Yoshiyuki Sadamoto guest at the Milano Manga Festival

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Yoshiyuki Sadamoto guest at the Milano Manga Festival

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Postby Hyper Shinchan » Mon May 06, 2013 3:46 am

I just read it on distopia's blog, Sadamoto will be guest at the the Milano Manga Festival on 4, 5, 6 July 2013. I'll try to be there at least for one day, it could be a chance to meet other Italian/European EGF members too.
So let’s make a wish.
“Please let me redo again.”
No matter how many times

From the book “All About Nagisa Kaworu: A Child of Evangelion”.

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Re: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto guest at the Milano Manga Festival

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Postby distopia » Mon May 06, 2013 4:00 am

View Original PostHyper Shinchan wrote:I just read it on distopia's blog, Sadamoto will be guest at the the Milano Manga Festival on 4, 5, 6 July 2013. I'll try to be there at least for one day, it could be a chance to meet other Italian/European EGF members too.


Thank you, Hyper Shinchan! I'll try to be there, too. See ya in Milan! ;)

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Postby Xard » Fri May 10, 2013 5:01 pm

Ask him why did he fuck up manga so bad

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Postby InstrumentalityOne » Fri May 10, 2013 5:20 pm

View Original PostXard wrote:Ask him why did he fuck up manga so bad

YOU JUST DONT UNDERSTAND THE HEART OF REIFAGS

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Re: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto guest at the Milano Manga Festival

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Postby FelipeFritschF » Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:51 pm

Forgive me for the necroposting, but turns out this was actually posted elsewhere. Thanks to Berserkelion for that. Here is the article on Sadamoto's appearances, DeepL translated. I have marked in bold text what's new about it. This matches some other interviews, like his taste in characters is mentioned here too: post/504388/Everyones-favorite-manga-topic-again/#504388 Regarding the choking scene, no, Sadamoto is wrong. Ogata says in another interview, from some unnoficial guidebook called Evangelion Forever, that it was in fact based on an experience of a female acquaintance of Anno's. Yes, really. A certain someone has already read and translated that. Be patient. Him doing the manga entirely on his own isn't completely new information as this is alluded to in less detail in other sources, and people have speculated on just what participation - if any - Anno et al had on it. I could be wrong about the other sources, but we now have hard confirmation it was 100% his own work.

It unfortunately even foreshadows his later racism.

I'll ask our Italian members to check it out for any possible errors:

https://www.animeclick.it/news/36125-mi ... amoto-days
On the occasion of the Milano Manga Festival , an event we have already had the opportunity to talk about, the master Yoshiyuki Sadamoto , known for the character design of many GAINAX anime ( Honneamise, Nadia, Evangelion ) and film by Mamoru Hosoda ( The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children ) as well as for the Evangelion manga , which has just ended in Japan.


The staff of the event has certainly focused a lot on the master Sadamoto , dedicating three days of events and a special exhibition to him, with several tables of the manga.

First, four autograph sessions were set up, for a total of 300 places available. The enthusiasm of the fans was great, with the available seats sold out many hours before the actual start of the meetings, and the first ones arrived even in the morning at 7, braving the sun and the scorching heat. The lucky ones, having received their number, were called on stage one at a time to meet the teacher, they chose which image to receive the autograph on (two cards were available, one of Asuka and one of Rei) and could also ask a short question to the master. During the second day the master was particularly inspired, so much so that he rewarded several fans with a quick sketch together with the autograph. Each session of autographs was preceded by the projection of a splendid film with clips taken from the various works edited by the master; little curiosity, the music was made by the son. Unfortunately, this video was not made public outside the event.

On Friday 5th, in collaboration with Nexo Digital , 4 video clips were projected, for a total of about half an hour, taken from Evangelion 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and Wolf Children , all films of which the master took care of the character design and next broadcast also in Italian cinemas.

Saturday 6, however, during the fan meeting, it was the turn of the Milano Manga Festival: Sadamoto Days special extraction, an initiative created in collaboration with AnimeClick.it , Nanoda.com and KomixJam through which to win the artbook Carmine signed by the master. 4 prizes were available, 1 per site plus a final draw common to all (the latter won by a member of AnimeClick.it ). In reality, the prizes awarded in the end were five, due to an error during a drawing that caused an art-book to be delivered to a person other than the winner (who then received the prize he was entitled to).

Finally, on each of the three days a fan meeting was organized in which spectators could ask questions to the master, receiving an answer.
Below we have tried to report, in an orderly way and by merging questions similar to each other or on the same topic, what was said by the master Sadamoto on these occasions, plus some of the responses given to fans during the autograph sessions.

