I'm so glad someone actually responded to my post. Seems like the dub discussion still overshadowed all.
anyway
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The three years of Heaven and Hell while working on Kill la Kill>[Character Design/Animation Director]
>SUSHIO
>Animator, Mechanic Sakuga Director for "Aim for the Top 2!", PSG animation director, concept artist for outfits in Momoiro Clover Z's "Z Girl War"
Translation: Nui a shit !IXrB4yzW5g
>The Characters were born from Design Teams
>Q: How did you feel when Imaishi first approached you for character designs?
>S: I first heard it was like "Crows", so I thought it was right up my alley. I was like "alright then", and then it turns out the main character is a girl: "b-but I'm not good at drawing bishoujo!" Try as I might, I just couldn't do it.
>Q: It was hard to draw cute girls?
>S: Yes. I knew my drawings aren't "cute", so I thought me doing the designs won't go well.
>Q: I see. I heard that character designs were decided at weekly meetings, starting from 5 in the afternoon and going non-stop until very late at night.
>S: We took a few breaks in-between while talking about random things. I'd be drawing for 7-8 hours. Character designs took a while to get through but the actual meeting was very fun. With the breaks added, it only felt like four hours.
>Q: What were the meetings like?
>S: I just kept drawing and drawing with Koyama Shigeto-san and Waka-sama (Wakabayashi Hiroumi), Amecchi (Ameya Akira), and Imaishi-san. They were all adults unlike me, so sometimes they would rough-sketch stimulating pics for me while saying "You like stuff like this right?"
>By sharing early designs, sometimes we opened doors that I didn't know were there before, or lots of new ideas would get added to a design, so it was exciting.
>S: If it weren't for this team, I don't think the character designs could've made it through.
>Q: You decided on the color schemes as well, correct?
>S: That's right, Waka-sama and Koyama-san would add color to the sketches on the spot. We would discuss which colors work best. We'd decide on the general direction [for that character] at that stage, so it became easier to understand the characters.
>Q: Who was the first character to get finalized?
>S: It took a while for Ryuuko and Satsuki to get completed, so I drew mob characters first.
>Q: You started from there?
>S: Usually when you're watching anime, there isn't a whole lot of love given to the background mobs. And they would be drawn without a lot of attention, so they're not likable. Mob characters represent the show's world, so I spent a lot of time on mob characters and I want anime shows to draw them more carefully from now on.
>Q: You say you're not good at drawing cute girls, but how did you finalize the designs for female characters like Hououmaru or Nui?
>S: Those two were easy to draw. Ishida Keiko-san is an animator who draws cute girls very well, so I pulled out her works. I drew inspiration from the details given to eyes, and the hair curls are also influenced by Ishida-san. Hououmaru was inspired by Itou-san's art from Sailor Moon, so I think her eyes are a bit like a Usagi's (Sailor Moon).
>Q: So it's easier to draw cute girls if you think of them as designed by other animators?
>S: Nui and Hououmaru were VERY easy to draw.
>Q: Why exactly did it take so long to finalize Ryuuko and Satsuki?
>S: Something about them didn't quite click for me. There's something off but I don't know what. The rough sketches have a nice feel to them, but there's something missing. For a while I couldn't find the answer and I almost wanted to quit drawing... like that.
>Q: I heard it took a year and a half to finalize the character design for Ryuuko.
>S: It almost drove me mad. Even in daily life, "what to do with Ryuuko" was constantly stuck in my mind. It's like thinking "I gotta study" during entrance exam prep. Ryuuko was on my mind for a long time.
>Q: When did you break out of it?
>S: Completely by coincidence. One day, I drew a pic and thought "huh, maybe this is it". I took it over to Imaishi-san and he OK'd it. I knew my senses were right.
>Energized by the character's words
>Q: After the character designs were finished, I imagine there were more chances to draw Ryuuko and Satsuki once the animation and advertising process started. How did that go?
>S: Whenever I thought "I have to draw them cute!", I felt that I would lock up and be unable to draw Ryuuko and Satsuki anymore. This weird complex would act up every time. "Oh, this doesn't look cute at all, it's shit", like that (laughs). For example, when I drew Ryuuko for a newspaper ad, I did it while being physically and mentally exhausted. I thought "Maybe I can draw something great when I feel ragged". And the cover for BD Volume 1 was drawn when I was especially tired.
>Q: It's almost like ascetic training!
>S: I tried to be dog-tired for Volume 2's Satsuki too. "Oh, I should draw it right now" (laughs). But when I come to work in the mornings, I'm too full of hype and can't draw very well. And I'd end up drawing lots of mob characters again.
