“As a writer, I’m just happy that so many people read my work.”

–Your first serialization was in 1990 with the comic adaptation of the TV anime “Karakuri Kengoden Musashi Road” (Nippon TV). You serialized “I’m a Man! Kunio-kun” from 1991, and “Pokémon” from 1996, and have dedicated the majority of your career to comic adaptations. What prompted you to try your hand at an original manga like “Sauna Wars” at the age of 67?

Professor Kosaku Anakubo (hereinafter the same)To conclude, I think it’s because human death has become closer to us.

As I get older, the people around me start to pass away one after the other, and I find myself picking up bones at funerals more and more often. In fact, I lost my wife five years ago.

I myself am beginning to realize that I am getting old, I can no longer draw manga as I would like, and I am no longer sure when I will die.

When I started to think that I didn’t have a future, I suddenly wanted to draw a story manga, something I had always dreamed of. I moved to Tokyo when I was 18 and spent about 10 years as an assistant, and even back then I had a strong desire to have a serialized story manga.

–So initially you were aiming to make a story manga, not a comedy manga!

I was also interested in gag manga itself, and when I was young I liked reading “Gaki Deka” (by Yamagami Tatsuhiko) and “Susume!! Pirates” (by Eguchi Hisashi). What’s more, gag manga has few pages and is easy to get published in magazines. In the midst of all this, I was approached by CoroCoro, and so I started working as a gag manga artist.

But I had always wanted to draw a story manga. However, the serialization of “Pokémon” was still ongoing, and I had children and was struggling to make ends meet, so I didn’t have many opportunities to draw original works.

–While you continued to work on comic book adaptations, you didn’t have any luck with story manga. Time passed, and in 2019, the long-running serialization of “Pokémon” in “Monthly CoroCoro Comic” came to an end after 23 years of serialization. The “Aniki Arc” is currently being serialized in CoroCoro Online, but do you feel like you’ve reached a turning point now that the serialization in the magazine has ended?

It’s true that with Pokémon over, I definitely had more time to work on manga. Gag manga usually have 15 pages per episode, so there isn’t much time to devote to each episode, but with “Sauna Wars” I could use a lot of pages.

In addition, because it’s not a comic book adaptation, there are no restrictions on expression, so it’s easier to use my own ideas. Although, since I haven’t done any story manga up until now, it’s hard to come up with a story from scratch (laughs).

I also realized once again how happy it is to have readers read my work. In the past, I was always chasing deadlines and didn’t really think much about my readers, but thanks to the power of social media, I now get direct feedback. As a writer, I’m just happy when a lot of people read my work. That’s what motivates me now.