A long interview with animation director Yuuki Ogawa! (The 41st "Inside Man" of Animation and Games)

The animation and game industry is a treasure trove of talent. In this 41st installment of the series, we introduce a promising young animation director, Yuuki Ogawa. Among Ogawa's works, the one that is currently attracting the most attention is "Hetero-Rebuilders," an erotic and humane depiction of a nightlife in a world where different races coexist. Although he is a young director, he has long been known for his directing skills, especially in his portrayal of women, and his first film, "Oyaesan is in puberty! (Oya-san wa Shikketsu-ki), his first film as a director, and "Miru Tights" (Miru Tights), in which he beautifully portrayed the beauty of women's legs and tights. However, he is not a director who specializes in beautiful girls. He has also storyboarded "Nambaka," "Master of Time," and "Fruits Basket," and is a legitimate anime director who has worked in a variety of genres, from action to human drama. In this article, we introduce Mr. Ogawa's career, and he talks at length about his particular approach to art creation, how he chooses his staff and cast, challenges in the industry, and future challenges. We also have a secret story about the production of "Heterogeneous Reviewers," so if you are interested, please be sure to read to the end of the article.

A director who participates in films of any genre under his "real name

Please allow me to begin by saying thank you very much for your time today. First of all, what do you think is the appeal of being an animation director?

Yuki Ogawa (Ogawa): I started as an animator and worked my way up from drawing to directing, storyboarding, and directing, but I enjoy being a director because I get to witness every step of the process and see the finished product up close and personal. When I work on a film that is based on an original work, it is great to hear fans of the original say, "That was great! I am also very happy when I work on a film that is based on an original work, and I get to hear fans of the original say, "That was great!

I've directed "The Oyasan is an Adolescent! (2016), "Furikuri Progress" (2018) Episode 3 "Mizukiri", "Miru Tights" (2019), and "Hetero-Reviewers" (2020), but looking at the works you have participated in by episode, it seems that many of them are so-called bishojo works. Are you good at bishojo works?

Ogawa: I'm good at it, or rather, most of the offers I'm getting now are for late-night works that show the cuteness of girls. I also feel that when I work on projects that have a strong fetish or are popular with a certain segment of the population, they appreciate it or respond well to my work.

So you are not afraid of sexually explicit works? Some people use anonymous names to participate in sexually explicit works, but you participated in both "Magic School HxH" (2015) and "Hetero-Rebuilders" under your real name.

Ogawa: I am not afraid to use my real name, in fact, I am researching and studying it (laughs).

What works have had the greatest influence on your creative activities?

Ogawa: The first anime I fell in love with was "Pokemon" (1997~), which I watched as a child. I entered the industry because I liked anime, but I also entered the industry because I wanted to participate in "Pokemon.

Looking at your filmography alone, one might think that you are a fan of late-night anime, but your roots are in children's anime, aren't they? In fact, you also worked as an assistant director for "Pokémon: Best Wishes" (2010-13) episode 52 and "Pokémon XY" (2013-16) episode 13.

Ogawa: I was very happy to be able to work on my favorite "Pokemon" about six months after entering the industry!

I want to participate in "a genre that has not been animated before.

Ogawa: How do you decide which works to participate in?

Ogawa: I choose works that are interesting when I read the original and in genres that have not been animated before. I also receive requests for works in popular genres, but I turn them down saying, "I don't think I have to do it," or "I don't think it would make much difference if I did it myself. I don't want to go to a place where a lot of works come to mind when I hear the genre, or if it is "Miru Tights," I will just show tights all over the place, or if it is "Oyaasan is in puberty! I've never heard of a film like "Oyaasan wa Shikko-jikki!" where they would just show a bunch of tights, or "Oyaasan wa Shikko-jikki!

Ogawa: "The Homes of Teramachi Sanjo, Kyoto" (2018), in which you participated as a storyboard artist, was also a unique work that mixed antique appraisal with a mystery.

Ogawa: I have not often willingly taken on female-oriented works on my own, so "The Homes of Kyoto Teramachi Sanjo" is a work that I accepted because I thought I would give it a try.

You also storyboarded the 20th episode of "Fruits Basket" (2019).