Sadamoto's dream was to become a designer, a desire born of his great love for cars, a love that he shares with the whole family. The teacher tells of when as children he and his brother sat on the side of the road challenging each other to guess the brands of the cars that passed. At the time he was very keen to own a LOTUS EUROPA, the car driven by the protagonist of a manga he liked very much, and he is happy to have been able to buy one recently; however it is a very old car, almost 40 years old, so he cannot use it much and it costs him a lot in repairs. Another car he is very attached to is the FIAT PANDA, which he bought with the first money he earned with his drawings; unfortunately it broke almost immediately, but Sadamoto says he is still very fond of her. His dream car, however, is the flying DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Asked about the western influences of his works, Sadamoto states that, despite being a big fan of Pixar and the Thunderbirds , his main inspirations all come from Japanese masterpieces of the past, such as Lupine III - Il castello di Cagliostro or works he loves very much like Ideon, Devilman and Conan, boy of the future .

Among the characters of Evangelion, Sadamoto sees himself a lot in Kensuke Aida, a military otaku who really likes girls, but he also empathized a lot with Gendo Ikari, as, being both fathers of families, he saw himself in his dilemmas, in his parental anxieties and difficulties in establishing relationships with children. He doesn't feel like Shinji in the least.

Asked about his preferences as a designer, however, Sadamotohe says he prefers the older, wiser characters, and he wouldn't mind working on an adult series in the future. He also really likes to draw Misato, more mature than the boys protagonists and that she appreciates both graphically and psychologically; It was also an interesting challenge to work on the design of the angels, as they are strange and difficult to render at their best. Coming out of Evangelion, he had a lot of fun with FLCL where, although he had less freedom due to the very precise directives of the director, he was able to devote himself to all his passions and also took care of mecha design. Finally, he is also very attached to Nadia, as it was his first television job through which he managed to reach a large number of people across Japan and not just anime fans. Still regarding Nadia, he says that Captain Nemo was inspired by both his namesake in Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Yamato's Captain Okita. Sadamoto 's working day splits into two parts: first he locks himself in a room alone for twelve hours and thinks about the story, then he travels to Tokyo and draws with his assistants until midnight, to prevent his helpers from missing the last train to go back home; Sadamoto, however, also continues until 3 am. Unlike traditional mangakas, who have to deliver 100 pages a month and then get help from 15 assistants, he has only two assistants, having only 24 monthly tables to make.

On the days off - about 4 per month - he rests by lazing around completely, doing absolutely nothing, in order to recharge. However, remember that in the time of Honneamisehe also had to work for 40 hours straight, since the work rhythms of the animators are even worse than those of the mangaka.
Sadamoto is very happy to work simultaneously on manga and anime, both because he appreciates both - anime as a collective and group work and manga as an individual challenge - and because it allows him to vary between different working methods and different types of works, avoiding so to get bored or tired by always dealing with the same things. It is for this reason that he took a lot of breaks from the Evangelion manga.

In the realization of the characters of Evangelion , Anno left Sadamoto with a lot of freedom, giving him little information, such as the blood type.
As for Rei Ayanami, Anno had requested a cool short-haired character;
one day Sadamoto , listening to a song, found himself imagining the character, thus going to Anno saying he wanted to make the character of Rei starting from that voice. Rei was originally thought of as a brunette with dark eyes, however there was a need to distinguish her at first sight from Asuka even in distant shots, thus deciding to draw her with the colors of her eyes and hair reversed compared to Asuka's.

As for Mari, a character present in the Rebuild , they wanted to attract a new type of fan, as well as create an additional character that could be "broken" (in this case the translator was not sure of the word used); Sadamoto also said that he really likes Mari's character, and plans to reuse it in the future.
To a question from the public who asked why the Evangelion 3.0 posters were credited to Takeshi Honda, Sadamoto explained that the original design is his, however after there are other steps before reaching the final result.

When asked about the philosophical complexity of episodes 25-26 of the Evangelion TV series, Sadamoto limited himself to saying that, as a spectator, he considers it a result of the difficult situation in which Anno was. at the time, increasingly tired and on the verge of depression; every time they met he kept repeating that he couldn't take it anymore and that he wanted to end it.
Regarding the exact number of Rebuild films, he said they didn't ask themselves the problem, simply as they define the plot and its complexity the total number of films can increase or decrease.

As for the Evangelion manga , Sadamoto claims to have made it entirely by himself, without consulting with anyone, so any differences with the anime were all decided solely by him; this in contrast to the anime where all decisions were made as a group, all sitting in the same room and arguing.
The making of the manga was a bit of a gamble on his part anyway, as his debut as a mangaka was a failure. In case of further failure, however, it would not have been a big problem for him to go back to work in the family business making porcelain.

