If it's too neat and tidy, it makes it less emotional.
When it's more of a crude burst of how I feel...
the emotions show up right on the paper.
For that critical moment here...
I'm trying to make sure I'm not being too careful about it.
I'm hoping to bring out the mood or atmosphere of it,
so I'm not thinking about drawing it accurately and precisely.
If I don't get caught up in that,
then I figure I might come up with other ideas while I work.
Amazing Descriptive Power
♪♪～
Drawing a Sense of the Atmosphere
There's some message planted in this sense of atmosphere, right?
I've been doing it all this time just to draw those kinds of things.
I just remember being completely floored when I saw it.
That makes me really happy to hear.
Creator of numerous hit works, mangaka Urasawa Naoki.
The project he's currently working on is this show, “Manben.”
Mangaka create grand dramas from the tiny tips of their pens.
Full Access to the Place Where Manga Is Born
Usually entry is not allowed to where they work, but we've been granted full access to film there.
For 30 years, Urasawa-san has continued to draw manga.
They have incorporated elements of hit works,
but also have a high degree of artistry to them.
He's tried to preserve that friction throughout.
When we're young...
all of us that draw lean towards the artistic.
But we get told to stop, and to draw something that'll sell better.
I feel having that sort of thing clash against issues of marketability,
and mix together while you're working is really more interesting.
For this episode we have a mangaka who tries to have art and entertainment coexist.
It's Igarashi Daisuke-san.
Bursting onto the manga scene from the world of fine arts, he is causing a revolution.
He's most known for “Children of the Sea.”
The story revolves around two mysterious boys raised by dugongs.
The mystery behind the creation of life is depicted.
The biggest allure of his manga is his portrayal of the natural scenery and animals.
He draws them in an elaborate and fantastical way.
A Winner of the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Prize “Children of the Sea”
Suddenly entering the world of manga after art school,
he's attracted attention for such feats as winning Excellence Prizes twice at the Japan Media Arts Festival.
A Winner of the 8th Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Prize “Witches”
Closely Filmed Over a Span of 2 Days
For this episode we filmed him closely at work over a span of 2 days.
What we discovered there was an amazing expressiveness, built upon layers of fine lines,
Layers of Lines
and an attempt to create a unique manga world that only he himself can come up with.
A Unique Manga World
Kanagawa, Kamakura
One month later, they meet to talk while watching the footage.
They'll Talk While Watching the Footage
Well, personally...
I think he's one of the mangaka that has the best drawings in the world right now.
They're not flashy,
but for the people that like looking at pictures,
I guess there's this sense of awesomeness to them.
Excuse me.
Hello, it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Igarashi.
Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Urasawa.
Before the talk he visits Igarashi-san's home.
This place has got a certain charm to it.
Thank you.
It's over this way.
To the Studio Room
It's the studio room.
So this is where you coop yourself up, drawing.
That's right.
This is where I shut myself in, drawing.
Wow...
You've got a ton of these.
Animal Figurines Lined up in Rows
Hahaha, yeah.
I buy these sorts of things too.
You pretty much don't use any assistants at all, right?
Other than Simple Tasks Such as Filling in the Blacks, He Does Every- thing Himself
That's right.
You're the first for this program.
They Talk at a Cafe in Kamakura Surrounded by Green
Igarashi Daisuke-san draws high quality works almost all by himself.
The secrets behind that creative process will be revealed.
Infiltrating the Site of the Fine Arts Mangaka
It's so cramped, do you prefer the space that way?
Yes I do, because when I'm drawing,
a lot of the times I do it while looking at references,
Draws Sitting in a Legless Chair
so I want things within my grasp.
Right where you can reach.
It's like, once you sit down, you're not going anywhere.
Yes, it is.
The chair is low so I can put materials on the floor and such for later.
Oh, that's why it's so low? That what it's for?
We film him at work with fixed cameras, trying to disturb him as little as possible.
Filmed with Fixed Cameras to Not Get in the Way
Rough Sketch
First he does a rough sketch in pencil.
Infiltrating the Site of the Fine Arts Mangaka
It feels a bit like you hold it the way someone in fine arts would.
Oh, that's true.
How do most mangaka usually hold them?
People who draw manga usually hold it tightly and completely.
It's different than this sort of sketching style of holding it.
Ahh, I see. Yeah, that might be true. Definitely.
Igarashi Daisuke
Urasawa Naoki
When we compare the two...
Igarashi-san is certainly using a soft grip.
