Only in episode 13 she was portrayed as a rather pretty, beautiful girl.
You are the animation director for episodes 1, 8, 13, 18, and 26. Is this a lot or a little?
I think it is normal to work as an animation director for 5 episodes in 6 months.
However, I am not working as the chief animation director.
The episodes Imaishi was in charge of were done by Imaishi.
It should not have been so hard…
Is there a reason why you are not the Chief Animation Director in KareKano?
I thought it would probably be useless, or rather, it would get in the way.
I did a little at the beginning, in the second or third episode.
But they were all very assertive, and they asked me to make the corrections as the animation director last, so I felt, "Then I don't have to do it," and I let them do what they wanted (laughs).
After episode 14, after 14 DAYS, there are more staff members other than GAINAX, and moreover, when it is sold as video software, it has been edited.
But I don't think I did that many revisions.
I hardly remember doing package retakes.
I probably reworked the compilation, episode 14, but other than that, I didn't make any changes.
I think I edited the storyboard a little bit for episode 17.
When Tencho Sato (Hiroki Sato) became the director, he had to check the storyboards, and he didn't know what to do.
So I gave him a helping hand.
From episode 14 onward, Sato will be the director (jointly with director Anno Hideaki, written in katakana).
What did you think of this difficult situation?
Well, I don't know (laughs).
I was too busy to care about that (laughs).
If Anno had nothing to do with it, then let's just do whatever we want (laughs).
But as for the gekimation in episode 19, Anno was happy to do it.
He would come to us when we were having fun (laughs).
Was that something you did because you all wanted Anno to come back to the work again, and you were all trying your best to make it exciting?
Or did you just do what you thought was interesting, regardless of that?
We just did what we thought was interesting. I don't think there was any intention at all to bring Anno back or anything like that (laughs).
It was like when you start doing bad things in the classroom because the teacher is gone. (laughs).
At that time, GAINAX was truly a boys' school.
The only female main staff member was Harumi Takaboshi.
The rest of the staff were all people who had grown up without any connection to Shōjo manga.
I was the only male who read romance Shōjo manga (laughs).
I guess that's why I was put in charge of Shōjo manga-like stories such as episode 13.
The kissing scene is depicted in episode 8 and the first sexual intercourse is depicted in episode 18.
You seem to be in charge of important milestones.
You are right.
The storyboard for episode 18 was done by Junichi Sato.
It was very heavy.
Oh, I mean very good.
For example, the moment when the girl becomes a woman is expressed by the hat being blown by the wind.
That part is very Toei Animation-like.
We used panels from the original manga, so you could say it's just like the original work.
There is a drawing in the original manga in which Yukino is a little naked, isn't there?
I think so.
We used that picture in the opening animation.
I think Anno picked up some impressive pictures from the original manga and used them.
It reminds me of Misato from "Eva" (laughs).
I guess Anno likes that kind of thing."
Are you saying that you are different? (laughs).
The same can be said for khara, inc. today, but at that time, GAINAX had almost no drawing staff or directing staff who shared exactly the same vision as Anno.
Everyone was looking at it somewhat objectively, as if to say, "Ah, so this is what he came up with."
I think it's always been that way, and it's not just Anno.
You would definitely make Masayuki offended if you praised him by saying, "This is great, Masayuki." (laughs).
Everyone was totally like a cat.
It is like a meeting place for cats.
We're all gathered , but we're all looking in different directions.
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