NYAF 2008 Yoshitaka Amano Panel
Time: 3pm, September 27, 2008.
Place: The first panel room on the right (”Manga Panel Room”), NYAF 2008 at the Javits Center, NYC.
Panelists: Yoshitaka Amano, Kevin Leahy (translating), NYAF guy whose name I forget as MC.
(My comments in italics, questions in bold.)
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Actually both Amano and Kikuchi ran two panels each. This one is the Amano focus panel, although Amano already had one focused on Vampire Hunter D earlier in the day.
There was a long line for this panel. I went to it mainly because, well, it’s Amano and I was killing time with Moy. It was either this line+panel, or go listen to the Harmony Gold guy talk about Chinese anime/manga culture. Not that the latter is uninteresting, but this seemed more noteworthy.
The panel started with a little bit from Amano. He said he really likes American comics, and it’s his inspiration. For example, he drewed a parallel how Gatchaman is based on Batman. He then lead in to his character concept “Takoman” which is an octopus-based superhero like Spiderman. The superhero would be based in NYC. Like a real octopus, Takoman can change his color to blend in. He can also climb the buildings via his tentacles/suction cup. Amano sort of demonstrates it. The plot would begin with how a boy would be fused with an octopus from outer space. Also, the superhero would have a weakness that he has to stay wet, or else Takoman would shrivel up. His enemy would be how civilization is destorying the environment, and characters like “Sharkman.”
I’m getting a Futakoi Alternative hot flash…
While Amano was thinking about this character, he was busy with regular work and couldn’t work on the idea. In the future he will introduce the character somehow and he will be looking for our feedback. In 1999, Amano’s exhibition in NYC used the superhero theme, as well.
Amano goes into another of his ideas. There’s this idea where the hero, a musician living in SoHo, would travel through time from a hard-to-find bar, that has a portal to NYC 10,000 years into the future. From Washington Square, the hero can enter different places in time. That’s how it is for now? Amano said that he hasn’t finished the idea, and he ought. He apologized about that.
MC: What comic artists do you like?
Amano [A]: My all time fav is Neal Adams. I met him few years ago at San Deigo Comic-con and was able to get his autograph. I was quite happy.
Leahy [L]: You know the feeling.
A: When I was a teenager, I was interested in American comics but there weren’t many American comics in Japan at the time. At this one used bookstore, there were boxes of comic books and I would go through the boxes and look at the cover. When I see one with Adams art on the cover, I’d go “score!”
A: But as you’d know, at the time for DC Comics, Adams would be doing the covers for almost every book, but not the inside. So it was a short-lived victory.
A: As it happens, someone from DC Comics came to the showing and that’s how I got a chance to do the poster for Sandman, and a chance to work for Neil Gaiman.
A: I also did a Batman and a Superman poster for them. So I think I’ve fulfilled all the dreams I had as a kid.
The crowd applauded.
A: And it all happened in NY!
MC: You’ve worked on several mediums, including paint, glass, game, pen, and t-shirt. Which is your favorite and which one was the most challenging?
A: First, I like drawing on paper the best. I like how it bends and rolls. If I have a big piece on my desk I can roll it up and draw how I want. While illustrations in the books are small, I tend to draw them much larger as some things can’t be drawn so small.
A: While drawing is my job, once my drawing goes to a pro it gets used differently. For publishers, it goes into a book; for game studio it becomes a game, etc.
A: I don’t worry so much how the drawing is used, but more on the drawing itself. For example, for a game, no matter how good how I drew, if the game is no good it will not sell. The same thing for novels. The only thing I can take responsibility for is just the artwork. I don’t trust the various medium all that much. But the various media definitely have their places and it is thanks to them that my artwork can get into people’s hands.
A: I think I got too serious on this one, LOL.
MC: What are you currently working on?
A: I think it’s ok to tell you about this, so Dark Horse is working on a new project called Shinjuku. [I can’t make out this sentence…] I was suppose to provide ???. So I have an outline, and I ought to be sitting down and sketch out some designs but I haven’t done it yet.
A: The story is about LA and Shinjuku. The deadline is in October, which is not good at all. The finished project is due the beginning of next year. In addition, there are secret projects in the works. When I return to Japan, I have some gallery work to continue, so those are big, 2-3 meter pieces.
MC: Over the course of your career, how has technology improvement impacted your style?
A: As far as CG, I can’t really do much with it. I just stick to paper and pencil.
Crowd cracks an applause. And that reaction rubs me the wrong way.
A: I don’t know it’s good or bad, but I stick to the pencil. But when technology gets so good that it can be used just like a pencil but better, I will probably switch to that. Of course, if I want to do large-scale work like wall murals then I have to work on those techniques.
A: For example, in FFXI, there’s a map. While it’s just a map, it would be boring if it’s just a regular map. I wanted to get some of the world’s technologies and touches into the map drawing. There have been similar drawings like this back in the Warring States period of Japan history. In a game like FFXI, which uses relatively new technology, I thought it would be good to express that kind of old artwork with the new technology. Thinking of the fantasy world like the real world, I wanted to put those mythological characters on the map.
MC: How was it like when you work with Kikuchi?
