Q: The theme of a western centered around a poker game is quite unique.
Araki: The story's protagonist vs. rival setup follows the typical shonen manga formula. But just because it's a western doesn't mean the battle has to be fought with guns, so I decided to have them play poker and compete in a battle of wits instead.
Q: Do you remember what happened when you showed the work to your editor?
Araki: There were parts where the lines poked out of the panels. He was furious with me over that, and he asked why I didn't correct them with white correction fluid. But I didn't know that existed at the time, so I just ended up redrawing everything but the parts I expected to blank out (laughs). I didn't know any technical details at the time; I had a vague idea of what tones existed, but I was never sure what number to use, and I was unaware that they could be removed. If I made a mistake, I had to just redraw the entire page from square one (laughs). Poker Under Arms was around 30 pages long, but I think I drew around 100 pages overall. I was still in school at the time, so I worked hard on it overnight and on the weekends. It's a very memorable work for me.
Q: What was the reason behind choosing a science fiction setting?
Araki: It's possible my inspiration for picking a spaceship as the setting was the movie Alien. I came up with the setting and situation first to create suspense, and then threw the main character in to finalize the character of the work.
Q: Did you pay any attention to readers' reactions?
Araki: I didn't really think about what the readers would enjoy. I made a lot of technical progress over the course of the work, and the design of the first page is very different from that of the last page. I drew it all by myself without a deadline, so it took quite a while. But since I could only publish two works a year, I had to ask myself, "Am I really going to be able to make a living as a manga artist?" Haha. I didn't have a part-time job, but revising my own manuscripts kept me busy. Around that time, many names were being rejected, and I think about 500 pages or so were tossed out. But that was normal, and I didn't need to be so nervous.
Q: There was a six-month gap after Say Hi to Virginia. What were you up to during that time?
Araki: I spent all my time drawing manga. I had already graduated from design school, so I would draw at home, bring it in, be told to correct it, then draw it all over again... At least, that's how it felt. I think it was with this work that I finally began to understand the technical details of the profession. I dreamed of becoming an assistant for a senior manga artist, but that was impossible for someone living in Sendai.
Q: It's also interesting that the protagonist is a fugitive.
Araki: I wanted to depict something like a battle of tactics against the enemy. I chose the western wilderness as the setting because I liked westerns. I began drawing the manga with a strong image of a man on a horse riding through the desert, or perhaps a boy in a school uniform riding through the desert.
Q: The protagonist is more of a character here than in your previous short stories.
Araki: I had it in mind to serialize it. I stopped drawing B.T. after the decision was made, though, since it took me three weeks to draw one episode, and about half a year to draw ten episodes in advance. So even if I was asked to, I wouldn't have been able to continue drawing for more than ten episodes. Back then, I was still drawing by myself, though I might've had a little help from my sister.
Q: This was your first serialization. Was it a memorable work for you?
Araki: Actually, I just felt at the time that, "I already have the manuscripts, so why don't we serialize it?" Ha. The editorial department didn't like it very much, and it seemed the general opinion was that it was odd for the protagonist to be as wicked as he was. I sort-of felt like an outlaw writer. Even considering the flaws, I thought I was finally getting it right this time, and that the work had a similar charm to Sherlock Holmes. I love the Holmes series, so Koichi is the Watson to B.T.'s Holmes. The difference from Holmes is that rather than simply solving it, B.T. is an accomplice in the crime itself.
Q: The setting of B.T. allows for a sequel even all these years later, doesn't it?
Araki: Oh, of course. I wouldn't mind if you drew one (laughs).
Q: It's practically a science fiction action film, isn't it?
Araki: I've loved biology ever since I was in high school. I was reading a book on cutting-edge genetic manipulation one day, and I thought, "I could use this in a manga." That's the reason behind the name Baoh: it stems from "biotechnology." At the time, physical actors like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were in vogue, so I combined the two to create this work.
Q: As for the enemy, Dress, what a beautiful name for an evil organization...
Araki: Many times, in spy novels, the enemy organization uses a casual name like "store" or "laboratory." It may be a humorous name, but I was going for that level of nuance. It's more normal than saying, "The enemy is the CIA," but it's also a bit creepier. I like that Baoh ends with the girl growing up.
Q: So you don't plan on drawing a sequel episode where the main character, Ikuro, wakes up?
