Testimony
Around the Time of Urusei Yatsura.
Interview with Tomofumi Arito, Editor

Translation by: Harley Acres

Arito-san, what number editor were you on Urusei Yatsura?

Arito: Oshima-san was my predecessor, so I was the sixth generation. I was a new employee then. ^[1]

What volume would that be in terms of the tankobon?

Arito: Volume 19. If you look at the lack of good sense in coming up with chapter titles, you can tell it's me.

When did you first meet Takahashi-sensei?

Arito: I think it was a meeting for Fire Tripper. It was a one-shot for the Summer Sunday Extra Edition. I accompanied Oshima-san and he introduced me as "the next editor." And I got to see what a meeting was like. At the time, Takahashi-sensei had a lot of miscellaneous work to do, or rather work outside of her main manga obligations, so I often had to take over, and I worked alongside Oshima-san for a while.

What was your impression of Takahashi-sensei when you first met her?

Arito: My impression of her was that she was a quiet person. I was the first younger employee to be an editor for Takahashi-sensei, but she wasn't the least bit condescending or bossy. She seemed like a proper mangaka. She also used polite language.

How many years difference is there between you and Takahashi-sensei?

Arito: Sensei is three years older than me. I think she was 26 at the time.

How were your meetings with Takahashi-sensei?

Arito: Urusei Yatsura had really detailed meetings, so we had to decide on the beginning, how it would develop, how it would wrap up, and how the punch line would work, so it was quite challenging. After the first volume, it seemed like Sensei had already drawn most the core storyline, so I was under a lot of pressure before each meeting. I had to suggest things like what the story should be, which characters should appear, and so on. When it would get tough, I'd have no choice but to suggest characters. Like, "So-and-so hasn't appeared recently, so what about them?" Then Sensei would respond with something like, "I've drawn a lot of that kind of thing, so maybe that's enough of that." I really tried hard in the meetings with Takahashi-sensei. Well, whether I was able to help her or not is a big deal, but I can say, "I did my best." I didn't work with Takahashi-sensei for that long, but it was a learning experience. After that, I worked with Atsushi Kamijo-sensei and Mitsuru Adachi-sensei. ^[2] There are other editors who worked on Touch and with both Takahashi-sensei and Adachi-sensei, but I'm the only one who worked on both Urusei Yatsura and Touch. This is something I'll be proud of for the rest of my life.

Were there any memorable incidents that happened while you were in charge of Urusei Yatsura?

Arito: There was nothing like what I would call an incident. But when I was working on Urusei Yatsura and we were having meetings about the extra edition, and the deadline was fast approaching, and we had to finish the meeting that day, and we had to finish it and move on to storyboarding, it was a really long meeting, so I ended up having Takahashi-sensei cook me a meal. ^[3]

Did you have the impression that Urusei Yatsura was extremely popular?

Arito: Back then, we'd get things like fan mail. Also, chocolates would arrive addressed to characters on Valentine's Day. That's how I knew the series was popular. They were just piled up in cardboard boxes next to the desk. Also, at the time, there was a magazine called Shonen Sunday Graphic Urusei Yatsura that came out to coincide with the Urusei Yatsura anime, and not only Takahashi-sensei, but also her assistants Makiko Nakano and Kuniko Saito, and myself made appearances in it quite often. ^[4] Around that time, I was trying to get a membership card for a video rental store, and when I wrote "Tomofumi Arito, Shogakukan," the clerk responded, "Arito-san?!?!? The editor of Urusei Yatsura?!?!" I thought to myself, "The influence of Urusei Yatsura has spread even to the video store!"

Among the chapters that you were in charge of, was there one that stood out to you?

Arito: "Last Date" (SSC Volume 24 Part 2). The story of a ghost who falls in love with Ataru. That was a great chapter. For me, anyway. ^[5]

That's a good story.

Arito: Also, I think a lot of new characters were introduced during my time as editor. The major ones were Asuka, the three delinquent girls, and Kitsune. I introduced too many while I was in charge, and when the editing returned to Oshima-san, he got angry and said, "You're not just introducing new characters, are you?"

