Why
are artists hired to redesign existing manga characters when those stories
are adapted for animation? Because even the best manga character designs
aren't necessarily suited for the demands of animation production. Drawing
a character a few times for a manga episode can be simpler than drawing
the same character hundreds of times for animation frames, so the original
manga designs usually are simplified. Tsukasa Kotobuki, best known by U.S.
fans for his Saber Marionette J designs, chatted with fans about that part
of his career.
"I'd
like to give you a trade secret if you don't mind," said Kotobuki. "We've
talked about Saber Marionette J, and I was lucky enough to be a character
designer for that series. The reason why they chose me to be
the char designer was because the upper-ups found I knew nothing about
anime production and they said `You're perfect.'" In the hierarchy of anime
production character designers stand at the top, said Kotobuki, with those
artists advancing through the ranks of in-betweeners who draw individual
cels and key animators who draw the cels which begin and end an action
sequence. Since those artists know of the difficulty of reproducing elaborate
character designs on cels, they tend to create characters that are easy
to draw.
However,
Kotobuki came from outside that animators' world with his background as
a freelance artist. Kotobuki's instincts told him to create characters
that were the best from his experience, which didn't include the need to
draw the characters more than a few times. The result was high-quality
characters that were tougher than usual to draw for the many cels needed
to make an animated film. "I decided I would make the best designs and
not something that I wanted to do over and over again, so the animators
hated me for the characters." Kotobuki didn't understand how the animators
felt until he had to draw them several times for magazines and games. "I
realized how much time I had to spend to get these characters just right,
and I regretted the characters I'd made and felt sorry for the animators
who had to draw these characters hundreds and hundreds of times." That
understanding of the cel creators' plight won't stop Kotobuki from creating
"character designs that animators will hate me for...it will continue to
define who I am in this field."
Why
are artists hired to redesign existing manga characters when those stories
are adapted for animation? Because even the best manga character designs
aren't necessarily suited for the demands of animation production. Drawing
a character a few times for a manga episode can be simpler than drawing
the same character hundreds of times for animation frames, so the original
manga designs usually are simplified. Tsukasa Kotobuki, best known by U.S.
fans for his Saber Marionette J designs, chatted with fans about that part
of his career.
"I'd
like to give you a trade secret if you don't mind," said Kotobuki. "We've
talked about Saber Marionette J, and I was lucky enough to be a character
designer for that series. The reason why they chose me to be
the char designer was because the upper-ups found I knew nothing about
anime production and they said `You're perfect.'" In the hierarchy of anime
production character designers stand at the top, said Kotobuki, with those
artists advancing through the ranks of in-betweeners who draw individual
cels and key animators who draw the cels which begin and end an action
sequence. Since those artists know of the difficulty of reproducing elaborate
character designs on cels, they tend to create characters that are easy
to draw.
However,
Kotobuki came from outside that animators' world with his background as
a freelance artist. Kotobuki's instincts told him to create characters
that were the best from his experience, which didn't include the need to
draw the characters more than a few times. The result was high-quality
characters that were tougher than usual to draw for the many cels needed
to make an animated film. "I decided I would make the best designs and
not something that I wanted to do over and over again, so the animators
hated me for the characters." Kotobuki didn't understand how the animators
felt until he had to draw them several times for magazines and games. "I
realized how much time I had to spend to get these characters just right,
and I regretted the characters I'd made and felt sorry for the animators
who had to draw these characters hundreds and hundreds of times." That
understanding of the cel creators' plight won't stop Kotobuki from creating
"character designs that animators will hate me for...it will continue to
define who I am in this field."
