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The Infamous Rumiko Takahashi "Quote"

by Dylan Acres and Harley Acres



The Quote


"I don’t think about that and neither should you."

It is one of, if not the most, widely quoted statement attributed to Rumiko Takahashi in the English-speaking fan community. The quote itself is supposedly an answer to the question of "What would happen if Ranma got pregnant?" While the question itself is not particularly interesting to us, and if we are being honest, is obnoxious, what IS interesting is the supposed response. We were recently asked, “what is the actual source for where and when this was said?" With backgrounds in research and scholarship, we both take citation of sources very seriously. In the wake of the pandemic, when spare time to pursue our interests became abundant, we were able to go back and give citations, sources and footnotes for every article and interview hosted on the site. In addition, we had the time and finances to finally begin tracking down more than just obscure Takahashi manga, but Rumiko Takahashi's interviews as well.

As Rumiko Takahashi fans of many decades, this particular quote is one we have heard repeated endlessly, but because the question itself held no interest to us, had given very little thought to, even when the larger community of Ranma 1/2 fandom in America has given it an undue amount of time and attention. However, when faced with the question of when or where this quote supposedly came from and whether or not it was even authentic, we realized there was a more interesting mystery to pursue.

The Hunt


Female Ranma After receiving the email inquiring about this quote we began our work. As mentioned before we were familiar with this quote, it still crops up frequently today when you search "Rumiko Takahashi" in English, though without any sort of attribution. The quote itself was something that we had been aware of going back as far as we could remember. This gives us a starting point. Our official introduction to Rumiko Takahashi came in December 1993. Ranma 1/2 fandom in America was in its relative infancy at the time. We were introduced to the series through the roundabout way of the Super Nintendo Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle video game. [1] This meant that we could logically say this quote, whether authentic or falsified, was created sometime in the early to mid-1990s.

That led us to examining the quote itself, which led us to two things we were fairly sure of:
  1. Takahashi does not and would not speak this way to a fan.
  2. A Japanese fan would never ask her a question like this, nor would they have the opportunity to.
The first part we felt comfortable asserting due to having translated over one hundred interviews with Rumiko Takahashi. We had become fairly familiar with her tone and tenor and the biting, slightly sarcastic nature of this quote felt wrong. Takahashi has said in a handful of interviews that she "didn't want to draw a manga that people would feel bad about reading." [2] This sentiment seemed in strong contrast to this quote which basically suggests Takahashi gave a sarcastic response to a fan's (admittedly bizarre) question.

Our second assumption was that a Japanese fan would not have asked Takahashi a question like this (nor likely had the opportunity to ask a question like this, nor would that question then somehow have traveled across the 1990s internet gulf of being translated from Japanese into English to be disseminated among English-speaking fans). How can we be sure of this? Let's take a look at Japanese fans commenting on the "I don’t think about that and neither should you" quote.

Japanese website Together.com hosts discussions on various topics, including this particular quote. Japanese fans dismiss the validity of the quote entirely under a headline reading "[Fake rumor] Female Ranma cannot turn back into a man while pregnant". Fans say, "The original author, Rumiko Takahashi, never said that!!" [3] Quotes from the article include:
"らんまファンの間で今問題視されてるこの発言。これ『先生本人は言ってない』で間違いないかと。 2006年に「妊娠らんま問題」という海外有志による討論結果の記事の翻訳が日本でバズったんだけど、このツイートされた方はそれを公式の発言と間違って記憶してるんだと思う。"
"This statement is currently causing problems among Ranma fans. I think it's safe to say that 'Sensei herself never said it.' In 2006, a translation of an article on the "Pregnant Ranma Issue," a discussion held by overseas fans, went viral in Japan, but I think the person who tweeted this mistakenly remembered it as an official statement."


and...

"というか、国内どころか海外でも長年議論され続けてる話題なので、公式でそんな発言がされてたら、とっくにネットに取り上げられて話題になってるはずなので、『先生本人は言ってない』には『絶対』をつけていいと断言できる。"
"In fact, this is a topic that has been debated for many years not only in Japan but also overseas, so if such a statement had been made officially, it would have been picked up on the Internet and become a hot topic by now, so I can confidently say that I can add the word "absolutely" to the statement that 'Sensei herself did not say this.'"


and...

"らんま関連の話TLで流れてきたけど、高橋留美子先生の作品をそれなりの年月追ってますけどそんなインタビュー聞いたことないぞ..."
"I saw a story about Ranma on my timeline, but I've been following Rumiko Takahashi-sensei's work for quite some time now, but I've never heard of an interview like this..."


This confirmed that the Japanese fan community doubted the origins of this quote and strengthened our feeling that the quote did not originate from a Japanese source. That meant it likely originated in the English speaking community. Part of the quote always implies that Takahashi said this to "a fan". There would have only been two opportunities for an English speaking fan to interact with Rumiko Takahashi- the 1994 San Diego Comic Con or the 2000 San Diego Comic Con. Immediately we could rule out the 2000 Comic Con, we knew undoubtedly that we had heard this quote prior to 2000. That leaves the 1994 San Diego Comic Con as the focus of our investigation.

First we needed to verify when this quote started to appear online and not merely trust our recollections of things that happened three decades ago. We would use the years around the 1994 San Diego Comic Con as our starting point. To do so we turned to the Usenet archives. Usenet was one of the popular methods of interacting with other people in the early days of the internet before things like Reddit, 4chan or Facebook existed. Groups could be created dealing with specific interests or hobbies and "rec.arts.anime" was the main hub for anime and manga discussion at the time. Our search began and eventually we started to find some interesting leads...
  • June 3, 1993 - There was enough interest in Ranma being pregnant to warrant the question's inclusion in a FAQ on rec.arts.anime but without the "quote" from Takahashi.