His intent was to create a story that would push the reader to commit to overcoming difficulties and not to be discouraged, moreover he wanted, through the characterization of Shinji, to get closer to today's fourteen year olds, not yet trained, insecure, listless and reluctant to commit a lot. His Shinji, however, is "stronger" than that of the anime, almost a bad boy, so much so that immediately he would like to flee where the animated one was much weaker and more insecure. Working on Shinji, Sadamoto also thought back to the Gulf War, in which Japan had served as a base for the American air force, and wondered how a fourteen-year-old would behave at the idea of ​​going to war aboard a helicopter: according to him, he would almost certainly have refused , trying to escape. For this reason, Sadamoto is also convinced that, although the characters of Evangelion are very realistic and it is easy for readers to identify with them - as confirmed to Sadamoto by the readers themselves - it is improper to make comparisons with real characters, as in reality there is no they are fourteen years old forced to fight and save the world.

There has also been a lot of talk about Kaworu's character and his relationship with Shinji, thanks to a specific question asked on the first day by a fan of Boys' Love. After a first attempt by the master to avoid the question, Sadamoto was forced to answer given the insistence of the fan, and then return to the subject also the following days.

First, Sadamoto claims that he does not understand the success of Kaworu's character. Personally, he loved the voice of the character, thus finding himself in difficulty in making it on paper and therefore deciding to modify it compared to the anime. If in the anime he had remained deliberately ambiguous about the nature of his relationship with Shinji, leaving the viewer free to create their own interpretation, in the manga Sadamoto decided to better define everything leaving less freedom to the reader.

In the manga, Kaworu, whom Sadamoto remembers being an angel while Shinji is a human, feels for Shinji a reflection of Rei's feelings, however Shinji rejects him as he is not Rei.
Speaking instead of the scene in which Shinji strangles Kaworu, it is a quote from a film that the master adores
: Betty Blue ( 37 ° 2 le matin ) by Jean-Jacques Beineix, which ends with a choking scene. Asked if that was also a reference to a similar scene in The End of Evangelion, Sadamoto says they are two scenes with different meanings, but does not rule out that he and Anno may have drawn inspiration from the same film. [Note: he hasn't. Ogata says in a 1997 interview from "Evangelion Forever" that Anno took the idea from an experience of a female of acquaintance of his.]

When asked about the current situation of comics and Japanese animation, the master was not too negative in the judgments, considering the manga a still strong medium, albeit slightly decreasing in terms of sales, on which he still wants to work. A possible solution to the "modern manga all the same", as defined by the fan who asked the question, he believes could be to use more writers and more designers for the same work; the comparison between several minds could lead to interesting results, however he does not consider this easily achievable for economic problems. As for the evolution of the issue of incommunicability between human beings, he believes that this has not changed since the time of Evangelion .

When asked what it would be necessary to do, for an Italian, to work, even just as an intern, in a Japanese company of comics or animation, Sadamoto initially advised against this way, as there are many alternatives outside of Japan to work in this environment, so like great foreign artists, Moebius or Mike Mignola, also respected in Japan. But if you really wanted to go to Japan, it is essential not only the knowledge of the Japanese language and culture, but also having a Japanese mentality and being willing to work shifts that are exhausting for our fees.

In any case, Sadamoto says that lately many foreign talents are also having success in Japan, albeit always Asian, and that numerous manga schools are being created specifically for the training of future cartoonists. However, the teacher says he is skeptical about these schools, believing that only 1 graduate out of 100 has the necessary talent to become a true mangaka; instead advises to follow one's own path, whatever it may be, because even a waiter can be born a great artist, and that more than studying drawing - he himself has never studied, he has only read many manga and managed to win an award at his first competition - it is important to know and attend the environment and the people who work there.

A journalist in the audience, interested in the relations between West and East in contemporary pop art, after an excessively long introduction on how there are some authors, such as Osamu Tezuka and Go Nagai considered, more than mere mangaka, real and own contemporary artists, he asked Sadamoto if he also considered himself an artist of this type. Sadamoto replied in the negative, as his only work as a mangaka is nothing more than a reworking of a pre-existing work and that only when he has created an original work of his will he be able to consider the idea; for now, therefore, he does not consider himself absolutely up to the standards of authors such as those mentioned.

Another of those present focused on Wolf Children, which he saw as a praise of country life, where everything is fine and everyone is happy, at the expense of that of the city, finally asking the teacher if he was really convinced of this thesis. Sadamoto first denied that the film wanted to convey this message and then brought his own personal experience as an example: born in a mountain village, he then moved to Tokyo, then moved back to the mountains, managing to be happy in each environment.

