| Studio Ironcat promised to keep artist Shinpei Itoh busy during the weekend at AnimeIowa, and the Hyper Dolls creator thrived on the small but friendly event. He spent time in the dealers room on Saturday, signing everything that was presented at him, whether it be T-shirts or copies of his manga. Itoh then went to the main programming ballroom... |  |
| ...where he spoke about his newest projects, a romantic comedy and a police story that run every couple of months in Japanese publications. will there be more Hyper Dolls? Not really, itoh answered, noting that some of the original series never was published in Japan because the publisher went out of business. However, American fans might be able to see some of his Moldiver work through Ironcat, he said. |  |
| Fans have been curious to learn how Hyper Dolls made the transition from manga to anime. Itoh said he didn't learn about the decision until after it was made, when Pioneer and the manga publisher told him. "I wasn't really given a choice. It was a good decision to be made for you," Itoh said. He had to made plenty of changes in the manga story for its animation, especially taking out the small parody bits that he enjoys putting in his tales. |  |
| Those small inside jokes and asides are hard to translate into English, Itoh noted, because they refer to obscure Japanese jokes and shows (Itoh loved Japanese sci-fi TV and movies when he was growing up, one of the reasons he became an artist). Itoh has accumulated a large collection of characters in from the series he's created; will he ever follow the pattern of other artists and create an all-star manga with all of those characters? "It's a little too soon for that," he replied. |  |
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