Animation of Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise
During the production of Gainax's 1987 debut work, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, director Hiroyuki Yamaga and his assistant directors Takami Akai and Shinji Higuchi had limited or no experience in professional animation. Yamaga had directed an episode of the 1982-83 TV series Macross[1] as well as the amateur Daicon III and IV Opening Animations, for which Akai had been an animator and character designer. Higuchi's filmmaking experience was in live-action special effects; Akai and Yamaga remarked that he brought interesting ideas and techniques to the project because he did not "think like an animator."[2] Only the third of the assistant directors, Shoichi Masuo, had worked extensively in anime on a professional level; Masuo would express Yamaga's abstract directives to the animators in concrete terms.[3]
Topics related to |
Royal Space Force |
---|
Pilot film |
Screenplay |
Design |
Art direction |
Animation |
Cinematography |
Voice acting |
Music |
Marketing and release |
Critical response |
Academic analysis |
Masuo viewed Royal Space Force's animation as not employing the techniques to create visual interest or amusement often associated with anime, instead making an impression that was "quite cinematic," maintaining "there's nothing else [in anime] like this where you can do proper acting and realistic mechanical movements." Masuo felt that the great difficulties engaged by the film's artists was in the portrayal of normal, everyday activities, and that it required "a lot of challenging work for the key animators."[4] Masuo's associate, Hideaki Anno, who served as the film's special effects artist, likewise remarked that two frequent criticisms of Royal Space Force were that "it could have looked more like a [typical] anime" but also contrariwise that it would have been more appropriate for it to be made in live-action. Anno felt these views failed to apprehend the advantage of using animation for filmmaking as a precise transmission of directorial intent, and the film's aim to convey a sense of reality rather than a look of live-action as such: "All I can say to people who want to see something more anime-like on their screen is that they should watch other anime."[5]
Yamaga intended that the film break from the traditional division of labor system in anime where animators drew scenes as already directed in the storyboard; animators were instead asked to think out themselves how to execute motions and camera angles in meetings where they would physically act out the events of a scene. Higuchi recalled that many animators enjoyed the process, yet some refused to work in such a fashion,[6] and Yamaga himself acknowledged that this attempt to encourage individual expression in the animators necessarily meant they had to perform tremendous additional creative labor on the project.[7] Akai and Yamaga remarked that since they weren't "animation purists," they altered the animation drawings, cels, and timesheets in ways that were not traditional industry practice, to the extent that "the young people who followed in our footsteps in creating anime thought that was how it was done," speculating that they may have created new traditions for anime by breaking the old on the production of Royal Space Force.[8]
Animation
Yamaga, Akai, and Higuchi: the outsider perspective
After the completion in December 1985 of Daicon Film's final project, Orochi Strikes Again,[lower-alpha 1] its director Takami Akai and special effects director Shinji Higuchi moved to Tokyo to join the production of Royal Space Force as two of its three assistant directors, alongside Shoichi Masuo.[12] Higuchi would make the first scene actually animated and filmed in Royal Space Force, depicting a newsreel of Shirotsugh arriving in the capital city; its look was achieved by filming the cels using the same 8mm camera that Daicon had used for its amateur productions.[13] At age 20, Higuchi was the very youngest of the main crew;[14] his previous creative experience had been in live-action special effects films rather than anime. Higuchi was described as someone who did not "think like an animator," and would therefore bring unorthodox and interesting ideas and techniques to the project. The director felt that Royal Space Force benefitted from the creative contributions of people from outside anime, including opening and ending credits artist Nobuyuki Ohnishi, and several part-time college design students who did not go on to pursue a career in animation; Akai and Yamaga joked in retrospect that, owing to their scant experience, at the time they themselves had limited familiarity with the anime industry.[15]
The newsreel scene was located near the beginning of the storyboard's "C part".[lower-alpha 2] The third out of the anime's four roughly equal half-hour divisions, the C part began with the scene of Riquinni working in the field, and concluded with the assassination attempt.[17] Royal Space Force followed the practice, adapted from TV episodes, of breaking the storyboard up into lettered parts; although intended to denote the parts before and after a mid-show commercial break, the practice was also used in theatrical works for convenience in production.[18] As 1985 drew to a close, Bandai had still not formally committed to Royal Space Force as a feature-length film release, as a distributor for the movie had not yet been secured.[19] Yamaga was also late in finalizing the storyboard, which would not be completed in its entirety until June 1986.[20][lower-alpha 3] However, the C part was nearly finished, and the decision was made to start production there, on the reasoning also that the sober tone of many C part scenes required precision in expression; as there was no release date yet, it was better to work on them while the schedule was still relatively loose.[22] Higuchi remarked in a 2004 interview that because Yamaga's storyboards were minimalist, containing only the field size, the number of characters in the frame, and the placement of the dialogue,[lower-alpha 4] Royal Space Force was not made in a typical fashion for an anime, where the animators would be given directives to "draw this picture." Instead they were asked to "think out the performance in this scene," with meetings where the animators themselves determined how scenes would move by first physically acting them through as if they were attempting to convey it to an audience; the camera angles to be used were also decided by the animators through discussion. He described the process in retrospect as having been "a lot of fun," yet noted there were some animators who had refused to work in such a fashion, and backed away from the production.[lower-alpha 5] Higuchi noted that he himself had doubted at first whether he'd made a mistake by joining the project, which he initially found difficult to understand.[27]