A: In Japan, I rarely meet with Kikuchi. As Kikuchi said himself, he and I are both homebodies. This is the first time the both of us have been together since a long time. Obviously, I always get to read Kikuchi’s VHD drafts to do my artwork for the novels.
A: He’s not here is he?
Crowd = LOL.
A: Well he’s not here so we can talk about it. But he’s always running past his deadlines and the publisher would bring over about 1/10 of each book at a time for me to read. As the deadline approaches, Kikuchi would’ve written only about 100 pages or so. The publisher would give me a gist of the rest of the story for me to work on. But when the story is finally finished, sometimes the scenes I drew for wouldn’t be in the book.
A: I’m not sure how it works here, but in Japan, we would print the illustrations anyways. What happens is that when he was writing the book, Kikuchi doesn’t know how long it’ll turn out. Some of the stories would span past just one volume, and go into the second or even three volumes. The illustrations might be for the second book but it will appear in the first. Well, it makes a good story.
A: What’s awesome about the story is that it just won’t fit in one book, and he’d need more than one. But yea, you can’t really trust him *grin*
A: Kikuchi’s new book just came out in Japan, [to Leahy] have you read it? It’s great, right?
L: Sorry, I’m so busy translating the books, my own private reading is 4 books behind.
A: Aaah, I can’t spoil it then!
MC: You’ve collaborated with some talented authors like Kikuchi and Gaiman. Are there any others you’d like to collaborate with in the future?
A: Well, so far the people I’ve worked with are incredible and I don’t know who else is incredible. If you know anyone please tell me! I’m thoroughly satisfied as is.
Q1: Natsume Souseki’s Ten Nights of Dreams - how was it being a director?
A: For those of you who don’t know, Souseki is a very famous writer. He’s on the 1000 yen bill but I don’t get to see a lot of that.
LOL.
A: What’s so great about this work is that Souseki combined these 10 stories about dreams into one work. For the ninth night [that’s what he said!], I worked with a 3D artist named Kawahara, so it has some 3D animation. The rest of the movie is live action. The various different nights are handled by different directors, such as director for the Ultraman series or the director for Juon (the Grudge). I didn’t have all that much connection with it, and the CG work is doneby some company named Lacus (?). I only did the designs and a final check. This is the same company that worked on the New York Salad work and the Final Fantasy movie. They are very talented.
A: Have you seen New York Salad?
Basically no one’s seen it, naturally.
A: It should be out here [Someone yells “it was on last night”].
While the crowd was figuring it out, Amano was talking about the ending of it. Leahy interrupts him and explains the situation “Let’s just say the ending is awesome and let’s leave it at that.”
A: LOL, okay.
L: Please go see it.
Q2: Can you please us a little bit more about the Shinjuku project? Is it illustrations in a story? Or sequential art?
A: Is it being debated, so probably somewhere in the middle.
Crowd LOLs.
Q2: What’s the story about?
A: In the future, yakuza runs Shinjuku, with other unsavory characters. And there are monsters underground. It’s going to be pretty crazy, but collaborations are like this. You don’t go in with a 100% clear idea of what will happen and you figure it out while working on it. Right now, the last few days, we’ve been discussing what we wanted to do with this and working on the creative process. Some of the creators are suppose to be here to show some pictures but they’re working on it right now.
Q2: Is it a US or Japan project?
Err, Dark Horse?
A: It’s an original American project. [Dark Horse, Amano says in English.]
Q3: Is there a plan to have another exhibit in NY, like Heroes in 1999? (Please please please.)
A: Please!
L: He’d definitely like to do that.
Q4: What are your brainstorming and creative process like?
A: It varies from project to project, but I look at what is wanted and I do a lot of sketches. I then choose what is good. With all the sketches I did, I show the people I work for 5 or 6 of them and get their feedback. And then I go through this again and again. For a book, for example, I’d sketch 10 pictures, and show it to the producers, and draw a full one based on one of those sketches. But at this point, I don’t do so many roughs anymore and some roughs become the finished product… It’s getting smoother now but I don’t think it’s a great thing *grin*
A: It’s ok to have some easy assignments, but it can’t all be easy. By the same measure it can’t all be hard. Working on a hard assignment, though, gives me new ideas for other works too.
MC: Ok, last question and then we move to the surprise give-away!
Q5: Is there a difference between working for a client versus doing a personal work? Inspiration?
A: I draw inspiration from places. When I come to NY there are only some things I think of only when I’m here. For example, the NY Salad project.
[And he explains how NY Salad came about]
A: While working in NY, during the day, I was making some food and chopping some veggies. I was looking at the garlic and it turned into a little fairy. In NY, you can get these tiny fruits and veggies like real tiny melons and stuff, that is hard to get in Japan. Three years ago I made sketches based on this and released a book in Japan from the sketches. Based on that book, NHK in Japan did the 3D animation based on that book. That’s an example of inspiration of what I got when I got to NY. Takoman is another example.
The crowd laughed and cheered.
The MC then started to give away T-shirts. This was done by polling the crowd for the best, 2-sentence-or-less reason why you are a fan. I took the time to exit before the crowd went wild.
Nice read, btw Xam’d ep 12 is on the ps store.
Yea, took a look before I went to bed, but decided to not download it last night or else I’d have to stay up until 2-3am to do the post :p