Doujinshi Notes on Akari Funato's Production Sketches for "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" ("Confession of the Soul")

Second verse, quite similar to the first: Akari Funato released a collection of production sketches for "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" in a doujinshi "Tsuki no Kokuhaku" ("Confession of the Moon"). Its contents are reproduced in the "LUNAR, Etc." .pdf Funato has at dlsite.com. (Again, though, see the disclaimer at the top of the document here before visiting DLsite.)
This document is a translation of those notes, but I should post a warning: there are actually two versions of "Tsuki no Kokuhaku." The first printing is identified by a little light-blue rectangle with the label "hozonban" ("archival edition") just below the title on the cover, as shown here; the image on the back page with all the publishing information is the finished illustration of Remilia and Ghaleon here. The second printing, meanwhile, has no "hozonban" label and has a rough sketch of the TnK panel of Dain, Remilia, and Ghaleon looking over the crystals for the amplifier on the back page. The problem is that the first printing has additional material left out of the second - the production sketches of Faithia and Rouyce, some quick 4-koma comics, a few illustrations like the one of Hiero, Alice, and a human Ruby - but I'm not sure of the entire extent of the differences, as my own hozonban is packed away; I used a second-printing edition to translate. I'm also not sure which edition the PDF follows. (Mine's on another, currently-inaccessable computer - yeah, I'm a big help, I know.)
So, in brief: a) this document may not be a complete translation of all the "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" material in "Tsuki no Kokuhaku," and b) it may not completely jibe with what you're seeing if you're following the PDF. I'm not talking about giant changes - the "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" pages in the second edition are, to my memory, unchanged from the first edition - but there possibly (I don't
think so, but possibly) might be a couple pages of TnK material left out of the second. I'll update this disclaimer once I check things out. Naturally, this document follows the numbering of the second-printing paper doujinshi, but the illustration labels should enable you to read along with the .pdf. Though the paper doujinshi contains production art for other Funato works, this document covers only the Lunar material.
As always, any text in brackets is my own commentary and not part of Funato's notes.


pg. 23


[A few early sketches of the main "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" trio. Sketch labels:
Remilia: "Ugh! Don't touch me!"
Dain: "Ah-"
Label on Ghaleon portrait: Ghaleon]

There are extra miscellaneous rough sketches. I wound up with extra pages in this doujinshi, so I was able to include some sketches I thought would be all right leaving out previously. [Tsuki no Kokuhaku is actually a compilation of a couple doujin Funato did previously, so I assume the page count issue refers to the original doujin in which these were included.]

This stuff is from the time of the Four Heroes project.

I don't think of Dain in the role of the dashing young man, and he's not smart (I mean, that's just my own idea, *but!* [sweatdrop]), and so I don't think he made a good first impression at all on Remilia-chan...

Designing Dain was tough; I just couldn't get him down on paper.
A face that made me say "that's it!!" just wouldn't come to me...

<-- Oh, and this is a young Ghaleon.
...I just wanted to draw him!
'Cause Funato's just a fangirl at heart...
Hahahaha--


pg. 24


[sketch of Remilia: "I can't *stand* filthy country bumpkins! HMPH!"
note near Remilia's dress: French peasant style]

When my Megadrive Fan work [the Lunar 2 comic strips] began, I was speaking with the creator of Lunar, Shigema-san, and we got talking about how "Yeah, it'd sure be nice to do a manga, wouldn't it."
...It really was all decided before I knew it. ... just the way things go...

These sketches are for that project.
Personally, I had wanted to draw the Four Heroes' battle, the foundation of the story for the first game, but that idea was rejected for various reasons.

I had really wanted to draw the great adventures and young loves (BWAH HA HA) of the hero Dain, Mia's mother Remilia, Jessica's papa Mel, and Ghaleon.


pg. 25


[plaque near sketch of Remilia: "the trademark Ausa huge breasts"]

Presenting...!!
(teenage)
REMILIA!
(The Funato version...
Sorry...)

