Celebrating Urusei Yatsura's Anime Adaptation
An Interview with Rumiko Takahashi! Science fiction, gags, school stories...anything goes in this world!
Translation by: Harley Acres
On New Year's Day in the year 2022, the whole of Japan was astonished by a piece of news. Urusei Yatsura will be broadcast as a new anime. It has been about 40 years since this work was originally broadcast as an animated TV series, and this time the voice actors will be completely changed.
I asked Rumiko Takahashi, the author of the original manga and creator of such hits as Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha in addition to Urusei Yatsura, about the secret story behind the creation of Urusei Yatsura, her thoughts on the new anime, and MAO, which is currently serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday.
Yasutaka Tsutsui's novels are the root of my work.
Next year will mark the 45th anniversary of your career, Rumiko Takahashi. You were awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2020. When did you first become interested in drawing manga?
I read manga magazines from an early age, and when I was in the sixth grade of elementary school, I remember submitting my first four-panel manga to Weekly Shonen Sunday with my name on it. I started drawing story manga when I was in my second year of high school, and when I made my debut in 1978, I was a college student. I loved reading and was especially influenced by Yasutaka Tsutsui's novels. [1] The slapstick sci-fi elements of Mr. Tsutsui's books are still at the root of my manga.Your first serialized work, Urusei Yatsura, is that very same type of work that you've just described. It is a romantic comedy with strong science fiction elements featuring the main character Ataru, who loves girls, and many other characters, and of course the alien, Lum. This work, which caused a social phenomenon in both the manga and anime industries, is going to be broadcast this year as an entirely new anime with different voice actors from the original series. As the author of the original manga, what did you think when you heard about it?
"You're doing it now!" I was surprised and happy to feel the presence of people who were working to broadcast a work from more than 40 years ago as a new animation. When I read the outline, it was more interesting than I had initially expected, and I felt that both old-time anime viewers and newcomers would enjoy it, which made me look forward to the broadcast even more.Regarding the voice actors, those who played the main characters in the original version are still active today, so they were more than welcome to continue [with this version], but I thought it would be nice to refresh the voice actors and the portrayal of the story as "Urusei Yatsura from the year 2022". As many of you may already know, Ataru is played by Hiroshi Kamiya, Lum by Sumire Uesaka, Shinobu is played by Maaya Uchida, and Mamoru Miyano plays Shutaro Mendo. Many viewers will be surprised by the end credit list, so please look forward to more announcements.
"~Daccha" is from the Sendai Dialect!?
What was the origin of the idea behind Urusei Yatsura?
Before my debut, I attended the famous manga writer Kazuo Koike's cram school, Gekiga Sonjuku, and we had the task of submitting a story outline once a week. [2] When it was decided that I would be allowed to have my first serialization, I thought "let's use one of the outlines", and that was the original draft of the first chapter of Urusei Yatsura. The result was a manga that had everything I wanted to draw in it. For example, science fiction, slapstick gags, school things that are closely related to daily life... The world of Urusei Yatsura could be anything.How did you go about creating the characters?
First, there is the main character, Ataru. I submitted my rough drafts to my editor seven times in order to make the character a womanizer. Shinobu, who was the heroine in the beginning of the story, was made to be a common high school girl because I wanted her to highlight Ataru's normalness, while Lum was an invader from outer space, and the image of her character design was based on that of Lord Thunder (Kaminari-sama).Ah, so that's why she wears a tiger-striped bikini. Also, Lum's way of speaking "~daccha" is now world famous.
When I thought about how she should speak, how to make it idiosyncratic, I remembered the young adult novel Aoba Shigereru (青葉繁れる) (by Hisashi Inoue/published by Bungei Shunju) which was set in Sendai. Also, the aliens in my debut work Katte na Yatsura used the Chiba dialect "-Dappya" which is similar to the Sendai dialect, so I thought let's make Lum's way of speaking similar to that dialect.Initially, Urusei Yatsura was serialized as five chapters, and Lum was scheduled to appear only in the first chapter. [3] Ataru, Shinobu and Lum became the axis of that original five chapter story. It wasn't until the end of the [five chapter] series that I learned that the manga was a big hit. The three of them were loved by the readers, and I heard that "many people are wondering what this love triangle will be like." When it was decided to go ahead with a long-term serialization, I decided Lum would appear in the on-going series.
Why did the role of the primary heroine shift from Shinobu to Lum?
I focused on the fact that the hero is Ataru rather than focusing on the heroine, so I didn't think about whether Lum or Shinobu would be paired up with Ataru, and Lum naturally took the heroine's role over the course of the serialization. The turning point might have been Mendo, who was a new character from the long-term serialization. It would have been strange if the people around him did not react to his handsomeness, so I had Shinobu become attracted to Mendo.The work of a mangaka is fun.
Takahashi-san, you also started serializing the romance manga Maison Ikkoku in the middle of Urusei Yatsura's publication. Wasn't it difficult to serialize both series at the same time?
I was still in my twenties, so I was not exhausted and overwhelmed, I didn't feel drowsy or stiff-shouldered, and my heart was boiling with joy at being able to do the work of a mangaka.What was the deciding factor for you to wrap up Urusei Yatsura?
