A circle of friends connected by goo touch! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On October 16, costume designer Tsuyoshi Takahashi will appear. We talked mainly about how he started collecting “AKIRA” T-shirts, the types of items in his collection, and his work as a costume designer.
INDEX
Collecting official “AKIRA” T-shirts
Celeina (MC): First up for the week is this person, recommended by the program. He is a collector of “AKIRA” T-shirts and a costume designer, Tsuyoshi Takahashi. Please give him my best regards.
Takano (MC): Mr. Takahashi came to the studio today wearing an “AKIRA” T-shirt, what kind of selection was it?
Takahashi: The international edition of “AKIRA” was published in 1990 or so, and this is a gift one that only those who won the prize at that time could have.
Takano: It is very rare.
Celeina: It is designed as a panel of a comic book, and English is written in a speech balloon.
Takano: I’m also wondering how you get them. You brought a lot of T-shirts, and the studio looks amazing.
Celeina: Do you have a favorite among these?
Takahashi：My particular favorite is a sweatshirt, but it says “Atelier Morita” on the tag. It’s the kind of thing that only the winners of a sweepstakes when “AKIRA” was serialized in “Young Magazine” at the time could have. This one has value in my opinion, but that one is more valuable in the market, and the price is very high.
Celeina：This T-shirt has a green body.
Takahashi：It’s printed all over. This is a T-shirt that was sold, but it is only available in size XL, so it is very popular overseas. The price went up, and at one point it was around 500,000 yen.
Celeina：It has prints all over it from the neck to the shoulders. T-shirts are packed securely in plastic, with silica gel inside as well.
Takahashi: Humidity is my worst enemy.
Takano: Your house is even more amazing, isn’t it?
Takahashi: Yes, it is. I have a special shelf, and all these packed items are crammed in there.
Takano: How many do you have?
Takahashi: I haven’t counted them properly, but probably about 200 in total.
Takano: All of them are “AKIRA”. That’s amazing.
Celeina: And of all the T-shirts, the ones you collect are official ones.
Takahashi: That’s right. I like to collect T-shirts that I won in the sweepstakes I mentioned earlier, or the “AKIRA” T-shirts that were published by Kodansha and drawn by Katsuhiro Otomo, the manga artist, not the anime artist. But there are more T-shirts of the anime version of the movie out there in greater numbers.
Takano: How many are officially available?
Takahashi: I can’t count them properly, but I think there are probably about 70 types. The ones from Kodansha are probably less than 30.
Takano: Have you already completed all the official ones?
Takahashi: No, there are only two left. I found some old clippings from “Young Magazine” and other magazines on Yahoo Auctions a long time ago, and I was able to take them over. I was looking through them and found information about the trainer, but I had never seen it before.
Celeina: It says “trainer present” on the clipping.
Takano: You thought this should be somewhere.
Takahashi: It must be somewhere, but I’ve never seen it anywhere, even at various auctions, so I’ve almost given up on it.
Celeina: If the age of the clipping is a bit old, you can only get information from magazines, not SNS, so clippings are an important source of information.
Takano: There may be people who listen to J-WAVE who know some information.
Celeina: Is it a light blue print on a white background?
Takahashi: Yes, it is.
Takano: If you have it as a gift or if you know some information about it.
INDEX
I basically wear T-shirts from the collection.
Celeina： You also brought something like a timeline. Is this an “AKIRA” T-shirt timeline made by Mr. Takahashi?
Takahashi: Yes, it is.
Takano: The serialization started in 1982 and the anime movie was released in 1988. There is a vertical timeline, and this T-shirt chronology shows the T-shirts that were released along the timeline. It is interesting to see that the same “AKIRA” T-shirt can be designed from many different angles. There are many colors.
Celeina: I feel nothing but love for the fact that you made this timeline by yourself.
Takano: It’s great.
Celeina： To begin with, why did you start collecting “AKIRA” T-shirts?
Takahashi: About 10 years ago, a boy who worked part-time at a tavern I used to frequent was wearing a tattered “AKIRA” T-shirt with the hem worn out. I thought it was really cool, even though he said something like, “Who would wear an “AKIRA” T-shirt now? I had a few T-shirts myself, so I decided to wear them. While I was looking for what he was wearing, I found out that all the T-shirts I had were fake. Then I decided that I wanted the real thing, so I went to Yahoo! Auctions and secondhand clothing stores, and if I found something I bought it, I repeated the process.
Takano: I don’t know what will trigger it. By the way, speaking of “AKIRA,” last month we had a guest, Mr. Junya Suzuki, a researcher of Katsuhiro Otomo, at “FIST BUMP” ( Junya Suzuki, “Katsuhiro Otomo Researcher,” aims to create a data infrastructure like the periodic table in the world of manga. ).Will there be any interaction with him?
Takahashi: Yes, there is.
Takano: Yes, as I thought.
Takahashi: Junya-san is like a god to me. When I contacted him, he replied, “You’re the kind of person who only collects Akira T-shirts, right?” , we said, “Let’s meet up once” and we met for drinks.
Celeina：What did you talk about there?
Takahashi：I was too happy to remember. But we only talked about “AKIRA.
Takano: I knew that would be the case. Suzuki-san is a researcher who collects data, but you are a collector, so how do you interact with T-shirts after you have collected them?
Takahashi: Basically, I wear them. This is a special one that I hadn’t worn for a long time, but it was a little small, so I went on a diet for today so I could wear it (laughs).
Takano: You brought it down for today? Thank you very much.
Takahashi: It’s already in pretty bad shape.
Takano: But they are in very beautiful condition.
Takahashi: Some of them are really dirty. I especially like wearing this white T. The neck and the sleeves are torn, but I like it best in this condition.
Celeina: It’s cool.
Takano: It’s a white long T with “AKIRA” written in katakana, and the katakana “AKIRA” is a little blurred, which is very cool and tasteful.
Takahashi: That’s right. I am the main stylist, so I go to shoots, etc., but at the Corona Disaster, everyone was wearing masks, right? But I was wearing an “AKIRA” T-shirt every day, so when someone asked, “Where’s the stylist?”, It made it easy to find me, like “That’s “AKIRA” guy!” It was also easy to communicate with foreign models who saw the T-shirts and said, “Oh, you are wearing ‘AKIRA'” or “I like ‘AKIRA'”. It is like a gateway to communication, so I don’t just look at them, but wear all of them.
Takano: It is wonderful that the “AKIRA” T-shirts have become an icon for you. So, I would like to hear more, but I would like to interrupt with a song. I asked Mr. Takahashi to choose a song that he would like everyone to listen to together on the radio at this time.
Takahashi： “Diving into your mind” by Miyuki Hatakeyama. It was the first song I styled for a CD jacket after I started working as a stylist.
Takano: Let’s listen to this memorable song.