Infiltrating the Site of the Fine Arts Mangaka
His Current Serial “Designs”
The work that he's busy with is “Designs.”
It's Sci-Fi with human-animal hybrids fighting each other.
He's drawing the highlight of the chapter right now.
Drawing the Expression of the Human Leopard Hybrid
It's the tense scene when the human leopard hybrid named Babe is about to attack.
Infiltrating the Site of the Fine Arts Mangaka
That's a difficult looking picture.
Yeah, that's true.
I really want to express the horror of something half-man half-beast.
Something that resembles a human, but is bestial.
The sketch is completed.
Next he begins inking.
Inking
Maru Pen
He takes out a maru pen.
Infiltrating the Site of the Fine Arts Mangaka
The way you hold the maru pen has that sketching style to it too.
You would usually hold it with a tighter grip towards the tip of it.
Oh, that's true.
You're drawing with it held further up so it doesn't add pressure, right?
Yes.
It's very distinct. It doesn't create contrast in line strength.
Ahh... Yes.
Searching for the Shape with a Soft Touch
Even at this stage I'm still feeling around while drawing,
so that's probably why I'm holding it like that.
With manga you're prone to draw lines you've decided on in one go.
But sometimes with those lines, they end up not being the right one.
There's something in this way of groping for it little by little like this
that makes it so it doesn't stray from the image of it in your head.
Yes... That's true.
I'm often searching for the concrete shape in the picture while I do it.
He doesn't limit what the shape will be at the start,
but instead builds it up by layering soft lines.
That's how Igarashi-san does it.
With this method of drawing Igarashi-san hopes to express even the texture of living creatures.
Drawing Sense of Atmosphere
I really want to make sure I express
the like, feeling of atmosphere it has.
When I am drawing animals and such,
if I'm not expressing the beauty that is in their shapes that I see, or like...
the aura they have or how they feel to touch, then I'll be unhappy with it.
He Draws the Entire Body of the Human Leopard Hybrid in the Panel Above
Drawing the Sense of Atmosphere
The way you got all those fish to move in “Children of the Sea”
must've made you feel like you did something that would've taken
big bucks to do in computer graphics with just pen and paper, right?
I drew it in a way that didn't take as much work as it appears,
but I did want it to look like it took a lot of work.
It's really important that it looks that way though, am I right?
Ah, yeah, yeah... It really is.
Drawing the Sense of Atmosphere
Those broken lines, if you join them it feels completely wrong.
Ah, yeah, I totally know what you're saying.
It's complete the way it is now because it's separated.
It really feels like if you join them, it might end up wrong.
And sure enough, if you do, it'll just be wrong.
Like the lines that Tsumugi Taku-san used for the cheeks,
it'd look like there was light shining on them,
and there'd be times when they weren't joined or drawn.
It'd make me think, “Hey, that's pretty good.”
Fujiko F-sensei's profile faces would always be unjoined lines too.
Ah, yeah, yeah.
By not joining them, it'd create a sense of soft and gentleness.
When I draw birds,
like, how they flap their wings,
almost none of those lines are connected,
“Witches”
and that's exactly why it feels like they're flapping.
Yeah, that's right.
I guess it's about the impression of drawing the “air” of things.
Whoa...
That's a really scary face.
Yeah, I hope people find it that way.
Next, Igarashi-san picks up...
Now you're using a ballpoint pen.
I draw things in using a ballpoint pen pretty often.
Drawing with a Regular Ballpoint Pen
He uses a regular ballpoint pen that you can find anywhere in the work of making manga.
He draws in fine details, such as the leopard's pattern.
You can see how the figure of her flank changes.
You can get these things done really fast with a ballpoint pen.
Drawing with a Ballpoint Pen
The whales with all those stars on their surface, was that ballpoint?
That's right.
It makes adding an effect to a wide area a whole lot easier.
You can draw lines back and forth.
With a nib you can only draw in one direction,
but it feels like you can just scribble it in with a ballpoint pen.
Drawing with a Ballpoint Pen
Maybe I'll use a ballpoint pen too.
The lines drawn with that soft touch have come together and formed the texture of the leopard.
He picks up the maru pen again and adds final adjustments.
Final Fixes Done with the Maru Pen
Just by adding a few lines, the impression it gives changes considerably.
This page is finally finished.
By building up rough lines without defining the shape, he captures the sense of atmosphere of a living creature.
The way an animal's fur parts and how her muscles are attached,
the softness of her skin and the force behind her teeth...
A picture that conveys the intensity of that has been born.
Next he begins on a scenic spread.
