The
flood of Fullmetal Alchemist fans and costumers at Anime Expo got the
attention of Hiroshi Osaka, the animation director for the Fullmetal
Alchemist feature film scheduled to be released in Japan. Osaka was
pleased that the series' popularity in Japan has spread to the U.S. and
worldwide, and he credits that to the combination of art and story. "I
think there's a lot of originality in the characters and the story is
interesting," Osaka said. "There's a lot of variety of characters, and
that makes the story so interesting." Those characters carry over to
the movie version, and the challenge of that film is going to be
attracting the existing Alchemist fans and getting new fans to go to
the theaters to see the movie. That means having a story that's fresh
enough to encourage newcomers to buy tickets but remains true to the
ideas from the TV show. In both the movie and TV versions of Alchemist,
the largest animation challenge is Alphonse Elric, the living suit of
armor. "Instead of making him like a mecha, he was considered as a
character," Osaka said, noting that Al moves like an overgrown child
instead of a machine. "As with other mecha he has a lot of lines and is
complicated to draw. Because of that, it was hard to portray his
movement, but we had to make sure not to make his movements too
mechanical and stiff." And since Al's "face" never changes, those
movements also need to show the character's emotions.
Character
movement also was key in Cowboy Bebop, where Osaka also served as
animation director. "Spike was a kung fu user, Jet was a heavy type,
Faye was the sexy one and Ed was a gadget user. What i had to think
about was the kind of lines to use to portray their inner selves. I
started with the basic part of the animation drawing, and to keep up
the high quality of the animation. Actually, that was one of the most
difficult parts. Mr. Kawamoto (Toshihiro, Bebop's director) was strict
about that and it was hard to keep up with his demands." Credit Osaka's
success as an animation director to his enthusiasm about animation -
"This was the only kind of job I wanted to do," he said - and his work
as a character designer for a Gundam series directed by Yoshiyuki
Tomino, who saw his designs for another project and hired him as part
of the Gundam team at Sunrise. That Gundam work was the fulfillment of
a dream that began when Osaka saw the original Mobile Suit Gundam and
decided that was the life for him.
The
flood of Fullmetal Alchemist fans and costumers at Anime Expo got the
attention of Hiroshi Osaka, the animation director for the Fullmetal
Alchemist feature film scheduled to be released in Japan. Osaka was
pleased that the series' popularity in Japan has spread to the U.S. and
worldwide, and he credits that to the combination of art and story. "I
think there's a lot of originality in the characters and the story is
interesting," Osaka said. "There's a lot of variety of characters, and
that makes the story so interesting." Those characters carry over to
the movie version, and the challenge of that film is going to be
attracting the existing Alchemist fans and getting new fans to go to
the theaters to see the movie. That means having a story that's fresh
enough to encourage newcomers to buy tickets but remains true to the
ideas from the TV show. In both the movie and TV versions of Alchemist,
the largest animation challenge is Alphonse Elric, the living suit of
armor. "Instead of making him like a mecha, he was considered as a
character," Osaka said, noting that Al moves like an overgrown child
instead of a machine. "As with other mecha he has a lot of lines and is
complicated to draw. Because of that, it was hard to portray his
movement, but we had to make sure not to make his movements too
mechanical and stiff." And since Al's "face" never changes, those
movements also need to show the character's emotions.
Character
movement also was key in Cowboy Bebop, where Osaka also served as
animation director. "Spike was a kung fu user, Jet was a heavy type,
Faye was the sexy one and Ed was a gadget user. What i had to think
about was the kind of lines to use to portray their inner selves. I
started with the basic part of the animation drawing, and to keep up
the high quality of the animation. Actually, that was one of the most
difficult parts. Mr. Kawamoto (Toshihiro, Bebop's director) was strict
about that and it was hard to keep up with his demands." Credit Osaka's
success as an animation director to his enthusiasm about animation -
"This was the only kind of job I wanted to do," he said - and his work
as a character designer for a Gundam series directed by Yoshiyuki
Tomino, who saw his designs for another project and hired him as part
of the Gundam team at Sunrise. That Gundam work was the fulfillment of
a dream that began when Osaka saw the original Mobile Suit Gundam and
decided that was the life for him.
