Hobby Industry Inside vol.20: The Importance of "Situations" and "Scheduling" from Diorama Artist Naoto Arakawa of WildRiver

When one thinks of diorama models, one may think of works that are so precise that they are indistinguishable from the real thing. However, the dioramas created by Naoto Arakawa, who is active in various model magazines, feature dramatic scenes that no one has ever seen before, such as "a flock of sheep passing behind a mobile suit hidden on a hill" or "an airship camouflaged by pulling palm trees with wires," but which seem to actually exist. The atmosphere is like a scene from a movie.
The details are boldly deformed to make the scene more interesting. This roughness gives the dioramas a sense of dynamism.　We visited the artist's home in Yokohama and talked with him in front of his works.

I spend the most time thinking of situations.

─ Have you been interested in models since you were a child?

Arakawa: When I was 3 years old, I made dinosaurs out of paper clay and oil clay. I used to make things like dioramas with the dinosaurs I made. When I entered elementary school, I started to make not only dinosaurs, but also tanks, castles, sailing ships, and warships.

─ Were these models also made as dioramas?

Arakawa: Yes, I did. In elementary school, there is a craft homework assignment during summer vacation, right? Every year, I always made a diorama, and it was a big event for my family. During the summer vacation of my third grade elementary school year, the Osaka Expo was held, so I made the Tower of the Sun out of paper mache and made a diorama of it. I reproduced the truss structure with matchsticks, and it was about 50 x 60 cm in size.


─ So you used a variety of materials.

Arakawa: I think the foundation for today's dioramas was established during my elementary school days. I made an island in the sandbox, placed plastic model tanks and real Zenigoke mosses, and made a captured cane snake crawl on the island, like in a real "Jurassic Park".

─ So you were always more interested in dioramas than plastic models alone?

Arakawa: I probably like "situations. I like to think about how the mechanics will be used and the surrounding situation more than the individual mechanics. You have published a collection of "Mobile Suit Gundam" dioramas (Wild River's G-WORLD "Round Theater" director Wild River Naoto Arakawa: Gundam Scenes), but don't you usually recreate famous scenes from the anime?　　I don't really like to recreate famous scenes (laugh), but I like to think of original situations, such as, "In the One Year War, there might have been such a strategy.
Wherever I go, I am always asked, "How long did it take you to make this diorama?" I am always asked, "How long did it take you to make this diorama? It takes me about a month to a month and a half to make a diorama, but I spend the most time designing the diorama in my mind. I create the situations that I fantasize about in my head, and then I put them all together in front of my eyes.

─ You have a diorama of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" here, but it doesn't look like you recreated the movie as is.

Arakawa: I love the scenes from the movie itself, but actually, what I wanted to create the most was the tent house next to the Millennium Falcon (laughs). (laughs) Since this is a serial in Monthly Hobby Japan, I used Bandai kits, but I also came up with a structure that would allow me to build the tent house as well. I spent more time on this tent house than on the Falcon.


─ ─ Looking at your work collection (WildRiver's S-WORLD: WildRiver Naoto Arakawa Scale Model Circular Theatre Works), you are also good at dioramas of tanks and ships, aren't you? Do you take care of the archaeological research of weapons?

Arakawa: No, I don't really like to do archaeological research (laughs). (Laughs.) On the contrary, when I was in elementary school, I used to make whatever I wanted without thinking about the research. Although there are certain parts that are necessary to some extent, it is more enjoyable for me to create freely without being too caught up in research. The evidence has changed in various ways over time.