Rumiko Takahashi: Exclusive Interview & Disassembly Treatise
Translated by: Harley Acres
There are undoubted geniuses out there and you can really feel that when you look at Rumiko Takahashi. From her debut to her latest work, Kyokai no RINNE, whenever she serializes, it's always a big hit. We admire Kyoko and Lum, have crushes on Ranma, and fall in love with Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi has captured the hearts of people of all ages and genders. She also has the incredible energy to continue her weekly serialization in Weekly Shonen Sunday. She is also a pioneer among female writers active in men's manga magazines. If Osamu Tezuka is the "God of Manga," then Rumiko Takahashi is the "Goddess of Manga"!
This year marks the 35th anniversary of her career as an artist. This is a long interview about her upbringing and the thought she puts into each of her works. The secrets of the "Rumic World" are revealed here.
Written and interviewed by Mio Matsuo, photos by Eiki Mori.
My father, my brother and Ryoichi Ikegami
From when I was a girl to when I wanted to be a manga artist
Why did Rumiko Takahashi come to love art? Takahashi was born in Niigata Prefecture in 1957. The secret lies in her father, who was a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist. "My father was good at drawing. Especially kappa drawings. [1] When I was little, he would often draw pictures for me to play with. I naturally started to imitate him. When I drew a picture of a deer, my family praised me, so I got carried away (laughs)." [2] What's more, her father was a haiku poet with the pen name "Utsugi Takahashi."
"During the Pacific War, he was scheduled to go out on a submarine and wrote a death poem. It so happened that his superior officer also liked haiku and liked him, so he said, 'You don't have to go on board.'"
An unexpected secret. Without her father's talent for haiku, Takahashi might not have been born.
After that, Takahashi was influenced by her older brother who opened the door to the world of manga.
"We started reading my brother's manga together. The first manga I really understood was Fujio Akatsuka-sensei's Songo-kun, which was a bonus feature in Shogakukan's School Year books. [3] When she was a little older, it was Weekly Shonen Sunday (hereafter referred to as Sunday). And of course, I loved Osamu Tezuka-sensei."
At the age of 12, she finally picked up her pen.
"I started drawing manga during the spring break before entering junior high school. It was a four-panel, situational comedy."
When she was in her second year of junior high school, Takahashi had this decisive experience.
"I was captivated by the manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami-sensei. I was really drawn to his short stories in Sunday.
I really liked his drawings. They were in the style of a gekiga manga, but they were sweet in a way that I couldn't describe. I wanted to live in the same world as him. I wanted to become a manga artist! That was the first time I really thought that."
She was able to do what she loved freely. In the manga club, she printed out her drawings on a mimeograph and circulated them, and exhibited her drawings at her school's festival.
She became obsessed with Ashita no Joe and Devilman, and in her second year of high school, she tried submitting her works to Weekly Shonen Magazine (hereafter Magazine), for publication. [4]
Katte na Yatsura. The main character, who's only focus is deliveing newspapers evne in unusual settings, is interesting. The design of the pathetic aliens and mermen was inherited by Urusei Yatsura.
"It was a slapstick sci-fi story. It was influenced by Yasutaka Tsutsui-sensei, who I'd recently come to love. [5] [6] I think it was the prototype of my debut work, Katte na Yatsura."
Unfortunately, she was not accepted. She gave up her dream of becoming a manga artist for a while, but she passed the entrance exam to the history department of Japan Women's University and moved to Tokyo. She rejoined the manga research group. She was also fortunate to meet people there. Her classmate was Hanako Meijiro, who also became a manga artist, and by her fourth year, she was an active manga artist. [7] Takahashi then enrolled in the manga artist training school "Gekiga Sonjuku" run by Kazuo Koike. [8] Koike himself taught the class and taught the "art of manga." "The thing he emphasized most was that manga is about characters. That's all there is to it." Another teacher also said, "'There's a theme in each and every panel,' which left a deep impression on me. Every panel has a meaning, and manga artists need to know what they want to show the reader. It was too advanced for me to understand at the time, but after I became a professional, I was always thinking, 'ah, I understand.'"
Sandalwood is fragrant even as a seedling:
From debut to the huge success of Urusei Yatsura
Sandalwood is fragrant even as a seedling--- [9]
When I read Katte na Yatsura, I think of these words. Takahashi's debut work was published in Sunday after winning an honorable mention in the Shogakukan Newcomer Comic Grand Prize in the Shonen Manga category. [10] It was published in 1978, when she was still a third-year university student. She was a nascent manga artist, however, the foundation of Takahashi's manga was already firmly established in this work.
The protagonist is a newspaper delivery boy who is abducted by aliens and captured by a half-fishman, but he continues to deliver newspapers.
Science fiction, which exists side by side with everyday life, is perfected in Urusei Yatsura. That worldview is beautifully expressed here.
The third chapter of Urusei Yatsura. It's based on a work that Takahashi drew for Gekiga Sonjuku. This is a rare chapter in which Lum and Ataru start living together.
"There are parts of it that are the prototype for Urusei Yatsura. Combining everyday elements with science fiction. That's always been at the root of me. The stories I submitted to Magazine in high school were set in the future, but the characters were students and office workers." Then, during the summer vacation of her third year of college, Takahashi started working on Urusei Yatsura. It was a monumental work that propelled her to become a huge manga hitmaker. Initially, it was planned to be a short series of only five chapters. This was the time to decide whether she would be able to continue as a professional manga artist after graduation. With strong determination, Takahashi took on the challenge of creating a new work.
"I hoped that the fun of the story would be conveyed to the readers in those five chapters. The third chapter was particularly memorable. Personally, I worked really hard on it. When Ataru gets in an interstellar taxi, he is charged the exorbitant fee of all the of Earth's oil. Lum, who didn't appear in the second chapter, reappears here. I also like the punchline at the end." From the late 70s to the 80s, Sunday was hot. A brilliant string of serializations included masterpieces that will remain in manga history, such as Mitsuru Adachi's Touch and Motoka Murakam's Musashi no Ken, which stimulated and encouraged Takahashi's creative drive. [11] "I really felt the heat of a new wave of manga being born. The creators were all friendly with each other, too. It was a very happy environment."
"Rumic World" is in full bloom
What is the worldview of Takahashi's manga?
Needless to say, one of the great things about Takahashi's manga is the charm of the characters. Among them, Lum's brilliance is overwhelming. Even when I reread the first chapter, I'm really captivated by how cute she is drawn in each and every frame. "Lum is the most ideal character I've created. I drew her with cuteness in mind. She was based on an alien from a short story I made for Gekiga Sonjuku. The tiger-patterned clothes and the electric shock were inspired by the image of the god of thunder. It was a simple idea. The word "datcha" was the advice of my editor. The half-fishman in Katte na Yatsura has a tame, languid tone, and he thought it would be good to make Lum the same way. I like Hisashi Inoue's Aoba Shigereru (青葉繁れる), and "datcha" appears in the story of Sendai. So I used that." [12]
Combining everyday elements with science fiction.
That's always been at the root of my being.
From the main characters like Ataru, Shinobu, and Mendo to Kotatsuneko and the principal of Tomobiki High School, there is not a single character who is not cute. We are fascinated by all of them. So, who is Takahashi's favorite character? "Ryunosuke."
She is the heir to Hamachaya "I Love the Sea." She looks handsome but is actually female, and her catchphrase is "I'm a girl. Many female readers call her their "ideal man." "She first appears in the middle of the series, when I was at a dead end. She brought a new energy. Her gender is ambiguous, and that was fun to draw. In Urusei Yatsura, male characters have to be foolish, but Ryunosuke isn't bound by that."