The tale of the Four Heroes is a sad story, and since we were at long last doing a manga, I was told to lay off anything that was going to have a sad ending. OK.
At that time, though, Funato was wracking her brain over Remilia-chan... Afterward, I even ending up making noises about how if Remilia wasn't going to work, Remiena-chan might do quite nicely...and, ultimately, the Alice [from the Younenki no Owari post-Lunar 2 manga] we know came out of this. There are some traces of this in her design!


pg. 42 [to skip ahead a bit]


[note near rough "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" sketches of the Remilia-Ghaleon library scene, where he's reaching out to take the books (but the books haven't been drawn in the sketch): "After looking at the dialogue alone for this page, Mr. Shigema said, 'I thought maybe he was about to do something dirty.'... How horrible..."]

When I was asked to do a two-part Lunar manga for Shounen Ace, I initially turned it down, but afterward, for various reasons, I decided to take them up on it.
I had MANY different worries over the question of what to do, but I finally settled on this type of story.
Unlike the time with Dragon Comics [Younenki no Owari], I told by Mr. Shigema to "Just do whatever you like; I'll leave it up to you", so I was pretty much left to my own devices. I even made my own settei, too.
By the way, as the readers who have played the Mega CD Lunar 1 are aware...one of the characters, Mia-chan, doesn't have a papa. It's just a mother-and-child family.
At the time of the game's release, in a magazine article or something, there was some sort of telling response to the issue where the identity of Mia's dad was supposed to be left to the player's imagination blah blah blah (even though Mr. Shigema forgets this...). At the time, I took how if you looked at the characters' hair colors, you could make a *pretty good guess!* as the answer, so... so...
And yet, in the Sega Saturn Lunar, up pops someone who sure looks suspiciously like a partner for that prospective papa!
I naturally just ended up making up my own story, him taking pity on her on the last night or something (ah - I only realized it now, but the dates don't match up, do they!?). That's right - leave the woman a child, but your best friend nothing... My mind can't help but *wander...* Well, blah blah blah, I'm stretching.
What do you think, everyone? (Well, please finish the Saturn version first... It's a quality game, you know...)


* - ["I'm *gifting* you with a child" vs. "and I'm not paying child support" aside, one could make the argument that Dain actually does try to leave his best friend a child in the Saturn upgrade. The Japanese version's dialogue of the Ghaleon/Dain/Althena flashback scene is slightly different than in the English version; Dain's last words to Ghaleon are for him, too, to "watch over the future in which this child shall live" ("kono ko ga ikiru mirai o omae mo mimamotte kure"). It is in response to those words that Ghaleon (wordlessly, in the original; no "I see only despair" or the equivalent) turns and walks away in unspoken refusal. Indeed, this was probably meant metaphorically (which the "too" enforces), but it's not a far stretch to conceive that Dain's first instinct would be to leave baby Althena with the person who raised him.
Oh, and I see the dates of birth do match up with Dain's departure.]


pg. 43


[A sketch of the illustration of Remilia holding a book that's reproduced at the front of the Vheen Hikuusen tankoubon. Funato's notes specify that it's a "book" she's holding, with the "earth" in the background and with Remilia wearing a "maroon" jacket (well, "enjiiro", a supposedly distinct color equivalent to cochineal, but - well, you know the color of Remilia's jacket).]

LUNAR: CONFISSAO

'96 Shounen Ace:
-6/25: promo cuts
-7/25: part one, 32 pages; one-page color frontispiece
-8/25: part two, 32 pages planned
(no plans for comics reprint [a tankoubon reprint, I assume] as of 6/96)

"Confissão" is a song on my beloved Madredeus's album Umi to Senritsu [Sea and Melody, released in the U.S. as Existir; the track "Confissão" is indeed titled "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" in the Japanese release]. I thought about titling it something like "Umi to Senritsu" ["Sea and Melody"] or "Kokoro no Fuukei" ["Scenery of the Heart"] from the lyrics, but I eventually settled on "Confissão" because I liked the sound of it and whatnot. It's Portuguese.

[A sketch of what presumably were Funato's two cats.]

<- The cats in my home. mixed breed - Keishirou, age 2, male; Akane, age 1, female

It was hard on them while I was working, since I couldn't play with them...

