While maintaining the good qualities of the old work, the overall mechanical design has been refined in a modern style! Interview with Junichiro Tamamori, mechanical designer of "Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love

Junichiro Tamamori, the mechanical designer of "Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love," was originally an industrial designer, but he has been an enthusiastic Yamato fan since then. He has an unusual background. What was Mr. Tamamori's focus in designing the mecha for "2202" and the previous "2199"?

As "Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love" will reach its conclusion with "Chapter 7: Shinsei-hen," which will be screened on March 1, 2019, we would like to share with you a rich interview with Mr. Tamamori, who is full of love for Yamato.

Refined to fit the modern age, but did not include anything that was not necessary.

-- First of all, please tell us how you felt when you were first asked to be involved in the mechanical design of "Yamato.

Tamamori It has been 10 years since I was first approached by General Director Izubuchi at the planning stage of "2219". I had already had a relationship with him through fanzines, and I had done some illustrations of Yamato, so I was like, "I've been waiting for this for a long time.

-- What did you try to bring to the core of the mechanical design for"2219"?

Tamamori: "Space Battleship Yamato" was created in 1974, and we have grown up and become adults ...... (laughs), so we wanted to create something that would fit the era in a way that would be appropriate for the glasses ......, for example, For example, the mecha design of anime has gone through works such as Yamato, Gundam, and Macross, so I wanted to take a fresh look at it from that point of view. Also, the technology of animation expression has evolved in various ways, including computer graphics, so I wanted to be aware of such production methods and aim for an expression that has never been seen before.

-- What exactly do you mean by "expression"?

Tamamori: CG is good at expressing light in ways that cannot be done by hand, but even in the old "Yamato" series, the staff at the time were very creative in expressing the gentle curves of the surface of the ship and the roundness of the fleet's dividing lines. And they did it all in hand-drawn animation. I was very impressed by this spirit of challenge, and thought that if we were to do it now, we could not do the same thing, and that we could design in a way that only CG could do, with automatic reflections of light and shadows, and make the most of such aspects. That is what I aimed for.

-- So you are saying that it is now possible to make it thinner and more rounded in parts?

Tamamori: Yes, that's right. For example, when the object is seen from a distance, lines are automatically omitted, but when it is closer, fine details can be seen.

-- I think this is not limited to Yamato, but when old animations are revived using modern techniques and CG, the methodology of mechanical design will also change. In celluloid animation, there are many omissions and parts that seem to have been created in a haphazard manner, but when you replace them with CG, you have to create everything in great detail.

Tamamori: On the contrary, we try not to make everything too detailed. In the past, it was possible to omit details as needed according to the feelings of the people in animation, because human impressions are subjective. On the other hand, nowadays, if you want to, you can add everything. We can put on every single drain, every single screw, and so on, but even if we just put a 3DCG model like that on the table, we are already full of it. So, I try to show them in an abbreviated form, and I am very careful to choose what is necessary and what is not.

Works that have influenced me are Yamato, Gundam, and Macross.

-- What was your impression of "Space Battleship Yamato" in the first place?

Tamamori: When I was a child, I liked "Getter Robo," "Mazinger Z," "Ultraman," and other such works, but at that time, there were no animations in which battleships played the leading roles. That was really fresh and ....... When I was in the second grade of elementary school, I thought it was great to see the scene where the "Baranodon," a Gamilas weapon shaped like a monster, and the floating continent were flying over Jupiter. Space Battleship Yamato" is not a war movie. It is a journey to Iskandar, but in the journey, you avoid fighting as much as possible and fight to survive, and that kind of space adventure resonated with me as a child.

-- Has your impression of Yamato changed since you became involved in the remake and refinement of Yamato?

Tamamori: "2199" is basically a remake of the first Yamato film ("Space Battleship Yamato" (1974)), so I feel the same way, but "2202" is a remake of "Saraba" ("Saraba Uchu Senkan Yamato: Warriors of Love" (1978)) and "Yamato 2" ("Space Battleship Yamato 2" (1978)), The battles are still the main focus of the film. That is the best part of "Yamato 2," though. The Earth, which was on the verge of death in the first film, has been rebuilt from the point of no choice but to perish. It gained power and came to have its own Earth fleet. And now they are fighting against the White Comet Empire. That's the best part of it.

-- You originally worked in industrial design before entering the animation industry.