In addition, there are a variety of chapters featured here that were made one after another. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be enchanted by the spectacle of space, your heart will be thrilled by the love stories, and sometimes your heart will be stirred by the horror stories. Urusei Yatsura is packed with all kinds of entertainment.
"The story is set in an ordinary home, and there is an ordinary shopping street and an ordinary school around it. I thought that I could do anything in that world."
Rumiko Takahashi's world view - Here is the essence of "Rumic World", which is what we call her creations with deep love and respect. It is a door to an ordinary room that you can find anywhere. But if you open it, is it in outer space? If you look up at the sky, is Lum flying by? Is there a half fishman standing in the shadow of a telegraph pole? Takahashi's manga stimulates our imagination. It's not escapism or delusion. This is the possibility of the world. Wouldn't it be sad if the world around us were made up of only rectangular, predictable things? Takahashi shows us hope for the world.
"I'm grateful to hear you say that. I draw with the hope that people will agree with that sentiment. When I was a child, I wanted to ride on Obake no Q-taro or have a Perman set. [13] I could play with my imagination. If that's the fun of manga, then I'd like everyone to be able to do that too."
Maison Ikkoku. Godai, who was a student preparing for his entrance eams, becomes a full-fleged nursery school teacher.
Creating the Perfect Human Form
Advancement into seinen magazines with Maison Ikkoku
Takahashi's greatness lies in her astonishing volume of production, but this period was particularly outstanding. In 1980, she started Maison Ikkoku in parallel with Urusei Yatsura. It was published in Big Comic Spirits and was her first long-running serial in a seinen magazine.
"I wanted to do a realistic, humanistic story that was different from Urusei. I enjoyed the love story between Godai and Kyoko. I like the frustration of things not going well. Sometimes when they get closer, it's very cathartic. It was interesting to come up with that trick, and I learned a lot from it.”
Kyoko Otonashi is the caretaker of Ikkoku-kan. She is a widow possessing both cuteness and an adult sex appeal which captivates male readers. "For Kyoko I made a setting list before the serialization, which is unusual for my characters. I was going to make her a strong-willed woman like Sakura in Urusei, but when I drew the name, she wasn't that kind of person at all.” [14]
Kyoko is alive, and she is not the only one. Godai and his romantic rival Mitaka, alongside the residents of Ikkoku-kan are all given life, weaving the series into a perfect human drama. Takahashi was in her 20s at the time, not an age where she had much life experience. But how was she able to portray such perfect human characters? Was she an unusually keen observer of human nature? Was she a magician?
While Urusei is a game of tag,
Ranma is a face-to-face battle.
"No, no, no, I hardly ever observe people (laughs). I always think about the characters in the draft stage. First of all, there is the role they play in the story. The main character is Godai, and Mitaka is a clear rival. I develop the interactions between the characters according to that relationship. The pictures are finalized when I draw the manuscript."
Fire Tripper. The protagonist is caught up in a gas tank explosion and time-travels to the Sengoku period. She meets Shukumaru, a boy who is protecting his village.
Longing for a serious shonen drama
From excellent short stories to the Mermaid series
While her long-running serializations have been huge hits, Takahashi also shows her talent with short stories. In the early 1980s, she surprised fans with her series of serious works published in the special edition of Weekly Shonen Sunday. Fire Tripper, featuring a girl who travels back in time to the Sengoku period, is a prime example of this. It's a Takahashi manga, but it's not funny, but it is a masterpiece! "I really wanted to try drawing serious stories. I admired the "Shonen Drama Series" that were broadcast on NHK, and I remember spending about one or two months discussing how to draw Fire Tripper in that style. We even made a time table. I like the Sengoku period because it's fun to draw. It looks good as a setting for shonen manga." [15]
Mermaid Saga. "Ash Princess" is Takahashi's favorite story in the Mermaid Saga Yuta is traveling in the Edo period and meets Natsume, a girl who works at a small exhibition. She was brought back from the dead using the ashes of a mermaid.
The serious short stories were passed down to the Mermaid series, the first of which was published in 1984. Yuta, who has lived for 500 years due to eating mermaid flesh. He travels through various eras with Mana, a girl in the same situation. In addition to the cleverly constructed suspense story, there is also the horror of the violent mermaids and the "Lost Souls" who are infected with the poison of the mermaid flesh. [16] Many readers love this series the most. "After finishing the first story, there were things I couldn't draw, so I wanted to continue. The idea of mermaids and lost souls came easily without much hesitation. If mermaids were just pretty, it would be boring (laughs). I like "Ash Princess". The chapter about the poor girl who was brought back to life by the resurrection technique." Three volumes of this series have been released so far. It's not finished yet, is it?
"That's right. Yuta and Mana are still on their journey. It's been almost 10 years, so I'm not sure what to do. I'd like to write one more before I die (laughs)." [17]
Rumiko Takahashi's workspace. (Left) The rough draft of Kyokai no RINNE. Some manga artists use heno heno moheji for the characters, but she draws in great detail. She doesn't write a plot, the story is decided upon at this stage.
(Right) Takahashi's workroom. In the back is Takahashi's desk. Currently, she has four assistants, all of whom are women.
The Challenge of Shonen-Style Battle Stories
Ranma 1/2 in a Single Story
In 1987, Urusei and Maison were completed one after the other. However, Takahashi never rested. In the same year, she started Ranma 1/2, which quickly captured the hearts of readers all over again. Ranma, a male martial artist who turns into a girl when splashed with water, and his fiancée Akane. The cute love story between the two and their powerful gags jump off the page. "First of all, I wanted to make a protagonist with an ambiguous gender. But it was quite difficult to figure out how to create such a character. Then, I suddenly remembered the scene in Urusei Yatsura where Ryunosuke and Benten are fighting in front of the bathhouse. The bathhouse's male and female signs got me. The cold water and hot water switch genders. That's it! It happened quickly from there."
The story has a stronger shonen magazine feel than Urusei Yatsura. Ranma meets unique opponents in high school, in the neighborhood, in China, and everywhere else, and engages in martial arts battles. "I wanted to make a work like the shonen manga I liked as a child. I also wanted to depict more school scenes and club activities. I also like Jackie Chan movies. His action scenes are so interesting, aren't they? And it was a martial arts story. I had fun thinking up different techniques and tools for each storyline. Urusei Yatsura is about chasing, but Ranma is about fighting face-to-face. It symbolizes each story." [18]
In Ranma 1/2 they "fight face-to-face". Akane is the third daughter of the Tendo Dojo and Ranma's fiancée.
In a shonen magazines, where new and old works are constantly being replaced, it's very difficult to produce a string of hits. However, Takahashi has managed to do so throughout her entire 35-year career. This is a miracle in the world of manga. Ranma is an important work that solidified that path. Was Takahashi ever intimidated to make a new series following Urusei and Maison? "Looking back, there was definitely pressure. Since I only had one series going, I thought I absolutely had to make it interesting. I worked hard to move the story forward. I may have been a little short on time."
Here's a question. Is Takahashi obsessed with "sales"?
"I don't want to draw manga that isn't interesting. I always want to find my own definition of what's best. Of course, I'm happiest when a lot of people read my work, so I want to be popular. But I think the most important thing is to draw the manga I want to draw. And if it becomes a hit, then I think that's great."
One Pound Gospel. Kosaku is a talented boxer, but he can't keep his weight down and is always eating. But when he meets a nun named Angela, he slowly begins to change.