<- We won't ever eat anything but Iams Less Active! Absolutely NOT!


pg. 44


[A bunch of preliminary headshot sketches for Remilia. They're a bit different from the finished character, giving Remilia either a babyish look (with her hair in front pulled back and with very thin bangs) or a sexy, slightly more tousled look with fuller lips.]

VHEEN DEPUTY GUILDMISTRESS
16-17, tentatively... [Note: Ghaleon's age as given in these character sections contradicts info given in the tankoubon, so take these ages with a grain of salt.]
The designs I first went back and forth on are below.
Since she's tentatively a main character (she's not THE main character...), I was a little worried that I couldn't quite produce a character design that really brought out her personality... (She was a character I wanted the audience to relate to, so...)

Her hairstyle, however, is in the midst of being revised due to it being rather difficult to draw. (And it took you only about 60 pages to figure it out, Funato!...)

But she looks like a certain seidkona, doesn't she?...Eh heh heh... [Note: in Norse mythology, a seidkona is a kind of sorceress/oracle. While Remilia is, of course, a blonde magician, I don't know to what particular seidkona Funato thinks she bears a resemblance.]

But I ended up thinking a little bit something like that I couldn't draw her any other way, considering her character...

I couldn't help it! I like it, so...

[note near Remilia facial sketches] I was also a little bit worried about her features.


pg. 45


[Full-body sketches of Remilia with her jacket off, revealing the dress and stockings/boots underneath.]

This is what's under her uniform.
I originally planned for the events of the manga to take place over more than one day, so she was originally supposed to take her uniform off...

[note near Remilia's boots] pin heels

[note near sketch of bodice from behind] back
Since she never takes off her uniform in the manga, I never got the chance to draw this...

[near two coloring sketches of Remilia's outfit, one with a dark dress and light corset and the other with a light dress and dark corset] Variations. I went with the one on the right


pg. 46


[More sketches of Remilia's office uniform, plus some for a couple unseen dresses and one pleated collar.]

As her uniform is the symbol of the burden of Remilia's responsibilities as deputy guildmistress, I had planned to have her wear it only in the scenes where she's on the job, but I ran out of pages (had to spend them on direction/exposition). I didn't have the room, so I just kept her in the uniform.

(Well, the story takes place from 3 in the afternoon to about 6 the next morning, so...)


pg. 47


[Sketches of Dain, mostly headshots. Funato tries him out with a couple of Lunar's trademark crazy hats, one a nightcap and one a brimless, Tunisian-type hat.]

THE TRAVELING MAN
21-25 years old?
(lead role...)
Until I could have a quick consultation with Kubooka-san, I thought he maybe could let me take a look at his original designs for the character, but he was too busy with work, so I was in the end allowed to go my own way... About the only thing that was the same was the part of his hair...

He's supposed to look as if he's from India or thereabouts. His skin is dark, but I ended up not putting the tone in, as it was too much trouble.

[at top headshots of Dain] eyes are perfectly round, big [Funato may be referring to the iris & pupil by that "perfectly round" comment, judging by the pic.]
from farming folk
<-- sideburns!

[on full-body shot of Dain that emphasizes the size of his hands]
round jaw
strong build
looks sleepy
seems dumb
[of clothes] have a loose-fitting sloppiness
[pointing to hands] <-- Hair!
big hands
can't possibly hate him!
[long note by Funato about hair] I had hoped to have him with arm hair and chest hair, but since this was a shounen magazine, I restrained myself. [Note: I don't know what Funato means by "since this is a shounen magazine" - whether the readers' age or gender made chest hair a perceived problem. I've asked around, but the only answer I've received is that shounen manga characters usually have smooth chests - it wouldn't be a matter of offense.]

[by headshot of Dain laughing] Dain: Ha ha ha ha! [This has a little "hyuk hyuk hyuk" to it.]
carefree belly laughter
like a bear
not smart at all
ungainly [Note: the adjective used here, "kakko warui", means basically "not attractive/stylish in appearance and/or demeanor" and can be translated here as anything from what I've put to "doesn't look like a cool guy" to "unrefined" to "unstylish" to "dorky". Your choice as to what's intended. Geez, I feel bad associating such a string of negative adjectives with the sweet guy.]
big feet

The original creator, Mr. Shigema, was "yes, yes, he's like this" of a like mind regarding the characterization, so... (We were of different opinions afterward as to whether or not he was attractive to women...) (I think he's an attractive man, but Shigema insists he's a *late bloomer.*)


pg. 48


[More sketches of Dain, this time focusing on the cut of his coat. The main sketch has it much the same as it is in the manga, except it here has some fringe on the bottom hem and the ends of the sleeves.]

