Take a close
look at the shirt that anime director Hiroaki Sakurai wore at Animazement
on Saturday. At first it looks like an abstract design of flowers and leaves.
But wait, some of the leaves have eyes...no! It's Digiko, Puchiko and Rabi
en Rose. Sakurai's creation of the Di Gi Charat anime seems to have marked
him in the same way that Chuck Jones was forever known as the author of
the Road Runner cartoons. Animazement fans certain knew that the Di Gi
Charat director was on hand, because there were more Di Gi Charat costumers
in North Carolina on Saturday than this author had seen in most of the
2002 conventions combined. All of this is more impressive when you consider
that the only official airing of Di Gi Charat in North America was on a
few TV commercials in Los Angeles. Di Gi Charat hasn't had the commercial
push in the U.S. that South Park and the Power Puff Girls have had in Asia,
but the word has gotten around.
That orange
thing in the lower right-hand corner also is Sakurai's way of putting himself
into Di Gi Charat, a creation that has a name which translates into something
like "the character who can't make up its mind if it's happy or sad." "The
creature reflects my childhood paranoia of having an invisible person who
was always watching me," he said at his Animazement panel. Sakurai specializes
in comedy shows, which made him the best choice for a series that was created
to give life to the cute mascots for the Gamers stores in Japan. (One can
only wonder what would have happened if Mamoru Oshii or Don Bluth would
have gotten the assignment.)
While Sakurai
ended up putting the Di Gi Charat mascots in the world of a Gamers store,
he was able to make up nearly every thing else about the show, which made
it a rare opportunity. "On Di Gi Charat, I was able to instantly convert
my inspiration into a story...I had permission to do whatever I wanted.
Some characters in Di Gi Charat are reflections of people who I've met,
and some are figments of my imagination - like the character with the long
name." Sakurai even turned one of his anime convention trips into a Di
Gi Charat episode, "Di Gi Charat Goes to America." Remember when Sakurai
was a guest of honor at Otakon in 2000? Sakurai didn't forget the experience,
and based some of the American characters in the Di Gi Charat episode on
the people he met at Otakon.
Take a close
look at the shirt that anime director Hiroaki Sakurai wore at Animazement
on Saturday. At first it looks like an abstract design of flowers and leaves.
But wait, some of the leaves have eyes...no! It's Digiko, Puchiko and Rabi
en Rose. Sakurai's creation of the Di Gi Charat anime seems to have marked
him in the same way that Chuck Jones was forever known as the author of
the Road Runner cartoons. Animazement fans certain knew that the Di Gi
Charat director was on hand, because there were more Di Gi Charat costumers
in North Carolina on Saturday than this author had seen in most of the
2002 conventions combined. All of this is more impressive when you consider
that the only official airing of Di Gi Charat in North America was on a
few TV commercials in Los Angeles. Di Gi Charat hasn't had the commercial
push in the U.S. that South Park and the Power Puff Girls have had in Asia,
but the word has gotten around.
That orange
thing in the lower right-hand corner also is Sakurai's way of putting himself
into Di Gi Charat, a creation that has a name which translates into something
like "the character who can't make up its mind if it's happy or sad." "The
creature reflects my childhood paranoia of having an invisible person who
was always watching me," he said at his Animazement panel. Sakurai specializes
in comedy shows, which made him the best choice for a series that was created
to give life to the cute mascots for the Gamers stores in Japan. (One can
only wonder what would have happened if Mamoru Oshii or Don Bluth would
have gotten the assignment.) 
While Sakurai
ended up putting the Di Gi Charat mascots in the world of a Gamers store,
he was able to make up nearly every thing else about the show, which made
it a rare opportunity. "On Di Gi Charat, I was able to instantly convert
my inspiration into a story...I had permission to do whatever I wanted.
Some characters in Di Gi Charat are reflections of people who I've met,
and some are figments of my imagination - like the character with the long
name." Sakurai even turned one of his anime convention trips into a Di
Gi Charat episode, "Di Gi Charat Goes to America." Remember when Sakurai
was a guest of honor at Otakon in 2000? Sakurai didn't forget the experience,
and based some of the American characters in the Di Gi Charat episode on
the people he met at Otakon.