After the conclusion of Evangelion, Sadamoto said he wanted to rest until the end of the year, traveling to different countries, such as the USA and Germany. In the meantime, however, numerous projects are in the works, including the next Evangelion film. As for Italy, he was very happy to come back - he was present at a book fair seven years ago - as he loves our country very much and has wanted to visit it since he had seen the film The Italian Job as a child. He said he was a great admirer of our cuisine, nevertheless failing to draw up a ranking of favorite foods being of a good mouth and therefore eating everything. Instead, he was amazed by the composure of the Italian fans, as he expected them to be much more lively and noisy, since when he thinks of Italy he imagines restaurants with a cook who suddenly starts singing; the teacher also observed the big difference compared to Japanese fans who, when they are in front of him or other professionals, cannot even speak so much they are excited and tense.
Last edited by FelipeFritschF on Fri May 07, 2021 11:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto guest at the Milano Manga Festival

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Postby Joseki » Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:13 pm

The bold parts are all accurate translations.

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Re: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto guest at the Milano Manga Festival

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Postby FelipeFritschF » Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:10 am

Dummy System has a considerably longer and slightly different account and includes some additional details. Again DeepL'd:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130814092 ... ntervista/

SPOILER: Show
Sadamoto Days - fan meet and interview
11/07/2013 written by CaskaLangley // 31 comments

As you know very well, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto was a guest for three intense days at the Milano Manga Festival in Milan, during which he signed autographs and answered questions from fans. We're still a bit tired, but satisfied, and waiting to finish our report (which will be the same as those already posted on other sites, but we'll also tell you about the shrieks we threw in front of the official Sherlock manga, the plans to get Sadamoto to admit that he's Cassino and when, at the pub, we convinced the guys from Dystopia of the artistic and social value of Free!) here we propose the most interesting questions asked during the fan meet. And that's not all: the Magi, together with Shinji Kakaroth of Nanodà, also had the opportunity to ask the master some questions in private (and to cover him with gifts, while we were at it).
Fan meet questions

Depending on the series and the directors you work with, how does your way of creating character design change?
For each series and director there is always a very different technique of approach. In the case of Evangelion, Anno gave me basic directions for some characters, such as "he's a simple guy", "he's of this blood type", "he likes this music and has these passions". For FLCL, on the other hand, I received much more precise and detailed directions from Tsurumaki, he told me what he wanted and I drew it.

Among all the series you have worked on, which is your favorite character?
It's very difficult for me to answer that question, because on the one hand there's the drawing that I like to do the most, and on the other hand there's the actual character. From a technical point of view, the drawing I love to do is that of the older characters, people who transmit "wisdom", which I have to elaborate in a graphic sense. On the other hand, from a character point of view, there are some characters that I like more than others, Misato for example is my favorite. As for the other series, however, I had a lot of fun drawing FLCL, because I could put a lot of my passions into it. I'm a character designer, mainly, in Evangelion there are other artists who take care of the mecha, but in the case of FLCL I did everything.

In creating Rei Ayanami, both from a character and physical point of view, were you inspired by someone who really exists, such as models or actresses?
It's a question I'm often asked, the question of inspiration, but as we said before there is no single answer...for example, in the case of Rei, the director gave me as an indication "a cool character with short hair" and from there I had to figure out what to create. The main inspiration came to me by hearing a song, and the voice singing it. From that voice, I envisioned the character. I took the song to the director and said "I see her like this, Rei, a girl who has this voice".

With the exception of the poster, the illustrations so far released of Q are by Takeshi Honda. Did you have the same input into the new character designs?
As always, it was a multi-layered collaboration, but the original design of the film, including the outfits, is still mine.

The Eva units depart from the usual canons of the mecha genre, what inspired you to create them?
This is also a team effort, but in this case the director already had very clear ideas about it, because he is a fan of anime and manga of this genre and a certain type of science fiction. I didn't have to do much.

Are you a fan of other mangaka or authors as well?
Yes, I do. When I met Go Nagai I was really very happy, and the same when I met master Yoshiyuki Tomino. I think I have been very inspired by their works over the years, such as Devilman and Ideon, or the American TV show Thunderbirds.

What is your relationship with your work as a character designer and mangaka, and what kind of approach do you have to the two?
I love and want to do both, there is no one I prefer. It must be said that the work on an animation product is different, because it comes from a "concert of ideas", every decision is made collectively, everything is decided together, from a hair color to the elements of the plot, and there are endless meetings. Manga on the other hand is a much more individual work, I have more autonomy, but also all the responsibility.

