Why A Manga Genius Abandoned His Masterpiece

Hiatus a word most manga fans are familiar with due to the intense physical and mental demands of creating manga most series experience a Hiatus once or twice during publication but there are a few series that probably come to mind above all else when the word is mentioned Hunter Hunter berserk and Vagabond well all three are known for extensive and frequent hiatuses one of them stands out Hunter Hunter has spent most of its lifes span on Hiatus but every year or so Togashi releases a batch of chapters as a matter of fact just recently he posted posted a picture of himself working on the manga to Twitter berserk also spent many years on and off Hiatus but with Mira's unfortunate passing a few years ago the Reigns shifted to Studio Gaga and they have been releasing chapters more or less regularly ever since so that leaves Vagabond which hasn't seen a new chapter since 2015 takahiko inoi has finished manga before massively popular and critically acclaimed ones at that he's also still working on another series albeit very infrequently which was last updated as recently as a few months ago so why has Vagabond viewed by most as his greatest work Ino himself included been untouched for the better part of a decade what led to this man practically abandoning his Masterpiece well to understand that we have to go back to the [Music] beginning [Music] inway was born January 12th of 1967 in kagoshima a prefixer at the southern tip of Japan's kushu Island from an early age inway was fond of drawing and he always assumed he would work in some artistic field but he was unsure of which direction he would take despite reading manga as most kids did becoming a manga artist wouldn't be a thought in his mind until until years later it was the experiences he had in high school that eventually led him down this path in junior high Ino would join both the Kendo and basketball clubs at his school the latter in order to impress girls does that sound familiar similar to the main character of his manga slam dunk he joined for super official reasons but found himself falling in love with the sport and growing immensely because of it his team was not very good they lost more than they won but through all the losses and the occasional wins he learned many things he came to greatly appreciate the progress he made with his team something he would hold on to all his life and eventually put in his manga this energy was also something he found in a certain manga series around this time Ino way discovered dokaben a baseball manga created by Shinji mizushima the manga displayed an immense passion for team sports something Ino himself had just recently developed and immediately inway felt a connection to this story it's hard to find out much about this series online all I could find were some scans of the manga as it was originally published meaning in Japanese but what I can make out from the illustrations was that a rough delinquent sort of character rolls into this high school and joins a baseball team now pairing that with ino's experience in his high school basketball club we get a pretty vivid picture of how slam dunk was formed though it would be quite some time before that would happen inay's discovery of doab Ben is almost certainly what set him down the path of becoming a manga artist it came at the perfect time a transitional period where he was unsure of the direction he wanted to take with his [Music] life at the end of his senior year in high school inway came to an impass he desperately wanted to become an artist but he felt his skills weren't at a high enough level to pursue Fine Arts in University this is a bit ironic looking back because inway has some of the most stunning picturesque art in the medium but back then it was a different story that style is something he would develop after years of experience instead of taking any formal art training say for a prep school course in the summer of his senior year inaway went to Kumamoto University to study literature now you may be thinking this is where he developed his phenomenal writing skills his ability to create intensely emotional characters in philosophical plot lines but it's not inway dropped out before even completing his first year you see while he was studying inway was sending manuscripts to Shonen Jump rookie contest within a few months his work was noticed by editor Tao Nakamura who not only encouraged him to continue drawing but also got him a gig as an assistant on a popular series titled City Hunter created by Hojo sukasa it's under Suk his wing that inoa would really begin to flourish spending 10 or so months learning from a Bonafide and popular Pro the following year 1988 inoa would submit a One-Shot titled KDAY purple to shua for the semiannual tezuka contest and he'd go on to win the grand prize this award is a massive step for manga artist and it served to launch the careers of many of the most successful creators the medium has ever seen yoshihiro Togashi teshi obada masanori Morita Hiro Yuki te and of course Ino himself needless to say the award itself was a huge milestone for inway but the work he submitted was equally as if not more important Sports manga have always been popular but prior to KDAY purple there had never been one about basketball inay's most cherished sport with the major success of the one shot inaway was ready to take on a serialization taking all he had learned and using the knowledge that a basketball manga would do well inaway began working on chameleon jail I'll bet you thought