On the Japanese website Magmix, Hiroyuki Takei’s long-time friend, Hayato Tashiro, has been writing a series of articles about the Shaman King series to prepare for the 30th anniversary. Some of these articles are from his personal experience and other include some first-hand reporting. On the 17th article that was posted today, he interviewed Hiroyuki Takei’s current editor for Shaman King The Super Star, Y-da, and included a transcript. You may recognize Y-da’s name, full name Moriyoshi Yoshida, from the previous interviews and comments posted which have been roughly translated here on Patch-Cafe:
- August 2020 Interview for Kodansha C-Station
- Shaman King Exhibition Fan Meet-up Twitter Venue – Day 3
- Shaman King Exhibition Fan Meet-up Twitter Venue – Day 2
- Shaman King Exhibition Fan Meet-up Twitter Venue – Day 1
The interview listed in this Magmix article, which will be continued in the 18th article, was conducted at Hiroyuki Takei’s office where he was listening in while working. Within the interview, both Hayato Tashiro and Y-da, make references with their words that they know Hiroyuki Takei is listening and could respond.
The following is a rough English translation for the interview portion of the Magmix article. The original article in Japanese can be found here. Supplemental images are included throughout and additional background information not included in the original Japanese interview is referenced is included at the end of this English article. Some additional points of clarification have been added to the rough English translation, which may contain some small errors or difference in interpretation from the original Japanese.
Hiroyuki Takei-sensei and His Editor Y-da-san
Hayato Tashiro (hereinafter as Tashiro): To start off, I’d like to hear your story of meeting Takei-sensei for the first time. After that, we can dive in deeper into the stories we hadn’t mentioned before.
Editor Y-da (hereinafter as Y-da): I met Takei-sensei before the first issue of Shonen Magazine Edge in 2015. There was a manga-ka who I was supervising who asked me to dinner with someone he knew. That person was Takei-sensei. It was a very unexpected encounter with this great Sensei (laughs).
Tashiro: This led to the serialization of Nekogahara in Magazine Edge, right? So you have been with him for a while now?
Y-da: Yes. As an editor, I’m always thinking about how to make the magazine more exciting but our Senseis also have goals for the future too. The result of these discussions leads us to new serializations to launch in Magazine Edge.
At the time, he said that he was tired of drawing people so we worked with cats as the protagonist for Nekogahara. But he wanted to eventually do something with Shaman King again, so we had that in our minds from the beginning.
How Itako No Anna was born, his debut work
In my days as an author (Hayato Tashiro), Takei-sensei was working on some concepts which materialized into Itako No Anna (“Anna the Itako“), his debut work and Tezuks Prize winner. Itako No Anna is a story of Anna Kyoyama, an Itako who used the “Itako’s Kuchiyose” to bring down a spirit of a samurai into her body to transform herself and use his skills to eliminate the villain. This is included in the Shaman King Complete Edition, volume 27.
Y-da: Now let’s talk about you Tashiro-san. In your previous article (#5), you wrote about how you’ve been friends with Takei-sensei since High School, and even after moving to Tokyo, you went to visit him and didn’t come home for a week (laughs). During that time, you talked about the theme of “making art.” That was right before his debut of Itako No Anna, was it not?
Tashiro: That’s right…. There was a book we used as a guide. It’s called Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga (サルでも描けるまんが教室) and it was written by Koji Aihara and Kentaro Takekuma. At the time we were analyzing the contents of that book and trying to come up with new ideas.
At first we were just brainstorming, but then it eventually came time to actually make the work. In those early days we often collaborated with myself doing the names (rough drawings/layouts) and Takei-sensei drawing the manga. We submitted a work to a certain game magazine, but the manga-ka he was working under said to him, “This isn’t the magazine you want your work serialized in, is it?” Due to the requirements of that magazine, that original work could not be reused so it was shelved.
Y-da: Oh, I heard about that. So that’s the connection. After that he started working towards that award….?
“It’s cool!” The spark for the work
Tashiro: No, we had one more side trip. That’s the story I told about in the 5th article about the game company I worked at. At the time, life was quite difficult, so we thought that winning an award may supplement our incomes, so I suggested to him to apply for a graphic artist job at my company.
Y-da: But that’s when you were told by the president of the company to “follow your dreams without wavering,” right? The combination of those two events led him to that decision?
Tashiro: You never know where life will take you, right…?
Y-da: Very true.
Y-da: It sounds like Itako No Anna was a story you had a deep connection with. But at the time, what was your impression of it?
Tashiro: When I first heard the idea, I frankly thought, “It’s cool!” It really became the culmination of all of the ideas up to that point. I was particularly attracted to the idea of an “alteration” rather than a full “transformation.”
Y-da: Oh, could that be the part of your “definitive realization” that you hinted at in the 5th article? If you just want to tell me about it I’m happy to listen…. It’s okay, the Sensei over there will just continue working as normal (laughs).
