Interview:Tokai Lecture (June 2006): Difference between revisions

After a student MC introduces Mr. Araki and his body of work, he abruptly pops up on stage, at which time the hall erupts into a deafening round of applause. Mr. Araki, quite nervous at the reception, immediately has a slip of the tongue, saying "I'm a little honored to meet all of you today." "I'm a little... no... quite messed up. I feel like I've met an entire lifetime's worth of people today." Although he claims that he is not a performer, and asks not to expect laughs, he claims "I'm just going to meander along today," scoring some unintentional laughs.

Araki, who marks his 25th year as a manga artist this year, used to dislike (from well over a decade ago) being told "I used to read your comics!" "I was a fan when I was young!" etc., since it stirred fears within him that perhaps he was getting old, and becoming irrelevant. But in the past 5 years or so, he has had a gradual change of heart, and has begun to enjoy and appreciate the accolades he gets, especially from older people and people in esteemed positions in society. Also, when he was younger he may have been writing manga to benefit himself and his publisher's bottom line, but now he has a slightly different point of view and wants to give back to people, especially younger people. That's when he got an invitation from Saturday Program, and, figuring it would probably just be a classroom of 30-40 people, he said "sure, I'll do it." However, he arrived today to this circus, and thought, "this wasn't what I signed up for." (audience bursts into laughter)

Young Araki lived with his father, an office worker, his mother, a stay-at-home mom, and younger identical twin sisters. Those sisters were quite a handful: for example, if there were 3 snacks, the sisters, upon arriving home first, would eat all 3, and then proceed to conceal any traces of evidence. Growing up, young Araki, thinking that there weren't any snacks, "would think 'man, I'm hungry' and go chew on something like a really old piece of kamaboko." (audience bursts into laughter). And when his sisters' evil doings came to light, a fight would erupt; and this would occur on a daily basis. (yet more laughter) He would often feel such a sense of exclusion and ill-will towards his sisters that he didn't want to come home. He used to find relief in spending time alongalone in his room, reading classic manga from the '70's and his father's collection of art books, which he supposes was his motive for drawing manga. He figures that had he not started drawing manga, he "might have gotten out of hand and killed my sisters." (laughter)

He attended a prep school through junior high and high school, but he remembered wanting to become a manga artist after his friend complimented him on the manga he drew (apparently he [[Interview:Kahoku_Shimpo_(February_2004)|drew his first manga while he was in 4th grade]]), whichdue madeto him thinkthinking that he might as well if his very first fan thought he was good, he might want to become a manga artist. So, he began to secretly draw manga when his parents were not looking. He first began submitting his work during his first year of high school; however, all of his submissions were rejected. At the same time, a rash of artists who were the same age ({{W|Yudetamago}}) or younger than him ({{W|Masakazu Katsura}}) continued to make big splashes with their debut. But Mr. Araki could not understand why he was rejected, and decided to finish off a submission on an all-nighter and go on a 4-hour trip to pay a visit to the editors in Tokyo, and to ask them for an explanation. At first he intended to visit {{W|Shogakukan}}, which published {{W|Weekly Shōnen Sunday|Shonen Sunday}}, but he was intimidated by the size of their building, and decided to take his submission into the smaller [[Shueisha]] building next door. It was noon when he visited, but [[Ryosuke Kabashima|one rookie editor]] (about 6'2", or {{convert|185 |cm,|ft}} tall) happened to be there, so he showed him his work. However, the editor, after reading the first page, promptly quipped "your white-out's leaked (you haven't fixed it)": he was criticized every time the editor flipped through each page; Mr. Araki, already exhausted from having been up all night, felt like he was going to pass out. However, after he was finished, he was told that it might be good, and was immediately told to fix it up for the {{W|Tezuka Award|Tezuka Awards}} in 5 days. That submission was "Buso [[Poker (ArmedUnder Poker)Arms]]", which won was the runner-up prize at the Tezuka Awards.

