Talking to Inori

Talking to Inori (いのり)

Joe: In preparation for the next video, one of the next topics is partly about otome game isekai. Inori is an incredibly strong author of otome game isekai. When it comes to anime adaptations, otome game isekai ("maiden game," otome-gemu, 乙女ゲーム) have not yet really been adapted in any noticeable capacity. They're stories which revolve around female characters who must navigate a hostile situation to avoid a bad ending.

The story has an official English publication, which you can find in any bookstore, offline and online.

Like the others, this is a conversation that has been heavily edited down from a larger, longer conversation. Likewise, I've moved and edited some stuff around, but I think I kept our conversation and information largely intact. I tried to keep the general spirit of the conversation intact, at least stuff that can be public.

Note: All content edits will be mentioned here, any unmentioned edits are grammar, spelling, or syntax.

Edit (March 03 2020): Added a bit more in the introduction.

Edit (April 15 2020): Edited from "some men" to have "latent," changed "edgy" to "cynical," changed responded to "I don't do anything special."

First off, I want to say thank you very much for sitting down and talking with me. So how did you get started writing isekai? Was there any work that inspired you?

Originally, I enjoyed reading fantasy novels and playing games set in fantasy worlds. I started writing novels long before isekai became popular. As such, I Favour the Villainess is written as a fantasy story more than a conventional isekai.

So based on that premise, I hope readers look at it with that in mind, given that I started writing I Favour the Villainess because I thought I could emblematize my favourite Yuri stories using these ideas of reincarnation and villainesses, both of which are big genres on syosetu. As for works, there’s no particular work that triggered it. 

What do you think is the appeal of the isekai setting?

At the end of the day, the author can freely configure the world according to what they want to write. Of course, there is often a pattern, or a kind of isekai “template”, but I think it can be changed to suit the author’s preference. 

How has the process of writing on syosetu been for you?

I don't do anything special. I jot down notes for my ideas, brainstorm with my partner, compose the plot, and then I write.

What led you to writing otome game isekai?

Isekai are popular on syosetu, but villainesses are popular with women. So, I decided to write something with a villainess. In other words, I got on the bandwagon, but I also wanted to see how much I can play around with the settings.

Why did you go with a company office lady?

Lots of readers on Shousetsuka Ni Narou are working women, so I went with a female office worker cause she represents a lot of working women tired with their jobs. That makes it easier for readers to sympathize with the protagonist.

Your work places a lot of emphasis on villainess characters. Why a villainess?

Like I said, I partly got into it because it’s popular, but I’m a bit cynical myself, given that I find the villainess easier to write than the hero. Heroes tend to be these saintly characters. In contrast, I think villainesses are more freeing because don’t you have to deal with the ethics and norms that could chain down a heroic character.

In isekai, what are some of the challenges facing female characters compared to male characters?

Well, first off, there’s the idea that what is “isekai” is different depending on the author. A lot of people say that many of them are made to reference medieval European worlds, but there’s also stories like mine, which are set in game-like settings. There are a lot of different isekai in general, so it’s very difficult to talk about isekai holistically.

Still, I can generally say that many isekai tend to revolve around feudal cultures, so it’s one of the challenges for female characters that the status of women is often relatively poor. For instance, in many isekai, the difference in biological power is smaller than in the real world because of the existence of magic.

Are there female characters (in other works) that’ve influenced yours?

It’s not a recent body of work, but I’d say female characters from stories from the 1990s. Examples like Mirancha in Egg Prince and Lina Inverse in Kanzaka Hajime’s Slayers come to mind.

I Favour the Villainess has a lot of game references. How important are games to isekai?

I don’t think it’s necessarily important. As I mentioned before, isekai vary from author to author. In I Favour the Villainess, the game world is the setting, so it’s central, but in other isekai, the game may have nothing to do with it. However, even in such cases, games may be important in that sense because games dealing with fantasy may be the basis of the author’s imagination - or understanding - of isekai.

Are there any specific games or fantasy novels that influenced you?

Oh absolutely, I can’t count them all. If I had to list them, the game and fantasy novels, I’d say there were the especially influential ones, like Final Fantasy X for games and Shinobu Saeki’s Egg Prince: The Trials of Kyle Rod for fantasy novels. The thing about Saeki’s body of work that makes it so strong is that it catches you the moment you let your guard down.

But I mention those two works because you asked me about their influence on me as a person. If I were to mention influences on my works, my partner Aki is my biggest influence. As I wrote in the blog after the series, Rei, the main character of I Favour the Villainess is modeled after her. She’s funny and positive, and this work would not have been produced without her. In comparison, the main character of The Villainess wants to be alone is much closer to me.

In I Favour the Villainess, Rei is in another world, but she doesn’t seem to have a cheat power. Have you ever been tempted to give her one?

Actually, I think Rei does have a kind of cheat power. She knows about the game Revolution – so she knows the flow of the game and the background of these characters. I think you can call it a cheat.

