S O U L M A T E S (SasuNaruSasu Magazine) Soulmates Magazine Nº2 | Page 18

say) and changing up the dialogue just so it
would fit one or two lines. That meant cut-
ting A LOT from the original story.
Initially, Hiromi had a lot more scenes in the
story (including the part where Nobu mo-
ves into his new apartment). That was hard
because I (and Wanda) really wanted to
show the women as being strong, indepen-
dent (basically what we didn’t get from Sa-
kura and Hinata at the end of the manga).
So, I tried to write them as being what I
wanted from those two… so Hiromi was
actually really cool, and so was Rin (I got to
sneak in at least one Naruto name).
So, definitely the script was so difficult, but
it really opened my eyes to how fun that
could be as a career! I’d love to do
scriptwriting!
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO
DO IT?
Well, I started writing it in March 2016, fi-
nished that at the end of April, then it was
turned into a script, which I didn’t see until
June? Then we spent June and July editing
it, or maybe even August. I know Wanda
*wanted* to do the studio recording in Sep-
tember, but that didn’t happen because one
of the voice actors (Yuichi Nakamura) was
booked until December! But, I was dead set
on him playing Takao (aka Itachi).
WHAT DID YOU WANT TO SHOW
WITH THE STORY OF BREAK FREE?
I will say I’m only going to speak for myself
and not necessarily for Wanda and Leaves
and Bonds, Inc. The manga had really disap-
pointed me with that ending, so I did want
to show that “marriage” didn’t have to be
the end game, so I knew what would hap-
pen in Nobu’s situation where his parents
wanted to push him toward an arranged
marriage. In the original story, it’s said that
Takao is gay and that was the reason why
he was disowned by his parents (this may or
may not kind of be picked up on in the
CD, but with how much we had to cut, it
would’ve detracted from the more main
conflict with Nobu and his family and the
arranged marriage, and Kaito’s stuff, too).
Also, too, like I mentioned. I wanted to wri-
te strong women who also didn’t care about
marriage and babies (not that there’s
anything wrong with that, ofc, I just wan-
ted to show the other side of it). So I wrote
Hiromi as I would write the Sakura I truly
wanted to see and while Rin isn’t truly ba-
sed on Hinata, I wanted another supportive
and interesting younger female. In my head,
Rin was an LGBT character, as well. So,
yes, also inclusive!
HOW EXCITING WAS IT FOR YOU
TO SPEAK WITH JUNKO AND NORI-
AKI?
Oh my God. I can’t tell you how long I have
admired Junko. Obviously I adore them both. I
knew for a while that I’d be able to FaceTime
during the studio recording (that happened the
following December after I wrote the story)
and… I have never been more nervous in my
life. I had to basically sedate myself. I was going