About Rumiko Rumiko Takahashi said in an interview that by the time she finished the 5 year long Maison Ikkoku, she was equally adept at drawing both males and females. She decided to make a story with a boy who could turn into a girl. Then there was the hard part, how to make the transformation work. She originally thought about the transformation when the main character was punched, but then it would cause many problems. Then, she thought about being splashed with water, and immediately thought about cursed springs. She chose the remote Quinhai region of China as a place which would most likely have these kinds of things. Rumiko Takahashi lives in Tokyo Japan, owns a blue SONY Playstation. She is the fifth richest person in Japan. Her comic books have sold well over 100 million copies. Ranma 1/2 merchandise range from organizers, posters, 38volumes of the manga series, and 161 episodes of the anime series broadcasted in many different countries from Japan, Korea, Singapore, France, USA, to Britain and Italy, several OAVs, tens of CDs, screen savers, keychains, collectors books, and about 10 flavors of video games. No other manga artist has been successful as Rumiko Takahashi, creater of Ranma 1/2. The Ranma 1/2 legacy lasted 9 years, officially ending in early 1996 with a dual volume ending.(Which I am yet to see, but I can't wait to find out what happens!)
Here are some official interviews with Rumiko
Rumiko Takahashi Interview
(from several months after the end of the series in January of 1996 and taken from Esashi's Ranma Megasite-Thanks so much!!)
In Japan, the mourning period for Ranma 1/2 still continues. The week after the last episode of Ranma in Shonen Sunday, a Ranma Memorial Section started, and has continued for several months. (Rumors of a shrine with candles in the Shogakukan offices are unsubstantiated.) Rumiko Takahashi herself, while working on a new manga feature for this Fall, has even come forward to console her fans with unrevealed secrets of the series.
Want to know what would happen if Mousse got contact lenses? If Ranma had fallen half-in, half-out of a Jusenkyo pool? So do thousands of Japanese fans, whose letters to Takahashi have been answered in the Ranma Memorials. Reprinted here are some answers to those stay-awake-at-night questions.
QUESTION: Before they came to the Tendo house, how did Ranma have any money to go to school? You never see Genma working. In the early days, when he went to school with Ryoga, he must have at least had money to buy bread...
TAKAHASHI: Actually, you get to see a panel where Genma's working at a job (see Vol. 1). But their lifestyle is basically to find something to eat and something to wear, so they live like hunters. (laughs) When they need money, they get something and trade it in for money.
QUESTION: Ryoga's mind seems to wander heavily from time to time, but I think in Ranma 1/2 he's the most normal character. But what's really abnormal about him is his really bad sense of direction. Why is he like this?
TAKAHASHI: In the comics, I mentioned Ryoga and his family once, but the Hibiki family all have a really horrible sense of direction. It's been passed on from generation to generation. But in Ryoga's case, since he's wandering all over the place around Japan, he has various encounters with vicious beasts and lives alone in desolate areas. The result of it is, it's his training and allows him to have the strength that he does.
QUESTION: Those sticks with balls on the ends of them that Shampoo uses when she fights...what are they?
TAKAHASHI: When you see Shampoo carrying it, it looks like some sort of accessory, but actually it's a real Chinese weapon. Don't you think it'll hurt if she spins it around and hits you upside the head with the metal sphere part?
QUESTION: Just how many pieces of underwear or items of clothing does Happosai carry in his bag when he's stealing?
TAKAHASHI: There are approximately 100 pieces of undergarments usually packed away in his bag each time. You get to see him carrying off roughly 12 bundles of underwear, one bundle of panty stocking, two bundles of swimwear, and one bundle of girls' gym shorts, so over the course of Ranma 1/2 he's stolen approximately 1600 pieces of underwear.
QUESTION: Tell me the secret of the Saotome family. If Genma Saotome had a lot of hair in the past, why did he go bald?
TAKAHASHI: Probably all the stress. Or, possibly it's one of those hereditary things.
QUESTION: Why did Nodoka (Ranma's mother) marry Genma? They just don't seem to be a very good match.
TAKAHASHI: He was probably cool in the past, with all his hair and all (laughs).
In Japan there were 407 weekly (1987-1996) installments of Ranma 1/2, including a double-sized last episode...at 16 pages per installment, that's 2448 pages of Ranma. Over time, keen-eyed fans have spotted some patterns (no, not hidden stereograms if you blur your eyes together, not Satanic messages spelled out backwards...). In thousands of pages, Ranma's done a lot, enough to count out just what he's done and get the exact figures.
Number of Times Panda Uses Signs: 264
RANMA'S BATTLE RECORDS
Qualifications: When the opponent is defeated and doesn't come back, or admits defeat, it is considered a win even when the other opponent can't continue to fight. If Ranma himself says "I lost," ends up passed out, or ends up in a condition where he can't continue to fight, it's considered a loss. A fight where either character runs away, or an outside character comes in and wrecks the fight, is considered a draw. Note: This counts MAJOR fights only!
Ranma's Number of Wins: 44
Ranma's Number of Draws: 22
Ranma's Number of Losses: 24
HAND SYMBOLS
In Ranma, you've probably seen the three-fingers-up hand symbol that Ranma and other characters make when they get...bonked. But who's got the busiest hands in the series? (No, not Happosai.) A diehard fan found out how often the gesture is made in all 38 volumes.
Male Ranma: 250 times
Female Ranma: 105
Tatewaki Kuno: 48
Ryoga Hibiki: 47
Akane: 40
Genma: 30
Soun Tendo: 16
Happosai: 14
Shampoo: 11
Furinkan High School Principal: 9
Rumiko Takahashi Interview, Memorial Art Book
Translation provided by Kota Fujimura
Part one Secrets behind the creation of Ranma
How did you come up with the idea of a main character that transforms?
