Hiromu Arakawa
Hiromu Arakawa is a Japanese mangaka and author of the popular manga and anime series titled Fullmetal Alchemist.
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Interviewer: Would you say any other manga artists have influenced you?
Arakawa: At the beginning, I was contracted for a one-shot publication. However, the editor-in-charge of the storyboards passed down a request, "Let us serialise this, okay...". With a story that is meant to be completed in one chapter at this time, "How on earth am I going to do it?" [laughs]. I pounded my brains for around half a month, thinking about ideas to serialise this work.
Interviewer: So between those two, if you lived in your own manga world, what would you be like?
Arakawa: After I gave birth, I felt even more of a connection to cows, because my breasts started making milk. My breasts got bigger and my nipples swelled up, and every time my daughter went to suckle them, it reminded me of how I used to squeeze the cows' udders on the farm to get the milk out. [chuckle] It was like my own daughter was milking me.
Arakawa: I'd follow three simple rules: 1) Never go within two kilometres of circus freaks. 2) Never go near the butcher shop in Dublith. 3) Always spend under 300 sen on snacks. That ought to keep me alive! [chuckle]
Interviewer: In other words you were born with your destiny tied to cows. So, of course you must love cows?
Arakawa: Of course. I love to take care of them and also eat them.
Interviewer: Your first serialized work is a tremendous success all of a sudden. Tell us the whole story of how a newcomer came to have her works serialized.
Arakawa: Yes, and because I think I look a little like a cartoon cow, so it fits.
Interviewer: Is that why you draw yourself as a cow ?
Arakawa: The manga artist that I look up to the most is Suiho Tagawa, the author of Norakuro. He is the root of my style as an artist. I also love Rumiko Takahashi and Kinnikuman or Ultimate Muscle by Yudetamago. As far as composition and how to draw, I learned that when I was apprenticed to Hiroyuki Eto, the author of Mahoujin Guru Guru for Shonen GanGan.
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