The
elaborate story and character designs of Paradise Kiss, the story of a
teenager's unusual introduction to the world of fashion, are coming to
U.S. anime fans in a release from Geneon. Artist Nobuteru Yuuki
reworked the original Ai Yazawa manga designs for animation, under the
direction of Osamu Kobayashi, who also directed the Beck anime.
Kobayashi's styling and the requests of the TV network that broadcast
the Paradise Kiss anime led to a different product than fans enjoyed
when they read the original manga. "Paradise Kiss in Japan was a very
popular manga," Yuuki told an Otakon panel. "Unfortunately, because the
style of the anime was different from the manga, the manga fans didn't
appreciate the animated show. The TV station wanted to make the show
accessible to a larger audience - they wanted office workers to watch
it when they got back from work like it was their favorite drama.
Kobayashi has his own particular style. Unfortunately, it wasn't as
popular with the fans of the original manga."
Before
Paradise Kiss, Yuuki handled the character designs for Record of Lodoss
War, the series created from the novels and role-playing ideas of
author Ryo Mizuno. "Record of Lodoss War was ten years ago," Yuuki
said. "What I remember was that it was hard work. The production lasted
for three years...all of the armors had so many lines - I had to draw
line after line." Among Yuuki's co-workers on that project was animator
Hirotsugo Kawasaki, the Spriggan director who had been scheduled to
attend Otakon but had to call off his appearance. Yuuki also worked on
the Vision of Escaflowne under director Shoji Kawamori. "Kawamori is a
very eccentric director, and he wanted to have a fusion of shojo manga
and giant robots. I had to come up with my concept of what shojo manga
would be, and that's what you saw in Escaflowne." Those designs, in
turn, were influenced by Yuuki's work on characters for the Chrono
Cross video game, where he was asked to create photorealistic designs
for 3-D animation.
The
elaborate story and character designs of Paradise Kiss, the story of a
teenager's unusual introduction to the world of fashion, are coming to
U.S. anime fans in a release from Geneon. Artist Nobuteru Yuuki
reworked the original Ai Yazawa manga designs for animation, under the
direction of Osamu Kobayashi, who also directed the Beck anime.
Kobayashi's styling and the requests of the TV network that broadcast
the Paradise Kiss anime led to a different product than fans enjoyed
when they read the original manga. "Paradise Kiss in Japan was a very
popular manga," Yuuki told an Otakon panel. "Unfortunately, because the
style of the anime was different from the manga, the manga fans didn't
appreciate the animated show. The TV station wanted to make the show
accessible to a larger audience - they wanted office workers to watch
it when they got back from work like it was their favorite drama.
Kobayashi has his own particular style. Unfortunately, it wasn't as
popular with the fans of the original manga."
Before
Paradise Kiss, Yuuki handled the character designs for Record of Lodoss
War, the series created from the novels and role-playing ideas of
author Ryo Mizuno. "Record of Lodoss War was ten years ago," Yuuki
said. "What I remember was that it was hard work. The production lasted
for three years...all of the armors had so many lines - I had to draw
line after line." Among Yuuki's co-workers on that project was animator
Hirotsugo Kawasaki, the Spriggan director who had been scheduled to
attend Otakon but had to call off his appearance. Yuuki also worked on
the Vision of Escaflowne under director Shoji Kawamori. "Kawamori is a
very eccentric director, and he wanted to have a fusion of shojo manga
and giant robots. I had to come up with my concept of what shojo manga
would be, and that's what you saw in Escaflowne." Those designs, in
turn, were influenced by Yuuki's work on characters for the Chrono
Cross video game, where he was asked to create photorealistic designs
for 3-D animation.
