INTERVIEW WITH
HIROHIKO
ARAKI
Hirohiko Araki has created many distinctive works, JoJo included.
Here he discusses little-known details, including his childhood years, the story of his debut, JoJo's secrets, and more, leading us closer to knowing the real Hirohiko Araki.
What led to Araki creating JoJo?
What was his inspiration for Stands? What is the theme of Part 4?
These and other mysteries will be revealed in this, Araki's first long-form interview.
Stands—apparitions of life energy—What was their inspiration?
From the very beginning, I had decided that JoJo's protagonist would change with every new part. I'd planned on having three parts, or thereabout, each time refreshing the characters, battles, and fighting techniques. And I knew that every protagonist would be called JoJo.
At the outset, I hadn't yet come up with the ideas of Hamon or Stands or anything like that. But I knew I wanted JoJo to be a bizarre tale, following a single bloodline, that would start in the past and work its way into the present.
When we came to the end of Part 1, at first my editor opposed me switching away a popular protagonist. But in the end, he agreed with me and said, "The title is 'Bizarre Adventure'—making the manga ought to be an adventure for the creator too." And it really was.
The inspiration for Stands and Hamon come from my skepticism toward supernatural powers. Whenever someone claims to move objects with their mind—first of all, I'm not sure that's even possible—I feel like there's something underhanded going on. It's
the same with UFOs or ghosts. People can claim they saw something, but I want evidence, even if it's made up. I need something more persuasive, some kind of explanation to make it fit. Instead of someone looking like they're thinking hard and then an object suddenly breaks, maybe something invisible to other people could actually come out of them and break the object for them. So, Stands are a way for me to explain superpowers, even if it's only quasi-persuasive.[laughs]
The name "Stand" came about because they stand right next to you, like a ghost standing at your bedside. Stands are highly situational, and many different kinds show up in the story. When I came up with the idea, I thought, "What a useful idea. I can use these for anything!" I was pretty proud of that one.[laughs]
That said, I have thought through some defined parameters for Stands. For example, if a Stand has one ability, that Stand won't get a completely different ability added in. A single Stand has a single restricted kind of superpower. As a result, Stands can be categorized into different types.
In Part 3, I linked Stands with tarot cards because I wanted to make the Stands distinctive. At the time, I figured I could probably
with enough Stands to fill come up twenty-two cards, but in the end, I needed even more [laughs]. I came into the start of Part 3 with ideas— rough ideas, at least—for fifteen Stands, and at this moment I have about eighty just in my stockpile.
When it comes to designing the Stands, I want them to feel different from robots or armor or things like that. I get ideas from books on yokai and creepy folk art. I first decide on the Stand's abilities, and then I make the design something that doesn't stray too terribly far away from that. But personally, I put more of my heart into the characters' tactics and their psychological battles, rather than the design and form of their Stands. I want
to say, look how scary it can be to have an enemy that focuses the attack on only one certain point—for example, instead of yet another powerful enemy, a physically weak one who tells lies.
I set Part 4 in the future—1999—because for one thing, it comes after Part 3, but also because the end of the millennium brings a certain amount of apprehension and unease, while also remaining
near enough to present day that I can still depict ordinary life. Going really far into the future would separate the story from a sense of realism. Also, with Part 3, which was set in present day but ran for three years, people were left unsure about when the story was taking place. I also wanted a setting where anything was possible, and where I could make up fake crimes and events. At first, I wanted to set the story in the afterlife, but I decided that would be too unfamiliar.
One of the concepts behind Part 4 is "draw a town, create a town." When I was working on Part 3, I had some ideas that fit into more of an everyday setting—what if the old woman running the tobacco shop was also a Stand user, that kind of thing. In contrast with Part 3, where the enemies were constantly coming and attacking, this time, the enemies could also be in waiting. And because Morioh is still unfinished, I can add a hospital, or maybe the mayor will show up. Maybe something will come up involving issues with the town's garbage management. Whatever it may be, there's still things to come.
