Creator Naoki Urasawa

Interview

What inspired you to create the story of 20th Century Boys?

I had an idea for a manga that was based on some mysterious symbol. I was in the bath on the day I finished drawing Happy! [a series Urasawa drew before 20th], and a passage of a speech flashed in my head. It goes, “Without them we wouldn’t have lived to see the 21st Century. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 20th Century Boys!” I faxed the idea to the [Big Comic Spirits] editor right away. The memory of playing a T.Rex song, 20th Century Boy on the P.A. at my junior high school also came back to me. The episode of Kenji playing T.Rex is based on my own experience.

What happened when you played T.Rex on the school P.A.?

Like I drew in the manga, “Nothing changed(laughs).” In those days the only music you’d hear on the school P.A. would be some mellow easy listening stuff. I thought something hard as T.Rex would be revolutionary... but I guess many kids had similar experiences. Shiro Sano who plays both Yanbo and Mabo, told me that he thought it was about him when he read that scene. Many readers identify with 20th Century Boys. For me about 1/10 of it is autobiographical.

You once said in an interview that you wanted to examine the 20th Century with your manga.

Let me elaborate on that. What I meant was that history is a chain reaction of events, and anything we have now is the outcome of what happened in the past. I wanted the readers to have that notion, because if we ignore what connects past and present and only look at a fragment, we miss something important. After the war, something new started in our culture. Some things matured and some things decayed, so to speak. I thought it would be important to re-examine those things.

As a screenwriter, what elements did you want to keep in the adaptation?

The sense of strangeness the original manga has. “What’s going on?” is often the most important reaction to 20th Century Boys. If the obscurity was lost in adaptation, it would be one dimensional. I wanted to keep it multi-dimensional. I have faith in the way Director Tsutsumi handled the movie.

The director’s intention is to perfectly duplicate your manga on the screen.

It’s kind of funny that one of the most original directors around is trying to duplicate a manga. And when I saw the footage, I thought it was perfectly his movie (laughs). I hope this movie project gives creative people the opportunity to interact and stimulate each other.

What do you think about the cast?

They are all exactly right for their characters. It’s very unusual. I can tell that each of them studied the manga closely and portrayed their characters in a way that gives life and breath to the 20th Century Boys world.

What do you hope for the movie adaptation?

It’s a trilogy with a big, 6 billion yen budget. It sounds like a big event and a grand saga. But really, it’s a very personal story. In other words, we can say that anybody’s life can be turned into a grand saga. I hope that the movie becomes something that reaches the very private microcosm of the audience.

Profile

Naoki Urasawa was born in Tokyo in 1960. After being one of the finalists for the Shogakukan New Comic Award in 1982, he began his professional career in 1983.

Selected works: Pineapple Army (written by Kazuya Kudo); Yawara!, Happy!; Monster and 20th Century Boys. Urasawa currently draws Pluto for Weekly Big Comic Original magazine.

Awards

1989 – The 35th Shogakukan Manga Award for Yawara!
1997 – The Best Manga Award from the 1st Japan Media Arts Festival for Monster
1999 – The 3rd Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Manga Award for Monster
2000 – The 46th Shogakukan Manga Award for Monster
2001 – The 25th Kodansha Manga Award for 20th Century Boys
2002 – The 48th Shogakukan Manga Award and the Best Manga Award from Japan Media Arts Festival for 20th Century Boys
2004 – The Angoulême International Comics Festival for 20th Century Boys
2005 – The 9th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Manga Award and the Best Manga Award from Japan Media Arts Festival for Pluto (with Takashi Nagasaki and Macoto Tezka)
2008 – Japan Cartoonist Award Grand Prize for 20th Century Boys