Mangaka Tsutomu Takahashi made his first international appearance at the convention Manga Barcelona 2025. The author of Jiraishin and Detonation Island opened his participation with a press conference during the first day of the event.
Thanks to the Spanish manga publisher Norma Editorial, Takahashi-sensei talked about two of his recent works: Jumbo Max and Guitar Shop Rosie. He also didn’t miss the opportunity to hold multiple signing sessions and even a masterclass for fans.
With a prolific manga career, Takahashi-sensei is known for creating dark settings, gray characters, and a realism based on his own experiences and thoughts on Japanese culture. During the press conference, he gave us an insight into his creation process, how he finds inspiration, and even his memories from his time as part of a motorcycle gang.
Portions of this press conference have been lightly edited for clarity. This press conference was conducted with the assistance of an interpreter.
Getting to Know Tsutomu Takahashi
Q: Takahashi-sensei, how do you feel about coming to promote your work in our country? What do you expect from your meeting with Spanish readers? When you started your career, did you ever imagine that you would be read from a place so far away?
A: First of all, thank you very much for the invitation; I received it with great satisfaction. This is the first time I have attended an overseas event like Manga Barcelona. I didn’t know what to expect coming here. I hadn’t had the chance to connect with the readers yet [the press conference takes place on the first day of the convention].
On the other hand, the concept of “reaching far” is very large. I work step by step, work by work. I don’t usually formulate such long-term plans. I focus on the work I have at hand.
In one of my latest works, Guitar Shop Rosie, the brothers who own the guitar shop are fans of AC/DC, a band known worldwide. The story starts from a plot element that could certainly reach a foreign audience.
Q: How did you develop as an artist, and what encouraged you to want to be a mangaka?
A: I was born in 1965. I belong to a generation in which Japanese manga was becoming something not only normal, but mandatory. It is part of the national culture of Japan. In my family, my father also liked manga and used to have many within reach since I was a child. I was heavily influenced by sports manga, like Ashita no Joe, and they motivated me to aspire to be a mangaka as well.
Around 6 or 7 years old, I was already good at drawing. You might think it was precocious, but keep in mind that drawing is an activity within everyone’s reach. There is no need for great means or investment. Anyone can say: “today I’ll draw, I’ll take a pencil, take a piece of paper, and start drawing.”
Anyone can start drawing if they set their mind to it.
Q: We would like you to tell us more about what your experience was like belonging to a motorcycle gang, or your passion for music that has influenced your works so much. Is there any work that harbors more of yourself than any of the others?
A: The one that does the most is Detonation Island. Eighty percent are real experiences or situations. It includes experiences from the time when I was at my dumbest in my life. In Japan, there is a culture of dumb biker kids who annoy people (Bōsōzoku). It was what was popular in my day, but fortunately, they have almost gone extinct.
It was easy to know that I was doing bad things. It was the era when youth sought to be rebellious. Fiction reflects epicness and honor, but in reality, they were more just kids annoying the neighborhood. And in Japan, which is such a peaceful country. We had no better idea than to ruin it and be assholes. It was the wild era of the ’80s, and 16-year-old youths had a lot of rage. Modding a bike and annoying people was something that was in style.
But let’s not deny it, those years were the most fun time of my life. When I hear the rumble of an engine, it brings back memories of that time. We felt invincible. Remember that in the very first line of Detonation Island, it says that the Bōsōzoku is not a job, that it gets you nowhere. I was fully aware of that.
Having been part of a Bōsōzoku, and it being an activity held in such low regard, is something I had to keep quiet about. Telling this story was cathartic. I knew that we needed to express our rage, but at the same time, I knew we were lying to ourselves and that wasn’t the way.
Two of my friends die over the course of the story. The scenes of this death are the ones I have engraved in my memory from that day. They were 100% real events that I needed to get off my chest. It is something you cannot draw if you haven’t seen it. It was a way to bring beauty and honor the memory of my deceased companions.