What differences are there between the manga and the anime of Evangelion?
Between the manga and the anime, there's an abyss. In the anime there are more "inputs", such as color, time scansion, and music, all of which we can play with and which do not exist in the manga. Moreover, the anime goes on by itself, whether you understand or not it maintains its own speed. In the manga, if the reader doesn't understand, it stops, it goes back...this fact of having to be clear enough and having to keep the reader going is a big difference and responsibility.

What is it like working with Hideaki Anno?
It's like working with a brother, for me. We started out together, we've come a long way together, we share not only our work but also our personal lives. Right now he's on vacation in France, with his family [here the Magi tried to get out of the audience to run as they were dressed at the airport, caught up in the unbridled desire to see France]. What can I say, like everyone else he has many good and bad points that may make me angry, but he is someone I love.

What kind of relationship is there between Kaworu and Shinji?
[The audience bursts out laughing] As for the anime, Shinji is a human character, and that's his main characteristic, even in relationships. The two versions are very different, in the manga the relationship between Shinji and Kaworu changes. In the manga, their relationship is somewhat a reflection of Shinji's relationship with Rei. Shinji sees something of Rei in Kaworu, and Kaworu feels what Rei feels for Shinji that she herself cannot and cannot externalize. Shinji doesn't understand this, which is why he rejects it. It was an experiment of mine, let's say. In the anime one of the most fascinating things about Kaworu is her voice, which is amazing, and it made this character so famous and loved. In the manga this wasn't there, and I tried to find a way to make this character just as charming, so I tried to change some things. However, I never understood why Kaworu is liked so much....

What is the reason for the difference in the characterization of some of the characters in the manga, especially those who don't have much space in the anime, like Kaji or Kaworu?
In the anime I work with Anno, so nothing is entirely my choice, while in the manga I have more freedom to go into what I want. The biggest difference, for example, is that in the manga Shinji is presented as a bad boy, which is not so explicit in the anime. In the manga Shinji doesn't want to do anything, he's not someone who wants to put his all into it, while in the anime he's a bit more positive, he says "I don't have to run away!". In the manga he doesn't have the same problem, he says "I run away!" (laughs). In characterizing the character, I wanted him to be as close as possible to the problems and attitudes typical of that age. Teenagers have this way of doing things a little bit, and I wanted to explore this aspect.

Is there a character that reflects you, among all the ones you have drawn?
(laughs) It's hard to answer, but talking about Evangelion maybe Kensuke is the character I feel closest to, because we like girls and military things. Since I'm a family man, I also feel like Gendo [worried/hilarious glances go up in the audience], I understand his feelings, like the fear of not being able to get close to his son. Certainly, I'm not like Shinji.

When you started drawing your characters did you imagine that they could be exported and liked so much even abroad, in countries with very different cultures?
As a child I was in love with the design of Italian cars, I used to draw them all the time. I didn't think I would become a mangaka, I thought I would become a car and motorcycle designer. Only later did I start making manga, and that's how my career began. I am very grateful to the masters who came before me, in this exhibition there are some exceptional works on display and I feel small compared to so many geniuses, I wish their works were recognized worldwide. Seeing that Evangelion also has a place among them makes me happy.

[Still on the subject of manga] At the beginning, I wasn't very gifted as a mangaka, so with Evangelion I said to myself, "If this doesn't work either, I'll go back home and dedicate myself to the family business". My parents have a ceramics and porcelain company, so I could do that too. The success of the manga, however, was a bit like revenge, even though we had already had success with Nadia, but the manga was not published.

Did you have any restrictions when writing the manga?
No, I worked completely independently. I don't remember ever being consulted with anyone on any aspect.

Where does your passion for cars, especially Alfa Romeos, come from?
I'm no exception, my father and my older brother also love cars. When we were kids, my brother and I would sit by the side of country roads and watch cars go by, and we would compete to see who could guess the make. We used to have fun that way.



What are your dream cars?
(he thinks about it for a long time and laughs) I think the DeLorean from "Back to the Future". With the first money I saved from this job I bought myself a Fiat Panda [the audience starts applauding hysterically], but as soon as I picked it up from the dealership, back home, it broke down. Nevertheless, the Panda will always be in my heart (laughs). As a child, I loved a series about supercars, "Circuit no Ookami", where the main character raced in a Lotus Europa. When I was in elementary school I used to dream about it, and in the end I bought it. Actually, it's almost a collector's car, which breaks down often, so there's not much I can do with it, I mostly spend money to fix it (laughs).

