Hello everyone! Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. Last month I uploaded a preview for Shadow Eye Vol.2 and I’m happy to say that me and my editor are finishing up the editing after Thanksgiving and I’m already working on volume 3 as we speak. So for this month’s Otaku Mind a few people have sent in questions about the series and I’m going to go through some of them. Before beginning, I would like to thank everyone for all support of the novel. I’m glad everyone likes it so much and I’m excited to continue the story next year. Now let’s get into the questions.
Overall thoughts on volume 1?
I thought volume one was a good introduction to the series and the characters. I felt there was a good balance of comedy, action, thoughtful discussions, and set ups for future events. I know there wasn’t much world exploration, but I felt it was important to establish the main characters first before exploring the world and in the future volumes I hope to do more world exploration.
What was your favorite part about volume 1 of Shadow Eye?
My favorite part from volume 1 was the dialogue between the characters. When I first started writing Shadow Eye one of my goals was to make the dialogue come across as natural as possible and show the personality of the characters. I wanted the conversations they had to be like real-life conversations you would have an actual person and I wanted you to get a sense of their personality. For example, Ryuuji is a loving fatherly person, so I wanted his dialogue to come across as sincere and from the heart. Morgan is a college professor and strategist, so his dialogue is more analytical than the others. Jin is the young and youthful knight who is new to the world of knighthood and thus his dialogue sees him asking questions and taking everything in.
What can we expect to see in volume 2?
For volume 2 you can expect to see more action, much bigger missions, new characters. Both allies and enemies. New skills and more exploration of the kingdom of Brister and the world of Rein.
What’s the one thing you hope to improve on from volume 1?
I hope to improve on the fighting choreography. That was one thing I felt I needed to improve on the most from volume 1. In my mind I know how I want these fights to play out, but I always have trouble finding the words to describe them. That’s why I’m hoping with the second volume you’ll see an improvement in the fight scenes.
Will Jin still play a prominent role in the story now that volume 1 is over?
Yes. Jin will still play an important role in the story going forward. I think Jin was the right character for readers to put themselves into. He asks the questions that all the readers had when they first read and even though he wasn’t the smartest or the strongest he was the guy who kept learning, never gave up, and tried new things to keep up with the others. He’s not at their level yet, but one day I believe he will be and I look forward to continuing his journey and growth. The only difference is we’ll be breaking away from him a few times and focusing on the other characters more.
Which character of Shadow Eye is your favorite?
This is always a tough question. I like all of them they’re like my children. But I do admit there are some aspects of the characters I like more than others. I enjoy writing dialogue for Dust, Amarti, and Jin the most. Dust’s dialogue and personality is like a cross between Dante from Devil May Cry and Gex the Gecko. He’s laidback but knows when to get serious when it counts. Amarti is like that smart but shady friend you know and like. He’s always got an angle he’s playing at. He’ll help you, but in the end he’s going to make sure he leaves with the most. Jin’s dialogue and personality is like Peter Parker from Spider-Man. He can be wimpy at times, but he’s not a complete pushover. He can make a wisecrack here and there and knows how to hold his own in a fight. I have the most fun making fight scenes for Ryuuji and Sanada. They both have very diverse movesets. In fact, the hard part is coming up with the names of these moves and keeping track of them. Especially Ryuuji.
What’s been the hardest part of writing Shadow Eye?
Just putting pen to paper. Like I said, in my mind I know what I want to happen, but writing it out and giving details about it is always hard. One of the hard parts I’ve learned about writing a novel is that I don’t have the luxury of drawings like in a manga. So I have to be very detailed with my words to give you a visual of what’s going on in the scene I’m trying to create. I feel like that’s been the hardest part for me.
Any new features for the next volume?
Yes. Along with volume 2 I will also be running a mini-series called Records of Rein. This series will serve to give you backgrounds and details on certain aspects of Rein I didn’t touch on in the main series. I’m going to talk about Brister, explain the Wind School, touch on Hargus, and much more. My plan is to release this series alongside the main series. I have plans to upload the first one at the start of January. Either Monday or Tuesday.
Will we ever get to see character drawings or art in Shadow Eye?
As of right now no, there are no plans to put drawings or art in Shadow Eye at this time. I would love to do that, but I am not the best artist. I would like to go Akasaka’s route and instead focus on writing the story while working with artists. Speaking of which, if there are any artists out there who would like to draw for the series, please email or leave a message in the comments below. I would be happy to work with you.
Alright, that’s all the time I have for now. Thanks again for your support and look forward to the premiere of volume 2 Friday, January 13th (you won’t get bad luck. I swear). Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.