Danica Davidson
December 15, 2021 
A recent interview with Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation author Rifujin na Magonote had him talk about fighting video games, how he approaches sexuality in his work, and advice he has for writers.
“I started playing fighting games when I was around 18,” he said. “Back then, I wasn’t really good at dealing with people. In a fighting game, you compete against other people, so by taking up fighting games in an arcade, I started interacting with people without even knowing their real names. Most of them were older than me; it was thanks to them that I learned communication and proper manners.”
Asked about the sexuality in his books, he said, “ In Japanese creative works, there are two polar opposite approaches to depicting sexual life: As ‘sacred’ or as ‘pleasure.’ I suppose I got my inspiration because I thought there wasn’t enough representation of the viewpoint that reproductive activity is natural to organisms.”
He continued, saying further, “Because it’s an important part of the life of an organism, it’s not wrong to call it sacred. However, it’s also true that sex is associated with pleasure. You could also say that it’s natural for people to treat sex as pleasure for as long as pleasure is intertwined with the act. With that in mind, when depicting the world of Mushoku Tensei, I aimed for the middle ground between ‘sacred’ and ‘pleasure.’ That’s the vibe I was going for.”
He resisted being called the “pioneer” of Naro-kei light novels. “When I first started writing on Shоsetsuka ni Narо, my work was already deeply influenced by the stories on there, so from my perspective, there are plenty of pioneers above me,” he explained.
As for writing advice for people interested in web novels, he hopes you can get to writing right away and encourages you to post it online.
Source: ANN
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, and its sequel, Manga Art for Intermediates, with professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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