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Q: What are the difficulties you face when designing
the characters?
Murata: I think it is easier to design when I work with the producer
and the director.
Kusanagi: For me, I try to design the characters so they will fit within
the world in which they will exist.
Minowa: My biggest difficulty is trying to escape from what the directors
and the producers want to say.
Gotoh: I try to make the new designs just a bit different from my designs
in the past.
Hayama: I haven't had to work too hard yet, so I haven't faced any
difficulties so far.
Takada: Usually, I get only a two line description of what the character's
personality is like, so I use my imagination a lot. As long as I can get the character design to come
from within myself, then the design comes easily.
Nakazawa: For me, before designing a character, the Director will tell
me what he wants. After the third try, I pretend to get mad and then the design is done.
Q: How do you all manage to stay so lean and trim
when you sit at a desk all day? Isn't your job hard on your health?
Nakazawa: Yes, I think it's very hard to control one's health.
Takada: Yes, I do sit in front of my desk all day, so I make sure to take
my dog for a walk once each day. I also hope to lose some weight, so I exercise with dumbells.
Hayama: I always think of other things I could be doing to help improve
my health, but then I get busy and those thoughts go away!
Gotoh: I just go to sleep.
Minowa: As you can see, I don't manage my health well. So I don't do
anything about it!
Kusanagi: I sometimes go to my doctor and ask him what I can do for my
health? He says, "Change jobs!"
Murata: I know it's bad for my health, so I don't do anything!
Q: Do you have a favorite anime?
Nakazawa: GUNDAM!
Takada: It changes from time to time, but right now, I'd have to say
CREAMY MAMI.
Minowa: TREASURE ISLAND.
Kusanagi: It might be weird for me to say, but I like the Russian
and East-European animation myself.
Murata: I am a great fan of Miyazaki Hayao's works.
Q: Does design come quickly? Or incrementally?
Murata: I believe it is half-and-half. Sometimes a design will just
pop right out. Other times, it comes out incrementally.
Kusanagi: I think it is case-by-case. Sometimes the design will come in
fragments. I'll get ideas anywhere—sitting in the bath or riding on the train even!
Minowa: I think that first impressions are important, so I try to design
it all at once as quick as I can.
Gotoh: Sometimes the design comes right away and sometimes, I have to
take a break. But as the deadline approaches, I finish whether regardless.
Hayama: It's always easy! (I wish I could say that!)
Takada: Sometimes, if I'm not in the mood to design, I'll take a break.
Nakazawa: I would also say it is half-and-half.
Q: Are there trends in style? Do you follow those
trends?
Nakazawa: Right now, I believe that Mr. Gotoh is leading the trend!
Takada: Design is a very personal thing that comes deep from within. When
I change, my style changes.
Hayama: I feel I'm moving away from the trend, if there is such a thing!
Gotoh: I don't think of myself as a trend setter! I think my style is an
older style and Mr. Nakazawa's is more modern, so he is probably the real trend setter!
Minowa: I think that I'm as far away from the general trend as I can get!
Kusanagi: I think that trends are cyclical. So if I keep my own style,
eventually, it will become popular again!
Murata: I try not to follow the trends.
Q: How do you develop your own style? And specifically
to Mr. Gotoh, why did you decide to make the eyes of your characters especially round?
Gotoh: I think I take the shotgun approach and try out as many different
styles as I can. Certainly, I'll admit that other artists have influenced me. As for the "round eyes",
I don't think they are so unique to me!
Nakazawa: I draw so that it's easy for me. And that's how my style
developed.
Takada: In designing a character, the limit of my current skills will
shape my particular style.
Hayama: Everyone has their own sense of what looks good and this is a
very personal, subjective judgement.
Minowa: It is exactly what Mr. Nakazawa said. I am the same!
Kusanagi: I start off with as many ideas as possible and then I
remove things until what is leftover is what I want.
Murata: I believe that you do not consciously create a style for
yourself. It comes out of who you are and what you can do. My advice would be not to try to create a
style for you unnaturally.
Although there are still more questions from the audience, time runs out
and this incredibly lively panel ended here.
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