Full Review ☆ Hirohiko Araki
Gents' Bizarre Love!?
The Parallel Universes of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Hirohiko Araki[a]
Tamaki Saito[b]
Junko Kaneda[1][c]
Saito: Nice to meet you again[d]. We hadn't met since the Eureka Magazine April 1997 Issue 'J-Comic Feature '97', so it's been 10 years.
Araki: I'm very grateful, since I believe that this special issue was able to be organized all thanks to your interview from back then.
Saito: At any rate, even compared with back then you haven't changed at all. Dare I say you've turned even younger? You never cease to surprise me (laughs). As expected from someone who I'm suspicious of being a practitioner of the Ripple, or in this case should I say a vampire, or perhaps even a clone... (laughs).
Araki: Please, but old age is steadily progressing. I've switched to a monthly serialization now since the quantity for weekly serialization became punishing by degrees.
Saito: Last time we talked, it was just around the 10th anniversary of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. You have continued to work on it ever since and now on its 20th anniversary, you are still exploring new fields of expression and of story with Steel Ball Run (hitherto SBR) which is serialized in Ultra Jump. Although it may seem a little late, I am happy to see a special issue of this magazine finally being published on this occasion. In terms of your recent activities, it seems you've been giving many lectures this year. Is this something you intended to do?
Araki: That's right. Since I have an exclusive contract with Shueisha, I always had the feeling that I was working only for myself. So I thought I should also try to contribute to society in some way all of a sudden when I turned 40. I thought it would maybe be a good idea to talk to junior high school students and people like that. But exactly like other manga artists, I’m not really good at that kind of thing. It’s sort of the reason why I became a manga artist. It’s not unusual for me to see only about five people in the span of a week (laughs).
Saito: It is true that manga artists, even if they are quite well-known, do not often give lectures. However, your lecture seemed to be quite popular according to some of the responses on the Internet, and I got the impression that you spoke openly about your own approach to being an artist.
Araki: Yes, I think that's an important thing. I have had more opportunities to do so since last year. I'm still not very good at it, though.
Saito: However, I get the impression that you're pretty skilled at making people laugh, right?
Araki: No, don't be silly (laughs).
Saito: There's something really interesting in your popularity, Mr. Araki. It goes without saying you were very popular 10 years ago, but it was a bit unthinkable for a magazine like Eureka to make a special issue about your work. At the time of our previous interview, I thought it would be difficult for you to appear in the context of the manga culture covered by Eureka, so that's precisely why I asked you to come speak in our magazine. 10 years later, it feels completely natural to have you as our special issue feature artist. As an artist yourself, have you felt such changes in your situation?
Araki: I guess to me, Eureka has the image of talking about things like the esoteric world of David Lynch and other artistic works like that.
In terms of the image of my own work, the editorial department would severely criticize me if I drew the same type of work as manga artists my senior when I first started out as an author. So I intentionally tried to differentiate my work from theirs, although I respected my seniors. Even though I wonder if I may have differentiated my work too much (laughs). My stance was to tread into the little cracks, to step into fields where no one had explored before. But by doing that, I feel like the people in their fifties and sixties nowadays ended up looking down on me, or rather refusing to acknowledge me (laughs). But on the other hand, what with this and that after getting older and drawing manga for many years, young readers who are junior high and high school students nowadays tell me they like my work. So, I think that in a sense, I am in touch with the "Eureka" style in that I respect my seniors, but I haven't directly taken from the good aspects of their work. What do you think?
Saito: I think you're right. Well, recently, some young best-selling authors have emerged who profess to harboring a “respect for Araki,” such as Nisio Isin and Otsuichi.
Araki: Mr. Otsuichi, whom I connected with through the novelization of Part 4 he is currently writing, told me when we discussed that he read JoJo when he was in elementary school. I thought to myself, "Wow, it's been that long already?" I didn't have many opportunities to talk with senior artists I liked, so whenever I have the chance, I try to talk with young authors who say they have read and liked my manga.
Saito: I see. But still, it is a bit curious that the older generation does not recognize you.
Araki: I think it is because of what I mentioned earlier—the fact that I brought myself up as an artist by thinking I definitely didn't want to draw the same manga as my seniors. Also, I like to look at paintings, and painters who create new ways of painting are appreciated, even if they are strange. I wonder if that is the reason.
Saito: You hold up paintings from the Renaissance period as your ideal, right? So in a sense, your drawing style is faithful to the art fundamentals.
Araki: I wonder if it's a bit like "neo-renaissance" or "neo-gothic."
Saito: On the other hand, manga artists have a drawing complex that hasn't existed before Osamu Tezuka. They think they should be able to draw properly like a first-rate painter. Is it that you are shunned, because of your superior drawing ability?
Araki: I wonder. It seems that there is something difficult to grasp here. Something like "the kings who don't read stuff but hate it anyway" (laughs). Fans and other manga artists often tell me that at first, they thought "What is this creepy manga...?" (laughs). But they said that when they actually read it, they liked it and were glad that they did.
Saito: I think your manga has a very distinctive style, but "creepy" is a bit of a surprising reaction.
Araki: Otsuichi, for example, told me that he fell in love with it when he saw an enemy character crush his own bones and go inside a vent (laughs). So it just wins over people like that from the outset (laughs).There seems to be a clear division between those who like it and those who say, "What is this?" and stop reading.
Saito: Who is someone from the previous generation that you would love to talk to?
Araki: When I first started out, I thought that it was great when I could tell what people were reading on the train, even when sitting as far as 10 meters away. What I mean by that are the characteristics of the drawings, and the power of the design. The simpler it is, the better. In that sense, Masami Kurumada was wonderful at that time. That extreme simplification of the scenes and story is the best, and I would really like to talk to him about that.
Saito: We can recognize your work from 10 meters away too, don't you think?
Araki: At that time, Shonen Jump was extremely popular, and it was full of such drawings. That's why I thought I had to be like that too. But up until I started writing JoJo, I had no idea what to do. After my debut, I drew a few things, but I didn't have a clear direction, or perhaps I would say I didn't have a clear mentality. Then I looked at some Italian Renaissance paintings, and I thought it would be good to give them a modern feeling. That was fun. I like to twist bodies and enjoy drawing the curves that result (laughs).
Saito: I love those twists and turns as well. It's present too in the recent Steel Ball Run, where the composition and poses are becoming more and more complex. It's hard to tell what they are doing just by taking a quick glance at the panels (laughs).
Araki: I do my best to make it as easy to understand as possible.