SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part II-2)

(Continued)

Mizutama:

In retrospect, "On the Porch a Girl With a Puppy…" was also SciFi, as well as "Asobidama (Marbles)" [Note 1], but I think what really established you as a "SciFi cartoonist" in the public mind was, after all, "They Were Eleven." When I read it, I instinctively sensed, "Ah, Hagio-san is paying tribute to the 'SciFi' that she grew up reading." Perhaps it was because this work appeared to contain exactly all the symbolic elements of "SciFi" that non-SciFi readers have vaguely in their mind. At least that's how it seemed to me. (laugh)

[Note 1] An early and long-lost SciFi piece by Hagio; some say it is a prequel to Keiko Takemiya's "To Terra". My husband never got to read this, to his deep regret.

Sakai:

"They Were Eleven" was about young people fighting for their survival within a confined situation, but in its sequel the theme was like society doesn't get better through mere individual efforts—it turned into a rather disillusioned, or a rather more measured story, right? Was that because of the restrained viewpoint that you've mentioned, in response to a more positive view of the future like that of Asimov?

Hagio:

No, I wasn't thinking that deeply, because the idea first came to me in my high school days. The SciFi plots I did back when I was doing "They Were Eleven" were generally in that vein; there were lots of characters like those wholesome, young, male protagonists. So I was thinking of a lot of adventure stories for such characters, but when I finally penned "They Were Eleven," the "model student"-ness of the hero really got on my nerves and I didn't see this as a good thing. So I did the sequel thinking perhaps I could do better next time, but it still didn't work out. (laugh) I thought to myself that I couldn't keep depicting those wholesome characters, and I junked all the other SciFi ideas. So I think there is timing in everything, the right moment to do things.

Mizutama:

Ah, I see. So "They Were Eleven" was from the early stages of "SciFi" addiction, when you hadn't developed any resistance and had severe symptoms (laugh), that type of "SciFi" for you. Mmmm, it wasn't completely off the mark then that I saw it as "paying tribute."

Sakai:

What are you talking about? (laugh)

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part II-1)

(Continued from Part I)

Mizutama:

Now, let's talk about manga. We readers have your work, but as for your own experiences with SciFi manga, at that time wouldn't you have been reading Tezuka or Ishinomori—Ishimori back then—is that about right?

Hagio:

Yes. When I was in elementary school, a decent amount of SciFi stories appeared in shojo manga magazines. There was a cute SciFi story by Reiji Matsumoto—there was an incident [non-fiction] where the wintering team [of the Japanese expedition] left behind Taro and Jiro [sled dogs] in Antarctica. [In the story] They're rescued by space aliens, who augment their intelligence, and then Taro and Jiro come back to retaliate on the earthlings. Isn't it fun? (laugh)

Sakai:

That was in a shojo manga magazine?

Hagio:

Yes, it was.

Mizutama:

So you thought you would become someone who did those types of stories. No, not the revenge of Taro and Jiro; I mean SciFi manga.

Hagio:

Of course you are influenced by what you read. Even while you're in the middle of reading a book, you're appreciating how good it is. So I had a notebook for ideas, or so-called production notes of my own and that's where I wrote down the titles only or titles and rough plots, and the majority of them were SciFi. Perhaps there may have been a lot of outrageous ideas, I'm afraid. (laugh)

Sakai:

So at the point when you became a cartoonist, you already had the intention of doing SciFi, didn't you?

Hagio:

My head was half-filled with SciFi, so I wanted to.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part I-5)

(Continued)

Hagio:

It came home to me as I read it that this was what it meant when everything was lost.

Sakai:

Was it around the time of your debut?

Hagio:

No, I think it was about one year after that.

Mizutama:

Then you pursued Dick like a junkie.

Hagio:

Yes, I did.

Mizutama:

When it comes to Dick, don't you get shocked twice? The first time is when you first read it. And then again after reading several other of his works, when you realize none of them offer any salvation. (laugh)

Hagio:

Yes, yes! One after another, every single book you read! On the other hand, other American SciFi is so positive and, to be blunt, a bit shallow, like, I had been thinking, "How can you be so happy-go-lucky?"—So Dick restored the balance for me.