I take names for characters in JoJo from foreign musicians because it makes naming characters—and remembering their names—easy. And that's the only reason.[laughs] If I try to make an original name, I second-guess myself and end up with no ideas. Even Kakyoin is named after a town in Sendai. Ever since Part 4 started, I've been coming up with Japanese names, and it's been pretty hard. For Josuke, I'd decided upon two kanji that can also be read as "JoJo," but I didn't know what to do for his family name. In Part 3, I knew what two kanji I wanted for the back-to-back "JoJo" in Jotaro Kujo's name [in Japanese order, his name is Kujo Jotaro], but when it came to deciding what would go around them, I just looked through a kanji dictionary and thought, "Oh, ku [空, sky], huh? That one's nice." For Nijimura, the dictionary came back out again. "I like niji [虹, rainbow]. Nijiki, Nijioka...no, Nijimura." I put together kanji that strike my fancy, while being mindful of how easy the name is to say.
But I'm out of ideas for any other JoJo names. If I end up doing Part 5, I'll probably have a lot of trouble coming up with the protagonist's name.[laughs]
My childhood was manga and movies from morning to night
I think I first started drawing by reproducing Sanpei Shirato's Watari and Tetsuya Chiba's Harris no Kaze. I must've been in kindergarten or first grade. That was a really long time ago. I'm talking about when Ultraman was on TV. Besides drawing copies of manga art, I think I was making stories too, like where the yojimbo fights evildoers. I liked samurai-era manga. I also liked Tiger Mask, Judo Icchokusen, Koya no Shonen Isamu, Kazuo Umezz's horror manga... I liked a lot of manga. I even read the first issue of Shonen Jump.
Among all the manga artists I read, Mitsuteru Yokoyama was particularly influential—Tetsujin 28, Babel II—I loved his manga. The manga writer Ikki Kajiwara was
another major influence. I bought a novel of his and read it every night until it practically fell apart.
My childhood except I was the kind of kid who, when everyone else was excited about something, I'd be was normal, watching, just a little bit aloof. You know the kind. And so my interests were manga and movies. I had absolutely no interest in model building or radio-controlled toys. My favorite movie genre was the spaghetti western. Clint Eastwood's were great.
My dad liked him too—Eastwood.
I wrote in one of my author's notes that my parents don't understand my manga. And as far as I can tell, they still don't. But I aspire to be like Eastwood through my manga, so they really should be able to get it, because the spirit is the same. I think if they ever watched JoJo's anime adaptation, they'd probably enjoy it.
I also watched Godzilla movies, and I also enjoyed disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure. Movie tickets were expensive on my allowance, so I didn't go out to them all that often.
As for athletics, I did kendo. I couldn't do team sports. I tried youth baseball, but when you make an error or something, everyone looks at you. I didn't care for that. It's like, running by myself is fine, but a relay race isn't. If I lose in kendo, the responsibility is only to myself, so that's okay. I wasn't good at working in groups.[laughs]
I also liked magic tricks and slight of hand. I'd buy books and practice techniques. I liked card games too.
And then, it should come as no surprise that I loved foreign rock music. I started listening to bands from the late sixties and after, like Chicago, Yes, Led Zeppelin...I also liked Jackson Browne and Bob Dylan too. In the eighties, I listened to Prince, and I still do—including when I drew the cover of this book. I'm still crazy about him. Progressive rock has kind of an antiquities/Middle-Ages vibe that stirs up my creativity whenever I listen to it.
But when I was a kid, records were too expensive for me to buy, so I would tape songs off the radio.
I didn't have a cassette recorder either. Instead, I had a huge reel-to-reel tape recorder I told my parents I needed for English practice, and I'd hold the microphone up to the radio. When was recording music, I had to stay completely quiet. That's the kind of era it was.[laughs]
I almost never listened to music from Japan.
In high school, there were some days where even though I had school, I really wanted to go to the movie theater, or it would be the release date of the latest Jump magazine, and I couldn't contain myself. So over lunch break I'd leave and go to the bookstore or wherever [laughs].
I've always wanted to make manga, ever since I was a young child. But I kept my dream hidden. When an adult asks, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and you answer, "A manga artist," they always say, "Good for you," but even as a kid I picked up on the unsaid message: "That'll never happen." And SO I that I wanted to be a manga artist. never even told my parents I never made any doujinshi, either.
Eventually, rather than just wanting to be a manga artist, I started feeling like, "I want to draw manga. I want to immerse myself in the pictures, the designs, and the world of
a story." Then, as I was attending a design school, I made I think four books, including two Westerns and one science-fiction manga.
I submitted them for Shonen Jump's Tezuka Award. I also liked Shonen Magazine, but in the '80s,
Starting JoJo:
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