Masuo and Anno: expert animators vs. conventional anime
Royal Space Force assistant director Shoichi Masuo was an associate of Hideaki Anno, whom he had met when the two worked together on the 1984 Macross film, where Masuo served as an assistant animation director.[28] Anno had moved to Tokyo the previous year[29] to pursue a career as an independent animator; Masuo and Anno, who were the same age[30] were among the co-founders of Studio Graviton, a Tokyo office for animators working freelance such as themselves.[31] Following his work as a key animator and mecha animation director on 1986's Project A-ko, Masuo joined Gainax.[32] Masuo described the roles of himself and the two other assistant directors on Royal Space Force: Higuchi had overall charge regarding the design aspects of the settei, Masuo was in charge over the color aspects of the settei, including backgrounds,[lower-alpha 6] whereas Akai monitored the work as a whole as general assistant to Yamaga. These roles were not fixed, and the three did not confer on a daily basis, but rather would have meetings on how to shift their approach whenever changes in the production situation called for it.
"From the first, I did the layouts and drawings with the real thing in mind ... For that purpose, I flew in airplanes and helicopters, [rode in] Type 74 tanks, visited aircraft carriers and NASA. I also witnessed the launch of the Shuttle and exercises of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. But I had never experienced war, nor did I want to, and for this my references were news footage, videos, and documentary films. What I experienced only through images and words, I accepted as quote, reality, unquote."
—Hideaki Anno, 1987[34]
Masuo, who had been working in anime professionally since the 1981 TV series GoShogun,[35] noted as well that he had the most experience of the three in animation, and if an animator seemed confused over abstract directives from Yamaga, Masuo would explain in concrete terms how to execute the director's intent.[36] Regarding the animation style of Royal Space Force, Masuo remarked that it was generally straightforward, without the characteristic quirky techniques to create visual interest or amusement often associated with anime, but that "there's nothing else [in anime] like this where you can do proper acting and realistic mechanical movements. That's why its impression is quite cinematic...In animation, it's very difficult to do something normal. When you consider [Royal Space Force], there are many scenes where the characters are just drinking tea or walking around. You don't take notice of [such actions], yet they're very difficult to draw, and I think it required a lot of challenging work for the key animators."[37] Following Royal Space Force, Masuo would remain closely associated with the works of both Gainax and Anno's later Studio khara as a key animator, technical director, and mechanical designer before his death in 2017.[38]
Anno remarked that two frequent criticisms of Royal Space Force were that "there was no need to make this as an anime" (i.e., as opposed to a live action film), but also contrariwise that "it could have looked more like a [typical] anime;" however, he maintained that both viewpoints missed what had been essential for the film, the intent of which was that the audience perceive reality in an authentic sense. Anno argued that one of the advantages of filmmaking through using 'animation' (he felt it was more accurate in the case of Royal Space Force to speak instead of the advantages of using 'pictures') was the fine degree of control it permitted the creator as a tool for presenting images, and that the high level of detail in the film was not for the sake of imitating live action, but for the conceptual goal of conveying a notion of reality.[39] Anno in fact maintained his concern as an artist on the film was for the "image"[lower-alpha 7] rather than the "anime" per se, and that he made a conscious decision not to work in such "so-called animation", as he felt it would be inappropriate for Royal Space Force: "All I can say to people who want to see something more anime-like on their screen is that they should watch other anime."[41]
Role of computers in production and deleted scene
Although Royal Space Force was essentially a pre-digital animated work[42] using layers of physical cels and backgrounds painted by hand,[43] computers played an important role in its production. Scheduling and accounting on the film was performed using a Fujitsu OASYS100,[44][45] while design drawings were scanned into a NEC PC-9801 which permitted them to be studied at different rotations and for possible color options, using a 256-color palette.[46] Rough draft animation of line drawings testing how sequences would work utilized a Quick Action Recorder computer-controlled video camera, a technology by that point common in the anime industry.[47] Computer-assisted animation seen onscreen in Royal Space Force was used for certain difficult motion shots, including the contra-rotating propellers of the Honnêamise air force plane, the rotation of the space capsule while in orbit, the tilted wheel turn of the street sweeper, and the swing of the instrument needle in the launch control bunker. The motions themselves were rendered using ASCII 3D software, and then traced onto cels.[48] By contast, Ryusuke Hikawa noted that the flakes of frost falling from the rocket at liftoff, which might be assumed to be a CG effect, were done entirely by hand under the supervision of Hideaki Anno.[49]
A one-minute scene of Shiro and Marty conversing on the bed of a truck delivering the Royal Space Force's electromechanical computer, originally meant to precede Shiro's first training run in the capsule simulator, was scripted and animated for the film's B part, but was not included in the theatrical release.[50] The scene was cut for reasons of length before it reached the audio recording stage; however, the 1990 Royal Space Force~The Wings of Honnêamise Memorial Box LaserDisc edition, described by Animage as a kodawari (committed to perfection) project of Bandai co-producer Shigeru Watanabe, would reassemble the film's sound team and voice actors Leo Morimoto and Kazuyuki Sogabe, and record the dialogue and sound effects for the scene.[51] This one-minute scene would also be included on subsequent DVD and Blu-ray editions of Royal Space Force.
