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I wrote thread about ONE and how he became mangaka with two of the most popular and highly rated series right now despite not knowing how to draw some months back- and now I'm continuing this bit of introduction bit of historic bit of appreciation threads with next entry cause why not.
Rumiko Takahashi is probably known best for her shonen manga Inuyasha that was released between 1996 and 2008 and adapted in to popular anime by same name in 2000. Inuyasha wasn't her first work, it was her fourth major manga, and it surely wasn't her last manga either. Between her debut in 1978 and today, she has continuously put out new shonen manga series her newest being manga series Mao that she started last year. That's quite admirable career of 40+ years, especially when it doesn't just include one big popular series, but several including Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, One Pound Gospel, Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha. And not only her stuff is popular, she's also best-selling female mangaka with over 100 million copies sold world-wide.
I haven't personally read all of her stuff nor seen them as anime form, since in proper shonen style her series are really long and some of them are bit hard to find, even around internet. I will focus this on works from her that I have actually read, these being mostly three series: Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha and Kyokai No Rinne. My first touch with Takahashi's work was Ranma 1/2 that she drew before starting Inuyasha, between 1987 and 1996 to be exact so yup just before Inuyasha was released. I was in high school back in the day and my hometowns library had some mangas, not lot of them, but Ranma 1/2 was one of those and I was quite into it back then.
Quickly about the story for those interested, Ranma 1/2 is kinda martial arts slash school series, but the main thing definitely is in the comedic and romantic elements and martial arts and school just backdrop for that. The story is about boy named Ranma who dropped into cursed well and turns now into girl everytime he's splashed with cold water and back to boy when he's splashed with hot water. While Ranma is mostly into martial arts, his father promised him as fiance for Akane, which neither Ranma nor Akane aren't most happy about. Since all Ranma, girl Ranma and Akane have and just gain more people who are interested of them, there soon isn't only love triangle going on, but tangled and messy love web between the cast.
The ecchi elements even then felt bit too much (never was big fan of ecchi and oh boy the nudity in this anime is quite over the top.. it's not exactly similar to most ecchi, but it's a lot), I did like the humor of it and I kinda had crush on Ryoga back then. Though I still Akane- and her sister Nabiki, were the starts of the series for me.
(i totally shipped these two and rooted for Ryoga instead of Ranma)
Later on I read Inuyasha which was different in sense that it was lot less episodic and comedy-driven, and focused more in the story. Story being that Kagome the school girl from our time ends up in the medieval Japan meets half-yokai(=demon) Inuyasha and they end travelling together and with some other people in dark fantasy setting to try to prevent big bad demon taking over. I don't think I still ended up liking it as much as Ranma 1/2, but I did enjoy it a lot as well. Like i think the overall story was better for sure, Ranma's story and it's development due to episodic nature and focus on comedy instead of the story was quite all over the place, but for some reason I found Ranma's characters more memorable. Though gotta say I always found Sesshoumaru design gorgerous and also liked the dark fantasy, medieval Japan themes going on.
Later on I read many of her one-shots, which were pretty much same stuff as her longer mangas, and then Kyokai no Rinne which I still haven't finished (hard to find translations but managed to find one that is still middle of translating last chapters, anticipating the finale). Kyokai no Rinne has lot of elements of Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, but although it deals with demons and spirits and bit of folklore of Japan similarly as Inuyasha instead of being story driven dark-fantasy it's episodic comedy series that centers around school similar to Ranma. Though I had to admit Sakura's nonchalant and unbothered attitude even craziest stuff happening is such mood... maybe Rinne is bit boring to me just cause lot of stuff especially love triangles.. and webs, and some jokes already feel done. Ah and plot, well Sakura finds out that one of her school mates, Rinne, is half Shinigami and ends up helping him out in his exocirsm job. And as always with Rumikos work, love triangles and comedic situations happen.
That all brings me to next topic which is themes that Rumiko uses through her mangas. Rumiko Takahashi used lot of similar themes, character types and designs, same type of comedy and story-telling in her mangas from all that I have gotten chance to read. Even her art style is quite unfaced of the time, if you look at her earlier work such as Urusei Yatsura from 70s and her newest work of Mao that came out last year, you can clearly tell it's by same person. I think you can see it in panels of Ranma, Inuyasha and Rinne i posted as well. But using same themes is not necessary bad thing, even if it can create some themes being repeated too much, especially if someone plans to go through all her work. Cause it also just means that she has found her own style both as artist and story-teller and being true to it through the time and it works well for her.
Still, some similarities for the end;
Love triangles.. or webs
Shits gets crazy, and it's pretty much same in Inuyasha and Kyokai no Rinne
Comedic elements
Kyokai no Rinne / Ranma 1/2 (kicking or punching people or stuff far away)
Japanese / East Asian fantasy, mythological and historical elements
from martial arts and curses to youkais to shinigamis, among other smaller elements through the mangas
As conclusion, Rumiko Takashi as Queen of Shonen: Overall Rumiko Takahashi can be named as queen of manga, but due to her contribution to shonen in particular i think she can be named as Queen of Shonen as well. One of interesting point of her work is definitely is her work being mostly under genre of shonen- which is anime and manga aimed for boys under 18- despite it being romance heavy. The notion of female mangaka making romance shonens is quite intriguing to me, and in her it shows that the romance and characters seem to be aimed towards both genders (at least to me) instead of just boys or girls. For example her female characters are more multi-dimensional (well main characters), and have more agency and screentime than most female chacters in shonen series tend to have. Still, there is also lot of fanservice, even going to direction of ecchi with Ranma 1/2 and the overall tone is far from shoujo.
