Naoki Urasawa Official Guide Book
Monster contents (PART ONE)
Includes: Beta art, designs, info of characters, behind the scenes of creating monster, Urasawa's thought process, and ROUGH translations by google translate.
A/n: feel free to ask for any more photos in the book (I might post about the Pluto section (^ O^) /). Also Tumblr made the photo quality 1000x worse, sorry!
★If you can read Japanese PLEASE correct parts/pages if needed (*ﾉ∀`*)
rough sketches and design notes + Questions
“Is research unnecessary if you have a good sense?”
The final episode was finished while falling apart
Urasawa: “Also, Nagasaki-san said he was surprised that he was able to draw Eastern Europe so smoothly. He said it was the first manga to properly depict Eastern Europe.”
Interviewer: I think there probably isn't another manga that has tried to depict Eastern Europe before or since. How much research did you do?
Urasawa: “The research took a week. I first entered Munich, then flowed into Prague, and passed through Dresden. Before that, I had traveled from Germany to Istanbul once during 'Keaton'. If you have a good sense, you can grasp the atmosphere just by looking at photo books and movies. Like how dark the streets are at night, that kind of atmosphere. When I read Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Sayonara Nippon', I thought, this person must have lived in New York for a while, but Otomo-san had never traveled abroad at that time. He just looked at one photo book and a movie.”
(A/n: I can’t tell whose talking down below;;)
There's a trend in current young adult manga that the more research you do, the better...
When I was talking to Toshio Suzuki*2 from Ghibli, I said that 'Kiki's Delivery Service' and '3000 Leagues in Search of Mother'*2 had the same scent, and he said,
He said that 'Kiki's Delivery Service' was drawn using materials from '3000 Leagues in Search of Mother'. And I loved '3000 Leagues in Search of Mother'. The scenery of Genoa in that work. The inside of the buildings, the windows, and the feeling of the shadows when passing under the bridge were similar.”
--You notice things like that, don't you...
“When they were making '3000 Leagues in Search of Mother', Isao Takahata*2 said he wanted to take pictures of the room, and he took pictures from the outside, and then he went inside and apparently didn't come out for a long time. It seems like he was allowed to take pictures of the inside of the room for a long time. That kind of feeling... If I'm going to look at something, I have a desire to grasp the details in detail, so I might notice it.”
--That's like Keaton not coming out of the tofu shop's factory (laughs).
“Kiki's Delivery Service” is an animated film produced by Studio Ghibli and released in 1989. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It vividly depicts the growth and adolescent confusion of Kiki, a 13-year-old witch who comes to the city from a rural town to train. In the film, Kiki moves to a fictional city called Corico.
I finished drawing the final episode while falling apart
Interviewer: Now, you've had a great commercial success in the mystery genre, which you've always wanted to do, and I think your reputation as a writer, Naoki Urasawa, probably rose significantly here.
Urasawa: “I suppose so. Yeah.”
Interviewer: Were you feeling like, “I did it!”?
Urasawa: “Hmm, rather than that, it's really just... Ah... Because it's that kind of drama, it's a battle of the mind.”
It became like that. A young murderer, with neither good nor evil, a youth of unknown origin, I pursued him to a level that rivaled pure literature, and as I continued to draw him, my body gave out in the final phase. Bacteria entered my body, my eyes and teeth swelled, and all my mucous membranes were damaged. While falling apart, I somehow managed to reach the goal.”
Interviewer: So, this was around the time you were drawing the final episode?
Urasawa: “It was from around before that. After finishing the series, I had a conversation with Miyuki Miyabe, and we both said that at the final stage of 'The Copycat' for Miyabe-san, and 'MONSTER' for me, we felt like there were corpses all around us. It felt like we could smell blood. I got so deeply involved in the work, like in psychotherapy, confronting Johan and asking, 'What are you?' It was driving me crazy. I wanted to finish drawing it properly.”
Interviewer: Until then, in Urasawa-san's works, at least until the middle of 'MONSTER', you maintained a certain distance from the characters, didn't you?
Interviewer: But in the final phase of this story, when you decided to settle the score with Johan, it was the first time you faced him head-on, right?
Urasawa: “Facing him head-on. That's right.”
A collection of short stories by Katsuhiro Otomo published in 1981 (Futabasha). It includes short stories depicting a man who opens a karate dojo in New York with his deceased parent's insurance money, and the small incidents that occur among the people around him. The cityscape of New York is realistically depicted as scenery.
*26 Toshio Suzuki (born in Aichi Prefecture in 1948). After working as an editor for Tokuma Shoten's "Animage," he joined Studio Ghibli in 1988. Since then, he has been involved in numerous hit films as a film producer for the studio.
that had a Latin, carefree feel. So, when I draw people from the South of France, I imagine them as those kinds of people. Friendly old men.
*28 “3000 Leagues in Search of Mother”
A television anime broadcast on the Fuji Television Network's “World Masterpiece Theater” in 1976. A total of 52 episodes. Directed by Isao Takahata. The story of Marco, a boy living in Genoa, Italy, who travels to Argentina in search of his mother, who has stopped communicating.
*2 Isao Takahata, born in Mie Prefecture in 1935. He gained recognition for his direction of the three-part series 'World Masterpiece Theater': 'Heidi, Girl of the Alps,' 'From the Apennines to the Andes,' and 'Anne of Green Gables.' He thoroughly conducted location scouting outdoors and incorporated realistic life based on the materials.
→ If the spine is stretched, looks energetic because it can be seen.
