Interview in Italy

Translated by: Dylan Acres

Give us a quick overview of your career.

Takahashi: I have held my current job for approximately 14 years, but I wouldn't be able to pin down the exact day in which I made my debut in this field... The only thing that I can say with certainty, is that I didn't keep my "pen name" very long. ^[1]

Where were you born?

Takahashi: I was born and grew up in Niigata where I attended the local grammar school; after that, I transferred to Tokyo for university. ^[2] Then, during my third year, I participated in a new comic artist competition organized by Shogakukan. I succeeded in earning one of the prizes for the best works in the competition, and it was then that my career began, at the age of twenty. ^[3]

What pushed you into participating in the competition in the first place, and then launching yourself into the world of comics?

Takahashi: It was a dream that I chased since I was a child... Then, living in Tokyo and seeing all those big houses around me, I thought about being able to make it and I enrolled myself in the competition with confidence.

Had you designed comic strips since you were a child?

Takahashi: Yes and it was always my passion. In the beginning I limited myself to writing small four-panel strips. Then, in grammar school, I participated in my first competition... and it was truly a disaster!

Did the fact that you decided to enroll in a university in Tokyo have something do to with your ambitions to be a cartoonist?

Takahashi: No, that choice had nothing to do with my career ambitions. Seeing the failure of my first competition, I decided to renounce it all and enroll myself at the university in my hometown. But my parents had other ideas. They convinced to me to transfer to Tokyo, so that I could create my own, independent, life. ^[4]

As far as your professional techniques, did you develop them alone or with the aid of some master?

Takahashi: I learned the necessary techniques imitating my favorite artists, and learned to trace lines by roughly estimating. During my college years I took a course in manga illustration from master Kazuo Koike. Over the course of the six month class I was pushed to devise no less than one story per week. Then they made me excercise my ability to create vignettes and entire pages, and these pages had to be based on the scenarios that had been written throughout the course. To be among so many people who had the same ambitions as I did was a stimulating experience and it encouraged me to continue on my path. The disciplines that were taught there were all high quality: in fact some of them I have only been able to understand and appreciate after working in the business for many years. ^[5]

Which authors have influenced you?

Takahashi: There have been many. In the beginning my favorite one was the great Osamu Tezuka, and then I fell in love with the works of Fujio Akatsuka. While I attended middle school I was huge fan of Spider-Man from Marvel Comics: the Japanese version was written by Kosei Ono and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami; after that I became interested in the works of Kazumasa Hirai, but the designs of Ikegami continued to appeal a lot to me. His art was what pushed me to become a cartoonist. ^[6]

What manga are you currently interested in?

Takahashi: Right now, the most interesting manga to me is Parasyte (by Hitoshi Iwaki), published in Afternoon by Kodansha.

What do you like about it?

Takahashi: The story is very difficult to describe, because if it were not for the extraordinary ability of the author, the work would almost be grotesque. Iwaki succeeds in portraying tears and love truthfully but with a humanity that's uncommon.

Which foriegn authors do you like?

Takahashi: I do not know many, but at times I find American comic strips appealing, they have very beautiful designs.

Do you think it is better for an author who writes and designs their works alone, or is it better to have a subdivision in tasks such as writing and illustration between two people?

Takahashi: It all depends on the author: in my case I prefer to work alone, therefore I am totally responsible for the work. But in the case of an author who has a large-capacity for artistic design, but is insufficiently endowed when it comes to inventing stories, then it would be easier to work from comics written by others. In this case, however, discordance between the two authors can arise, so it's not an easy task.

Most people think that if one's manga is turned into an animated series, then that is the true measure of success. What is your opinion on that?

Takahashi: This also depends on various authors points of view. Personally I am content that my job can be transposed to animation and appear in videos. I realize the propagandist power of the TV, even if the animation doesn't always stimulate the content of the work. Recently a lot of works have been converted from paper to screen, but unfortunately they are not always faithful to the stories they originated from... In some of these cases I'm a bit disappointed. ^[7]

Your manga are well loved in Italy, and you have many admirers here. That being said, how do you account for your fans all over the world when your stories so closely follow the legacies of Japanese traditions?

Takahashi: Perhaps it is out of curiosity. What is astonishing to me is the interest of foriegn readers in a series like Urusei Yatsura. In fact, this type of manga is pure fantasy, therefore in order to render it as realistically as possible, it is necessary to describle the daily life of the Japanese well. Perhaps the foreign readers are curious about this as opposed to the typical folklore of Japan.

Reading your work it is obvious that Japanese traditions, such as popular fables and stories, often find themselves in your writing. How did you become interested in these stories?

Takahashi: For me, fables represent a shared knowledge, in the sense that the great mass of Japanese readers remember the stories, and are therefore easy for them to understand. The popularity of fables are important and helpful in manga, in that they are easily understood by the mass audience.

Is it true that Maison Ikkoku relects some of your personal experiences?

Takahashi: Yes and no... it's my perspective on life. Naturally, in Maison Ikkoku, my way of thinking is reflected, but my life does not have a happy ending yet...

How would you define what "kind" of manga it is?

Takahashi: For the most part, its a romantic comedy.

