Commemorating the re-animation of Urusei Yatsura after 36 years!

Translation by: Harley Acres & Dylan Acres

Rumiko Takahashi's Creativity - "Characters are made of words."

Urusei Yatsura is back! Urusei Yatsura took the world by storm when it was made into an animated TV series from 1981 to 1986. This year, the re-animation was announced for the first time in 30 years, and has become a hot topic of conversation.

One of the attractions of Rumiko Takahashi's works, or Rumic World, from Urusei Yatsura to her latest work MAO, is the presence of a wide variety of distinctive characters. We asked Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of these characters, about their creation.

The lesson of "Don't say the line you're supposed to say."

Urusei Yatsura will be animated for the first time in 36 years. How did you feel when you heard about the re-animation?

Takahashi: "Are you really going to do it?" I was surprised. It's been a long time since the last time.

Do you watch your own anime series?

Takahashi: I watch them a lot. I watch them about a week before they air, and I also watch them on the air. If I like an episode, I watch it again later.

Many times then! I would like to ask you how the original story of Urusei Yatsura was created. You entered Gekiga Sonjuku while you were still in college, didn't you?

Takahashi:In my first year of college, I heard about Gekiga Sonjuku from a girl I had made friends with outside of university. ^[1] At the time, I was reading Lone Wolf and Cub, written by Kazuo Koike, in Manga Action, so I thought I would go if I could receive direct instruction once or twice a week.

In your third year of college, your work Katte na Yatsura won an honorable mention in the shonen division of the Shogakukan Newcomers Manga Award and debuted in the Weekly Shonen Sunday. ^[2] Was this a result of your training at Gekiga Sonjuku?

Takahashi: Well, I had not yet digested Koike-sensei's teachings to that extent, and I think that the slapstick comedy of science fiction was more or less influenced by Yasutaka Tsutsui. ^[3] I did not understand what Koike-sensei taught at Gekiga Sonjuku until many years after my debut.

What was the most important lesson you learned?

Takahashi: "Don't say the line you're supposed to say."

Regarding dialogue?

Takahashi: For example, if a character is asked "It's nice weather today, isn't it?" and she said "Yes", she wouldn't be in a manga. How she responds to "It's nice weather," should allow the story to expand. That lesson is still very useful to me even to this day.

When you read Koike-sensei's books, you have a strong image of his emphasis on "character creation," but were you impressed by the way he created "dialogues"?

Takahashi: In the end, if you ask what a character is, it is made up of words. Let's put aside the design and so on. What the person says and how it is received is key. The character is made up of reactions. In other words, "don't say the line you're supposed to say" is the same as "think about the character." ^[4]

In Urusei Yatsura, the main characters Ataru Moroboshi and Shutaro Mendo are "idiots at the same level" (Urusei Yatsura chapter 23: Zodiac Cycles), but their reactions are different.

Takahashi: That may be part of it. When I introduced a new character, a different aspect of the existing character would come out in the dialogue. I think it would be interesting for those who are currently drawing manga to keep this lesson in mind.

You were taught some pretty advanced stuff at Gekiga Sonjuku.

Takahashi: After many years of experience as a professional, there are moments when you realize, "This is what you were trying to tell me back then." For example, there is an instruction to "smile with an impressive smile at the end," but it is not enough to just draw a smile; the chapters leading up to the last panel are very important. However, at the level of those who attended Sonjuku, they imitated only the final smiling face. There is no point in smiling like that, because you don't have that lengthy process at the school. After years of being a manga artist, you suddenly realize that.

Which of your works brought you to this realization?

Takahashi: Maison Ikkoku. I don't remember exactly which smile in which volume, but when the heroine smiled in the last panel, I felt "Oh, this is it!

Comic Relief in Takahashi's Works

The use of gags with a seven head tall character was a characteristic of your works at the time of your debut. ^[5] In recent years, you have drawn more serious works, but even in MAO, for example, there are a few comic relief gags in your works.

Takahashi: When I first started drawing serious short stories, I didn't know where to put the gags, so I made the mistake of putting them in the background but I thought, "I shouldn't be blasé about this," (laughs). Nowadays, I have more experience, so I have learned how not to make such mistakes.

Do you sometimes feel like blurting it out and stuffing in a gag?

Takahashi: Yes, quite often (laughs).

How do you decide what to do?

Takahashi: I think it's important to have a sense of levity in the story, because if the story continues to be too serious, readers get tired of reading it. If there is a scene that eases the situation or makes them feel relieved, they will read it again. I really have to be careful to find the right timing. I try to find the right timing for the comedy, and I don't force it it's not called for. In the case of MAO, the heroine, Nanoka, is often in charge of such carefree parts, but that is because of Nanoka's personality.

I like Nanoka's reaction when she drinks the smoothie.

Takahashi: That's a storyline-related idea, but it can also be used to make a joke. It is a very useful prop for portraying the heroine's character.

What to expect from the re-animation of Urusei Yatsura

I believe that there are readers who will be introduced to Urusei Yatsura through this anime adaptation. What if there are requests from new readers who want to read more of the story, is there a possibility that you will continue Urusei Yatsura?

Takahashi: No, I don't think so. When a work is finished, it is finished, no matter which work it is.

The situation now is very different from the previous animated version of Urusei Yatsura. What are your expectations for this year's animated series?

Takahashi: There was a lot of momentum on the production side at the time, and the young staff were excited to put everything they had into it. It was a kind of experimental. This time, people who have seen the previous production are working on it, and I think they are specializing in the silliness of it. That is something I do hope for.

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Ryuji Kayama is a freelance writer and interviewer of many mangaka. He wrote In This Corner of the World (この世界の片隅に), a collection of dialogues with Fumiyo Kono, Sunao Katabuchi and others.

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Footnotes

• [1] 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).
• [2] 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.
• [3] 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.
• [4] Kazuo Koike's most important dictum is on the creation of unique characters. Two of his books are titled Create a Character Like This! and Use Your Characters Like This!.
• [5] Takahashi's comedy and aesthetic were unusual at the time because her characters proportions were inspired by gekiga manga such as the work of Ryoichi Ikegami. In the late 1970s and early 1980s most gag manga characters were not seven heads tall, rather they were squat characters such as Arale and Senbei Norimaki in Dr. Slump, the characters in Fujihiko Hosono's Gu Gu Ganmo and the characters of Hideo Azuma.

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