Ed,
Spike, Faye and Jet made Toshihro Kawamoto a big name among anime fans. His
Cowboy Bebop character designs have launched hundreds of fans into the cosplay
world, and many of them were in the audience when Kawamoto held a panel discussion
on Otakon's final day. As Kawamoto spoke, he was already thinking about his
return to Japan and his forthcoming work on the final episodes of his latest
project, the character designs for the Wolf's Rain series. The newer series,
about the survival struggles of wolves in human form, has many of the same
animators who worked on Bebop, along with music from Yoko Kanno, who composed
Bebop's soundtrack. Otherwise, the only similarity between the two series
is that they have four-footed characters. "Just like working on Ein in Bebop,
working on the wolf nature of the characters in Wolf's Rain was the hard
part," Kawamoto told the panel audience. "Unlike the dogs in Bebop, it was
impossible for me to go out and buy a wolf - it had the potential of eating
me up, after all."
Fans
at the panel presentation who have seen both Bebop and Rain said they see
a bit of Spike Spiegel in the Wolf's characters. "There was no intentional
resemblance between the two characters, but he has a hair style as fan service
- of course I'm just half joking," Kawamoto said. "When you have the same
animators working on both Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain, some of the similarities
are beyond my own call." Kawamoto spoke on Aug. 10, and he tantalized fans
with a hint of a big version of Wolf's Rain that would end the series. However,
it was two days too early for Kawamoto to say anything more. "There hasn't
been any official announcement yet, but there's more to the story after the
end of the TV show, so we're currently working on what's effectively episode
27 of the series. There is a lot that I would love to talk about, but I've
been ordered not to talk about anything until Aug. 12th."
Kawamoto
could be more open about his artistic career, which saw him stuck as a salaryman
for a year before he decided to go to art design school and enter the animation
industry. "Different directors have different demands, so you have to be
aware of what they're demanding of you. In Cowboy Bebop, what they wanted
to have were simply designed characters that could be animated for
action. In Wolf's Rain they wanted good looking boy characters." And in Golden
Boy, one of his first design jobs, he had to stay true to the designs from
the original manga artist, who he had to consult to get things the way he
wanted. For that reason, Kinato Oe, who would seem to be a simple character
to draw because of his ordinary street clothes, was one of the hardest for
Kawamoto to design for animation. Also, Kawamoto said he does often have
cosplayers in mind when he creates the characters. "I wonder if there would
be any sexy cosplayers who would wear the costumes," he said.
Ed,
Spike, Faye and Jet made Toshihro Kawamoto a big name among anime fans. His
Cowboy Bebop character designs have launched hundreds of fans into the cosplay
world, and many of them were in the audience when Kawamoto held a panel discussion
on Otakon's final day. As Kawamoto spoke, he was already thinking about his
return to Japan and his forthcoming work on the final episodes of his latest
project, the character designs for the Wolf's Rain series. The newer series,
about the survival struggles of wolves in human form, has many of the same
animators who worked on Bebop, along with music from Yoko Kanno, who composed
Bebop's soundtrack. Otherwise, the only similarity between the two series
is that they have four-footed characters. "Just like working on Ein in Bebop,
working on the wolf nature of the characters in Wolf's Rain was the hard
part," Kawamoto told the panel audience. "Unlike the dogs in Bebop, it was
impossible for me to go out and buy a wolf - it had the potential of eating
me up, after all."
Fans
at the panel presentation who have seen both Bebop and Rain said they see
a bit of Spike Spiegel in the Wolf's characters. "There was no intentional
resemblance between the two characters, but he has a hair style as fan service
- of course I'm just half joking," Kawamoto said. "When you have the same
animators working on both Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain, some of the similarities
are beyond my own call." Kawamoto spoke on Aug. 10, and he tantalized fans
with a hint of a big version of Wolf's Rain that would end the series. However,
it was two days too early for Kawamoto to say anything more. "There hasn't
been any official announcement yet, but there's more to the story after the
end of the TV show, so we're currently working on what's effectively episode
27 of the series. There is a lot that I would love to talk about, but I've
been ordered not to talk about anything until Aug. 12th."
Kawamoto
could be more open about his artistic career, which saw him stuck as a salaryman
for a year before he decided to go to art design school and enter the animation
industry. "Different directors have different demands, so you have to be
aware of what they're demanding of you. In Cowboy Bebop, what they wanted
to have were simply designed characters that could be animated for
action. In Wolf's Rain they wanted good looking boy characters." And in Golden
Boy, one of his first design jobs, he had to stay true to the designs from
the original manga artist, who he had to consult to get things the way he
wanted. For that reason, Kinato Oe, who would seem to be a simple character
to draw because of his ordinary street clothes, was one of the hardest for
Kawamoto to design for animation. Also, Kawamoto said he does often have
cosplayers in mind when he creates the characters. "I wonder if there would
be any sexy cosplayers who would wear the costumes," he said.