>Q: When you were drawing the main story, how did Ryuuko, Satsuki and Mako work?
>S: All three of them were terrible during Episode 1. I thought "I can't do this, I can't!" Even if I did the character designs, I couldn't draw them now. And as the animation director, I was always fixing the mob characters' lines first (laughs). So the quality of mob characters in Volume 1 was especially high.
>Q: So that's how it was. When did you get used to it?
>S: For Mako, it was Episode 4. That cut where she picks up the cheese, I drew her very round-ish. And that experience paid off for Episode 7. She got very flexible after Episode 7. And I had her down by Episode 12.
>Q: We often see rabbits around Mako. Where did they come from?
>S: Oh, the bunnies? Mako keeps them inside her.
>Q: Eh!? She keeps them inside her body?
>S: Yes yes. So they appear around her. Sometimes in her clothes, sometimes in her mouth...
>Q: I had no idea. That's quite a surprise (laughs). How about Ryuuko?
>S: I got the hang of drawing Ryuuko in Episode 7. When Mako is about to eat a croquette with Jack Naito's knife, I drew Ryuuko with this really great expression. "Oh, so Ryuuko's face works like this!" When I caught the moment she relaxed around Mako, I understood her personality. But I fell into a rut again in Episode 10. There was a moment where I forgot how to draw her.
>Q: Oh no, really?
>S: After that, Ryuuko entered this sulking/brooding period, and her Go Nagai expressions were easy to draw. Then... I finally remembered how to draw her in Episode 24. "Ahh, yes, that's it."
>Q: In the finale (laughs).
>S: So Episode 24 is a completion of all the agonizing I went through.
>Q: On your Twitter account, you mentioned the "sense of Ryuuko jumping out of the page" while working on Episode 24. What did that mean?
>S: On the cut where Ryuuko was screaming "Humans are humans, and clothes are clothes", I was profoundly moved even if it was just a sketch. I felt like I was drawing something amazing.
>Q: So that's how it went. You also once mentioned getting encouraged by Ryuuko's words, when did that happen?
>S: That was from Episode 15. Ryuuko shouted "This is how I survive!", and until then I was physically and mentally drained. I couldn't even put in fixes as the animation director. And just as I felt that I couldn't protect the quality of art any more, those words came to me, and I thought I could keep going once I got past this hurdle. There were several tough moments like that.
>Q: I see. Tell me about Satsuki too; when did she click for you?
>S: I completed Satsuki in Episode 24 too (laughs). Satsuki was even harder than Ryuuko to draw. I left it all up to Yoneyama Mai-san, I was running away from her (laughs). But I had to draw her myself in Episode 24, as the animation director, and when I drew her standing with the others nude, I thought she had a nice expression. Took me long enough, you might say (laughs). I thought I really mastered Satsuki in that close-up to her face after she saved Ryuuko.
>The rise of young talent and Tsurumark genes
>Q: What kind of animation were you initially aiming for in KLK?
>S: At first I wanted to follow the mood in "Lupin III: Plot of the Fuma Clan" and "Lupin III: Lupin vs Mystery of Mamo". There's a car chase scene that Tanaka-san drew in Fuma Clan, and it's an action scene, but a humorous one too.
>S: There are plenty of cool action scenes, but humorous action is relatively rare, I think. Doesn't it feel great to laugh? I think laughing at something leaves a stronger impression than just being impressed by how cool it is. So from the start, I wanted to make the animation fun and humorous. And I felt confident that I could do this after looking at Imaishi-san's prep for Episode 1. Leave the gag scenes to me!
>Q: Episode 1... would that be the deep-fried humans?
>S: Yes. The Fried People jump on the rim of the oil tub, but they slip and fall in. I put a lot of time into details and layout like that. I almost put off the Ryuuko scene fixes for later. And the Fried People animation was done by Sakamoto Masaru.
>Q: The gag expert (laughs).
>S: Other than that, I focused on simple but effective movements. For Episode 4, we had a lot of "fluttering". How the wind blows, and waving/bending depending on the situation. The wind you get from dust clouds and sudden gales have different "waves" too. But most animators didn't notice that. They all make the "flutters" one-patterned, and that's not very fun. I wanted them to be more observant.
>Q: As episodes progressed, I'm sure the younger animators at Trigger were rearing their heads more on-site. Looking back, what do you think of their growth?
>S: The young animators who worked on Little Witch Academia all joined Trigger. After they'd finished their first project, I thought they had gotten better. So when I looked at their actual skills, I initially thought "this ain't going to be good". If I don't knuckle down and train them properly, it wouldn't end well for me either.
>Q: So it was more of a struggle in the beginning.
