People also say that was a good thing, right? Everyone does what they want.
We didn't have a production department at GAINAX, and most of the production staff came from outside animation studios.
"Eva" was produced by Tatsunoko Production and "Kare Kano" by J.C. Staff Co.
Such circumstances put us in a constant state of conflict with the production team (laughs).
When I became a freelancer and joined an outside studio to work, I felt very uncomfortable at first because the atmosphere was completely different from that of GAINAX.
"We're trying to figure out how to provide you with a stress-free work environment!"
When they say that, it makes me feel more uncomfortable (laughs).
Do you mean the opposite, like you want to be tightened up and go wild? (laughs)
I had such a distorted childhood.
Kare-kano was just at its peak, and I was a healthy punk boy.
But the episodes you're in charge of seem to be overflowing with emotion (laughs).
The other staff members were going wild, so I had to tone them down a bit in episodes 8, 13, and 18, or rather put a Shōjo manga style to these episodes.
"Okay you guys. Why don’t you come over this side, too?”
I think I was the balancing role.
There is a cut in episode 8 where the petals of cherry blossoms are dancing.
How did you draw them?
I think back then it was done by drawing, not digitally.
The petals of cherry blossoms have to be rotated. So it depends on the artist's sense.
When drawing snow, the theory is that you need to draw a line of the trajectory of the falling snow, and you need 11 sheets between each snowflake.
It depends on how much space is needed between each snowflake. And that depends on the size of the screen.
I heard that this is Nippon Animation's tradition. So, it might be from Toei.
Anyway, there is such a theory.
Who drew the cherry blossom cut in episode 8?
Kenichi Yamaguchi did. He was very good.
There was also a snow scene (episode 16). The scene of the father's reminiscence.
That was the episode that Nobutoshi Ogura was in charge of, wasn't it?
He is a fan of Japanese movies, so I think there is a lot of that taste in his work.
Looking back on "Kare Kano", what is the most impressive part for you?
In terms of character drawing, when I was working on "Yuri on Ice," I realized that "Kare Kano" was the place where I started.
In "Kare Kano," I was trying to draw characters in a way that was three-dimensional, reasonably realistic, and beautiful with only a few lines.
It is almost the same in "Yuri."
“Yuri" has a bit more of a gekiga or Shōnen manga style, but the drawings are almost the same. But they are almost the same.
When I was working on the TV show, I wasn't able to fully control it, but now that I'm working on the movie version, I'm feeling more and more that I should be going in the direction of "Kare Kano" (laughs).
Was it your goal to make "Kare Kano" effective with a small number of drawing sheets?
I think that was Anno's goal.
He wanted to make it small and interesting.
How did you feel about it?
It was both good and stressful.
When I was working on "Eva," I was already thinking that I wanted to move it more normally.
Sato's storyboards for episode 15 of "Eva" and episode 18 of "Kare Kano" (Kiichi Hadaime in "Eva") were very emotional and depicted the daily play.
That's the kind of storyboard that animators like Shunji Suzuki and myself like.
Do you think it would be better to have a few more drawing sheets for that?
Yea, I guess I do.
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