Ryoichi Ikegami
Orbiting Rumic World - File 5
By Dylan Acres
A style that is entirely his own
In order to fully understand Rumiko Takahashi and her contributions to the field of manga as a whole, you have to understand her place within that field, and that involves examining her influences, peers and followers. This is what Orbiting Rumic World is dedicated to exploring.
The artist who most influenced the look and development of Rumiko Takahashi’s drawing style is without a doubt Ryoichi Ikegami.
Yes, that Ryoichi Ikegami.
But Takahashi was already a follower before he adapted his naturalistic style. Her art began based on Ikegami's earliest style. Debuting at just 17 years old in the kashihon, or book rental market, Ryoichi Ikegami was born in Fukui, Japan on May 29, 1944. [1]
In 1967 while visiting her father’s medical practice, 10-year-old Rumiko Takahashi was first exposed to the work of Ikegami. Picking up an issue of Garo in the waiting room she was blown away by what she saw. The graphic, dramatic story Natsu (夏/Summer) by Ikegami was her first encounter with the artist who would go on to have such an impact on her. [2] The previous year, in the same magazine, his story Tsumi no Ishiki (罪の意識) was noticed by Shigeru Mizuki, one of the biggest names in manga at the time, famed for his smash hit GeGeGe no Kitaro (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎). Mizuki invited Ikegami to move to Tokyo and work as one of his assistants which Ikegami gladly accepted. Another one of Ikegami’s idols, Yoshiharu Tsuge, was already working as an assistant to Mizuki, and Ikegami jumped at the chance to work alongside him. [3] Ikegami made a huge impression on Mizuki, so much so that in 1975 Mizuki would illustrate a story about the young Ikegami entitled Manga-kyo no Ji Ikegami Ryoichi Den (漫画狂の詩－池上遼一伝－) that told the story of how they met, and Ikegami standing up to a particularly annoying fellow assistant at Mizuki Pro named Toyokawa. [4] Ikegami would work for Mizuki for two and a half years, this period would later be chronicled in Nunoe Mura’s Gegege no Nyobo (ゲゲゲの女房) novel and television series, where Ikegami’s character would be given the alias Keichi Kurata. [5]
Rumiko Takahashi's artistic idol
Rumiko Takahashi would later write in her autobiographical manga My Sweet Sunday about re-discovering Ikegami again in 1971 with his three-part serial Ikari yo Saraba (怒りよさらば/Farewell to Anger) in Shonen Sunday and then follow him religiously as he worked on the Japanese version of Marvel Comics famous superhero Spider-Man which was being published in Monthly Shonen Magazine (or Shonen Magazine Extra) and Hitoribocchi no Rin (ひとりぼっちのリン/All Alone Rin) which was being published in Weekly Shonen Magazine. [6]
In high school Takahashi had begun to draw her own manga and was highly influenced by Ikegami’s art style, copying his drawings from Spider-Man and Nanimo Iranai (何もいらない). [7] It was at this time that Shogakukan editor Katsuya Shirai would poach Ikegami from Kodansha leading to an unparalleled period from 1973 to 1979 where two simultaneous series from two different publishers would become his most mainstream hits to date: AIUEO Boy (I・餓男 アイウエオボーイ) written by Kazuo Koike in Shonen Magazine and Otoko Gumi (男組) written by Tetsu Kariya in Shonen Sunday. [8] The photorealistic style for which Ikegami is known for began to show in his work at this time.
This was followed by Otoko Ozora (男大空) then Mai the Psychic Girl (舞). Mai the Psychic Girl would play a more important role in America than it did in its native Japan as one of Viz Media’s initial publications. It is not hyperbolic to say that the two people most responsible for launching manga in the English-speaking world in the late 80s and early 90s are Rumiko Takahashi and Ryoichi Ikegami. Rumiko Takahashi had all of her series licensed for release by Viz, Ikegami’s Crying Freeman (クライングフリーマン), Sanctuary (サンクチュアリ), and Samurai Crusader (王立院雲丸の生涯) would all see popular, released by Viz as well.
The birth of seinen
After Mai, Ikegami says he “gave up on trying to top the popularity of Otoko Gumi in shonen magazines. I started a new story called Kazuyoi Bito (傷追い人/Wounded Man) in Spirits.” During the publication of Wounded Man, Koike and Ikegami experimented with a new type of muscular, buff protagonist- Keisuke Ibaraki. But in the words of Ikegami himself in his interview with Katsumi Watabiki for T-Site.jp, “the era of Rumiko Takahashi had begun” and this type of protagonist was unpopular. Ikegami decided that in the era of Takahashi he should look to her work for inspiration and so he introduced Misty, a character designed with Takahashi’s sensibilities who caused the series to rebound in popularity. [9]
Re-entering what Ikegami calls the world of “manly romance” led to Crying Freeman. His change from a shonen magazine to the seinen style of Big Comic Spirits unshackled Ikegami and his collaborators to show more of the sex and violence that his series have become known for.
The darker themes of Ikegami’s work in shonen manga can be said to have helped birth the seinen genre. As his audience came of age with the violent and sexual imagery of his early shonen works, Ikegami himself states he was able to use the themes of the era to his benefit.
