Interview about Cho-Kaguya Meshi
Source: Otaku Research Institute
This interview is a conversation between the Otaku Research Institute website and Yamamoto Koji, President of Twin Engine, and Miyake Atsuko, Head of Project Development.
Since this isn't a direct interview with the creator, Teruya, I'll just give a summarized translation and focus on the interesting parts.
Honestly, after reading the whole thing, I found myself becoming quite interested in the two people interviewed as well. Their ideas are really interesting—they put a lot of importance on producers, give creators a great deal of freedom, have a clear direction, and even openly criticize the manga industry. lol
「The reason for launching Bibibi Comic」
Yamamoto:
Twin Engine (TE from here on) has always placed a strong emphasis on original anime. However, as you can see, even with a great production team, achieving success is still difficult.
It wasn't until CPK came along that we finally had a title become that massively popular. So TE began looking for ways to "develop" our process and increase the success rate of our projects.
That's why we decided to launch a manga label—to build up a fanbase first and then turn those works into anime. That said, the launch of Bibibi Comic itself wasn't directly related to CPK.
Miyake:
We had actually been planning to launch this since 2025. However, at the time, we only had five titles that were ready to be released, so we decided to wait until we had more material ready. Eventually, we managed to put together as many as 31 titles.
Yamamoto:
As for the CPK spin-off manga, that was something we put together rather quickly after the IP became a huge success.
「The origins of Cho-Kaguya Meshi」
Miyake:
As for Teruya, the manga artist, we were introduced to him through an editorial production company that we have a business relationship with.
Teruya was already a huge fan of CPK to begin with. Although we held an open selection process to find an artist, we ultimately chose him because we could see how much he genuinely loved CPK.
We also consulted with director Yamashita Shingo and the main story team beforehand, so it was ultimately a decision made collectively by everyone involved.
As for the content, the production team expected that fans would probably want to see more of the characters' everyday lives. So rather than adding lots of new material, the manga focuses more on the relationship between Kaguya and Iroha and what their daily life together is like.
Even beyond the initial artist selection process, the main story team has been closely involved in planning the story as well. So I think readers can look forward to it.
「The goals of Bibibi Comic」
Miyake:
Bibibi Comic is an online manga label created by TE. It publishes original manga as well as manga adaptations of light novels from other publishers. We're not particularly restricting ourselves to any specific genre or direction.
As for why we decided to release a commemorative physical volume despite being an online manga label, we wanted to generate some momentum around the launch.
Originally, during the project development stage, we only had a team of about 10 people.
Yamamoto:
But after the team and the CPK side came together, our staff suddenly grew to around 30 people all at once. We're now transitioning toward a structure where we can seriously produce original works.
Miyake:
All 31 titles were developed in-house. There are some collaborations with outside parties, but almost all of them are company-owned originals.
Although we have manga spanning a wide variety of genres, we haven't specifically decided that they have to belong to any particular genre.
Each member of the team takes responsibility for works they personally think, "This looks fun" or "I want to make this," and then considers whether we can nurture that work and grow its IP to the point where it could eventually become an anime.
Yamamoto:
Our original goal was to create "seeds" that we could develop further.
In the anime industry, there's often competition over popular source material to adapt into anime. Sometimes you're also unable to create the kind of work you actually want to make, or there may be interference from publishers that affects the creators. To solve these problems, we basically decided "Let's just make our own manga."
We've actually been planning this concept for five years. The reason we chose manga rather than novels is that with novels, you have to design the characters separately afterward. With manga, it's much easier to take the visuals and use them directly.
Manga is also more accessible than novels because it has a larger market. Since we're an animation company, our ultimate goal is, of course, "We want to turn these works into anime."
However, we're not aiming to make whatever is currently popular, such as isekai or the kind of manga associated with Weekly Shonen Jump. Rather, we're imagining something more like the manga of the year—works that aren't tied down to any particular genre.
It's undeniable that the manga market is increasingly moving toward Webtoons. But if you ask me whether that's necessarily the right way to create manga that stays in people's hearts, I'd say not entirely.
Rather than creating works according to whatever is trending, we want to focus on "good characters" and develop our projects with a long-term perspective.
「Regarding creators who are interested in submitting their work」
Miyake:
I think there are many creators who want their works to be adapted into anime. But in reality, if a work doesn't sell, it's difficult to get it adapted into anime.
There are plenty of cases where creators try writing the kind of story an editor tells them will sell, only for it to fail to sell anyway.
If we can find creators who embrace their own individuality as creators and believe in what Twin Engine is trying to do from here on out, we think we can create some really good works together.
So if you agree with our vision, please feel free to reach out to us.
Yamamoto:
To all creators: in an era where the market-in approach has become overly influential, I'd like to say this:
If there's something you want to challenge yourself with, or a project that you're genuinely ambitious about, come to us.
Miyake:
And for readers, we're also planning to add support functions to the website, such as a "That's good! (Like)" button.
We want everyone to enjoy a wide variety of works while having the feeling that: "The character I love, or the work I'm rooting for, might actually become an anime someday."
First of all, throughout August, we want to keep increasing the number of works available to read as previews, so we'd like people to try reading as many different works as possible.
Among these creators, there are both people who have previously had their works serialized and people who are getting their first serialization.
So first and foremost, we want everyone to get to know a wide variety of creators!