And now for something you haven't seen before! The editorial will follow...soon, but I've managed to translate the first part of Aoyama and Adachi's interview from WSS #18. I only now realized the interview is three parts split between three magazines. (Gessan and a special Touch volume being the other two.) I can probably nab Gessan when it's out later this month but I dunno about the last one. For now, please enjoy this, and I only ask that if you are going to post it somewhere that you mention the blog/twitter as you'd be doing me a huge favor!
(Note, I may change some of the translation as time goes on...this is an art, not a science.)
[Weekly Shounen Sunday]
[Gessan]
[Special Edition Mix collection]
A 3 magazine special project!!!
Aoyama: The cafe Poirot is based on Minami Kaze!!
Adachi: Then, I was a good influence, no?
MITSURU ADACHI X GOSHO AOYAMA
Special Interview
This is to commemorate MIX getting a TV anime and Conan's movie hitting theaters, but have you met on other occasions?
Adachi: Since the end of the year party you mean?
Aoyama: It was during the New Years “Sunday Thanksgiving” or so, right?
Adachi: Only about a month huh? We meet all the time so this doesn't seem that special, huh?
Aoyama: Right.
Adachi: Then what should the two of us talk about? (laughs). There probably isn't much to say in regards to manga.
Aoyama: The interview's already started though, (laughs).
--Well then, how about telling us when you first met?--
Aoyama: The first time we met was on the baseball field, right? We were on the same team –the manga artist team!
Adachi: Yeah, It was at the Tokyo Dome where they had this weird gimmick for the 30th Sunday anniversary. (The Special Video Edition.) ...It was us VS the Editorial staff. I remember we got to talking while sitting on the bench. Though what were we talking about....I dunno. (laughs) Hara Hidenori-Sensei was on third, but that's about all I remember...
Aoyama: Hara on Third (laugh) At that time it took all of the courage I had to turn to you and say “Please give me an autograph!”, y'know?
Adachi: You lie.
Aoyama: No, no, (laughs) You even turned me down! You said “You're probably going to sell this so I won't give you one.
Adachi: Really? (laughs). But then soon after that “Conan” started and it was me asking you for an autograph for my sons who are huge fans...
Aoyama: It was a pleasure for me to. It was about ten years or so after we first met that my dream came true. Thank goodness I drew Conan~ (laughs)
Adachi: We traded autographs around 1998 then...
Adachi: And you've been drawing away since then haven't you?
Aoyama: The whole time, yup. It's actually scary, really. Conan's serialization has reached it's 25th anniversary and it's all so amazing. But Adachi-sensei, you've been drawing “Touch” this whoooole time haven't you? (laughs)
Adachi: I've done all sorts of things..! What are you speaking of? Ah but really, the basis for them is that they're all sequels. (Laughs)
Aoyama: Right? (Laughs) Though after we talked on the bench in the Tokyo Dome, the next time we talked was when YAIBA won the Shougakukan manga award (1993) and I called you on the phone to write the congratulatory comment on the fliers for the award ceremony. I was sooo nervous.
Adachi: Eh? Did that happen?
Aoyama: It did!
Adachi: Ah, So it did, huh? (Laughs)
Aoyama: Before I called you, I had already written out what we'd talk about as well as your answers in advance...but when I called and you were suddenly like “huh?” It was like “Ah, it's Tacchan”, and despite writing everything out beforehand my mind went blank and it felt like I had nothing to say. I wasn't nervous at all talking to you in person, but it figures the phone would be totally different...
Adachi: Thank you. It's been an established fact that my voice sounds terrifying on the phone. (laughs), My moods don't come over well on the phone either so I come off sounding curt. At that time YAIBA had won for the juvenile's category, right?
Aoyama: Yup, that's the one. Takashi Shiina's “Ghost Sweeper Mikami” won the Boys division at the same time.
Adachi: And “Conan” won it in (2001) along with Hiroyuki Nishimori, right?
Aoyama: That's right. It won with “Cheeky Angel”. Conan won the Boy's division, so now if I could take the girl's and general category I could have a clean sweep in all four!
Adachi: So that was your aim, (laughs)
Aoyama: But I just couldn't draw it. (laughs)
Adachi: It's was just a dream!
Aoyama: I couldn't do a shoujo manga.
Adachi: You'll just have to take it by force!
Aoyama: I can't do that. (laughs). From YAIBA onwards, I was was always in Weekly Shounen Sunday with Adachi-sensei....there was “Rough” along with Rumiko Takahashi's “Urusei Yatsura” which was reaching it's end –and Kazuhiro Fujita's “Ushio and Tora” and so on....it felt like I was surrounded by tough foes the whole time. After that there was “Ranma” Adachi-sensei's “Nijiiro Togarashi” (Lit: Rainbow colored chili powder) “H2” and so on....it was one trouble after another, (laughs).
