Curry Zawa Kaoru's Creative Counseling - "The way I 'create' is little more than slapping my thoughts on a page." Your way of creating isn’t as unorthodox as you think.

This is the longest consultation I've ever received, which makes it especially clear that you really can't help but write down everything overflowing in your mind.

To summarize, I think what you’re trying to say is you never actually actively come up with your own ideas. Characters start moving around in your head of their own accord and you just draw what they do, which means you envy people who can actively take control of their imagination and draw the specific fantasies they want to see.

First, I suspect some creators would find this very concern itself real cheeky, so it might be best not to voice it too openly. If you have to say it, at least say it with a bit more self-importance. Under no circumstances should you ever refer to it as a problem.

I don’t think you're lying about struggling, but what you need to understand is that this is a problem that almost sounds like bragging, just like people who say, “No matter how much I eat, I can't gain weight.”

But you're worried about your creation process, right? I get it a little.

That said, if stories about your favorite pairings truly descend upon you like divine revelation in visual form that you can perfectly replicate on paper, then this consultation ends here. How could I possibly understand the struggles of a genius like you? Even I have my limits.

If you’re anything like me, I assume you unfortunately have voices constantly chattering away in your head.

In my case, it's pretty much a mess up there. My head is only filled with the babbling of me, myself, and I. Like, why can’t I come up with someone new to talk to inside my own head, at least?

I'd like to say this inner dialogue with myself is at least contributing to the output of these columns and essays, but if I just transcribe my unconscious brain chatter as-is, the only results would be things like, “Dippity do da dippity day!” or “Let the world burn!!!” which might be exactly what you'd expect when I’m the only one talking to myself.

Even so, if you give me a theme, these little voices of mine will hold a conference about it, and I often end up writing down whatever happens during it. You’re probably some evolved form of that.

But regardless of the principle, most ordinary people probably can't imitate your creative method in the same way you can't imitate theirs. Imagine if someone told you their idea of moe was getting on all fours and squealing like a pig? Could you imitate that? Wouldn't it be quicker to simply find the moe within your own creative method?

In my mind, it's just me and I 24/7, endlessly chanting the names of different bodily fluids. But on extremely rare occasions, characters I like start having conversations with each other in there too, and I sometimes turn those into actual works.

However, the appearance rate of actual characters in my mind is incredibly low. Especially my own original characters. If my mind were a gacha game, my own original characters would have such low pull rates that I’d probably get sued for fraud.

There are two conditions that need to be met for me to achieve a state where a character pops up in my mind. I have to really feel affection for the character, and the character must be well-received by readers. When both are met, and I sleep less than two hours, the character sometimes begins moving within my mind at a level where I can pour them onto the page.

First off, achieving the latter condition is an incredibly difficult feat. On top of that, my affection for the character can't be some sentimental feeling like wanting to love the pathetic creation I forced into existence, but instead something closer to moe.

You probably get images of the ship you like at the moment flooding your mind, not random, intimate scenes from the daily lives of random old men you don't know. If it were a genuine divine revelation through supernatural power, you'd be getting images of the gods' favorite ships forced into your mind, not your own.

The fact that images of a ship you really like come to mind means you’re getting them because you personally are drawn to that pairing. At the very least, you like them. No matter how much your special ability might make these images appear inside your head, actually going through with the tedious act of translating those images into manga requires an extraordinary passion for that couple.

There are plenty of people who can come up with all sorts of moe fantasies but find it too much trouble to actually put them on paper.

Maybe you fall into an artistic trance and start sketching like Rohan, but if it's a Stand that only activates for your favorite ship, then that Stand is definitely a manifestation of the moe you feel for that specific pair.

In other words, while your methods might be completely different from the people you feel inferior to, I think they have the same underlying motivation of simply liking those characters, so it’s really not as unorthodox as you think.

The precision with which characters move freely in your mind is so incredible that you might not feel much satisfaction from your own ideas, but unless you have two mysterious electrodes stuck on your temples, whatever you see comes directly from your mind, so be confident about it.

Also, this is just my personal experience, so it might not apply to you, but the conversations in my head start randomly on their own, even when someone is right in front of me.

In other words, I start ignoring the person right in front of me because of the people in my head, so I tend to be seen as someone who never talks or doesn't listen to others. The more your internal conversations flourish, the fewer people will actually talk to you in real life.

Normally, I'm the kind of person people don’t tend to like, but when I write stories or draw manga based on my inner monologues, there are occasionally people who genuinely enjoy them. So I suppose it's good that I can create things, even if it's in this twisted way.

You too might find yourself completely zoned out when your favorite ship starts moving in your head—so much so that you won't hear people or things around you, and before you know it, you might find yourself stepping onto railroad tracks. So when that mental movie of your faves starts playing, check your surroundings for safety first.