Keisuke Uyama’s Bestselling Novel Love Like the Falling Petals finally comes to America with its very first English translation. The novel, initially published by Shueisha in 2017, captivated a nation with its exploration of the beauty and pain of young love, as two souls are brought together by fate, only to be torn apart by circumstance.

The novel became a bestseller in Japan and went on to receive a popular Netflix, live-action movie adaptation of the same name, in 2022. The film was directed by Yoshihiro Fukagawa, written by Tomoko Yoshida, and starring Kento Nakajima and Honoka Matsumoto.

The novel’s English translation is provided by Terry Gallagher, cover by artist Heikala, and variant covers by LAL!ROLE and Cheseely. Its beautiful cover art is the prefect combination to this beautifully written and emotionally charged novel, which is primed to connect with a new international audience.

Interview With Heikala – Love Like The Falling Petals Cover Artist

The novel itself is known for its vibrant colors and its iconic Japanese cherry blossoms. To better explain the artistic process behind the English cover design, we got the opportunity to speak with Tokyo based artist Heikala. Originally from Finland, Heikala works from Tokyo, Japan and this is what they had to say about working on the cover of Keisuke Uyama’s very popular novel,

Krystal: After watching the Netflix series, did that influence the character design on the cover?

Heikala: I think the Netflix film had some effect on the character designs, but while I was reading the book, I also made notes of Misaki’s and Haruto’s characteristics and sketched the characters primarily according to what was written in the story of the two.

K: What was challenging about making the cover for this novel to best convey the story to anyone picking the novel for the first time?

H: I love creating artworks that have an underlying story behind them, so the challenge was to make a piece that somehow conveys the full arc of the story in the book without giving too much away.

K: I noticed that the characters on the cover are not facing the reader; why is that? Is there a special meaning to that?

H: Even when the artwork is super colorful and vibrant, conveying the feeling of budding love, the fact that the characters are facing away gives the artwork a wistful feel to it, a beautiful sadness to the moment.

To learn more about Heikala’s art process, check out their video on coloring the cover,

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Process of painting the cover artwork for Keisuke Uyama’s ’Love Like the Falling Petals’ 🌸✍️ pic.twitter.com/j3z9jgcbmr

— Heikala (@heikala_art) June 14, 2023

Support Keisuke Uyama’s Novel

To bring this new English translation of the novel, Media Do International and Clover Press are partnering together with publisher Shueisha for a Kickstarter campaign for the first-ever English publication of the book. The Kickstarter went live earlier this week, and in less than 24 hours, it reached its goal of $2,500. Kickstarter rewards for this project are still available and you can support the novel by pledging here.

Rewards range from the novel with a dust jacket of Heikala cover art to Tote Bags, Plastic Folders, Tenugui Towel & Calendar Prints in addition to variant covers by Cheseely & LAL!ROLE. Additional add-ons are also available!

“At Clover Press, we’re all about trying new genres, formats, and ways to get great books that we love into people’s hands,” said Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz. “Love Like the Falling Petals”is no exception and is a great example of Clover Press’s plans to expand into bringing quality international material to North America.”

Make to sure check out Love Like the Falling Petals on Netflix or the novel, by making a pledge on Kickstarter.

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