Masami Yuki VS Rumiko Takahashi - Part 1

Translation by Windi

Impromptu Conversation

On a blustery late autumn day, Mr. Masami Yuki visited Ms. Takahashi in her hospital room, where she was recuperating from an operation for appendicitis. ^[1] It was only meant to be a visit to see her, but the conversation soon became lively and turned into a discussion of manga...

Yuki: Here, this is for you.

Mr. Yuki offers flowers.

Takahashi: Thank you very much.

Yuki: How are you feeling?

Takahashi: Well, I'm much better now, but the wound is still not completely closed. It will take a few more days.

Yuki: That was quite troublesome.

Takahashi: I sometimes worry that I am being rude not only to myself but also to others. In hospital baths, there are times when we enter in pairs, and I am strangely cautious. When we entered the room together, the other woman was an older lady, and I said, "I'm sorry," and she said, "We are in the same boat, just look at me," and she showed herself to me and involuntarily, I said, "I'm sorry, it's my loss" (laughs). It seems that everyone is having a hard time.

Yuki: ...

Takahashi: As they say, pinch yourself and know others' pain.



Yuki: What do you do every day in the hospital?

Takahashi: Read books, watch videos, and also take pictures (laughs).

Yuki: Take pictures?

Takahashi: Even at a time like this, I can't get out of manga artist habits anymore. I took a bajillion pictures, thinking that they would be helpful when drawing a hospital.

Yuki: That's the guts of a pro for ya. Man, I can't go that far (laughs).

Takahashi: So I was suddenly hospitalized and had to have surgery, and my assistant delivered my personal effects and stuff to me later, and even though I didn't say anything, the camera was there. I praised her for a job well done (laughs). A few hours after the surgery, I gave the V-sign and took a picture. You can't take a picture of someone else in such a state at a moment's notice, can you?

Yuki: Wow, that's very ballsy of you to be thinking about reference materials when you are in such a state!

Takahashi: No, no, I was glad that I couldn't see it myself. I tried not to look at the scars from the surgery, but when I was able to get up for a while, I was afraid of what I might see (laughs). Then, as expected, I fell fast asleep that day.

Yuki: Falling fast asleep on the bed is quite an expression (laughs).

Takahashi: But it is (laughs).

Yuki: So, do you receive letters of sympathy from readers?

Takahashi: Yes, I do. Some of them are fan letters on Urusei Yatsura, and some of them request that the story be developed in this way, and I wonder what they are thinking (laughs).

Yuki: Fan letters are sometimes amazing, you know.

Takahashi: They are. Fan letters are a great thing for authors, but some of them have me scratching my head as to why they'd be about something like this.

Yuki: I wish you would write a course on how to write fan letters and serialize it in Shonen Sunday (laughs).

Takahashi: Good idea (laughs).

Yuki: I had a great one the other day. The writer wanted to be an assistant, but the letter had the names of lots of manga artists on it, and it was sent out to so many authors with the same text. It said, "If you don't want me to be taken, please reply as soon as possible" (laughs).

Takahashi: I don't understand letters that say, "I read all of the work to the end, but I didn't find it interesting," either. And only in such cases do they write their own phone number or something like that in an imposing manner (laughs).

Yuki: I also got ones that said, "It's not interesting now, but make it interesting by this issue." "Otherwise, I'll stop reading," they write (laughs).

Takahashi: There were also warnings like, "If you don't make it interesting, I will die." They make sure to write their name, address, phone number, and so on. And they wrote, "If you don't want me to die, make it interesting. It's not too late," and that they're not going to write any more letters. After a while, the writer came back with his voice on a cassette tape.



Yuki: A cassette, huh? I haven't seen any videos coming yet. Oh, and if you read this, please don't send us videos or anything (laughs).

Takahashi: We put our lives on the line to make our work interesting. It's a lot of work, even for the readers. I would like them to put that kind of energy into their work or studies. Manga is something you read to take a break from your work. Only professionals should risk their lives.

