Finishing off the Crayon Shin-chan section of the book...
p.94
Crayon Shin-chan Movie: The Storm Called The Jungle (2000)
Director - Keiichi Hara
Concept art / character design / key animation - Masaaki Yuasa
In addition to concept art, I also did character designs for the Paradise King and monkeys. This movie takes place on an deserted island. The ship interior came easily to me with its surreal 1970s psychedelic style, and I had a lot of fun designing the settings for this one. The ship is also the Paradise King's castle, and I felt a sense of pride in having created this particular world.
*Body like a fighter*
The Paradise King's body has a very specific design. In my earlier designs, strong fighters always had a macho body shape with their chest puffed out and their arms slightly behind them. But when I look at my favourite martial artists like Bruce Lee, they have a completely different body type, usually with a bigger back and the arms in the front. It feels like his back is wider than his front. I drew Paradise King with that body type in mind.
p.95
*Picture it in motion*
For the clothes, I was conscious of designing them to be simple and appealing. In action scenes, clothes can get dirty or flutter in the wind, so detailed designs can be a problem and they can affect movement. In that sense, his pointed collar was quite troublesome once we got into animation. Later I wished I had made it smaller. You have to think about how a character will move while designing them.
*Peace & Love*
He was described as a funky guy who came to the jungle sometime in the 1970s. That's why I gave him an afro and designed his clothes with a 'peace and love' style, with floral patterns and a psychedelic impression.
p.96
*Artistic and freaky*
The Paradise King's room has an artistic 60's feel to it. It's a little unnerving, with mannequins like the ones in "A Clockwork Orange" standing around it.
*Gorgeous Appearance!*
Mr. Hara had already decided on the song that would play during his entrance scene. Since it was a funky, jungle-like song, we went for a showy entrance.
p.97
*A Man's Dream*
This is a real tough guy. He has scars all over his body, and he's been living alone with monkeys for a long time, so he's had it rough. But I also wanted to show how free he is, "living alone as a man." At that time, there was a trend that even fathers had to pee sitting down or their families would get angry with them, so I figured "the best part of living alone is that a man can pee standing up, without worrying about anyone else!" (laughs) I thought if I made a men's toilet with a great view, that would sum up this character well. It's like a true man's dream. Whether or not it's my own dream is another matter (laughs).
p.98
*Gibbon*
The way they walk with their hands is distinctive and interesting. It's hard to design an animal if you don't know how it moves, so I try to observe the real thing as much as possible. Gibbons are hard to find in zoos, so I had to look hard to find video footage to draw from.
p.99
*Minecarts*
There's Shin-chan in a cage again. By this time, the internet had become popular, and the production people would search for images and bring materials. I was skeptical about that kind of research because there wasn't much good material in what they brought me, but when I searched for minecarts, I found a bunch of good images. I wouldn't have thought there were so many minecart enthusiasts out there (laughs).
p.100
*Psychedelic paintjob*
There was a note that the boat had been painted, so I added a psychedelic pattern. Paradise King is a big fan of the 60s and 70s, and so I thought he might be a little artistically inclined.
p.101
*A Simple form with a clear structure*
When drawing anything realistic, you need reference, so I looked for a ship to use as a model. I needed something that could be drawn as simply as possible, but that also had a very clear ship-like structure. I think I modeled it on the Yotei Maru, which is at the Museum of Maritime Science.
p.102
*Conveyor belt monkey cafeteria*
This is the huge cafeteria where the mothers are put to work. The picture above depicts the food delivery area. The food is made underground and comes up to a round area. Then the food is sent to the monkeys via conveyor belt, like at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
p.103
*The Hardest Job*
The kidnapped people are forced to do the grueling work of animators. Somebody came up with this idea to show animation as the toughest job of all. It's a self-deprecating joke (laughs).
p.104
*Action Kamen vs Paradise King*
Once again I was assigned to come up with some climactic action. Action Kamen is flying with a small device, so it was easy to move him around all over the place. When he falls into the sea, we also showed him rolling on the surface of the water due to surface tension.
*Vehicles with visible characters*
If the cockpit is enclosed, the characters wouldn't be visible, so I picked an exposed cockpit design. Like the ship, I tried to make it look very clear what it was with the minimum necessary structural detail, but even so there wound up being a lot of lines, so in the final version I pared it down even more.
p.105
*Suspension of disbelief*
The jetpack also has a realistic design. In the scene where it flies, if the movement is too smooth it won't be convincing, so I was conscious of how to move it, like how it would stop for a moment while changing direction and then start to gain momentum again.
p.106
Crayon Shin-chan Movie: The Storm Called The Hero of Kinpoko (2008)
Director - Mitsuru Hongo
Concept art - Masaaki Yuasa
After "The Storm Called The Jungle" (2000), I took a break from "Crayon Shin-chan," but when Mitsuru Hongo came back to direct this one for the first time in twelve years, he invited me to do some concept art. I was asked to create a mysterious image of a city in the middle of the night. Mr. Hongo said, "I want it to feel like a child going out late at night for the first time." I wanted to create a slightly weird atmosphere, so I distorted the space and incorporated touches of Tim Burton and Tove Jansson. When I was a child, I really liked stories about mysterious things happening at night, so this was fun to draw.