    Q: What would happen if Ranma-chan (the female Ranma, in Japanese) got pregnant? Would she lose her baby if she changed back to Ranma-kun (the male Ranma)?
    A: No idea. At any rate, it's very unlikely that such a thing will happen, for a number of reasons, some of which are:
    - Mentally, Ranma is still a man, whatever his physical form may be.
    - Rumiko Takahashi, the author of RANMA 1/2, doesn't write that kind of story. :-) [4]
  • June 19, 1994 - A user suggests that someone should ask Takahashi when she comes to the '94 Comic Con.

    "Maybe somebody should ask Rumiko Takahashi at the San Diego Comic Con." [5]


This now gave us a solid lead. We had a transcription of questions asked of Rumiko Takahashi at the convention, however upon re-reading it, it had no mention of the infamous quote. [6] It seemed like we may have reached a dead end, that the question may have been asked, but left unverifiable. Disappointed, we returned to combing through old Usenet postings to see if any other leads might arise. We were still fairly confident that this was something that arose from the English speaking community.

The Discovery


While scouring Usenet, we came across the earliest mention of the quote online along with a vague confirmation of the origin of the quote.

"My favorite story about this kind of thing is about the time that Rumiko Takahashi, creator of the Ranma series, was the guest at a convention and someone asked HER what would happen if Ranma got pregnant. Her answer? "I don't think about that kind of thing, and frankly, neither should you." To cut through that Oriental politeness, she told the fan to "get a life." :)" [7]


Yet again, this confirmed our suspicions, the quote seems to have originated around the time of the 1994 San Diego Comic Con, and this individual's wording of the quote seemed like the origin of its confrontational tone. This could hardly be called "case closed," but it seemed like enough for us to offer this up as being as close to solving the mystery as we would ever get. Prior to wrapping up our investigation with an inconclusive ending we dug a little deeper and continued to pour over decades old Usenet posts. Then one more comment caught our attention...

"Saw this in Animerica and I just HAD to post it.
Trish Ledoux & Co were asking Rumiko Takahashi the otaku type questions at dinner. On the subject of "what would happen if Ranma got pregnant."
Ms. Takahashi said...
"I don't care to think about that, and you shouldn't either."
AMEN!" [8]


Back in our teenage years, part of our purchasing everything Rumiko Takahashi related included a subscription to Animerica magazine, the in-house publication of Viz Communications, Rumiko Takahashi's English language publisher. Animerica published some of the first English interviews with numerous major figures in the manga and anime industry. The other name mentioned, Trish Ledoux, was the editor-in-chief of Animerica and was involved with the translation and English adaptation of both the Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2 anime series for Viz. In the 1990s some in the English anime and manga community had strong opinions about Ledoux and her "aura of controversy". [9] Most of this centered around localization choices, the altering of Ranma 1/2 song lyrics to make them "singable" in English and other translation choices.

So, after tons of scouring, we tracked the original source to an editorial in Animerica Volume 2 Number 9 in which Trish Ledoux recounts asking Takahashi the question and "I don't think about that and you shouldn't either" being the answer. [10] Our full transcription of the column can be found archived here.

The Context


Takahashi was not asked this question in a public setting, nor for a published interview. We don’t say this to doubt the veracity of the quote, but to say that the way it was worded was not necessarily for public consumption and is being presented secondhand in an annecdotal manner by someone who was at times seen as a provocative figure in the manga/anime English translation community at the time. It stands to reason this isn’t a quote that is necessarily for public consumption, but is also a question that hopefully no self-respecting fan would ever truly ask Takahashi. Ledoux even goes out of the way to phrase the handful of questions she asked as “otaku” questions. I think in the 2020’s we would call these “weeaboo” questions given their cringe-inducing nature. It may be worth asking ourselves, "is this a disrespectful question?" "should fans pause before considering things like this?", and "how are questions like this interpreted by the author?"

Why has this quote gained so much traction amongst American fandom over the decades? Is it because it is naughty, wicked, or slightly perverse? It represents a vulgarity that is nonexistent in Takahashi’s original manga. We’ve long believed that fans who were curious or interested in this particular question were looking for something not present in the work, or something that could be found in a Takahashi imitator like Hiroshi Aro’s Futaba-kun Change (ふたば君チェンジ).

And so, in conclusion...
  • Did Rumiko Takahashi say "I don’t think about that and neither should you," to a fan when asked about Ranma getting pregnant?

    No.

  • Did Rumiko Takahashi say "I don't care to think about that, and you shouldn't either," to Trish Ledoux, the English translator of the Ranma 1/2 anime when asked an intentionally "otaku question"?

    Yes, she said this more politely than the commonly attributed quote with "you" being "Trish Ledoux" and the context being a private dinner on August 6th 1994 at a San Diego Mexican restaurant.


Footnotes

Dylan Acres is a psychology professor at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Harley Acres is an art history professor at Pikes Peak State College. The brothers founded Rumic World in 1996.

Cover

Rumic World
Published: June 8, 2024
Author: Dylan Acres and Harley Acres
Translated by: ---
Archived: ---
ISBN/Web Address: https://www.furinkan.com/ features/articles/pregnant.html
Page numbers: ---