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Oda: Watsuki's Assistant
The note Oda-San wrote to Watsuki! Translated by Janice!
“About Rurouni Kenshin”
“Rurouni Kenshin” is a very interesting work. And very deep. Because it was drawn to capture “The true meaning of fighting”, which not many shounen series were able to cover. Therefore, it’s heaviness showed that the author (he actually says someone) really was worried about what he was doing. Which really read what the readers wanted. By the way, I like Kenshin the most =)
“About Watsuki Sensei”
Watsuki sensei is my teacher and friend/ally at the same time. A long time ago, when I was looking for a job as a mangaka assistant, the topic of Rurouni Kenshin arrived. Because I loved the story, I went and applied. That was when I first met Watsuki sensei. I thought that, “What a HUGE person!”
(Note: by HUGE, he meant that Watsuki sensei left a very strong first impression)
Something about eyes are sugoku something? (I dunno Jan couldn’t figure out this one) Especially his eyes, which was almost like a strong glare, left a great impression on me. However, once you talk to him, you’d realize that “What a nice person!” In fact, he’s a really, really nice person. Watsuki sensei is like a soft type of Bakumatsu samurai. Shall we call it Manga Algorithms? – he has a firm belief and clear shape of what he believes in manga-making, which makes our conversation about manga extremely interesting. Ever since I became his assistant, we’ve always had a great time talking about all sorts of things, which continues to this day. Also, he has a mountain load of action figures from AmeComi (American Comics) in his room. Really, does this person like Japan or America more…?
“Message to Watsuki-Sama”
Watsuki sensei, thanks for all the work til now. When I was working under you as an assistant, even though I’ve always stayed over at your place for 4-5 days straight each week, I’ve hardly seen you sleep at all. The fact that you always tried your hardest til the last second really left a strong impression on me. Anyhow, please take your time and rest for now. And looking forward to your new work soon.
Note from Shaza: Watsuki-San’s series Rurouni Kenshin was on full force during this time, and he was known to lock himself into his room. He worked really hard on it, perhaps that is why RK is very much a classic in many different countries as well. And this is why Oda states that he tried his best until the very end. He also was a very big American Comics fan. Ah well, if you want to learn more about Watsuki, you can visit The-OrO