Since I started my career, I wrote other manga while I still had the story of Detonation Island saved away. At a ceremony, I ran into a friend from my days in the biker gang, and we started reminiscing about stories from the past. This friend had a twinkle in his eyes while he spoke. Enough time had passed for these stories to bring us some joy. I felt that the time had finally come for this story to see the light of day.
Inspirations
Q: Takahashi-sensei, you have the ability to create characters with strong personalities and purposes. You know how to portray their attitudes very well and make them human and vulnerable. The environments in which they move are often oppressive and intense. What drives you to create these characters and stories? What is the main engine of your ideas?
A: I arrived in Barcelona yesterday after a long trip from Tokyo. I took the opportunity to watch a Mission: Impossible movie. Cinema is a sequential medium, and the important thing is to surprise the viewer. In contrast, manga is a medium that lends itself more to reflection and to reflecting the characters and what they think. In cinema, the “what” matters more, and in manga, the “how.”
In both cases, there is a story with a conflict that must be resolved. In manga, having this more reflective element, we perceive a greater degree of complexity or richness. In particular, I try to put characters in difficult situations; it’s more fun that way.
Q: Your work is characterized by a great diversity of stories, how do you get inspiration?
A: Do you really think my stories are so different from one another? To me, they are all quite similar. The setting or historical period may change, but I see them as having more points in common. For me, it is like the culinary preparation of a dish, which can vary quite a bit, but the ingredients are the same.
It is true that Jumbo Max is an exception. Publishers usually make certain requests, but here they gave me the freedom for the protagonist to be an antihero, both visually and narratively.
Q: You possess truly dark and even disturbing works, as you scrupulously portray human greed and malice. Is there any work, perhaps in manga, literature, or cinema, that has obsessed, absorbed, or even disturbed you because of how well it portrays this aspect of society?
A: I am surprised by the perception you have. Are my works really that dark? Are my characters that low and despicable? [laughs]. One of my youthful dreams was to dedicate myself to rock music. And rock is about putting out what you have inside. Let me be clear: I don’t draw manga for children; it is not for all audiences. Perhaps I had some influence, but I don’t recognize it in anything.
Creative Process
Q: In the documentary Naoki Urasawa’s Manga Exertions, presented by Urasawa-sensei (author of Monster and 20th Century Boys), you shared interesting aspects of your creative process. In that documentary, you explained that you like to be surprised by unexpected situations because otherwise you get bored. What is your method when writing? Do you have the development and ending clear from the beginning of your works?
A: It is a very interesting documentary series. For my episode, they placed eight cameras filming my creative process from different angles for a whole week. The production team made me notice that I threw my pen around too much and that it bothered me a bit. Some fellow mangakas told me to treat my materials better [laughs].
To work, I use the diluted ink technique to create textures and shading. It is a completely unpredictable technique, and the result can vary greatly depending on the water. It’s like playing a live concert, where each performance is different from one another.
Manga has many panels that are not that interesting, but you still have to draw them so that the manga has consistency, and without them, there would be no story. Without an element of unpredictability, I would get bored in this part of the process.
Are you guys familiar with the publication cycle of the Japanese publishing market? You know that there are weekly publications and that a human person cannot keep up [laughs]. This weekly rhythm implies that you cannot stop to think properly, because otherwise you won’t make the deadline. If I have a creative crisis, I get stressed to the point of paralysis. And that is the worst thing that can happen to you.
What I have on my drawing table one day will be in the bookstores after two weeks. So finding absolute perfection is impossible; you have to have a margin of tolerance. Mangakas, as the parents of the works, have the problem of not reaching our threshold of satisfaction regarding our works. This publication system makes authors, above all, capable of resisting mental pressure. This is what divides those who can dedicate themselves professionally to manga from the rest.
A piece of advice: a night in bed takes away your problems. Don’t let problems pass into the next morning. Each morning is a new day.
Q: How do you balance the creation of the two series you have in publication? Do you feel pressure from the public?
A: In principle, if an artist has a well-established system, they can be publishing up to three series at the same time. It is not that rare to be involved in two or three at once. It’s like a pendulum. In Jumbo Max, I don’t follow an established format, which is a challenge for an author. I have to think about both the drawing and the evolution of the story.