The ultimate ideal
In an interview with T-Site.jp, Ikegami states, “I was confident that I could draw with my own sensibility without being limited by what shonen manga was supposed to be. It was an era when shonen magazines began to understand that adults were reading the stories as well as children, and a few years later, I was drawing at the dawn of the birth of seinen magazines.” [10] These adult themes show through in the dark heroes of his works, who question the ideas of virtue and justice in the often-corrupt worlds they live in. Many of Ikegami’s works look to the real world for inspiration. 1990’s Sanctuary was based on many real-life issues, including the Recruit Scandal within the Liberal Democrat Party in Japan, and 1996’s Kyoko was based on an infamous 1995 Okinawa rape incident. [11]
Ikegami defines his style as focused on “realism and beauty” saying, “I like to use realistic art to tell unrealistic stories.” “I draw what I think is the ultimate ideal. I want the readers to think, ‘I’m glad I was born Japanese.’” [12] His characters are imbued with rebellious spirits of a truly Japanese nature. His complex use of shading mixed with bold watercolor brushstrokes in his inking create truly unique, facial expressions.
Currently, Ikegami has teamed with author Riichiro Inagaki of Eyeshield 21 (アイシールド21) and Dr. Stone fame to create Trillion Game (トリリオンゲーム). Ikegami has remained an in-demand creator his entire career, working with some of the best known writers in manga. Noted names like Kazuya Kudo, Buronson, and Rumiko Takahashi’s own teacher; Kazuo Koike. It was via Takahashi’s studying under Kazuo Koike at Gekiga Sonjuku that she would eventually connect with her idol Ikegami. [13] Takahashi and Ikegami even lectured together at Koike’s manga school about their approaches to storytelling and layout. [14]
Ikegami is a standout figure in the world of manga, a virtuoso artist, an iconoclast who brought manga to America with his sensual drawings and anatomical naturalism.
Footnotes
- [1] The rental book market (貸本/kashihon) filled the roles of libraries in Japan and was a primary distribution method for manga in the years prior to World War II. After the war, libraries became more widespread in Japan during the American occupation, crippling the rental book market and beginning the age of many manga magazines that are still published today such as Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magazine.
- [2] Garo (ガロ) was an alternative, avant-garde manga magazine published from 1964 to 2002. It was fundamental in the development of the gekiga style of manga. It was known for publishing the work of Ryoichi Ikegami (池上遼一), Shigeru Mizuki (水木しげる), Sanpei Shirato (白土三平), Yoshiharu Tsuge (つげ義春) and many others.
- [3] Naoki Urasawa's Manben. 2020. Season 3, Episode 9, “Ryoichi Ikegami.” Directed by Issei Takiguchi. Aired September 15, 2006 on NHK E Tele.
- [4] Mizuki, Shigeru. Manga-kyo no Ji Ikegami Ryoichi Den. Shonen Sunday Special Issue. Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1975.
- [5] "池上遼一." Wikipedia.org. June 21, 2023. Accessed June 21, 2023. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 池上遼一.
- [6] Adachi, Mitsuru & Takahashi, Rumiko My Sweet Sunday. Shonen Sunday 2009 #16. Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2009. https://www.furinkan.com/ rumictheater/manga/mysweet.html
- [7] Rumiko Takahashi drew Spider-Man in her high school dojinshi The Diarrhea where she published Star of the Empty Trash.
- [8] Taitai. "Kazuhiko Torishima, former editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump, talks with Shogakukan's legendary manga editor Katsuya Shirai, who worked on Maison Ikkoku and Oishinbo! The two former rivals talk about the role of an editor." Den Famicom Gamer. September 20, 2022. Accessed June 22, 2023. https://www.furinkan.com/ features/interviews/shirai2.html.
- [9] Watabiki, Katsumi. "自作を語る。画集『池上遼一 Art Works 男編＆女編』" Tsite.jp. November 29, 2019. Accessed June 21, 2023. https://store.tsite.jp/ginza/blog/humanities/11888-1226541225.htmljp/mushi/entry/25169.html.
- [10] Watabiki, Katsumi. "自作を語る。画集『池上遼一 Art Works 男編＆女編』" Tsite.jp. November 29, 2019. Accessed June 21, 2023. https://store.tsite.jp/ginza/blog/humanities/11888-1226541225.htmljp/mushi/entry/25169.html.
- [11] Watabiki, Katsumi. "自作を語る。画集『池上遼一 Art Works 男編＆女編』" Tsite.jp. November 29, 2019. Accessed June 21, 2023. https://store.tsite.jp/ginza/blog/humanities/11888-1226541225.htmljp/mushi/entry/25169.html.
- [12] Naoki Urasawa's Manben. 2020. Season 3, Episode 9, “Ryoichi Ikegami.” Directed by Issei Takiguchi. Aired September 15, 2006 on NHK E Tele.
- [13] Gekiga Sonjuku was a manga "cram school" where Kazuo Koike, the writer of such iconic manga as Lone Wolf and Cub, Crying Freeman and Lady Snowblood helped train a number of manga luminaries before their debuts. Besides Rumiko Takahashi, other Gekiga Sonjuku alumnai include Tetsuo Hara (Fist of the North Star), Yuji Hori (Dragon Quest), Hideyuki Kikuchi (Vampire Hunter D), Keisuke Itagaki (Grappler Baki) and Marley Caribu (Old Boy).
- [14] "Comic こだわりインタビュー." Comic 劇画村塾 September 1987, 3-5.
Dylan Acres is an psychology professor at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Along with his brother, Harley Acres, he is the co-founder of the Rumic World website.