1986 and after: the animation process and retrospective
In January 1986, Toho-Towa agreed to distribute Royal Space Force as a feature film, and production assumed a more frantic pace, as the process of in-betweening, cel painting, and background painting began at this time; additional staff was recruited via advertisements placed in anime magazines.[52] Gainax relocated its studio once again, this time from Takadanobaba to a larger studio space in the Higashi-cho neighborhood of Kichijoji, where the remainder of Royal Space Force would be produced.[53] Following the C part of the film, the animation production proceeded in order from the A part (the opening scene through the fight in the air force lounge),[54] to the B part (the arrival at the rocket factory through the funeral for Dr. Gnomm),[55] then to the concluding D part (the General's talk on history to the film's ending).[56][57] The daily exchange of ideas between Yamaga and the other staff at Gainax continued during production, as the artists attempted to understand his intentions, and Yamaga requested that animation drawings, designs, and background paintings to be re-done in order to get closer to the "image in his head;" the film's artists also exchanged opinions on the images between themselves.[58] Many of the staff of Royal Space Force had also worked on two of the major anime film projects released in 1986: Project A-ko and Castle in the Sky, including Royal Space Force's assistant director Masuo and animation director Yuji Moriyama on A-ko;[59] design artist and key animator Mahiro Maeda had worked on Castle in the Sky,[60] as did Noriko Takaya, who had earlier developed for its director Hayao Miyazaki the "harmony" method used to portray the shifting carapace of the Ohm in Nausicaä; the technique would be used also for the rocket nozzles in Royal Space Force.[lower-alpha 8] By the summer of 1986, both works were completed, and a large number of their crew joined the production of Royal Space Force, which by that point was running on a round-the-clock schedule.[64]
Yamaga would later say of the making of Royal Space Force, "it was like we were all swinging swords with our eyes blindfolded".[65] Akai and Yamaga remarked that since they weren't "animation purists," they altered the animation drawings, cels, and timesheets in ways that were not traditional industry practice, to the extent that "the young people who followed in our footsteps in creating anime thought that was how it was done," speculating that they may have created new traditions for anime by breaking the old on the production of Royal Space Force.[66] The idea that Royal Space Force would not use anime's traditional division of labor and strictly assigned roles was developed while it was still in the pre-production stage.[67] Masuo compared Gainax's production system to putting on a school festival, with everyone sharing ideas and participating wherever they could.[68] Higuchi laughed that while as assistant director he supervised with a "blueprint" of what the film would be like, there were times when the finished work turned out to be completely different, and he thought, "Oh..."[69] In 1995, Okada reflected that the film "was made in that kind of chaos ... On a Gainax anime project, everyone has to be a director. Therefore, everyone's feelings and everyone's knowledge are going into it ... That's the good side of how Gainax's films are different from others. But we have no strong director, and that's the weak side."[70] On the director's commentary, Yamaga himself noted that when the film's final retakes were done at the end of 1986, out of 100 adjustments made to scenes, only three were based on the director's own suggestions.[lower-alpha 9] Akai had personally rejected other change requests by Yamaga on the basis of representing the opinions of the entire staff and making sure that "everyone was being heard". Yamaga replied, "I was just pleased that everyone was so involved in the project. I hadn't expected that to happen. It was a wonderful time. At the beginning, I was expected to make all the decisions, but as time went by, the staff started to understand that I wasn't going to make all the decisions and that they were going to have to get involved. By the end of the project, nobody cared what I had to say ... I thought that was great."[72]
Notes
- Orochi was Daicon Film’s only 16 mm film project; its previous works (both live-action and anime) had been shot on 8 mm, with the exception of Kaiketsu Notenki, which had been shot with a video camera.[9] Okada remarked however that, prior to approaching Bandai, he had originally thought of following up Orochi by making Royal Space Force as a 16 mm, 40-minute long Daicon amateur anime film. Orochi proved to be both a difficult and expensive production that first used up Daicon Film’s remaining funds, and then required further investment by Daicon’s related merchandising company General Products; eventually the money to complete Orochi was obtained by selling its home video rights to Bandai.[10][11]
- The original storyboard used the style "C part" (Cパート), rather than "Part C" as might be the more usual phrasing in English.[16]
