{"id":56533,"date":"2026-02-07T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56533"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T07:58:16","slug":"characters-before-story-veteran-manga-editor-on-what-makes-nihon-falcoms-ys-series-like-long-running-shonen-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/characters-before-story-veteran-manga-editor-on-what-makes-nihon-falcoms-ys-series-like-long-running-shonen-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cCharacters before story.\u201d Veteran manga editor on what makes Nihon\u00a0Falcom\u2019s\u00a0Ys series like long-running shonen titles\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Linking game development and\u00a0manga\u00a0expertise, a recent\u00a0interview\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2026\/01\/23\/161912.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game*Spark<\/a>\u00a0examines\u00a0what\u00a0has\u00a0contributed to the longevity\u00a0of\u00a0Nihon Falcom\u2019s\u00a0Ys series\u00a0for\u00a0nearly four\u00a0decades,\u00a0from the perspective of a veteran Weekly Shonen Jump editor.\u00a0In particular, he\u00a0talks about some of\u00a0the\u00a0game mechanics and\u00a0narrative choices behind the\u00a0series\u2019 latest entry, Ys X, whose upgraded edition, Ys X: Proud Nordics, is set to release internationally in late February 2026.\u00a0(Note that this article will include some spoilers of the game&#8217;s opening sections).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fuyuto&nbsp;Takeda&nbsp;is&nbsp;a former&nbsp;Weekly Shounen Jump&nbsp;editor&nbsp;who personally managed Akira Toriyama\u2019s&nbsp;Dragon Ball manga serialization&nbsp;as his third&nbsp;editor,&nbsp;and&nbsp;was also involved with the&nbsp;One Piece&nbsp;series.&nbsp;As someone who has&nbsp;been in charge of&nbsp;long-running serialized manga, he finds it remarkable that the&nbsp;Ys&nbsp;series has continued for so long since he&nbsp;encountered&nbsp;the first title. Drawing&nbsp;from his manga experience, he&nbsp;analyzes&nbsp;what Ys X&nbsp;does&nbsp;that is similar to&nbsp;shonen&nbsp;manga,&nbsp;and what it does differently.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1515\" height=\"848\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1515px) 100vw, 1515px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-001.jpg\" alt=\"Ys X: Proud Nordics\" class=\"wp-image-56539\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-001.jpg 1515w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-001-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-001-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The first point Takeda touches&nbsp;upon&nbsp;is&nbsp;how&nbsp;manga&nbsp;titles&nbsp;begin.&nbsp;In&nbsp;the&nbsp;works&nbsp;he&nbsp;edited,&nbsp;he says that&nbsp;the&nbsp;\u201copening hook&nbsp;is&nbsp;crucial,\u201d&nbsp;and that he has always&nbsp;worked&nbsp;\u201cto ensure readers who only glance at the first few pages wouldn\u2019t think that it\u2019s boring and skip ahead.\u201d&nbsp;But&nbsp;he also&nbsp;points out how difficult it is to create this hook in games.&nbsp;\u201cGames are difficult because they must explain the system while telling the story. Manga&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;have that hurdle,\u201d he says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Takeda\u00a0considers\u00a0Ys X\u2019s\u00a0opening event, the execution of the ship captain LaSalle,\u00a0a good opening scene that\u00a0served to\u00a0quickly convey\u00a0the brutality of the\u00a0heroine, Karja.\u00a0He\u00a0was\u00a0also\u00a0intrigued by the\u00a0captain and\u00a0his identity\u00a0despite his early\u00a0death,\u00a0as well as the fact that\u00a0the captain&#8217;s story is\u00a0only told\u00a0later,\u00a0within a side quest,\u00a0rather than\u00a0the main story.\u00a0\u201cSince side quests are optional content, the more you play the game, the deeper your understanding of the story becomes. This is a technique unique to games that simply\u00a0wouldn&#8217;t\u00a0work in a manga,\u201d in his words.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He&nbsp;further&nbsp;compared&nbsp;how the two mediums handle their protagonists. In his era,&nbsp;shonen&nbsp;protagonists needed loud,&nbsp;hot-blooded and righteous&nbsp;personalities to drive a linear plot, which in turn&nbsp;\u201climited them by design.\u201d&nbsp;In contrast,&nbsp;Adol Christin, the main protagonist of&nbsp;the Ys series,&nbsp;has remained famously quiet&nbsp;in most of his adventures, and Takeda feels that this is&nbsp;a deliberate \u201cgame design&nbsp;choice&nbsp;that allows players to project themselves into the story,\u201d&nbsp;with dialogue only appearing in response to the player\u2019s choices,&nbsp;which makes&nbsp;\u201cthe player\u2019s actions themselves become Adol\u2019s&nbsp;actions and&nbsp;will.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1520\" height=\"851\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1520px) 100vw, 1520px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-002.jpg\" alt=\"Ys X: Proud Nordics\" class=\"wp-image-56540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-002.jpg 1520w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-002-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206-56533-002-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Takeda also comments\u00a0on the appearance of the new character, Canute\u00a0Gamley, in the Ys X: Proud Nordics version, who\u00a0is set to act\u00a0as\u00a0a rival to Adol and Karja\u00a0or an obstacle\u00a0for them to overcome.\u00a0Takeda\u00a0has always seen\u00a0rival characters who spur the protagonists\u2019 growth as\u00a0crucial elements of storytelling.\u00a0\u201cWhen starting\u00a0a new manga, I think about rivals from the very beginning. I often prepare characters who are\u00a0polar opposites\u00a0of the protagonist or hold different values. Then, through the relationship between the protagonist and their rival, I consider \u201cwhat aspect of the protagonist do I want to show?\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0says.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Takeda acknowledges\u00a0Ys X\u00a0as\u00a0a game that\u00a0prioritizes characters, and\u00a0thinks\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0common between the game and the manga he works on.\u00a0When approaching\u00a0pitches\u00a0for Shonen Jump, he would first think about\u00a0the characters and how their traits should be portrayed, while the story would\u00a0be secondary to this objective.\u00a0And he feels that Ys X is the same, in that it\u00a0\u201cdoesn\u2019t feel like it started with \u2018I want to make this kind of story,\u2019 but rather conveys\u00a0the intent of\u00a0\u2018I want to depict what kind of characters the protagonist and\u00a0the heroine\u00a0are.\u2019\u201d\u00a0He\u00a0considers this to be another important part of\u00a0good\u00a0storytelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ys X: Proud Nordics is set to release worldwide on Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, and PC on&nbsp;February 27, 2026.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former\u00a0Weekly Shounen Jump\u00a0editor Fuyuto\u00a0Takeda\u00a0talks about the latest entry of Nihon Falcom&#8217;s long-running Ys series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":56536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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