10+ Years of Ranma 1/2 in the United States with Toshifumi Yoshida
Interview by: Harley Acres
Toshifumi Yoshida is the translator/producer of many of Rumiko Takahashi's manga and anime properties in the US. I appreciate the time he took to respond to the questions about his experience in the manga and anime field.This interview was conducted on September 3, 2001 for Perfect Edition by Harley Acres.
How did Ranma 1/2 originally come to Viz's attention?
Well, Rumiko Takahashi has been a very popular artist for Shogakukan with her Urusei Yatsura series. When Viz was formed 15 years ago, she was working on Ranma so it was a natural choice.Do you remember how you were introduced to the series?
I was buying Weekly Shonen Sunday at the time (along with Jump and Magazine) and enjoying the comic series. My introduction to the anime was through some of the local San Francisco Bay Area fans. They showed me some episodes at one gathering or another.Can you discuss the process of translating and putting together an issue of Ranma 1/2? [1] Do you do translations directly from a tankobon? Are pages scanned and flipped from copies provided to you by Shogakukan, or is Viz responsible for taking the images from already published copies and re-working them?
I do my literal translations from the tankobon, which then gets sent to the rewriter (Gerard Jones in this case) who prepares the final script. [2] I put in a lot of footnotes and suggestions how certain things should be translated and sometimes they go into the final script pretty much as I've written it, and other times, it gets rewritten into something different. I tend to be a purist when it comes to translation, but I also understand the need for a change sometimes. Gerard has written some pretty funny stuff I hadn't considered.Once the final script is completed, we make photostats from the orignal negatives and they are sent to the letter/touch-up artist for the final step before printing. They take out the Japanese word ballons and sound effects and replace them with the English.
Were there any particular episodes or manga chapters that were difficult to translate for American audiences? Maybe a cultural piece that was hard to convey?
This is a hard one to answer. I've been doing it for so long, that I can't remember a lot of the older issues. One of the more recent stories that I had difficulties with is the Shishi Hokodan arc. I gave pages of notes for Gerard and after going back and forth, Gerard came up with a workable version. As a contrast, on the anime version, I tried to stay closer to the original then the comic version. I hope people can compare and contrast.How did the Ocean Group come to Viz's attention, and how difficult was casting Ranma 1/2? Any particular characters that proved difficult to find an actor or actress for? What is the audition process for Ranma like?
I believe the President of Viz, then CEO, met with the owner of Ocean in Cannes during a trade show. We had our first meeting at Anime Expo '93 in Oakland, CA. It was then when it was decided we would go with Ocean for the production of Ranma 1/2.The Ranma manga was originally published in color here in the US. What made Viz decide to do this, and later discontinue it? Some companies like Dark Horse publish the original color pages from series. Did Viz ever consider doing this with Ranma? Does Viz have access to the original color pages published in Shonen Sunday? [3]
I wasn't with Viz when the color Ranma was published so I'm working on what I've heard here. So don't take what I say as doctrine...They believe the color Ranma was a test to see how it would sell. But in the end, I guess the numbers weren't all that different even though the cost of production was much higher.
As for getting color pages for comics, it is possible and we've done it for comics like Evangelion. But in general, we get the negatives for the tankobon. And the Ranma tankobon were all in black and white, even the the color pages. In contrast, the Eva tankobon has color pages so I guess we had color negatives. Once again, this is just what I think... I'm in the video department, not comics.
Has the final session of the anime been recorded yet? If so how did it go, or are you doing anything special to commemorate your final recordings?
Funny you should ask this. I arrived tonight (Sept. 3) to begin recording the last seven episodes for Ranma for the next two weeks. Then we're going to have the big wrap party with the entire cast. [4] The interesting part of this is that the party will be the first time some of the cast members will have met each other.How many episodes are usually recorded at a time? And what is the time difference between when an episode is first prepped for translation to dubbed completion and finally public availability?
I usually record two volumes worth per visit to the studio. This was four episodes back when we had 2 episodes per tape. Now we've been doing six as of this season. This last session is seven because of episode 161. The very last tape of Ranma will have 4 episodes on it.As for production, the script is completed 2 weeks to a month before the recording in general, the recording takes about a week to 2 weeks. Then it's post production which can take a month or more, depending if we need some lines re-recorded or not. From there, I deliver the final master to the duplication company. From there, it's up to marketing to decide when it comes out for the public.
Do you have a favorite episode or chapter of the manga that you are particularly proud of your work on?
I don't think I can single out a single episode. I have favorite episodes for many reasons. For me, memorable moments are scenes with certain actors in certain episodes. For Akane, I loved her sweetness when she first thinks Ranma is a girl... and her 14 second scream after she finds out the truth. For Angela (Nabiki), it's her performance in the second movie. Willow (Kasumi), it's the OAV episode with the Phoenix ("Bye bye Birdie...!). And the list goes on and on...Thanks again Mr. Yoshida, it's always a pleasure hearing from you. Ever since I first picked up Ranma I've really appreciated all the hard work you, Mr. Jones, Ms. Ledoux and everyone at Viz have put into it. Thanks again, and here's to another great decade of work on Ms. Takahashi's manga and anime!
You're welcome and I'm happy to help. Good luck with your site.Footnotes
- [1] I say "issue" here because in the 1990s and early 2000s manga was released in a comic book format with two chapters per issue. After enough chapters were released this way they were then collected into a graphic novel.
- [2] You can read an interview with Gerard Jones where he discusses the rewriting process. Gerard Jones was in charge of the "English adaptation" of nearly all of Rumiko Takahashi's works into English from Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha. By the time of Kyokai no RINNE, Viz had essentially ceased having someone handle "adaptation" in addition to translating as they were moving to a quicker release schedule. Most of Jones' work on Takahashi's English releases is no longer available as Viz has had fresh translations done of all of the projects Jones worked on. Though this has never been commented on by Viz, it is likely due to Gerard Jones being arrested and sent to prison.
- [3] The first few comic book format issues of Ranma 1/2 in English were recolored (over the black and white artwork, they did not use Takahashi's original color pages, presumably they did not have access to anything other than the tankobon). Though it took over 20 years, I personally managed to collect all of the Ranma 1/2 color pages which can be seen here.
- [4] The wrap party was actually held on September 11, 2001 and a recording of the celebration can be viewed here. Photos from the event can be seen here.
Rumic World
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