| Project: A-Kon - Friday
- Takada Akemi |
 Takada Akemi
is modest about her accomplishments. At Project: A-Kon, she said she was
surprised by the number of people who wanted to get her autograph. She
described herself as a would-be manga artist who couldn't think up any
stories, so she turned to illustration instead. Her fans know better, following
her illustration career and buying her books. Others know Takada from her
character designs for anime, especially those series where she has taken
an original manga design and adapted it for film - series such as Kimagure
Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku. |
 When she translates
a manga design into a character for animation, "I spend time making it
easy for others to draw that character. I spend a lot of time looking at
patterns of facial expression." Getting the proportions of the anime characters
is the main point, she said. The head has to be the right size when compared
to the rest of the body (by anime standards, where heads are larger and
legs longer than on real people). There's also the matter of making sure
that the height of each character stays the same in comparison to the others
in a series. |
 Takada told
how she moved into the anime industry. She wanted to be an artist, but
her parents didn't think she would succeed, so they sent her to a design
school. However, she didn't fail, and she graduated from that art college.
While in school, she became a fan of the Gatchaman anime series and wanted
to meet its producers. So she had her sister bake a cake, she put on a
dress (the pants-preferring Takada said she doesn't wear skirts very often)
and took it to the producers. "They were very kind to me. They showed me
around and gave me cels to take home," she said. |
 Later, Takada
got her first anime job with Tatsunoko Productions, worked there for several
years, than then struck out on her own, being called upon to work on Rumiko
Takahashi series when the manga was animated. Of all of her character designs,
does she have a favorite? Not really, she said. "When I'm working on a
new character, I get into that character." |
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