- Higuchi recalled in 2004 that because Yamaga's work on the actual storyboard of Royal Space Force had been slow, his first assigned task as assistant director was to draw up a fake storyboard to show Bandai, in order to give the impression that Gainax was further along in their progress than they actually were. Higuchi commented that he drew the fake storyboard without really understanding the director's script, and remarked that while he did understand the film once it was actually completed, he had only pretended to while he was actually working on it.[21]
- Highly detailed storyboards would be published in two 1987 books on Royal Space Force; however, these were later reconstructions of scenes from the finished movie, using Yamaga’s own storyboard and script as a basic guide, but employing as their actual visual elements graphics made during the course of the film production by the designers and animators, such as the genzu (the backgrounds in their original linework stage, before being made into color paintings) and the layouts (black and white illustrations that depict the basic composition and constructive elements of an individual shot, including line drawings of both the background of a shot and the characters present in it).[23][24][25]
- Yamaga had expressed an awareness at the time of the extra burden of labor that had necessarily been placed on the artists by asking them to personally conceive and express the look and flow of individual scenes, rather than just execute directives: "The most important thing was that we were able to bring out everyone's individuality, and break free from the division of labor system [usually employed] in anime production. However, many of us had only been in the anime industry for a short time, so we had to make do with what we had. Even with the same staff, if I were asked to do this twice, I don't think I could. When we first started, we wondered how long we were going to last, because everyone complained, but [in the end] they completed the job just as I said. Even when they were angry, I’d answer back to them, 'You know what I mean!' If you're a painter, you probably just want to concentrate on your work. But we didn't let you, so the amount of work each had to do was unimaginable."[26]
- Although Masuo described the genzu as amazing in of themselves, he placed particular emphasis on how art director Hiromasa Ogura expressed them in the finished film; he argued that the animation cel art on its own could not have conveyed the world building aspect, asserting that the background art tells more about the world of Royal Space Force than do the film's characters.[33]
- Anno expressed this idea with the word 映像 (eizou), the same term used by Eizouken, the anime filmmakers of the eponymous 2020 TV series Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!.[40]
- Akai notes that the heroine of Gainax's 1988–1989 OVA series Gunbuster was named after the artist.[61] In traditional cel animation, the impression of movement is created with a sequence of images painted onto transparent acetate cels, each separate cel image differing in position from the previous cel. Each cel is individually photographed against a background image visible beneath the transparent portion of the cel, so that when the photos are run as a sequence, the cel images simulate the appearance of an object moving against the background. Takaya's method, instead of using a sequence of separate animation cels, created movement within a unified "harmony layer" where the object intended to move was constructed as one single assembly made from flat overlapping cutout pieces, each piece mounted individually on an elastic strip; the strip was pulled, and the resulting motion of the parts filmed. Miyazaki's assistant on Nausicaä, Kazuyoshi Katayama, compared the technique to a bellows, remarking that the varying levels of elastic tension along the parts of the assembly conveyed a distinct sense of dimension and mass to the motion depicted.[62] The larger concept of "harmony" in cel animation encompassed conveying touches, shadings, and gradations of the kind associated with oils or watercolors that were not necessarily expressible through the acrylic paints traditionally used to color cels directly; therefore the harmony technique would, for example, paint only the black outlines of the animated object on the transparent cel, conveying the animated object's color via a separate painted layer underneath the cel. A "harmony" layer could also incorporate additional imagery created by background artists that were trimmed into shapes and attached to the cels.[63]
- In an interview conducted on January 25, 1987, Yamaga had however commented that "I haven’t yet finished all the retakes. During the initial screening, I broke into a cold sweat every time I saw a retake. It's hard to think that we've still got to retake nearly 300 cuts."[71]
References
- Akai, Takami; Yamaga, Hiroyuki (2000). Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (Director's Commentary) (DVD). Chicago: Manga Entertainment. ASIN B00000JKVI.
- Animage Editorial Department, ed. (1989). The Art of Japanese Animation II: 70 Years of Theatrical Films. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. ISBN 978-4198190101.