[pointing to hem] <-- the leather is cut so it looks like the hem has been frayed
pig leather

[note on Dain's shirt] hole for lacing loop

[note on Dain wearing coat with the collar up over his head] looks like this when worn over the head

I loved the shape of this cape, but I just couldn't work out in my mind how its lines - the folds of the fabric - would fall when worn, and so I scrapped it. What a waste... [As noted, though, this coat is, minus the fringe, indeed the one Dain sports in "Tamashii no Kokuhaku", so perhaps she reconsidered the design after writing this comment.]

The Lunar series has had a tradition of its heroes living by their guts and their big hearts.
Therefore, any obstacles to that way of life, like irrationality, personal prejudices, or self-serving vanity, just don't exist in their world.
They're the type of people that it seems like everyone can become but no one really can - and that's why, I think, the people (and magic race as well) around them are drawn to them.
Being able to capture this myself in the upcoming manga is my biggest worry.


pg. 49


[A few sketches of Ghaleon.]

THE MAGIC-RACE MAN

(probably 200-300 years old) [Info in the finished Vheen Hikuusen contradicts this early estimate, so disregard it.]
(the shadow protagonist...)

I was just so worried about him all throughout, so I have tons of designs for him.
(The ears get bigger and bigger as I go along...)


pgs. 50-51


[A splash page of sketches of Ghaleon in his "Tamashii no Kokuhaku" hood/cloak.]

[near boot design] boots
laced in the middle

[near jeans] slim jeans

[near some fingerless gloves with rivets on the knuckles Ghaleon never ended up having] *rivets* applied

[note near Ghaleon wearing the hood without the mouthwrap] <- fabric (thick)


pg. 52


[Two full-body sketches of Ghaleon. One is the one here of an almost full-length jacket with shoulder pads, split and tapered in both front and back along both legs. The other is an early sketch of Ghaleon, slightly different than the final design - he's here a bit baby-faced and softer. His eyebrows are less severe, his lips are slightly thicker and eyes a bit dewier; his hair is kind of wilted on top and doesn't have as much definition, and its length is slightly gradated at the end instead of being uniform. I'm being oddly exhaustive here, aren't I?]

<-- Ghaleons I drew fairly early on

The design lines are wrong. I'm glad I didn't go with this...

[note near baby-faced Ghaleon's hair] absolutely straight

[note near coat-wearing Ghaleon's shoulders] shoulder pads

[notes near sketches of Dain's shoes]

These shoes ended up being in white suede and going to the traveling man. I thought they were just too cute for the magic-race man to wear... [Dain's shoes are rendered in light tan in the final manga.]

[notes near shoes] shoes
soft purple, very shiny [Purple shoes. Purple, shiny shoes. On *Ghaleon.*]
[pointing to back of heel] rounded point in back
[in front of shoe] front
[in back of shoe] back


pg. 53


[Sketches of Ghaleon wearing his cloak to obscure his face, as he does at the start of "Tamashii no Kokuhaku."]

Around this point, I began to settle on a design.
I decided to give him an Arabian look. You could say that his habit of dressing all bundled up is symbolic of how he keeps his emotions under wraps all the time or something - and besides, it looks good on him.

I doubt that the magic-race man has any friends besides the traveling man...

I think it's a Vampire Chronicles Lestat-Louis type situation.

[notes on sketches]
GHALEON
This is it!
[on quick sketch on figure with hood] like this
[on quick sketch of long white cloak] with
[on quick sketch of Ghaleon with mouth covered in 3/4 profile] can also be like this
[on Ghaleon's leather strap-sash, on more detailed sketch] knife inside
[on belt] patterned scarf underneath belt
[on pants] PLEASE make this look like black slim jeans
[on "black slim jeans" note] Who am I saying "PLEASE" to?...


pg. 54


[Full-length, very detailed sketches of the eight Junior Vheen Guild Members - here, JVGM 4 (the nice one with the done-up braids who comforts Remilia when she is anxious), 3 (the one with the bob who calls Dain an airhead), and 7 (the guard with the short hair who asks Remilia "What do we do?" when Dain interrupts the meeting).]