He draws an expansive panorama by splitting the picture into upper and lower parts.
He Draws a Two Level Panoramic Spread
It's an attempt at an unusual composition.
Igarashi-san is putting lines in with his ballpoint pen where there's really no sketch underneath.
He sure is drawing a lot!
The part that I like about Igarashi-san is...
the part that tries to express things fundamentally using lines.
I think when it comes down to it, we just both like these lines,
these pictures that are composed of lines.
Surface of the Sea
Fixated on the Scenery
The way the ballpoint pen lines break is really nice.
It's just like grazing over it.
Maru pens get used to do that a lot.
Oh, yeah yeah... Yeah.
You just place a maru pen over the paper,
hold the bottom of it and let it slide over it
Yeah, yeah...
and you get those scrapes.
But it comes out way more like this.
Fixated on the Scenery
It comes out pretty easily.
At a glance, it looks like he's drawing indistinctly,
But in its entirety, the scenery is forming precisely.
How mysterious!
The Visible Land on the Other Shore
Fixated on the Scenery
But, you know...
when aspiring illustrators see your approach to it,
they'll think, “Oh, so this is all you really need,"
and there may be more people who give it a shot.
Having a certain degree of looseness towards it may make it easier.
When it comes to natural objects...
there'll be tons of times when things are unclear, like with branches,
or like, there'll be something shining, but you won't know what it is.
If you draw them as “things you know,” they don't look right,
but drawn as “things you don't know,” they'll look natural.
Yes, yes, yes. That's right, that's right...
It feels like if you're too serious about it then it'll be difficult.
For me, it's really when I'm drawing these kinds of pictures,
that I have the most fun.
I don't want to leave them to anybody else.
Yeah, it really is just like that.
But there'll be assistants that look like they have nothing to do,
so I'll have to make some work for them.
Fixated on the Scenery
I pretty much draw manga just to draw those pictures.
If I were going to hand off work, I'd have them draw the characters.
Yeah!
I feel like I understand what that's about.
Igarashi-san's starting point is located in the drawing of scenery.
Origins of the Mangaka Igarashi Daisuke
Born 1969 in the Saitama Prefecture
Igarashi-san, who was born in the Saitama Prefecture,
was good at drawing since he was young.
Self Portrait from High School Years
He polished his skills in high school at art club.
Went on to Tama Art University
He went on to art university and majored in oil painting.
The primary motifs he used were wind and rain.
A Work with a Personification of Rain
What drew him to the allure of nature
was the shrine at his home town.
When I was living in Urawa
I really liked the shrines nearby.
Tsuki Shrine
It'd change together with the times.
The light and season would change.
I found that really pretty,
and I felt the beauty in that.
Yes, that's the feeling it's based in.
At Fukushima
After graduating he set off on a journey,
and sketched the beautiful scenery of Japan.
Origins of the Mangaka Igarashi Daisuke
Oh, this is great!
Iwate
You did these just because you wanted to draw them, right?
Okinawa
Well, actually, they were a bit...
like a way of “greeting.”
Whenever I would go somewhere I liked,
A greeting!
it was like a ritual I did, in place of a greeting, to familiarize myself with some place.
I'd take the time and focus to draw and then after that,
I'd feel like things would start to come to me,
that it was like I'd “experienced” it.
The atmosphere at the time would be easy to recall.
Origins of the Mangaka Igarashi Daisuke
He wanted to share the emotional experiences he had from nature with others.
Debut Work - “The Day the Festival Music Rises”
With that in mind he plunged into the world of manga.
He thought that manga, with its panels, might be able
to convey those feelings better than a single picture.
The setting of his first manga was the shrine he loved.
It received great praise and he suddenly made his debut.
Wanting to Convey An "Experience"
When it came to conveying the way I was moved, or the sensation
I experienced from a certain time period in a certain season,
I thought maybe people could experience what I did more
if I made it manga and put scenes and lines together,
rather than if I just drew it as a single picture and left it as that.
I think that was probably pretty important.
For me, there's this part in “Children of the Sea,”
when the girl is riding her bike along the coastline,
and the rain goes drip drip, and then comes pouring down.
The rain isn't drawn and the scenery is composed of vertical lines,
and it feels like a squall came raining down in an instant.
I just remember being completely floored when I saw it.
That makes me really happy to hear.
Wanting to Convey An "Experience"
It's that sense of atmosphere.
Like the hot summer's air getting soaked in a instant,
and the smell of rain just comes flying at you. It's that feeling.
