The Camera Moves Closer, the Camera Moves Away - The Basics of Tomino's Direction in the First Episode of "Battle Mecha Zabungle" [Nostalgic Anime Retrospective No. 89

Director Yoshiyuki Tomino's latest work, the theatrical version of "G no Reconguista" will be completed this summer. Among director Tomino's past works, "Battle Mecha Zabungle" (1982) celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. Called "Pattern Breaker," "Zabungle" surprised viewers with the appearance of two main character robots in the first episode.
In the previous work, "Densetsu Kyojin Ideon" (1980), the main robot was an out-of-the-ordinary being whose very existence was shrouded in mystery, but in "Zabungle," even the main robot is just a type of general-purpose robot called a walker machine (......), a viewpoint that is thoroughly enlightened. In "ZABUNGLE," even the main robot is just a kind of general-purpose robot called a walker machine. It is more cool than realistic.

Note the scene with Hobuggy instead of Zabunguru.

Of course, as an appealing point to sell the toys released by the sponsors, the combined transformation scene of Zabungle is shown twice in the first episode, once in Part A and once in Part B. In the latter scene, the main character Giron remembers the murder of his parents, and in order to make the transformation successful along with his emotional state, the camera moves closer to the main character's face, and a scene of recollection is inserted as a stop-motion animation.
The storyboard for this first episode was created by Director Tomino himself (under the name Minoru Axutani). Speaking of a solid "story-telling" scene that is typical of the director, a highlight is the process in which Giron and the members of the bandit group "Sandrats" work together at the beginning of the episode. Let's take a closer look.

The Sandrats, a band of thieves consisting of a female leader named Lag, a small boy named Blume, a giant man named Dike, and a small girl named Chiru, are attacking a giant robot called "Walker Machine" in a motorcycle-like vehicle called "Hobaggy," which flies at high speed through the ground.
During the battle, Ragu falls off his hover-guy, but with the help of Giron, a windbag who happens to be there, he succeeds in killing the walker machine. Giron's goal is to get the walker machine on his own, but he has one injured arm and is unlikely to make it alone. Rag decides to put Giron on a hobo baby carriage and all the members of the sand rat team to help him. The scene consists of the following cuts.

［1] Giron says goodbye to the sand rats, and the frame moves out to the right of the screen. In place of him, a hover-guy with Blume on board enters the frame.
(2) Rag looks at the right side of the screen with his cheekbone on the ground.
(3) Giron walks toward the back of the screen (he stumbles a little).
(4) Rag looking at the right side of the screen with a cheek swivel (more close-up than in [2]). He blinks.
(5) Giron walking toward the back of the screen (longer than in [3]).
［6] Three hover-guys fly toward the front from the back of the screen. Blumé says, "Let's pull them up," to which Dike replies, "Yeah.
(7) Lug, on the hover-guy, goes to the right. Lug looks back.
［8] PAN across the cactus-grown desert. Giron's shadow disappears over the horizon.
(9) Three hover-guys fly toward the back of the screen. The other two follow.
(10) Giron is walking. Lug's hover-guitar catches up with him from behind at low speed.
(11) Long PANs through the desert. Two hover-guys follow them.
(12) Blume puts both feet on the handlebars of the hover-guzzler and folds his arms in a sulky manner.
［13] Lag's hobaggy and Giron walking side by side, photographed from behind. Rag looks back and calls "Blume.
(14) Three hover-guys fly at high speed toward the back of the screen.
(15) Lug's hover-guy, Dike and Chill's hover-guy, and Blume's hover-guy fly to the right. In the back seat is Giron.
［16] Three hover-guys flying in the foreground are shown from the front. In the front is Lag's hover-guy. Lug glances at the hover buggy with Blume and Giron on it.
［Lug on the hover-guy, from an angle. He leans forward and shouts "Cuckoo! he exclaims.
(18) Lug's hover-guitar soars as if dancing.

During this scene, the only words spoken are Blume's "Let's pull up" and Lag's "Blume! and Lag's "Blume! ［At [10], when Lag catches up with Giron, the two seem to be talking about something. However, because the picture is drawn away from the characters in the long shot, no dialogue can be heard. ［In [11], the conversation between Lag and Giron probably continues. However, since it is a long shot as well, we do not hear a single word of the conversation.
In the next scene [13], Lag calls out "Blume," so it is clear that between [10] and [13], Lag has put together a plan to put Giron on Blume's hobo baby carriage.
The first characteristic of this scene is that it thoroughly avoids having the arrangements be heard in dialogue. Another feature of this scene is that immediately after Lug calls Blumet in [13], Giron is already on Blumet's hobgoblin in [14]. In other words, the decisive moment when the situation unfolds is omitted.

Music, eye contact, blinking, frame size

To the extent that the dialogue is not used to play out the arrangements, a lyrical dramatic accompaniment is added from the close-up of the rug looking at Giron in [4] to follow up on the emotional movement.
Let me mention one more effect of the dramatic accompaniment. ［In scene [17], the tempo starts at about the end of the cut where Rag shouts "Cuckoo! at the end of the scene in [17], a fast-paced, cheerful song is played to follow Lug's buoyant mood, and at the same time, it smoothly connects the comical scene that follows.

However, what we need to look at more closely as a directional element is the faint movement of the rug on his cheekbones in [2] and [4]. ［In [2] she only moves her eyes, but in [4] she blinks twice. Her small movements make the viewer wonder what Ragu is thinking.
［Since [3] and [5] are shots of Giron's back, they are cuts that are close to Lug's subjective view. The camera does not follow Giron as he walks alone through the desert. As he moves further and further away from the camera, the composition becomes long. Contrary to Giron, the camera moves closer and closer to Lag in [2] and [4].
［The relationship between [7] and [8] is also effective. ［In [7], the hovering lug is physically moving away from Giron. ［Since [8] is the subjectivity of the rug as it moves away, the camera pans to show Giron, who is now almost invisible. The camera moves closer to the rug to pick up on her facial expressions and show what she is seeing. The viewer then expects the relationship between her and Giron to change as the rug thinks it should.
［Rag cheers when things develop as she wants them to in [17], and soars in a hobo baby carriage in [18]. She does not say a word about wanting Giron to accompany her. On the contrary, I did not hear any conversation between Lag and Giron. However, I think I can tell what Lug is thinking by the slight movement of her eyes and the way Hobagy dances and flies .......
The story of "Zabungle" is set in motion when "Rag helps Giron." Therefore, the scene in the first episode where "Lug puts Giron on the hobgoblin" is the most important. Because it is important, we omit the setup and express the great emotional change in that scene. We can feel the changes in the characters' emotions as if they were our own, and this is the true nature of "emotion" and the purpose of direction.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)