Otakon Vegas 2014: The Riichiro Inagaki Report

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Hi. I'm new to this group. But I happened to make Otakon Vegas at the beginning of this year, where the writer of Eyeshield 21, Riichiro Inagaki, was a guest of honor, and since I feel that the community could use some fun news, I've decided to share the "wealth" of photos, panel Q&A, and what-have-you with the group. 

There is even a dorky picture of me and Inagaki-sensei (and I'm coplaying the entirely wrong series ||OTL).
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Day 1: Q&A Panel
Inagaki-sensei's first panel was directly on Friday, the first day of the convention. There were quite a few interesting insights that came out of this...I wasn't able to remember/record down every single question, but here are the most interesting/relevant ones; also as a disclaimer, they may not be exactly word-for-word what was asked/answered, since I was trying to take notes and listen at the same time, so here is my best interpretation that should be (mostly) accurate.

Q: Did you come to Las Vegas specifically to do research for the Death March arc?
A: Yes, but I had to drive by car from California, because there was no way I could've run it like they did!

Q: Are Hiruma and Mamori involved romantically, either by the series' end or eventually? (guess who asked this one).
A: [He was kind of vague with this one...I think either he didn't quite understand my question entirely or he was reluctant to give an exact answer, because of potential backlash from publisher/fans/etc.] Hiruma and Mamori? Well, they do make a great combination [as in they work well together and complement each other], but if you're talking about love, it's not that type of relationship... But they probably do "get together".

Q: What's the one thing you have to do here [Las Vegas]?
A: Gamble, because I lost $3,000 yesterday at craps and black jack! [For the record, Inagaki-sensei admitted that he likes gambling quite a bit...maybe that explains the gambling themes that pop up in E21].

Q: How many times have you come to America? Is this your first time?
A: Actually I've been to America a few times already for research...in fact, this is my eighth time in Las Vegas!

Q: How did you and Murata-sensei (the illustrator) come up with the team names/logos?
A: Well, it was pretty straightforward, I came up with the team names, and then Murata-san designed all the logos.

Q: If someone wanted to adopt your work, would you want to give advice, or let them handle it?
A: Whichever one's more lucrative *laughs*

Q: Will there ever be a sequel involving the E21 characters going to the NFL?
A: Well, I didn't hold anything back during the initial run of Eyeshield 21, so there's not much potential, except maybe a special short; if you ever see a part two, you will know I am short on money and need the job! *laughs*

Q: What's your favorite manga series that's running right now?
A: Hunter x Hunter.

Q: Why did you have some characters be naturally talented (like Agon), but others have to work very hard (Unsui)?
A: One of the main themes of Eyeshield 21 was this "hard work" vs. "genes"...every character sort of goes through that; but at the same time, you must entertain the readers, so you want both victory and defeat, hence their [Team Japan's] loss at the World Cup.

Q: How did readers in Japan respond to the Vegas scenes?
A: Apparently the readers loved the casino parts, maybe they love gambling too? That's why we brought that theme back with Atlantic City later on.

Q: Any inspirations from other sources for creating the casino sequences?
A: If you've watched The Hangover, you might recognize that the card counting scene is exactly the same as the one where Hiruma is counting cards in his head!

Q: Outside of the Deimon Devil Bats, who is your favorite character?
A: I actually really liked to write about Kengo Mizumachi, because he's one of those characters who works really hard and is really good, but he never realizes it.


Panel 1Inagaki-sensei's Q&A panel (he's on the left, guy in the cowboy hat is the translator, Taka!).

Panel 2

Photo timeHe is super cool and chill. Also I'm wearing not!Eyeshield cosplay...


Day 2: Storyboarding Panel

His second panel included two other guests as well, Kaoru Kurosaki and Masahiro Ando, and all three of them talked about their own storyboarding processes.  We were actually allowed to take pictures of all the slides, so here is a behind-the-scenes look at how Inagaki-sensei worked with Murata-sensei to create the Death March scenes!

panelistsAll three panelists.








Well, Inagaki-sensei said outright that there are lots of better artists out there than him...

There was also a quiz at the end to see how well you were paying attention to the "rules" of storyboarding! Which storyboard is the actual one that was used??


Of course, it wouldn't be an Eyeshield 21 panel without some cosplay...even though I did not have the time to make one, I saw one Mamori cosplayer! Hopefully she won't mind me posting her pics up...but I can take them down if someone asks me to.

EDIT: Hooollyyy cow, I actually met the cosplayer again TWO YEARS after this was taken!! I actually commissioned yumedarling this past Fanime, and upon looking at my old photos, I suddenly realized I had found our mystery Mamori!


Bonus: This is his autograph. He only sketched Hiruma, because, according to him, "everybody else would turn out very bad...especially girls. Hiruma is better..."


He also held a portfolio review session(!), but because it was so last minute, I didn't have time to prepare/bring anything for him to see...but some people did! Which is good, because apparently in Japan, whenever he offers to hold such events, nobody goes...maybe they are too embarrassed? He wanted to see our "American pluck!"

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And that's pretty much it. No video/audio was allowed, at the guests' request, so I hope these pictures will suffice, and hopefully give a bit of fun insight into what the creative process was actually like! Now if only Yusuke Murata will visit America sometime...
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What a enjoyable read! Thank you for putting it together sounds like you had a great time. :)