Rumiko Takahashi submits brief stories about her characters! What is the concept behind the Inuyasha Bankotsu?

Manga artist Rumiko Takahashi, creator of numerous popular manga such as Ranma ½, Inuyasha and Mao, is now posting brief stories about her characters on Twitter!

 

She also talks about the birth stories of the characters and the character voices of the voice actors who performed in the anime, making it a must-see for fans.

 

 

 

Rumiko Takahashi is posting brief stories about her characters on Twitter!

Rumiko Takahashi is posting a series of brief stories about her characters on Twitter!

 

She talks about the origin of the character names and birth secret stories about her past works such as Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ½, Inuyasha, and Rin-ne, as well as the character voices of the voice actors who worked on the anime.

 

We have compiled them by work, so please take a look.

 

 

Urusei Yatsura

Ataru Moroboshi

 

Translate Tweet:

“Moroboshi*” is cool, isn’t he? Like Dan Moroboshi from Ultraseven and Daijiro Moroboshi (manga artist). I thought it would be nice to have a name related to a star. I named him “Ataru**” because he encounters various things.

 

*”Moroboshi” means “many and various stars” in Japanese. It is also used as a metaphor for a number of outstanding individuals.

**”Ataru” means to face or contact things or people in Japanese.

 

 

Ten

 

Translate Tweet:

I didn’t feel that he was a mascot in my mind, and I thought it would be fun to draw a character with a different attitude depending on the person. The character was rather well-developed from the beginning.

The voice of Kazuko Sugiyama is really cute, and it gave me the courage feeling that “With this, I can get away with any kind of hateful comments.

 

 

Oyuki

 

Translate Tweet:

This was a character that appeared in one episode of an irregular serialization. She was a classmate and childhood friend of Lum’s, and her coolness was emphasized in the character. I had a lot of fun drawing her, fleshing her out in various ways to differentiate her from Benten and Ran.

 

 

Maison Ikkoku

Shun Mitaka

 

Translate Tweet:

Editor at the time suggested creating a rival to Godai. I thought it would be good to have someone who was a bit too pretentious, so I came up with this character. The shiny teeth were intended as a gag, but I am glad that it became a trademark of the character.

I looked at the route map and thought that since there is a Yotsuya station, Mitaka* might be a good name for him.

 

*Japan also has Mitaka Station. In Maison Ikkoku, the characters’ names involve puns on numbers, Yotsuya has a number of 4 and Mitaka has a number of 3.

 

 

Ranma ½

Shampoo

 

Translate Tweet:

I wanted to give her a name that wasn’t a repetitive panda-type name, like Xiang Xiang. I thought it was kind of cute and like Chinese with Shan and Poo. I had someone who is familiar with Chinese write it in Chinese characters.

 

 

Nabiki Tendo

 

Translate Tweet:

I started out thinking that she would be a cool person, but she turned out to be a character I liked a lot. The miser was an afterthought. I was happy to hear Minami Takayama’s voice as the best match.

Being in the same class as Kuno, I thought a romance might develop, but it never happened.

 

 

Inuyasha

Koga

 

Translate Tweet:

I wanted to create a yōkai with a piece of the Shikon Jewel that would feed into the story. I did so because I thought it would be interesting in terms of development, rather than deciding to like Kagome from the beginning.

I also wanted to create a character with the ability to sense danger, as I thought a character who escapes without hesitation would not be bad.

 

 

Bankotsu

 

Translate Tweet:

Since he was the top of the Band of Seven, the concept was “young and cool”. Also, I made him as scary as possible like he was going to take off heads as a greeting.

There were no characters with braids in the Inuyasha world since Hiten, so it was familiar with the action moves.

“Ban” came from the barbarians*. Takeshi Kusao’s voice was great.

 

*Barbarians are called Banzoku in Japanese.

 

 

Kirara

 

Translate Tweet:

Mineral connection from Sango (coral) and Kohaku (amber)*. When Inuyasha and others entered the village of the exterminators, I thought it would be interesting if there was something there, so I came up with it on the spur of the moment.

 

*Kirara means mica in English.

 

 

Rin-ne

Sabato Rokudo

 

Translate Tweet:

I really wanted a villain, so I created this character in the sense that he is the great evil in Rin-ne. He is sloppy with money, greedy, and surprisingly not malicious. That’s the terrible part. That’s what I was trying to draw. His name is Saba, because his grandfather is mackerel. I liked the sound of “sabato” because it has a demonic image (sabbath).

 

*Saba is Japanese for mackerel.

 

 

Ms. Takahashi has posted many other small stories, so please follow her and check them out.

 

 

Rumiko Takahashi Official Twitter

© Rumiko Takahashi / Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise 2000