He uses a brush pen and paints letters.
Painting Letters with a Brush Pen
Inking Complete
The inking is complete.
Screentone Work
He even does the screentone work himself.
He Pastes It over the Entire Manuscript
He places a complete sheet of tone over the manuscript.
Scraping Away with a Cutter to Create Shading
Then he scrapes it away with a cutter, creating the light and shadows of the sky and the sea.
Expressing Light and Shadow
So this screentone, it's probably number 51 or 61?
It should be number 41.
Oh, number 41!
If it's number 41 then that means the dots are a bit rough.
That's right.
I want it to be a bit rough.
It's easier to get it to feel like light when I scrape it away that way.
Ah yeah, that might be the case.
In “Pluto,” in that one chapter with the pianist,
Expressing Light and Shadow
the way you did that explosion in the sky with tones was really nice,
For screentones, I always tell my assistants the same thing,
“Don't use it to express color, use it to express shadow.”
It looks a lot better when it's used that way.
I feel like I understand.
It give variation to the picture or it's used often...
“Witches”
to make the place you want the eyes to focus on stick out.
Yeah, like for the design.
“Children of the Sea”
Ah, that's a nice picture.
For Japanese comics...
you'd usually start from the right like this.
Ah, yes, that's true.
But you're making them look at it from the left.
Yeah, that's right.
The letters are horizontal so it like leads you to look from the left,
and then you've got the dog here at the end.
That's right.
It's casual but it feels quite high level. It's very clever.
Standing up to Do a Final Check
He stands up and does a final check.
After 4 hours the majestic scenic spread is complete.
He's drawn in these expansive lines just by himself.
By arranging the two panels top and bottom,
he's drawn the span of a scene that couldn't be completely expressed in a single picture.
By guiding the eyes so it takes in the entire image,
the feeling of almost being there is conveyed to the reader.
Igarashi-san spends approximately 12 hours of a day drawing.
Spends about 12 Hours of the Day Drawing
Inking the Character
This is the first time a regular human girl has appeared.
Isn't she cute?
With the type of mangaka that even draw the scenery themselves,
if they're sort of careless, they don't draw cute girls.
From the very beginning I was aware that with manga like mine
there was a very real danger that if the girls weren't really cute,
that nobody would read them, so I tried my hardest at that.
Igarashi-san, it's not just nature or sprawling scenery for you,
but it looks like you're having fun with weapons and planes too.
Where do your drawings come from anyways?
I used to copy Yasuhiko Yoshikazu-san's drawings a lot.
The Works That Shaped His Touch
“Arion”
“Mobile Suit Gundam”
I think I was influenced by a lot of different people.
When I was in high school all I read was shoujo manga.
Like Tsumugi Taku-san and Wakatsuki Megumi-san...
“Mabatakimo Sezu”
and Narita Minako-san and Kawahara Izumi-san...
“Warau Angel”
I read a lot of works by those types of people.
So probably, in that sense,
I may have been influenced more heavily by shoujo manga.
Ah, is that so?
That's why mechanical stuff showing up there is so fresh.
Having those those two things coexisting
might feel like a pretty rare occurrence.
Igarashi-san jumped from the world of fine arts into the world of manga at the age of 24.
Taking influences from the manga that he liked,
he built up his own idea of an entertaining read from step one.
The work he's known for is “Children of the Sea.”
The key to the story is the mysterious pair of brothers that were raised by dugongs.
As the reader tries to uncover their secrets,
they are drawn into a story that explores the mysteries of life.
Hoping to Charm the Reader
There's a sense of mystery that all your works are shrouded in.
And that mystery makes you think
there's some message planted in this sense of atmosphere, right?
People who try to use that fine arts art style,
they always come off a bit plain.
but your works have something that attracts the audience.
I have a lot of different ideas about what I want to draw,
but I have to make it so I'm not the only one that gets it.
It's like whether I can draw it in a way that can convey
what I find interesting about it and have others think so too.
A captivating young girl has come to life.
He's not just drawing whatever he wants,
he wants to have more people share in a feeling.
What he's arrived at is his new work, “Designs.”
The main character is amazingly a half-man half-beast hybrid of frog and human.
She's a beautiful young girl that also displays incredible strength.
In the background lurks a huge plot surrounding genetic manipulation.
He wants to show the allure of the main character to its maximum.
Name - The Plan Drawn for the Story of the Manga
He draws the scene where she does battle with the human leopard girl.
Using this fight that has a sense a motion that could only come from half-man half-beasts,
he hopes to draw readers into the story.