In contrast, Guitar Shop Rosie is about self-contained stories and brings me less of a headache because I have a pattern to follow. Alternating both serializations allows me to achieve a balance. Following this pendulum theory, the third work I am working on is purely for hobby and fun.
Another very important aspect for one work to counterbalance the other is that the worlds of the works do not cross. It is not the same Japan in both stories.
Guitar Shop Rosie
Q: Guitar Shop Rosie is interesting because they reflect characters and situations with great realism. Can we assume that this is how you perceive Japanese society?
A: Yes. What you see in mangas like Guitar Shop Rosie is how I consider Japanese society to be. Between 1982 and 1985, I set manga aside to dedicate myself to music. I know music and instruments well. In fact, the characters are inspired by real people.
It is true that a guitar repair shop in today’s world has nothing extraordinary or fantasy-like about it, but I noticed that for someone who doesn’t have that technical ability, what those people do is magic. There is something worth telling behind this.
I thought it would be interesting to create a story where these magicians dedicate themselves to making people happy and even changing their lives. Each guitar has its circumstances. When you read Guitar Shop Rosie, you will see that each guitar has a story behind it that is not visible to the naked eye. A guitar is much more than the strings. There are old, contemporary, expensive, and cheap guitars, but notice that a guitar will never sound better just because it is more expensive. Each one has an intrinsic value.
The message I wanted to convey with Guitar Shop Rosie is that the most important thing is not the guitar, but the person playing it. If, by reading the story, you come to the conclusion that this is how it is, I will be very happy.
Jumbo Max
Q: Jumbo Max has aroused a lot of interest among readers due to the particularity of its plot: it has an antihero as the protagonist and the plot revolves around a powerful drug for erectile dysfunction. Where did the idea come from? Do you think the drug ‘jumbo max’ would be the solution for an unhappy man?
A: Guys, when you reach 50 years old, you will understand my inspiration [laughs]. If you are in your youth, make the most of it! What I wanted to tell in Jumbo Max was a story of love and respect. I had no intention of getting into the pharmacological aspect. It is not a story about sex being necessary to be happy. You can live without sex. You have to make an effort [laughs].
Q: I am a university chemistry professor and I am amazed by the amount of scientific detail in Jumbo Max. It uses science in a consistent way throughout the story. In the manga, it precisely depicts the laboratories and analysis methods. How do you approach scientific topics? How do you do your research?
A: It is a different process than what many think. I first rely on the availability of some friend to explain it to me. It’s not that I chose the topic of the drug beforehand. I had pharmacists in my social circle whom I could turn to for inspiration and to draw. Even pharmacy professionals have commented to me upon reading the work that the medication could be real.
I didn’t want to invent absurd things. I wanted to maintain scientific rigor and rely on people who can explain the technical points to me.
Q: Part of your influences have been film noir or your trips to New York. Have you also taken more modern references to map out stories like those in Jumbo Max?
A: I used to really love Miami Vice. In fact, Jiraishin originates from my passion for Miami Vice. If you have noticed throughout this conference, I draw things that I have lived. My drawing process is very fast and therefore it doesn’t give me time to stop and think if I am drawing something because it is an influence. I think it is more of a “feeling” at the moment of creating it.
The influence of classic film noir and those images from black and white cinema is true. Manga, being also a black and white medium, is going to share these elements of light management. Akira Kurosawa and his composition would indeed be a reference. But broadly speaking, I don’t make explicit references.
We want to extend our thanks to Takahashi-sensei for sharing so much information with the press and his fans. We are also grateful to Norma Editorial and the Manga Barcelona staff for organizing the press conference and other activities to engage the author during the festival.
Don’t miss the opportunity to get your copies of Jumbo Max and Guitar Shop Rosie, works we know you will enjoy!
And if the press conference piqued your interest, you can already schedule your visit for the upcoming Manga Barcelona edition this on December 5-8 at the Fira Barcelona Gran Via convention center.
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