Mizutama:

Well then, the flow went like this for you: first Asimov, then Bradbury…

Hagio:

I got the first jolt from Asimov, then the second from Bradbury, and then "Childhood's End" by Clark…

Mizutama:

How about Heinlein?

Hagio:

None from Heinlein, though I enjoyed his books.

(Continues to Part II)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part I-4)

(Continued)

Mizutama:

Was it then that you also encountered Bradbury?

Hagio:

Ah, Bradbury, he was good! I was knocked out. It was a bit later, but I was still in Kyushu. One day I went to a bookstore to look for something to read, and there were two anthologies by a certain Ray Bradbury. One was "R is for Rocket" and the other was "The October Country." I had never heard of the author, but I thought he must be good if he had two books out, so I compared the cover art and got the one with the red roof, because it was cuter. Then, after finishing the book overnight, I rushed back to the bookstore, praying that no one had bought it before me, and purchased the other. (laugh)

Mizutama:

Ah, I totally understand how you must have felt.

Hagio:

As you know, in the provinces the total available amount of SciFi was basically low, so I encountered many more SciFi books after I moved to Tokyo. When I started living in Tokyo, there was a bookstore near Shogakukan, and I happened to have a few extra minutes before my appointment with my editor, and by coincidence I laid my hands on what turned out to be "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (by Philip K. Dick). Oh, I was so completely hooked.

Mizutani:

You got the calling from Dick, oh dear.

Hagio:

I was completely floored. At any rate, the futures depicted by people like Asimov, Clark, and Heinlein are positive. Of course they do episodes like the machine civilization going too far and causing some adverse effect, but they all have a fundamental trust in humanity, in that humans can probably get over those problems somehow. However, in Dick's stories, the future is annihilation, with only bleak prospects, and you have no choice but to live under its shadow. I found bottomless despair in his books. I had read about an underground elite class and the post-WWIII worlds, but I was completely blown away by Dick's darkness.

Sakai:

Isn't the ending like the one from "Electric Sheep" ironically much scarier than [those stories where] the despair finally hits you at the end?

Hagio:

Ve-e-ry scary.

Sakai:

A lot of things happen, but there is nothing you can do but go home and sleep.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part I-3)

(Continued)

Hagio:

I was reading those. Then in middle school there was a magazine called "Middle School Course" that came with a supplement of SciFi or mystery stories adapted for younger readers. Among them was "Planet SOS" [adapted from "The Currents of Space"] by Asimov, and I was engrossed in it completely. I got addicted to SciFi then and started to hunt for them.

Mizutama:

"I need…more SciFi!"

Hagio:

Yes, exactly. Until that time I was at a point where I would read it if I could find it, but I didn't care if none was available. But when I entered high school there was a rental bookstore nearby and, was it from Sogen? There was a series of slender books. The series contained both mysteries and SciFi.

Mizutama:

Wasn't it from Hayakawa Shobo?

Sakai:

Yes, from Hayakawa.

Hagio:

Hayakawa, I see.

Mizutama:

They were slightly elongated and on the spine of each book was a red "SF" logo against a silver background.

Hagio:

Yes, that's it! So I rented one every day for 10 or 15 yen per volume. And I also hunted for "SF Magazine" in the used bookstores.

Mizutama:

Ah, I see you started to look for more potent stuff. (laugh). At that point you might have been able to trace back all the way to the first issue of SF Magazine?

Hagio:

I did find and read three thin issues that appeared to have come out shortly after the launch of the magazine, but it was around the time of the final installment of "Endless Flow" [probably this?] when I started tracking issues consciously, so perhaps they were from a bit later?

Mizutama:

So what was the lineup of the books you rented on a daily basis?

Hagio:

Mainly SciFi from the 50's, I think. "Inter Ice Age 4" by Kobo Abe, and something by the title of "Time Machine" or something, was it by Paul…?

Sakai:

"Time Patrol" perhaps? That's by Poul Anderson.