"Dispassionate" guys make good drama
Her sole sports manga, One Pound Gospel
One Pound Gospel was published irregularly in Weekly Young Sunday alongside Ranma. The protagonist is a boxer named Kosaku who is a bit of a loser and can't control his weight loss, and frequently giving in to his appetite. Takahashi often draws sports as part of her individual chapters, but this is the only time she has made sports the theme of a full-scale serial. "I like boxing. When I was a kid, it was often on TV and I used to watch it with my family. I also like sumo and baseball. My hobbies are totally those of old men (laughs). Since it's about a sport, I thought I'd try a different character design, but in the end I went back to my usual style that's easy to draw."
Takahashi's manga is easy to draw. That means that even though it's about sports, "Rumic World" is in full swing. There's no strong sports spirit of friendship, effort, or victory. Takahashi's male drama isn't a burning one. The strong bonds of friendship and extreme effort are moving, but don't you feel tired while reading it? [19] Like, "Sorry, I'm such a loser by comparison." Takahashi's manga is about friendship, love, and effort, and is done at its own pace, with a moderate amount of gentleness. It's okay to be yourself. It gives you that sense of security. "Even if I try to fully portray friendship, it's impossible. I think it's something that only a boy who grew up reading shonen manga can portray. Maybe the reason it seems so laid-back is because I think that each character has their own life. When the characters meet at the boxing gym or the shopping district, all sorts of things happen, but when they go home, they live in a different world. I think a world with that kind of image is easier to live in."
Rumiko Takahashi's workspace. (Left) This is the room where editors wait for the storyboards to be completed and work on them. It is connected to the work room by a door.
(Center) It is well known that Takahashi is a Hanshin fan. She became a fan after watching a Hanshin game in Niigata as a child.
(Top Right) It matches the room strangely well. It's a souvenir, but it seems that this doll was made by a craftsman. (Bottom Right) A bookshelf in the workroom. Law and cookbooks. One wonders if they are used for references.
I love shabby old men
Enjoying the annual Rumiko Takahashi Theater short stories
Rumiko Takahashi Theater, which has been running since 1987, is a masterpiece of manga for adults. In recent years, it has been published in Big Comic Original at a rate of one work per year, with many fans who look forward to it. Each story is a one-off, family drama. The subject is a problem that modern society faces, such as in-home nursing care. It depicts this in a warm manner, shedding light on the delicate emotional nuances between family members.
Help from Rumiko Takahashi Theater. The Ito family is caring for their father. When the wife is hospitalized, the husband takes on the care of his father.
Their kindness may be the true essence of science fiction.
"For this series, I have little meetings with my editor over the course of one or two months. We start with casual conversations about the current state of affairs, and then we come up with ideas. The story about nursing care is in volume 3, Help. My grandmother had been bed-ridden for a long time, and that scene is included in the story, there's a bit of her in that. But if I showed the actual caregiving, the reality of it, it would have been too serious, it would have been difficult to portray it. I always try to give everyone a happy ending so that no one is unhappy."
Character Goods. A room containing character goods in the basement. From left, a sign for the Tendo Dojo from Ranma 1/2, handmade by a fan. An illustration board for "Rumic World 35" specially produced by Dai Nippon Printing. A Kyoko-san surfboard, a favoite of male fans. Kotatsuneko sitting in the center of the room. It is quite close to the size of the actual cat.
In the series, middle-aged men are often the main characters. They are not very important at work, and are somewhat small-minded at home. Takahashi is extremely good at drawing such men. "I feel like I'm closer to how men feel. I'm much more like an old man than an old woman. I love their shabby feeling. I can still find them loveable (laughs)." The unfortunate, useless man is also a characteristic lineage of Takahashi's manga, which has continued since Ataru and Godai. This character modeling is a wonderful invention of Takahashi. "That's true. But it's not just that they're useless, they have their own values and beliefs. For example, Godai never deceives or traps people. I think I have a ruler inside me, and I draw their personalities according to that." That's why Ataru and the old men are both useless, but they're lovable. There is infinite kindness in their hearts. "Maybe it's a sign of my hope. Their kindness may be the true essence of science fiction (laughs)."
Inuyasha. Kagome chooses to live in the Sengoku period. Kagome's younger brother tells people that his older sister "got married." The state of the family left behind in the modern era is a little sad.
An action-packed adventure that depicts a true hero:
Inuyasha breaks new ground
"When Ranma finished, I felt like I had pretty much done it, and I actually couldn't think of anything to do next." It was a slightly negative starting point. But she was able to spin out Inuyasha from this point, Takahashi's creativity is truly extraordinary. The series ran from 1990 to 2008, making it her longest-running series. Readers now in their 20s grew up on Inuyasha. "The editor gave me ideas like, if you like the Sengoku period, use that as the setting, and I started to take it from there, but it was pretty much a haphazard thing (laughs). Naraku is also a character I came up with along the way, and I hadn't thought about why Inuyasha and Kikyo were fighting in the first chapter. But that's the good thing about a long serialization. Because the setting isn't set too rigidly, you can expand the story." As mentioned above, Takahashi has often made bad-boys the main characters, but Inuyasha was her first real hero. It's also the first time she's done away with comedy in a serialization.
"At first, it seemed like a lot of readers were confused because they couldn't laugh at my manga (laughs). I wanted to draw Inuyasha as a hero that is typical of a shonen manga, but he is mentally weak and unstable. In the end, I wound up straying] from the mainstream. But this work has really increased the number of female readers of my work. While Ranma was mainly for elementary school girls, Inuyasha has expanded the audience to junior and senior high school students. I like Inuyasha, of course, but also Miroku and Sesshomaru." The adventure of Inuyasha and Kagome surrounding the Shikon Jewel unfolds like a raging torrent, and we are completely absorbed by it. It reaches its climax at the end, when after the battle with Naraku, Kagome enters the Shikon Jewel. Inside the jewel, which is said to grant any wish, she faces her own heart. No matter how many times I read it, I'm moved by its power.
Rumiko Takahashi. Born in Niigata Prefecture. Debuted with Katte na Yatsura in 1978 while still a university student. All of her serialized works, including Urusei Yatsura and Inuyasha were huge hits. She also showed her talent in short story collections such as Rumiko Takahashi Theater. Currently she is serializing Kyokai no RINNE in Weekly Shonen Sunday. This year marks the 35th year of her career as an artist.
"Thank you for saying that. I thought it was a pretty straightforward flow to that point. It's based on my image of W.W. Jacobs' short story The Monkey's Paw. [20] It's a strange story about a couple who obtain a monkey's paw that grants three wishes. I read a manga with that motif when I was a child." The highlight of the story is Inuyasha and Kagome. Takahashi has drawn a new work with Inuyasha. It was collected in the book Heroes Come Back to support the recovery from the Tohoku Earthquake. The sight of Inuyasha and Kagome happy afterward the conclusion of the manga is a feast for the eyes.
"After drawing quite a few pages of the first draft, I thought it was too formal and scrapped it. I thought the usual Inuyasha would be fine. So I was able to do it without any stress and have fun."
Laid-back style! Pioneering new laughs
Comedy returns with Kyokai no RINNE
Her currently serialized work is Kyokai no RINNE. It is the story of Sakura, a high school girl who can see ghosts, and Rinne, a boy who works as a shinigami. The series serves as a revival of Takahashi's school comedies. It is packed with all the entertainment that Takahashi has cultivated, including unique characters, the supernatural, and science fiction. However, it's not a rehash of the past. This work pioneers a new type of comedy called "relaxed humor."
