Inoue Interview

This is an article about my most favorite Japanese illustrator, Takehiko Inoue. If you are a fan of Slam Dunk manga, you can see the evolution of his style and techniques which become more and more mature in each and every volume. And now with his Vagabond and Real manga, Takehiko Inoue is already becoming a house hold name and terrific artist with distinguished characteristic.

Takehiko Inoue, manga artist and the creator of Slam Dunk, arrived in New York City to paint a mural featuring characters from his other award-winning manga series, Vagabond. At just 40 years old, Inoue-sensei is a manga creator whose artistry and masterful storytelling has won him countless awards and fans around the world.

Inoue's mural painting event commemorated several events: the opening of the Books Kinokuniya Bryant Park store, and the late-summer release of his two basketball manga series, Slam Dunk and Real. VIZ Media will also release Inoue's two art books, Sumi and Water, plus a new omnibus edition of Vagabond in September 2008.

Dressed in low-key style in a soft black sweater and sneakers, Inoue-sensei was casual and friendly as he met and talked with several reporters. It's hard to explain, but as I watched him paint the finishing touches on his mural and mingle with well-wishers, he really did remind me of his manga characters: the street-smart athlete, the confident warrior, and the wise, easy-going monk.

I got a chance to chat with Inoue-sensei before he added the finishing touches on his mural, and we talked about his manga, his love for sports and his relationship with his readers.

Q: So when did you start working on this mural?

Takehiko Inoue: I started on Saturday.

Q: What made you decide to do this mural? It's a very unique project.

Takehiko Inoue: Just because it seemed kind of interesting and fun to do. (Note: Inoue-sensei completed most of the mural in a few hours over the weekend and added only a few finishing touches on Monday at the VIP and press reception.)

Q: We'll talk about the Vagabond, the characters that were painted for this mural in a bit, but I wanted to begin by talking about the series that was your first major success, Slam Dunk. Slam Dunk was first published in America in 2002 by Raijin Comics. When they went out of business, Slam Dunk was in limbo for some time. What made you decide that to try again with VIZ?

Takehiko Inoue: I thought it was a good idea to put it out again. Since Raijin had only put out five volumes, I thought it would make sense to put some space between that set of books before coming out with new editions.

Q: Slam Dunk is a manga about basketball, and I noticed in your bio that you played basketball in high school. What attracted you to the sport, and why draw a manga about basketball in particular?

Takehiko Inoue: I joined the basketball club in high school. The situation for basketball in Japan is very different than it is in the United States, as far as popularity. But I started playing because I wanted to be popular with the girls (laughs).
As far as the manga, in Slam Dunk, I wanted to convey the feelings of winning and losing, how an athlete feels when they improve, get better at their sport.

Q: Your sports manga has a lot of fast-paced, high adrenaline action. You really feel like you're there on the court with the athletes, and you can't help but get swept up in their emotions as they play. How do you capture the spirit of the game so well?

Takehiko Inoue: Basketball is one of my hobbies, so I'm always watching videos, reading magazines, looking at photos. But also, when I draw the manga, I'm drawing from my memories of playing, kind of like muscle memory. So I try to emphasize the little things that only a person who's played the game would know, like how it feels to hold the ball, how to shoot and how to handle the ball.

Q: One thing that people often mention about your storytelling is that you always include such great cliffhangers, that you pace your stories with a lot of compelling drama. Did that style of storytelling come naturally to you, or did you develop it over time?

Takehiko Inoue: I've never studied it, but when you draw a weekly serial, a story that you draw week after week, at some point, you develop the ability to do this.

Q: Another thing people love about your stories is that your characters are so complex, so with three-dimensional personalities. Are they based on people you know? Do you have a particular favorite character that's close to your heart?

Takehiko Inoue: A part of me is in each of my characters, so it's difficult to say that I have a particular favorite.

Q: My friend mentioned that she thought you looked like Takuan. (The monk from Vagabond)! (laughs)

Takehiko Inoue: (laughs) A lot of people tell me that!

Q: You went from Slam Dunk, and then went on to draw Vagabond and Real. While Vagabond still has a lot of action, there's also a theme about Musashi's spiritual evolution as a person, not just his sword-fighting skills. Is this change of emphasis a reflection on your personal evolution as well?

Takehiko Inoue: Yes, right. I wrote Slam Dunk when I was in my twenties. I had a simpler perspective on life when I was younger. At that time, my goals were more about winning and success. Now that I'm older, I know there's more to life than that.

Q: All of your male characters, from Slam Dunk, Real and Vagabond are very masculine, and your stories are very much from a guy's perspective for guys, primarily. Did it surprise you that your stories attract so many female fans as well?