Ah, yes, my bad. My overall experience with otome games is pretty limited. Do you have any recommendations? And more broadly, is the otome game plot particularly suited to isekai?

Oh, there are a lot of otome games I can recommend, but unfortunately I can’t think of any good games that are also isekai. If it doesn’t have to be isekai, I recommend Collar X Malice. It’s a really good, emblematic one. And there are lot of types of otome games, so some plots work well in isekai, and some don’t. However, oftentimes I think it’s just an author’s challenges more than story type itself.

Some of the isekai I’d recommend are We’re Living by the motto, “Humble, Reliable! and My Next Life as a Villainess.

That said, otome game isekai have been around for a while, but I don’t think they’re that old. As you know, stories about other worlds have been around for a really long time. I think that, by and large, a lot of the isekai from syosetu just think a bit differently from the otome game premise.

I see. On the topic of premises, considering the immense growth of nichijou-kei, kuuki-kei, and kirara-kei works, it seems interesting to me that a lot of isekai heroes tend to skew male. Is that an accurate assessment, if so, why do you think that is?

Hmm, first, let me double check something with you. Are you asking me if male characters in isekai have some sort of connection or affect on real men? I’ll give you my thoughts with that in mind.

I don’t know much about real men because there are very few men around me, but as far as I can see on Twitter, I don’t think they’ve changed much because of these stories. Most people know these stories aren’t real, it’s enjoyed separately.

In Japan, for example, there’s data suggesting men are less likely to get married than they used to, but I think this is just because the government’s economic policies are worse and men have less money than they used to. Some people claim that males confuse fiction with reality, but statistics show that the number of crimes is declining and I feel that more men are more gender-aware.

I’m sorry, haha, I think I phrased this incorrectly. Maybe, perhaps, “Why do you think isekai stories tend to have male characters as heroes”?

Ah, I misinterpreted the meaning of ‘skew’. My apologies.

I think the idea that there are many male protagonists in isekai is correct to some extent. I think the reason why there are many male protagonists is because there are many male authors. Of course, there are many female authors, but I think the percentage of male writers is relatively high because female writers tend to write not only isekai, but a ton of various villainess-adjacent works.

There’s also this trend in Japan, where women more likely to read isekai stories involving a male protagonist, but the inverse isn’t as true; so, this male main character situation is mainly in relation to supply and demand.

I see, gotcha. So, what do you think about the depiction of female characters in a different world? Is the promulgation of slavery, harems, prostitutions, etc., because they cater to male otaku readers?

I mean, I don’t know the reality of it until I ask all men, but in general, I think some might have some latent wish fulfillment. However, I don’t really think that’s because they’re otaku. I think the desire to want a woman is common among hetero males. And as I mentioned before, I don’t think that real men want to bring harems or slavery into reality. They know it’s fiction. Yes, it’s true that prostitution is common in isekai, but isekai didn’t invent it, it’s always been there.

Do you have any recommendations for writers on how to write female characters that aren’t stereotypes? What can readers and authors do to promote a better portrayal of women in isekai?

It’s important to know what a stereotype of a woman is like. It’s helpful to analyze the stereotypical image of a woman and invert or shift these elements. The best way to do it is to know real women – when you interact with real women in a sincere manner, you’ll see a completely different image of women apart from the stereotype.

I do want to emphasize the pros and cons of this idea of “a better portrayal of women,” however. We need to carefully consider what “good” means. I don’t mind if it leads to better, clever, or more innovative storytelling, but I’m against so-called “political correctness.” A novel doesn’t have to ethically correct. This kind of thinking risks hampering the kinds of stories we can tell in the future.

That’s interesting you mention the idea of better storytelling above all. Over here, a lot of people have an issue with Shield Hero because of the slavery depicted in it. That said, I agree with your overall conclusion, but is your opinion widely shared?

A lot of isekai have slaves. I don’t know if my thoughts are the majority, per se, but there’s a lot of criticism of political correctness in Japan.

Hmm, the debate here is pretty intense. On another note, people go back and forth on what are isekai, and it seems to be that isekai concept comes from Japan. That said, some folks do argue that Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are isekai. Maybe this is a good time to ask – what about you?

I’m surprised, to be frank, that based on what you’re implying, there is so little information about isekai in the west, I’ve always thought that the isekai archetype as it’s explained in Japan came from the West.

The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland are fantasy stories, but I don’t think they’re isekai. I see these two works as old fables and strange fantasy fables. 

So with this in mind, where do you see the future of isekai going?

We’re headed to this place where it’s more of a common tendency for men to read fewer stories about female protagonists. The younger generation is gradually changing this, but the ratio of women who read the stories of male protagonists is overwhelmingly larger than that of men who read the stories of female protagonists.

That said, when you’re done with the video, I’d love to see it. To tell you the truth, I have an ulterior motive in that I hope your video might increase the number of readers of my book.