interview

Makoto Shinkai at BFI

Nick — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:12:27 -0500

Though I've seen some quick write-ups from some lucky ~~bastards~~people who got to see (and meet) Makoto Shinkai at the BFI in London, Martin was another of those lucky ~~bastards~~persons who got to even shake his hand and wrote about the experience at Nakama Britannica.

When last linked to an interview of Shinkai, I had pointed out that he was working on a new feature-length film. In his talks at the BFI, he confirms one of my thoughts at the time: Shinkai went to London to get some new inspirations for his new film. He mentions getting out of his "comfort zone" to recreate the feelings of when he left home for Tokyo when he was eighteen.

In other but related news, I mainly have two words for Fledge: Do it!1 I did buy the Shinkai: Collection Box Set2 for $30 a few years ago at the local Best Buy3, an investment that was well worth it. Worth it enough to import the Special Edition R2 DVD of Byousoku 5 CM when it was released in Japan4 along with buying the R1 release when it came out here in the U.S.

1. The power of peer pressure compels you!
2. I've always found it a bit amusing and presumptuous that it was called a "Collection" when Shinkai only had two movies and a short out that totaled to only about 120 minutes total, but they are probably my most re-watched DVDs so far.
3. It might also be available at Robert's Anime Corner Store if Fledge couldn't wait, but I'm sure there's a good reason he's waiting for it to be available on Amazon.
4. Picture of box here. I should put up a pic of the full contents of the DVD too...

Limits Out of Necessity

Nick — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:05:26 -0500

A new member at Cherry Blossoms Falling 1 had pointed out an interview of Makoto Shinkai on the Electric Sheep Magazine site, the first I've seen since Shinkai released his Five Centimeters Per Second last year.

What interested me most was the real reason Shinkai did without color in Other Worlds and She and Her Cat:

Makoto Shinkai: I made She and Her Cat in black and white more out of necessity than design. I made the film in 1998 and at that time it was very difficult to make colour animation due to the lack of available technology. Colour used three times as much space in the computer and it would also make the process three times slower and as I was still working at the time, I needed to minimise what is a long and complex procedure. If you make a movie now, it doesn’t matter if it’s black and white or colour because the technology is able to deal with it.

Another interesting thing Shinkai reveals is that he is working on a feature-length film for his next project.

I also like learning about Makoto's feelings about trains in his work:

MS: This is a question that I get asked quite a lot by Japanese audiences too. I am not particularly interested in trains themselves and I don’t particularly enjoy drawing trains. People do point out that trains feature in my films quite prominently and what I tell them is that first of all, trains are part of everyday Japanese life and as the main characters in these films are in their teens they don’t have access to cars. Though I’m not interested in trains themselves, I am interested in scenes of trains travelling through cities or countryside. The box-shaped carriages moving through these scenes are beautiful to me and I am attracted by the idea of total strangers being taken to their destination in these boxes. I haven’t seen a level crossing in London yet but in Japan they are everywhere and I have always liked the idea of this divide between two sides that the crossings create. For much of my life, from high school to university to my working life, I used trains myself and have many memories from those days.

I can't wait to see what he will make next!

1. Please ignore the banner there. If you don't know what I mean by that, don't worry about it...

Interview with Tekkon Kinkreet's Director

Nick — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:02:05 -0500

One of the biggest things that intrigued me about Tekkon Kinkreet is not just the reception it already received in Japan, nor the fact that it was produced by Studio 4ºC (Though that is the major reason I first took notice of this movie), but the fact that it was directed by an American. A rookie American director, at that. Though Micheal Arias has lived in Japan for 15 years and has worked with Studio 4ºC in the past on projects like the Animatrix, this is the time a westerner was at the helm of a Japanese animated feature.

And, more importantly, AniPages Daily has an excellent interview with the man! There's also information after the interview about the premier of the movie in New York City on April 25-30 for those who are in the area.

There's some very interesting tidbits in there, like that the original script was written in English from the English and French translations of Taiyo Matsumoto's manga, Black & White. But most telling of all was when this statement:

At one point I shopped the project around Hollywood and, though everyone liked the pilot, I got some very strange suggestions: change White to a girl, make the characters older and make the story a romance, etc.

I guess the biggest reason I'm excited about seeing an American directing a Japanese animated film is that I know that American artists and writers can just be a creative and imaginative as their Japanese counterparts can be, but the American business world seems to have a culture of telling designers and creators how to design and create instead of letting them do their jobs.

Well, I'm getting off-track here. In any case, Tekkon Kinkreet is on my "must see" list. And make sure you give that interview of Micheal Arias a read-through.

Here's the Japanese trailer for the movie (A Youtube link, as the embedding option was disabled for this video).

And here's what looks like the 4-minute CG pilot for the film:

I can't wait to see this film in full!

UPDATE: Here's another trailer:

Anime News Network holds an interview with Fuyumi Ono, author of The Twelve Kingdoms!

Nick — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:09:48 -0500

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2007-03-18/fuyumi-ono-author-of-the-twelve-kingdoms

I haven't read all the way through it yet, and I'm still shaking with excitement. Here's a teaser that should make waves, though:

The last novel, so far, was released in 2001. Do you plan to revisit the world of The Twelve Kingdoms and write more stories for it?

Yes, I do.

I'll do an update later once I'm able to digest it all!

Courtesy of a tip from 12K-TP The Twelve Kingdoms Fansite forums!

Satoshi Kon interview and Paprika trailer

Nick — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:11:00 -0600

Thanks to Don from "beware the kawaii" for these links!

Excessive reality

Here's an interview with Satoshi Kon.

You can watch an English-language trailer for Paprika here. (Click on "Bande annonce," then select "VO.")

I'll have to comment on this later. Back to work!