Career and Art Interview

Translated by: Laura Arias Moreno

Winner of the Shogakukan Newcomers Manga Award in 1978. ^[1] In the same year, she debuted in the magazine Shonen Sunday. After that, she has been publishing hit after hit: Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2... Her works have followers from all generations. She became an iconic mangaka of the era in no time. The Takahashi characters, supported by an enormous number of readers ranging from kids to adults, and their number of fans keep growing by appearing not only in anime, but also on console and PC games. Also, she is considered to be an author with a huge legion of followers since Japanese manga has developed many fans abroad, even having a fanclub at UCLA.

We ask Rumiko Takahashi about her creations, going beyond all media and all frontiers.

My key for creating a character is “having someone like this around could be a lot of trouble”.

In your works, Takahashi-sensei, we find a wide range of unique characters, but what is the key for creating them?

Takahashi: Well, is not compulsory to have a fixed model for reference, and in the case of Ranma 1/2, I create them based on the idea of “having someone like this around could be a lot of trouble”. And from that point I keep twisting that idea to the extreme. If I create an an extremely cheerful character then he'll have a palm tree on his head, but he'll be cheerful and arrogant as well. Since it is a manga, it is not funny if I don’t stretch it to the limit.

Where did you get the idea for the characters from Ranma 1/2?

Takahashi: From the start, I had decided to have gags changing from a man to a woman. Until the moment of the debut I hadn’t decided that Ranma would be getting back to his male form from hot water. This took me a long while. Regarding the Tendo sisters, I had them created inside my mind from a very early stage. Also the fact that the three of them would be beautiful.

In Ranma 1/2 we can find fewer word puns, compared to Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku. Was this your original aim?

Takahashi: I wanted even little children to be able to read the manga as well, so I started by using some word puns and double meanings jokes. So there would be characters who were quicker to fight rather to talk in the series.

Takahashi-sensei, is there any character that you struggled with?

Takahashi: In Ranma 1/2, definitely Akane. ^[2] She is a completely ordinary girl, which within my works, is absolutely uncommon, and she does not match with the rest of characters…

We all fans pray for Akane´s happiness.

My mentality is similar to Akane`s dad’s?!

Which character has the closest way of thinking and personality to yours?

Takahashi: I think inside Urusei Yatsura no one fits that. In Ranma 1/2, I would say Akane´s father. I can follow his way of thinking, I understand him very well. I think he is the closest one. In Maison Ikkoku, the two protagonists. That bickering is absolutely typical of me.

I apologize for the uncomfortable question, but when you find yourself stuck, how do you solve it?

Takahashi: Eh? Mm... Well, I make a consultation. I discuss it with my editor no matter how long it takes or how many times needed until the core of the chapter is well fixed. ^[3] In case of getting a good idea during the discussion, the only left thing to do is creating a storyboard (a draft) and dealing with it.

Do you have any impressions after seeing your works turned into anime and games, as well as another types of media?

Takahashi: I have always loved Ranma 1/2´s anime. Regarding the games, I am not so acquainted with them but the fight scenes are not too cruel, they have a comical touch so I think they are funny.

The designer of this game is a fan of Takahashi himself, and also aims to be a mangaka.

Takahashi: I am glad that someone who likes the manga or the anime (no matter which one) is the creator of the game.

Which one is darker, the USA or Japan?!

Takahashi-sensei, your works have the support of many fans from abroad. What are your impressions after having a glance of a translated comic of your own?

Takahashi: Just recently I was able to see an American issue of Ranma 1/2, but it is in color. ^[4] In it, the scenes taking place at night were very dark. It resembles the illumination spots of a hotel. I wonder if that person painted in that way thinking “The regular houses in America by night are this dark, so probably houses in Japan are this dark”. I haven’t figured out if this is correct yet, but that cultural gap was quite curious.

How do you think that your works are received by the public, leaving asides these kinds of cultural gaps?

Takahashi: Well, Japanese manga have their foundations in Japanese culture. In manga, Japanese cultural themes such as New Year and Tanabata are seasonal festivities normal for the Japanese and maybe they were not known, so I was hesitating if it would be OK for readers. Previously, when I was interviewed by an American magazine regarding Maison Ikkoku, I asked that question myself. ^[5] I think that Japan has peculiar settings that may be difficult to understand but in that way it makes it more enjoyable, thus, the emotional conflict about loving somebody but not being able to say it is also understandable.

They say that everyday life has no borders. Thank you for your time today.

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Footnotes

• [1] Sometimes it is mistakenly stated that Rumiko Takahashi won the Newcomers Award. However, 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.
• [2] Takahashi has discussed her difficultly with Akane initially, explaining that she only felt like she understood the character once she cut her hair. This is mentioned in the wideban analysis of various characters, as well as "Manga no Michi" and "My Page One".
• [3] "My Page One" is a great collection of interviews with her editors as they discuss the process of working with Rumiko Takahashi.
• [4] In the early days of manga in America (the late 1980s and early 1990s) manga was typically published in the same size and format as a Western comic books with two chapters per issue. The earliest issues of Ranma 1/2 from Viz were published like this, flipped to read right to left and also colorized. Because the earliest chapters were in color in Japan and then converted to black and white, it was these color-to-black-and-white-then-recolored pages that Takahashi is referring to. As a result these colorized chapters were very dark when compared to pages that would have been colored from basic black-and-white.
• [5] It is difficult to determine which interview Takahashi is referring to, though it is likely either her interview with Toren Smith or her first interview with Animerica magazine which was this same year.

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