Yuki: What do you think manga is? (laughs) And why get so worked up about it?

Takahashi: Once you get a job and become a member of society, the fun of manga doubles (laughs). Manga is like a counter-punch to the rules of the world.

Yuki: What made me happy was when I heard a rumor that you were laughing when you read the Kogaman chapter of Kyukyoku Chojin R. I thought this was a real pleasure for me, because I made Ms. Takahashi, who draws such interesting stories, laugh. However, I was disappointed that that chapter did not win first place in the popularity polls. I wondered why, but it was the same issue as the last chapter of Urusei Yatsura. ^[2]

Takahashi: That's disappointing (laughs). But I read R consistently and laughed. And then there were the R records, which were great. ^[3] They were often played at our work place. When they were playing, it made me feel good about my work and the atmosphere was relaxed.

Yuki: Thank you very much. When we were playing R records over here, little kids from the music school next door were walking down the street outside the event hall singing "kinkon-kankon-kenkou" (laughs).

Takahashi: It's so groovy that the body just learns it on its own.

Yuki: The guy who did the casting for that one became the model for Tawaba. ^[4]

Takahashi: I met him once. He looked just like him. When I heard about it later, I thought he really was Tawaba.

Yuki: Do you ever use actual people as models for his manga? Did you ever use anyone as a model, even if not directly?

Takahashi: No, I don't think so. But there was a time when, after I did a drawing, I looked at it carefully and thought that it looked like a classmate I hated in elementary school, and that character happened to be Cherry (laughs).

Yuki: I guess that's gonna remain in your subconscious. But it seemed like the residents of Ikkoku-kan all have models.

Takahashi: I don't have models, but when I think about it, I sometimes feel that I have been in a similar situation in the past (laughs). So, when I draw, it starts to resemble that more and more. Like, if I think of that person, I can see how they would act like this or that.

Yuki: I think there is a limit to what can come out of one person's head. Even if you change the shape of the character, the feeling of the character will be similar. In that case, you might get stuck in a rut.. (laughs). I think the number of characters that can come out of one person's head is, roughly speaking, no more than three.

Takahashi: I guess you mean like a good kid, a bad kid, and an ordinary kid (laughs). Since you model your characters after the people around you, do you feel that your head editor's tone of voice is reflected in your characters? There are a lot of times when you are both talking at a meeting and you might notice that some of the characters are speaking in the tone of the editor in charge, right? ^[5]

Yuki: In my case, I have one particular character take on the role so that it doesn't affect other characters (laughs).

Takahashi: So, you isolate them and defend your pace (laughs).

Yuki: Speaking of models, there is a model school for Harukaze High School in Kyukyoku Chojin R. And that school has been used as a model for a series in the past. What do you think that series is called?

Takahashi: Well, I'm not sure.

Yuki: It was the model school for Go Nagai's Harenchi Gakuen (laughs out loud). It's rare to see a school modeled twice. ^[6]

Takahashi: That's incredible (laughs).

Yuki: And the people who became the models for Tawaba and Tosaka were also from that high school, and they say that Mr. Parasol was there when Tosaka was attending, and Mustached Godzilla and Mr. Marugoshi were still there when Tawaba was attending (laughs).

Takahashi: That's a nice school.

Yuki: After I drew it, I was convinced that it was such a venerable school and that my point of view as an artist was not wrong (laughs).

Takahashi: But it's great that they can separate from the work like that and stand on their own as characters.

Yuki: Do you ever find yourself liking elderly people (laughs)? ^[7] It seems to me that most of the characters who leave their works and show up are old people.

Takahashi: I hear that people like that grandma quite a bit.

Yuki: I hope you do, though. We will be old people in another 50 years (laughs), but we'll still draw our manga with the same audience in mind (laughs).

Takahashi: We would draw with crayons or something on the sliding screens of the retirement home (laughs).

Yuki: There will be people who sometimes read from the opposite side and we go, "Argh, you shouldn't start from the punchline," (laughs).

Takahashi: But after a while, we forget (laughs out loud).

