I just had a flashback of when I submitted this illustration, someone asked me “is the boy in the background dead?” When I first drew this it was at a stage where I didn’t even know anything, not even whether there will be an anime or not. It’s an illustration I drew based on the impression I had after reading “High Speed!”, and I remember wanting the swimming pool to make an impression since the theme of the story is swimming. The boy on the left is the initial Rei, from the track club who can’t swim. That’s why he’s holding onto a kickboard. The one next to him is Nagisa. Initially he’s the impish kind who’s aloof. Haruka didn’t change too much, but the color of his eyes is different. Back then I have already decided that Makoto will definitely wear long jammers! The ghostly figure behind them is Rin, I had a image of Rin who has changed as time passed. He’s still alive.
When drawing Haruka swimming, I only remember it was really fun drawing his upper body… also water is very difficult to draw. It was with this illustration that I received many responses from everyone, which linked to the story becoming animated, so it is a really meaningful illustration to me personally too.
- Hiroko Utsumi [x]