Adachi: No, no. It felt like in the second half that we had more or less left things in Conan's hands (laugh). With a person and work such as that one it was easy. You were in the lead role rather than being a pinch hitter. I figure Conan must be tough to write each chapter.
Aoyama: It is.
Adachi: Meanwhile with works like “Touch” there'd be chapters where noooothing happens. In fact, that's kind of the norm. Meanwhile with “Conan” going all out is the norm. There aren't times where no one dies, and it's just a normal quiet day, right?
Aoyama: Nope, there aren't. At least not in “Conan”. In “Zero's Tea Time” where I correct the storyboards, it's absolutely fine if there's nothing going on at all.
Adachi: Have you seen “Hannin no Hanzawa-san”?
Aoyama: I haven't checked it out, but you can if you'd like. (Laughs).
Adachi: When did you think to yourself “I'll become a manga artist”?
Aoyama: In college, I'd say.
{For the first time in the magazine –Adachi Mitsuru sensei's message to Aoyama Gosho-sensei in regard to YAIBA winning the Shougakukan Manga award.}
{I'd like to applaud you for receiving the prize in the juvenile category for a long serial in “Shounen Sunday” which has Middle School and High school readers as it's base. Aoyama-kun's artwork has a special appeal to the juvenile category as it's cute, and the story is reckless, but I mean that in a good way. It's a manga like manga, a series that's backed up by many other works that are huge in scale, but no mistaking it, I was happy to nominate this one full stop from the bottom of my heart. Which is to say, as long as there are authors out there who hide all kinds of potential within them we wont' go lacking for many different stories, in which talent like this will shine through. I'd like to take this opportunity to expect much more from this assertive attacker. It'd be perfect if after this he'd stop being a Kyoujin fan, but....(Adachi Mitsuru)}
Adachi: Did you enroll in college?
Aoyama: Up until then I thought I'd become an animator.
Adachi: I see...
Aoyama: I had an upperclassman animator in my animator lab, and they said that there's no way you'll be an animator! Go be a manga artist! So I then became a manga artist.
Adachi: That was a good choice. The upper class man chose for you and everything. Plus you do get to have your say for the anime too.
Aoyma: I even draw key frames for the anime, so it's like my dream to be an animator came true. (laughs) Well, I do check the script and the the storyboards too.
Adachi: You're totally different than me there. I basically leave everything to the animators for the most part.
Aoyama: It's different than your beloved pro baseball team, huh?
Adachi: That's right. Kyoujin fans are y'know...hey, that's enough of that. (laughs)>
Aoyama: Kyoujin fans don't' change much do they? (laughs) Heck, even my assistants from my college days haven't changed. We've been together without losing anyone this whole time. From when I was submitting works to magazines to now, I've used the same assistants.
Adachi: Is that so?
Aoyama: You can't draw manga by yourself. Though I've heard you say if you could, you'd draw the backgrounds yourself. When I heard that I wondered to myself “That's dumb...” (laughs). If I could on my own, I'd settle for drawing Conan and all of the people on my own at least.
Adachi: Ah, I said that? (laughs) I see. I've been using the same assistants this whole time too. Even now the two people I've had with me since “Touch” have been there for more than 30 years.
Aoyama: They draw the backgrounds so well....your assistants I mean.
Adachi: Look who's talking. (laughs.)
Aoyama: Ah right! Speaking of backgrounds...
Adachi: What about backgrounds?
Aoyama: When I read “Mix” I swear to myself “Didn't the Minamikaze” show up somewhere? Ah look, the “Tea Shop Poirot” was modeled after it! I remember! The shrubbery, the glass windows and the arch above the entrance...it's all the same.
Adachi: Oh really? (laughs)
Aoyama: I thought to myself, “This mystery manga isn't long for this world so I'd might as well make the tea shop the same from “Touch”. (laughs)
Adachi: And it's been 25 years since then, (laughs)
Aoyama: And I'm still drawing it now. In “Mix” It's like “Nowadays there aren't any 80s era tea shops left”....then I'm like “Oh wait I'm still drawing one now....
Adachi: (laugh) There aren't any cafes that look the way they do in drawings, huh.
Aoyama: It's so nostalgic! I was surprised as well....the shrubs planted in the brick holders...
Adachi: Well, well. (laughs)
Aoyama: Oh and that antenna like thing on Conan's head, I borrowed that from Nijiro Tougarashi's Shinami,.
Adachi: I'm thankful for that~ Ah so I did have a good influence on you. (laughs).
Aoyama: The back came a bit from Kabu in “Sally the Witch”. ...and Conan's eyes they're also borrowed from Adachi-sensei! The mouth is from Monkey Punch-sensei while the nose is from Chiba Tetsuya-sensei. If you combine the artwork from these three you get my art. Though Kazuhiko Shimamoto has said at one point “It's not! Absolutely not!!”
Adachi: (laughs)
Aoyama: Those are my three great teachers.
Adachi: Nah, I really don't compare with them, it's awkward. (laughs)
Aoyama: No, I'm serious!!
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