- Bandai Visual Co., Ltd., ed. (2006) [First released in Japan by Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation in 2004]. Patlabor 2 The Movie Limited Collector's Edition (Patlabor 2 the Movie: Storyboards by Mamoru Oshii) (Media notes). Torrance: Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. ASIN B000FILUL0.
- Clements, Jonathan (2013). Anime: A History. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-84457-390-5.
- Hikawa, Ryusuke (2007b) [First published in Japan in 1998 within the Royal Space Force—The Wings of Honnêamise Special Booklet]. "Art of Special Effects in Royal Space Force—The Wings of Honnêamise". Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (liner notes) (Blu-ray/DVD). Torrance: Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. ASIN B001EX9YSQ.
- Horn, Carl Gustav (April 1996c) [interview conducted in 1995 at Otakon]. "The Conscience of the Otaking: The Studio Gainax Saga in Four Parts, Part 3". Animerica. Vol. 4, no. 4. San Francisco: Viz Communications, Inc.
- Hotta, Junji [in Japanese] (2005c) [interview conducted in November 2004]. "Shinji Higuchi". Gainax Interviews. Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-364643-2.
- khara, inc. (2006). "Hideaki Anno: Personal Biography". Tokyo: khara, inc. Retrieved June 27, 2021.
- Kanda, Yasunori [in Japanese] (1983). "Oasys Mate katarogu~Oasys 100-yō 6 pēji mo no (1983-nen) [Oasys Mate Catalog~6 pages on the Oasis 100 (1983)]". Tokyo: Fujitsu Ltd. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
- Katayama, Kazuyoshi (2019) [First published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten in 1984]. "Animation Technique in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind". The Art of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: A Film by Hayao Miyazaki. San Francisco: Viz Media LLC. ISBN 9781974705580.
- Matsushita, Kazumi, ed. (1987). Ōritsu Uchūgun Seisaku Kirokushū [Royal Space Force Production Archives]. Tokyo: Movic. ISBN 978-4943966074.
- Ogata, Hideo, ed. (February 1983). "Makurosu zenpansen—Shūryō shojohikō kara kikan made no pointo 8 [End of the First Half of Macross—Eight Points From the Maiden Flight to Return]". Animage. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten.
- Pineda, Rafael Antonio (July 26, 2017). "Animator/Director Shoichi Masuo Passes Away at 57". Anime News Network. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
- Studio Hard [in Japanese], ed. (1987). Oneamisu no Tsubasa: Ōritsu Uchūgun Completed File. Tokyo: Bandai. ISBN 4-89189-377-X.
- SU Planning Co., Ltd. (October 13, 2012b). "Chibi neko Tomu no sekai—bijutsu kantoku Ogura Hiromasa-san: Part-2 [Tom's World—Art Director Hiromasa Ogura: Part 2]". Tokyo: SU Planning Co., Ltd. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
- Takeda, Mikio, ed. (November 1990). "Oneamisu no Tsubasa de wa nai Ōritsu Uchūgun—Watanabe Shigeru purodeyūsā no kodawari LD [Royal Space Force, not The Wings of Honneamise—Producer Shigeru Watanabe's Committed-to-perfection LD]". Animage. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. p. 39.
- Takeda, Yasuhiro (2005) [First published in Japan by Wani Books in 2002]. The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax and the Men Who Created Evangelion. Houston: ADV Manga. ISBN 1-4139-0234-0.
- Yamaga, Hiroyuki (2007). "I Started from Utterly Breaking the 'Concept of Anime' That Was Within the Staff's Heads.". Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (liner notes) (Blu-ray/DVD liner notes). Torrance: Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. ASIN B001EX9YSQ.
