Earl Cain - Development

Development

Kaori Yuki chose the Victorian era as the setting for Earl Cain because she liked films from that time period and was inspired by "the darker, grislier side" of the Victorian upper class. Yuki considered Kafka, a vampire-themed mystery which introduced the secret society led by the protagonist's father, to be the beginning of the series' plot. The "pretty risqué theme" of Kafka "embarrassed at the time." After completing the first four parts of Earl Cain, Yuki was uncertain about continuing the series. She wrote her supernatural fantasy manga Angel Sanctuary and the chapter "Solomon Grundy's Sunday" as a "self-introduction" which convinced her to start Godchild. Yuki did historical research for Godchild, traveling to London, England, and visiting seven historical sites: Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, the British Museum, Thames River, and Hyde Park. Because of the gap of several years between the publication of the final The Seal of the Red Ram volume and the first Godchild volume, Yuki included the characters in order of previous appearance with past episodes, and short explanations in the first Godchild volume. Yuki noted that her drawing style differed from her previous series. The darker plot of Godchild worried Yuki, but helped her to decide the series' ending. Her method of creating suspense in Godchild included adding "lots" of black screentone, "exaggerating" the characters' expressions, having an elaborate setting, and opening the chapter with an everyday scene to contrast with the "scary scenes".

Yuki believed that the original story was unclear and added extra pages to clarify the twist ending of the series. Because of her decision, the ending chapter of Godchild was eight pages longer than the usual thirty pages for a manga. Yuki was divided between a happy or tragic ending for Cain, noting how readers of Angel Sanctuary had wanted a happy ending for the protagonists. She felt that the ending of Godchild was ambiguous as to whether Cain survived because there is neither blood nor a fatal wound on him. Yuki chose the final line of Godchild from the rhyme "Simple Simon", joking in the postscript that at least the series did not conclude with the line "And then there were none". As of finishing the series, Yuki said that she has no plans for additional chapters or side stories. Despite this, she included a five-page epilogue in the 2010 bunkoban release of the entire series.