First comes the rough sketch.
The Frog Hybrid
Attempting the Half-Man Half-Beast Action Scene
You pretty much had the composition set at the name, right?
I think about the fighting scenes at the very start.
The Leopard Hybrid
It's pretty general, so I still waver when I'm actually drawing it.
An intense fighting scene comes to life.
Huh!? He's begun to erase it!
Attempting the Half-Man Half-Beast Action Scene
You erased all of it.
Yeah, I did.
I'm not used to these fighting scenes at all yet,
so I worry about them quite a lot while I'm doing them.
Human fighting techniques basically deal with human movements,
but animals have different skeletons and move differently,
so I'm seeing how I should mix them so it looks half-man half-beast.
A difficult experiment.
You've made some of it slick like an animal,
and then the speed of it changes like, “Oh, this part's human, huh.”
The difficulty of the battle scenes causes Igarashi-san trouble.
The Frog Hybrid
The Leopard Hybrid
He's after movement that inhabits both the human and the animal.
He searches for the angle of the human face that fits the leopard's bone structure.
He amends it over and over until he is satisfied.
On his 5th time redrawing it, the face is complete.
He's spent an hour worrying about the composition. The rough sketch is finally done.
He Shows the Flow of the Action in 3 Panels
He shows the dynamic action across three panels.
It's a bold composition with no background.
Inking
It's finally time to ink it.
A battle between both animals and beautiful young girls.
It's a scene in which he attempts to blend the allure of all of the elements.
Igarashi-san hopes to create new manga which have unrestrained expressions exactly like this.
Wanting to Create Unrestrained Expressions
With manga you can draw anything without it seeming strange.
As long as it's not totally out of place, it won't look strange.
Like with Osama Tezuka's Hyoutantsugi.
“Hyoutantsugi” A Gag Character That Appears in Tezuka Osamu's Works
If I put it in my manga it would clearly be weird,
but in “Black Jack,” it's been established already, so it's fine.
I think I would really like to try something like that.
You want to bring back that degree of freedom that Tezuka's art had.
Yeah.
There's a part of me consciously doing that with “Billy Bat.”
Like how cartoony drawings will show up among realistic ones.
I've been wondering if I'd be able to use that kind of freedom well.
He draws the tactile feel that only animals have and the allure of a beautiful girl into a single face.
The difficult image work continues.
Inking the Main Character, the Frog Girl
3 hours have passed since he's begun this scene.
For slightly over 20 years since his debut he's continued to devote himself to drawing.
Igarashi-san has continued to pursue a harmony between entertainment that delights readers and artistry with depth.
He wants to share the feeling that nature gives him with others.
To do that, he leaped into the unfamiliar world of manga,
and kept on drawing while feeling things out by himself.
He feels a new form of manga exists that he is capable of because he started as an outsider.
Those emotions spur Igarashi-san on.
Making Her Eyes More Frog-Like
Wanting to Expand the Possibilities of Manga
Back when I was a university student (the 90's)
manga really felt like it was at the forefront of expression.
My concern is that if we don't continue to keep it new,
then eventually it won't be at the front anymore.
We've got to dig deeper and keep asking, “What's possible?”
Those old rules that say, “This is how manga in the majors should be,”
we've got to keep reforming them or else things will stagnate.
Something with your style getting carried in the major magazines
is very important for the innovation of manga.
For me, I can only honestly do what I'm capable of,
but if that becomes one of the open spaces for manga then
I guess it's like I can contribute a little to that.
♪♪～
Carefully Adding the Final Touches
Work Finished
It looks like it's finally reached a shape he's satisfied with.
After 4 hours, the fight between the half-man half-beasts has been drawn.
The expressions of the beautiful yet ferocious girls,
the elegance and sense of motion of the bodies in battle,
the sense of atmosphere of animals that only he can bring out,
a page filled with the desires of the ambitious Igarashi-san has been born.
♪♪～
To be honest, before I became a professional,
it feels a bit like, “Isn't this what I was trying to do with manga?”
In the middle of how the majors do things
there may have been, like...
a part of me that sort of left that kind of expression behind a bit.
It really calls me back to my old aspirations.
There are people that send me their impressions,
and it makes me happy that what I wanted to capture was conveyed.
It makes me feel like “Oh, I'm not the only one.”
I've probably always felt like
I've wanted to share something or feel something with others.
But why is that? Maybe because it's lonely.
There must be certain things that can't be expressed unless they're in the form of manga.