Tamamori: Yamato, Gundam, and Macross. There are many designers, but when I was in junior high school, I was influenced by big names such as Studio Nue, Kunio Okawara, and Leiji Matsumoto.

-- I remember Yamato, Gundam, and Macross, which are all cool mecha anime.

Tamamori: I was born in Okinawa, so the number of TV channels was limited. There were a lot of anime that weren't being broadcast, and these big titles were the ones that were actually on.

-- Soyou were actually working on this big title .

Tamamori: Not really. I liked the new mecha. As I was looking at them, I became aware that there was a profession of mechanical designers, such as Studio Nue and Yutaka Izubuchi. I guess that's when I started to become aware of the existence of mechanical designers. I also like Hayao Miyazaki.

-- Ialso like Hayao Miyazaki.

Tamamori: I think that Mr. Miyazaki's designs are amazing, not just in terms of simple mecha, but in terms of mecha that are a part of the human world.

The changes in mecha design unique to "2202

-- You mentioned in other interviews that you changed the shape of the mecha a little between "2199" and "2202".

Tamamori: "Yamato" itself has a variety of shapes, and the pictures are not consistent among the old works. The way it was depicted changed in "Saraba" and "Yamato 2," and in the "Complete Works" ("Space Battleship Yamato: The Complete Works" (1983)), it was depicted in a more organized manner, so the ideal shape for each fan is different. In addition to the anime, there is also the plastic model aspect, and the fans who were familiar with the plastic models also have their own image of Yamato, saying, "This is my Yamato. In order to respect them, it is not possible to say with just one design, "This is it! I can't just say, "This is it! So, considering the feelings of the fans, I thought that at least two designs were necessary.

In the first work in 1974, there were many curved surfaces that looked as if they were made by hand, such as the Wave Motion Cannon, which had a slightly pointy image with a narrower tip. In "Saraba" and "Yamato 2," however, they were modified and changed a little. So for "2199," I was conscious of the first film, and for this "2202," I removed some of the flavor of the first film, while also making the area around the "fairleaders" above the wave motion cannon a little more vertical. I think that brought out the strength of Yamato after "Farewell".

-- In "2202," the Earth Fleet appears and the historical background is completely different from that of "2199. There is a new setting called the "time fault" and the background of rapid development away from human hands was depicted.

Tamamori: For the Earth Fleet, we designed the Andromeda, the main battleships, destroyers, and patrol ships, but when we were designing these ships, the specific setting of "2202" was still in its infancy. We had talked about the idea of these ships being automatically created in a factory within a dimensional fault line, but I asked Director Habara, "Well, what exactly are they like? I asked Director Habara, "Well, what exactly is it like?" So we proceeded without having a concrete visual image yet.

I was concerned that an automated factory that was made completely by machine would not have the warmth of human hands, and that it would be too well maintained to include much detail in the design. For example, there are handrails on the deck. However, if the ship was designed to reduce the number of personnel as much as possible, I thought that the handrails might not be necessary at all. I also wondered if the ladders were retractable, or if they were covered and not visible. The Yamato has one or two rows of ladders on the sides, and another row below. And when the Yamato is turned over, the ladders are visible. Andromeda doesn't have these parts. If they were, they would have been stored. So the warmth of the human presence is a little less.

-- And then there is the "galaxy. I was very surprised when I first saw it. What was the concept or what were you thinking when you designed it?

Tamamori: I guess you were surprised after all (laughs). The "Galaxy" was the first sister ship of the Yamato, so I knew there would be controversy about it. The idea was the equivalent of "Ginga" for this project. There was an episode in which the previous production team liked it, and I personally think that it would be a suitable sister ship to the Yamato, but I think we have rearranged it to fit the worldview of "2202".

The "Galaxy" is not just a ship (funereal), but an experimental ship. I resonated with the concept of an experimental ship created by humans who have obtained wave energy from a technological aspect of the universe that has not yet been fully understood. It is not simply a mass-produced version of the Yamato, so I thought it would be possible to deepen the world view.

-- The galaxy has an observation dome, and I felt that it was something like Yamato but not Yamato at the same time.

Tamamori: In terms of design, the new direction following "Andromeda" is classical. In general, many battleships in existence were designed and built in the Taisho era. The battleship "Yamato" is no different. Considering this, I think there are parts that can be done by incorporating the classical atmosphere of the 19th century Eiffel Tower and the "Neo-Gothic" style that emerged in the 19th century after the Industrial Revolution in England and France, not the old Gothic style, but the Neo-Gothic style that is suitable for industry. I also organized the design of the "Ginga" with the observation dome in mind.