Tashiro: That’s true (laughs). Well, actually before that, he was writing a robot story (unpublished), and the protagonist (subject) was split between the pilot and the robot. It was hard to draw them both attractively within the limits of the page count… …I was reflecting on that. Which I think answered the question at the time.
At that time, I didn’t want to read a simple contemporary drama, but if the protagonist was an Itako, the story became original and had the motivation of “changing hearts” elevated from that contemporary drama. With this eccentric element, the setting can still be grounded. He also included elements from his hometown of Aomori. I even thought “If this doesn’t work, then will anything?” (laughs).
That’s why I was so happy when he won that award. Of course, I always said it was my idea all along (laughs)
Y-da: I see. When you think about it, Itako No Anna may be the true starting point, you think? The love of robots came through with the X-LAWS Angels for example, it’s a different take on the concept of robots that is used in a deeper way. Within Shaman King, this concept becomes more refined as you can express it throughout the serialization.
The shock of the story about Buddha Statue action heroes!
Tashiro: When talking about the time before Shaman King, one must talk about Butsu Zone. I was surprised when I read it at the time (laughs).
“I’ve been thinking about a story involving Buddha statues”
“Doesn’t Senju Kannon’s arms look like the sacred cloths of Saint Seiya that can act as armor?”
“There are many Buddha statues, so there can be multiple variations on their appearance.”
I told him, have you ever seen a Buddha statue that looks like that? (laughs)
Y-da: I’ve never seen one (laughs). I recall the first chapter title was “When You Pray to a Buddha Statue, You’re Calling on a Real Hero!!”, right?
Tashiro: That’s right! But that influence, if I may say so in front of Takei himself, is not physical, but more of an ideological one I think… One story with an Itako as a hero, another with a Buddha statue… I think it was a way he wraps his mind around things, or maybe part of his style. If the element of a hero is displayed simply, then it’s been ingrained into his works for a long time.
Y-da: So his unique style has been refined over the years?
Tashiro: In Shaman King it’s written, “This is a story about shamans from all over the world.” I thought that even Buddha statues would be included… once the scale kept increasing (laughs).
Y-da: That’s true, it can fit into that world. Moreover, Takei-sensei, who has been working over there this whole time hasn’t said a word, so maybe we got it right….?
Tashiro: It’s possible that the correct answer is the one as you interpret it yourself….
With the multiple references to Magmix article #5 in the series, the following are some of the tidbit highlights from the article that preceded it (#4):
- The article author (Tashiro Hayato) and Takei both went to the same highschool, Aomori Prefectual High School
- Since the school was built in a rice field with only one private road going in… when it froze in the winter they would refer to the school as “South Blizzard High”
- Hiroyuki Takei performed in a band in High School.
- During the sophomore year, Hiroyuki Takei did many drawings for Saint Seiya, including blending of he manga and anime styles
- Takei would redraw scenes from the Saint Seiya anime from memory in his school notebooks
- These sketches are still located at his parent’s house
- Their friendship was based around the concept of “making and playing”
In 2017, Hiroyuki Takei also drew this poster design for his old highschool based on those memories he had:
From within the 5th Magmix article, here’s the tidbit highlights from it:
- After moving to Tokyo (from Aomori, after High School), Takei worked part-time jobs
- Takei once submitted a drawing of a Gundam (RX- 78 GP-01) to an illustration corner of a model magazine and won first place in the drawing contest.
- The author notes that Takei is likely good a drawing 3D object since Takei was playing with block and plastic models since an early age to give him a good understand of the physical form.
- The author also went to Tokyo for a vocational school. During this time is when he visited Takei for a week.
- The rice fields that are snow-covered in that poster have now become residential areas in Aomori.
When the reference to Takei being an assistant prior to his success with Itako No Anna, he was the assistant to Tamakichi Sakura on the manga The Shape of Happiness (しあわせのかたち) as well as an assistant to Kōji Kiriyama on the Weekly Shonen Jump manga series, Ninku. During this time, his nickname was “Turtle-san.” It’s unclear what the name of that manga, since it claimed to not be able to be published in other forms, but could have potentially been called “Dragdoll Group” (ドラグドール団).
After winning the 48th Tezuka Award, that allowed him to join Nobuhiro Watsuki as an assistant with Eiichiro Oda (who would later create One Piece) to work on the manga series, Rurouni Kenshin in Weekly Shonen Jump. During this time he would then submit ideas for Death Zero and Butsu Zone which would be published in the Winter and Summer special editions of Weekly Shonen Jump in 1996.
The next article in this series will continue the interview with Y-da. There are two articles posted a month in this series on the Magmix website, and will likely be posted around November 29th. You can follow the article author on Twitter or the magazine directly for future updates.