I was going to say slam dunk and honestly I was a bit shocked to learn of this series too but slam dunk wouldn't start until the following year Ino worked as the illustrator alongside kazuhiko Watanabe on chameleon jail a story about a shape-shifting detective from the end of July to October 16th of 1989 it lasted only a couple volumes so clearly it was not a big success little is known about the creative process behind this obscure manga from the 80s but based on the following trajectory of ino's career one can only assume the experience on the series convinced in a way that it would be best to work alone and boy was that ever a good decision because his next work would explode flod into Japan's cultural Zeitgeist and leave an impact that lasts to this [Music] day in 1990 inway began slam dunk this series combines everything inway has learned about manga with his immense passion for the sport of basketball into what is arguably and you'd have a damn easy time making this argument the greatest sports manga of all time slam dunk was a massive success almost instantly its eye-catching Art In level characters grasped audience attention and never let go slam dunk follows sakuragi hanamichi a rather slow delinquent teen who joins his high school's basketball team in order to impress a girl only he has no skills for the sport whatsoever as the plot progresses sakuragi grows both in skill and as a person and comes to form indestructible bonds with his teammates it's an Underdog Story through and through sakuragi's unabating efforts to improve deeply resonated with the Japanese readers it took only a few months of publication for inway to begin receiving letters from fans describing how much they Lov the story and more importantly how it inspired them to take up playing basketball deeply moved inway would pour even more of his heart into the Story 3 years later slam dunk would get a TV anime adaptation sending basketball's popularity in Japan to theing Moon I could go into much more detail about the cultural revolution behind this manga but that isn't exactly what this video is about still this is important context for in's career so let's do a rapid fire round of facts between 1990 and 1995 over one million Japanese citizens began playing basketball through high school and recreational leagues volumes 21- 23 shattered the initial bookprint run with 2.5 million copies each a record that wouldn't be broken until 2002 by a certain pirate manga in 1994 the series was awarded the 40th annual shogakukan award in the shownin category slam dunk remains to this day 30 years later the bestselling Sports manga of all time with over 170 million copies in circulation worldwide slam dunk was the first manga inway put his all into he pulled things out of his heart and soul threw them on the page and sold millions of copies his deep intense love for the sport is evident all the way through to the end of the series and even passed into his later career it wouldn't be ridiculous to claim that he might have even more passion for basketball than manga following the very very successful years of Slam Dunk publication inway would launch a short online manga called buzzer beater again the story was about basketball that bug just couldn't escape his mind he loved it way too much but it would only last 2 years four volumes total after buzzer beater inway was hardly drawing anything and was seriously considering just ending his manga career that was when an editor handed him a novel there was no intention to spark inspiration he did this simply to help inway kill time that novel was moushi by AJ yoshikawa a fictionalization of famed philosopher mamoto mhi's life inway cracked the book open began reading and was a struck his hand started shaking with the desire to to draw these characters later that year Vagabond would begin [Music] publication from page one the impact yoshik kaba's novel had on inway is evident inway said he wanted to draw these characters and this story but when you read vagamon it seems more like he was born to do so feudal Japan is Illustrated with Incredible detail the series is filled with many stunning illustrations of nature that sometimes focus on small details such as a blade of grass or a droplet of rain with Precision that seems inhuman incredibly this level of detail would remain throughout the series even after he switched from using pens to brushes for the art with the brush lacking control it makes up for with line fluidity anyway his Line work is so seamless it almost feels like it's breathing but somehow inway manages to keep the same detail with his brush work that he had with his pens how I couldn't begin to tell you but why he made that choice that I can see inway was inspired by the director Akira Kurosawa who has such an incredible laundry list that we'd be here for hours if I went through it but kurasawa produced the most iconic Samurai movies of all time so naturally inway saw it as the gold standard and wanted his work to be reminiscent of it the switch over to brushes was in order to capture that gritty dark feeling kurasa was films embodied but reading through Vagabond it's clear Kurosawa had a large impact on the way Vagabond is laid out Vagabond as a samurai story of course has many battle scenes every last one of them is Illustrated beautifully and painel in a way that flows like you're watching a film film having just worked on a sports manga something that obviously includes a lot of physical activity in a way mastered the ability to accurately depict the human body's movement