Citations
- 「『ミス•マクロス』演出は若冠20歳──9話演出 山賀博之──AM11月号で紹介された『DAICON III』の演出を担当したのが唯一のアニメ体験という新人演出家。 石黒氏は 『従来のアニメの感覚にそまらない作品を目ざしているため』起用したと語る。。。だが9話の評判は上々。石黒氏の試みは成功したようだ。」Ogata 1983, p. 55
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 38:46
- Matsushita 1987, p. 199
- Matsushita 1987, p. 199
- Matsushita 1987, p. 202
- Hotta 2005c, pp. 253–254
- Studio Hard 1987, p. 41
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 37:52
- Takeda 2005, p. 71
- Takeda 2005, pp. 94–96, 109–110
- 「更に岡田は語る。『最初は[王立宇宙軍]もアマチュア製作の延長線上で考えていた。まず[八岐之大蛇の逆襲]を先に作って、次に[王立宇宙軍]を16mmで40分ぐらいの作品として作ろうと考えたんです。』」Matsushita 1987, p. 25
- Takeda 2005, p. 96
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 53:05
- Matsushita 1987, p. 200
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 10:55, 34:13, 38:46
- Matsushita 1987, p. 118
- Matsushita 1987, pp. 118, 149
- 「TVシリーズは、30 分物の場合中CMを境にし、前半をAパート、後半をBパートと呼称して作業上の便宜をはかっている。劇場作品には途中CMが入ることはないが、コンテの分割や作業上の便宜をはかるために、やはりいくつかのパートに別けられることが多い。本作品の場合も例外でなく、4つのパートに分かれている。」Studio Hard 1987, pp. 52–53
- 「作業は進み、昭和60年末となった。しかし、バンダイが「王立」を正式に劇場用映画として始動させるかどうかの最終決定はまだでない。そのころバンダイでは、「王立」を成功させようとする人々が一丸となって配給会社捜し、最終検討を行っていた。ともかくも、製作作業を停めるわけにはいかない。」Studio Hard 1987, p. 52
- 「86年6月撮影──絵コンテの作業が終了して、撮影が開始する。」 Matsushita 1987, p. 31
- 「『王立』で最初に担当した仕事は、どのようなものだったのでしょうか。」「演出部に入ったんですけど、最初はずっとコンテを描いていましたよ。でもそれはインチキコンテ……。要するにあの、監督の山賀博之さんの手が遅かったんですよ。それでその、進行状況が遅れている。でも出資者であるバンダイビジュアルさんには『ここまでやって、これからはこんなになりますわー』という進行状況と展望を、見せないといけない。そのための偽コンテを『ちょっと描いといて』と言われました。『えっ?』(笑)。『どうせ台本を読んで物語を頭に入れなきゃならないんだから、ついでにコンテを描いといて』と言われて、よくわからないままにコンテを描いていました。」。。。「わかったふりして。出来上がった映画を見ればわかるんですけどね。」Hotta 2005c, pp. 252–253
- 「 絵コンテの方はかなり遅れていたが、幸いCパートの部分がほぼ完全で、作画もCパートから突人。最も最初にとりかかったのは、ニュースフィルムのシーン。。。作画をCパートから始めた理由は、絵コンテとの兼ねあいだけでない。まずCパートは地味なシーンが多く、地味であるが故に的確な作画と緻密な演技力が必要とされる。そのため比較的スケジュールの楽なうちにやっておこうと考えたためだ。」Studio Hard 1987, p. 52
- Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. 2006, p. 297
- 「絵コンテ再録& 監督インタビュー 作品の土台となる絵コンテ。そこに山賀監督の演出法の秘密が隠されている!物語の要となるシーンを集めてみた。監督に伺った話ち掲載しよう。」Studio Hard 1987, p. 34
- 「ストーリィは絵コンテ、AR台本を参考に、山賀博之が執筆したシナリオを再構成した。ピクチュアボードは絵コンテを参考に、レイアウトと原図、背景原図を構成した。」Matsushita 1987, p. 45
- 「『。。。何よリ、みんなの個性を出し合って、 アニメーション作リの分業システムを打ち砕いたのが大きかったですね。でも、アニメ界に入って日の浅い人が多かったですから、だましだましして来たようなもんです。同じメンバーでも、2度やれ、と言われたら、無理だと思います。始めた頃は、何年持つかな、と考えていました。皆も文句言いつつ言ったとおリに仕上げてくれましたからね—。 怒リながらも。〝わかってるじゃねーか〞なんて私も言い返したリして。絵描きなら、それに専念したい所なんでしょうけど、そうさせなかったということで、各人の作業量の多さは、想像を絶するものだったと思います。』」Studio Hard 1987, p. 41
