Music in Manga

Yuki Kodama debuted as a manga artist in 2000. Today, twenty years after her debut, she is working on the manga series “Ao no Hana Utsuwa no Mori” [Blue Flowers, Ceramic Forest] (Shogakukan) set in Hasami, Nagasaki.
In one of her most representative works, “ Apollon on the Slope” (Shogakukan, 2007–12), set in Sasebo, Nagasaki in the 1960s, she depicted the youthful energy of adolescents engrossed in jazz music. On the other hand, “Tsukikage Babe” (Shogakukan, 2013–17) focuses on the Owara traditional folk dance of Yatsuo, Toyama. Music and dance—readers cannot see nor hear these performances on paper. We asked Yuki Kodama, who has managed to bring these art forms into the world of manga in a fascinating way, about the secrets of her creative process and why she continues to pursue challenges in her work. (July 2020 interview)

Why was "Apollon on the Slope" set in Sasebo?

There are three main characters in "Apollon on the Slope". I wanted to give Sentaro, the character who draws smart guy Kaoru into the world of jazz, a bad boy image—a brawny delinquent, but with a sense of justice. I thought this type of character would fit in well in 1960s Japan, but I needed to do thorough research in order to properly depict the culture and customs of the time. That’s why I decided to set the story in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, where I was born and raised.

Because it’s a place that I’m familiar with myself, it was easy to imagine the Mukae Record store and the hill they used to commute to school.

The ’60s was all about rock music. Why did you choose jazz?

I chose jazz because there’s an American military base in Sasebo. I thought the features of the location went well with jazz music, which was brought into Japan through the occupation. At the same time, I wanted to preserve that kind of cool, “if you get it, you get it” vibe that jazz has. As for popular rock music in Japan during the ’60s, there was the Group Sounds (GS) genre, but I thought it was a bit mainstream and the fans were too enthusiastic about it (laughs). Jazz performances and improvisation have a conversational aspect to them, which I thought would create an interesting effect when incorporated into manga.

Was it difficult to convert music into a visual form?

The whole process was fun from the moment I illustrated the scene in which Sentaro first performs a drum solo for Kaoru, and I hardly remember struggling with it. Rhythm was the most important thing to me—I drew each scene imagining that peaks in the music coincided with the timing of the page turn. I was influenced by the manga “To-y” (1985–87) by Atsushi Kamijo in that I imagined the onomatopoeia disappearing from the page whenever the characters became fully immersed in the performance.

There’s actually a person who served as my reference for depicting Sentaro’s drumming. This person was my coworker at the CD store where I worked part-time during college, and he was also active as a drummer. Before starting the series, I took photos of him in a studio and based my illustrations on them.

Did you have an idea for the story from the very beginning?

From the very beginning, I wanted to depict the cultural festival which serves as the climax in the first half of the series, and I imagined it taking place at the top of the hill. Other than that, I had about seven or eight pages of conceptual images, and I created the story as though by filling in the gaps between those images.

However, the “downward slope” leading to the conclusion after the cultural festival was pretty much decided as I was drawing it. “Apollon on the Slope” begins with a monologue by Kaoru as he climbs up the hill about how “annoying” hills are. That’s why, in the second half, I particularly wanted to depict the excitement—and at the same time, the sense of riskiness—of the two of them joyously running down the hill.

Why do you insist on using the local dialect?

Come to think of it, I used the local dialect in “Tsukikage Babe” as well. Why is that?
Probably because I feel that the local dialect captures everything about the atmosphere of the place. Of course, the cuteness of characters who speak in the dialect and the ease of establishing their personalities were reasons as well.
In particular, when I was creating "Tsukikage Babe", and since I’m also not from Toyama, I requested guidance in the local dialect along with pointers on the Owara dance. Whether it’s the local dialect or music, perhaps there’s just a part of me that doesn’t want to ignore “sounds.”

What was particularly challenging about "Tsukikage Babe"?

Unlike "Apollon on the Slope", which allowed me to have fun depicting jazz sounds, Owara is a very serene dance and I struggled with expressing it. On the other hand, the lyrics and dance made it an easy subject to tie into the story. I could express the feelings of the characters through song and dance, so in a way, I was able to portray music from yet another angle.

However, I really struggled with drawing the dance! I asked a local dancer to provide me with guidance on the dance, and so many things were pointed out to me, such as: “You need to hide the thumb here,” or, “Set the hips lower to the ground.” I had to fix many things in the book version.

What did you think of the anime and film adaptations of “Apollon on the Slope”?

Both were amazing. I was impressed by the performance of the actors in the live action film, and in the preceding anime, I was moved by how the music that had been playing in my head took the shape of actual sounds! Yoko Kanno, who was in charge of the music, read through the manga very seriously and delivered a sound that was exactly what I had imagined in the manga. I’m really happy to have drawn a manga that values music.