Masaru Kitao -
Anime
Convention Personality of the Week - April 13, 2008
Why is Death Note so
popular? To character designer and animator Masaru Kitao, it's because
the series is more than just a horror show. Said Kitao, "There's the
story, there's the characters and there's the great balance of
different aspects of morality - what's moral and what's immoral. We've
been able to visualize the animation in a unique, beautiful way that
can't be done in live action. Kitao's comment reflected the fact that
the Death Note anime is just one of the adaptations of the
manga created by artist Takeshi Obata and writer Tsugumi Ohba; there
are two live-action movies and a video game. On his reworking of the
manga art for the animation, Kitao said "I did want to stay true to the
original. Even if I tried to draw something like the originals it came
out different. That's how I work, and I hope the audience takes that
into account when they watch the animation." Kitao said it's a mater of
not revealing everything at once, whether it's art or the story.
"Imagine that you're watching a beautiful lady's eyes." Kitao said. "Up
close, you have a difference between having a clear view of her eyes
and having hair over the eyes. Sometimes, people are more interested in
something that is hidden. In animation, that might happen for only a
split second, but it gets audiences interested in what's going on.
Those are the kind of things I watch out for."
Why is Death Note so
popular? To character designer and animator Masaru Kitao, it's because
the series is more than just a horror show. Said Kitao, "There's the
story, there's the characters and there's the great balance of
different aspects of morality - what's moral and what's immoral. We've
been able to visualize the animation in a unique, beautiful way that
can't be done in live action. Kitao's comment reflected the fact that
the Death Note anime is just one of the adaptations of the
manga created by artist Takeshi Obata and writer Tsugumi Ohba; there
are two live-action movies and a video game. On his reworking of the
manga art for the animation, Kitao said "I did want to stay true to the
original. Even if I tried to draw something like the originals it came
out different. That's how I work, and I hope the audience takes that
into account when they watch the animation." Kitao said it's a mater of
not revealing everything at once, whether it's art or the story.
"Imagine that you're watching a beautiful lady's eyes." Kitao said. "Up
close, you have a difference between having a clear view of her eyes
and having hair over the eyes. Sometimes, people are more interested in
something that is hidden. In animation, that might happen for only a
split second, but it gets audiences interested in what's going on.
Those are the kind of things I watch out for." 