Noboru
Ishiguro traveled halfway across the world to talk about his beginnings
as the owner of an animation studio in Japan. The talk by the founder of
Artland Studio was doubly significant. It was part of Katsucon's theme
of old school anime, much of which was created by Ishiguro, and it fulfilled
a promise made one year ago by the veteran animator. In 2001, just before
Katsucon, the Artland office was damaged by a fire, and Ishiguro had to
skip his scheduled trip to Katsucon. On the video that Ishiguro sent in
his place, he promised that he would be at Katsucon in 2002. With the damage
to the studio repaired, Ishiguro kept that promise as Katsucon moved to
Baltimore, but time pressures forced him to arrive one day late. Still,
there was plenty of time for Ishiguro to talk about the old times...
...such
as the story about how he bet the store on one show, won and still lost.
Most anime shows are funded by sponsors and investors, and few shows are
produced without that support. Ishiguro went against that pattern in the
1980's when the decided to independently create the Megazone anime, creating
the story himself. "we would have been in a lot of trouble if it didn't
succeed, so we incorporated a lot of fan service," Ishiguro explained.
That "fan service" meant female nudity, but there also were action sequences
including a motorcycle chase, and background that included every details
the animators could draw of the 1980's Tokyo which provided the backdrop
for the story. The combination worked and Megazone was a success for Artland...but,
according to Ishiguro, one of the show's producers ran off with the profits
and the studio nearly went bankrupt.
One
of the legends of the Japanese manga industry was a ramshackle apartment
building where many of the genre's biggest stars lived when they got their
start. Artland has a similar legend, the building which Ishiguro bought
to serve as a personal office in the Shinokubu district of Tokyo while
he worked for another animator. He tells the story about how an animation
studio went out of business and a middleman offered to sell him three animation
desks, the places where animators draw cels, for the equivalent of $5,000.
Ishiguro accepted the offer, and as he tells it, "I pretty much had to
create my own studio." The studio was planted in Ishiguro's building, which
resembled the inns in the area and often was mistaken for one. It was next
ot an alley where the surrounding night life sometimes spilled over; animators
could hear some explicit comments between men and women who frequented
the area. And those were the days when the people who would hang out at
Artland included the animators who would go on to found Gainax.
Noboru
Ishiguro traveled halfway across the world to talk about his beginnings
as the owner of an animation studio in Japan. The talk by the founder of
Artland Studio was doubly significant. It was part of Katsucon's theme
of old school anime, much of which was created by Ishiguro, and it fulfilled
a promise made one year ago by the veteran animator. In 2001, just before
Katsucon, the Artland office was damaged by a fire, and Ishiguro had to
skip his scheduled trip to Katsucon. On the video that Ishiguro sent in
his place, he promised that he would be at Katsucon in 2002. With the damage
to the studio repaired, Ishiguro kept that promise as Katsucon moved to
Baltimore, but time pressures forced him to arrive one day late. Still,
there was plenty of time for Ishiguro to talk about the old times...
...such
as the story about how he bet the store on one show, won and still lost.
Most anime shows are funded by sponsors and investors, and few shows are
produced without that support. Ishiguro went against that pattern in the
1980's when the decided to independently create the Megazone anime, creating
the story himself. "we would have been in a lot of trouble if it didn't
succeed, so we incorporated a lot of fan service," Ishiguro explained.
That "fan service" meant female nudity, but there also were action sequences
including a motorcycle chase, and background that included every details
the animators could draw of the 1980's Tokyo which provided the backdrop
for the story. The combination worked and Megazone was a success for Artland...but,
according to Ishiguro, one of the show's producers ran off with the profits
and the studio nearly went bankrupt.
One
of the legends of the Japanese manga industry was a ramshackle apartment
building where many of the genre's biggest stars lived when they got their
start. Artland has a similar legend, the building which Ishiguro bought
to serve as a personal office in the Shinokubu district of Tokyo while
he worked for another animator. He tells the story about how an animation
studio went out of business and a middleman offered to sell him three animation
desks, the places where animators draw cels, for the equivalent of $5,000.
Ishiguro accepted the offer, and as he tells it, "I pretty much had to
create my own studio." The studio was planted in Ishiguro's building, which
resembled the inns in the area and often was mistaken for one. It was next
ot an alley where the surrounding night life sometimes spilled over; animators
could hear some explicit comments between men and women who frequented
the area. And those were the days when the people who would hang out at
Artland included the animators who would go on to found Gainax.
