Author: Sauce beef tendon
Cover source: Az Comic King
——In the last issue, you mentioned that you were the first time you worked as a TV animation supervisor and directed "Angels Are Not Defensive", how did you feel after your first time as a supervisor?
Nishikori: I think everything I could do at that time, whether it was the content, or the performance of a single episode, including the picture effect, I tried my best to do it. And it was a very good period of Japanese animation, and I almost directly witnessed the production and release of high-quality works such as "Star Cowboy", which was very exciting for me. One of my ideas at the time was not to lose to these works, which led to me becoming stubborn in many places.
——You later participated in the storyboarding of many works such as "Pure Love Landlord Pretty Tenant", "Da!da!da!", "Ji Qiao Qi Biography", etc., of which "Ji Qiao Qi" is the work of independent bones after the production of "Interstellar Cowboy".
Nishikori: These works are basically people who come to me for help, and I basically don't refuse to come, resulting in a very rich variety of works that I participate in. Among them, there were more cases when Hiroaki Sakurai and Ryuo Sato asked me for help.
- After a period of time in the work of the various works, you supervised angelic layer in the angelic field.
Nishikori: Yes, I mentioned that I participated in "The Legend of Ji Qiao", which was the first TV animation produced by myself since the establishment of Bones. I had contact with bones at the stage of drawing the storyboard in this work, and it was at that time that fate led me to serve as the superintendent of Angel Realm. And it just so happens that the producer of this work is the same as "Star Cowboy", which is now the president of bones, Masahiko Minami.
The action scenes in Angel Realm are very powerful, have you ever had any experience describing fights in the past? Of course, bones works themselves are more brilliant in this regard.
Nishikori: Although I have drawn the storyboard of the action scene before, I think there is one thing that needs to be distinguished here, that is, the work in which I am the supervisor, and the work that I participate purely as a storyboard, the role of the performer is actually very different. For example, in "Angel Realm", the main battle is robots, and in the past I have participated in robot works such as "King of Warriors", and racing works such as "High Intelligence Equation" can barely be counted. My experience as a storyboard is that the work is the responsibility of the supervisor, so as a performer, I can pursue some extreme performance techniques and challenging content, because I believe that the supervisor will help me check the pass later. But when it comes to supervising the work myself, it is different, for example, if I want to pursue extreme performance in the mecha works that I supervise, the nature of the matter changes, and more factors need to be considered. This is actually a point that I felt quite hard during the supervision of Angel Field. When I help others make films, I can be assured and bold to do things, but when I change to my own supervision, it is easy to be conservative, and it is difficult to make up my mind when judging decisions. The result is that I often do not do well what I want to do, and it is difficult for me to control and manage what others do. The contrast between the two is actually very much reflective of the scope of the supervisor's responsibilities, with a single episode of the split-screen performance having a supervisor wipe your ass for you, while being a supervisor yourself is controlling your own desire to perform while wiping the ass of others. Therefore, when the supervisor needs to take responsibility for the work, the ability requirements for the performer are actually very different.
——You have also directed more than one bones work, in the action scenes of bones works, what is the state of division of labor and cooperation between general storyboarding and excellent original paintings? Is there a difference between me and other animation companies?
Nishikori: As you said, Bones is a studio that respects the opinions and ideas of the painter. I'm different, and if I have to say it, I'm a performer who tends to be more performer-oriented. After that, including my work in J.c.staff, I hope to be able to reconcile the proportion of painting and performance in the production, but in terms of proportion, I am definitely more inclined to perform, and I think that painting should match the intention of the performance, which is my personal idea or supervision style. Bones, on the other hand, has a stronger say in painting, and I was just after making Angels Undefended, and although I felt difficult to control the direction of the work by relying on performances, I still had a sense of challenge. After that, I supervised three works in bones, and in the production of each work, there was actually a struggle between performance and painting, of course, this is not to say that there is any contradiction, both sides are from their own point of view to improve the quality of the work. As a result, I do feel that I have not been able to successfully channel 100% of the power of excellent original paintings, and I have reflected on this aspect.
- Thank you very much for your explanation. After Angel Realm, we're going to talk about the immortal Az Comic King that you oversee. When did this work start?
Nishikori: When I participated, it was already time to decide to animate, and then the planner sent the manga to me and asked if I was interested, and I read the manga and found it very interesting, so I didn't think too much about it and took it. The comic is first and foremost a pioneering work, with intelligent details everywhere. The author, Mr. Kiyohiko Higashi, also has such a personality, and I feel that he is very special after contact, and it is difficult to be classified into the existing personality category. At that time, in the animation industry, the so-called daily department like "Az Manga King" had very few works with such an incredible world view, which directly led to the fact that everyone did not understand the atmosphere of this work when planning animation, because no one had ever seen such a work at that time. So in this inexperienced environment, we put a lot of effort into selecting the animation crew for Az. But this also brought a benefit, and as a result, the production team was full of people who liked Az. Whether it is an animator or a performance, they all like the original manga, like the characters in the work, and the desire to create one by one is bursting. This led to a very good atmosphere in the group after the production began, and the final animation product I can confidently say is a work full of love.
——When the anime was planned, was the manga still serialized? Because the manga is only 4 volumes in total, considering that the animation must start preparing a long time in advance, in order to make the animation describe the plot that the manga has not yet drawn, do you have to let The East Teacher give the outline of the back of the animation team?
Nishikori: I remember that the manga was not finished, but it was almost finished. So there is no case where the script you said was written at the end of the manga and you need to confirm with the original author first.
——You also mentioned that at that time, the animation industry did not have too strong understanding of daily works, and there should not be many works of four-frame adaptation of 30-minute TV animation at that time.
Nishikori: We had a very strong sense of "drawing" the so-called "rhythm" and "atmosphere" from the original manga. It was very difficult for the so-called rhythm and atmosphere to resemble the original work, and at that time there were many detours and sufferings. However, after the production was carried out for a period of time, our production staff began to gradually find those feelings in school life, such as the lazy feeling of small talk and blind play during the break, the small loneliness after the school sports day, and the unique mood and atmosphere of these school life were gradually found by our production staff. Then we try to inject these feelings into the animation, which can be used to enrich and expand the existing elements of the original work, or to make up for the original content that is not mentioned in the original work. After this round of doing it, in the end, we felt that we had touched a little doorway to portray the daily works of girls, and the audience's response to us was extremely warm. But as I said, we are still groping during the production process, so after 26 episodes, it is obvious that the style has changed direction several times, and there is a situation of fluctuation and instability before and after. But in the end I think the results achieved are still very good, which is also a windfall.
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Nishikori: There was an idea for a designer named Hideki Satomi. He also usually does book design, so he hopes to bring the feeling of the original comic book directly to the animation works. So there are performances everywhere in the work that deliberately imitate the effect of the original book, and the cutscene design you mentioned is one of the elements, and in the end, it also achieves a very good effect. It is said that this work has also recently released a Blu-ray box, and everyone who is interested can care about it.
(To be continued)
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