Since then, has Takahashi-sensei influenced your life as an editor?

Arito: I wonder, the way of thinking about story creation, having an introduction, a development, a twist and a conclusion. The first work I was in charge of was Urusei Yatsura, so that sort of story creation is imprinted on me. I definitely learned how to create something quickly from there. Urusei Yatsura is the work that became the foundation of who I am today. I think it's safe to say that this is the work that has made me who I am.

What was the position of Urusei Yatsura in those days?

Arito: People often call it groundbreaking, but to me, it's a very conventional, legitimate gag comedy. When I was a kid, I thought of comedy as a series of one-shots. Akatsuka-sensei and others like him would have a neat punch line in each chapter. ^[6] In that sense, I think Urusei Yatsura is a work that follows the basics of a one-shot comedy.

Joined Shogakukan in 1983.
Former editor-in-chief of Big Comic Superior.
Currently the director of Shogakukan Naning.
Currently a manga editor.

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Footnotes

• [1] Makoto Oshima (大島誠) appeared in both The Diary of Kemo Kobiru and as a character in Urusei Yatsura. Oshima also made comments in the "My Page One". Oshima would go on to become the editor-in-chief of Big Comic Superior. An article in Shonen Sunday Graphic Urusei Yatsura Vol. 13 Remember My Love (少年サンデーグラフィック　うる星やつら リメンバー・マイ・ラブ) lists not only Oshima's referenced appearances in Urusei Yatsura but also in the backgrounds of other series he was editing such as Dokkiri Doctor (どっきりドクター) by Fujihiko Hosono and ZINGY by Atsushi Kamijo.
• [2] Atsushi Kamijo (上條淳士) is the artist best known for his Shonen Sunday manga To-Y and his Young Sunday manga Sex. He and Takahashi spoke to one another in an interview in Young Sunday. Mitsuru Adachi (あだち充) is the author of Nine (ナイン), Slow Step (スローステップ), Miyuki (みゆき), Touch (タッチ), H2 and many other hit manga. Because he and Takahashi were both mainstays of Shonen Sunday and both were writing romantic comedies they have hand a lengthy friendship. They've done many collaborative drawings over the years and worked on a joint short story, My Sweet Sunday together as well. Adachi, Kamijo and Takahashi were also involved in the Wings of Freedom album.
• [3] Shonen Sunday Zokan (少年サンデー増刊) was a special edition of Sunday that often contained short stories by authors appearing in the main magazine. It eventually became known as Shonen Sunday Super and then evolved into Shonen Sunday S.
• [4] There are only a handful of editors and assistants that can be said to rise above anonymous figures in Rumiko Takahashi's work and Tomofumi Arito (有藤智文) is one such individual. Most fans would not be aware of him, but he appears in her autobiographical work The Diary of Kemo Kobiru and Takahashi was said to be have modeled the "behavior" of Salt Number 1 on him, which is certainly a joke since the giant creature has almost no personality at all. Kuniko Saito (斎藤邦子) and Makiko Nakano (中野真紀子) were Rumiko Takahashi's first two assistants and appeared as characters in Takahashi's autobiographical manga The Diary of Kemo Kobiru. Saito began working with Takahashi on Urusei Yatsura chapter 40 with Nakano joining with the next chapter, chapter 41. Saito states that she believes she left sometime in volume 29, though Takahashi thanked her in the author comments of chapter 327 of Urusei Yatsura in 1986, suggesting she may have stayed on until volume 31. Nakano left after chapter 38 of Ranma 1/2 and Mermaid Saga chapter 7 which were published in the same issue in 1988. Regarding Saito and Nakano's contributions to The Diary of Kemo Kobiru they would often do extra pages on the stories, their style is very easily distinguised from the pages drawn by Takahashi.
• [5] Arito cited this same story as his favorite seven years prior as well.
• [6] Fujio Akatsuka (赤塚不二夫) is the creator of Osomatsu-kun (おそ松くん) and Tensai Bakabon (天才バカボン).

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