The Eastern Edge

Takehiko Inoue talks about what he's been up to and his latest project in Nikkei Entertainment this month.

The project, a book and DVD called "Pepita: Inoue Takehiko meets Gaudi." is due out December 12th.

Although I have little time and will be posting this translation in bite sized pieces, I will have it all done and posted before the book release.

Note that I skipped the opening paragraph that provides the obligatory "This guy's a superstar manga artist and creator of Slam Dunk, Vagabond and Real, and has sold blah blah blah..." intro.
If you are reading this I assume you know who Inoue is.

Enjoy!

Originally, this was not something I started on my own. I began this project after being made an offer. When I first reviewed the request, the first thing that came to mind was, "Why me?". I'm a complete outsider when it comes to architecture. Detailed knowledge I had of Gaudi was zero. Taking the trip and the time it would to create away from comics was a serious worry. Vagabond is currently on hiatus, and work in general isn't progressing well, so part of me wondered if I really should take on this kind of job right now.
However, I'd been doing things that are a little different from what comic creators usually do. The Last Manga Exhibition was different, and so was the work on the Shinran murals for the Higashi Honganji.
I felt that this coverage in Spain was like a continuation that flows right into line following those other things. I felt that through Gaudi I would gain the opportunity to realize various things, and be guided to answers that were right there in front of me but I couldn't see.

The meaning in work being done now is understood later.

I've always been a person that takes on work without a plan or blue print and goes on instinct, but this time it's even more so because it's Gaudi, and that was an important point for me.
With comics, if you burn them they are gone or if they go out of print they'll eventually be lost. Buildings stay around for a very long time, don't they? I may not seem so, but I'm bashful and wonder if it would be embarrassing to have something you made stand out in the middle of a city (laughs). I wonder what people who leave things like that in the world are like, and what Gaudi, who made that building that looks as if it's a living thing, is like. I found Gaudi compelling.

Gaudi's architecture and other work is widely known, but what kind of person he was, and what it was in his roots (that made him that way) isn't.
I thought that if I could learn his story, there'd be something I would be able to feel in his work.
So, I accepted the job thinking that if I could covey through me what I obtain from doing this to other people, especially young people, it would give it real significance.

Next part coming soon...