In your works you often see references to Italy, where does this love come from?
When I was a kid I loved Italian movies or movies set in Italy, for example Miyazaki's "Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro" or "The Italian job". Seeing those mini cooper cars whizzing through the streets drove me crazy, I thought "I want to go to Italy!"

Who decided to portray Rei as an albino?
Initially Rei was a brunette with dark eyes, but on screen we needed to identify her immediately, so as not to confuse her with Asuka. The choice of colors depends on this.

What was it like working on the design of the Angels?
I wasn't particularly inspired by anything, I was given guidelines. I like to do complex designs though, so drawing these strange beings is a lot of fun for me.

What can you tell us about the last two episodes of Evangelion?
I can't, because they are totally Anno's work, who was going through a very bad period. When I would meet him he would always tell me "I can't take it anymore, I want to end it".

What was your reaction when Anno told you that he was thinking of resuming Evangelion with new movies? You were still working on the manga, didn't you feel a bit "persecuted"?
In fact, I had to work twice as hard and I couldn't always respect the monthly releases of the manga. I was pushed by the director, "finish this manga!", but he also wanted me to help him (laughs) and I would say "it's your fault I can't finish it, because you want me to work on the film too, but I only have two hands!"...well, actually I never told him, even though I wanted to.

Wasn't there a moment, after all these years, when you thought you couldn't draw Evangelion characters anymore?
Just so it wouldn't come to that, I took breaks and devoted myself to other work, so that I wouldn't run out of inspiration, patience and passion. We worked so that this would not happen.

What was it like for you to draw the character of Mari while integrating it into the aesthetic of Evangelion?
On the one hand we wanted to create a different character, one that would appeal to a new type of audience and mark a break in the story. There were both "market" and plot requirements, and I had to keep them in mind. In the movies there is a great mystery around her presence, which is why you only find her there. I couldn't use her in the manga, although I would have liked to. She'll be up to a lot of mischief, together with Asuka, so wait for the new movie, because there will be surprises and a lot of interesting characters [we had a doubt: were you talking about :|| or Q, knowing that in Italy it will be released in September?]

Can you tell us something about Nadia?
"Nadia" was a very important work, for me, because it was the first one I made for NHK and it allowed me to reach the general public. It was a challenge, for me, something new, and so I'm very attached to it.

Instead, can you tell us something about the character of Captain Nemo? What inspired you to create him?
First of all, we were inspired by Jules Verne's novels, in particular "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", so we started from the idea of an Indian man. To make Nadia, however, I was also very inspired by the costumes of ancient Egypt, to give a touch of Africa to "The Arabian Nights". Another inspiration, for her character, I would say was Commander Ukita from "Space Battleship Yamato".

In Wolf's Children there is a return to nature, the message seems to be "in the country you live well and you are happy". Do you think this is really true?
I never thought that this was the central concept in Wolf's Children. Whoever lives well in the city must stay there, and the same goes for whoever lives well in the country. I was born in a small town in the mountains, then I moved to Tokyo, and now I'm back in the country, but I've had a good time in all three places.

Today's manga are all very similar to each other. What would it take to change this world, like Evangelion did?
Actually, I don't think that Evangelion has really changed anything. It must be said that every year many wonderful works come out in Japan that maybe you don't get. Speaking of news, Anno has seen Madoka Magica and he liked it, he said it was beautiful and interesting.

What message did you want to convey with Evangelion?
The importance of working hard to achieve your goals.

The Interview

We know that Evangelion was born from brainstorming, but what did you put into it?
The story and the characters were worked out by the whole staff, but my indications in particular concerned, for example, the character of a character, or what voice he should have. The design, on the other hand, is mostly mine. At first we were influenced by Sailor Moon and the idea was to have an all-female cast, it was my suggestion to put in male characters as well. Shinji, for example, was a woman, I was the one who suggested he be a man. With an all-female cast, the story would have been completely different. Another idea I had was for the robots to be piloted by boys up to the age of fourteen. If the characters were adults they would be better, they would look more like experienced military men, but I wanted the robots to have a kind of maternal spirit in them, so only children would ride in them, and there would be a synchronization between the robot and the spirit.

Evangelion is a very dramatic and complicated story, on paper it's hard to imagine it as a commercial phenomenon. Was there a moment when, working on it, the staff realized they had a potential success on their hands?
Actually this complex story is not commercial, but I like the idea of working on something that isn't. At first the series was aimed at otaku who already loved the robot genre, but you can tell from the beginning that this is not a commercial series. When the broadcast of the series ended, and this popularity exploded, none of us expected it. We were really surprised.

