Manga, Good Friends, and a Hot Bento Box - This is the Simple Life of Rumiko Takahashi

Translated by: Harley Acres

Four years ago, Rumiko Takahashi made her debut in Shonen Sunday with her series Urusei Yatsura. The fact that she was still a college student at the time and was featured in a shonen magazine attracted attention. She made Urusei Yatsura a huge hit, and continues to demonstrate her talent in Maison Ikkoku. She includes easy-to-understand and pleasant gags, and her drawings are amazing! She is now a must-see manga artist for men and women of all ages.

Doodle → Anime → University Manga Club
I've been a manga fan since I was born.

Twenty-five years old, born on October 10, 1957.

October 10th also happens to be Health and Sports Day, something that was established after she was born. ^[1] When she was young, she had no athletic ability and was overweight and kept her head down. Instead, she liked doodling. As far as she remembers, she drew a picture of a deer when she was about four years old, and when she put spots on its back, the adults around her were impressed by the spots and said, "This kid even drew the spots!", and she became so enthusiastic she drew dots all over the body of the deer. These kind of doodles seem to be the roots of Rumiko Takahashi's manga.

At the same time, she had been surrounded by shonen and shojo manga magazines for as long as she could remember. As television spread into households, she was exposed to programs such as Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム/Tetsuwan Atom) and kaiju films, Walt Disney movies and manga. She was born into a generation that had become familiar with watching anime on a daily basis.

Additionally, her high school and university days coincided with the period when manga research groups, so-called "manken", were gaining power and proliferating among school club activities. Combining her inner talent with this contemporary environment, she was told by her parents, "Stop reading manga and read something informative!"

Despite her parents' scolding, she devoured all kinds of manga magazines, adapted her favorite manga characters to fit her own stories. While she was at Niigata Chuo High School and Japan Women's University (日本女子大学/Nihon Joshi Daigaku), she naturally joined the manga club and became the first student of "Gekiga Sonjuku", which was presided over by Kazuo Koike. ^[2] She submitted her work to Shonen Sunday, her favorite magazine since childhood, and made her debut while still working as a student, which she continues to do so to this day.

Urusei Yatsura was ranked as the best manga in terms of reader votes and sales for two consecutive years, two years ago and last year, and as a result, she became the second highest earner in the manga industry.

Right now, I have everything I want.

I thought that she must be living a very rich lifestyle, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Quite the contrary, she has no desire for material things.

It is said that work that involves sitting at a desk all the time can lead to occupational diseases such as stiff shoulders and lower back pain, so when I asked her, "Don't you want to take a break?", I was told that this is not the case for Takahashi-sensei. In her case, drawing her manga is a self-cleansing process, a way for her to rest and relax on a daily basis.

"Right now, I think I've reached the point where I always wanted to be at. That's why I don't have any desire to do anything else. I have an environment where I can draw manga without having to worry about eating. I feel like I'm lucky enough to have some money, so I have no ambition to do anything with it. The act of shopping may be a good way to relieve your stress, but going to a department store can be tiring and frustrating." She's currently renting an apartment, which she uses as both a workplace and a residence, because it's easier than buying a home. All she needs is a certain amount of space, and the interior doesn't seem elaborate.

However, everyone has their own opinions when it comes to eating.

"Yes, there was a time when I was obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken, Coke, and gomoku yakisoba, but these days, I feel like anything is fine as long as I can eat it. While I'm at work, I mostly eat bento boxes. I go to 7-Eleven to buy them, or have them delivered. The "karaage bento" from other chains is delicious." When it comes to food, clothing, and shelter, this is her status. It's wonderfully easy going.

"When I'm not working, I'm probably sleeping, reading manga, or making phone calls." The people on the phone are classmates from college or female friends she met through manga. Mangaka, office ladies, hospital office workers, editors - the occupations are diverse, so she is never short on topics even if Takahashi and her friends haven't communicated with each other for a long time. ^[3]

"They were so interesting, and I was so pleased with them, that I had no desire to extend my friendships to men."

"My friends are a little bit out of the ordinary, including myself," she said. "For example, a girl with a pretty face and a good personality who likes to bake cakes and have someone eat them. It's not that I don't like people like that, but I don't know how to interact with them."

She is not a particularly talkative person and speaks softly, but she seems to have a clear sense of what she wants to be committed to and what she doesn't care about. She has a keen sensitivity to the things she likes, but she is not bothered by the things that hold no interest for her. I envied the simple and pure life of this 25-year-old.

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Footnotes

• [1] Sports Day (スポーツの日), formerly known as Health and Sports Day (体育の日), was first established on October 10, 1966, two years after the Tokyo Olympics. Beginning in October 2000 the holiday was set to fall on the second Monday in October.
• [2] Gekiga Sonjuku was a manga "cram school" where Kazuo Koike, the writer of such iconic manga as Lone Wolf and Cub, Crying Freeman and Lady Snowblood helped train a number of manga luminaries before their debuts. Besides Rumiko Takahashi, other Gekiga Sonjuku alumnai include Tetsuo Hara (Fist of the North Star), Yuji Hori (Dragon Quest), Hideyuki Kikuchi (Vampire Hunter D), Keisuke Itagaki (Grappler Baki) and Marley Caribu (Old Boy).
• [3] In an interview from 1985 Takahashi stated her longest phone call lasted for 12 hours.

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