Special dialogue between Toshinao Aoki (character draft) and Yoshiyuki Ito (character design) for "Hijimaso and Masotan! The process of creating the "Hijimaso" characters

Shinji Higuchi, Mari Okada, and Bonds...... have brought together these big names to create the original anime "Hishine and Masotan.

Just by looking at their names, many people may be filled with anticipation as to what kind of work it will be. Toshinao Aoki, character designer; Shoji Kawamori, mechanical designer; Shigeto Koyama, monster concept designer; and okama, concept designer...... can all be seen in one work! It is a surprise to see all these talents in one work, but the fact that they are able to coexist together is due in large part to the skill of Yoshiyuki Ito, the character designer.

We asked Toshinao Aoki and Yoshiyuki Ito to talk about the process of creating the characters for "Hizune and Masotan.

We wondered how we could express the loose feeling in the animation.

─ I heard that you were offered the chance to participate in this project by the director-in-chief, Mr. Higuchi Shinji.

Aoki: I don't know how it happened, but I got a message on Facebook out of the blue. At first I was like, "What does that Higuchi Shinji want with me? (laughs). I had an image of Higuchi-san as a live-action filmmaker, so I wondered if he would include an animation part somewhere in the film. I was just wondering if he would include an animated part somewhere. But when BONES called me and said, "We want you to draft the characters for the TV animation," I was like, "Who am I? I was like, "Why me?

Aoki──You mentioned in the interview PV that you saw the fan art for the TV drama "Amachan".

Aoki Yes, that's right. He saw that I had drawn a lot of pictures of "Amachan" and wanted to move those pictures around. (Laughs.) "It was "Amachan! (laughs).

─ Didn't you talk about it at the meeting?

Aoki: I don't think I asked him why the idea came to me. But since Higuchi-san, Mari Okada, and BONES were going to make it, I knew I had to get it right, so I started out with a clean design and brought it to them, but they asked me to make a rougher drawing. I had done rough drawings for "Amachan," so I guess they wanted something like that. So after that, I tried not to draw neatly (laughs). So I apologize for that.

Ito: No, not at all (laughs).

Aoki I wanted to see how the rough drawing transformed and appeared on the screen, so I saw the film twice at previews and became a complete fan. It was so fresh to see how it would turn out like this.

───How did you get involved in this project?

Mr. Ito: As usual, I was called by President Minami of BONES and asked to work on the next film.

───I know that you are able to create characters from scratch, but what is important when designing something for which there is an original plan?

Ito: I have created several characters from existing drafts ("STAR DRIVER: Tact of Brilliance," "Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Fantasy," etc.), but what I feel most when I do this is how to bring out the flavor of the original artist's drawings. I think it's a great way to bring out the flavor of the original drawings. In addition to that, many animators have to draw, so we scrutinize them to see if they can draw it or not. When I saw Mr. Aoki's drawing this time, I just learned that Mr. Higuchi told him to draw it rough (laugh), and I did indeed think it was surprisingly rough. (Laughs.) I did think that the roughness of the drawing was surprisingly rough, but I thought about how I could express that loose feeling in the animation. On the other hand, these drawings are too peppy, and not everyone can draw them. I wasn't sure if I could do it myself, so I wanted to express the atmosphere created by the characters as much as possible. So, I asked Mr. Aoki to look at the character list and correct me as I created the characters.

Aoki: I'm sorry for making you say so many things.

Ito: No problem. I think I was able to express the Aoki character in the animation in a good way.

───There is a sense of enjoyment when you are able to incorporate the original idea into an animated character, isn't there?

Ito: But in the end, you don't know until you see the finished film. A character list is a blueprint, so it's not so much fun when you are drawing a character list. Emotions and facial expressions can only be expressed in the film, and the character list is just a symbol, so it doesn't have any emotion or backbone.

So, I wanted to make the characters more alive when I drew them in the film, so that the animators would want to draw them when they see this character chart! I wanted to make the characters more alive when they are drawn in the film. As with any work, it is only when I see them in motion that I think they are going to be fun.

─ I have heard that the character designer and animation director must be the same, but you are the chief animation director, aren't you?

Ito: This time, the animation supervision was done by the animators at BONES, so I was sort of organizing the work, bringing it all together. I design the rough sketches drawn by Mr. Aoki for the animation and feed them back into the film as the supervising animator. However, the total animation supervisor is eventually overwhelmed by the volume of work, and the number of cuts becomes enormous if I try to see the entire series, so it is impossible for me to do it all by myself.

