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 Artist
and animator Eisaku Inoue is modest about his talents and
accomplishments. On his drawing skills, Inoue said "I'm not a smart
guy. It's easier for me to just move my hand, compared to writing. I
can continue to have fun drawing." He also said he was "not the most
appropriate person" to be an Anime Expo guest of honor. "I happened to
be available, so I was sent over. But Inoue has done enough to justify
hs invitation, especially his work on the One Piece series and films.
While One Piece has been edited for American audiences, enough of its
original animation style remains for the U.S. TV series to enjoy
Inoue's work as character designer and animation director. "It's a
fusion between the basics of realism and the basics of comedy that i
love to draw," Inoue got his start in the animation world with the
production company that created Space Cruiser Yamato and that
experience led him to One Piece's designs, which aren't as exaggerated
to the artist as you might think. "If you want to do comedy, and that's
the genre I said was my favorite, I would have to have the (artistic)
basics down. Comedy artists need to understand anatomy and physiology.
You can't do good comedy without doing that, so I brushed up on
the photorealistic skills for drawing. That has become a part of me,
and I've been able to use that in drawing One Piece." |
 There
were plenty of One Piece costumers at Anime Expo, and Inoue was pleased
to see them - even posing for pictures for some of the fans who
transformed themselves in those characters. With One Piece's acceptance
in the U.S., Inoue wonders how some animated series become popular
outside of their home country. "Such as The Meloncholy of Haruhi
Suzumiya - as a Japanese person, I wonder what's the appeal of this
show to people outside of Japan? While Japanese people embrace overseas
things because they're cool, others accept Japanese animation. Perhaps
this anime culture might cease to be a Japanese culture and move
overseas." While Americans who import anime say sci-fi and action
series outsell other series, Inoue sees series that feature cute girls
as the heart of the otaku culture, and thinks there are nearly too many
of those series. "I think what is next to come is a reversion to the
starting point, and animation that is geared to the younger audiences,"
he said.
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