Far Away from Ghibli--. The first director of "The Deer King: Yuna and the Journey of a Promise," animator Masashi Ando's 20-year journey [Watching the Animation Industry No. 93

Although a Studio Ghibli graduate, Masashi Ando has worked under directors Yoshiyuki Tomino and Satoshi Kon, and supported director Makoto Shinkai on "Kimi no na wa. (2016), and supported director Makoto Shinkai. Ando directed his first animated film. This is "The Deer King: Yuna and the Journey of Promise" (co-directed with Masayuki Miyaji), which went on sale last month on September 28, 2022. Based on a fantasy novel by Nahoko Uehashi. The film painstakingly depicts the bond between a man who is given mysterious powers and the orphaned child he rescues in a world where a plague is spreading. It is a hard-hitting work that leaves a lasting impression with its characters' solid and heartfelt performances.
Mr. Ando, who emerged as animation director for "Princess Mononoke" (1997) and "Spirited Away" (2001), and after leaving Ghibli, worked on character design for such films as Satoshi Kon's "Paprika" (2006), looked back on his career to date.

After working on Yoshiyuki Tomino's films, Ando moved into character design with Satoshi Kon's "Mousho Jyojin" (The Mousho Proxy).

───Mr. Ando, the year after "Spirited Away," you drew the original art for Yoshiyuki Tomino's "OVERMAN King Gainer" (2002). In the first episode, I thought it was the scene where King Gaynor first appears. ......

Ando: Yes, it is the scene where the main character gets into the King Gainer. I think I was invited by Kenichi Yoshida to participate in this project, and I drew the pictures according to Mr. Tomino's storyboards. Of course, this was my first participation in a Tomino film, and I had only seen storyboards from the "Mobile Suit Gundam" days in books and other media. I wondered what it would be like to actually draw the pictures, but the storyboards were not difficult to work with. However, Mr. Tomino's storyboards have a very large amount of information. I think his thinking was, "Let's pack in as many elements as possible in the storyboard stage, since they will be reaped in later processes anyway. The artists try to depict all the information written in the storyboards, so they may feel that there is not enough space in the storyboard, but I think this is also factored in. For example, there was "Tribe Gundam," one of Tomino's works at that time. There was a scene in which he removed movement between poses to make the animation look more comical. I thought that such direction prevented the animation from becoming too serious, and at the same time digested the information contained in the animation. In other words, the storyboards were created with Mr. Tomino's experience and with the calculation, "If we do this first, we can get this later. Of course, it was interesting to participate.


─ ─ Around that time, you also drew original pictures for "Kids' Story" directed by Shinichiro Watanabe for "The Animatrix" (2003) and "Innocence" directed by Mamoru Oshii (2004), right?

Ando: It was decided that I would do original drawings for "Tokyo Godfathers" (2003), and I participated in various works around that time. I heard that Kenichi Konishi was the character designer and animation director for "Tokyo Godfathers," so I followed his lead and knocked on the door myself, or rather, I offered to do the original drawings myself.

──You also worked as a character designer for director Satoshi Kon's "Mouso Jyugyoin" (2004) and "Paprika" (2006), didn't you?

Ando: After "Tokyo Godfathers," Kon-san asked me, "We are going to do a TV series next, would you like to be a character designer? Mr. Kon asked me, "We're going to do a TV series next. I often put things on hold, saying, "Let me think about it a little bit." At that time, I said, "Whether he adopts me or not, I'll try drawing a character," and "Please look at it and make a decision. I enjoyed working on "Mousho Agency," but since I was also the animation director for "Paprika," I felt a bit of pressure.

─ ─ So you only worked on the character design for "Mouso Agency" and did not direct the animation?

Ando: An animation director was appointed for each episode, so I only helped out occasionally. Mousou Yoroshiku" is a work from Kon's cynical point of view, so I knew that he would not expect me to design characters that would appeal to anime fans, so I designed them in that direction. I think it was toward the end of the broadcast when Mr. Kon told me about a photo collection by Hiroo Onikai, who is famous for works such as "Ya Chimata: Corridor of Kings. Looking at Mr. Onikai's photographs, I felt that his perspective is cynical, but that is why people are so interesting. ...... It was interesting to me because it had something in common with Kon's style.

───So you and Director Kon had a good chemistry?

Ando: It was a good match, or rather, a fruitful job for me. Kon was probably the only person who would allow me to design a character like the one in "Mousho Jyugyo" and adopt it (laughs). For me, I was very grateful.