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Anime Expo - Sunday - Kazuki Akane
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If director Kazuki Akane looked distracted or tired
during Anime Expo, forgive him. He had just finished years of work completing
the Escaflowne movie which was finished just in time for the California
event. "I'm still not fully recovered," he said on Sunday, a couple of
days after the film had been shown at the convention. "All of the staff
worked on it day and night. The last few months were the hardest." |
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Akane was pleased with the audiences that filled
the film screening room at Anime Expo to see his work, but he's too much
of a perfectionist to be too happy. "The finished product is satisfactory,
but directors are never satisfied," he said. Akane said he was aware of
the need to provide a better product for projection on large screens, compared
to the TV screens on which Escaflowne is usually seen. After hearing how
the audiences reacted, he got ideas for the next movie he'll produce. |
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"The film version has a Japanese concept in not openly
expressing emotion," Akane said. "Perhaps my next film will have more openly
and clearly expressed emotions. the movie's emotions aren't as openly expressed
as in the TV series." As in the TV version of Escaflowne, the movie version
searches out Akane's vision of a primitive culture that tries to come to
grips with technology from an ancient, dead race - much like science fiction
tales such as Planet of the Apes and Nausicaa. |
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What is Akane's next project? It will be a TV series
to be called Moon Shaft, a story of 23rd-century spacefaring women and
genetic engineering. "I always feel that the best film that I'm going to
make is my next film," he said. "I constantly have to go on to satisfy
my unfulfilled feelings in the next film." |
