This year marks the 20th anniversary of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. With the seventh part of the series currently being serialized and still going strong, JoJo is becoming the topic for hot discussion. Araki-sensei must be feeling the excitement, but what are his thoughts on it?
Araki: When I first heard that people were doing "JoJo Poses", I visited a website about it on my computer. And to my surprise, I was blown away at how amazing they all were--it was like modern art. (laughs) After that, a lot of TV personalities who were fans of my work started recommending JoJo on their shows. What I found more interesting though is that most of these TV personalities were people in their 30s. I guess its true that you become a lot more vocal once you reach your 20s. (laughs) This also made me wonder if all the boys and girls who read JoJo in school when it first came out were finally growing up and starting to show off their talents to the world.
These youngsters sure like being vocal about their opinions without listening to the older generation--they also like making hour-long programs about JoJo. (laughs)
Araki: Yes, that's true. (laughs) On a side note, Shonen Jump is a great magazine that takes very good care of its authors. To help concentrate on our weekly schedule, authors were never expected to take interviews--but I usually took them anyway. Maybe that's how I came to notice the little changes in the air around JoJo over time. Whenever someone came up to me for an interviews, I would just go out and do it. It wasn't until recently that I started doing formal requests. I never initiate anything myself.
How do you feel about the fact that you've been drawing JoJo for 20 years?
Araki: My editors often tell me to draw new works. That way, the editorial department can write big headlines about how the author of JoJo is working on a new series, which would be big news and would attract a lot of attention. My response is usually "Huh? I can't draw anything but JoJo," and then I go, "Okay, maybe I'll change protagonist," and so on for 20 years. For me, when the main character changes, it's the same feeling as starting a new series. It's a lot of hard work, as I have to create all the characters and settings from scratch. So, in a way, it doesn't feel like I've been drawing the same series for 20 years.
What do you mean by "I can't draw anything but JoJo"?
Araki:' When you create a character, you start becoming curious about who their father is. I always want to know exactly who both parents are and how they were raised. It's only after I have all this information that the character is truly born. I feel like these aspects give the character a more real presence about them. This way, you get to know the father a lot more when the bloodlines are continued--maybe that's why I'm so particularly fond of JoJo.
What was it that started your interest in parents and bloodlines?
Araki: When starting out, I wanted to draw a horror manga, centered around terror and suspense. This got me thinking hard on stuff like "Who's the strongest man in the world?", "What's the scariest thing in the world?", and so on. Is the strongest man in the world just a person with big muscles and powerful punches? No matter how strong your opponent is, if you strike their weak points, you'll be able to take them down. Or so they say.
When I thought about it, what's really frightening is being attacked by something completely out of your control, like ancestral karma, even if you're innocent. Characters like Josuke and Jotaro are under siege of a grudge that happened generations before they were born that they knew nothing of. I think a world where you can't escape your fate is the scariest thing in the world, perhaps more so than death. That's why I'm so obsessed with the concept of bloodlines and lineages.