Ogawa: I liked "Fruits Basket" when I was a student after watching the version directed by Akitaro Daichi (2001), so I was invited to participate by Yoshihide Ibata, the director I worked with on "Furikuri Progress".

I was invited to participate by director Yoshihide Ibata, with whom I worked on "FURICLI Progress" and it was a one-of-a-kind work that I am not sure how to categorize.

Ogawa: I liked Kazuya Tsurumaki's previous works (2000-01), and I heard that "Progress" would be made by young people, so I said, "I don't know if I can surpass his previous work, but I want to try! I said, "I don't know if I can surpass the previous work, but I want to try!

Ogawa: Do you take production companies and desk producers into consideration?

Ogawa: I might not accept a project if it is not good enough after working with them once, but I would never refuse a project based on rumors. I try to work with a company that offers me a film I am interested in at least once to see for myself.

Creating images with an awareness of the "rhythm of the camera's leaning and pulling

Ogawa: What are you particular about when making pictures?

Ogawa: I am conscious of the rhythm of the camera's leaning and pulling. I graduated from director Susumu Nishizawa's course for "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E.73 STARGAZER" (2006), and at the beginning of the course he said, "In today's anime, there are cuts where the framing is halfway and the characters are constantly fluttering about, so you have to be aware of the rhythm of the camera's leaning and pulling. If you don't do it consciously, the viewers will get bored. When I look at my favorite films, it is true that I pull the camera in when I want to express emotion and pull it out when I want to explain, so I try to keep that rhythm in mind as well.

I think the camera position for establishing shots (shots that allow the viewer to grasp the situation and the position of the characters) was also influenced by Nishizawa's work.

Ogawa: I have never been conscious of this, but I do change the way I show the establishing shots and the order of the shots for adult and children's films. For adult or late-night films, I show them in the latter half of the scene. For example, a close-up of a character talking at the beginning, and when the shot is pulled out, it looks like this. For works for children, on the other hand, I show a drawn image first, and then show the people in the scene talking. If children don't understand the situation at first, they get confused.

I think the way the characters look at the camera is one of your favorite expressions.　For example, in episode 9 of "Miru Tights," there is a shot of Homi turning up the kotatsu futon and peeking in; in episode 1 of "Hajimete no Gal" (2017), Yukana's mouth comes close to the camera in a sexy way; and in episode 3 of "Furikuri Progress," Mori pulls his face to the camera and talks about his girlfriend in a boastful way. The first episode of the series had a cut of Yunana's mouth coming close to the camera's face. In episode 10 of "Heterogeneous Reviewers," Demia's mouth is seen looking at the camera as it moves toward Krim's crotch.

Ogawa: Looking at the camera has a powerful and exciting effect, so I use it when I want to appeal to the emotions and show the viewer what's going on.

I felt that the framing of the buttocks was more important than the breasts. In "Hetero-Reviewers," Maidie and Krim's butts were shown even in casual shots, and in "Okusama ga Student Council President! (2015) and "Watashi ga Sore wa Imouto ga Younger Sister, but She's Not My Sister" (2018), Ogawa conte times, the buttocks of female characters were also casually framed.

Ogawa: I like framing the buttocks, although it is a prerequisite that it fits the work (laughs).

(laughs) - I think another highlight of Ogawa's direction is the way he uses the camera to lick the female character's entire body. Okusama ga Student Council President! Hagoromo turns around cutely in episode 1, "Oyaasan ga Shikkoujikki! episode 11, Chie trying on various clothes, Homi falling asleep in her swimsuit tights in "Miru Tights" episode 5, Ren getting stuck in a ribbon and getting into trouble in episode 11, and the sexy Succubus in "Cross-Tribal Reviewers" are all memorable.

Ogawa: I think the first time I saw director Kamei Kanta use naughty angles from the bottom up or pulling back a bit from the cleavage to show the characters was in "How to Raise a Saerenai Kanojo" (2015), which I used as a reference in my own storyboards.

I think that was the first time I used the same technique for my own storyboards. ──The three-dimensional action scenes in "Furikuri Progress" and "Master of Time" (2017) were also impressive, using the air.

