Messages to Kentarou Miura: Takashi Hoshi (1)

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A story about Miura Kentarou-nii


Greetings, readers of Young Animal, it has been a long time. I’m Hoshi Takashi, the author of Schäferhund (2). This time, being told that I was given a space, I thought very hard about “what on earth should I write?” Even at this very moment when I’m facing the manuscript, I’m in a state where I don’t have a clear answer to “what would be good to write about?”

Miura-nii…

Since I was introduced (to him) by Mori Kouji-sensei, Miura-sensei was very nice with me, beyond a senior-junior relationship in the workplace, and I called him “Miura-nii”. In addition, I communicated well with Mori-sensei in a bar late at night through our respective skills, like in “Holy land”, and I called him “Mori-nii”. *laughs* (3)

The day when I drank together with Akahori Satoru-sensei – my great big bro and teacher –, Umino Chica-sensei, Miura-nii and other senseis who were busy came up to my mind clearly.

I was digressing but my memories with Miura-nii are infinite and all of them are intense…

Among them, on this occasion I want to write a bit about a time not long after I had first met him.

At the time, his comment, which was something like “Since nobody contacts me, maybe I’ll cancel my mobile phone”, became the talk of the town (Mori-nii called him on his landline phone and he hardly went out, so I think it was really unnecessary for him *laughs*), we got to exchange carrier emails frequently. (4) (5)

Doing so, I managed to stop him from cancelling his mobile phone. When he had time, though it was just taking a little break, we went to a teashop together. I went only to chat with him, seeing his back while he was facing his manuscripts in his atelier, or when time permitted, we had a talk at ease in a spa in Tokyo… I had formed a relationship with him as “a junior he meets frequently”, which Miura-nii hardly had.


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Note 1: Hoshi uses 兄 (nii), which means “brother”, as a title. In Japanese, we shouldn’t call an older person’s name without such a word (usually an honorific title like “san”). In this case it’s not about family but is a friendly title for an older man.

Note 2: シェイファー・ハウンド (Schäferhund), meaning "German Shepherd", is a manga that was published in Young Animal Arasi from 2012 to 2016. It's about a fictional women-only tank unit in the German army during World War II. 8 volumes were released. Hoshi Takashi did the story, Katayama Makoto did the art.

Note 3: It implies there was some physical action. Not a real fight, but maybe something like wrestling or judo…

Note 4: Miura’s comment in Young Animal, published in October 2002: “Zero calls received in 2 years. I'll cancel my mobile phone subscription. My poor relationships are the driving force that is keeping me sitting at my desk.”

Note 5: Carrier mail (キャリアメール) is a Japanese-English term that specifically refers to e-mail services provided by telecommunication carriers for mobile phones. It is a type of service unique to Japan, introduced in 1999 as an alternative to the SMS standard. Japan’s telecom network did not properly support SMS until 2011, so carrier mail was the default method for written communication in the 2000s. It only declined with the rise of instant messaging apps in the 2010s, like LINE. It is currently (2021) being phased out by phone carriers.