pairing that with the subject matter and Inspirations of Vagabond inway created a samurai story kurasawa himself would have in all likelihood very much appreciated enway had a lot to say with vagabon he wanted to cover more complex Concepts such as life and death and The Human Condition but he also felt that the Japanese people had lost touch with their history he himself certainly had so he hoped that he could spark some interest in it through Vagabond well that he certainly did Vagabond was a massive success in the year 2000 he won the grand prize at the fourth Japan media arts festival later that year Vagabond won the 24th annual kodona manga award in the general Category 2 years after that Vagabond won inway the grand prize of the sixth tzuka Osama cultural award which is one of the most if not the most prestigious award in manga but before all that inway would start up a second Series in 1999 running in tandem with vagabon this series was titled real it follows three high school students two of which are wheelchair bound who make efforts to better themselves through the sport of basketball after seeing televised games of wheelchair basketball inway was inspired he saw these athletes pursuing the sport they and inway alike love in spite of their physical condition and he needed to draw it real is an intensely emotional Story one that confronts some of the hardest subjects in life characters experience in Array of struggles and emotions they face the fear that they are not enough question whether they even can be enough because of their disabilities but continue to try regardless of any of that Vagabond and real are both stories that do an incredible job of exploring The Human Condition what it means to live how one should go about living but they do it from two different perspectives Vagabond is a very solitary story it follows one man on a self-centered path who through his isolation comes to realize the error in his ways whereas real follows multiple characters who feel limited by their own condition and it is through other people that they grow this is speculation but with what we know about inay's life how he values team sports and the bonds formed from them it seems likely that Real's way of addressing these topics was more personal and approachable to inway there's also no denying inay's love for basketball as a sport regardless both series would continue to be massively successful winning Awards and selling millions of copies neatly coexisting for over a decade but I think we all know where this is going in April of 2009 inway was interviewed by Japanese newspaper nishon ion shimun that was very hard to pronounce for me at this time both real and Vagabond were being regularly and successfully published in a way tells the interviewer that he suspects Vagabond will end in a year or two though he wasn't exactly sure of how it would end he was certain that the pieces of his story were taking their final positions the next year 2010 inway reaffirms what he said in the interview but that summer inway Falls ill and both his series go on hiatus in October he holds another interview where he States his health is much better and speaks on the state of vag but you must feel the desire to draw manga though right Vagabond in particular the interviewer asks I'd reached a point where I wasn't even sure of that I became unsure of where I was heading couldn't even remember where I'd started from in the first place that's how busy I was I was stuck doing the work for external factors for so long that I'd forgotten to look inside myself in a way responds he then adds well speaking in terms of what I want to do as I said before I really don't at all have the urge to work on it right now but I do know that if I don't work on it I'll be in trouble down the road and that's basically what was keeping me going until I went on Hiatus I don't think that's a good way of going about it my hope is to stay away from Vagabond until all those unnecessary worries and emotions are gone and I'm ready to draw it because I want to draw it I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to wait that long though December of 2010 real resumes publication vagamon stays on Hiatus inway post to his blog saying vagamon will stay on Hiatus until he regains enthusiasm for the series when asked why that is the case and if working on two series is so different any a way responds totally different with real I almost never worry about trying to do something completely original or Express things stylishly or at least I don't in terms of the artwork anyway Vagabond is where I try to do new things with the art and draw the best that I can so in that sense drawing is pure enjoyment whereas real is me drawing squarely within my normal capabilities it's like I've got two different modes the process is almost like cooking with real Vagabond is something more personal there's no formula it feels like I'm making something that's not quite manga Vagabond is almost something like running around a mountain or swimming in a river and that there are no rules but I have to use everything I have in me in every situation which is also what's so exhausting about it I've been putting a ton of effort into the whole manga process for real lately and I've rediscovered a joy in it that vagabon never gave me the joy of manga and being a professional manga artist it must be how everyone else feels when they're drawing manga inway seems to see working on Vagabond as a pursuit of perfection or if not that then something quite close he feels this pressure