Ishida’s afterword part 1
Please feel to correct me if there are any mistakes. (source of the afterword)
I’ve already handed in the final manuscript, and I’m now writing this letter.
I would’ve written 4-komas at the end of the volume as usual, but I had a hard time writing “what comes afterwards” in such a format, so I thought that I would write an afterword.
Preface
Tokyo Ghoul began its serialization in September of 2011.
7 years have passed since then. My life had revolved around chasing the deadline, week after week.
I felt that if I took a break I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to draw again, so I didn’t give myself a break.
Now that the series has ended, I’m finally living a life where I haven’t had a deadline looming over me for the first time in 7 years.
I wonder how I used to spend my time in the past.
If I want to be frank about how I currently feel, should I say it feels…liberating?
Tokyo Ghoul was just something that was intimately intertwined with my life, something that dominated my emotions and time, and something that changed my relationship with people.
There was good that came with it, but oftentimes it was more bad than good.
It felt like I was finally being released after being trapped in a cage.
From volume 7, which was previously unknown, onwards, the stance regarding the manga changed.
I worked excessively to try and drive myself.
I cast away all kinds of things in my life, and poured all my time into work.
To the point that I developed complications in my body.
I was scared at first. But all sorts of symptoms showed up every few months, and seeing that that was the kind of body I had, I resigned myself to it.
The most striking to me was that my sense of taste disappeared.
No matter what I ate, everything tasted the same. Even though the symptoms themselves were different, it felt like I’d turned into a ghoul.
I was surprised at just how much the human spirit is tied to the body.
There may be some readers who may be disappointed by this, but I have never thought of drawing Tokyo Ghoul itself as fun. I hate working.
“Why am I drawing manga?”
These doubts came to rise in strength.
