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Never a Missed Deadline: Seven Deadly Sins Live-Art & Q&A

ANN's coverage of Anime Expo 2024 sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!

Sometimes it's nice to sit down with a mangaka and ask them casual questions while they speed-draw some of their most iconic characters. Nakaba Suzuki was established in the industry for his work and he is proud of how fast he can draw. According to him, he has never missed a deadline, and after seeing him complete ten unique, detailed character sketches in about an hour, I fully believe it. Still, it was nice to hear about who Nakaba Suzuki is, how he sees his manga, and how he approaches his work.

Growing up, Nakaba knew he always wanted to be a mangaka. Despite some pushback from family, he stuck to his guns and knew if he couldn't be a mangaka, he probably wouldn't be doing anything else. He probably meant this as a joke when pointing out several times throughout the panel that he is so alien to modern technology that it would be hard for him to work in another field. The man claims he doesn't even know how to send an email or work a smartphone!

Nakaba Suzuki was heavily inspired by some of his favorite titles such as Dragon Ball and Fist of the North Star. Nakaba notes those series specifically as a potential reason why he likes drawing muscles so much in the first place. His hobbies outside of working are playing video games and drinking while watching TV. I got the impression that Nakaba was a connoisseur of alcohol, as he did try some nice scotch the night before this panel, and when asked if he could have a superpower, he says he wished he had Meliodas' ability to drink a lot without needing to worry about having a hangover the next day.

Turns out that Four Knights of the Apocalypse was a series that was always planned. When wrapping up the original Seven Deadly Sins, Nakaba knew that he wanted his next series to be about King Arthur, which would explain why the character had so much setup during the original series. Wanting to learn more about King Arthur led him to learn more about the knights that revolved around him, and that's how the four nights ended up becoming the main characters. Although Percival is the main protagonist, Lancelot is the first character designed for the series. Nakaba says he was most curious about what this character would look like when he considered who the character's parents are supposed to be while everyone else seemed relatively easy to figure out, so he drew that character first to get the idea.

As he mentioned in another panel, Nakaba is heavily involved in the production of the Four Knights of the Apocalypse anime. However, not everything turns out exactly how he thinks. Even though he was present for the selection of the voice actors, some characters ended up sounding different than how he originally envisioned. For example, when he wrote the character Margaret, he always imagined her to have a bit of a rich posh accent. However, the voice actor instead makes the character sound more mature, which he agrees was a better direction. Still, he says he loves all of his characters and despite not having much support as a kid during his pursuit of being a manga creator, he's thankful for the support that he has now.