Director Yoshiyuki Tomino's latest film "G Reconguista I" "Go! Core Fighter" was released last month, with additional screenings scheduled for January 2020. The film was also well-received for the "eyes" on the main character robot, G-Self, which were designed by Akira Yasuda.
Yasuda's first job in the animation industry was as a character designer for "Tribe Gundam" (1999). Since then, he has continued to work as a designer for both characters and mechanisms in such films as "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion" (2006) and "Moretsu Space Pirates" (2012).
However, it seems that his path to establishing himself in the animation industry was not a smooth one.
If you are motivated, you can do anything, but if you are not motivated, you have nothing.
─ Yasuda-san, you are known for your character designs for "Holy Gundam"; were you a fan of "Mobile Suit Gundam," which was broadcast in 1979?
Yasuda: I think of myself as a person who is driven by "Gundam. I was so moved by the final episode of "Invincible Superhero Zambot 3" (1977) that I quit the series halfway through, but the final episode of "Invincible Steel Man Daiturn 3" (1978) moved me so much that I watched "Gundam" when I was 15. I was in the art club at the time, and there was a local stationery shop called Sato Paper Store, where I saw a woman dressed as Amuro. She was dressed as Amuro, and she was walking in the crosswalk like a normal person. I had never heard of cosplay culture, so I was shocked that such a world existed, and I asked everyone to cosplay as "Gundam" at the high school festival. The results were not good, but I made Dom, Zugok, and the uniforms of the federal army.
I probably should have gone on to an art college or something, but I just didn't have the strength to continue drawing art-like pictures. I was more interested in animated cartoons such as "Captain Future" (1978) and robots, so I decided to go to a vocational school. I thought that if I went to Tokyo, I might be able to get by, so I moved to Tokyo from Hokkaido. But since I was attending a vocational school as a newspaper scholarship student, I was so busy that I had no time to draw pictures. I didn't have any money, and I hated the flirtatious culture of the Onyanko Club and the "Nenton Kohkeidan" (laughs).
─ ─ But you were able to join Capcom, weren't you?
Yasuda: I was hired by an unusual person, Mr. Kichioki Okamoto, a former Capcom employee, probably because of the interesting atmosphere. Because there were many eccentric bosses and unique members, it was a place where people with straight common sense would drop out, and it was a place where it was better to drop out. My boss was always pranking me like a child in a public place, so normal people would get tired of it and quit right away.
───When you were at Capcom, were you a designer?
Yasuda: I was a dotter. I wanted to be a dotter as well as a planner, so when my boss went to the bathroom, I went in there with him and asked to be a planner. It was such a lax era that my request was accepted.
─ You were in charge of character design for "Street Fighter II" (1991). From there it was 8 years until "Tribe Gundam".
Yasuda: I joined Capcom when I was 21, and around the age of 26, I worked on "Street Fighter II" with my colleagues as the main designer. Since "Strike II" was a project that I had started on my own, and since it had gained a reputation, the company asked me to divide the members of the "Strike II" team into several teams and create a game like "Strike II," so that each team would be responsible for filling in the missing parts. As a result, I lost my own team. I am in a position where I can do anything if I am motivated, but if I am not, I don't have to do anything. I am more of a chief inspector than a manager. If everyone else improves, I won't be needed anymore. I originally joined Capcom because I wanted to paint, but it became obvious that I would not be painting in the future. I started getting a full salary, so I guess I could live an interesting life, but the situation became completely uninteresting.
While I was rotting away at that, I was approached by Director Yoshiyuki Tomino. At the time, after "Mobile Suit V Gundam" (1993), Director Tomino had been writing a strange column in a rock band magazine for about three years without doing any animation work, and I thought he was very sick (laughs).