→ Walking as if not to be noticed
→ You look healthy when your back is stretched out
Top Right (Anna/Nina (?) ):
→ It flows smoothly by wind or weight (her hair)
→ A smoothed hair expression. I think it’s very important.
→ If you stand up your bangs too much, your hair will look stiff.
→ the key is not to be shaggy (her hair)
→ (Grimmer ?): If you deep a deep breath with your nose, you’ll feel empty (A/n: idk wtf that means lmao-)
→ (heckle): A protruding nose.
→ (Dieter?): Back of the head sticking out a bit, European egg nuance?
→ (Reichwein): For characters from that country, no matter how much you deform them, the thickness of their bodies is never enough. It's so much that they don't fit in the frame, which can be a problem.
→ (Roberto?): Even a well built person has an extraordinary chest thickness.
→ These are rough sketches that Urasawa faxed over during the anime adaptation.
"The most interesting thing about people is their complexes. So you expand on that part."
When I draw a character, what I always think about is: what is this person’s weakness, what is their complex?
Everyone has complexes, so when you show that, the character becomes alive.
If you look at it from a different angle, even someone who seems strong or flawless has insecurities. For example, in YAWARA!, the protagonist Yawara is a judo genius, but her complex is that she doesn’t actually want to do judo. By focusing on that part, her humanity comes out.
It’s the same in Monster. Each character has their own burden to carry, their own weakness. When you emphasize that, it makes the drama real.
So, whenever I create characters, I first think:
"What kind of complexes does this person have?"
When you pursue that, the story naturally becomes richer, and the character begins to move on their own.
“How to Differentiate Foreign Characters"
Of course, in Monster, most of the cast are foreigners.
When you draw foreigners in manga, it’s easy to fall into stereotypes—just drawing people with blond hair or big noses, etc. But that’s not enough.
What’s really important is their complexes too.
For example, someone might be a perfectly respectable person on the surface, but deep down, they’re insecure about their family, their status, or their past.
By showing that inner weakness, you don’t just get “a foreigner character,” but a real human being.
That’s why, when readers saw these characters in Monster, many of them said:
"They don’t feel like fictional manga characters, but like people who actually exist."
And that’s exactly what I was aiming for.
"Margot, the prostitute who sings Schubert’s “Ave Maria.” Appears in Episode 22. A prostitute, seen in the hotel scene”
When I draw foreigners, I don’t want to just give them exaggerated noses or jaws and call it a day. That would only be a shallow stereotype.
Instead, I try to capture the atmosphere of their life, their background, even the culture of their country.
For example, the French and the Germans:
From a Japanese point of view, the French might seem cheerful and free-spirited, while the Germans are often seen as very serious and strict.
But when you actually go there, it’s not that simple.
The French, in fact, can also be surprisingly strict, and the Germans can sometimes be warm and humorous.
So, I try to reflect those nuances in the characters.
I think that’s why the foreign characters in Monster feel convincing: because they’re not drawn from the outside stereotype, but from something more human, from their life’s texture.
(laughs) Even children told me, “The characters in Monster feel like real people.” That made me really happy.
"Beautifully differentiated drawings of:”
"When I worked on the anime My Daddy, made in France for 24-Hour TV, there was this episode: A French animator asked me, ‘Why do Japanese always draw French people with big noses?’"
Interviewer: “Of all people, the first one I had to face was him... That must have been tough.”
Urasawa: “Yeah, exactly. Miyabe-san and I both said we were totally beaten up by it. We even felt like maybe we couldn’t depict that kind of human drama anymore. Both of us were like, ‘Yeah, maybe we don’t want to anymore.’”
Interviewer: “Ah, I see. Even now, does it still feel harsh to you?”
Urasawa: “It does, yeah.”
Interviewer: “Why do you think that is? Because it goes beyond the scope of understanding?”
Urasawa: “Hmm, that’s part of it. But also, MONSTER as a drama is not just about good and evil—it also questions the very issue of capital punishment. In the end, Tenma is forced to keep facing the question: can he point a gun at Johan and pull the trigger? In a normal drama, the hero of justice would just say something like, ‘I won’t forgive you!’ and then defeat the bad guy. You can kind of wrap it up with that. But in my manga, it’s not like that. It was almost like Asa Made Nama Terebi (All-night live TV debate show), you know?”
Interviewer: “It really is like a one-man Asa-Nama.”
Urasawa: “Yeah, like shouting, ‘There’s no answer!’ That’s probably why some people feel the ending of MONSTER wasn’t very satisfying.”
Interviewer: “Ah, because it doesn’t give a clear…”
Urasawa: “Right, because it doesn’t present a clear answer.”
Interviewer: “But that was your most sincere answer, the one you reached by confronting it seriously, wasn’t it?”
Urasawa: "I've drawn to the point where I feel that if I can release this to the world as an artist, I will have no regrets." In other words, when you finished, rather than feeling the joy of commercial success or increased recognition, you felt a much stronger sense of difficulty. "Yeah, I thought I couldn't do it anymore (laughs). But I did feel like this was what I wanted to draw. It was like I'd collapsed, like I'd finally finished drawing the work I'd always wanted to draw." "Yeah." So you felt the joy of having completed it.
*30 Live TV until morning a monthly attack on TV Asahi since 1987 A discussion program. Every time you set up a topic that is of high social interest, from late at night to early in the morning Guests have a discussion on live broadcasts. The debate heated up because there are many controversial topics As a result, they often follow parallel lines.