Araki: Actually, I was thinking of drawing one as soon as the serialization ended (laughs). But wasn't Ikuro supposed to wake up seven years later? It's already been 15 years, so it's a little too late to resume the series (laughs). Baoh had a lot of passionate fans, and even I was impressed when I heard an idea about him turning his arm into a sword.
Q: Your first female protagonist, right?
Araki: This is an extension of Baoh, a female version of a work that focuses on the physical body. I drew both Irene works as pilots for a weekly serialization.
Q: And how did readers react?
Araki: It was well-received. There was talk of actually serializing Irene, but I thought to myself, "It's difficult to draw a girl," so I stopped after two issues. My editor was furious, but I told him, "At least I have this," having brought JoJo with me (laughs).
Q: But wouldn't it be possible to draw a sequel to this work in the present?
Araki: Ah, I suppose. It's common in places like America for people to hand over their works to others, right? I'll hand over Irene as well, so someone else can draw the sequel (laughs).
Q: When it comes to JoJo, the Ripple and Stands come to mind.
Araki: The Ripple came about because I thought that wooden stakes and crosses were boring weaknesses for vampires. It's a very manga-like idea, but I thought, "The only way to counter the energy of evil is with the energy of life." I thought it would be nice to have the Ripple serve as a symbol of the story. Also, using one's own body to fight instead of a tool... That's an idea I inherited from Baoh.
Q: What about Stands?
Araki: Simply put, a Stand is really just a guardian spirit. I'm often asked what exactly a Stand is, to which I respond, "I don't quite know how to explain it..." (laughs). But it's a little different from what we call a guardian spirit, in that it's more so a kind of servant that autonomously protects you.
Q: Do you keep ideas for Stands in a notebook or anything?
Araki: Not always. I have an idea book, but I don't write down ideas as soon as they occur to me. Whenever I remember one, though, I make sure to jot it down. An idea you can't remember isn't worth it, so if I forget, I forget (laughs).
Q: This is the only work where you were credited for just the story and composition.
Araki: As part of a project for Super Jump, I was asked to draw a short story for the magazine. But I was too preoccupied with JoJo to draw the images, so I was permitted to limit myself to the name and original story.
Q: Why did you choose Nikola Tesla, a real person, as the subject?
Araki: I read a book about Nikola Tesla's life and thought, "He seems like an incredible person." I also thought, "I love that such a person actually existed and got no reward for it..." I liked that he felt a bit like an outlaw. So I studied all types of reference material and used that to create the character.
Q: This is the first time your manga has been adapted into an anime. How do you feel about it?
Araki: I think the anime is really well made, especially considering the limitations on its production. However, it adapts the two manga volumes into a single VHS, so it feels like it ends too quickly, and that's honestly a bit of a waste. Since the length of a single videotape is about as long as a short manga, if you were to adapt something like Under Execution, Under Jailbreak into an anime, it would be about the perfect length. For the Baoh anime, I would have liked to see the two volumes adapted separately.
Q: The OVA version is peculiar in that it's structured around the confrontation with DIO.
Araki: There was originally talk of adapting the manga starting from Volume 1. However, we would have never been able to fit everything into six episodes had we done that. Instead, we opted to just focus on the climax of the story. This meant other aspects were left out, but if you want to make something that's good to watch, you can't cram too much in. I guess you could say we put all our eggs in one basket.
Q: How involved were you in the anime's production?
Araki: I went over the script in great detail. I don't like it when the motives for a character's behavior are unclear, and by reading through the script I was able to check for that sort of thing. The part of the anime production process that interests me is the scriptwriting stage. It's the animators' jobs to make Jotaro look cool, so I had faith in them to do just that.
Q: This is your first short story in a while, huh?
Araki: The reason I didn't draw any short stories is simply that I already had my hands full with weekly serialization.
Q: It's a locked-room mystery with only one character.
Araki: I thought that if I included more than one character in the story, the whole thing would fall apart. For example, if I tried to introduce an enemy in the 30 pages or so of a short story, I would have to explain them as well, and that would make the story too long to convey. With that in mind, I crafted the story around the premise that the character is alone in a locked room. I do think it gives it a unique tone, which I like. I drew the work on my days off from working on JoJo, so it took me around two months, since I only worked on it one day a week.
Q: Why did you choose a cat for the main character?