"After Inuyasha, I wanted to draw something more laid-back. All the characters, starting with Rinne, are low-energy. I'm aiming for a new type of atmosphere. It's been a while since I've done a school comedy, so it's fun. But I don't really understand what high schools are like these days. It must have changed completely since my time in school, and even though I ordered a school schedule, I haven't really looked at it (laughs). In the end, I've settled on a good old Showa-era style of school life that's easy for me to draw. I like drawing school festivals, Christmas, and seasonal events, and I'm glad I can do that in RINNE. It was impossible in to do in Inuyasha (laughs)."
Kyokai no RINNE. A first-year high school student, Rinne is the protagonist. He secretly lives in the school's club building and does piecemeal work making artificial flowers.
The lazy laughs are also found in the spirits that Rinne helps put to rest. They are supposed to be scary, but somehow they're pitiful instead. They wander through the living world for reasons that make the reader laugh, like clinging to the fluffy bed in the nurse's office or drowning because of a false tooth. "Death is actually hard. But I don't want readers to feel bad when they read about it. That's why I choose stories like that. The reason for death is pathetic, or rather, lame."
For me, one chapter a week is surprisingly easy.
Stingy is a great word. To begin with, the main character Rinne is completely destitute, and all the characters in this work are miserly in little ways. They are very lovable. They are lovably stingy. As the series progresses, the characters grow more and more, and it's very exciting to see what they'll do in the future.
"I like Rokumon, the little black cat who supports Rinne. There's always one chibi character in each work, like Ten or Shippo. They're often the ones who fight or are in conflict with the main character. Rokumon is always honest and is a bit of a rare type of chibi character."
Valuing the fun of manga
"Rumic World" from now on
This year marks Takahashi's 35th year as an artist. What are her goals for the future? "Right now, I'm concentrating on making every chapter of RINNE interesting, so I'm not really thinking about the future. But I'd like to continue serializing in a shonen magazine. There's something unique to a weekly series, the joy of presenting something to the readers each time. For me, doing one weekly series is surprisingly easy. Compared to when I was serializing Urusei and Maison at the same time, I have more time to go out. I'm still pretty healthy." [21]
The collapse of the bubble economy, the IT revolution, the publishing recession... Since Takahashi made her debut in the late 1970s, Japanese society and the manga world have been undergoing great changes. Perhaps there is something that only Takahashi, who has continued to reign at the top of the manga world, can see. "The world is becoming more and more turbulent. But I think manga has not fundamentally changed. Manga is manga. So while you are reading manga, I hope you can forget about the various things in the real world and just enjoy that manga world." No matter what kind of world we face in the future, "Rumic World" will remain forever. Thank you, Rumiko Takahashi. Because of "Rumic World", we can believe in a bright light that shines into the future.
Translated by: Harley Acres
There are undoubted geniuses out there and you can really feel that when you look at Rumiko Takahashi. From her debut to her latest work, Kyokai no RINNE, whenever she serializes, it's always a big hit. We admire Kyoko and Lum, have crushes on Ranma, and fall in love with Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi has captured the hearts of people of all ages and genders. She also has the incredible energy to continue her weekly serialization in Weekly Shonen Sunday. She is also a pioneer among female writers active in men's manga magazines. If Osamu Tezuka is the "God of Manga," then Rumiko Takahashi is the "Goddess of Manga"!
This year marks the 35th anniversary of her career as an artist. This is a long interview about her upbringing and the thought she puts into each of her works. The secrets of the "Rumic World" are revealed here.
Written and interviewed by Mio Matsuo, photos by Eiki Mori.
My father, my brother and Ryoichi Ikegami
From when I was a girl to when I wanted to be a manga artist
Why did Rumiko Takahashi come to love art? Takahashi was born in Niigata Prefecture in 1957. The secret lies in her father, who was a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist. "My father was good at drawing. Especially kappa drawings. [1] When I was little, he would often draw pictures for me to play with. I naturally started to imitate him. When I drew a picture of a deer, my family praised me, so I got carried away (laughs)." [2] What's more, her father was a haiku poet with the pen name "Utsugi Takahashi."
"During the Pacific War, he was scheduled to go out on a submarine and wrote a death poem. It so happened that his superior officer also liked haiku and liked him, so he said, 'You don't have to go on board.'"
An unexpected secret. Without her father's talent for haiku, Takahashi might not have been born. After that, Takahashi was influenced by her older brother who opened the door to the world of manga. "We started reading my brother's manga together. The first manga I really understood was Fujio Akatsuka-sensei's Songo-kun, which was a bonus feature in Shogakukan's School Year books. [3] When she was a little older, it was Weekly Shonen Sunday (hereafter referred to as Sunday). And of course, I loved Osamu Tezuka-sensei."
At the age of 12, she finally picked up her pen. "I started drawing manga during the spring break before entering junior high school. It was a four-panel, situational comedy." When she was in her second year of junior high school, Takahashi had this decisive experience. "I was captivated by the manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami-sensei. I was really drawn to his short stories in Sunday. I really liked his drawings. They were in the style of a gekiga manga, but they were sweet in a way that I couldn't describe. I wanted to live in the same world as him. I wanted to become a manga artist! That was the first time I really thought that." She was able to do what she loved freely. In the manga club, she printed out her drawings on a mimeograph and circulated them, and exhibited her drawings at her school's festival. She became obsessed with Ashita no Joe and Devilman, and in her second year of high school, she tried submitting her works to Weekly Shonen Magazine (hereafter Magazine), for publication. [4]
"It was a slapstick sci-fi story. It was influenced by Yasutaka Tsutsui-sensei, who I'd recently come to love. [5] [6] I think it was the prototype of my debut work, Katte na Yatsura."
Unfortunately, she was not accepted. She gave up her dream of becoming a manga artist for a while, but she passed the entrance exam to the history department of Japan Women's University and moved to Tokyo. She rejoined the manga research group. She was also fortunate to meet people there. Her classmate was Hanako Meijiro, who also became a manga artist, and by her fourth year, she was an active manga artist. [7] Takahashi then enrolled in the manga artist training school "Gekiga Sonjuku" run by Kazuo Koike. [8] Koike himself taught the class and taught the "art of manga." "The thing he emphasized most was that manga is about characters. That's all there is to it." Another teacher also said, "'There's a theme in each and every panel,' which left a deep impression on me. Every panel has a meaning, and manga artists need to know what they want to show the reader. It was too advanced for me to understand at the time, but after I became a professional, I was always thinking, 'ah, I understand.'"
Sandalwood is fragrant even as a seedling:
From debut to the huge success of Urusei Yatsura
Sandalwood is fragrant even as a seedling--- [9]When I read Katte na Yatsura, I think of these words. Takahashi's debut work was published in Sunday after winning an honorable mention in the Shogakukan Newcomer Comic Grand Prize in the Shonen Manga category. [10] It was published in 1978, when she was still a third-year university student. She was a nascent manga artist, however, the foundation of Takahashi's manga was already firmly established in this work. The protagonist is a newspaper delivery boy who is abducted by aliens and captured by a half-fishman, but he continues to deliver newspapers. Science fiction, which exists side by side with everyday life, is perfected in Urusei Yatsura. That worldview is beautifully expressed here.
