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Femme Fatales, Fashion, and Flaws: Exploring the World of Battan

Interviews #Battan #Fatale Game #Run Away With Me Girl #Yuri

Known for her beautifully delicate art paired with emotional storytelling that explores intimacy, femininity, and internal conflict, Battan has earned critical acclaim for works such as Run Away With Me, Girl and Kemutai Ane to Zurui Imouto since her 2016 debut. We sat down to chat with her about her work and creative process.

Battan-sensei, what made you decide to become a manga artist?

It all started when I decided to draw manga as a way to get through my grief after my mother passed away. From there, I tabled at an event called Comitia where I was approached by an editor, and I made my debut. At first, I thought there was no way I’d be able to continue making manga, but by the time I had realized it, 10 years had passed since I first started. I’m really grateful.

The way you draw women is so soft and feminine – how did your art style evolve into the way it is today?

This isn’t something that I do consciously – I actually only realized after the people around me pointed it out. I’m quite a short, thin person, so I think it’s because I’ve always admired tall, curvy bodies. The characters in Fatale Game all have distinct physical appearances. I quite like Futami’s figure.

Where do you get the ideas for the fashionable outfits your characters wear?

The way my characters dress is an important aspect. I take inspiration from pieces I think are cute that I find on online fashion retailers, and also apps where people post their outfit coords.

Outside of manga, what are your inspirations?

I’ve always enjoyed reading novels. I used to imagine it all play out in my head, but now that I’m a manga artist, I unconsciously start paneling the story inside my mind as I read.
I think the novel I have taken the most inspiration from is Émile Zola’s Nana. I was totally captivated by the titular character, Nana. She’s a free-spirited, quintessential femme fatale with a strong presence. I aspire to create characters just like her!

What’s your approach to storytelling? Do you come up with an idea first and wing it as you go, or decide how you want the ending to go first, or something entirely different?

Generally, I come up with the scenes I want to draw and the script first. Then I think about which characters would be a good fit to get the story to that point, and the setting, etc. and kind of work backwards from there. With a serialized work, I begin to approach it like I’m making a really big one-shot manga. As serialized works tend to be quite long, though, the characters gradually take on more personality and start moving on their own.

Are you a traditional artist or a digital artist, or a combination? What’s your favorite medium to work in?

For manga, I am fully digital, but for color work, I currently do half-and-half. I love using watercolors, and I think the transparent quality they have, as well as the light colors, really fits my style.

Do you tend to work in silence, or do you listen to music or podcasts while you work? What are your favorite genres or artists to listen to?

I tend to either work in silence, though sometimes I’ll have YouTube videos playing in the background. There was a time when I listened to music, but I feel like it makes my emotions run too wild and takes me off track… so now I often listen to videos about the occult. I really like the premise of SCP (a collaborative horror fiction project about a secret organization containing paranormal anomalies) where strange and terrifying things are subtly woven into everyday life.

Is there a character of yours that you particularly identify with, or who is your favorite that you’ve created so far?

My characters all come from my own negative emotions and shortcomings, so technically they’re all like me? [laughs] For me, creating is a form of helping myself, and my characters are inextricably linked to me. I think Seri is the character who is most like me, though – she’s also a manga artist and is quite timid and easily swayed… But recently, she’s been coming more into her own, and it feels like she’s slipping out of my grasp. Makes me feel a little lonely.

You recently visited New York and Toronto – how was your trip? Did you get to meet or interact with international fans?

It was an amazing experience. I really felt that no matter which country you go to, manga fans are super passionate and really love the stories that they love. I can’t speak any other languages, so I was quite nervous, but everyone was so nice and welcoming. The whole trip made me want to share more about myself not only in Japan, but also overseas.

Have you ever put any of your personal experiences to use as inspiration for your work?

Almost all of my work is inspired by my own experiences. Depending on the story, it’s really clear what my feelings were at the time, so when I read over them again, I’m taken back to that moment. It’s kind of like flipping through a photo album.
For example, when I was making Run Away With Me, Girl, I had a deep distrust of men, and I was saved by other women.
When I was making Kemutai Ane to Zurui Imouto, I had recently gone through a divorce, so I wanted the characters to be looking to the future, to a new life.
And in the first chapter of Fatale Game, Seri is scared about creating a new manga, which was the same for me. I wanted to use this manga to cheer myself up and make drawing manga fun again.

Finally, if you could leave a message to the readers at K MANGA!

Thank you so much for reading my manga. I don’t care if my work is read by a huge number of people. I just draw with the hope that it becomes something special to even just one person. Seeing the translated versions being read by so many people overseas makes me really happy. I’ll keep doing my best so that as many of you as possible can read in your native languages!
I hope my manga becomes something special to you.

Read Fatale Game here!

Read Run Away With Me, Girl here!

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