... i'm beat so i'll probably check any typos and such later if i have energy, probably not..
And thanks for reading for those that got to this point (even if you just skimmed it xd)
Rumiko Takahashi is probably known best for her shonen manga Inuyasha that was released between 1996 and 2008 and adapted in to popular anime by same name in 2000. Inuyasha wasn't her first work, it was her fourth major manga, and it surely wasn't her last manga either. Between her debut in 1978 and today, she has continuously put out new shonen manga series her newest being manga series Mao that she started last year. That's quite admirable career of 40+ years, especially when it doesn't just include one big popular series, but several including Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, One Pound Gospel, Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha. And not only her stuff is popular, she's also best-selling female mangaka with over 100 million copies sold world-wide.
I haven't personally read all of her stuff nor seen them as anime form, since in proper shonen style her series are really long and some of them are bit hard to find, even around internet. I will focus this on works from her that I have actually read, these being mostly three series: Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha and Kyokai No Rinne. My first touch with Takahashi's work was Ranma 1/2 that she drew before starting Inuyasha, between 1987 and 1996 to be exact so yup just before Inuyasha was released. I was in high school back in the day and my hometowns library had some mangas, not lot of them, but Ranma 1/2 was one of those and I was quite into it back then.
Quickly about the story for those interested, Ranma 1/2 is kinda martial arts slash school series, but the main thing definitely is in the comedic and romantic elements and martial arts and school just backdrop for that. The story is about boy named Ranma who dropped into cursed well and turns now into girl everytime he's splashed with cold water and back to boy when he's splashed with hot water. While Ranma is mostly into martial arts, his father promised him as fiance for Akane, which neither Ranma nor Akane aren't most happy about. Since all Ranma, girl Ranma and Akane have and just gain more people who are interested of them, there soon isn't only love triangle going on, but tangled and messy love web between the cast.
The ecchi elements even then felt bit too much (never was big fan of ecchi and oh boy the nudity in this anime is quite over the top.. it's not exactly similar to most ecchi, but it's a lot), I did like the humor of it and I kinda had crush on Ryoga back then. Though I still Akane- and her sister Nabiki, were the starts of the series for me.
Later on I read Inuyasha which was different in sense that it was lot less episodic and comedy-driven, and focused more in the story. Story being that Kagome the school girl from our time ends up in the medieval Japan meets half-yokai(=demon) Inuyasha and they end travelling together and with some other people in dark fantasy setting to try to prevent big bad demon taking over. I don't think I still ended up liking it as much as Ranma 1/2, but I did enjoy it a lot as well. Like i think the overall story was better for sure, Ranma's story and it's development due to episodic nature and focus on comedy instead of the story was quite all over the place, but for some reason I found Ranma's characters more memorable. Though gotta say I always found Sesshoumaru design gorgerous and also liked the dark fantasy, medieval Japan themes going on.
Later on I read many of her one-shots, which were pretty much same stuff as her longer mangas, and then Kyokai no Rinne which I still haven't finished (hard to find translations but managed to find one that is still middle of translating last chapters, anticipating the finale). Kyokai no Rinne has lot of elements of Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, but although it deals with demons and spirits and bit of folklore of Japan similarly as Inuyasha instead of being story driven dark-fantasy it's episodic comedy series that centers around school similar to Ranma. Though I had to admit Sakura's nonchalant and unbothered attitude even craziest stuff happening is such mood... maybe Rinne is bit boring to me just cause lot of stuff especially love triangles.. and webs, and some jokes already feel done. Ah and plot, well Sakura finds out that one of her school mates, Rinne, is half Shinigami and ends up helping him out in his exocirsm job. And as always with Rumikos work, love triangles and comedic situations happen.
That all brings me to next topic which is themes that Rumiko uses through her mangas. Rumiko Takahashi used lot of similar themes, character types and designs, same type of comedy and story-telling in her mangas from all that I have gotten chance to read. Even her art style is quite unfaced of the time, if you look at her earlier work such as Urusei Yatsura from 70s and her newest work of Mao that came out last year, you can clearly tell it's by same person. I think you can see it in panels of Ranma, Inuyasha and Rinne i posted as well. But using same themes is not necessary bad thing, even if it can create some themes being repeated too much, especially if someone plans to go through all her work. Cause it also just means that she has found her own style both as artist and story-teller and being true to it through the time and it works well for her.
Still, some similarities for the end;
Love triangles.. or webs
Shits gets crazy, and it's pretty much same in Inuyasha and Kyokai no Rinne
Comedic elements
Kyokai no Rinne / Ranma 1/2 (kicking or punching people or stuff far away)
Japanese / East Asian fantasy, mythological and historical elements
from martial arts and curses to youkais to shinigamis, among other smaller elements through the mangas
As conclusion, Rumiko Takashi as Queen of Shonen: Overall Rumiko Takahashi can be named as queen of manga, but due to her contribution to shonen in particular i think she can be named as Queen of Shonen as well. One of interesting point of her work is definitely is her work being mostly under genre of shonen- which is anime and manga aimed for boys under 18- despite it being romance heavy. The notion of female mangaka making romance shonens is quite intriguing to me, and in her it shows that the romance and characters seem to be aimed towards both genders (at least to me) instead of just boys or girls. For example her female characters are more multi-dimensional (well main characters), and have more agency and screentime than most female chacters in shonen series tend to have. Still, there is also lot of fanservice, even going to direction of ecchi with Ranma 1/2 and the overall tone is far from shoujo.
... i'm beat so i'll probably check any typos and such later if i have energy, probably not..
And thanks for reading for those that got to this point (even if you just skimmed it xd)
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