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Sakura
Con - Friday - Hiroki Hayashi
 Hiroki Hayashi
would seem to be an unqualified success in the field of anime direction.
Fans love his work on Tenchi-Muyo, El-Hazard, Bubble Gum Crisis and Sol
Bianca. Yet, when Hayashi spoke to a gathering at Sakura Con on Friday,
he sounded disappointed at the lack of control that he's had on his projects
in recent years - and at some changes in the anime industry. "Inside, I
feel my work died seven years ago," Hayashi said through an interpreter.
"I will go on and make more projects and hopefully my dream will come true.
Hayashi spoke about how he's managed to start many projects in the 18 years
he has worked in the anime industry, rising from a cel painting job to
a director's post, but how he's lost control of those projects. |
 Specifically,
Hayashi noted that the structure of the anime industry doesn't give him
total control of a show. Hayashi plies his trade for the Anime International
Company, one of the most successful producers of shows. Hayashi said that
neither AIC nor most other animation companies in Japan have the resources
to complete a project on their own, so the companies have to co-produce
shows. "The true satisfaction happens when a director starts and finishes
a project on his own and with his own company," Hayashi said. "When a company
has to bring in help, I feel disappointed." As a result, Hayashi said he
doesn't feel as attached to later projects, such as El-Hazard, as to Tenchi-Muyo,
which he developed as an offshoot from an unproduced idea featuring Bubble
Gum Crisis characters taking time off at a hot spring. |
 Hayashi also
sounded nostalgic about a coming change in the anime industry, the move
away from cel animation and toward computer animation. Hayashi is working
on a project that will feature 3-D animation (and mentioned the Reboot
series as an example of where animation may be heading). However, he'll
miss animation by ink and paint on cels, even as he acknowledged that the
days of cel animation are numbered. Some in the industry say that computer
animation is less expensive than the traditionjal form, but Hayashi has
another point; he says the celluloid plastic used to make cel frames is
getting harder to find in Japan. |
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