{{font|3|'''Drawing Manga, Araki-Style Part (1): {{convert|10 Meters|m|ft}}'''}}

Drawing styles which are so distinctive that you can look at a person from {{convert|10 meters|m|ft}} away and go, "oh hey, he's reading that manga" are incredible: Araki managed to make his debut, but didn't feel like he had that unique style. And so from 1981 onwards he started thinking about how he could achieve that distinctive style, something that would make people think "oh, that's him!"

He also introduced things like the smiley face and {{W|Expo 2005#Mascots|Morizo and Kiccoro}} (Mr. Araki thought that Akira Toriyama had designed them), and explained that he respected these types of drawings that anybody could recognize, and that it was what he aspired for. "It's incredible. It's the ultimate style."

Gaugin's art, while having depth, also did things like contain certain colors within certain areas, paint the ground pink and the trees blue etc. Araki loved Gauguin's art ever since he was a child, and has been deeply influenced by him. When Jojo became an OVA, one of the animators asked Araki, "What color is [[Jotaro]]?" however Araki had no such concept. He colors everything based on calculation. For example, in Volume 54 [[Giorno]]'s clothes are pink, but in Volume 63 they are blue. Also, regarding the color cover illustration, he explains that placing the color blue beside pink exudes more power. He says that he gets his inspiration from 80's art, shading techniques in Western art, classical paintings and gets inspiration for his various poses from sculptures. All of this research, blended with Araki's own personality, result in Jojo's art style.

If you don't think about "where you stand," you won't have any sense of direction even after you become a mangakamanga artist, wandering from idea to idea, not knowing what you want to write about and ending up becoming one of those people who asks their editor, "What should I write?" In the case of Jojo, Araki is trying to pursue reality by portraying things with classical methodology, but he gives precedence to emotion and inner thought over plot structure, trying to portray the protagonists' destiny, so he ends up in the bottom-left quadrant.

Araki was fascinated by mysteries ever since he was a child, fantasized about deserted islands and believed that King Kong and Nessie existed, and so writes his manga with "mystery" as the central theme. In Jojo, Araki wondered what "superpowers" really were, and if he could portray "energy" itself, which lead to [[Phantom Blood|Parts 1]] & [[Battle Tendency|2]], and the [[Stand|Stands]] in [[Stardust Crusaders|Part 3]], which were like guardians who could "destroy boulders and stuff." They would "stand" by their master and would be called "standsStands." Apparently Part 3 began immediately after Part 2 with no interval in between, which was difficult. He exclaimed, "I went, 'Of course I didn't have any characters ready since it just ended, sir!'" (everyone starts a roar of laughter)

{{font|3|'''Drawing Manga, Araki-Style Part (7): Like an RPG or Board{{W|Sugoroku#E-sugoroku|roll-and-move Gameboard game}}'''}}

At the time, the "pyramid (tournament) formula" (A would fight & defeat B, then fight stronger character C, and on and on) was all the craze in [[Shonen Jump]]. But, Araki wondered, how strong could they get? Wouldn't the entire system collapse as soon as you reached the top, much like the economic bubble of the 80's in Japan? It wasn't like there could be an infinite number of levels of strength. So, he decided to create an RPG/{{W|Sugoroku#E-sugoroku|roll-and-move board game}}-style system where characters traveled to different places to fight enemies, as seen in Jojo Part 3, where the protagonists traveled across Egypt while battling enemies

*[[Morioh]] Town is a town in JoJo, while Sendai is Araki's hometown.

"Well, I don't think there are any homicidal maniacs, but..." (Everyone starts a roar of laughter). Of course, Araki-sensei likes his hometown very much, but he was intimidated by the rapid increase in stragersstrangers, maybe Morioh Town was made based on his "disdain" of that situation. Of course, using the real name of the city in his manga may anger people, so Araki-sensei changed the name to something else.

