Manga Extras
Volume 9
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| The Making of Ranma 1/2, Part 9: Picolet Chardin II | |
| Translation provided by: Robby Stine of Kanabits |
How did Picolet, the handsome caucasian boy with a bit of a monstrous side, come about?
Q: Martial arts dining is one another one of your more clever ideas, I think. Where did you get the idea to put fine dining and martial arts together?
Takahashi: Well, I think part of it was that I was just running out of ideas at the time…but it turned out all right, I’d say.
Q: How did you come up with the character Picolet Chardin?
Takahashi: As for his name, I basically just stole it from some commercials that were always on TV at the time.
Q: Madam St. Paul too?
Takahashi: That’s right. I was actually sent some of their products as a thank you.
Q: Really? That’s pretty cool. From Picolet and Chardin too?
Takahashi: Yep. All of them.
Q: Why did you make Picolet a foreigner?
Takahashi: Because the battles were about Western-style fine dining, not Japanese kaiseki. It needed to be someone who knew the real thing. That’s why I made him French.
Q: He has a rather refined way of speaking, too.
Takahashi: Like how he always uses polite language? Well, Picolet is supposed to be cool, in that completely standard sense of the word. To me, his character design itself is nothing special. It’s only that stretchy mouth of his that makes him stand out.
Q: How big an item do you think can fit in his mouth?
Takahashi: I wonder…a large plate, perhaps?
Q: He fits Ranma’s entire upper half in it at one point.
Takahashi: Oh, that’s right. Well, he is kind of like a yokai, the way he elongates his tongue and stretches his mouth like that, all “Ta-daaaaaa!”
Q: Ranma loses to him at first.
Takahashi: With martial arts dining, I was creating something that doesn’t actually exist in the real world, so I had to explain the rules. This includes what happens when someone loses.
Q: But as with any proper shonen manga, he trains and trains and emerges victorious in the end.
Takahashi: Mastering a new move only to have it blocked immediately, then having to come up with a new way to get around it. It was pretty fun to do that fight, having Ranma searching for a solution like that.
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Translator Notes:
Picolet Chardin’s name comes from two different lines of products. His first name, Picolet, comes from ピコレット (pikoretto) a line of diapers and air freshener products. Chardin also comes from a line of air freshener products, シャルダン (sharudan).
Madam St. Paul’s name comes from the toilet bowl cleaning product サンポール (sanpooru).
Kaiseki is Japanese fine dining, basically. A traditional, delicious, classy multi-course Japanese meal. Read a bit more about it on Wikipedia.