"There are parts of it that are the prototype for Urusei Yatsura. Combining everyday elements with science fiction. That's always been at the root of me. The stories I submitted to Magazine in high school were set in the future, but the characters were students and office workers." Then, during the summer vacation of her third year of college, Takahashi started working on Urusei Yatsura. It was a monumental work that propelled her to become a huge manga hitmaker. Initially, it was planned to be a short series of only five chapters. This was the time to decide whether she would be able to continue as a professional manga artist after graduation. With strong determination, Takahashi took on the challenge of creating a new work.
"I hoped that the fun of the story would be conveyed to the readers in those five chapters. The third chapter was particularly memorable. Personally, I worked really hard on it. When Ataru gets in an interstellar taxi, he is charged the exorbitant fee of all the of Earth's oil. Lum, who didn't appear in the second chapter, reappears here. I also like the punchline at the end." From the late 70s to the 80s, Sunday was hot. A brilliant string of serializations included masterpieces that will remain in manga history, such as Mitsuru Adachi's Touch and Motoka Murakam's Musashi no Ken, which stimulated and encouraged Takahashi's creative drive. [11] "I really felt the heat of a new wave of manga being born. The creators were all friendly with each other, too. It was a very happy environment."
"Rumic World" is in full bloom
What is the worldview of Takahashi's manga?
Needless to say, one of the great things about Takahashi's manga is the charm of the characters. Among them, Lum's brilliance is overwhelming. Even when I reread the first chapter, I'm really captivated by how cute she is drawn in each and every frame. "Lum is the most ideal character I've created. I drew her with cuteness in mind. She was based on an alien from a short story I made for Gekiga Sonjuku. The tiger-patterned clothes and the electric shock were inspired by the image of the god of thunder. It was a simple idea. The word "datcha" was the advice of my editor. The half-fishman in Katte na Yatsura has a tame, languid tone, and he thought it would be good to make Lum the same way. I like Hisashi Inoue's Aoba Shigereru (青葉繁れる), and "datcha" appears in the story of Sendai. So I used that." [12]
Combining everyday elements with science fiction.
That's always been at the root of my being.
From the main characters like Ataru, Shinobu, and Mendo to Kotatsuneko and the principal of Tomobiki High School, there is not a single character who is not cute. We are fascinated by all of them. So, who is Takahashi's favorite character? "Ryunosuke."
She is the heir to Hamachaya "I Love the Sea." She looks handsome but is actually female, and her catchphrase is "I'm a girl. Many female readers call her their "ideal man." "She first appears in the middle of the series, when I was at a dead end. She brought a new energy. Her gender is ambiguous, and that was fun to draw. In Urusei Yatsura, male characters have to be foolish, but Ryunosuke isn't bound by that."
In addition, there are a variety of chapters featured here that were made one after another. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be enchanted by the spectacle of space, your heart will be thrilled by the love stories, and sometimes your heart will be stirred by the horror stories. Urusei Yatsura is packed with all kinds of entertainment.
"The story is set in an ordinary home, and there is an ordinary shopping street and an ordinary school around it. I thought that I could do anything in that world."
Rumiko Takahashi's world view - Here is the essence of "Rumic World", which is what we call her creations with deep love and respect. It is a door to an ordinary room that you can find anywhere. But if you open it, is it in outer space? If you look up at the sky, is Lum flying by? Is there a half fishman standing in the shadow of a telegraph pole? Takahashi's manga stimulates our imagination. It's not escapism or delusion. This is the possibility of the world. Wouldn't it be sad if the world around us were made up of only rectangular, predictable things? Takahashi shows us hope for the world.
"I'm grateful to hear you say that. I draw with the hope that people will agree with that sentiment. When I was a child, I wanted to ride on Obake no Q-taro or have a Perman set. [13] I could play with my imagination. If that's the fun of manga, then I'd like everyone to be able to do that too."
Creating the Perfect Human Form
Advancement into seinen magazines with Maison Ikkoku
Takahashi's greatness lies in her astonishing volume of production, but this period was particularly outstanding. In 1980, she started Maison Ikkoku in parallel with Urusei Yatsura. It was published in Big Comic Spirits and was her first long-running serial in a seinen magazine.
"I wanted to do a realistic, humanistic story that was different from Urusei. I enjoyed the love story between Godai and Kyoko. I like the frustration of things not going well. Sometimes when they get closer, it's very cathartic. It was interesting to come up with that trick, and I learned a lot from it.”
Kyoko Otonashi is the caretaker of Ikkoku-kan. She is a widow possessing both cuteness and an adult sex appeal which captivates male readers. "For Kyoko I made a setting list before the serialization, which is unusual for my characters. I was going to make her a strong-willed woman like Sakura in Urusei, but when I drew the name, she wasn't that kind of person at all.” [14]
Kyoko is alive, and she is not the only one. Godai and his romantic rival Mitaka, alongside the residents of Ikkoku-kan are all given life, weaving the series into a perfect human drama. Takahashi was in her 20s at the time, not an age where she had much life experience. But how was she able to portray such perfect human characters? Was she an unusually keen observer of human nature? Was she a magician?
While Urusei is a game of tag,
Ranma is a face-to-face battle.
"No, no, no, I hardly ever observe people (laughs). I always think about the characters in the draft stage. First of all, there is the role they play in the story. The main character is Godai, and Mitaka is a clear rival. I develop the interactions between the characters according to that relationship. The pictures are finalized when I draw the manuscript."
Longing for a serious shonen drama
From excellent short stories to the Mermaid series
While her long-running serializations have been huge hits, Takahashi also shows her talent with short stories. In the early 1980s, she surprised fans with her series of serious works published in the special edition of Weekly Shonen Sunday. Fire Tripper, featuring a girl who travels back in time to the Sengoku period, is a prime example of this. It's a Takahashi manga, but it's not funny, but it is a masterpiece! "I really wanted to try drawing serious stories. I admired the "Shonen Drama Series" that were broadcast on NHK, and I remember spending about one or two months discussing how to draw Fire Tripper in that style. We even made a time table. I like the Sengoku period because it's fun to draw. It looks good as a setting for shonen manga." [15]
The serious short stories were passed down to the Mermaid series, the first of which was published in 1984. Yuta, who has lived for 500 years due to eating mermaid flesh. He travels through various eras with Mana, a girl in the same situation. In addition to the cleverly constructed suspense story, there is also the horror of the violent mermaids and the "Lost Souls" who are infected with the poison of the mermaid flesh. [16] Many readers love this series the most. "After finishing the first story, there were things I couldn't draw, so I wanted to continue. The idea of mermaids and lost souls came easily without much hesitation. If mermaids were just pretty, it would be boring (laughs). I like "Ash Princess". The chapter about the poor girl who was brought back to life by the resurrection technique." Three volumes of this series have been released so far. It's not finished yet, is it?
"That's right. Yuta and Mana are still on their journey. It's been almost 10 years, so I'm not sure what to do. I'd like to write one more before I die (laughs)." [17]
(Right) Takahashi's workroom. In the back is Takahashi's desk. Currently, she has four assistants, all of whom are women.
The Challenge of Shonen-Style Battle Stories
Ranma 1/2 in a Single Story
In 1987, Urusei and Maison were completed one after the other. However, Takahashi never rested. In the same year, she started Ranma 1/2, which quickly captured the hearts of readers all over again. Ranma, a male martial artist who turns into a girl when splashed with water, and his fiancée Akane. The cute love story between the two and their powerful gags jump off the page. "First of all, I wanted to make a protagonist with an ambiguous gender. But it was quite difficult to figure out how to create such a character. Then, I suddenly remembered the scene in Urusei Yatsura where Ryunosuke and Benten are fighting in front of the bathhouse. The bathhouse's male and female signs got me. The cold water and hot water switch genders. That's it! It happened quickly from there."
