Recorded last summer, the toco toco TV service has a really fun short piece with manga creator Kenji Oiwa, the man behind Welcome to the NHK. With that being his most popular work overseas as the manga made its way out here and the anime was pretty popular at the time, it’s definitely an interesting piece as we see his workspace some and why he’s in this field. There’s also a lot of fun as he takes us through the Chūō line train at rush hour time with some creative ways to deal with blocking other people’s faces along the way!
“The Chūō line, is one of the East Japan Railways company lines, abbreviated as (East) JR lines. The Chūō line stops at some of the busiest stations in the world, such as Shinjuku and Tokyo. In this episode, Kenji Ōiwa will take the Chūō line to go to Shinjuku, where hundreds of thousands of people commute every day. You will see how the train is packed early in the morning and how crazy Shinjuku station looks like at the busiest hours of the day.”
“After a little glimpse of Shinjuku’s station, we head back to Nakano ward where Kenji Ōiwa has his atelier. It is a small place that is just enough for one person. He has an assistant working from home with who he exchanges files. Although Kenji Ōiwa thinks working as a mangaka is tough, he decided to work in this sector as he has always loved to draw illustrations with manga characters.”
