When you
speak with artist Hiroshi Aro, creator of Futaba-Kun Change and You and
Me, you're not dealing with a comedian, you're in the presence of a philosopher.
The creator of those slapstick stories constantly searches for the situations
that can lead to vibrant plots which draw a reader into his fictional worlds.
"It boils down to a series of small rules," Aro said on Anime USA's opening
day. "One that that would be very useful would be the ability to turn knowledge
into story telling ideas. Another important aspect is to accentuate strong
contrasts in the characters. Something that can't be overemphasized is
that if you give a character an interesting temperament, that will be enough
to carry a certain amount of stories." Aro come up with one unusual idea
at the panel: it would be funny to to have a person with the ability to
create flower bouquets out of thin air, but what if that person was the
leader of a crime syndicate?
Aro starts
his project with story ideas, then he searches for ways to find how to
capitalize on those ideas. "I have to come up with characters and stories.
For example, for Futaba the idea started with the question of what would
happen if a boy turned into a girl. Then I have to decide how I can best
use that idea." Aro agrees with the idea that the appeal of manga is the
way that those stories take ordinary people and puts them in unusual situations.
"Most the works I produce have the pattern where the main character is
a very ordinary, mundane individual who is thrown into very extraordinary
circumstances. I'm led to believe that most readers are not people who
stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the world. I feel the readers
can have more affinity for characters who are not that special. A large
number of people look up to Superman, but almost everybody realizes they
can't be that way. However, it is possible to imagine individuals involved
in circumstances that are extraordinary. We can wonder what we would do
in those circumstances."
Aro said
he was influenced by Osamu Akimoto, who created a long-running manga series
about an ordinary police officer who works out of one of the tiny "police
box" stations in a Japanese park. "His existence is above the clouds,"
Aro said in describing Akimoto's stories. The other big influence in Aro's
storytelling is Go Nagai, known for his outrageous tales. "One of the things
that stands out with Go Nagai is that he will take models of decency in
society and turn them upside down. He's written material that has flipped
the relationships between good and evil, god and demon. One of the things
that compelled me to become an author was to create material that defies
conventional wisdom and values."
When you
speak with artist Hiroshi Aro, creator of Futaba-Kun Change and You and
Me, you're not dealing with a comedian, you're in the presence of a philosopher.
The creator of those slapstick stories constantly searches for the situations
that can lead to vibrant plots which draw a reader into his fictional worlds.
"It boils down to a series of small rules," Aro said on Anime USA's opening
day. "One that that would be very useful would be the ability to turn knowledge
into story telling ideas. Another important aspect is to accentuate strong
contrasts in the characters. Something that can't be overemphasized is
that if you give a character an interesting temperament, that will be enough
to carry a certain amount of stories." Aro come up with one unusual idea
at the panel: it would be funny to to have a person with the ability to
create flower bouquets out of thin air, but what if that person was the
leader of a crime syndicate?
Aro starts
his project with story ideas, then he searches for ways to find how to
capitalize on those ideas. "I have to come up with characters and stories.
For example, for Futaba the idea started with the question of what would
happen if a boy turned into a girl. Then I have to decide how I can best
use that idea." Aro agrees with the idea that the appeal of manga is the
way that those stories take ordinary people and puts them in unusual situations.
"Most the works I produce have the pattern where the main character is
a very ordinary, mundane individual who is thrown into very extraordinary
circumstances. I'm led to believe that most readers are not people who
stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the world. I feel the readers
can have more affinity for characters who are not that special. A large
number of people look up to Superman, but almost everybody realizes they
can't be that way. However, it is possible to imagine individuals involved
in circumstances that are extraordinary. We can wonder what we would do
in those circumstances."
Aro said
he was influenced by Osamu Akimoto, who created a long-running manga series
about an ordinary police officer who works out of one of the tiny "police
box" stations in a Japanese park. "His existence is above the clouds,"
Aro said in describing Akimoto's stories. The other big influence in Aro's
storytelling is Go Nagai, known for his outrageous tales. "One of the things
that stands out with Go Nagai is that he will take models of decency in
society and turn them upside down. He's written material that has flipped
the relationships between good and evil, god and demon. One of the things
that compelled me to become an author was to create material that defies
conventional wisdom and values."