to make it original and as good as it can possibly be after recovering from an illness he had no motivation to work on Vagabond because of that self-imposed pressure but with real he felt he could just enjoy drawing manga it came to him easier and I think that the content of the story being basketball and proving oneself through an activity not only felt more comfortable with anyway's interests but with where he was at creatively he was trying to learn to enjoy drawing manga again to improve his approach to working on his manga just like his characters in real Vagabond would remain on Hiatus until March of 2012 with the release of chapter 3001 all the while real would continue its publication with a new chapter every month or so it wasn't a completely regular schedule but it was being published nonetheless when Vagabond returned in 2012 it stayed until 2014 releasing nearly three full volumes worth of chapters in February of 2014 following the release of chapter 322 inway announced the series would be going on a 4-month Hiatus for research purposes that Hiatus lasted nearly a year in January of 2015 inway released chapter 32 23 in February 324 March 325 April 326 May 327 and that was the Final Chapter ever released at this point real also began a long Hiatus no chapter was seen until 2019 and that year saw only three chapters 85 through 93 of real were published between 2019 and 2021 chapter 9 was published earlier this year anyways manga all saw great success he loved the stories he created so why it's hard to say why someone does or doesn't do something when you're not that person but what isn't hard to say is that writing is hard writing good stuff is anyway anyone can write some schlock and ship it off to Publishers but that isn't what inway has been working with in his hands inway has a masterpiece it's clear he holds Vagabond with an extreme level of reverence in his mind and when both a wide audience and you yourself view the thing you've created as an important piece of art the pressure is just unimaginable based on what he has said it's clear in way refuses to continue Vagabond unless what he creates is absolutely perfect an ideal that is made all the more hard to obtain by the pressure he puts on himself one that is also exacerbated by the expectations of millions of fans waiting around the world an expectation that increases as every single day passes for anyway it is easier to fall back on real a story that does not have those personal and worldwide expectations on it a story he actually enjoys writing not doing so under the everpresent shadow of perfection like he has to with Vagabond as consumers it's easy for us to sit in our Lazy Boy recliners and complain about the lazy writer just draw the manga already just write Winds of Winter George just get to it what's the deal but what we don't see and what we don't understand are the years of effort Blood Sweat tears pain research Dedication that went into building these stories up to how well regarded they are now and how the fear of not being able to conclude all that in a satisfying way not even for the readers but for the sake of the art for the story itself is crippling no amount of reassurance from fans or editors or whoever is going to change the fact that if in isn't 100% satisfied with every last panel every last line he draws he is going to regret it for the rest of his life to you that might seem a bit Overkill but to him to Anyone who puts their soul into something that is the bare minimum and anything less would be a complete disgrace so to answer the question I asked at the beginning why did inaway practically abandon Vagabond well because perfecting your life's work something many people consider a masterpiece is the most frightening and daunting task UR creative mind can face it's not pathetic to be afraid in the face of that nor should he be condemned for it all artists and writers are people too that fact doesn't change just because they reached some literary Pinnacle they don't suddenly become writing Gods capable of overcoming Monumental things the average person could not in a way is still that same kid fresh out of high school afraid his skills aren't good enough to pursue what he wants to do he's also that same kid that experienced many of his happiest moments of his life on his high school basketball court basketball is possibly his biggest passion and he has a deeply personal ongoing work about it to fall back on when he feels incapable of drawing Vagabond and that's fine does that mean Vagabond will never return no absolutely not and I guess it isn't really fair to say he abandoned it though that makes for quite the catching title last year with the release of the new Slam Dunk movie inway did an interview in which he commented on the state of Vagabond what he said is that he fully intends to return to the series and in the near future too whether that means a year two five nobody can tell but not all hope is lost he hasn't just given up completely but he has wavered under the immense pressure that comes with creating such a piece of work which is a very normal human thing to do so as fans we should eagerly await the manga's return while showing some compassion for the person behind it

Channel: Dylcor

Views: 949,206

Keywords: Manga, documentary, vagabond, why vagabond is on hiatus, new vagabond chapter, takehiko inoue, slam dunk, anime, REAL manga, shonen jump, Vagabond hiatus, Vagabond news, manga artist, manga creator, manga drawing

Id: wpSDzYf-pUI

Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2023