What was the hardest chapter or scene for you to write?

I think the beginning and the end of any book are always a challenge to write.
But one thing that helped while I was writing Animus Proxy is that I knew I had a longer-term vision in mind and that I didn’t have to feel that artificial pressure to get it all into one volume.

Which part of Animus Proxy flowed the most easily for you?

The part of Animus Proxy that flowed the most easily for me were the action scenes, which really get to show off the dynamics of the world the characters live in — how different it is from our world, how similar it is to other concepts of a cyberpunk world, and all the various elements that make it vaguely familiar but still action-packed and different.
Sort of like a ride at a theme park, or an experience along those lines.

How did you structure the Echelon hierarchy in Shintoh?

The Echelon is basically the governing strata of the world of Animus Proxy.
In the city of Shintoh, they are essentially a decadent elite given over to partying and mimesis, which is discussed in the book.

Unlike in other parts of the world, they are more integrated into society in Shintoh. That might be because the city is quite large — it’s an amalgamation of many urban areas and a very cosmopolitan place. It’s also a center for the world economy.

So unlike in other places where there’s a concentration of power, things in Shintoh are more diffuse.

How did your vision of Shintoh change over time?

Shintoh hasn’t changed much for me — it pretty much started out the way it is, and it has remained that way.

I was lucky enough to be an exchange student in high school and live in Tokyo, and I’ve gone back on vacation to that area, so I’m familiar with it.
The city in the book is basically an extended version of Tokyo — sprawling all the way to the western coast, plowing through the mountains and using all that material for construction.

It’s sort of a reimagined capital of Japan, but really it’s a world capital at this point.
It’s one of the major cosmopolitan cities that drives world trade.

It’s mentioned in the book that there’s a part of the city called Old Tokyo, which is really what we know today as Tokyo — now just a district within Shintoh.
If you’ve ever been to Tokyo or seen pictures, you know it’s already a megalopolis — so that should give you an idea of the sheer scale of Shintoh.

It’s not discussed much in the first book, but in the worldbuilding — and maybe referenced later — a lot of transportation around the city uses flying vehicles, maglev trains, and systems along those lines.
The city is designed to work within its confines.

Which secondary characters surprised you the most as you wrote them?

I think the characters at the Red Lotus are some of the more interesting characters I developed, and I would like to explore them in more depth.

They shed a lot of light on the world — particularly that little part of the world — and how things work in the city.

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Was the cyberpunk aesthetic always the intended tone, or did it evolve?

Cyberpunk was always the intended tone and aesthetic.
I was really just trying to decide what iteration of cyberpunk I wanted to use.

Anybody familiar with the genre knows there are different lenses you can look through:

• There’s the classic 1950s style, with authors like Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), where it’s more technology-focused and a little lighter on the evil corporations side.
  
• Then you have the 1980s style, which is darker and grimmer, with the rise of environmental concerns, cultural fusion, globalization — everything mashed together into one cosmopolitan mass.
  
• Then the 1990s style, where cyberpunk became a little brighter, a little more eco-focused, not quite as grim — still cyberpunk, but a different shade.
  
• And now you see things like solar punk, which is really just cyberpunk in a different vision — clean skyscrapers, solar panels, flowing Zaha Hadid landscapes.
  

I knew I wanted to stick with the classic 1980s style, but — as I mentioned earlier — I wanted to go for the Japanese iteration, like you see in video games and in the movie Akira.

What aspects of Japanese or East Asian symbolism influenced Shintoh’s culture?

A lot of the symbolism in Animus Proxy — and in Shintoh — draws from the syncretic religious traditions of Japan.
It fuses Confucian, Shinto, Buddhist, and Daoist elements into a unified whole.

I tried to imagine that continuing into a future where everything becomes even more diffuse and idiosyncratic — people interpreting the traditions however they want.

Overall, the cycle of the story itself draws inspiration from Dharmic religions — the idea that life is cyclical, that existence repeats itself again and again.

Did you always plan for AI to play such a major thematic role?

Yes, I did plan on AI playing a large thematic role early on.

But I also planned to change the usual conventions.
I’m not doing the evil AI overlord trope — it never made sense to me.

I think you see better implementations of nuanced AI in games like Deus Ex: Machina.
I wanted something more complicated: AI that isn’t necessarily evil, but might be operating under logic that humans don’t fully understand.

How did your concept of “proxy identity” develop during writing?

Proxy identity really just came from thinking about our modern understanding of data and wireless transmission.

I tried to imagine:
What if your very essence — your self — could be reduced down into a form of data?
We already do that with complex things like DNA.

So maybe there’s an electrical signature or some specific way to encode everything you are, and transmit it wirelessly into a new Proxy.

How did numerology and hidden symbolism factor into your design choices?

Numerology in the book is there to give readers extra insights — into the scene, the character, the world, or even where the story is going.

I tried to make it pertinent and interesting, but subtle.
It’s more of an Easter egg for people who like that kind of thing.

It adds to the experience, but it should never detract from the main story.
There should be no question whether it was intentional — every piece of symbolism is deliberate.

💬 Thanks for diving into the world behind Animus Proxy!
If you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at the creation, symbolism, and structure of the story, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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