Takehiko Inoue: I've always had a lot of female fans for my work, so it wasn't too much of a surprise.

Q: Your manga did a lot to make basketball more popular in Japan. What is basketball like now in Japan, compared to America?

Takehiko Inoue: Right after the manga came out, middle school and high school basketball clubs in Japan saw an increase in membership. But there's not much change at the top levels of the game, no significant pro leagues like there are in America, no stand-out superstar.
I think that the basketball association in Japan is perhaps not putting enough effort into promoting the sport in Japan. But that's just my personal opinion as a fan. (laughs)

Q: So I read that you started a Slam Dunk Scholarship for Japanese students, to send an aspiring athlete to a U.S. prep school to study and play basketball in America. Is that your effort to promote the sport?

Takehiko Inoue: I'm a fan of basketball, and Japanese basketball. I want basketball in Japan to be something that kids can really be into, and have a goal to play at the top levels of the game. That's one reason. The other reason is that my success as a manga artist is largely due to basketball, and so I want to give back to the sport. So having the player ultimately play in the NBA would be great – there would be nothing better than that. But that's not the goal of scholarship. I'd like the scholarship recipient to gain experience, and then whatever happens to them, wherever they go, I'd like for them to bring that experience back with them to Japan.

Q: Slam Dunk is a manga about Japanese high school athletes. Did it surprise you that Slam Dunk became so popular with readers in Europe, Asia and South America as well?

Takehiko Inoue: I feel that when people from other countries read Slam Dunk, they don't think of the characters as being Japanese. They think of as being the same as the people around them.

Q: Let's talk a bit about Vagabond, your current series. As a story set in feudal versus modern Japan, it's quite a change from Slam Dunk. I know it's based on the novel Musahi by Eiji Yoshikawa; what made you decide to choose this story as your follow-up after the success of Slam Dunk?

Takehiko Inoue: A basic reason that I decided to do Vagabond is that when I read Musashi, images just kept popping up in my head of what Musashi was like, what the characters would look like. The other reason is that after drawing a sports manga, I wanted to make a shift to a more serious story with more basic concepts, like life and death, the human condition, etc.

Q: Your artwork for Vagabond is just amazing, so detailed and dynamic. How long does it take for you to draw a chapter?

Takehiko Inoue: It takes me a week.

Q: Seriously? That's very fast for the amount of detail you put into it!

Takehiko Inoue: It's in a weekly magazine, so if I don't draw it in a week, it won't make it into the magazine! (laughs) But I don't draw it all myself. I draw all the people, and my assistants draw all the backgrounds.

Q: Still, that's amazing. How many assistants do you have?

Takehiko Inoue: Five.

Q: Phew. Wow. (everyone laughs) In Vagabond, the Miyamoto Musashi you draw is very different than the legendary swordsman we know from samurai movies and from his book of strategy, The Book of Five Rings. He's young, fierce and untamed. How did people react when you came out with your version?

Takehiko Inoue: Early on, I was told that my version is very different than any other version of the story of Miyamoto Musashi that has been told before. The Book of Five Rings, that was written by Musashi right before he died. In Vagabond, I'm portraying Musashi as he was as a young man, and nobody really knows how he was at that age. I also feel like there was no reason to portray Musashi in his enlightened state. I think it's important to convey the process of a young man reaching that point of enlightenment when he comes from a place of being so like an animal when he was younger.

Q: This is an ongoing series, right? How many volumes do you foresee that this story will be when it's completed?

Takehiko Inoue: (laughs, then pauses for a bit) I think maybe 29 volumes... less than 30, probably, but I'm not sure. (Note: Vagabond is up to 27 volumes in Japan so far)

Q: I've talked with several publishers here in the U.S. and they've said that so far, sports manga has been a hard sell to American audiences. Do you think Slam Dunk will be received differently?

Takehiko Inoue: The United States is a country that loves sports. With Slam Dunk, I’m trying to convey the feelings that people have when they're playing sports, when they love sports. These feelings are universal, so I'm not too worried about people responding to my work when I think of it that way.

Q: On that note, do you have any messages that you'd like to share with your fans, with your American readers who already love your work, and those who will soon be discovering it for the first time?

Takehiko Inoue: I'm very excited about my manga being published in different countries, and I'm especially excited about having it available in the United States. I consider the act of creating manga to be a kind of solitary experience, but when the reader reads my manga, I feel like I'm having one-on-one contact with them, even when I know it's being read by many, many readers all over the world. That's very rewarding for me, and it makes it all worthwhile.