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Friday, September 3, 2010
Fandemonium
Rumiko Takahashi
In my ongoing (if intermittent) effort to cover corners of the manga universe that I’ve neglected, here’s another Fandemonium interview. This time around, I’ve e-mailed back and forth with Dylan Acres, a devoted fan of Rumiko Takahashi and one of the architects of Rumic World, a fansite devoted to the prolific and much-loved creator. Takahashi’s works have enjoyed a tremendous track record in translation, earning both critical acclaim and commercial success. Wikipedia describes her as “one of the wealthiest women in Japan,” which isn’t surprising given her string of long-running, award-winning series. But let’s let Acres take it from here.
David Welsh: Why don't we start with the basics: what was your introduction to Takahashi's work? (Just for reference, Maison Ikkoku was one of the first manga I'd read. I'd just started shifting over from super-hero comics and been asking around for recommendations, and that was a very popular suggestion, for very good reason. I still haven't delved into much of her fantasy-adventure work, but I loved Rumic Theater, and I've started watching the InuYasha anime with alarming regularity.)
Dylan Acres: I was actually introduced to Takahashi's works in a rather roundabout way. My twin brother and I were subscribed to Electronic Gaming Monthly back in the early ‘90s and the magazine reviewed a Ranma 1/2 game for the Super Famicom. It couldn't have been more than a paragraph mention with just one image, but we were utterly fascinated by the concept of a boy who turns into a girl and what sort of comic book could tell a story like that. As you mentioned with American comics we had been avid comic readers our entire lives, but once Harley (my brother) picked up his first issue of Ranma 1/2 in 1993 that was really the death knell for American comics for us. So he really made Ranma 1/2 his "thing" and even though I loved it, I wanted something of my own. Having no idea where to go but knowing how much I loved Takahashi's work on Ranma 1/2 I decided that Maison Ikkoku would be a natural choice. Viz had just started releasing the Maison Ikkoku anime on VHS in 1996 and so it became my "thing". From there anything that had Rumiko Takahashi's name on it we devoured obsessively as soon as it was released.
DW: What are some of the qualities of her work that struck you? (And have you gone back and read Ranma 1/2, even though your brother had dibs?)
DA: Oh yeah, I read Ranma 1/2 right alongside my brother. He may have always considered it his but he wouldn't have tolerated it if I had stopped reading the manga or watching the anime just because of that. We've always shared like good brothers should, haha. Ranma was our "gateway drug" into the world of manga, so it was really something that had to be shared between us.
I think the aspect of Takahashi's works that most attracted me, especially early on was the realism. I know that seems strange to say, I mean with the exception of Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi's works are pretty far out there, alien princesses, boys who turn into girls, half demons in the feudal era. But the characters really clicked for me. In '93 I was coming from this world of Marvel's X-Men comics where everything was grim and gritty and everyone was persecuted for being a mutant. I had never read a comic where the main characters got jealous or were petty or vain, in a realistic way at least. And all of a sudden in Takahashi's works I saw that and it really rang true. After reading that, I couldn't relate to mutants and superheroes anymore. I could see myself in Yusaku Godai, the protagonist of Maison Ikkoku, a student struggling to win the heart of the woman he loves. That's much more relatable than reading Marvel's endless X-Men spin-offs that they were churning out in the mid-90s. I think it’s more than likely I would have lost interest in comic books altogether if I hadn't discovered Takahashi and been introduced to manga through her.
Oh! And probably most importantly, is that I never knew that comic books could be funny! I was so used to the all-action, all-angst approach I'd been exposed to that I was shocked at reading something that made me laugh as hard as Takahashi's series did. She's such a versatile storyteller that she can weave humor into an "action" series like Ranma 1/2 or InuYasha, or a "love story" like Maison Ikkoku. I hate trying to define any of Takahashi's works to any one label though, that seems unfair to her.
DW: The warmth and humor are really essential, and they balance out something that could be a detriment. One thing I've noticed about Takahashi is that she seems to like spinning out a small, simple concept into a huge, long, sprawling story. But since the characters are so likeable and funny, things tend not to bog down. She's obviously not the only manga-ka who can pull that off, far from it, but she's really deft at it. Do you think that long-form approach has something to do with her popularity? That readers know they're going to be able to spend a long time in these fictional worlds with these characters?
DA: Yeah, I think you're right that it’s a combination of the long stories and the likable characters that have created a winning combination for Takahashi over the course of her career. She's known for creating these really great characters who, flaws and all, are still relatable. None of her works have really had a traditional villain until Naraku in InuYasha.
But while InuYasha is a hit it's also had a number of detractors amongst Takahashi fans, and I think it might be due to a mixture of the way the story is told that have turned some fans off to it. InuYasha is very linear and builds upon itself much like Maison Ikkoku, whereas Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2. were more episodic, so some people who enjoy her short stand alone funny stuff are turned off by the quest for Shikon shards or seemingly unkillable foes like Moryomaru, Hakudoshi and Naraku. So as of late she has been creating some not so warm and humorous characters but has kept the long, sprawling storylines and I think that may have turned some people off to InuYasha. InuYasha is different in that it isn't as humorous as her other works, and I think fans sort of expect that from her.
I don't really agree with that assessment though as I'm still entertained by InuYasha every week and appreciate it more for the journey that she's created over the past 11 years rather than the destination. Because looking at it as that, a journey, allows me as a reader to mark the course of my life through her works. For instance, I was in high school when she began InuYasha and now I've just finished up my Master's degree....I find something very comforting about that.
Haha, I don't know if that's a good answer to that question or not. I feel like I'm going off on a tangent!
