nacuN volume cover notes by Daisaku Tsuru

Vol.1

I think it all started with the fantasy that if I had equipment that would allow me to swim for days on end, I could go to America or the Mediterranean for free, and if I got hungry, I could just eat fish or squid… and stuff like that. But our civilization is such that even if such an era came, we would still end up paying for air travel. And how I wish that such a subtly primitive life, where people just go into the sea and don't come back, would still exist and flourish somewhere. A contrast that suddenly came to mind: the emerald green sea, rust-covered piers, and concrete turtle tombs of Okinawa. It was with this picture in mind, that I set off on this journey.

Vol.2

Since there are no laser guns or cyberspace here, it's easy to think that this is just a story about human relationships, but it is meant to be hardcore sci-fi. Once, diving into the sea alone, I experienced an eerie sensation. That's probably what you feel when you're abducted by aliens. We can't just go to space, but the ocean is right next to us. Vast, eerie, yet enchanting, a phenomenon far greater than man. The fishing port depicted in this book is a spaceport, and the fishermen are astronauts. In this universe, the deeds and fortunes of human beings, who like or dislike money, love and hate each other, unfold in a mysterious way… I would like to try to express it to that extent.

Vol.3

Although I believe that personal experience (including reading, etc.) becomes material for creativity, not only in manga, but everywhere, what I think is also important is to forget. Experience in the present moment is vivid, but, surprisingly, I cannot draw it in manga. My memories of Okinawa from ten years ago have largely been forgotten, or have been transformed due to mistakes and misunderstandings. In drawing this volume, I dug up sometimes incomprehensible memories that sat much deeper than Okinawa. Perhaps it was a mixture of cartoons I saw as a kid. It felt like I had memories of being stripped naked and sold at the market.

Vol.4

What fires me up the most about drawing manga, is creating colorful characters. I start drawing with the strange conviction that if I have ugly characters, the "jewel in a dunghill" effect will make the pretty women drawn by my clumsy hand shine. But it is amazing how quick the beautiful men and women become unimportant. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I draw manga for the sake of these ordinary people: the greasy middle-aged men whose blackness has begun to turn into radiance; the old ladies, flabby but not lacking in feminine charm; and the creepy but lovable young men… There will be science fiction as well, so thank you in advance for your support.

Vol.5

I have a theory, which is completely unproven, that when one needs to use one's intuition, the right side of the brain activates and begins to produce heat, which causes sweating in the right ear canal, thus causing wax to accumulate in the right ear. The opposite is true when logical thinking is required: the left side of the brain heats up, and wax builds up in the left ear. Although I believe that creative work begins with an intuition (i.e., right brain activity) that I have no idea where it came from, in this volume, I fully engaged my poorly performing left brain to search for the basis of my intuition, so there should be more earwax on the left side.

Vol.6

Thanks to all of you, this is finally the last volume. I think at this point, I've tried everything I wanted to try and do in a manga. First of all, I like old-fashioned manga, that just play around with characters and situations for fun, and I wanted to bring that back to the present. Docking this with the "unpredictable and speedy development" of today's style, I wanted to create my own manga world unlike any other. It's an absurd combination that might cause diarrhea, but my ideal was to create a manga world that is a combination of Fujiko F. Fujio and Katsuhiro Otomo. I am aware of my lack of talent, so in the end, I would be happy to leave it to you, the readers, to decide whether my plan worked or not.