Because of Shinobu. As the story went on, Ataru and Lum became like a couple and I began to think about how to make Shinobu happy. Then I came up with a storyline in which Ataru, Lum, and Shinobu find many doors to future parallel worlds. I felt that "I could see a bright future for Shinobu," and decided to conclude Urusei Yatsura. [4] The ending was such that all the characters were happy and the reader could feel that the story had been "good to read".The same was true of Ranma 1/2, which started after the conclusion of Urusei Yatsura. The main character, Ranma, becomes a girl when splashed with cold water, and I remember that there were gags, battles and storylines that were longer than two volumes.
With Ranma 1/2 it was possible to use two-page spreads and large panels. It was sometimes said that Akane, Ranma's fiancée, was similar to Shinobu from Urusei Yatsura, but Akane is unrelated to Shinobu, as she was the heroine I decided on while plotting the rough draft. There are times when characters from other works naturally resemble each other, but I have never dared to link them together.In addition, your serialized manga have always been hits and all of them have been adapted into anime: the serious Mermaid Saga about the journey of a hero who has become immortal, Inuyasha, about a junior high school girl who travels back in time to the Warring States period and meets the half-demon Inuyasha, and Kyokai no RINNE a school comedy about a boy who is a shinigami and a girl who is able to see ghosts.
I'm always throwing all my energy into whichever work I'm currently publishing, and I only start thinking about the content of the next serialization after I've finished what I am working on at the time. I don't think about how the story will end. However, I always want to end it in a way that readers will want to read it over and over again.People often ask me, "isn't it difficult to create new works?", but I'm very grateful that there is a place to publish my manga by creating a new serialization to replace the one I had completed. My enthusiasm for manga production hasn't changed since my debut. I've been drawing by hand all this time.
Every chapter is an important part of the introduction.
Currently you're working on MAO which is being serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday. It follows a heroine who lives in the present day and time travels to the Taisho era, meets Mao, an onmyoji, and fights to solve a mystery.
The know-how I developed while working on Urusei Yatsura is also present in MAO, that sense of tempo. To give an example, there was a time when, after drawing a single panel in Urusei Yatsura I had a hard time moving on to the next plot development, and I spent two or three days struggling with it. Then, I deleted that panel, and the story started moving in a different direction. Through these experiences, I have improved my compositional skills, and now I don't have to stop and worry while drawing anymore.When you say compositional skills, what exactly do you mean?
I value the introduction of a chapter of any manga, as it is the deciding factor in whether or not the reader will read the rest of the manga. Usually, this is the first seven pages, or the first two or three pages in the case of a manga like Urusei Yatsura, where each chapter is short or self-contained. After that, something happens by the Nth page, and then by the Xth page, the situation changes and the story gets more exciting toward the end. While I am drawing, I feel that it's should feel "incremental".My previous work, Inuyasha was a relatively tense story, but MAO has an even darker atmosphere. There is a strong mystery element to the story, and I was conscious of female readers, so I created many male characters that I thought were "cool" because I am a woman myself. There are many mysteries that have not been solved yet, and it is a work with a strong mystery element.
Also, female characters tend to lean too much toward fantasy if they expose too much skin like Lum for instance, so I dress the female characters in school uniforms, kimonos, and Taisho period clothing.
It's also a work where you can feel the difference between the Taisho and Reiwa eras in terms of speech and actions.
Ever since I was a child, I felt that the language of women in the Taisho and early Showa eras was beautiful. People living in the Taisho era speak the language appropriate for the times, and Reiwa era high school student, Nanoka, speaks the way modern young people speak. It's the same sort of conscious thought that goes into the way that Lum speaks in Urusei Yatsura.What are your plans for the future?
I would like to devote all my energy to drawing MAO now, and I hope you'll read it, with the 12th volume now on sale. Also, in the April 5 issue of Big Comic Original (No. 8), there is a "Rumiko Takahashi manga" so please pick up a copy if you'd like to read it.The anime Urusei Yatsura will start broadcasting later this year, so I hope it will make people who have troubles at work, school, and their daily life laugh without thinking and feel at ease. More news will be announced in the future, so I hope you will look forward to these upcoming announcements.
Rio Wakabayashi is a freelance writer who loves reading. Born and raised in Osaka she moved to Tokyo in 2010. She writes interview articles, book reviews, and columns. In addition to writing, she currently teaches Japanese to foreigners at a Japanese language school in Tokyo.
Footnotes
- [1] 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.
- [2] 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).
- [3] Urusei Yatsura's early publication history was fairly non-traditional. After the first five chapters were published weekly from August through September of 1978 the sixth chapter was then published in a special issue of Shonen Sunday in October or November. Takahashi then returned in February to continue Urusei Yatsura for approximately ten chapters. This was because Takahashi was still in college at this point in her life. She then returned to Urusei Yatsura through April 1979 before stopping and publishing the five chapter monthly mini-series Dust Spot!! in a special edition of Shonen Sunday. After Dust Spot!! she returned to Urusei Yatsura sporadically until March of 1980 when its continual, regular weekly publication began in earnest. Looking at the publication dates of the chapters in the first two volumes helps clarify this as well as shows that some of the chapters were rearranged from their original publication order.
- [4] In previous interviews Takahashi stated that resolving the early storyline that depicted Ataru and Shinobu having a son named Kokeru was important for her to address while also giving Shinobu a happy ending was an important step in setting up the conclusion of Urusei Yatsura.
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