I recently finished watching the entirety of Lupin the Third Part II, a 155 episode endeavor which secured the Lupin the Third franchise within my heart. When discussing this series, many people draw (too much in my opinion) attention to episode 145 and 155, both of which were directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli fame.
What might interest you though is that if you look at the credits for those episodes, you will see no mention of Hayao Miyazaki. Instead you will see the name “Teruki Tsutomu” listed as the director. This name later turned out to be a pseudonym that Hayao Miyazaki had used while making these episodes. This is not an isolated event with many people who work on anime and manga choosing to use pseudonyms rather than their real names.
Something that is important to remember is that Japan has many different social norms compared to the West. Standing out in society is not viewed as a good thing and many Japanese tend to be quite private when it comes to their personal lives. Instead many will choose to adopt a pseudonym to maintain their private lives. Examples include Shirow Masamune, author of the Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell series, and Tsugumi Ohba, writer of Death Note and Bakuman.
Pseudonyms aren’t always about maintaining privacy. Instead, pseudonyms may be adopted to fit a certain public image. It is interesting to note that Osamu Tezuka’s name in Japanese is spelled “手塚 治”. However, you might notice that he spelled his name “手塚 治虫” in his various works. The added character is “Mushi” and represents bugs, something Osamu Tezuka was very fond of. Another example of this is Ito Ōgure (Ōgure Ito in Japanese naming conventions) who decided to name himself Oh! great as the phrase sounded similar to his Japanese name.
As evidenced by my initial paragraph, pseudonyms aren’t restricted to the manga industry and many people in the anime industry use them as well. Rintaro is the pseudonym of Shigeyuki Hayashi, a highly respected anime director. It is also interesting to note that he had also used another pseudonym, Kuruma Hino, when he worked on the series Moomin.
It is interesting how many people in the anime and manga industries use pseudonyms and I would love to learn more about the topic. Let me know what you think of pseudonyms in general, why you think they are so popular in Japan and what some of your favourite pseudonyms are.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!