Anime Central - Hiroaki Gohda and Hidenori Matsubara
Character designers Hidenori Matsubara (left) and Hiroaki Gohda (right) didn't have a typical
audience of anime fans for their Friday panel at Anime Central. When Gohda
asked the fans if they were artists, half of the people in the room raised
their hands. This audience was seriously interested in art, and the character
designers were glad to offer them a lesson...even if they joked that anime
artists weren't always the best teachers.
So Gohda drew a sketch of the teacher from Please Teacher,
and said the secret of character design is in the glasses. "Glasses are a
boom in Japan," he said "There was something from within me on Onegai.
I was working on it and I said, `I've got to have a spectacled girl somewhere."
More seriously, Gohda said "I love drawing artwork and that's why I'm in
this as a career, because I have motivation. I am still infatuated with drawing
artwork, and that's why I try to put up a good fight with the material I'm
producing."
A
fan asked how to create original characters. "I'm thinking pretty hard,"
Gohda said as he reached for an answer. "I know this is a roundabout way
ot putting this, but finding an element of artwork that stands out depends
on something unique within yourself, something you're interested in." Non-drawing
anime fans might be interested to know that Gohda, who directed the Oh My Goddess movie, asked the audience if they wanted to see more Goddess anime (and they did), but didn't promise if anything would be produced.
Character designers Hidenori Matsubara (left) and Hiroaki Gohda (right) didn't have a typical
audience of anime fans for their Friday panel at Anime Central. When Gohda
asked the fans if they were artists, half of the people in the room raised
their hands. This audience was seriously interested in art, and the character
designers were glad to offer them a lesson...even if they joked that anime
artists weren't always the best teachers.
So Gohda drew a sketch of the teacher from Please Teacher,
and said the secret of character design is in the glasses. "Glasses are a
boom in Japan," he said "There was something from within me on Onegai.
I was working on it and I said, `I've got to have a spectacled girl somewhere."
More seriously, Gohda said "I love drawing artwork and that's why I'm in
this as a career, because I have motivation. I am still infatuated with drawing
artwork, and that's why I try to put up a good fight with the material I'm
producing."
A
fan asked how to create original characters. "I'm thinking pretty hard,"
Gohda said as he reached for an answer. "I know this is a roundabout way
ot putting this, but finding an element of artwork that stands out depends
on something unique within yourself, something you're interested in." Non-drawing
anime fans might be interested to know that Gohda, who directed the Oh My Goddess movie, asked the audience if they wanted to see more Goddess anime (and they did), but didn't promise if anything would be produced.