The story has a stronger shonen magazine feel than Urusei Yatsura. Ranma meets unique opponents in high school, in the neighborhood, in China, and everywhere else, and engages in martial arts battles. "I wanted to make a work like the shonen manga I liked as a child. I also wanted to depict more school scenes and club activities. I also like Jackie Chan movies. His action scenes are so interesting, aren't they? And it was a martial arts story. I had fun thinking up different techniques and tools for each storyline. Urusei Yatsura is about chasing, but Ranma is about fighting face-to-face. It symbolizes each story." [18]
In a shonen magazines, where new and old works are constantly being replaced, it's very difficult to produce a string of hits. However, Takahashi has managed to do so throughout her entire 35-year career. This is a miracle in the world of manga. Ranma is an important work that solidified that path. Was Takahashi ever intimidated to make a new series following Urusei and Maison? "Looking back, there was definitely pressure. Since I only had one series going, I thought I absolutely had to make it interesting. I worked hard to move the story forward. I may have been a little short on time."
Here's a question. Is Takahashi obsessed with "sales"?
"I don't want to draw manga that isn't interesting. I always want to find my own definition of what's best. Of course, I'm happiest when a lot of people read my work, so I want to be popular. But I think the most important thing is to draw the manga I want to draw. And if it becomes a hit, then I think that's great."
"Dispassionate" guys make good drama
Her sole sports manga, One Pound Gospel
One Pound Gospel was published irregularly in Weekly Young Sunday alongside Ranma. The protagonist is a boxer named Kosaku who is a bit of a loser and can't control his weight loss, and frequently giving in to his appetite. Takahashi often draws sports as part of her individual chapters, but this is the only time she has made sports the theme of a full-scale serial. "I like boxing. When I was a kid, it was often on TV and I used to watch it with my family. I also like sumo and baseball. My hobbies are totally those of old men (laughs). Since it's about a sport, I thought I'd try a different character design, but in the end I went back to my usual style that's easy to draw."
Takahashi's manga is easy to draw. That means that even though it's about sports, "Rumic World" is in full swing. There's no strong sports spirit of friendship, effort, or victory. Takahashi's male drama isn't a burning one. The strong bonds of friendship and extreme effort are moving, but don't you feel tired while reading it? [19] Like, "Sorry, I'm such a loser by comparison." Takahashi's manga is about friendship, love, and effort, and is done at its own pace, with a moderate amount of gentleness. It's okay to be yourself. It gives you that sense of security. "Even if I try to fully portray friendship, it's impossible. I think it's something that only a boy who grew up reading shonen manga can portray. Maybe the reason it seems so laid-back is because I think that each character has their own life. When the characters meet at the boxing gym or the shopping district, all sorts of things happen, but when they go home, they live in a different world. I think a world with that kind of image is easier to live in."
(Center) It is well known that Takahashi is a Hanshin fan. She became a fan after watching a Hanshin game in Niigata as a child.
(Top Right) It matches the room strangely well. It's a souvenir, but it seems that this doll was made by a craftsman. (Bottom Right) A bookshelf in the workroom. Law and cookbooks. One wonders if they are used for references.
I love shabby old men
Enjoying the annual Rumiko Takahashi Theater short stories
Rumiko Takahashi Theater, which has been running since 1987, is a masterpiece of manga for adults. In recent years, it has been published in Big Comic Original at a rate of one work per year, with many fans who look forward to it. Each story is a one-off, family drama. The subject is a problem that modern society faces, such as in-home nursing care. It depicts this in a warm manner, shedding light on the delicate emotional nuances between family members.
Their kindness may be the true essence of science fiction.
"For this series, I have little meetings with my editor over the course of one or two months. We start with casual conversations about the current state of affairs, and then we come up with ideas. The story about nursing care is in volume 3, Help. My grandmother had been bed-ridden for a long time, and that scene is included in the story, there's a bit of her in that. But if I showed the actual caregiving, the reality of it, it would have been too serious, it would have been difficult to portray it. I always try to give everyone a happy ending so that no one is unhappy."
In the series, middle-aged men are often the main characters. They are not very important at work, and are somewhat small-minded at home. Takahashi is extremely good at drawing such men. "I feel like I'm closer to how men feel. I'm much more like an old man than an old woman. I love their shabby feeling. I can still find them loveable (laughs)." The unfortunate, useless man is also a characteristic lineage of Takahashi's manga, which has continued since Ataru and Godai. This character modeling is a wonderful invention of Takahashi. "That's true. But it's not just that they're useless, they have their own values and beliefs. For example, Godai never deceives or traps people. I think I have a ruler inside me, and I draw their personalities according to that." That's why Ataru and the old men are both useless, but they're lovable. There is infinite kindness in their hearts. "Maybe it's a sign of my hope. Their kindness may be the true essence of science fiction (laughs)."
An action-packed adventure that depicts a true hero:
Inuyasha breaks new ground
"When Ranma finished, I felt like I had pretty much done it, and I actually couldn't think of anything to do next." It was a slightly negative starting point. But she was able to spin out Inuyasha from this point, Takahashi's creativity is truly extraordinary. The series ran from 1990 to 2008, making it her longest-running series. Readers now in their 20s grew up on Inuyasha. "The editor gave me ideas like, if you like the Sengoku period, use that as the setting, and I started to take it from there, but it was pretty much a haphazard thing (laughs). Naraku is also a character I came up with along the way, and I hadn't thought about why Inuyasha and Kikyo were fighting in the first chapter. But that's the good thing about a long serialization. Because the setting isn't set too rigidly, you can expand the story." As mentioned above, Takahashi has often made bad-boys the main characters, but Inuyasha was her first real hero. It's also the first time she's done away with comedy in a serialization.
"At first, it seemed like a lot of readers were confused because they couldn't laugh at my manga (laughs). I wanted to draw Inuyasha as a hero that is typical of a shonen manga, but he is mentally weak and unstable. In the end, I wound up straying] from the mainstream. But this work has really increased the number of female readers of my work. While Ranma was mainly for elementary school girls, Inuyasha has expanded the audience to junior and senior high school students. I like Inuyasha, of course, but also Miroku and Sesshomaru." The adventure of Inuyasha and Kagome surrounding the Shikon Jewel unfolds like a raging torrent, and we are completely absorbed by it. It reaches its climax at the end, when after the battle with Naraku, Kagome enters the Shikon Jewel. Inside the jewel, which is said to grant any wish, she faces her own heart. No matter how many times I read it, I'm moved by its power.
"Thank you for saying that. I thought it was a pretty straightforward flow to that point. It's based on my image of W.W. Jacobs' short story The Monkey's Paw. [20] It's a strange story about a couple who obtain a monkey's paw that grants three wishes. I read a manga with that motif when I was a child." The highlight of the story is Inuyasha and Kagome. Takahashi has drawn a new work with Inuyasha. It was collected in the book Heroes Come Back to support the recovery from the Tohoku Earthquake. The sight of Inuyasha and Kagome happy afterward the conclusion of the manga is a feast for the eyes.
"After drawing quite a few pages of the first draft, I thought it was too formal and scrapped it. I thought the usual Inuyasha would be fine. So I was able to do it without any stress and have fun."
Laid-back style! Pioneering new laughs
Comedy returns with Kyokai no RINNE
Her currently serialized work is Kyokai no RINNE. It is the story of Sakura, a high school girl who can see ghosts, and Rinne, a boy who works as a shinigami. The series serves as a revival of Takahashi's school comedies. It is packed with all the entertainment that Takahashi has cultivated, including unique characters, the supernatural, and science fiction. However, it's not a rehash of the past. This work pioneers a new type of comedy called "relaxed humor."
