The staff of A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics stepped up to the stage to host their two Q&A panels during the first and final days of Otakon. Both panels starred light novel author Yomi Hirasaka, who shared the stage with editor Kentaro Iwaasa, character designer Kazuhiro Fukuchi, and TBS Sparkle producer Maiko Higa.
However, only the first panel was specifically about the production of Salad Bowl. The other was initially advertised as a panel exploring iconic sites in anime and light novels hosted by TBS and Shogakukan. Due to technical glitches preventing the staff from showing an episode of Salad Bowl in its entirety, a lot of the first panel’s Q&As spilled into the second panel. But not to make things too redundant, a map showcasing the locations used in Gagaga Bunko-published light novels got to be featured briefly towards the end of the second panel.
One fan noted how different Salad Bowl was from Hirasaka’s other works. Speaking on that, Hirasaka noted that “A Sister is All You Need was something based on my soul–I had to carve out a lot of myself into this. So I wanted to come up with something different. But a lot of the characters in Salad Bowl are detectives, lawyers, and cultists. So these are topics that I’m unfamiliar with, so I had to do a lot of research, and it was much harder to do than my previous work.”
Speaking as his longtime editor, Iwaasa noted how different Hirasaka was from other writers. “Most writers,” Iwaasa said, “can share their plot ideas with their editor before they start their work. Mr. Hirasaka does not do this at all. So it’s completely unpredictable what kind of work he will give us until we see his manuscript. That is the most thrilling aspect of working with him.”
A decent amount of conversation focused on Salad Bowl‘s setting of Gifu Prefecture, to the point one audience member asked if this was done for tourism purposes. Being a denizen himself, Hirasaka said that none was for any specific promotion. “Coming from the [prefecture] of Gifu, I was born in Gifu; I grew up in Gifu, so the area holds a special place in my heart.”
Hirasaka was also quick to talk about Gifu’s cuisine. “Besides beef in Gifu, Gifu has lots of other good food as well,” he began. “ We have no access to the ocean in Gifu prefecture, but we do have rivers. So we have freshwater fish such as ayu and eel. So come to Gifu. Eat fish, eat healthy. We also have something called keichan, which is a chicken dish. So if you come to Gifu for Japanese food, you don’t have to go anywhere else in Japan.”
Both panels also featured two live drawings. The aforementioned technical glitches that burdened the first panel did not get in the way of Fukuchi’s quickdraw skills with the pen. The first panel ended with a picture of Sara, while the second one ended with two sketches of Livia: a fun one of her waving to the Otakon crowd and another one of her nomming down on a delectable bowl of grasshoppers.
