Award-winning manga artist and a veteran of the industry Takeshi Obata is mostly known for his work on Death Note, Bakuman and Platinum End.

He debuted in 1989 with the series "Cyborg Jiichan G" (Cyborg Grandpa G), which was published in the Weekly Shonen Jump.

His illustrations in the series "Hikaru no Go" also sparked a Go game boom amongst young boys and girls. Written by Yumi Hotta, the series was published from 1998 to 2003 in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Some of his other big hits include "Death Note", written by Tsugumi Ohba and published from 2003 to 2006 in Weekly Shonen Jump, as well as "Bakuman", also written by Tsugumi Ohba and published from 2008 to 2012 in Weekly Shonen Jump. Both of these works were adapted into anime, live action movies, and had a big impact on society.

Currently, he is working with Tsugumi Ohba on their third collaboration series, "Platinum End", which is being published by Monthly Magazine Jump Square.

We thought about a simple, but interesting question to start : what encouraged you to become a mangaka ? Did your family support you on this way ?

Since I am young I love to draw. When I was at school, I couldn’t see me as an office worker, or as an employee, it seemed too difficult for me. So I studied to become a mangaka.

Usually, you draw the mangas, and you let another person create the script. Is there a special cause or is it just because you prefer drawing ?

At the beginning I tried to imagine stories by myself but I didn’t find anything that could correspond to my drawings. So I decided to work with a scriptwriter who writes stories to fit in with my drawings.

How do your collaborations work ? Does the scriptwriter give you some ideas about the plot and characters or do you imagine it by yourself ?

I give some of my ideas, then Ohba-san develops and increases the story. After that, he discusses with M. Yoshida, my manager, and together they refine the script. Actually I never meet nor talk to Ohba-san, everything goes through M. Yoshida.

We read that when you draw a manga, you prefer to create the characters, and let your assistants deal with the setting, and the graphic universe. But do you give them some directions or are they able to use their imagination ? How do they get into your universe ?

I define and explain them how I want to create the manga, and its universe. After that, they work with my directions.

Do you sometimes feel close to your characters ? And do you think you look like one of them ?

I feel really close to L, from Death Note, because I worked hard with Ohba-san to create this character, for his design as much as his personality. Finally I find it’s an amazing character, well elaborate.

We really love Death Note (and Platinum End), and we wondered if it is such a big challenge to draw this type of characters, who are very complex, elaborate, and interesting ?

When the personality is deeper than for a simple character, as the students in Bakuman, it is really hard to design the protagonists. But that’s what is enthralling and fun about manga. It is very interesting to draw deep characters. And once again, I’m really proud of my job on L, who is a complete and fascinating protagonist.

Talking about Ohba-san, we wondered if the manga Bakuman is a bit like your own story with him. Because one of the protagonist prefers to write scripts, while the other prefers to draw…

I think that Saïko (or Moritaka Mashiro, the drawer) is really like me.

Do you think there is a difference between create an anime and create a manga ?

I never do animes, because mangakas only make mangas, while the animes are created by directors.

Nevertheless, these directors have to follow the original manga, haven’t they ?

Usually they have to fit in with the manga, but it depends on the situation. I find that they never really follow the original design, and animes are very different from mangas. Generally, the fans are disappointed by the anime…

Talking about animation, you’ve worked as a character designer on the video game “Castelvania Judgment”. What did really change from your usual work? What was different from drawing a manga?

First of all, a manga is written step by step, over months, so at the beginning I have an approximate idea of the characters. Then, I think about their development, in order to make them more interesting. But when I do character design for a video game, I need to have a specific idea of the protagonists, and I have to make them eye-catching, to make them appealing. So I need a full, precise, understanding of my characters from the very beginning of my work.