Evidently this type of story really appeals to you. What other genres do you like?

Takahashi: Honestly, I love all manga, from sports to drama. Though my work reflects other aspects of my personality; in fact when I read novels or see a film, I prefer comedies. Even if I try to write sports or dramatic works, in the end they always become comedies. That's what I'm naturally inclined to do.

Usually manga that are produced by women are serious, dramatic works. However yours are completely varied...did you purposefully choose to go this route at the beginning of your career?

Takahashi: With Urusei Yatsura it was my intention to create a science-fiction/fantasy story as the background of the series, and it nearly became a farce. Up to that point there were not many manga of its kind, so I wanted to begin a new tradition. But soon after the series began its publication, readers would send letters and I learned that their interest was mostly concentrated on the relationship between Lum and Ataru. At the beginning this astonished me, but then I became convinced that that would be a natural direction to go in.

Where do you draw the inspiration in order to create manga like Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Mermaid Forest, Dust Spot and Rumic World?

Takahashi: As far as Urusei Yatsura goes, it's like I've said before. In the case of Maison Ikkoku, when I was a student, behind the building I lived in there was an apartment house full of strange people. The place was rather suspicious, and I recall this happening a lot: there was a boy wearing a hat and a blonde man, and a kendo mask was always hung in a window. This apartment wasn't far away from the road, and every so often I saw someone come out to the street and use a two-way radio to communicate with someone in the building... ^[8] I came to realize that it was natural to expect strange things from this apartment building. But the story had to be a drama with realistic implications, and I decided without a particular reason that the main protagonist had to be the caretaker of the building. And then the appearance of the student who is ready to move out until he meets her, and is busy preparing for the college entrance exam. The comic element, the romance between the two, came into the story as it moved along, and soon, without me noticing it, became the main story. With Ranma 1/2, I had thought a lot of doing a series with a male/female-like protagonist, and since in the greater part of my previous stories the main character had been a woman, I planned to use a man this time. I was worried about writing a male main character because of the hundreds and hundreds of male readers, therefore I decided on the character being half-man and half-woman. In Mermaid Forest I have not illustrated my personal world. I wanted the reader to feel the atmosphere of a typical small Japanese village. One of those places that everyone of us visited when we were little and on with which an infinite number of fables and legends were based. With Dust Spot I had already had it in mind before my debut. When I was young and played with my friends we would invent and design characters: it was then that the inspiration for the story came to me. Dust Spot however, although it is very old and only ran for five chapters, is one of those stories which people have become very attached to. In the series Rumic World I have put the reader into various single stories, some are in the same vein as Mermaid, others are comedies. Also the capacity for comedy can be found in people's everyday lives. Every so often I would want to be able to write a story with a normal person, an individual who behaves seriously from the beginning of the story to the end. ^[9] With regard to the slapstick manga, I can say that they are truly my forte... they come to me more easily.

When you prepare new stories, do the ideas come rapid-fire, one after the other?

Takahashi: I have always needed to go to my deepest thoughts, trying to understand the best thing to make in that moment. With dramatic stories I strain myself to come up with ideas, because that type of manga is more difficult for me. Instead with comedies, especially those that are conclusive, I have to invent many situations and I can try different things. This means that I have to have lots of new ideas, therefore I might need to consult with the editor. ^[10]

How do you decide to end a series?

Takahashi: In the case of Maison Ikkoku, practically since the beginning I had decided to finish it with the wedding of the protagonists, and then the story would move along in whatever way you could imagine. At the same time I was also ending Urusei Yatsura, which I could have continued, but it had lasted for a long time and I chose to dedicate myself to completely starting a new story.

Are there any special instruments or technical particulars that you use in your work?

Takahashi: No, nothing special, which the exception of some authors who use excessive amounts of adhesive films and screen tones, my methods are normal.

Do you have assistants who help you in your work?

Takahashi: Today there are five of us, while earlier in my career, when I published Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku there were three of us, including myself. They were very fast with their designs and so we were more than sufficient with just the three of us. And I don't use male assistants so that the girls will work more seriously if they aren't worried about boys. ^[11]

Their job consists of drawing the backgrounds?

Takahashi: Yes, I sketch them and they finish them.

About how much time is necessary for you to layout a chapter?

Takahashi: Before I do anything I make the sequence of the story out on paper, and that takes about nine to twelve hours for a sixteen page story. The longer the story the longer the amount of time necessary to complete it.

About how much time does it take from the creation of a story until the finished product?

Takahashi: If I've started laying things out in the evening, then I will have finished by dawn. After I have rested for about a day I call my assistants and in the course of two or three nights we finish the job. If we strain ourselves we can finish the whole thing in four days, but usually five days are necessary.

So you don't have a certain day to rest duing the week?

Takahashi: If I have something truly interesting to do then I take a day off.

Then you cannot take a vacation for a long period of time?

Takahashi: Exactly. In fact, in the last five or six years I have not taken a single vacation. ^[12]

What advice would you give to aspiring cartoonists?

