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EX: You've done a lot of live-action monster
designs. How is working on anime designs different from that?
Maeda Mahiro: Live action is sort of peculiar because it's mostly monsters. There
are different limitations. You have to make an actual costume that people can wear. And since a
film takes some time to make, it needs to endure and be easily fixable, or else you run into trouble.
This of course affects the materials you can use and the form of the monster. Basically, it's people
in suits, very Japanese style of monsters.
With anime, the view changes. I tried to do something simple shaped but very
distinctive. Since there's no one inside it, you can do really strange shaped things. But it has to
be simple enough to be animated. Animators have to draw it, so simple is better.
But when I work, I don't really distinguish between the two. Since
BLUE SUB uses a lot of 3D, the mecha designs were done
the same as if they were for a live action project. There were three sides drawn for each design.
With BLUE SUB, there was definitely more freedom, of
course, that was also because I was the director as well. With GAMERA, there
were different people, like directors and writers who had different demands and ideas. I enjoyed
it, though, because it was challenging.
EX: What kind of research did you do for
BLUE SUB?
MM: We went to the Self Defense Force to see one of their subs, so that
we could really get a feel for what it was like. We wanted to convey realism in the interior scenes.
We also went to a deep sea surveyor, but we couldn't ride it, so instead we talked at length with
the operator. We asked the SDF crew a lot of questions.
And we actually flew on the sub killer plane and interviewed the pilot. At the
end of the film, there's a monologue, and the research for this was done on the Iriomote and
Ishigaki islands. But really, it was a vacation (laughs).
EX: What was the most difficult part of this
project?
MM: For content, we had to grasp how to go about it. If it's a
television series, four 1/2-hour episodes or the same as a feature film. A
movie is a continuous two hours, while the videos are separate volumes. I think I failed to make
BLUE SUB fit into an episodic package, and I regret not doing so well with
that.
EX: You mean like setting the pace for each
episode?
MM: Yes. Part of the problem we had was during scripting, because what
we needed to do was make each volume be able to stand on its own. I did my best but I'm not really
satisfied with the results.
On the technical side, the most difficult thing was putting the
2D and 3D together. Lots of the staff were reluctant
to do it. Since no one had ever done it, no one knew what to do—even me. Will it be
OK? Can we sell it? We tried many different things. We used an airbrush for
the 2D to help it blend in with the 3D. Also, we used
a shading technique similar to IRON GIANT, but looking at the budgeting
and scheduling, we knew that wasn't going to work.
2D anime is anime, 3D is
3D. Trying too hard to combine them kills the best points of each. So, in
order to prevent either from becoming a slave to the other, we settled on this—it might not
work but we just put it together without any adjustments. Viewers may feel a little odd at first,
but they will get used to it. Whether I was right, I really don't know.
My favorite show as a child was THUNDERBIRDS, and that
was made up of different elements put together—real-looking models and puppets. So I had this
idea to do something similar. Before we added the sound, a lot of people were uncertain; there were
a lot of unhappy voices. But once the sound was added, it had a life of its own. So there were
less complaints.
So, I just continued to push my way through for the first year of production on it.
EX: What's the strangest project you ever worked
on?
MM: Well, the strangest was a music video I did for a musician. It was
during the bubble economy, so we got the budget easily and there was plenty of it. So I did what I
wanted. It was a much different situation than it is now. Looking back, it was pretty strange.
EX: I have to ask you about this, for the sake of
our readers: tell me about your work on EVANGELION.
MM: I didn't really do much, I just designed two of the Angels. I also
worked on key animation for the movie.
I had heard about it early in its planning stages, but I was keeping my distance
from GAINAX at the time, so I wasn't really involved in it. I did the Angels
for episodes #8 ("Asuka Strikes!") and #9 ("With One
Accord in a Flash").
I was just told "Please design something that swims" or "Please design something
that splits and comes back together."
I got approval for the split one right away.
The swimming one was a different story. The first design was too complex. It had
the head of a snake with scales, but when it opened its mouth, it was shaped like a human. It was too
difficult to animate, so I came up with the pelican beak and big tongue. I liked the other one better,
of course.
EX: Since there were many different monster
designers, were you told to keep your designs similar to anything else?
MM: Not really. The only thing I was told was that there was a red core. I
was shown the first episode and told that humans evolve into these things. I also had to put that
little Angel face on it, but that's it. I did the design very freely.
In the early planning stage, I saw Anno's designs; they weren't very sophisticated
and looked like they were drawn by a kid. But they were scary in a way. He told me to draw what scared
me the most. He had an explanation for how the Angels evolved. And he said that the designs came from
the darkness within oneself, so I had to retain that feel.
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