#*Also refer to [[Interview:Kahoku Shimpo (February 2004)|Kahoku Shinpou: Araki Hirohiko's "BuriedDaily GoldExpeditions Requiresfor DailyBuried ExpeditionGold"]] and Araki Hirohiko's talk-essay [[Interview:Bleu Vague (January 2004)|"My mangaManga are the 'outcriesOutcries of my heartHeart'"]]

#*By the way, Araki-sensei is married, and according to an interview from "[[Interview:Weekly_Shonen_Brackets_100Q_(April_2003)|Weekly ShounenShonen Jump"Brackets]], Araki met his first love during his first year in high school, and his preference for the opposite was "a woman who is not ladylike."

{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (5): "Is Irene, =Gorgeous Gorgeous★IreneIrene?"'''}}

What is the relationship between [[Irene Rapona|Irene]] of Gorgeous★IreneGorgeous Irene and the [[Irene]] who made her appearance in the last part of "JoJo 6" ([[Stone Ocean]] Volume 17)?

From*(Also Arakirefer Hirohiko/Shibasaki Tomoka'sto [[Interview:Osaka University of Arts, CollegeUniversity Manga Vol. 4: (November 2005)]])

And now the 'forbidden question': "Why, as an old man, is [[Joseph Joestar|Joseph]] such a lustful man?" "Although JoJo was a story that ended naturally after Part 3, I asked myself: 'Should I draw a 4th part? There shouldn't be anymore Jojo!'" (Everyone laughs). Since I didn't know what would happen in the future, even though I wanted to keep his personality, the personality did match up with his age (Joestar is an old man in Part 4).

Using names from Western music to name his characters and "Stands" is a "simple hobby" for Araki. It's also a way to pay his respect towards rock artists. "But the fact that nowadays there arenI'tm manyrunning out of names of bands to use is becoming a problem". (Everyone starts a roar of laughs). The imitative sounds of Jojo is also influenced by music (This was said on "[[Interview:Weekly_Shonen_Brackets_100Q_(April_2003)|Weekly ShounenShonen Brackets]] Jump"as well). While on the subject, accordinghe tomentioned that the music of [[SOUL'd OUT,]] (for whom he had [[Catwalk|drawn the cover art for their musicsingle]] just a few months ago) is influenced by JoJo. So while "JoJo" is influenced by Rock, it is also influencing "Rock"!

#It*Also hasincluded alsoin being[[The_Gorgeous_Irene_(Volume)#Aizōban-4|The reportedGorgeous that inIrene: Hirohiko Araki's collectionShort ofStory shortCollection stories,(Aizōban or Collector's Gorgeous★IreneEdition)]], the illustration of Irene that was drawn for [[Ultra Jump]] in 2003,<ref>[https://jojowiki.com/File:UJ2003No1b.png wasUltra originallyJump a2003 characterIssue drawn#1 in- 1985Irene asRapona (Poster)]</ref> seems to be an entirely different person from the original character drawn in 1985. At that time, the comment from UJ PRESS was: "I can't draw in my old style anymore."<ref>[https://jojowiki.com/File:UJ2003No1UJPress.png Ultra Jump 2003 Issue #1 - Jolyne Cujoh & Irene Rapona (UJ PRESS)]</ref>

Often fan letters would ask: "Please take outmake that character from theappear mangaagain", but since thethat character's isstory almosthas complete,already Iended don'the wantdid tonot takewant ita outreappearance, and that is all. Although "Baoh the Visitor" ended as though it willwould laterdefinitely continue later, butAraki stated that, "I like it as it is." But the Volume 2 Afterword of [[Baoh the Visitor]] written by the the writer {{W|Baku Yumemakura}} ''did'' say "The continuation of this story is something which will become eventually unavoidable to draw<ref>[http://atmarkjojo.org/archives/2727.html Writer Baku Yomemakura Talks About the Charm of JoJo, Which Both Parent and Child Go Crazy Over]</ref>", so... [Note: This Afterword is missing on JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia]

To a question that he hates to answer, Araki-sensei's answer was: "'The enigma of human beings', it's something I wanted to draw". As a human who works with a theme that will last for an eternity, that's all. Moreover, the manga is also being drawn for people who have committed crimes, it will make them think: "How did I become like this? Is there a meaning in this existence?" It's aan "eulogyode ofto humanhumanity".