Animation Industry Watching No. 8: From a life as an animation man earning 40,000 yen a month to teaching animation in his hometown, a tumultuous life! Interview with director Daisuke Yoshida, who also participated in "Ushio-Tora!

Although animation is considered an "inedible job," there are some talented animators who have worked their way up from animation man, to original picture man, to animation director, to chief animation director, and even into directing. Daisuke Yoshida, who is currently preparing to direct each episode of "Ushio-Tora" (scheduled to begin airing in July of this year), is one such successful director.

In addition to handling the work that comes his way in the industry, he and his wife, manga artist Kei Enue, have independently produced and animated the book "The Case Notebook of Detective Yumemizu Seishiro," and every year he holds an "animation class" for junior and senior high school students at the "Shimonoseki Film Festival" in Yamaguchi Prefecture. We asked Mr. Yoshida about his footsteps since his debut.

Is being an animator really an "inedible job"? ......

Gather information before you start working in the animation industry

--How did you get into the animation industry?

Yoshida: When I was a junior at Tama Art University, I applied to several studios because I wanted to become an animator. At that time, I was turned down by a large studio, saying that they only hired production workers. When I visited studios, I carried around a booklet that came with "Newtype Monthly" that contained the addresses of animation companies, and a person from Sunrise circled several companies, saying, "I can trust these companies. One of them was Studio Live. I went home and looked them up, and found that the people at Studio Live had done the character designs for "Galactic Drift By Pham" and "Neon Genesis GPX Cyber Formula," which I had been watching. So I went to take the entrance exam. I was an art student, so I had unfounded confidence. （When (founder) Toyo Ashida saw me like that, he said, "Okay, come work for us," and made me an offer on the spot.

However, my advice to aspiring animators is that when I was in my first year of college, I studied the life of an animator by thoroughly reading a famous book titled "I am a Poor Animator" (Data House). In that book, it said that an animator's monthly income was 20,000 to 40,000 yen, and I became concerned that this might not be a job, so I began training in cartooning. In other words, I think that once you know the harshness of the industry and keep your distance from it, it is necessary for later choices. I thought it was very important to know in advance the conditions that would be unfavorable to me, rather than just going straight ahead with the feeling of "I love it.

I was registered at Studio Live for a long time, and there were a lot of people who were good and had the guts to work among my peers and juniors. For example, one of the people who moved up from animation to original picture at the same time as me was Mariko Oka, who was in charge of character design for "Jigoku Shoujo". She was a very hard worker and took pride in herself, so I was able to put more effort into my work than I was capable of so that I wouldn't lose out. There were many people like that, both senior and junior, so it was an easy place to work and form an upward spiral.

Yoshida Yes, as a video. I started by drawing a line that would not become a product, and gradually I got used to the line and it became a video that I could deliver. So, in the beginning, I drew only useless videos, and my monthly income was close to 40,000 yen when I first joined the company. I tightened my loincloth and thought, "This is the world I read about in the book "I am a Poor Animator" and I know what I am talking about. As I mentioned earlier, people who have advanced in their careers work hard. So, not to be outdone, I started earning more than 100,000 yen after about six months of doing videos. It is not easy, but I am no longer in the difficult situation where I receive my salary and only have about 10,000 yen left after the rent is deducted (......). In a sense, when you put yourself in a situation where you are forced to draw pictures, you gain the self-discipline to work as an animator.

--How long did it take you to move up from animation to original picture?
Yoshida: About a year and a half. Mr. Ashida asked me, "Are you ready to try your hand at original picture? I made my debut as an original picture artist in an animation series called "Yochien Sentai Genki-Kizu" (1994), which was included in the video magazine for young children "Pon Pa" (Kodansha). Mr. Hideki Inoue was the animation supervisor, and he gave me such severe corrections that not a trace was left behind (laughs).