This
site has been following married artists Hiromi Matsushita and Kazuko
Tadano through five years of U.S. convention appearances, a time during
which Tadano has gotten attention for being the person who reworked the
Sailor Moon manga designs for animation. "Sailor Moon changed my life
dramatically," Tadano said at Sugoi Con. "Without being involved in
such a big hit, I wouldn't be here." However, Sailor Moon wasn't
Tadano's only major credit. Previously, she had designed the characters
for Super Bestial Machine God Dancougar, a favorite of the first
generation of North American anime fans. "Since I was able to design
Dancougar's characters from scratch, they have a special place in my
heart - especially Shinobu, the main character. She's one of my
favorites." Tadano tells a joking story about the Dancougar character
designs that will appeal to those who say that big-eyed anime
characters look alike: the series was featured in a Japanese anime
magazine when it made its debut in 1985, but the magazine got the
character confused. "Dancougar was the only series to be introduced
with its main character and supporting character mixed up," she said.
Both
Matsushita and Tadano got started in the animation industry because
they liked drawing too much. Tadano said she was self-taught as an
artist, lessons that included her sneaking into her brother's room once
to draw on his walls. "To start with, I liked the animation. Animator
was one of the jobs I was looking forward to. I got an animator's job
and jumped into it." Matsushita jokes that he doodled so much in his
high school textbooks that he was ashamed to loan them to his friends.
He wanted to become a manga creator, but was stuck in a salaryman's
job. "I didn't have the time to draw, so I figured I'd become an
animator. An animation company was offering jobs for animators, so
that's how I got started in the industry." Matsushita stayed on to
design characters for the original Vampire Hunter D and Guyver anime,
and was the animation director on some of the Sailor Moon episodes
where his wife provided the character designs.
This
site has been following married artists Hiromi Matsushita and Kazuko
Tadano through five years of U.S. convention appearances, a time during
which Tadano has gotten attention for being the person who reworked the
Sailor Moon manga designs for animation. "Sailor Moon changed my life
dramatically," Tadano said at Sugoi Con. "Without being involved in
such a big hit, I wouldn't be here." However, Sailor Moon wasn't
Tadano's only major credit. Previously, she had designed the characters
for Super Bestial Machine God Dancougar, a favorite of the first
generation of North American anime fans. "Since I was able to design
Dancougar's characters from scratch, they have a special place in my
heart - especially Shinobu, the main character. She's one of my
favorites." Tadano tells a joking story about the Dancougar character
designs that will appeal to those who say that big-eyed anime
characters look alike: the series was featured in a Japanese anime
magazine when it made its debut in 1985, but the magazine got the
character confused. "Dancougar was the only series to be introduced
with its main character and supporting character mixed up," she said.
Both
Matsushita and Tadano got started in the animation industry because
they liked drawing too much. Tadano said she was self-taught as an
artist, lessons that included her sneaking into her brother's room once
to draw on his walls. "To start with, I liked the animation. Animator
was one of the jobs I was looking forward to. I got an animator's job
and jumped into it." Matsushita jokes that he doodled so much in his
high school textbooks that he was ashamed to loan them to his friends.
He wanted to become a manga creator, but was stuck in a salaryman's
job. "I didn't have the time to draw, so I figured I'd become an
animator. An animation company was offering jobs for animators, so
that's how I got started in the industry." Matsushita stayed on to
design characters for the original Vampire Hunter D and Guyver anime,
and was the animation director on some of the Sailor Moon episodes
where his wife provided the character designs.