MAGIC CITY OF VHEEN
8 SUBORDINATES AND OTHERS...

[notes on JVGM 4] attendant; quiet, intellectual
Russian [Note: for these "nationalities" given to certain JVGMs, Funato appends to the country the suffix "-kei", typically meaning "of ___ descent". It's up in the air as to whether they really do descend, in a long, long bloodline, from those former homelands on the Blue Star or are just supposed to look like they do.]

[on JVGM 3] trusted associate/top aide; can be a bit cruel; weak

[on JVGM 4] I particularly like these two girls.

[on JVGM 7] on security
Grecian
out of it [as in "spaced out"]


pg. 55


[Similar sketches on the three guild members who helped (with *coaxing*) repair the amplifier - JVGM 5 (the shrimp who complained the ship should've been kept in a museum), 8 (the dark-haired one who goes "...*wow*"), and 6 (the spiky-haired one who complains about the original schematics being worm-eaten).]

[notes on JVGM 5] sanpaku eyes [This means there's white of the eye visible between the lower eyelid and the iris.]
impertinent; bratty
slender, but with big hands and feet

[on JVGM 8] formal manner of speaking
Asian
subdued

[on JVGM 6] cynic [can also mean "sarcastic"]
scholar
skinny man

[on all three] These three are the repair team.

I WAS SO HAPPY!! (<- what the hell?) These eight characters were completely, unequivocally (well, the twins were a *little*, y'know, BUT) original! I created them from NOTHING, and I'm thrilled!
Drawing these pictures made me REALLY, REALLY, I mean REALLY happy!
Yes, I'm so happy to be doing a manga... This certainly makes me see it in a new light... It's nice doing original work...


pg. 56


[Sketches of the twins, JVGM 1 (the male Rumack) and 2 (the female Rumack).]

[on JVGM 1] Rumack-kun

[on JVGM 2] Rumack-san
wide and prominent cheeks
[on brow] <-- beetle brow
[on hood] fur

[voice balloon from JVGM 2's portrait] HMPH.

[on JVGM 2's nose] nose
upturned

[on both]
The twins.
Involved with diplomacy (the transfer gate).
They have the same personality - banal, haughty, uncomplicated.
These two were purely for fun. They were included to represent the typical - one could say the common - reaction of the average Vheen citizen to the magic-race man visiting Vheen.
The basis for their character design was...you guessed it.
I figured I might as well, since the story revolves around Vheen...so I went ahead and did it. It put a grin on my face, I guess.

I made sure the character designs of all the citizens of Vheen included hoods to differentiate them from the visitors.

The women are all corseted not only because I tried to take Vheen's fashion trends at the time into consideration but because fashion in Lunar 1 was so casual (the shoes everyone was wearing and everything!) that I kind of wanted to turn back the clock, and so I eventually settled on corsets. For the guys, I used the oldest, most classical lines in drawing the Grecian boy (JVGM 7), but he didn't really show up in the story much, so the sense didn't really come across... Eh heh heh...


pg. 57


[Sketches of Remilia's mom (including an early design, where she looks like a heavier Miria Ausa) and of JVGM 8's dad, who *looks* familiar, but dang, I cannot place him. The closest match is the mustached magician in the "...awaiting your return" group panel on pg. 86 in TnK, but that man is younger, thinner, mustached, and has more hair. But, then again, his face is "undetermined," so. (Actually, he has a *bit* of resemblance to one of the guildmistress's guards in KSK on pg. 166.)] The councillors...
They appear in only 1-2 panels...
What a letdown...
I wanted to draw so much of the older man...
[pointing to portrait of Remilia's mom] <-- Her name is Miea. Heh heh...

