Naoshi Arakawa’s Legendary Career as a Mangaka Before Your Lie in April Fame Started Because of a Trivial Reason

SUMMARY

• Your Lie in April has a simple but impactful plot that any anime fan would watch and cry at the end.
• The series' original creator wanted to create a story so moving that the goal was to make his editor cry.
• Naoshi Arakawa had a fascination for manga ever since his school days but he began drawing manga during university because he was bored.

Your Lie in April isn’t about complicated, interwoven narratives. It can’t carry the same sort of gravitas that some other great anime can. It doesn’t need to do that, and it doesn’t attempt to be more than it is. It’s a simple story filled with complicated emotions between two characters whose worlds revolve around each other and the music they wish to play for the world.

Your Lie in April main poster | Credits: Credits: A1 Pictures

The story follows a young pianist named Kоosei Arima, who loses the ability to perform the piano after his mother’s death and the subsequent trauma makes him unable to hear the sound of a piano, and he never takes the stage thereafter. However, his monochrome life turns upside down the day he encounters the eccentric violinist Kaori Miyazono, who thrusts him back into the spotlight as her accompanist. Through a little lie, these two young musicians grow closer together as Kaori tries to fill Kousei’s world with color.

The main goal behind Your Lie in April‘s creation

Kousei Arima crying | Credits: Credits: A1 Pictures

While the story of Your Lie in April had so much depth and characterization that fans adore, series creator Naoshi Arakawa had one big reason why he drew the story. During an interview in Anime Expo 2016, the interviewer heard a rumor beforehand that Arakawa-sensei had written Your Lie in April to with someone special in mind. Someone whom he wanted to make cry.

For which, Arakawa-sensei said:

It’s true. When I was writing Your Lie in April, my goal was to make my editor (Shinichi Eda) cry.

And he was successful in his mission. The interviewer did ask the editor to confirm the same, to which he admitted: “It made me cry.” This may sound pretty sadistic but Arakawa-sensei really wanted his story to move the audience and he did a lot of homework to make sure it’s authentic.

In order to obtain a sense of what the lives of the kids were actually like, Arakawa-sensei spent some time observing them while he was writing Your Lie in April. In addition, he presented a bunch of school students with some of his first drafts in order to ascertain whether or not they believed the plot made sense and felt realistic. The fact that they were able to empathize with the characters made a significant contribution to the whole experience.

But the way he kickstarted his career was unconventional but not completely surprising.

Your Lie in April‘s author drew manga for a reason fans won’t believe

A worn out Kousei Arima | Credits: Credits: A1 Pictures

When asked about his own school days, Arakawa-sensei had a friend who was heavily into manga and that friend got him hooked on to it so much so he would start tracing out panels, with Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad being his favorite. After he entered University, nobody knew he was drawing manga because he was drawing in secret.

And the main reason Arawaka-sensei drew is because he was bored.

Yes. Nothing else. No major backstory that would inspire generations of mangakas in the future. But it’s not surprising altogether. Even Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama wanted to get into Shonen Jump is because he wanted money to pay for his cigarettes.

As he was growing up, Arakawa-sensei did not have any expectations of becoming a writer; yet, he is now totally at ease with the idea. Having the ability to write anything he wants is one of Arakawa-sensei’s favorite aspects of being a writer. In addition, his aforementioned editor, Shinichi Eda, was a pretty quiet and soft person who would only make change when absolutely necessary so the author’s life is pretty chill.

Your Lie in April anime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Written by Anand Bhaskaran

Articles Published: 95

A Dragon Ball fanatic who also loves to read and talk about Indian spirituality. An MBA finance graduate with a passion for doing everything that is unrelated to it. Anand has over 4 years of experience under his belt, having worked with leading content heads in the anime community. Currently, he's more into Slice of Life and Romcom shows than actual Battle Shonen. But unfortunately, he's stuck with a job writing ONLY about Battle Shonen (smh).