Japanese animation celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017. To commemorate this, the weekly PLAY NEWS interviewed industry insiders to explore its future, bringing a series of reports "To the Door of 101 Years". The 9th of these was the animation director Mr. Goro Taniguchi. This time, we will review his own experience in the animation industry.
Overseen by Goro Taniguchi
Animation magazines often see scripters for reason
——The debut work is "One Piece SP: Down with One Piece Strong Sark". However, it was "Infinite Unknown" that gave a strong impact, and people think that this side is the actual debut work. The response at the time was also very large?
Taniguchi: One Piece is not a TV series. Although it was filmed happily, it was aimed at JUMP readers. "Infinite Unknown", at that time, I basically did not come forward. It was only on the last publication after the production was completed, and even the message was not added. The representative of the work was given to Mr. Yosuke Kuroda, who wrote the script, so people who know me basically don't have it, right?
- Does it mind not coming forward?
Taniguchi: No, no. Animation magazines at the time preferred to interview scriptors more than directors. If they are script writers, even if they modify the interview draft, they will accurately change it according to the number of words, and the editorial department will be very relaxed.
- Such a reason!?
Taniguchi: It's true. This is true of Mr. Kuroda and the scripter of Code Geass Rebel Luluxiu, the first floor of Hanoi, who was originally an editor and writer of an anime magazine, and they know exactly what they want. So the interview side is easy. That's where the anime magazine's depravity began. In fact, since then, animation magazines have basically not reported on the production side.
The firm does not allow advice to newcomers to voice actors
Infinite unknown
- Then again, the comments around Infinite Unknown at that time...
Taniguchi: I don't think anyone in the media has thought about my exploits. I have two producers who absolutely trust this point in time, Mr. Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G. and Mr. Masahiko Minami of BONES. Before the name "Goro Taniguchi" became known to the industry, these two gave me a job and recognized my ability.
Mr. Ishikawa gave me the opportunity to have no directing experience during "One Piece SP: Down with One Piece Gangster". As for Mr. Nan, he said to me a long time ago before "Infinite Unknown" ushered in the final return, that is to say, long before the evaluation of the work was solidified, "Do you want to come to our side next time?" As a result, the schedule was a bit difficult, but I was grateful to hear him say so, and I still have a lot of admiration for these two. But there really isn't anyone else.
So, honestly, I'm thinking about whether there really was a comment about my industry in that work. Well, now there are more people who can be trusted, and the results are good.
--With that said, I think back, there were almost no interviews with director Taniguchi at that time.
Taniguchi: Well, if you say something dangerous and get stopped by the production company, there are some things like that (laughs).
At the end of the day, there may be some inaccuracies in the impression (laughs).
Taniguchi: Although I didn't think there would be any danger. Originally, I was in the industry with real writing (live-action), and then I entered the animation industry, and I felt that "the animation industry is even more naïve than imagined."
- Childish?
Taniguchi: In this case, it will also be NG.
- Ah, indeed, there are far more kinds of NG than real writing.
Taniguchi: For example, if you were to write about the industry, it would be natural to say to the young actresses and idols who came to the scene, "What kind of effort do you think you need to make in order to survive?" However, if you say such a thing to the voice actor's chick, the people in the office will fly to you with a blue face.
If the voice actor chicks didn't think anything of it, that wouldn't be the case. They are all thinking about their own future. ... The current voice actor industry is no longer good.
"We are an idol office"
- No way?
Taniguchi: To add, there is a feeling that the definition of voice actor is moving in a bad direction. For example, if the new voice actor on the scene encounters difficulties, the old man will give advice very ordinary, right? This kind of thing used to be natural. However, in the past few years, the agent of the firm will come up and say, "Don't say that, we are an idol firm."
- Say something like that.
Taniguchi: In other words, if you make a suggestion like this, the new person will be depressed. But from the perspective of the office, there are still radio stations to be on and there are activities to be held after this, and they are very troubled. If you can't keep your emotions up all the time, it will be very troublesome. However, after saying such things, the old man will no longer give advice to the new person. Employees are also stupid enough not to know what to do.
- That's right. It is not reasonable to say out of good intentions that you still think it is trouble.
Taniguchi: I didn't learn anything about acting and just passed the age of 30 and was abandoned. Such voice actors are useless. These children are also too pitiful. Of course, this is not the case for all firms. There are also plenty of good places to do. However, some firms do not want to cultivate actors, squander their youth and then abandon them.
