Chapter 1: The Beginning
Interview with Sadafumi Hiramatsu Character Designer / Animation Director
Let's just do whatever we want.
First of all, may I ask about the package illustration for this BD BOX?
We discussed the idea of including all the characters in the package illustration at the meeting.
However, we were not sure whether to include the adult team (the parents) or not.
It would be unnatural to have the parents side by side with Yukino and the others, so I decided to leave the adults out as much as possible.
However, I thought it would be okay to draw only Kawashima far away from Yukino and the others, so I drew a rough sketch without the parents.
Then Anno asked me to include the parents in the illustration.
Space was provided in the illustration from the beginning for additional drawings.
Did you intentionally do that?
I didn't do it intentionally.
But I know Anno doesn't like empty spaces (laughs).
When I received the request, I immediately thought this was the place to put them (laughs).
How many years has it been since you drew the characters of "Kare Kano"?
I drew Yukino, Hanano, and Tsukino on the cover of my art book ("Sadafumi Hiramatsu Animation Art Book" published by Style Inc. in 2016).
In 2005, when the last package came out, I made a billboard and took a picture of it, which I drew before that.
When I drew the three characters in the book, Yukino resembled the character Yuko Nishigori because of the influence of the Yuri on Ice character I was drawing at the time.
Therefore, this time, I wanted to draw the characters closer to the original.
I tried to draw the characters as they were in the beginning by looking at the original work and the character list of the anime.
In the first drawing, Yukino and Arima have slightly round faces.
Arima's face is especially round.
Arima grows taller along the way, and his appearance changes, doesn't it?
Yes, that's right.
There was an episode in which Arima grew taller (episode 17).
Is there any character that was difficult to draw after a long time?
Not really.
The character I am most unfamiliar with is Tonami.
I hardly drew him in the anime.
There are a lot of scenes in the last episode where he appears, but that was mostly done by tracing the original.
It was a very innovative idea, wasn't it?
The concept was not just to use the original artwork as is, but to use the original artwork as if it were the original animation artwork.
We took the extra step of respecting the original artwork and making it into the original anime artwork.
It is not that we are making it easy for the animators by using the original pictures as they are.
Did you enjoy such elaborate work?
At the time, it was just too much work (laughs).
I didn't expect I'd be doing something experimental again at the end. (laughs).
Anno left the production after episode 13 and came back with this for the last episode (laughs).
Episode 13 is the episode you were in charge of. Cute scene between Tsubasa and Kazuma. Is Tsubasa your favorite character?
No, it's Aya.
Aya and Maho.
I liked beautiful women with elegance.
Rika was a rather cute type, and Tsubasa was the opposite, she was like a toy for Imaishi (Hiroyuki) and his friends (laughs).
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