[note on Miea Ausa sketch] <- fur hood

[note on faceless model of older official] the big shots all have shoulder pads
<- papa of the polite Asian
face undetermined


pg. 58


INITIAL CONTINUITY SHEETS

Don't I get paralyzed with worry over the stupidest stuff in the continuity sheets?

These are parts from the start of the adventure in Confissao's first half that I myself scrapped. Between the two halves of the story, I put out 60 pages in one go. The version I'd created with all my worrying would've before editing filled five or six books...this is just a part of that. I worked on the job from about May 8 all the way through to June 20.

[The first scrapped section covers an alternate version of the tankoubon's pgs. 20-25, from Ghaleon and Dain's discovery of the airship to Remilia's first words with her aides. Funato does a little more artwork here than she normally does on continuity sheets - the characters are just quick sketches, but facial expressions, etc. are readable.]

pg. 2

[Splash page of Ghaleon and Dain discovering the "ship" "trapped" in the canyon, the "Blue Star" above.]

Dain: A ship...

pg. 3

["ship" wedged in canyon]

Dain: Last night's storm musta done that, huuuh...
It doesn't look like it'd be seaworthy, shaped like that...
(It must've gotten blown in there...)
Sure would like to come face to face with the guy who built it!

[Dain's looking up at the ship, hand flat over his eyes. Ghaleon is looking at him, then turns away.]

Ghaleon: ...That is Vheen's airship.

Dain: Airship?!

pg. 4

[We cut to a wide view of the canyon, the two leads in front. "Vheen" is floating in the far distance to the upper right of the screen.]

Dain: What are you talking about! Ships don't fly! They float!

Ghaleon: The explanation requires understanding of magic dynamics and engineering science. Which you should be studying...

[Dain's upward-gazing eyes catch sight of something else. He gulps...]

Dain: Does _that_ fly by magic too?

["Vheen" looms in the background, the back of Ghaleon's hooded head in the foreground.]

Ghaleon: Vheen - Lunar's one and only city of magic.
That is our destination.

pg. 5

[We cut to Vheen, where the transfer gate begins to shake...]

JVGM: The gate's been activated somehow...

JVGM: But it's switched off...?

JVGM: Can you even operate the switch from outside?

JVGM: I don't know! There's nothing about it in the manual!

JVGM: Forced transfer coming through!

JVGM: Someone report this to--!

[The same shot of Remilia zipping up her jacket from the manga.]

Remilia: You made no mistakes in the operation?


pg. 59


[More scrapped manga pages. We open upon Remilia making her entrance at the transfer fountain.]

pg. 8

Remilia: Please cease this rude behavior!

JVGM 3: But--

Remilia: Have you forgotten your history as a magician - and the numerous illustrious contributions the magic race has made to it?

[An author's note on the side indicates that the "phrasing is different" here, obviously referring to Remilia's reply here.]

Remilia: So glad you could come to the city of magic and learning, Vheen.
I am the deputy guildmistress. I welcome you wholeheartedly!

[Remilia turns on her heels.]

Remilia: This way.
I'll show you to the manor.

[Passing by "rows of buildings"...]

Dain: Whoaaa.... Dekkee....
This is way different from my home village...

pg. 9

Remilia: We in Vheen are the world's oldest city - far different from the little reclaimed hamlets of that area!

Dain: But I see so many modern buildings...

Remilia: We're doing our very best to construct new facilities to keep pace with student demand!
Durability and construction time would have been at issue had we employed old-fashioned architecture, don't you agree?

Ghaleon: ...Indeed.

Dain: --Oh, yeah! On our way here, we saw this ship...
You think it could be the one this city--

Remilia [severe look on her face]: *We've arrived.*

pg. 10

[Jump to the scene with Dain and Ghaleon in the "guest room." Ghaleon has the curtain pulled back, looking at the ruins; Dain is lying on his back on a bed, wiggling his toes in the sheets, I think (he's a stick figure in the frame; it's hard to make out).]

Curtain SFX: ::swish::

Dain: Hey, you know...
They're letting us stay the night in such a nice room, treating us so well...
you think it's right for us to leave without doing anything in return?...

[Ghaleon turns around and gives Dain a hilarious wide-eyed, incredulous sweatdropping look.]

Ghaleon: ......