Yuki: Then we can read our drawings as many times as we want. Every time, it's a brand new work (laughs).



Takahashi: By the way, "Koga club" is a photography club, isn't it?

Yuki: Yes, it is. But it seems that there are few places that call it "Koga club." However, since R, it seems that most of the schools that have established a photography club call it "Koga club" (laughs).

Takahashi: I wanted the Koga club trainer from the Shonen Sunday giveaway (laughs).

Yuki: I'll work on that (laughs). But I think I can still draw R or something along those lines. Like R. Tanaka Ichiro 10 years later in a one-shot of sorts.

Takahashi: Something like Ultimate Employee R. But R doesn't age, so he is strong.

Yuki: When R is employed, he wears a business suit over his school uniform (laughs).

Takahashi: Working in school uniform used to be a thing, didn't it?

Yuki: Yes, for newspaper company employees or if you read Mr. Fujiko's Manga Road. ^[8]

Takahashi: But it must be hard for you, because you have to think of unusual characters for gag manga, don't you? Having read R, I was impressed how they could say and do such things.

Yuki: That being said, I bow to Urusei Yatsura.

Takahashi: Urusei Yatsura had a foundation, you know. For example, in Urusei Yatsura, there was a point of reference in the form of a love triangle that was built up.

Yuki: For me, there was nothing like that, because R was a manga where nothing happened (laughs).

Takahashi: So it must have been very hard to think of something each chapter. Which is easier, R or Patlabor?

Yuki: Well, I don't know... R takes a lot of time for storyboarding, and Patlabor takes a lot of time for inking.

Takahashi: But wasn't R easier once the characters got rolling?

Yuki: Yes, it was easier with R once I could have conversations in the storyboards.

Takahashi: With Patlabor, when the logic comes in afterwards...

Yuki: With R, there was no need for logic (laughs). It didn't matter if the conversation didn't form a response.

Takahashi: In the case of R, it is more funny, but I think it would be more difficult to come up with a story. It's not enough if there's no conversation and context. If it's not funny, it's meaningless (laughs).

Yuki: Last time, I had a meaningless conversation at work (laughs), and I kept it thinking that I can use it again when I draw R again, but I'll mention it now (laughs). When I said, "The days go by so fast, it's already five o'clock," he said, "It seems like only yesterday." (laughs out loud).

Takahashi: That's so dumb (laughs).

Yuki: Uh-oh, I won't be able to use it when I draw R if I mention it in a conversation. Keep this off the record (laughs).

Editorial Department: We would never keep such an interesting conversation off the record (laughs).

Yuki: ...Thus, it is very difficult to get to the point where there is no context, but it looks funny in the art.

Takahashi: After an all-nighter, such conversations often come up, but no one takes notes, and we just laugh about it. Later, I think it's a real waste (laughs).

Yuki: Did you ever draw a story about a school trip or something in a groove?

Takahashi: Oh, no, not particularly.

Yuki: For me, the filming trip story was the easiest to depict when I was drawing R.

Takahashi: Wasn't it difficult to draw the camera and such?

Yuki: Sometimes I had to draw them in a very precise manner, so it was very difficult. It is very hard to draw existing mechanical objects, isn't it? But Patlabor is also hard.

Takahashi: But even if they give you animation design materials, it doesn't always turn out the way you imagined it?

Yuki: Right, it depends on the individual's sense of what is cool and what is not. Also, if you want to make a mechanical object like that realistic, you have to make sure that the lettering is well done. This is surprisingly difficult.

Takahashi: Do you do any redrawing?

Yuki: You should make a good rough sketch. If you think you can just fix it when you put the ink in, you will definitely fail (laughs). Then you correct it with the white-out, but you get deeper and deeper, and in the end you want to redraw it, but you don't have time (laughs). Why don't you just give up halfway through? (laughs)

Takahashi: Sometimes I have a hard time drawing a close-up of a face, and that's when I fall into a quagmire. Once I got stuck, I couldn't get out, and even after redrawing it many times, I still didn't like it. Then I ran out of time. When I was redrawing the face for the volume release, a rumor spread that I had not drawn that picture. Furthermore, they used the drawing I had done before I redrew it for the posters. ^[9] I almost felt like I was being mocked (laughs). Like, how dare you?

