The two main Japanese guests of honor at Katsucon 4, Ippongi Bang and Haruka Takachiho. While Bang draws characters, Takachiho creates them in stories. Most notable among his characters to American fans are space explorer Crusher Joe and the Dirty Pair, trouble agents of the Worlds Welfare Work Association. While the Pair is best known to Americans through anime, Takachiho has written many Dirty Pair pair novels. Two of the novels have been translated into English, but only one - Great Adventure of Dirty Pair - has been released in America.

The second, unreleased English translation of a Dirty Pair novel appears to be in the hands of Microsoft, of all people. At the Katsucon discussion panel, Takachiho said he agreed to write new Dirty Pair novels for release on the Microsoft Network. The novels were written in Takachiho's native Japanese and have been released on the Japanese branch of MSN, but the intention was to translate the novels into English and place them on the American MSN. That plan changed, Takachiho said, when MSN's management decided to move away from its "shows" - entertainment features offered on MSN. As a result, "There is no plan to release the English version, even though the text is already translated," Takachiho said. He told people at the panel that "You need to send an E-mail to Bill Gates and get him to release the Dirty Pair translation in the United States."

American anime fans have known for years that the Dirty Pair was inspired by Japanese female professional wrestlers and idol singers, but Takachiho said part of the characters' creation was a challenge from an editor. "My editor when I was working on Dirty Pair told me no Japanese movie or TV series with two girls as the main characters has ever been successful. I thought if I made one girl character boyish and the other feminine, the combination of the two will make a good story," he said. Takachiho's creation of the tomboy Kei and the demure Yuri has endured for years. 

How does Takachiho keep pumping out the ideas for his novels? "I come up with my ideas while I'm taking a bath," he said. "When a good idea pops up, I get out of the bath and grab a pen and paper - but I get cold. So now I have a pad and paper in every part of the house, including the toilet."

The Dirty Pair resemble some popular American comics in that the characters have appeared in several versions: Takachiho's novels, the original anime series, the OAV's, the Adam Warren series created in the U.S. and the latest version, Dirty Pair Flash. Takachiho said there's no definitive version of the character; they change to best suit the medium where they're presented.

To clear up an old rumor: Yuri of the Dirty Pair is not Crusher Joe's mother, although Tahachiho said the characters and stories are "in the same world."