"After Inuyasha, I wanted to draw something more laid-back. All the characters, starting with Rinne, are low-energy. I'm aiming for a new type of atmosphere. It's been a while since I've done a school comedy, so it's fun. But I don't really understand what high schools are like these days. It must have changed completely since my time in school, and even though I ordered a school schedule, I haven't really looked at it (laughs). In the end, I've settled on a good old Showa-era style of school life that's easy for me to draw. I like drawing school festivals, Christmas, and seasonal events, and I'm glad I can do that in RINNE. It was impossible in to do in Inuyasha (laughs)."
The lazy laughs are also found in the spirits that Rinne helps put to rest. They are supposed to be scary, but somehow they're pitiful instead. They wander through the living world for reasons that make the reader laugh, like clinging to the fluffy bed in the nurse's office or drowning because of a false tooth. "Death is actually hard. But I don't want readers to feel bad when they read about it. That's why I choose stories like that. The reason for death is pathetic, or rather, lame."
For me, one chapter a week is surprisingly easy.
Stingy is a great word. To begin with, the main character Rinne is completely destitute, and all the characters in this work are miserly in little ways. They are very lovable. They are lovably stingy. As the series progresses, the characters grow more and more, and it's very exciting to see what they'll do in the future.
"I like Rokumon, the little black cat who supports Rinne. There's always one chibi character in each work, like Ten or Shippo. They're often the ones who fight or are in conflict with the main character. Rokumon is always honest and is a bit of a rare type of chibi character."
Valuing the fun of manga
"Rumic World" from now on
This year marks Takahashi's 35th year as an artist. What are her goals for the future? "Right now, I'm concentrating on making every chapter of RINNE interesting, so I'm not really thinking about the future. But I'd like to continue serializing in a shonen magazine. There's something unique to a weekly series, the joy of presenting something to the readers each time. For me, doing one weekly series is surprisingly easy. Compared to when I was serializing Urusei and Maison at the same time, I have more time to go out. I'm still pretty healthy." [21]
The collapse of the bubble economy, the IT revolution, the publishing recession... Since Takahashi made her debut in the late 1970s, Japanese society and the manga world have been undergoing great changes. Perhaps there is something that only Takahashi, who has continued to reign at the top of the manga world, can see. "The world is becoming more and more turbulent. But I think manga has not fundamentally changed. Manga is manga. So while you are reading manga, I hope you can forget about the various things in the real world and just enjoy that manga world." No matter what kind of world we face in the future, "Rumic World" will remain forever. Thank you, Rumiko Takahashi. Because of "Rumic World", we can believe in a bright light that shines into the future.
Rumiko Takahashi and Yasutaka Tsutsui
Takahashi deeply admires Yasutaka Tsutsui. What are her thoughts on the works of this man, one of Japan's leading science fiction writers?
I first started reading Yasutaka Tsutsui-sensei's works when I was in high school. [22] Shotaro Ishinomori-sensei made a manga version of Vietnam Tourism Corporation (ベトナム観光公社/Betonamu kankou kousha), and that's how I learned that there was a writer called Yasutaka Tsutsui-sensei. From then on, I bought and read his books one after another.
Even before that, I liked Shinichi Hoshi-sensei's short stories, but the fun of them is that they are written gently so that everyone can understand. [23] Tsutsui-sensei's works are a little more complex. They are very dry, and when I read them, I felt like I had become an adult. The settings and developments are crazy, aren't they? But because they're so dry, readers are surprisingly not offended no matter how terrible the characters become.
I like all of his works, so much so that I can't say which ones. They've had a big influence on me; that silly, comedy that can be called slapstick. I wanted to draw a manga with that kind of energy. The influence of Tsutsui-sensei can be seen in many of the works I drew in high school and college, including Katte na Yatsura and Urusei Yatsura."
Vietnam Tourism Corporation, Chuko Bunko, 580 yen
In an era when everyone goes to Saturn for their honeymoon, the protagonist somehow ends up touring Vietnam. The Vietnam War, which is still ongoing, has become a tourist business. He goes to see a grand war spectacle organized by the Vietnam Tourism Corporation! This is a collection of early masterpieces that also includes Zarathustra of Mars (火星のツァラトゥストラ/Kasei no Tsuaratousutora).
Rumiko Takahashi's Favorite Books
Where does Takahashi find the time to read so many books? Here are her top five favorites.
The Takahashi Household basement library. "Recently, I've also been a fan of Takeru Kaido. Not only the Batista series, but also his spin-off works, such as The Golden Globe of Dreams. The characters are outstanding. It's entetainment that's really carefully crafted."
Kasha (火車)
Miyuki Miyabe, Shincho Bunko, 1,040 yen
Detective Honma is tasked with searching for the whereabouts of Akiko, the fiancée of a distant relative who disappeared by her own volition and cannot be found. What is her true identity? "When Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku were being serialized at the same time, I had become unable to have time to read stories. But when I came across Kasha I realized that how interesting novels really aer. I'm very grateful for this work."
The Absent Room (不在の部屋) (Vol. 1 and 2)
Ayako Sono Bunshun Bunko, out of stock, no plans to reprint
The protagonist, a young lady from a rural town, enters a convent where the democratization of religious rules is taking its toll on the souls of the nuns. "I read it to study for One Pound Gospel and it's a pretty cruel story. The protagonist has a strong obsession with eating, which is painful and sad. It's about whether people can be saved by religion and althoguh she tries hard, she is unable to. But it's very human, a real human drama."
Subaru of the Blue Sky (蒼穹の昴) (4 volumes)
Jiro Asada, Kodansha Bunko, 660 yen each
At the end of the Qing Dynasty in China, a young boy named Shun'er accompanied his elder brother Wen Xiu to the capital to take the imperial examination. The two men parted ways, each with their own ambitions in mind... "This is a must-read. It's simply entertaining. What I like most about it is the opening hook. Shun'er is a child who 'picks up feces.' You can tell right away that they are ultra poor. It's amazing how easy it is to understand (laughs)."
The Gadara Swine (ガダラの豚) (3 volumes)
Ramo Nakajima, Shueisha Bunko 510-590 yen
Taichiro Oobe is a popular professor famous for his research into witch doctors in Africa. Eight years ago, Oobe's eldest daughter, Shion, died after falling from a hot air balloon in East Africa. Since then, Oobe has become an alcoholic. His wife, Itsumi, has become mentally ill and is absorbed in a new religion that sells miracles. Oobe and the magician Miracle, plan to rescue Itsumi! "It's definitely an interesting adventure story."
Tofu Kozo Sugoroku Dochu Oyasumi (Bunkoban) (文庫版豆腐小僧双六道中おやすみ)
Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Kadokawa Bunko, 940 yen
A sequel to Tofu Kozo Sugoroku Dochu Furidashi. To become a ghost worthy of his father, the Supreme Commander of the Yokai Clan, Tofu Kozo sets out on a journey of training with Daruma-sensei... "This is the novel I had Lum holding on the cover of this issue of DaVinci. I love Kyogoku-sensei's works. Tofu Kozo is so cute and soothing. He can't move on his own and he gets flustered. That's what makes him so lovable."
Footnotes
- [1] Rumiko Takahashi's father, Mitsuo, was a gynecologist in Niigata. Here she mentions her father enjoying drawing and in 1989 she published a collection of his sumi-e paintings of kappa which he published under the pen name Utsugi Takahashi (高橋卯木).