- 「『ああ、なんか俺はとんでもないところに来ちゃったぞ』と思ってました。最初の頃は、『王立』という映画がなにをやろうとしているのかさっぱりわかんなかった。。。ただやっぱり、『王立』の仕事を断るアニメーターもいましたね。 打ち合わせまでしたのに、辞めていった人もいた。あの作品では、ものすごくアニメ―夕―に対する依存率の高いつくり方をしていましたから。作画打ち合わせのときに上がっているコンテといえば、象形文字みたいな、マルにチョン程度のもの。人物が何人フレームのなかにいるか、カメラサイズはどのくらいか、どこからどこまでがセリフなのか、とかその程度のことしか書いていない。だから打ち合わせの現場で、俺らが体で演じて画を伝えていくしかないんですよ。通常のように『この画を描きなさい』と依頼するのではなく、アニメーターのみなさんに『この場面の芝居を考えてください』というところから始まって、カメラのアングルまで打ち合わせしていく。すごく面白かったんですけど、最初の私のように、ついていけなくて引いちゃう人もいたんです。」Hotta 2005c, pp. 253–254
- Pineda 2017
- Takeda 2005, p. 13
- Matsushita 1987, p. 199
- khara, inc. 2006
- Pineda 2017
- 「原図も確かに凄いんですが、それを最終的な画面にした美術の小倉さんの力がかなり大きいと思います。ある意味でセルの作画だけで言うならば、あそこまで異世界観とか密度の高い画面というのはできなかったと思うんですよね。画面の大半は背景が占めますから。その意味で美術の人の力が大きく出ている作品だし、キャラクターより美術の方が「王立宇宙軍]という世界を語っているように思いますね。」Matsushita 1987, p. 199
- 「実作業としては、まず実物を意識してレイアウトや作画をしました。。。その為に、飛行機やヘリ、74式戦車にも乗りましたし、空母やN A S Aにも行ってきました。シャトルの打ち上げや自衛隊の演習も見てきました。ただ、戦争だけは体験したことも無かったし、したくも無かったのでニュースフィル厶やビデオ、記録フィルムを参考にしてます。映像や文章でしか経験できないものは、それを『現実』として受け止めています。」Matsushita 1987, p. 202
- Pineda 2017
- 「同じ助監の樋口 (真嗣)君がいちおう設定班というのを組んでいまして、その中で設定全般を作ることと背景や原画の人から設定に関して出される質問を全部受け持って、おかしな点とか新しい設定ができる度に発注したりという作業をやっていて、赤井(孝美)さんの方はもう本当に監督の補助みたいな感じで僕達の作業全般を含めて見てくれる一方で基本的には色彩設定の方を担当して、色指定や背景などの打ち合せをやっていました」「3人の助監の方々のコミュニケーションというのはどういう形で進めていかれたんですか?毎日定時に打ち合せをするとか?」「そういうふうではなくて、原画の上がり具合とか色々と状況が変わりますから、何か状況が変化する度に改善策を相談しながら。これだという決まった方法があるわけではなかったので、状況が変わる度にちょっとこれだとやりづらいからああいう方法をとろう。。。あと、僕の場合は3人の中でいちばんアニメーションという仕事に関しては長くやっていますし、アニメーターのことはよくわかっているので打ち合せの時に原画マンの人が戶惑いそうな時に「あ、これはこうしてください」という感じで監督とかの抽象的な言葉を具体的に説明したりしていました。」Matsushita 1987, p. 199
- 「今はテレビでもビデオでも映画でも、割とアニメ特有の変わったエフェクトを入れたり、動かし方にしても変なリアクションの絵を入れて面白おかしくやる方が多いですから、こういうきちんとした芝居をして、メカにしてもリアリティを持った動かし方をするというのは他にありませんからね。そのへんで印象がかなり映画的だなというか、。。。逆にアニメの場合、普通のことをやるというのが物凄く難しいんですよね。アクションがかなりハデな芝居はアニメでは凄く描きやすい部類に入ると思うんですが[王立宇宙軍] の場合、普通にお茶を飲んだりとかただ歩いているだけという芝居が多いんです。そのへんは目立たないんですが作業的に物凄く難しい点で、そういう部分で原画マンの人はかなり難しい作業をやらなくてはならなかったんじゃないかなあと思います。」Matsushita 1987, p. 199
- Pineda 2017
- 「[王立宇宙軍]を観た人からよく「アニメにする必要は無かったのでは」とか、そうでなければ「もっとアニメ的な観せ方があっても良いのでは」と言われますけど、[王立宇宙軍]の場合はその必要は無かったと思います。[王立宇宙軍] は実感を持った現実を観客に観せるという意図がありましたから。『アニメーション』(この場合は『絵』になりますけど)の良さのひとつに、必要な『情報』だけを観客に伝えられると いうことがあります。つまり演出を含めて観せたいものだけを描けば良いし、また描かないものは観客には見えません。創り手の意図がそのまま純粋にストレートに伝わるのです。止めセルにしても美術にしても描き込んではありますが、実写みたいにする為に情報量を増やしているわけではありません。画面を現実的に観せる為です。」Matsushita 1987, p. 202
- 「映像にこだわるわけであって、アニメにこだわっているわけではないのです。」Matsushita 1987, p. 202
- 「いわゆるアニメーションには、意識的にしないようにしました。[王立宇宙軍]には合わないと思ったからです。もっとアニメ的な画面を観たい人は他のアニメを観てくれとしか言えませんね。」Matsushita 1987, p. 202
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 1:55:27