Dain: Yeah! We've gotta go and ask them to let us help with something!
After all, they look like they're having some sort of problem! I mean, wouldn't you say!?

Ghaleon: ......

Dain [completely, happily oblivious]: ?

Ghaleon: ...Are you *simple?*

[Funato note on this scene, near the pic of sweatdropping Ghaleon: "<-- Silly traveling man, thinking 'gee, what nice people,' totally unaware that they're staying at the manor so someone can keep an eye on them. The magic-race man is once again astounded by the extent of the traveling man's stupidity. This was cut."]

[Meanwhile, someone pours a couple cups of tea...]

Teapot SFX: ::glup glup::

pg. 11

[JVGMs 4 and 3 (both marked as "aide") are fixing the tea tray with which we see Ghaleon on subsequent visits to the room, gossiping in the meanwhile.]

JVGM 3 [happy]: I don't get it! Why did she invite those two to the manor?
And one of them is of the magic race, besides! Did you see? Those eyes!

JVGM 4: They say there are many pretty faces among the magic race. Looks like the rumors were true, hmm?

[The speaker of the next lines is unclear; I believe that they're said by Remilia in a flashback JVGM 4 is having, though there's no indication of such except the nature of the lines.]

Remilia: It is impossible to recount the history of us magicians without mention of the magic race!
In fact, they say that over a hundred years ago, many magic-race lived in Vheen!

JVGM 4: She has a deep appreciation for history and tradition. I understand how she feels.


The conversations between the aides were all scrapped because they just got in the way too much. A waste of pages and panels.

But even though I worked on this for about two months, I'm still at this level...
I need to buckle down and concentrate more.
I'm just so bad...
I want to get better at manga...

[In the corner, a chiding Ghaleon, arms crossed, reminds Dain that "Mm-mm, studying is important!" (while Dain goes "*huh?---*" in the background).]


pg. 60


[Three rough sketches for different designs for the color TnK frontispiece (the one in the tankoubon with Ghaleon and Dain by the sea and Remilia framed by a window above).
First one: a close-up triple portrait: a serious Remilia and a somber Ghaleon back to back; Vheen far in the distance between them; Dain below, propping his head up with his hand between them, softly smiling. The Blue Star is above, backgrounding the Lunar logo.
Second: The background is dominated by large, waist-up shots of Dain and Ghaleon, with a full-length Remilia in the foreground between them. Dain is holding the hilt of the sword on his back with a smile - like he is in the black-and-white tankoubon frontispiece pic of TnK, except from a different angle. Ghaleon's mouth is hidden by his collar, and he looks stealthily off to the left; he looks like Secret Squirrel. Remilia looks straight ahead and is hopeful. The Blue Star and logo are positioned as before.
Third: Remilia looms in the background framed by a window, much as in the finished frontispiece, but she is looking down with curiosity at the book open in her hands. She is also backgrounded by the Blue Star and a flurry of seagulls. Ghaleon and Dain take the lower-left and -right corners; Ghaleon sits happily reading in profile, backgrounded by his own window (and seagulls), and Dain, who has no use for this book business, stands on the beach, hand on the back of his head, happily and peacefully looking out at the ocean (and seagulls).]

These are rough sketches for the color frontispiece to the first half. After much dithering, I went with this one. ---> [pointing at the third one]
However. Fickle me ended up not wanting the draw this image at the same time I was drawing up the final drafts [of the manga]. So I ended up deciding to rework this composition. Heh heh--.


pg. 61


[Rough sketch of the TnK trio here.]

This was a rough sketch of an illustration used to announce the manga. I was worried it might be better to see the faces a little more clearly, so... It was scrapped.

[A picture of Remilia much like the one in the finished promo art, instead a) she's looking straight-on evenly at the camera, b) she's wearing a dress instead of her deputy's jacket, and c) she's holding an open book.]

Below is a color cut for the front cover.
I'm so used to seeing these casually-drawn images in magazines, but I was just soooo horribly stressed and worried constantly over what to draw.

Gee, the cut that ended up being published has no style to it at all...

