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Artist Kenichi Sonoda, a gun buff, wanted to spend some time at a firing
range on his second visit to Anime Central, but he didn't have the time
to make the trip. So rather than firing a gun, Sonodo took some shots with
his opinions toward the Bubble Gum Crisis 2040 television series. Sonoda
designed the Knight Sabres characters and hardsuits for the original series
in the 1980's but he wasn't invited back to work on the renewal of the
OAV series for television - and he was not credited for his original designs.
That's a sore point with Sonoda, and he made sure everyone at Anime Central
knew it. |
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Starting right from the opening bell at Anime Central, at the convention's
opening ceremony, Sonoda came out swinging againt AIC, the company that
produced the new BGC series. "The new hard suits are based on my design,
but it's not very convincing," he said. "To make it even worse, they didn't
even include my name in the opening credits - even through I asked the
president of AIC to put it there. Then to make it worse, in the last episode
of the series, they completely changed the hard suits." |
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Later, Sonoda noted that AIC came upon the rights to revive the BGC
series when Artmic, the original producer, went out of business. AIC helped
pay for BGC, so the rights reverted to them. BGC 2040 is one of a flurry
of renewed and revived anime series, and Sonoda thinks the remake flood
"...probably has more to do with the point that there is not enough new
or original material around." |
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Sonoda said he agrees with the observation of Nov. Takahashi from Studio
Hard that the rise of the Japanese video game industry is draining talent
and ideas from the anime industry. One series based on a game, Pocket Monsters,
has been a major anime hit in the U.S. and Japan. Sonoda remains unimpressed.
"The proposition is good, but as an animated series, it stinks rotten,"
he said. |
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