Hagio:

And also "Lest Darkness Fall" and so forth. I think the mix was about 90% translation, 10% original Japanese.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part I-2)

(Continued)

Mizutama:

Oh, yes, I see. Ah, to sum up the matter, today I would like to interview Hagio-san, not as a "vampire cartoonist," or "gymnasium [Note 2] cartoonist," but as a "SciFi cartoonist." First of all, I would like to start by asking you about your background as a reader of SciFi in literary form [as opposed to manga form].

[Note 2] refers to Hagio's works that use a German Gymnasium (boarding school) as a setting, such as "The November Gymnasium," "Tooma no Shinzou," and "Kotori no su."

Hagio:

Well, during elementary school, the library had a collection, or the complete works or something like that, of juvenile SciFi stories. I think it was from Kodansha, but I could be wrong. It was made up of a dozen volumes.

Sakai:

There were several, like the Iwasaki Shoten Edition.

Mizutama:

World SciFi Masterpieces for Boys and Girls, that kind of thing, right?

Hagio:

Those volumes came with such dramatic titles as "Around the Moon," "So-and-so Demon" and "When Worlds Collide," and they were in short a collection of old SciFi stories. They completely ignored air, mass, and all, that kind of thing.

Mizutama:

How about "The Cybernetic Brains"?

Hagio:

Mmmm, I don't think they had that one. But there were quite a few stories where a lot of space aliens show up. One story was about going to the Moon and finding a kingdom there. And you go there via a sphere-shaped rocket, and because of the gravity between the Earth and the Moon, you're pulled to the Moon if you open the window on the Moon side, and to the Earth if you open the opposite window.

Sakai:

Ah, that's a story by Wells. When you open the window made of anti-gravity material, the gravity on that side kicks in and the spaceship falls toward it.

Mizutama:

Oh god, it's so SciFi (laugh).

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part I-1)

I found another interesting interview with Hagio done by a now-inactive online SciFi magazine. It was part of a series called "SF Manga-do" or "The Way of SciFi Manga" moderated by Keinojo Mizutama (mizutama = polka dots), a female illustrator/cartoonist/columnist specializing in SciFi. Mr. Sakai was the moderator and an editor at SF Online (the site is still up, but no longer active). The interview was part of its May 24, 1999 issue.

This is a very long interview, so I have to break it up into manageable chunks.

-----------------------------------------
Mizutama:

Today we would like to ask Hagio-san, as a SciFi cartoonist /SciFi reader, to talk about SciFi and manga…wow, what a thick-headed way of saying it (laugh). Sorry, I am quite nervous. Ever since I read "On the Porch A Girl With a Puppy…" (1971) I have been reading your works in real time.

Hagio:

Ah, I see.

Mizutama:

When "Tooma no Shinzou" was appearing in installments, I used to send in a direct response card every week. To keep the series running as long as possible by contributing to the reader survey.

Hagio:

That's quite flattering. Did you win any original artwork?

Mizutama:

No, not even once. Look, Sakai-san, if you sent in the card, you could win an original artwork of the title page back then. Oh, I wanted one so much, so badly. But I never won.

Sakai:

Haven't you reverted back into a mere fan, today? (laugh)

Mizutama:

Because! Ah, I'm so sorry, really. Well, then, Hagio-san, including the current serialization of "A Cruel God Reigns," you haven't really done any "SciFi manga" for these past several years, or have you? Perhaps, by any chance, it may not be too pleasing to you to be called a "SciFi cartoonist" at this point? Like, "I have done so much in other genres," and so forth.

Hagio:

No, it's not like that at all.

Mizutama:

I was debating with myself as to whether it is perhaps as delicate a problem as calling Ms. Ryoko Yamagishi a "ballet cartoonist."

Hagio:

I don't think Yamagishi-san would be concerned about it, either. After all, she swept the shojo manga world with "Arabesque", so I doubt she would find it a problem. But if you think about that, you could also call her an "Umayado [Note 1] cartoonist." (laugh)

[Note 1] Umayado is the name of the main character from "Hino Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi", another must-read, according to my husband.

(Continues)