*Spooky mysterious midnight city*
The idea of the road looking like a river was something I had wanted to do for a while. In this scene Shin-chan feels "something's not right" because the perspective is distorted.
p.108
Crayon Shin-chan Movie: Intense Battle! Robot Dad Strikes Back (2014)
Director - Wataru Takahashi
Giant robot battle concept art / storyboard / key animation - Masaaki Yuasa
I helped a little with some key animation the year before this one, but I hadn't drawn concept art since "The Hero of Kinpoko" (2008). It had been 16 years since I participated in storyboards on "Great Adventure in Henderland" (1996). I was in charge of the giant robot battle scene. I was working on other projects, so I didn't have a lot of time, but since it was a big action scene I was excited. The storyboards on the other scenes were really strong, so I was partly inspired by that, and there was some friendly competition going on.
p.109
Giant Hiroshi Robot
At first I just drew a simple design of a larger "Robot-chan" [I believe this means his original design was just a giant version of the regular robot dad] but it was rejected. They said they liked asymmetrical shapes, so I thought about an asymmetrical silhouette using steel girders from an industrial site. My main thought was that it should look complicated, but be easy to draw.
*Hiroshi Itsuki Robot's Special Move*
The final boss was a giant Hiroshi Itsuki robot. This robot was originally described as "Mr. Korokke's impression of Hiroshi Itsuki." [Korokke had a popular comedy routine where he pretended to be a robot version of the singer Hiroshi Itsuki.] In order to do it I took another look at Mr. Korokke's impersonation, and it's still amazing. I included the famous trick of moving his facial muscles to change his expression in the storyboards, because I wanted to try animating it. Since it's a giant robot fight, I wanted to create a special move for the robot, so I came up with a technique where the singing voice becomes a powerful wave. When the wave hits somebody, their face turns into Hiroshi Itsuki.
p.112
SHIN-MEN (2010-2012)
Director, setting design, storyboard, animation director, OP lyrics - Masaaki Yuasa (in charge of episodes 1-5)
The production company, Shin-Ei Animation, approached me with the idea of doing a superhero story in which five Shin-chans from various countries come together. I was thinking it would be great to give the heroes an elemental motif. I also wanted to bring back Buriburizaemon, who was active in the early "Crayon Shin-chan" series. After the voice actor had passed away, he didn't appear often, so I wanted to explain why he wasn't around anymore. I also wanted to explain why Shinnosuke didn't appear in this story. So I came up with the reason that "Shinnosuke doesn't appear because he no longer has Buriburizaemon fantasies" and decided to make a story where Buriburizaemon is angered by that, and creates his own parallel world with Ton-men and Shin-Men in order to summon Shinnosuke. Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep working on it that far, but I had this grand plan to have Shinnosuke and Buriburizaemon face off in a big confrontation at the end.
p.113
*Help in a pinch*
A scene where Shin-Men fire a missile to stop a wave, and it goes through and destroys a building in the back. I wanted an epic story where the Shin-Men keep failing and every time the earth is completely destroyed. Also, when the Shin-Men join forces, their attacks are powered up by teamwork. Like how wind makes fire stronger, or how water and fire make hot water (laughs).
p.115
*Britney*
At first I had a sci-fi look in mind. She would come as an alien, and the Shin-Men protect the earth. But then the Office Lady concept came to mind, and she ended up being a temp worker who is good at her job, but always leaves work on time.
*Shin-Men*
Goh (Flame Shinnosuke) is a hot-blooded man. He's like Shin-chan when he gets all fired up and intense in the movies. Nyoki (Green Shinnosuke) is a playboy, and Hugh (Wind Shinnosuke) is the king of the wind country, who doesn't show much emotion. At first glance, it's hard to tell what he's thinking, but when weather phenomena happen near him, you can tell his emotions by the weather. If it's raining, he's actually sad, and if there's thunder, this guy is angry.
p.117
*Girl hero*
Kang (Iron Shinnosuke) is the only girl among the Shin-men. Since only men can be Shin-Men, she wears and iron suit to hide her identity from everyone. She has no super powers and relies on the power of her suit. Hugh (Wind Shinnosuke) is secretly interested in Kang, but since he thinks Kang is a man, he wonders "maybe that's what I'm into..." (laughs)
*Shin-Men*
Along with the Shin-Men there are five Buriburizaemons. Colourful and cute. I was also thinking about their personalities, such as being a bit gay, or being good with machines, etc.
p.118
*A girl with Shin-chan's face*
It wouldn't look like Shin-chan without thick eyebrows. But it felt a little strange to see a girl with thick eyebrows.
p.120
*SHIN-MEN opening song*
Written above are the lyrics to the opening song. I was told that the words "a hard life" wasn't good, so I changed it to "a lazy life." I thought it was very Shin-chan-esque (laughs).
p.121
*Idea notes*
At one point I lost all the ideas I had jotted down on my phone, and I lost several years' worth of ideas... I can't remember anything without writing it down, so my notes are important. There are some ideas I can't remember even when I do have my notes... (laughs).
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