Although no specific works are named, there are many such cases in the popular works. It doesn't matter if you personally label it as an idol. However, in front of the singing activities and fans, I still hope that you will do a good job. It's common sense. Well, it turns out that I have become an evil person when I say this and that.
Is this what director Taniguchi calls "the naivety of the animation industry"?
Taniguchi: How to face this childishness is the difficulty. When you typically explain the characters, you will say "these two people are sexually related (SEX)". But in the animation scene, the word SEX is taboo. If you don't say it, you can't explain it.
How long will this childishness last in the animation industry and how it will be faced. This is a major focus for future consideration.
Originally planned to go to the real writing industry to find fault...
——Have you ever thought about throwing bricks and stones at such an industry trend?
Taniguchi: There was a time when "Starry Sky Cleaner" was there. However, it is not so much for the animation industry, but rather for the guys who wrote really "obviously can't win the animation, and they also put up a stinky shelf of "real writing first". That was also said at the time of NHK's initial test screening. "If you can do it in real writing, just show me it."
Starry Sky Cleaner (This anime should be jimmy's first work watched by Gokuro Taniguchi as a supervisor)
---------------------------------- It doesn't have the scale of a Hollywood movie.
Taniguchi: However, something actually happened that was different from what was expected. This has also been ignored by the animation industry.
- Is that right? Is it a very highly rated work?
Taniguchi: I think that work was ignored by the animation industry and fans. Now I can hear voices from overseas, which may be a little different, but at the time of production, that was my real feeling. I actually ended up winning SF's Nebula Award. The SF community gave recognition, and the animation industry did nothing.
I know very well that the animation industry only evaluates what it is easy to evaluate. If this were not the case, only the directors of famous studios and voice actors of famous firms would not have received specific awards. Only there is the world of adults.
- It is indeed a world of speculation.
Taniguchi: I originally planned to go to the world of real writing to find stubble, but somehow I was busy and punched myself in the face (bitter smile).
Starry Sky Cleaner
- What I remember is that the work "Star Cleaner" also had a recommendation written in the rental disc shop: "I hope that people who don't like to watch anime will see it!" ”。 The same is true of the later Lulu Xiu. So I got the impression that Director Taniguchi was a director who "would think of people other than anime fans."
Taniguchi: Thankfully, people who like images have reviewed Starry Sky Cleaner for me. NHK also re-screened it on the show at the end of the year during the New Year, and people other than anime fans have received high reviews.
I think "Starry Sky Cleaner" is undoubtedly a masterpiece, and the evaluation at the time was such a feeling.
Taniguchi: I was thinking, "Why is it so ignored?" I gave the script to Hanoi with an award, and I also gave some comments to the animators.
He is also a layman in the industry
In this case, isn't there still work for the next work? What do you think about that?
Taniguchi: Fortunately, it is not the animation industry that gets reviews from the outside, so a lot of them are appreciated from here. After "The Star Cleaner", at that time, Mr. Yukawa Jun, the producer of Bandai Film and Television who worked together for the first time, said to me that he wanted to make another one with me. That's Code Geass rebel Lulusius.
Code Geass rebelled against Lulu Xiu
——Or a layman in the industry. Is that because he is not an animation teenager, and originally volunteered to write realistically?
Taniguchi: Maybe so. Of course, I also watch animation as an audience and have a normal interest in the producers. It's just, because I'm not painting. On the one hand, if you want to make movies and dramas independently, when will you stabilize in the scene of actual writing. However, when I took office, I became "really still want to do animation."
And at that time, it wasn't Mr. Takahata and Mr. Oshii, who were not animators who had succeeded in animation directing, and these examples more or less passed into my ears. So I entered with the mood of "do it as much as possible, and if it really doesn't work, it's better to go back to real writing."
So, for the animation industry, I realized that I had come in as an outsider. And the company that first joined was J.C.STAFF, and although it has now become a well-known organization, it was just a newly established nameless weed (laughs).
——In the beginning, it was not the director but the production director.
Taniguchi: So my experience with directors of the same era is completely different. And I know that in J.C.STAFF is not going to be a director, and I have left the animation industry once. It is to go back to the actual writing, because there are acquaintances doing AV, so I have also considered whether to temporarily go there to work.
Then Mr. Kenji Uchida of Sunrise Animation called "Do you want to be the production director?" and I replied, "If I can become a director, I will go." The reply was "Although it does not give you a guarantee, it can make you accept the upgrade exam", just like that, procrastination... What about the feeling (laughs).