Yamakawa
Yoshinobu wasn't prepared for what he saw at Sakura Con; lots of cosplayers
wearing outfits based on his designs. The artist who redesigned Koge-Donbo's
DiGiCharat characters for animation was one of the
last-minute guests of honor for the Seattle convention, and at the event
he saw plenty of cosplayers who dressed as Digiko, Puchiko and Rabi-en-Rose.
I was overwhelmed! I'm really happy that so many people are seeing my work,"
Yoshinobu said. Glancing at one picture of a DiGiCharat trio at Sakura
Con, he quipped "Big Puchiko!" The artist said the only change he could make
to the original designs of the Gamers mascots was to make them move properly
onscreen. "What Koge-Donbo did was to create something for mass production,
so I had to follow quite strict guidelines. Animation is a group project,
it's not something you can do by yourself."
Yoshinobu has been hired often by Hiroaki Sakurai, director of the DiGiCharat anime, and is working on two other Sakurai series. One is the latest DiGiCharat series and the other is the Nanaka 6/17
series, where the mind of a high school girl regresses to a six-year-old's
when she hits her head. The childlike Nanaka is a fan of a fictional anime
series "Magical Domiko" (just like the Geikiganger shows in Martian Successor Nadesico),
and Yoshinobu was called upon to make the series within a series. "I'm amazed
that people (outside of Japan) get the humor and I'm pleased with that Mr.
Sakurai, the director, has the sensitivity to create the kind of work that
can go out around the world, I respect him for it."
Yoshinobu
could claim American citizenship if he wished because he was born in the
U.S., in Honolulu. "I only stayed there for a year so I don't remember anything,"
he said. As a child, he watched Sunrise anime series like Gundam and shojo series like Candy Candy.
"I watched a lot of things in different genres. I've never sat down and watched
American animation to use in my own work, but when I was a child I watched
series like Shazam all the time, and i'm certain that stayed with
me." Even though a love of animation led Yoshinobu to become an artist an
animation, he no longer has the time to watch much anime. Like so many anime
workers, he only draws, goes home, eats, sleeps and goes back to work.
Yamakawa
Yoshinobu wasn't prepared for what he saw at Sakura Con; lots of cosplayers
wearing outfits based on his designs. The artist who redesigned Koge-Donbo's
DiGiCharat characters for animation was one of the
last-minute guests of honor for the Seattle convention, and at the event
he saw plenty of cosplayers who dressed as Digiko, Puchiko and Rabi-en-Rose.
I was overwhelmed! I'm really happy that so many people are seeing my work,"
Yoshinobu said. Glancing at one picture of a DiGiCharat trio at Sakura
Con, he quipped "Big Puchiko!" The artist said the only change he could make
to the original designs of the Gamers mascots was to make them move properly
onscreen. "What Koge-Donbo did was to create something for mass production,
so I had to follow quite strict guidelines. Animation is a group project,
it's not something you can do by yourself."
Yoshinobu has been hired often by Hiroaki Sakurai, director of the DiGiCharat anime, and is working on two other Sakurai series. One is the latest DiGiCharat series and the other is the Nanaka 6/17
series, where the mind of a high school girl regresses to a six-year-old's
when she hits her head. The childlike Nanaka is a fan of a fictional anime
series "Magical Domiko" (just like the Geikiganger shows in Martian Successor Nadesico),
and Yoshinobu was called upon to make the series within a series. "I'm amazed
that people (outside of Japan) get the humor and I'm pleased with that Mr.
Sakurai, the director, has the sensitivity to create the kind of work that
can go out around the world, I respect him for it."
Yoshinobu
could claim American citizenship if he wished because he was born in the
U.S., in Honolulu. "I only stayed there for a year so I don't remember anything,"
he said. As a child, he watched Sunrise anime series like Gundam and shojo series like Candy Candy.
"I watched a lot of things in different genres. I've never sat down and watched
American animation to use in my own work, but when I was a child I watched
series like Shazam all the time, and i'm certain that stayed with
me." Even though a love of animation led Yoshinobu to become an artist an
animation, he no longer has the time to watch much anime. Like so many anime
workers, he only draws, goes home, eats, sleeps and goes back to work.