Now that the manga is finished, do you already have other projects in mind? Is there a possibility that you will also work on the Rebuild of Evangelion manga?
The manga is finished and it's difficult for me to resume it, also because there are many other things I would like to follow. On the other hand, the animated projects have already started, including the last Evangelion movie, to which I'm participating more because I'm free from the manga.

In an interview, you said that the Evangelion anime is the "identity card" of director Anno. What was it like for you to work for so long on something that someone else considers "his identity card"?
In fact, the birth of Evangelion itself is a bit complex, in the sense that I wrote the manga, but in the meantime the series also started, and the two things went on in parallel. In this sense, certainly the manga is my work, my work, but in some points the two versions overlap and compensate each other.

Could you tell us about when the Gainax studio was born?
I was 23, and so was Tsurumaki, while Anno was 25. We were young, full of passion and a strong desire to create animated works. The Wings of Honneamise, about three inexperienced children trying to go into space with a rocket they built, mirrors our story a bit. We also have to thank Hayao Miyazaki, who helped us a lot in the beginning. We had both positive and negative results, but it was mostly a test of the strength of youth.

What is the meaning of the word "Gainax"?
It comes from the dialect of a small town called Yonago in Tottori Prefecture. There, the word "gaina" means "strong". The "X", on the other hand, comes from the fact that many successful companies at that time had an "X" in their name, so Anno suggested that we add it too. I'm very sorry that Gainax is a bit fragmented right now, because Anno established the Khara studio, which I also participate in.

Asuka and her relationship with Shinji have a central role in the series, while in the manga she is kept in the background compared to Rei. What is the reason for this difference?
(laughs) Anno and I have a different point of view on this. The manga is less spectacular than the anime, there's less action, so I preferred to focus on the relationship between Shinji and his mother, which is the core of my work. The anime, on the other hand, precisely because it's more spectacular, has another point of view. Of course, the relationship between me and my mother is different (laughs). A manga that influenced me a lot was Hyouryuu Kyoushitsu, by Kazuo Umezuo, which talks about the relationship between mother and son. Any mother in the world wants the best for her child, and my manga is about that.

Now that the manga is finished, do you feel more relief and satisfaction or sadness and melancholy?
Actually right now I'm working on the new movie, and I'm also working on the last tankobon that hasn't been released yet, so from my point of view Evangelion isn't finished yet. I can say that without the deadlines I feel much more relaxed.
Scattered notes

There are two other nice things I felt like adding, although I unfortunately don't have a recording so I can't quote them literally.
The first one was a very funny episode, in which Sadamoto basically told us that Italian fans aren't as boorish as X'DD feared, okay, he didn't say that exactly, but it was close. The thing is that he clearly wanted to say something else, but right away the audience started laughing and saying "thanks eh! "The real gist of the speech was that he expected the Italian fans to be more "lively", "noisy" (he made the example of a cook who heard singing, going to a restaurant, and we died laughing), while instead we were all very orderly, quiet and respectful, and this made his job very easy. He also said that it's actually nice to be able to talk to us, because generally Japanese fans when they meet him are so agitated that they can't get a word in edgewise.

The second thing was the long answer Sadamoto gave to a guy who asked him if there was a possibility to do an internship in Japan, specifically (I think) to work in the comic book world. Sadamoto first of all told him that there is no need to go all the way to Japan, because the western comics market is also very flourishing and open to new things, but if he really wants to work in his country then he must first of all change his mentality, because cultural differences can be hard to bear. In addition, there are many manga schools in Japan, but of the hundreds of people who come out of them, only one every now and then really has what it takes to become a mangaka. The teacher then concluded by saying that we shouldn't give too much importance to the canonical academic path, because the important thing is to follow your own path, and even being a waiter can give you the experience or allow the encounters that will help you realize your dreams. Standing ovation from the audience, starting with yours truly.

To conclude, Sadamoto loves cars even more than we could have guessed: he lit up when he mentioned them, you could tell he would go on talking about them for hours (in fact, he didn't even come close) and when they asked him which ones are his dreams, he really went into crisis X'D what a tenderness.


