Nasu:  "Mr. Anakubo, did you ever think the series would be running this long?"

Anakubo: "No I did not (laughs)"

Nasu:  "How did you get involved with a serialized Pocket Monsters manga?"

Ishii:  "The editorial department more or less pointed at him and said "Don't you think Mr. Anakubo would be a good choice for this?""

Anakubo:  "At that time I was working on the series "I'm a Man! Kunio-kun." And then one day I got a phone call from the editors saying "Well, we have good news and we have bad news.""

All:  "That's scary!"

Anakubo:  "They said "So actually, we're canceling "I'm a Man! Kunio-kun." That news made me want to say Pippi's catchphrase "Giepii~" (laughs)"


Anakubo:  "And so I said "OK, so what's the good news then?" And they said "You'll be doing a Pocket Monsters series instead. It's already been finalized. We've got the panel layouts and everything so you'd better start getting ready.""

Nasu:  "So it's kind of like "I'm a Man! Kunio-kun" was reborn."

Anakubo:  "That's probably how it felt, yes."

Nasu:  "Did you know anything about Pocket Monsters when your editor told you that "it's already been finalized"?"

Anakubo:  "Not at all (laughs). They didn't give me any reference materials either. You know how you can choose from three Pokémon -- Fushigidane, Hitokage, and Zenigame -- as your first Pokémon in the video games, right? Well, I only had information on those three, and then Pippi and Pikachu. But that was it. I didn't even have anything about Monster Balls or anything like that.

That's how things got started, and so that's how debacles like that happened (laughs)"

All:  (laughs)

Nasu:  "I've heard we've got some pages of the manga from back then."

Ishii:  "So there's a Monster Ball in this panel here, but it's all wrong isn't it? (laughs)"


Anakubo:  "Oh my goodness, that's so bad (laughs)."

I personally liked Pikachu

Nasu:  "It must have been difficult to decide which of those five should be used as the main character."

Anakubo:  "One of the people in charge thought "Pippi would be good," though I personally liked Pikachu better myself. But, I worried that if I pushed back and said "Well actually I like Pikachu for that role" then that would have caused a lot of headaches (laughs). So I caved, and that's how Pippi got chosen as the main character.

But you know, if I had gone with Pikachu then we wouldn't have gotten the catchphrase "Giepii~" and so maybe that person in charge was right after all."


Nasu:  "Pikachu's the mascot level star these days, but back then that wasn't the case yet. But still, you had the foresight to want to go with Pikachu as the main character. I think that's really amazing."

Nakanishi:  "If Pikachu had become the main character then the catchphrase wouldn't have been "Giepii~," it would have been something else."

Anakubo:  "Maybe something like "Giepikaa~" (laughs)"

Kae:  "It's still got that "Gie" part at the beginning there (laughs).

The correct way to pronounce "Giepii~," from Mr. Anakubo himself

Nasu:  "So how did Pippi's catchphrase "Giepii~" come about?"

Anakubo:  "You tell me! (laughs) I have no idea where it came from. If any of you out there can let me know I'd be happy to send you my autograph (laughs).

Also, as for the right way to pronounce "Giepii~," everyone tends to put a lower intonation on the "pii~" part at the end there but it should actually be said with a rising intonation instead.


Nakanishi:  "When you do it like that the "Pii~" sounds like the beeping sound you hear on Japanese TV whenever someone says a curse word (laughs)."

Anakubo:  "This guy gets it (laughs)."

Nasu:  "Mr. Anakubo, did you play the Game Boy games?"

Anakubo:  "I used to, but I've been too busy these days to play anything lately."

Nasu:  "Well, since we have you here today could we get you to draw something for us on this shikishi board?"


All:  "Wow! It's really him!"

Kae:  "Now I'm really excited."

Nasu:  "I'm a little bit in awe. I can just see the comments now: "That Giepii~ is bringing me right back to my childhood""

Anakubo:  "I'm really happy to hear that."

Nasu:  "Mr. Anakubo, thank you so much for your time today."