Manga Extras
Volume 13
1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12
13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|
Top
| The Making of Ranma 1/2, Part 13: Herb | |
| Translation provided by: Robby Stine of Kanabits |
Herb’s lengthy arc ended in a spicy, three-on-three battle. What led to his creation?
Q: I’d like to talk about the battle with Herb. Nothing screams manga more than this kind of story arc.
Takahashi: As far as for Ranma 1/2 as a series, this one turned out a little long, and the number of characters involved was also pretty large.
Q: It became something of a Team Ranma vs. Team Herb thing.
Takahashi: Yeah, there ended up being a lot of people on either side. Like a team battle.
Q: Where did you get the idea for Herb?
Takahashi: Well, there was this dragon that drowned in a spring…no wait, that’s not what happened. There is no drowned dragon. He is the descendant of a dragon, so the power runs through his veins.
Q: A descendant of the Musk Dynasty, a people who have gained the power of beasts.
Takahashi: That’s the gist of it. Ranma is also stuck in his girl form the whole fight, so he has to figure out what to do about that. Those are the two key elements of the story.
Q: Not a lot of room for gags in this one.
Takahashi: Well, I probably thought it would be nice to try something like that from time to time.
Q: Instead of something silly like Martial Arts Dining or Martial Arts Tea Ceremony, this time was a more of a straight-up battle.
Takahashi: I think I just wanted to do a proper, no-frills team battle.
Q: There were some RPG-like elements too.
Takahashi: There was the puzzle of how to turn back into a man, and where he should go to accomplish that. Then there was the object with the mystical power. It’s something I wanted to try.
Q: Ranma, Mousse, and Ryoga made a pretty good team.
Takahashi: Those three working together was something I’d also never done, so I wanted to see what it was like. The arc with Herb provided a lot of chances to do things I’d never tried before. I remember it being a lot of fun.
Q: Herb’s sidekicks are pretty strong, too.
Takahashi: Yes, they are strong. If they weren’t at least on the same level as Ryoga or Mousse, we wouldn’t have been able to call it a team battle, would we?
Q: So, summing things up?
Takahashi: It was a lot of fun.