Anime Central - Hidenori Matsubara and Toshihiro
Kawamoto - April 19, 2002
The vivid work from the hands of character designers are among the
reason fans worldwide enjoy anime. Among the best in the business are artists
Hidenori Matsubara, who redesigned the Oh My Goddess manga characters for
animation, and Toshihiro Kawamoto, who designed the Cowboy Bebop characters.
They're both known for their art, but they take different approaches to
animated film. Kawamoto prefers to only draw characters. "I try my best
not to get involved in the plot. If I get involved it'll be too much work
- and I'm not adept at handling all that work," said Kawamoto. Matsubara,
on the other hand, sounds like a director in training. For the Oh My Goddess
movie, Matsubara wrote half the script and plot, created the storyboards
and was the character designer. He told fans that he tries to get involved
in the nuances of a script.
The Bebop film was set in the TV series' continuity, and that created
a special challenge for the producers, said Kawamoto. "The TV screen and
the movie screen are different sizes and proportions. I think about how
my work can best fit those screens. In terms of the Cowboy Bebop movie
I didn't want to betray the fans. I tried to bring the flavor of the TV
series to the big screen. The producers added people for the movie but
it still had the same attitude as the TV series." When a fan asked Kawamoto
about his artistic influences he quoted two of the best ever, Leiji Matsumoto
and Masamune Shirow.
Another fan, possibly thinking about Faye Valentine and Belldandy,
asked the artists if they preferred drawing men or women. Kawamoto said,
"I feel more worked up when i'm drawing female characters, but since it
takes so much effort and time in drawing women, it's emotionally draining.
In terms of working, it's easier for me to draw men because they're easier
to animate." Added Matsubara, "For the Ah My Goddess movie, of course,
there's a lot of women in it. It's time consuming because we need to use
a lot of lines, but we also concentrated in showing Keiichi's emotions."
To which Kawamoto replied, "I want to know how you succeed, too."