- [2] Takahashi has shared the memory of the praise she recieved for drawing the deer as a child in a previous interview.
- [3] The "school year books" are manga magazines which include Elementary First Grade (小学一年生/Shogaku Ichinensei), Elementary Second Grade (小学二年生/Shogaku Ninensei) and Elementary Third Grade (小学三年生/Shogaku Sannensei), the latter of which is where Takahashi published her children's manga series MOON, The Great Pet King. Songo-kun (そんごくん) is the 1964-1965 manga by Fujio Akatasuka (赤塚不二夫) of Tensai Bakabon (天才バカボン) fame.
- [4] 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). Takahashi has frequently cited Tetsuya Chiba's (ちばてつや) Ashita no Joe (あしたのジョー) as one of her all time favorite series. You can learn more about Chiba's prolific life and career in our biographical article and video about him from our Orbiting Rumic World series of profiles. Go Nagai (永井潔) is the very versatile mangaka known for Devilman (デビルマン), Cutie Honey (キューティーハニー) and Mazinger Z (マジンガーZ). Go Nagai's Harenchi Gakuen (ハレンチ学園/Shameless School) was highly influential on school set manga and was one of the earliest "ecchi" series. It is thought to be one of the first to feature gags like flipping up girl's skirts and peeping on phyiscal examinations.
- [5] Takahashi mentions this unnamed story in her long interview and in another interview states, "I created my first story manga in my second year of high school, and I submitted it to Shonen Magazine. At the time I was a fan of Ikegami-sensei, so I copied his tough/macho style and drew a slapstick gag manga (laughs). It was a slapstick “sword-rattler in which everyone was attacked with biological weapons, and under the setting that no one would die in mediocrity, students and salarymen dueled each other with swords." Other than the plot described here it is unknown what this story was or if it was a reworking of her Star of Empty Trash story.
- [6] Yasutaka Tsutsui (筒井康隆) is a novelist perhaps best known to western audiences as the writer of Paprika which was turned into a film by Satoshi Kon. The Girl Who Lept Through Time (時をかける少女) is another well-known novel by Tsutsui.
- [7] Takahashi is typically considered as the founder of the still active club at Japan Women's University (日本女子大学/Nihon Joshi Daigaku), though at times she has stated she was not the founder. Thus A Half of Them Are Gone and Bye-Bye Road are examples of the manga she published as dojinshi through her manga club prior to her professional debut. The Japan Women's University manga club is still active today and its new members still publish Vivid (びびっと), the dojinshi that Takahashi founded in the 1970s. Hanako Meijiro (目白花子) would go on to become a mangaka in her own right and was a college classmate of Takahashi's who collaborated with her on some of her early dojinshi such as Dust in the Wind.
- [8] Gekiga Sonjuku was a manga "cram school" where Kazuo Koike (小池一夫), 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).
- [9] "Sandalwood is fragrant even as a seedling" is a Japanese proverb (栴檀は双葉より芳し/sendan wa futaba yori kanbashi) meaning "genius shows from childhood".
- [10] 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.
- [11] Mitsuru Adachi got his start in shojo comics before moving to Shonen Sunday which would be his primary publisher for the vast majority of his career. At Sunday he published alongside Rumiko Takahashi for three decades before he moved to Gessan, the monthly Sunday imprint. Adachi is well known for his romantic sports comedies such as Touch, Miyuki, H2, Katsu and Mix among many, many others. You can read a very early interview between Takahashi and Adachi here and another interview between the two here. Additionally, Rumiko Takahashi talks about her love of his work in another interview. Motoka Murakami (村上もとか) is the author of Musashi no Ken (六三四の剣) which won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1984 (and he won again for his series Ron (龍) in 1996).
- [12] Hisashi Inoue (井上ひさし) is a novelist, playwrite and television writer. Aoba Shigereru (青葉繁れる) is a semi-autobiographical work about high school classmates in Sendai.
- [13] Takahashi has often mentioned Obake no Q-taro (オバケのQ太郎) and Perman (パーマン) by mangaka duo Fujiko Fujio as foundational manga of her childhood.
- [14] "Name" (ネーム) are storyboards. These are the rough drawings that layout each page's panel layouts, character positions in each panel, and handwritten dialogue balloons. Some artists ink over their name, others draw on a fresh sheet which preserves the name. After joining Twitter (and on a few rare occasions earlier) Takahashi would share a panel of her name next to the finished panel.
- [15] Some of the ideas used in Fire Tripper prefigure what would later be further developed in Inuyasha.
- [16] In the original Japanese the "lost souls" are referred to as "narisokonai" (なりそこない/failures).
- [17] A 2009 interview conducted by Takahashi's American publisher, Viz, was made up of questions Viz had solicited from American fans. The most interesting questions were then chosen to be asked to Takahashi. The 10th question about the Mermaid Saga was submitted by our very own webmaster, Harley Acres. His question was "Will you ever return to write more Mermaid Saga stories, or do you consider that series complete?" to which Takahashi responded at the time, "I don’t consider it complete, so I would like to draw more sometime." This interview was conducted in 2013. Ten years later in 2013, there was still no new Mermaid material and Takahashi was asked about this. She stated, "I agree. And it's true that there are quite a few people asking me to draw new works in the series, but I'm sorry, it's been over 20 years and I honestly don't know how to draw them (laughs). For example, if either Yuta or Mana is missing and they haven't seen each other for 20 years, it could be possible to start from a situation like that, but even then, I don't have any plans to draw any stories in this series at the moment."
- [18] Ten years later, interviewer Mio Matsui will ask a follow-up about this comment.
- [19] "Hot-blooded" manga, particularly sports manga, emphasize hard work, grit and going beyond all limitations and often engaging in some sort of "special training" to overcome their rivals. This genre is often thought of as "Supokon" (スポ根/Sports Spirit). It is epitomized by series such as Star of the Giants (巨人の星/Kyojin no Hoshi), Attack No. 1 (アタックNo.1) and Ashita no Joe (あしたのジョー). One Pound Gospel would be the opposite of this, taking a path pioneered by Mitsuru Adachi in his series which takes a more laid-back, indifferent attitude towards sports as discussed here and here.
- [20] The Monkey's Paw is a 1902 short story by British author W.W. Jacobs. In the story a monkey's paw grants a family three wishes, but with terrible unintended consequnces surrounding the wishes it grants.
- [21] Following the conclusion of Kyokai no RINNE Takahashi took her longest hiatus before starting work on MAO in 2019 (from December 2017 to May 2019). In this same issue of DaVinci she spoke with Mitsuru Adachi telling him she missed having him in Shonen Sunday with her after Adachi had moved to a monthly schedule (he said weekly work was too difficult at his age). Eight years later in 2021 when discussing MAO acknowledged that MAO could be her last serial. In 2009 she explained that she was surprised she never drew during the time she took off between the conclusion of Inuyasha and the beginning of Kyokai no RINNE, so perhaps she does not feel the need to draw well into old age.
- [22] Takahashi shares that it her fellow high school classmate/future mangaka, Yoko Kondo, who also loved the work of Yasutaka Tsutsui.
- [23] Shinichi Hoshi (星新一) was a friend of Osamu Tezuka and science fiction writer known for his very short (typically just a few pages) short stories. After the bankruptcy of his family's pharmaceuticals company Hoshi read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and began pursuing a writing career.
ダ・ヴィンチ 2013年 12月号 (#236)
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