--You also mentioned that it is important for mecha animation to develop products after the anime airs.

Tamamori: We were on a tight schedule, and while we were working on the design and modeling, we were also designing the plastic models at the same time. At the very last minute, we came up with a plan to raise the draft line a little and place it between the first and second torpedo tubes, but it seemed that the modeling for the animation was already completed, and so we proceeded as is. In the end, in the case of plastic models, it is a question of how much of the model is the same as the Yamato of the anime and how much is different, so I still think that if we put the Yamato as it is in its design alongside other ships and consider its position in the story, it would look strange. For example, we need to add more windows on the sides of the hull or something to appeal that it is not a battle ship. In the end, the design was adjusted.

What was Mr. Tamamori's unique approach to the design of the Andromeda?

-- I felt that the design of the "Andromeda" as well as the "Galaxy" changed drastically in "2202".

Tamamori: Basically, we did not change the impression of the old Andromeda, but simply refined the design and rearranged the shape so that it could be expressed in 3DCG. So some people say "It's exactly the same," while others say "It's changed a lot.

-- I think the Andromeda is a more difficult ship to model in 3D than the Yamato.

Tamamori: That's right. In the normal animation process, the designer probably designs the ship and then the 3D modeler has a hard time modeling it, but from my standpoint, I wanted to deliver the ship in a form that would allow the 3D modeler to model it with as little difficulty as possible. So I made a simple 3D model myself and handed it to him. Thanks to that, I think the communication went much more smoothly.

-- I have the impression that the shape of"Andromeda" has a slight downward curve at the wave cannon's mouth.

Tamamori: In the old design, the bow of the Andromeda was interpreted as vertical when viewed from the side, and this is generally how it is depicted in both the plastic model and the animation. However, in the Andromeda's setting drawing, which has a diagonal perspective, the upper side of the bow appears slightly larger and slanted. The reason for this is that Kazutaka Miyatake, who was in charge of mechanical design at the time, had been drawing the Andromeda with a very subjective image since the first work, and even in Yamato, he drew it with a powerful appearance, considering scenes where it once approaches and then goes far away, and I think the same is true for the Andromeda. I think the same is true of Andromeda. To express the dynamic nature of the image, I think the perspective was set so that the image appears askew. At the time, I don't think many people had the means to watch "Farewell" or "Yamato 2" repeatedly, and I think the impression of the settings used on the plastic model packages is probably very burned into the minds of many fans. So, just as I said that it is impossible to fix Yamato in a single image, I think it is natural that Andromeda has different images.

However, many people think that Andromeda is just the way they saw it in perspective, so I dared to try to make it closer to that image and consulted with Director Habara about it. Director Habara also said, "That image is fine with me too," so I added a little angle to it. Even back then, Mr. Miyatake was drawing mecha with tremendous density, and he would make drawings that were easy for the animators to understand. The characteristic of Mr. Miyatake's drawings is that he arranged and reshaped them for easy understanding and comprehension. You can see in the drawings of "Cosmo Tiger II" that they are not drawings for three-dimensional objects, but drawings for explanation. Therefore, it is dangerous to create a three-dimensional object as it is based on the drawings for explanation to the animators. If the line thickness of the tip of the wave motion gun is different between the top view and the bottom view, it means that it is thicker from the bottom and thinner from the top, which means that it is tilted downwards a little like this.

-- I see.

Tamamori: I sensed that this was what Mr. Miyatake was trying to say. Then I actually met with Mr. Miyatake and asked him about other points I had questions about, and I reflected what I thought were various aspects of his ideas in the final shape around the wave motion cannon of Andromeda.

-- Lastly, there are many battle scenes in Chapter 6, where various ships appear and fierce battles unfold.

Tamamori: Well, I think it is the Andromeda that Captain Yamanami was on at ....... It was destroyed by "space-time bubbles" around the wave motion cannon. It was like a fish being eaten by a large fish. After that, it was remodeled, and I designed only a part of the wave motion gun with a dividing plate on the side. I also drew the broken part, so I was very attached to that part. I carefully recreated this part in 3DCG, and I think it turned out very well.

-- Thank you very much.

(Editorial Department/Kamada)