Yuki: It is difficult for anyone other than the artist to see the difference in the lines of the characters. For example, when you draw Maison Ikkoku, even if the author thinks the lines are not Kyoko's, other people can only see Kyoko's.

Takahashi: Those times are problematic.

Yuki: That is a difficulty that only those who draw will face, on occasion.

At this point, Ms. Takahashi's dinner is brought in by a nurse.

Yuki: Looks like that's your supper. Well then, I'm going to leave now. Thank you very much for today.

Takahashi: Thank you for your time.

Yuki: Please get well soon.

-November 25, 1988, in the hospital room

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Footnotes

• [1] This interview was conducted during Rumiko Takahashi's hospitalization for appendicitis. This took place between Ranma 1/2 chapter 64 and chapter 65 (between November 2, 1988 and January 25, 1989). The following year in a discussion with fellow mangaka Kazuhiko Shimamoto she would wonder if it was due to stress. Her comments in the table of contents of Shonen Sunday 1989 volume 8 upon her return was, "I was worried about various things, but it's already worked out. Do your best." The photographs for the interview show Kaoru Shintani (新谷かおる) of Area 88 fame was present at the hospital as well, though he does not comment during the interview. The "Part 1" in the title indicates that Takahashi is the first interview. Shintani is "Part 2" and Kei Kusunoki (楠桂) is "Part 3".
• [2] This would have been Shonen Sunday 1987 volume 8.
• [3] Kyukyoku Chojin R has a fascinating history connected to its image albums and drama CDs. Masami Yuki recruited friends to play voices, write songs based on the manga and recorded the albums which were released by Warner Pioneer which sold surprisingly well. Yuki recruited industry voice actor friends, and musicians he knew to help and over 30 image songs were recorded for the manga. Yuki felt the series would not adapt well to an anime and resisted moving the series to animation as he felt it was a conversational series. Eventually an OVA was made in 1991 through two documentary videos of the recording of the image albums had been released earlier. In Shonen Sunday 1987 volume 44 Takahashi stated, "The BGM at work is the Kyukoku Chojin R soundtrack. It's perfect.".
• [4] The character Tawaba is based on Tomato Aki (とまとあき), a novelist and friend of Masami Yuki's and was heavily involved with the image albums. Additionally he provided the voice for Tawaba as well.
• [5] Rumiko Takahashi has named a few of her characters after her editors including Shinobu Miyake after her first editor on Urusei Yatsura and Oshima the tanuki after Makoto Oshima (大島誠) her fifth Urusei Yatsura editor. For more on her relationship with her editors please see "My Page One" which is an interview with a number of her editors from throughout her career.
• [6] The fictional Harukaze high school in Kyukyoku Chojin R is supposed to be set in the fictional town of Isaka-cho in the Nerima Ward of Tokyo according to the book Masami Yuki Chronicle (ゆうきまさみ年代記). Here he states that there is a real model for the school which was used as the model for the high school in Go Nagai's Harenchi Gakuen (ハレンチ学園/Shameless School). The series 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.
• [7] It would not have been the case at the time of this interview, but throughout the late 1990s through the 2020s much of Rumiko Takahashi's short story output focused on the middled aged and retired salary men. She comments on this in in Twitter comments, "Rumiko Takahashi: Beyond Boundaries", and in an interview with Moto Hagio.
• [8] This is referring to Fujiko Fujio (藤子不二雄)'s manga Manga Road (まんが道), a series about the creation of manga. This particular manga was actually created by Fujiko Fujio Ⓐ (藤子不二雄Ⓐ), one half of the team that originally worked under the "Fujiko Fujio" name.
• [9] The image Takahashi is referring to here is an image of Kyoko from Maison Ikkoku chapter 116.

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