The creation of shonen manga can be an incredibly emotional thing, especially given how dramatic and hot-blooded the characters are known to be. Ironically, it’s the manga creators who often have the most passion, with the mind behind an underrated classic being one such example.
Zatch Bell! is a manga and anime series from the 2000s that’s best known among Western fans for its tenure on Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming block. Via Japanese news site Oricon, a tale recently told by a shonen manga editor recalls the passion that its creator, Makoto Raiku, put into his work, with this act of creation actually bringing him to tears at one point.
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The Creator of Zatch Bell Once Broke Down Crying While Drawing Manga
Recently, Tokyo hosted the Manga Book Report Contest Presents: The Four Major Shonen Magazine Editors’ Talk Session, with insiders from the manga industry discussing their careers and the state of the medium. One of the editors present was Shintaro Kawakubo, the current editor-in-chief of the Weekly Shonen magazine. Answering a panel of questions from children in the crowd, he was asked if there were any manga editors who resemble characters from shonen manga. He replied by asking if it could be an artist before detailing a memory about Makoto Raiku, the creator of the Zatch Bell! series. This involved a space in the Weekly Shonen Magazine office where artists can create storyboards for their manga, with about 10 to 15 people able to work freely at once. At that moment, Raiku was working on another of his well-known manga, Animal Land, which launched a few years after Zatch Bell! ended.
While hashing out ideas for a pivotal scene in Animal Land, Raiku began to cry uncontrollably. According to Kawakubo, the other artists were worried that his emotional outburst was a reflection of something traumatic in his own life. Thankfully, things were much more optimistic and even heroic than any of them expected. “He was shedding tears so intensely that they thought it might be a private matter,” recounted Kawakubo. “But no — he was just so deeply immersed in his story that he couldn’t hold back his emotions. He truly has the passion of a manga hero.”
This outburst makes sense given some of the darker elements seen in Animal Land, which contrast with its cutesy aesthetic. Manga and anime characters are also known for their own strong emotions, with rivers of tears sometimes being coupled with tangible rage that leads to intense fight scenes. This can also frequently be seen in franchises such as One Piece and Naruto — not to mention Raiku’s Zatch Bell! — with these franchises and others perhaps being examples of manga art imitating real life more than audiences may sometimes realize.
Source: Oricon
