Animation Industry Watching No.20: What is the job of creating "character designs" from "character drafts"?　Interview with Yuichi Takahashi, Animator & Character Designer!

When one thinks of anime character design, one might imagine a dream job in which one is free to draw any character of one's choice, with one's own personality on full display.

However, animator Yuichi Takahashi designed sub-characters for "Macross F" (2008) from a supportive position for Risa Ebata, Atsuya Uki for "Tsurikyu" (2012), and "Gatchaman Crows" (2013) and "Gatchaman Crows Insight" (2015) Based on Kinako's character drafts, a character list (character settings) was drawn up for the animation drawings.

In order to make the character drafts with strong personalities easy to draw for a large number of animators, solid drawing and calculation skills are required. We asked Yuichi Takahashi, who has a long career as an animation director, about the secrets of character design.

When I was in high school, I copied pictures from a whole reference book.

─ What motivated you to become an animator?

Takahashi: During my elementary and junior high school years, I was exposed to high-quality animation films from the 1980s. The film that gave me the greatest opportunity was "Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise" (1987), which I saw on TV when I was in the 5th grade of elementary school. I was amazed at how detailed the pictures were, and how they were drawn by hand, one by one, using various angles of view. I was just overwhelmed by the images, and it was around that time that I began to become aware of animation.

─ ─ Then, when I was in junior high school, I practiced drawing and .......

Takahashi: Yes, I practiced. I put saran wrap on the TV screen and traced pictures (laughs). After entering high school, I started copying pictures from reference books.

─ What do you mean by reference books?

Takahashi: "Drawing Techniques for the Human Body" by Jack Ham and "Animation Drawing Methods" by Tomoken Kogawa. I copied the entire book, every page, over and over again. I drew about 200 notebooks worth of drawings. Since my hometown was Niigata, there were not many animated cartoons being broadcast, and I did not watch my favorite cartoons every week. I went to a bookstore and bought a book with the word "animation" in it, and I just practiced hard, thinking that I had to be able to draw the human body first .......

─ ─ By the time you leave high school, you must have decided on a career path, right?

Takahashi: Yes, I moved to Tokyo and attended Chiyoda Institute of Technology and Arts, and then joined J.C.STAFF. At that time, J.C. was very loose. They would make you doodle while you were waiting for an interview, and then look at your doodles to see "how well you can draw. Since I was new, I was working as a moving image artist, but by chance, I was assigned to storyboard and supervise a bit of the animation for "Boyfriend and Girlfriend" (1998).

─ It's irregular for you to be assigned to storyboarding and supervising animation from an animation company.

Takahashi: But by working as an animation supervisor, I could understand how hard it is to work on moving images, and I could also understand how hard it is to work as an animation supervisor. It was a great experience in the sense that I could understand the workflow of animation production, such as the process of editing after drawing, communication with the director, and ....... I was not told to "get the animation done in this period of time," but rather to draw one original picture after another, so I developed my speed. Even now, every time I work as a production supervisor, I draw about 100 original drawings myself. I don't have to make corrections to the original drawings I make, so it's very efficient.

I study so that I can draw the same character from all angles.

Takahashi: After leaving J.C. STAFF, I worked as a freelancer for GONZO and BONES. One of them was "Genesis of Aquarion" (2005).

─ ─ In "AQUARION," you were the animation director for the 19th episode, "Elegant Mischief. It was an episode with a unique drawing style, and Mr. Osamu Utsunomiya was in charge of everything from storyboarding to animation supervision.

Takahashi: I was the animation supervisor for the B part, but I also showed the layout to Utsunomiya-san and received his instructions. I learned a lot from watching Utsunomiya-san's work up close, as he said, "I want to bring out the flavor of the drawings. I also participated in "Noein: To the Other You" (2005) as a supervising artist and animator. I enjoyed working on "Noein" because it was an environment in which the many supervisors competed with each other in a positive sense.

─ ─ After that, you worked on "Macross F" (2008), a major entertainment work, where you were involved in character design for the first time.

Takahashi: The main character was Risa Ebata, and all I had to do was draw the background characters.

─ Did you design the characters according to Ebata-san's drawings?

Takahashi: Yes, I tried to match them. At first, I studied the outlines of female characters such as Ranka and Sheryl so that I could draw them. I drew Ebata-san's characters until I could rotate them 360 degrees and move them around. After I had grasped the outlines to that point, I began designing the characters I was in charge of.

─ ─ For "Tsurikyu" (2012), you had Atsuya Uki's original character design, didn't you? Before that, you designed and directed the PV "Cumulonimbus Graffiti" (2011), which was also based on Uki's original character design.

Takahashi: Mr. ryo, who composed the music for "Cumulonimbus Graffiti," asked me to use Eightbit as the production company for the PV. The president of Eightbit, Mr. Tsuguoki Kasai, asked me, "If this is the kind of picture you want to use, maybe you are the right person for the job. That was the beginning. When I saw the jacket illustration at Sony Music Entertainment, I realized that it was the same picture as that of Mr. Uki, the director of "Senkororu," and I started learning about Mr. Uki's pictures. I started learning about Uki's drawings, and I created the character designs for the anime, taking into account the characteristics that I could recognize at a glance, such as the three-white eyes, the separation of the nose and mouth, and the unique face that becomes distinctive when smiling.

─ Did you have any meetings with Mr. Uki?

Takahashi: No, not at all. For "Cumulonimbus Graffiti," I created an original girl, but I had Sony Music talk to me about that as well.