyama: At first I thought of doing a one-shot, but that never happened (laughs). My manager at the time said to me, "Lets publish a serialized project!" And, meanwhile, it was decided that there was to be a combination of a boy and a girl. Actually, in a previous one-shot that I wrote, the girl was also the master and the boy gets used and fostered. On top of that, initially I had the concept that there would be an item called 'Chrno' that would connect the two characters.

Interviewer: I see.

Moriyama: For the same reason, the era was changed to the early 20th century when there was some machinery. At least there would be telephones, planes, and cars. I thought I could use a wider range of mechanical things. This was an era that is different from today, yet close enough that someone might remember it, and the characters would no longer be still alive now. Either that, or even if they were still alive, they would be old by now. That was the kind of setting I wanted.

Interviewer: It seems like you knew it was going to be a boy and girl combination from the start, but when did you decide on it being a sister and a demon?

Moriyama: I've forgotten the details of how Chrno became a demon (laughs). However, I always wanted a contrasting relationship. A boy and a girl. A rough neck and a quiet person. A sister and a demon. I thought I'd make the pair contrast from every aspect. Then I thought that if I made the girl be the quiet character, it would be hard to do an action story. So I thought it would be more interesting to have the boy follow behind the girl.

Interviewer: An active atmosphere was a big theme in drawing this comic, right?

Moriyama: Yes, in the illustrations that I've done so far, most of the female characters needed to be quite lively. I felt compelled to take the story in a serious direction. For that purpose, I thought it would be better to have a tough female character who would pull herself forward. It would be comical as well, so why not?

Interviewer: Even so, having such a trigger happy sister is quite intense. To the extent of being too active (laughs).

Moriyama: This is a bit repetitive but I wanted contrast to be an important part of the story.
I wanted to put contrast into the characters themselves too. I wanted a gap between how they looked and who they are inside. With regards to that contrast in the two protagonists, I wonder if I did a good job of it. A demon who is kind and caring inside, and a rough neck in the guise of a nun. The reason I gave Rosette guns as weapons was because I wanted her to remain physically as a normal human being until the very end. [Hmm, I don't think Moriyama-sensei was happy seeing what the animators did to Rosette in the anime >_<]

Interviewer: As a normal human being?

Moriyama: I didn't want her to have some tremendous hidden power that gradually gets awaken. Rosette is a nun, who fights like a normal person, with normal human weaknesses.
Even though her personality is like it is, physically she is at a level that normal human can reach, without becoming some super-human. Because of that, I thought I'd let her have guns. After all, the setting is in the United States, and I also had an original world view [concept] of a Western styled story, so an image of a gunman was superimposed on Rosette.

Tell us! Moriyama-sensei!
Question: Why does Aion hate Pandemonium so much? I'm very interested in what happened in the past. -Raiku, Hyogo Prefecture
Answer: Basically Aion is the type that is quite obsessive about things. For that reason alone, he holds a deep grudge against the unforgivable things that happened in the past.
Whether I can convey that well, is the problem now. It will describe the shocking truth of 'what demons really are', I think. I want to shed some light on that area.

Interviewer: Next I want to ask about the characters. In CC, there really aren't any characters who are only annoying, are there? [Oh yes, there are... wait, I've confused it with the anime ]

Moriyama: Is that right? I wanted to work on a story that has a different view on the role of the antagonist. And as expected, after all this time, I still want to draw the demon sitting on his throne, inside a castle with bats flying around. (laughs) I hated antagonists who wait for the protagonists to reach them at the very end. I wanted a last boss who thought and moved for himself, and from there, the other characters became like that too. I started thinking from Aion's framework, then developed the idea so that the other demons became active characters. So the demons on Pandemonium's side are the real demons, I think. The Sinners who will be Rosette & co.'s enemy are active and rather human. We can empathize with what they think to an extent, but there are also things that we can't accept. I wanted to bring out this pureness.

Interviewer: The episode where the Sinners gathered around Aion to have a meal left a lasting impression. Maybe because it was a good story, or maybe because we could empathize with the scene. We get torn between feeling for Rosette's side, and the Sinners' side. Did you have these conflicts while drawing CC?

Moriyama: Hmm. I was thinking of it as a whole. It was always about letting both sides stand up. Admittedly, when I draw each scene I put feeling into it, in my own way. Chrno and Aion used to be friends in the past, its not like Aion suddenly became evil one day.  Maybe it was because of Aion's selfishness, or maybe it was just the natural flow of things.

Interviewer: Aion is a really human character, isn't he?

Moriyama: That's right. It's also that I can't draw characters that are wholly evil, so I think of it as maybe selfishness turning into evil in the end. The selfishness will stack up, resulting in actions that will probably be called evil. But I wonder if the things Aion call evil are evil in the eyes of others. I can't express this very well in words within myself, so I thought maybe I could tell it in the form of a comic. However, I think that it is important, as a comic artist, to be able to draw an antagonist who behaves like one. Perhaps that will be my next challenge.

Interviewer: 'The characters all have their own goals, prayers, and ideal worlds that they strive to reach; someone must be sacrificed as a result. With all these clashes, where will the ending take us? Prayers, what should we believe in...?' That's the direction we think the story is going right now.

Moriyama: I'm very happy that you have read so much into my story. I think it is developing over and above my original intentions. Its an 'individual vs. individual' construct, not one of 'good' and 'evil'. Another way to express it would the clashes between selfishness and one's surroundings. Because its gotten to such a large scale as a conflict between god and demons, individual frictions will be more apparent. Hmm...I really can't explain that properly.

Interviewer: The characters all have their own ideas, but how did you decide on how many characters there would be?

Moriyama: Not much thought went into that, actually. Well, to an extent, I didn't want a big army. I wanted each character to fight their own fights properly. That is probably the high point of the story. That's why I don't want to add any more characters in.

Interviewer: No matter which side they're on, each character is given importance. You can see that in how Aion's group is depicted. I think there were many great scenes. Were the characteristics of the Sinners decided after Aion?

Moriyama: That's right. There are some who are pretty despicable, some who are okay so long as they're having fun.  Rather than being like some society, its more like a circle of friends in university. Well, I wondered what it'd be like if it were a really small gang. What kind of leader would they have? After some vague thoughts on it, it became like how it is now.

Interviewer: However, thinking back to Volume 1 when Rosette and Chrno took care of the wharf incident in such a wham-bam fashion, its hard to imagine that the story would have developed so much.

Moriyama: I want to say something cool like, 'I had the story in my mind all along', but...(laughs). There were many parts aside from the essential relationships that floated into the picture. It felt as if it gradually expanded.