I just gotta be me, I guess...


pg. 62


[Another sketch for the Dain/Remilia/Ghaleon promo piece. It's close to the actual piece; Remilia is in the same position, just with her eyes closed and her head slightly resting on a book she's holding. Ghaleon and Dain are still stuck in the corners, though Dain is in the same playing-on-the-beach-with-birds position as in the actual pic. (Ghaleon is just looking off to the side.)]

Rough sketch for the color illustration. I was worrying over how to draw it.

There've been so many blue illustrations in Lunar up till now that I thought enough already, cut it out - so I planned to make this one at twilight or sunrise or in the grey just before the rain. I eventually settled on pink and violet, but when I started painting, whatever I did, it always ended up looking like Yuu Asagiri(-sensei)!! What a shock!! And when I thought of it, it also came to me that Yuu Asagiri used a lot of purple, too, huh...and so I tried piling on the color, but, well...(sweatdrop) Color's tough, isn't it... I did end up drawing a sea, though, but in the published version, you don't see anything but the rocky coast... Heh heh heh! (heart)

[And yet, there exists a blue-tinged version of this illustration.]


pg. 63


[Hey, it's more promo art sketches. The first uses the head-slightly-on-book pic of Remilia on pg. 61 with the Ghaleon-and-Dain-on-the-beach pic from the actual illustration. (There's also, though, Ghaleon standing in near-complete full-length in profile off the lower left.) The second is a very complete sketch of the Remilia that appears in the actual image.]

I tried combining these two --> [pointing to G&D] and this girl --> [pointing to Remilia] and that became the book image.

It looks like the traveling man is teasing the birds, but he's actually letting one land on his foot and is playing with it...
(Don't draw pictures you have to explain afterward, Funato!)


pg. 64


[A detailed sketch of the black and white frontispiece to "Tamashii no Kokuhaku," with labels for the "Earth," "rain," and "lightning" in the background, the "group of mysterious ruins" underneath Ghaleon and the "moss" on them.]

COMPILATION AFTERWORD


pg. 65


Lunar is a Game Arts RPG.
After Lunar I and Lunar II were released on the Mega CD - even as Lunar II was in development - our players began the move to the Sega Saturn, and so we thought for sure that the next one would be on the Saturn, but...
Ever since the announcement of the Sega Saturn Lunar: Silver Star Story, I just can't hide my shock at the whirlwind of development activity. (It even was made into a radio drama!) The story wasn't just ported--it was near-entirely rewritten. Plus, the second half consists of completely new twists, and the result should draw in a lot of new players.
In addition, the animation has been completely redone. With the inclusion of anime sequences, it became apparent to me that there would be far much more emphasis on the visuals this time. As an old-school gamer, I've had my doubts as to whether or not animation is necessary in games, and I've had it with anime in games that is nothing but pure fan service.
But Lunar is different. Its feel is different. The anime is rooted in Mr. Kubooka's interest in Western film (European film in particular); time is allotted even for the characters to breathe between speaking, and there's always a hint of moisture in the atmosphere.
Shigema-san, in charge of the story, was particular about how "the dialogue should sound *normal* and *natural* and not like a game" - something that the average user would overlook as "natural." It was very important to him. Among the staff, the biggest sources of disagreement among the staff - right up until the end - were the confrontation between Arhes and the boss and the conversations with the heroine Luhna.
I have exceptional fondness for the boss and wanted players to understand his viewpoint and values, what he was trying to do, and so I was always lobbing complaints from the outfield.
Why did the release end up delayed? You'll see why when you play the game.
I hope that all you players are happy with what you experience. We'll be happy if we make even just one more new Lunar fan.
It is with these wishes that I created this doujinshi. (and why I wanted to write this page)
So, are you interested in Lunar yet? If so, I'm happy.
(Well, then, until we met again, stay happy!)
Akari Funato 6/6/1996


Disclaimer: Lunar, Vheen Hikuusen Monogatari, "Kioku Suru Fuukei", and all related official works are property of Game Arts, Asuka DX, Shounen Ace, Akari Funato, Working Designs, Xseed, etc.; this document isn't affiliated with any of them - but you've heard enough, haven't you? You've had to listen to this for...*decades.* Translation by R. Capowski at RACapowski@sceneryrecalled.com.