Ogawa: How to express the action scenes is a test of a contender's skill. The script only says "closing in" or "swinging" on you. In my case, I try to make it look like I am shooting something realistic by making the camera a little blurry, or the focus a little off, or the camera comes to the character a little late. When you watch a live-action action movie, the camera follows the person, but it doesn't move neatly. I consult with the cinematographer each time and try various new things.

I am reminded of the gust of wind that moves the camera from the faces of the main characters to their tights in episode 12 of "Miru Tights," or the gentle breeze that shakes the hair in episode 20 of "Fruits Basket" when Toji smiles at Kisa.

Ogawa: Thank you very much. I liked the original "Fruits Basket" and remembered the character of Toji well, and the story was really interesting, so I wanted to make the audience feel excited too, so I made her hair swing a little at the end.

The staff of the "Heterogeneous Reviewers" was gathered with the determination "not to let the drawings fall apart.

What were you particular about when selecting the staff?　Do you choose all the main staff members yourself?

Ogawa: If we were to make a second film with the same production company, I would like to ask the people who were good in the first film to continue working on it. However, there are still many studios that I am working with for the first time, and in those cases, there are already potential staff members gathered by the animation producer, and I would go alone. For character designers, though, there is the possibility of auditions. Eventually, I would like to form a team with only people I trust, and have the studio come to me as an added bonus.

Ogawa: Did you have any special way of doing the staffing for "Heterogeneous Reviewers"?

Ogawa: With Pachone, the director would also let us decide the budget allocation together, saying, "We've decided to make the film with this amount of money, so let's decide the allocation together. It was the first time I was allowed to participate in a budget meeting. Kazuhiro Nishifuji, the animation producer, asked me, "Where do you want to put the most emphasis?" I asked him, "If the characters' drawings are not good and they are not cute, it will be the end of the project, so I asked him to increase the number of main animators, increase the number of supervising animators, and hire good original drawers.

I see. So, in addition to Makoto Uno, the character designer, you have three chief animation directors and two main animators. Yukinori Utsume, famous for his cover illustrations for the bishojo game magazine "Megastore," also participated as an original artist.

Ogawa: I think the two of us probably would not have been able to make it in time for the supervising director. We used a lavish number of sheets and kept sending out corrections, corrections, corrections ...... so that the picture would not collapse even when pulled. Ume-san was already there when I arrived at the studio. Like director Takahashi Tsuyoshi of "Yosuga no Sora" (2015) and "citrus" (2018), Paschone had a lot of staff who were good at erotic depiction, which was very helpful.

The "Hetero-Rebuilders" was also notable for its many anime-original characters. Who designed the regular mobs?　Incidentally, DT was quite prominent in the last episode (laughs).

Ogawa: They were all designed by Uno-san. The original manga ends with a table reviewed by Stank and the others, but in the anime, rather than just showing this table of text, I asked Uno-san to design it, saying, "I want to create an audience that is reading and reacting to the table, from the same perspective as the viewers. If there are lots of mobs of different species, people will see that it is a diverse world. If we could show them reading and reacting to the reviews, and if we could show them getting chummy with each other, the viewers would be able to relate to them. That's what I was thinking when I created the characters, so I dared to make them of a race that is not covered in the main story.

What about the voice of the person you chose to voice?

Ogawa: I contacted Junpei Takatsu myself and asked him to do the voice. Mr. Takatsu was the cinematographer for "The Master of Time," and his work on that film was wonderful, so I said to him, "I want Mr. Takatsu to do it! He said, "I can help you with the initial screen design," so I asked him to join as a compositing supervisor. I discussed with Mr. Takatsu on a one-on-one basis how I wanted the characters to be handled, and we decided on the screen design for each scene.

I personally felt that the artwork was diverse and meticulously drawn, including the food and wine pavilion, the sexual marionette, the female BBQ fire dragon, the succubus tower, the necrowife, the devil's hole, and the nectar.

Ogawa: Thank you very much. I did some research with Kensuke Arai, the setting creator, because an otherworldly fantasy must have a solid grounding or people watching the film would become concerned. But I feel sorry for the art and film crew. Because we started "Heteroscopic Reviewers" by "shaking the budget for drawing," so we had to ask for lower remuneration for backgrounds and photography than for other works. ......