Are there any particular books or movies that served as inspiration?

I was inspired by Megami Tensei, a Japanese game developed by Atlus. It has a story where the main character befriends a demon and fights against the gods. I also referred to a variety of popular isekai novels.

Hiroto has had a really unfortunate life. Was there a reason you chose a protagonist that had suffered so much misfortune?

When I began writing this story, I really liked success stories where the main character crawls from the bottom to the top. I wanted to write a story like that, and in order to do so the character needed to be at the bottom to start, so I put him in an extraordinarily painful situation. Now, looking back, I wonder if I overdid it a bit.

There are many isekai stories out there, so what kind of world are you trying to build in The Death Mage?

I used Greek mythology as inspiration for the world. My idea was to create a fantasy world where many different types of people and monsters exist, and where the main characters have the potential to get caught up in exciting adventures. As I kept writing, my original plan ended up expanding in scope.

What is the most fun and most challenging part of writing this series?

The most interesting part was having the main character use particularly villainous special abilities. On the other hand, the greatest challenge was avoiding writing a story where the main character ended up opposing the entire the human race. I thought that would make the story dark and uninteresting.

If you could travel anywhere in the world for free, where would you go?

Las Vegas, USA. It was the setting of a drama I like, and it seems like you could spend all day just wandering around looking at the hotels and casinos.