DW: Well, I have to admit I love her short stories, too, like the ones in Rumic Theater. But I think that's a testament to her versatility. She does fantasy, funny, dramatic, slice-of-life... I always admire a creator who sort of makes their own rules, and that definitely seems to apply to Takahashi. She was one of the first women cartoonists to really succeed in shonen manga, right?
DA: Oh yeah, and she's succeeded in a major way! In fact, when you think about the number of massively popular series she's had, it’s very hard for me for me to think of someone else besides Tezuka who has had the kind of success she's had across so many series, male or female. Which is remarkable. She's paved the way for people like Hiromu Arakawa and CLAMP.
I absolutely love her short stories, and if there was one thing I wish Viz would do, well.....it would be that they try again with Urusei Yatsura, but secondly, I wish they'd pick up her new short stories for translations, because she's done some fantastic slice of life/magical realism stuff with her Rumic Theater stories the past few years. I think that its short works where she's really shown her versatility. She's done shojo stuff like the "Diet Goddess" and seinen stuff like "Oyaji Grafitti" and "Permanent Love." One of favorite short stories she's done recently was "Kawaii Hana" which is about a woman who's being stalked by this weird guy who leaves a stinky flower as his calling card. It’s very different from what people might expect of Takahashi.
DW: Okay, just to confirm: you've learned to read Japanese? Was that a result of your desire to read more Takahashi manga sooner, or was it something you learned independently of your manga addiction?
DA: I actually don't speak Japanese, but my brother Harley does, and that was because he wanted to be able to experience Takahashi in the original Japanese as well as read the things that Viz wasn't bringing out here in the States like her new short stories and Urusei Yatsura's last half. So over the past few years we've translated most of her untranslated stuff for our website, Rumic World. And this summer we ran a translation project for our visitors to the site and Harley put up a text translation of the last volume of One Pound Gospel and a few selected short stories.
DW: Let's talk about Rumic World: how long has it been around, and how as it evolved over time?
DA: Rumic World has been around in different formats for quite some time. I should explain that Rumic World is a website that's run by myself, my brother Harley and our friend Mason Proulx. It's made up of a collective of websites dedicated to each of Takahashi's series. Mason began his Urusei Yatsura website in 1996, I opened my Maison Ikkoku site in 1997, Harley created his Ranma 1/2 site in 1998 and the InuYasha site in 2000. We were fortunate that our websites were popular and successful and in 2002 we decided to merge everything into one place and Mason joined us and Rumic World was born. So it’s a bit of a convoluted history of sites that have formed this super site, but we've existed in one form or another for over 10 years now. And in merging everything and creating Rumic World, we've been able to do a lot more than we ever could with just our individual series websites. So now we report news on Takahashi, Harley's done translations, we were actually the first website to learn of the English voice cast for InuYasha before it debuted on Cartoon Network. It’s just been a really rewarding experience and tremendously fun.
DW: Fan translations are kind of a touchy subject with some. Are you of the school of thought that you'll take down your translations if the material is licensed and becomes available in English from a publisher?
DA: Fan translations and especially scanlations are a very touchy subject with us as well. With the exception of some two page autobiographical manga that Takahashi published in the early 80s we don't deal with scanlations on Rumic World at all. Because of the age of these stories it seems unlikely that they will ever be collected, as they haven't been even in Japan. The translations that we post on Rumic World are text only, but even in that case if I thought someone else would use them to create and distribute English versions of the Japanese comics I would remove them. But I am very much of the school of thought that scanlations are bad for the industry, which I support fully.
DW: How many visitors does Rumic World get on average? Has an online community of Takahashi fans developed over time?
DA: I'm not really sure how many visitors we get. I used to keep up with that a long time ago. Let's check.....well the site statistics for the server we're on seems to be offline and I can't figure out "log file" info.....I'll try and get back to you on this one! As far as an online community goes, I think we're the main hub for English speaking Takahashi fans. A lot of sites dedicated to her works seem to die out as soon as the series finishes its English language run, but our sites have been around so long we've sort of become a tent pole for people who want to discuss her works. We began our message board in early 2001 and we still have users who have been with us since then.
DW: Now, it might be sacrilege, but as good as she is, manga fans can't live by Takahashi alone, can they? What other series and creators do you enjoy?
DA: Blasphemer! There is no other creator outside of Takahashi! She is the beginning and the end! But in all seriousness I don't follow any other creator as religiously as I do Takahashi, but I'm a fan of Oh! My Goddess by Kosuke Fujishima, Please Save My Earth by Saki Hiwatari, Detective Conan (Case Closed) by Gosho Aoyama, Gash Bell (Zatch Bell) by Mokoto Raiku and pretty much anything by Mitsuru Adachi or Junji Ito I'll read.
DW: Okay, one last question, and it's purely selfish: I've loved what I've read of Takahashi's work and I've heard great things about her other series, but some of them are what might be called "hella long." Ranma is 36 volumes, and InuYasha is currently at the 30+ mark. Do they hold up throughout?
DA: Well there really are no lulls in Ranma. The 36 English volumes fly by really fast and you get a good mix of martial arts action and humor and a little romance thrown in. InuYasha is very, very long and some people complain about its length. The 51st Japanese volume was just released this week so Viz has a long way to go with it. I'm pretty sure it’s about to end though. haha I really enjoy InuYasha, but like I said earlier it doesn't have the comedy aspects to break things up like her other series, so it’s not everyone's cup of tea. But you've said you've gotten addicted to the anime, and if you enjoy the anime then you'll love the manga, even if it is more than hellaciously long!
(Is your favorite series, creator or genre withering under my neglect? E-mail me at DavidPWelsh at Yahoo dot Com, and make your pitch for a future installment of Fandemonium.)
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