Takahashi: First, try to focus on stories that will come to you in the easiest and funniest way possible. When an interesting thought comes to mind, think of the readers and how many people will truly be able to appreciate it. The last bit of advice is that you can't do a story if it doesn't appeal to you, because the most important thing is that you make yourself happy: only after this can you strain yourself enough to amuse others as well.

---

Footnotes

• [1] Takahashi's pen name was "Kemo Kobiru" (けもこびる) and briefly before that "Nosaka Kemo" (のさかけも). She only used these names a few times on the work she made prior to her 1978 debut. Some of those works published under her pen names include Aim For the Ace! (Chapter 3), Bye-Bye Road and Equation of Nirvana.
• [2] Takahashi attended Japan Women's University (日本女子大学/Nihon Joshi Daigaku) in the late 1970s and was still in college during her debut in 1978.
• [3] Takahashi won honorable mention for the 2nd Shogakukan Newcomers Manga Award (第2回小学館新人コミック大賞) in the shonen category. The way the Newcomer Manga Award is structured is there is a single winner and then two to three honorable mentions that are unranked. In 1978 the winner in the shonen category was Yoshimi Yoshimaro (吉見嘉麿) for D-1 which was published in Shonen Sunday 1978 Vol. 26. The other honorable mentions in addition to Rumiko Takahashi were Masao Kunitoshi (国俊昌生) for The Memoirs of Dr. Watson (ワトソン博士回顧録) which was published in Shonen Sunday 1978 Vol. 27 and Hiroaki Oka (岡広秋) for Confrontation on the Snowy Mountains (雪山の対決) which was published in a special edition of Shonen Sunday (週刊少年サンデー増刊号). Oka would also publish later under the name Jun Hayami (早見純). Other winners in various Newcomers categories include Gosho Aoyama, Koji Kumeta, Yuu Watase, Kazuhiko Shimamoto, Naoki Urasawa, Kazuhiro Fujita and Ryoji Minagawa, Yellow Tanabe and Takashi Iwashige.
• [4] Takahashi mentions in "My Dreaming Days" her father telling her she needed some real-world experience as the reason he insisted she enroll in college in Tokyo.
• [5] Gekiga Sonjuku was a manga "cram school" where Kazuo Koike, the writer of such iconic manga as Lone Wolf and Cub, Crying Freeman and Lady Snowblood helped train a number of manga luminaries before their debuts. Besides Rumiko Takahashi, other Gekiga Sonjuku alumnai include Tetsuo Hara (Fist of the North Star), Yuji Hori (Dragon Quest), Hideyuki Kikuchi (Vampire Hunter D), Keisuke Itagaki (Grappler Baki) and Marley Caribu (Old Boy).
• [6] Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) is the "God of Manga" and easily the most influential mangaka in history. His major works include Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム/Tetsuwan Atom), Black Jack (ブラック・ジャック) and Dororo (どろろ). Fujio Akatsuka (赤塚藤雄) is the creator of Tensai Bakabon (天才バカボン) and Osomatsu-kun (おそ松くん). Ryoichi Ikegami (池上遼一) is by far Takahashi's biggest influence and favorite artist as she has professed many times. His work includes Crying Freeman (クライング フリーマン), Sanctuary (サンクチュアリ) and Wounded Man (傷追い人). Kazumasa Hirai (平井和正) is the creator of 8 Man (8マン) and Genma Taisen (幻魔大戦) and a mutual fan of Rumiko Takahashi.
• [7] Some readers will no doubt take this as a reference to Takahashi's feelings on Beautiful Dreamer, Mamoru Oshii and his adapatation of Urusei Yatsura. "The Time We Spoke Endlessly About the Things We Loved" and "Three-Way Interview" are two articles that are recommended so that readers can make up their own minds about her feelings in her own words. Additionally in her 35th anniversary interview with Comics Natalie she expresses her enjoyment of Oshii's work, though by contrast in her Italian interview she gave a vague answer that was more negative (though she did not name Oshii or Beautiful Dreamer explicitly).
• [8] Years later Takahashi would illustrate her experience of witnessing the goings-on at this neighboring building and its inspiration for Maison Ikkoku in the short story 1980.
• [9] A case could be made that some of Takahashi's later characters fit the mold of the characters she hoped to create here. Sesshomaru from Inuyasha certainly comes to mind, but if restricted only to protagonists Rinne Rokudo and Mao are much more mild-mannered than her earlier protagonists.
• [10] For more on the relationship between Takahashi and her editors please check out "My Page One".
• [11] This is something that has come up frequently throughout Takahashi's career and is often referenced in articles and interviews both in Japan and abroad. As she has later clarified, the reason she does not have a male assistant is because she feels her female assistants would feel they had to fetch tea or food for him due to societal expectations in Japan. It is simply easier not to have to address those socialogical complexities. She addresses this in her My Dreaming Days interview as well.
• [12] Following the conclusion of Ranma 1/2 in 1996 Takahashi finally took some time off for roughly 11 months. After the end of Inuyasha she was off for nearly a year again before beginning Kyokai no RINNE. Once again after RINNE she took off a little more than a year before starting work on MAO. This is to say she finally got better about giving herself a break. After concluding Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku which she worked on simultaneously she began Ranma 1/2 and then had to be hospitalized for some months after it began.

---