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 36:45
- 「 富士通のオアシスメイトを制作管理の為に導入する。入力した全シーン、カット、秒数と枚数の、レイアウトから撮影までの各作業が予定日までUPしていない場合に受註担当者が出力される。また、受註金額などの経理管理まできる」Matsushita 1987, p. 31
- Kanda 1983
- 「 NECのPC-9801は色指定や立体回転、移動の作画補助の為に導入する。イメージスキャナーで入力したキャラクターやメカニックにおえかきソフトで256色の色を組み変えて色彩設計を具像化する。」Matsushita 1987, p. 31
- Clements 2013, p. 161
- 「 3Dグラフィック•ソフト((株)アスキー協力)で回転や移動をさせてプリントした画をトレースして難しい作画を補助する。例えば王国空軍レシプロ機の二重反転プロップファンの回転、衛星軌道上の宇宙軍ロケットの宇宙船の不規則な回転、道路清掃車の傾斜した車輪の回転、計器盤の指針などである。」Matsushita 1987, p. 31
- Hikawa 2007b, p. 15
- Matsushita 1987, p. 108
- 「制作当時、尺数の関係でアフレコ前にカットされた1分間のシーンを再現するため、監督、音響、録音監督、声優らが3年半ぶりに集りアフレコを行った。1分の内容は、鉄橋の上を走るトラックの荷台で横になったシロツグとマティが話をするというシーン。」Takeda 1990, p. 39
- 「 86年1月 正式決定──劇場用映画として正式決定されて、[王立宇宙軍]の制作作業は慌しくなる。アニメ雑誌の公募でスタッフが増員、吉祥寺にスタジオを移転してスペースが拡張される。絵コンテに合わせて原図、原画が進む。動画、仕上、背景の作業も開始する。配給会社が東宝東和に決定する。」Matsushita 1987, p. 27
- Takeda 2005, pp. 14, 96
- Matsushita 1987, pp. 46, 76
- Matsushita 1987, pp. 78, 108
- Matsushita 1987, pp. 158, 188
- 「 作画の方は、パート順で言うと、C—A—B—D となった。」Studio Hard 1987, p. 54
- 「 一方山賀は、上がってきた原画、設定、背景に目を通し、自分のイメージとは違うとリテイクを出し、〝自分の頭の中のイメージ〞に少しでも近い画面をあくまで追求する。作画スタッフも、山賀の意図を理理解しようと務め、また自分のイメージも引き出してくる。ガイナックスでは連日のごとく、山賀対作画スタッフ──ひいては作者対作家の意見の交換が繰り返されていた。」Studio Hard 1987, p. 54
- Animage Editorial Department 1989, p. 117
- Animage Editorial Department 1989, p. 120
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 36:13
- Katayama 2019, pp. 153–155
- 「 アニメ業界特有の技術用語。セル仕上げでは表現できない、油彩画や水彩画のような「手描き」風のタッチや陰影、グラデーションなどを表現する技法。セルアニメの場合、アニメーターが描いた動画の実線をセルにトレスするが、ハーモニーの場合は、そのセルに直接着色するのではなく線画に合わせて背景用紙に着色し、その上に線画だけのセルを乗せて撮影する。その他にも、背景美術が描いた素材を切り抜いたものをセルに張り付けたりもする場合もある。」SU Planning Co., Ltd. 2012b
- 「86年7~8月[プロジェクトA子][天空の城ラピュタ]──西島克彦監督、宮崎駿監督の劇場用娯楽アニメ映画。[王立宇宙軍]に参加するだいのスタッフが参加していた作品。この二作品の制作が終って森山雄治 《作画監督》たち、スタッフの全員が揃って[王立宇宙軍]の制作業は24時間体制で進む。」Matsushita 1987, p. 31
- Yamaga 2007, p. 5
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 37:52
- 「85年9月 デザインボード──「。。。従来の分業体制をやめて、設定作業を含める全作業に設定、原動画、美術などのスタッフが参加する。」Matsushita 1987, p. 27
- 「あと、ガイナックスの制作体制自体 がさっき言ったように作業分担をきちんと決めて自分の仕事だけをやればあとは知らんぷりというのではなく、みんなでアイディアがあったら出し合ったり作業的にみんなでできるものならみんなでやっちゃう、という学校の文化祭みたいな作り方ですから(笑)。」Matsushita 1987, p. 199
- 「やっている最中はこういう映画だろうという青写真を基に行動しているわけですが、その青写真と上がったものが全然達っていて『ああ…』ということ もありましたし(笑)。」Matsushita 1987, p. 200
- Horn 1996c, pp. 26–27
- 『ほとんど作業も終わリ('87年1月25日現在)、0号試写を終えられたのですが、初監督として、感想など、あリますか?』『全部やリ終えてないのでわかリませんよ。だいたい、0号試写の間にも、 カットごと、リテイクがわかる度に冷や汗が出たんですから。まだ300カット近くもリテイクしなくちゃならないと 思うと、つらいですね。』」Studio Hard 1987, p. 40
- Akai & Yamaga 2000, 28:32