Araki: As I wrote in the afterword for the short story collection Under Execution, Under Jailbreak, I went to a meeting at my editor's house and found a cat. My editor said, "Isn't he just the cutest thing?" But I don't like cats, so I told him, "If I were lost in the snow-capped peaks, I'd probably eat him. Ah, now there's an idea." And that's how that idea came up (laughs).
Q: It was around this time that you began to draw more short stories again.
Araki: That's just because I was getting more commissions. I wasn't particularly thinking about writing short stories in particular, but the requests kept coming in (laughs).
Q: Is there much of a difference between short stories and JoJo?
Araki: It's all the same. I just take ideas from JoJo and turn them into short stories. That or I turn abandoned or unusable ideas into short stories. The same goes for Deadman's Questions.
Q: The JoJo character Rohan Kishibe makes an appearance in this short story.
Araki: At first, I wrote the story without Rohan, but it just didn't feel right without a narrator of sorts. In other words, Rohan serves as a navigator for the story. Have you ever seen the American television drama Alfred Hitchcock Presents? The story and main character are different every time, but what makes it interesting is Alfred Hitchcock's description at the beginning and end of it. It wouldn't be nearly as fun if it were just some regular announcer. For this work, I also wanted to use a character that readers would know, so it might as well be Rohan. The editorial department prohibited spin-offs of serialized works, but I figured it was probably fine, since Rohan wasn't the main character. That's where the "Thus Spoke" part of the title comes from (laughs).
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Figure Collections
Q: The first three-dimensional models of JoJo characters.
Araki: These figures blew me away, honestly! When it comes to 3D, even a slight error in the position of one arm can throw everything off. The people at Heavy Gauge know what they're doing, though. I wonder what they'd be doing if it weren't for these sorts of figures. Heavy Gauge's work has something in common with Renaissance sculptures, I think, and I admire their craftsmanship. It's nice to see people pursuing that kind of aesthetic.
Q: The protagonist is the JoJo character Yoshikage Kira, right?
Araki: Except it's not a story about Stands. I didn't plan on using Kira from the beginning, and it happened purely by chance. I had originally planned to create a story about a ghost assassin, but you can't have an assassin without a motive or a reason. Furthermore, if he was also a criminal while he was alive, he must've been given the death penalty. Kira fit the bill perfectly, so I slipped his name at the end of the first episode. By doing so, it became a bit of a story for the fans, so to speak. But even if you don't know the first thing about Kira, you can still understand the story just fine.
Q: The idea of a ghost assassin is ingenious.
Araki: I also think it'd be interesting to learn about the rules of the afterlife, like barriers that can't be crossed or the philosophy of the dead. When Einstein was asked what it means to die, he replied that "it means not being able to listen to Mozart anymore." Such is the philosophy of the main character. I wanted to make a theme out of the notion that, while any ordinary person can easily listen to Mozart, it's a tall order for the dead.
Q: What are your thoughts after playing the video game adaptation?
Araki: I don't play fighting games often, so it was a bit challenging for me (laughs). But when I heard from the development staff in the initial planning stages that Alessi would appear in the game, I thought to myself, "It's wonderful that the staff are so dedicated to this game!" The game didn't just feature strong characters, but also fast ones, cheating ones, and really all kinds of characters. That's how I could tell the game staff understood JoJo. If you don't understand these things, it's hard to explain, but if you do, you can definitely make a good game out of it. It may be a casual point, but I can tell where it's headed just from that glimpse, so I don't think there's any need for me to interfere. Somehow, it feels like you can take in the full picture from just speaking to the staff members. That's not something to be taken lightly, so one has to focus on the important details.
Q: The JoJo series has its first female protagonist.
Araki: I used to think I couldn't portray female characters, and maybe my state of mind changed over time, but recently I've come to believe that women and men are essentially the same. I once interviewed a prison warden and asked him whether the crimes women commit differ from those of men. He replied, "They're identical. The motives are the same as men's, too." I'm sure there are crimes related to sexual activity and such, but I'm starting to believe that men have those as well. Also, the image of an all-male prison is just a bit repulsive (laughs). But I was worried all the same, and I was considering having a male protagonist right up to the last minute.
Q: What's the theme of Part 6?
Araki: You'll find out as you read it. I want to show why people make mistakes, why they risk their lives to fulfill their goals, that kind of thing. But it will celebrate humanity all the same!