>S: Definitely. But the ones with more talent/innate sense got better with each episode. And it was very nice to see them get better. I taught them more and more things.
>Q: How did you teach them?
>S: I grilled/fixed mistakes on the spot, and did that over and over again. And if they had questions, I would suggest things like "think of how soft Yasuhiko Yoshikazu draws his characters' feet". Or show them Otokogumi.
>Q: In the end, the newcomers Yoneyama-san, Iwasaki Shouta-san, Sakamoto-san, and Handa(?) Shuuhei-san were on-site.
>S: They were a great help for the latter half of the series. I had Yoneyama-san draw Satsuki, and Iwasaki-san handled Mikisugi. They drew a lot of great expressions for Satsuki and Mikisugi in the episodes they were in charge of. And finally, they'd take over the characters completely. They really supported the work site.
>Q: Would you say that was stimulating for you too?
>S: Absolutely. I'm the type that wants to make every art my style when I'm in charge... (cont)
>(cut off)...plenty of that, and there wasn't time to worry over it. And I was pretty much at my limit, so it was a relief to have competent people take over. In the end, I was able to rely on others and accept the talent in my kouhai's work. I would think, "oh if I hand this pic to the photographer it would end up fine", and trust other staff members to handle cuts. I feel like I've matured a bit in that respect. I would've never thought I could become a person like that.
>Q: So newcomers and veterans mature alike.
>S: And I've discovered a few new things about myself in the process. I think both Imaishi-san and I have Tsurumaki Kazuya's genes. The way we present layouts and get rid of unnecessary motions - even if our genres are different, our forms of presenting are alike.
>Q: Ohh, is that right?
>S: I've talked about this with Imaishi-san too. The Tsurumaki genes are amazing! We were both taught by Tsurumaki-san, and I suppose we inherited his sense as well. So I was able to look back on my roots while working on KLK.
>The fans' cheers from the Internet
>Q: So Kill la Kill has been completed. How were the past three years?
>S: Heaven and hell. Sometimes it was paradise, and sometimes literal hell (laughs).
>S: As for the final product, (cut off)
>S: (cut off) ...and I'm quite satisfied. But the workload was far too brutal. It was fun when I was drawing, but every time I got up to head to the bathroom, I'd think "this is grueling" (laughs).
>Q: (laughs)
>S: I'd think "I can't handle this shit!" And when I'm sitting on the toilet, I think to myself that I'm practically a slave.
>Q: What an immense contrast.
>S: I say to myself "This is too much! I'm gonna quit anime!" But once I get back to my seat and resume drawing, it's fun.
>Q: Thank you for your hard work.
>S: But this time around, feeling the intense enthusiasm and passion from the fans on Twitter really helped me. If I tweeted, "can you give me a cool song that gets you excited", they'd all give me suggestions. They're so nice.
>Q: They really helped, huh?
>S: Thanks to them, I looked at the completed art for Ryuuko at peace in the finale and thought, "this isn't right", and actually went back to redraw the whole thing.
>Q: Really!?
>S: I was super tired, but there was something nagging at me. "Something's off." When I listened to some music and got my groove on, I began to see it. It was finalized and approved art, but I took it back to my seat and redrew it from the bottom up. And I felt in sync with Ami Koshimizu-san, who was the VA for Ryuuko. I drew something really good, and took it over to Yoneyama-san to ask his opinion on it.
>Q: Showing off to your kouhai, I see (laughs). And the art leveled up.
>S: Also, I was really happy about the fan art on Pixiv. A lot of the so-called "great" art on Pixiv are mainly characters just sitting or standing, just those two poses, and I thought they didn't have very much movement. But I feel the artists for KLK illustrations were trying to make them move and come to life. I was really happy about that.
>Q: Especially that "Scissor Relay" someone started online, that really had the characters moving.
>S: Oh yes. Poses where the character(s) is reaching out with their hands are wonderful. It doesn't matter if the pic isn't very good, or distorted. As an animator, their efforts to make something move was very gratifying to see. That was amazing...
>Q: The Scissor Relay really heated up with fans from all over the world.
>S: I was moved by the fact that people who obviously hadn't drawn much in their life contributed too. Wouldn't that mean we moved them too? That's something huge.
>Q: Prior to the finale airing, I was astonished at how something like that could happen.
>S: I agree. Thanks to Twitter, [this show] connected with that kind of drive. It really got me fired up.
Below: First rough sketches for Matoi Ryuuko
guess they changed the thick eyebrows to make it not too obvious.
Fireball wrote:Trigger's future anime plans: Light novel adaptation in the fall, then LWA 2, Ninja Slayer, then Imaishi's next anime
Would you expect any less from Nui?
