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m Edited Interview. Entire translation (especially student questions starting from #6) needs to be checked against translation as there are many omissions and mistranslations |
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{{font|3|'''12:45: The Lecture Hall'''}}
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.
{{font|3|'''Reason For Accepting The Invitation'''}}
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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 along 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)
{{font|3|'''Days of Submissions and Rejections'''}}
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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.
While speaking about the influence of Picasso and Gauguin he also mentioned, "I don't think it's plagiarism when you imitate classics, or from the deceased. But I do think it's plagiarism if you steal or are influenced by people who are currently working [
{{font|3|'''Drawing Manga, Araki-Style Part (5): Aim & Direction'''}}
[[File:Tokai Lecture graphic.gif|thumb]]
*(Araki shows a diagram mapping the world of manga, broken into 4 quadrants with the X-axis labeled "Using classical methods to portray reality" and "Impressionist markings and symbolic fantasy" and the Y-axis labeled "Treating introspective themes such as inner emotions as the central focus" and "Putting weight on the plot structure. "Suspense" and "creating a sense of the world")<br>
*On the lower left of {{W|Kamui (1964 manga)|Kamui}} is {{W|Yukinobu Hoshino}}, who for some reason is the only person referred to by their name and not the title of their work
If you don't think about "where you stand," you won't have any sense of direction even after you become a manga 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.
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{{font|3|'''Drawing Manga, Araki-Style Part (6): The Theme is "Mystery"'''}}
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 "Stands." 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 {{W|Sugoroku|Board 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/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
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"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 strangers, 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.
{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (3): "What About Love and Passion?"'''}}
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Although he went a boy's school, he had a girlfriend. "There's not much to add, since it's what causes the most problems in today's relationships" (everyone starts a roar of laughter).
{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (4): "What Model Did You Base Your Protagonists On?"'''}}
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"Eeeeh?" Araki-sensei appears worried. There was no model, but there were influences from "muscle movies" such as "Rambo" and "Terminator." Jotaro Kujo (a character from JoJo) feels like Clint Eastwood: he doesn't run, his movements are minimal and he's a silent person. "On the other hand, the Stands are fast." The personalities of protagonists' from each part are different. After drawing Part I, I wanted to do something I haven't done before. (1st Part: Serious --> 2nd Part: A crazy person)
{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (5): "Is Irene,
What is the relationship between [[Irene Rapona|Irene]] of
"I was just having a good time, there is no deep meaning behind it, I'm sorry." (Everyone laughs).
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The most powerful technique: "Time". Stopping it, returning to the past, watching the future... if there were people who can control such a thing, they'd be invincible. For a main character with powers that aren't invincible, I want to have people wonder how such a character could win. The ability to control physical things, such as gravity, is also very powerful.
{{Text|
Araki: About time, when I think about it, it's incredibly powerful. You can do things like repeating the same morning over and over, stopping time while jumping, and the people who become visible only at a particular time, etc. But if I used that concept every time, someone would say: "Is JoJo only about 'time'?" So... (laughs).
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Araki: All the way out into space. Speaking of which, what kind of energy would that be?
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{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (7): "Joseph Joestar"'''}}
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{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (10): "Western music and its influence"'''}}
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
{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (11): "About the Change in Design"'''}}
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When asked about his designs that continue to change, Araki replied that since he's not trying to draw using classical techniques, the designs won't be the same, and usually experience rapid changes. "I'm not concerned about the old drawings (assertion)." Though the readers may get confused, I wonder if they will forgive me".
{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (12): "You Stopped Drawing Your Self-Portrait"'''}}
Often fan letters would ask: "Please
{{font|3|'''Question for Araki-sensei! (13): "If you can describe JoJo in a single word"'''}}
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
{{font|3|'''Conclusion'''}}
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And so the time has come, the last words from the moderator, and the falling of the curtain. The clock says it is 2:05 PM on June 24, 2006. An event of about 1 hour and 20 minutes long, but to Araki's fans, without a doubt it was a "golden personal experience." Escorted by applause heavy as thunder, Araki-sensei disappeared behind the curtain with a smile on his face.
- End -}}}}
[Translated by Neuroretardant (Parts 1 and 2) and Aldo (Part 3)<ref>http://comipress.com/article/2006/06/30/387</ref>]
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