After a weekend full of energetic voice actors, character designer Hiroki
Kanno offered a change of pace - the quietest guest of honor of the Anime
Boston weekend. He handled the human designs for the Raxhephon series being
released in English by ADV Films, but gave credit to Ikehira Yamata, the
illustrator who drew the designs that Kanno had to adapt for animation. "Design
for an original series is different than adapting characters from a manga
like Fushigi Yuugi," Kanno told fans. "When you do a character design based
on pre-existing manga, one thing you have to do is to adapt the art style
so it came be animated and adapt the characters' appeal."
Raxhephon is Kanno's big current project, going beyond the animated series
to include a video game that was under development at the time of Anime Boston
(which also was on the weekend that a Raxhephon movie was released in Japan).
Kanno's favorite character comes from Raxhephon, a junior high school girl
named Megumi. "She's very cute," said Kanno. And in that Raxhephon movie
was a 14 year old version of another lead character, Haruka. "She's also
very cute as a 14 year old. Basically, I like cute characters."
Kanno attended an animation school in Japan, but he noted that the school
didn't really prepare him for the real world of animation work. In the assembly
line world of animation, Kanno enjoyed key animation best, saying it was
fun to draw the characters in their main poses. The move from pen-and-ink
animation to digital work makes Japanese animators' jobs easier, but Kanno
hopes it will get easier still. Anime Boston was Kanno's first trip to the
U.S., and he was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of Boston fans.
After a weekend full of energetic voice actors, character designer Hiroki
Kanno offered a change of pace - the quietest guest of honor of the Anime
Boston weekend. He handled the human designs for the Raxhephon series being
released in English by ADV Films, but gave credit to Ikehira Yamata, the
illustrator who drew the designs that Kanno had to adapt for animation. "Design
for an original series is different than adapting characters from a manga
like Fushigi Yuugi," Kanno told fans. "When you do a character design based
on pre-existing manga, one thing you have to do is to adapt the art style
so it came be animated and adapt the characters' appeal."
Raxhephon is Kanno's big current project, going beyond the animated series
to include a video game that was under development at the time of Anime Boston
(which also was on the weekend that a Raxhephon movie was released in Japan).
Kanno's favorite character comes from Raxhephon, a junior high school girl
named Megumi. "She's very cute," said Kanno. And in that Raxhephon movie
was a 14 year old version of another lead character, Haruka. "She's also
very cute as a 14 year old. Basically, I like cute characters."
Kanno attended an animation school in Japan, but he noted that the school
didn't really prepare him for the real world of animation work. In the assembly
line world of animation, Kanno enjoyed key animation best, saying it was
fun to draw the characters in their main poses. The move from pen-and-ink
animation to digital work makes Japanese animators' jobs easier, but Kanno
hopes it will get easier still. Anime Boston was Kanno's first trip to the
U.S., and he was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of Boston fans.