If the main character can be male and female, I can draw a lot of both boys and girls. To draw both male and female is such fun, and it doesn't bore me out.
How did you think of transformation by water?
I had trouble coming up with the agent of transformation. I was thinking about "getting punched", but it would make a terrible face. I was thinking, "male, female, male, female . . . " and it reminded me of a shop curtain for public baths. The baths mean, water, and hot water. I really liked it, because it's idiotic and laughable. I wanted to make "Ranma" a funny, kind of happy comic that can cheer up the reader, therefore I was thinking it was a good idea . . .
The name "Ranma" is rare, but how did you come up with it?
It was a cute name for either boy or girl.
Jusenkyö ("Country of Cursed Springs") was an interesting idea . . .
When I decided "water" to be the agent for transformation, I immediately thought of cursed springs. I quickly decided on the place because "China is the only place where those kinds of springs exist".
Part two Hardship with 100 Ranma characters
Many springs appear in the series, like nyan-nee-chuan and mao-nee-chuan, but did you already know what kinds of "cursed springs" there are?
I was just thinking of a place with a bunch of cursed springs, and I hadn't decided on what kind of curses there were. When I made a new character, I thought what the character transforms into that fit the image, and the number of springs increased along with characters. I don't even know how many there were.
If you are to fall into one of the "cursed springs", what do you want to transform into?
I want something that can fly. I did introduce characters like Pantyhose Taro and residents of Mt. Phoenix. I think it'll feel great to fly freely.
Which characters came out with different personalities from what you were originally thinking?
Ranma. Since he was into fighting, he was supposed to be a clean-cut, nice boy with frank disposition, but he turned out to be an indecisive, stubborn, sly guy. But everyone has those kinds of emotions somewhere. Those emotions inside me probably reflected into Ranma through my pen.
To which character did you feel the greatest empathy?
Ranma and Akane had a little twist personality, but Ryöga was easy to draw because he expressed his emotions directly.
On the other hand, characters with strong will, like Shampoo and Kunö, were hard to understand. In the case for Kunö, I thought "There is no way I can handle him" after I drew him two or three times. However, they made it easier to develop a story, along with Happosai. They kept the story going by causing a trouble because they're too convinced. Like that, and it was very convenient.
There were a lot of sub-characters that appeared in the series, and which ones did you really like?
I really liked King the gambling king for his looks. It was a pure gag.
I also liked the tour guide for Jusenkyö, because drawing him made me comfortable for some reason.
Among the animals, P-chan is my choice. I do like panda bear and Shampoo's cat also . . . If there is a piglet like that, I would like to have one for a pet.
Part three The basic is the gag that makes readers laugh
There were three elements in Ranma: fighting, love, and gags. Which episode did you enjoy the most while you were drawing it?
I like every single one of them. I just wanted to draw fun and laughable manga, so I ended up including gags in every episode. I like those classic gags like you see a character goes flying to the sky after getting punched, so I ended up drawing those too.
The term for serial publishing pretty long, therefore it gets boring if it was fighting only, or love only. So, if there had been a continuous fighting episode, I drew a gag that lasts only one episode, or maybe a love story for next one. To make a fresh "Ranma", I let it rotate those.
Which "love scenes" did you like?
I like the atmosphere when Ryöga tries to talk to Akane. He really gets embarrassed, or can't say what he wants to say. I get embarrassed when I'm drawing a serious scene, so I ended up including a gag.
This applies to things other than "love scenes". Sometimes, I draw a little gag at the edge of a cartoon. I don't really care if anyone notices it or not.
Which episode were you most impressed by?
That will be the one when Ranma learns the "Hiryü Shöten Ha". Because of Happosai's moxa cautery, hinriki-kyodatsu-kyu, Ranma became really weak, so all the characters who couldn't win against Ranma gathered to beat Ranma. On the other hand, all the characters who are trying to help Ranma gathered as well.
All the sub-characters that appeared previously tangled and mixed up, and moved the story. Since it's been hard up to that point as far as drawing is concerned, so it left me a deep impression as an episode that set the tone for the rest of the series.
If I limit the subject to fighting only, that will be the fight with Herb. Maybe because I could draw both male and female with Herb. The gags by Herb's men was fun, too.
Part four This extra large poster is the best work
Which illustration in this book did you spend the most time on?
Of course, that will be the extra large poster. This was the first time I drew something of that size. I had hard time with this because I had to decide on minor details like to show the feel for the four seasons, and still put down every character there were. It was hard to decide which character corresponds to which season. Especially for winter, I could only think of the fighting skaters (Mikado and Azusa). After thinking about it for a while, a kotatsu came to my mind, so I created a "slacker" zone with bunch of characters at a kotatsu.
Which illustration in this book is your favorite?
I like every illustration for the calender, but I especially like the illustration of Ranma on page 84.
After you collected all the illustrations, did you notice anything?
Many of the illustrations I did for the cover of Shonen Sunday looked similar. Since it was a comic magazine for guys, I ended up drawing something that looks like it's coming out. I didn't notice this until I gathered all the drawings.
Actually, this is the first time the book is published as a collection of illustration. I never had an opportunity to see my illustrations side by side, and I'm happy to see some of my old pictures.
To finish this off, a word to readers
Thank you for supporting "Ranma" for a long time. I couldn't have published this serially for nine years without your support. When I read a fan letters from you, I knew you like my work and you are supporting me, and it was very encouraging. I'll keep on drawing something that's fun, so please continue to support me.
Ranma 1/2 ©1996 Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan Inc./Kitty/Fuji TV
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