(smiles) ─ Is it one of the more difficult ones from an artistic point of view?

Ito: Surprisingly, once you get used to it, it is easy to draw. I can draw interesting pictures, and I enjoy it because I can try various things. Aoki's characters have a wide range of expression, and they have the potential to be more expressive than I intended. It is fun to find out and draw them.

───Aoki 's rough sketch itself has a wide range of expression.

Aoki: I wanted to create a cartoon-like expression. I don't know if that has been done in previous animations, but if it has, it was done in the Showa period or something. In the first PV, there is a scene where Ririko is in the bathroom, moving her legs around, and I don't think I've ever drawn that kind of expression. I thought that was one of the expressions that came from that range of expression. This is nostalgic! (laughs).

─ ─ I don't think the pictures are in the middle of recent trends, but on the contrary, they seem to be current.

Ito: In that sense, I was careful this time not to make the characters sharp-edged. I was conscious of not making the tips of the hair sharp. I tried to keep the character as rounded as possible to express the soft and gentle feeling of Mr. Aoki. I think this is different from the current trend in animation.

─ ─ Amidst the revival boom, there may be people who think it is nostalgic and people who think it is new.

Aoki: But there are dragons designed by Shigeto Koyama, fighter planes designed by Shoji Kawamori, and Higuchi's atmosphere, so I think the work has hooks in many places.

As for Nao, I thought it would be fun to make her a yankee.

─ ─ I heard that you were at the script conference, Mr. Aoki.

Aoki: Yeah, I had a lot of free time.

(All laugh)

Aoki: In the end, characters kept coming up, so I had to design them. But I didn't want to take them home, so I decided to design them at the meeting. I would ask Higuchi-san and Mari Okada what they thought of the characters, and if necessary, they would show me pictures of actors who matched their images, which I would then draw on my iPad Pro and show them. We look at them and decide on the spot. If we communicate by e-mail, we don't always get an immediate response, so it's quicker to do it here (in the meeting room).

─ So some of the characters were created at the meeting?

Aoki: Yes. The first one was the only one I did at home. Of course, I couldn't do everything, so I had to take some things home with me, but most of the decisions were made at the meeting. Also, when we were discussing scenarios, I would draw a picture of a scene and send it to them without permission (laughs). (Laughs.) I did all of these things.

───That may have helped to expand the story.

Aoki: That might be part of it. (Kaizaki) I don't think Nao was a yankee at first. When I was drawing, I thought it would be interesting to make her a yankee, so she became a yankee character, and then I felt that the story moved forward.

─ When you were working as the supervising animator, who were the staff members you had to deal with the most?

Ito: Animation is not something that can be created by a single person, so it is not possible to have any section missing. In that sense, we work together with all departments to make the film. When the first storyboard is submitted, I meet with the animation director for each episode, and then talk with the color designer who decides the colors of the characters. When the film comes in, we send out orders for corrections, and repeat the process over and over again.

─ So there is a wide variety of work involved, not just fixing the original drawings?

Ito: That's right. Since I am the person who is responsible for the highest level of work, I take full responsibility for the work until it is made into a film.

───Is there anything unique about this work in terms of moving the film?

Ito: This time, the recording was done first, so the emotions of the characters were expressed to some extent, and then the animators and directors would expand on that, and I would suggest that it would be more interesting. So we are really working to bring together the ideas of various people.

─ ─ Perhaps that is one of the reasons why I felt the characters were so lively.

Ito: Well, when there is not enough time, the recording is often done first. (Bitterly) I think it was important because we were able to adjust the length of the film and the storyboard after the lines were written, before we had to decide whether or not to respect the actor's performance. Usually cutting is done only once, but we also re-cut based on that, so I think the work is closely balanced.

Aoki: The facial movements in the first episode, such as when Nao is trying to pick a fight, are amazing.

Ito: The animators make the movements interesting.

Aoki: How far do you have to go to make such movements, Mr. Ito?

Ito: In animation, when I draw the original background, I also draw the motion patterns. The director and the producer check and decide on the motion plan after the characters are added. I make the final adjustments, and then the animators use them as the basis for the original drawings. So many different people's ideas are involved in the final film.

Aoki Wow. When I draw manga, I make all the decisions on my own, but it is very interesting to see how many different people's ideas are involved in the creation of a work of art. It was interesting to see how things came together in ways that I had never imagined.

Ito: In that sense, this time around, the director Hiroshi Kobayashi was in control of the swing, and I was able to modify the pictures accordingly.