And yet another section missing, from here: https://blog.screenweek.it/2013/08/mila ... 85863.php/

SPOILER: Show
neon-genesis-evangelion-yoshiyuki-sadamoto

The most awaited guest of the Milano Manga Festival was undoubtedly the character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, one of the founding members of Studio Gainax (The Wings of Honneamise, The Secret of the Blue Stone, Neon Geneses Evangelion). Sadamoto began his career very early as both a mangaka and an animator, but over the years his work as an animator took a back seat, and was supplanted by more assignments as a character designer in both the animation and video game fields (.hack, .hack//G.U.).
As for his commitments as a mangaka, his career is mostly punctuated by the production of short stories, which further highlight his most prominent work, namely the Neon Geneses Evangelion manga that ended this June, in Japan, after 18 years of publication. Unlike the ending of the animated series, the film The End of Evangelion and the film tetralogy of Evangelion films, which tell a new version of the series, in his manga Sadamoto narrates his conclusion of the events of Shinji Ikari.
We had the opportunity to interview the sensei indirectly, and to ask him just a few of the many questions that have bothered us in recent years. Unfortunately, it was not possible to take pictures of the sensei, nor of the exhibition that has been realized in his honor. For this I refer you to the gallery of the exhibition dedicated to the films of Rebuild of Evangelion, 'Evangelion Anime Works' organized in the same days of Sadamoto's visit to Milan, at the Japan Expo in Paris.

Your interest in the career of cartoonist dates back to when you were still an elementary school student, which authors and which works have influenced your training as a cartoonist in the field of comics and animation?

Actually I can't say all of them because there will be at least a hundred works and masters that have influenced me but if I have to choose Nagai Go and Matsumoto Rei. But also Umeo Kazuho and Hotomo Katsuiro, I am a great scholar and lover of the great Japanese manga. For shojo manga Kuramochi Kusaku, actually being a great scholar there are many works, many masters who influenced me not only in my genre.

The '80s mark the beginning of your career both as a mangaka, you were 19 years old when you won the contest as an illustrator organized by 'Weekly Shounen Champion', and as an animator, always in that period you made the opening of DAICON IV. What made you decide to pursue both careers?

I started drawing like everyone else when I was a kid, then when I went to college, a classmate of mine asked me, 'But why don't we work together? And come be an animator?' So I went to be 'the arbaito' in a big studio, for the production of the Macross anime. It was at that time that I met Hideaki Anno. That was the beginning of a series of positive events that led to the creation of Daicon IV.

Your career as a mangaka has been much more intermittent than as an animator. Apart from a few short stories, the Evangelion manga is his only major work, which took 18 years to publish. Do you already have any new projects in mind for the future? And right now, would you prefer to work on short stories or a long series?

I'm already working on other projects, I'm interested in doing more long stories, but certainly not of the length of Evangelion. I'm thinking of things that could last a few years. Two or three years but certainly not eighteen years.

In the short stories 'Ruth 20', 'Dirty Worth' and 'Sister of Romance' there is always an unhealthy relationship between the male and female protagonists and none of the three couples manage to aspire to a happy ending. Each story ends with the protagonist leaving on a journey with a destination set by an adverse fate. Has this vision applied to your other short stories? And why is there no hope in these people's futures?

It's not that there's no hope, because the fundamental point is not that I'm together with a person and then I live happily with them. That's not the point. I don't want to make things so obvious. For example, if you date a person and you love them and they leave for some reason, it's not that the love ends, on the contrary it can happen that you realize how much you love the other person and inside your heart this love grows so it's not so hopeless, there's a reason. I am not interested in such obvious things. Or when the father dies, it's normal, it's a sad thing but it remains inside you, it's a part that remains inside you, there are many things that we must evaluate even in the vision of the stories. But there are also works where there are very smooth happy endings, in short, very simple, among the things I've written, so it's not like that. In 'Archaic Smile' (a story about a married couple, editor's note) there is a happy end, they are comedies for example, I haven't written the end yet, I don't know how they end but they are comedies so it's not all so dark.

In the Evangelion manga, in the last chapter, we see a hope for a future in which Shinji is finally able to put aside that loneliness and fear that has marked his whole life and his choices. How did you come to write this ending?

Yes, I draw on some of my own personal experiences, I come from a country town and moved to Tokyo. When I moved to Tokyo it was snowing and everything was so white and this white meant that I had moved away from my home, that my friends were no longer around me, but it's the beginning of a new future full of hope and that's kind of the image. Now it's out in Japan, it will take a while for the Italian version to come out, but read it and you'll understand.

The publication of the Evangelion manga anticipated the airing of the anime by a year. Had you already planned what story the series would tell and to what extent?

[The translator admitted to having trouble with this question.] We actually didn't think when we started, how it would develop, let's say things kind of expanded on their own. The anime ended and I continued doing the manga instead. There was no planning in the beginning.

While working on the Macross project, you met Hideaki Anno and Hiroyuki Yamaga with whom you later formed the Gainax studio. What can you tell us about that fateful meeting?

[As you can see, Sadamoto talked about the beginnings of Gainax and not his meeting with Anno and Yamaga, ed.] In truth, it's not that [Gainax] was a big project, just between us... Ours is a small dream, we weren't that famous at the time, we didn't imagine that Gainax would become Gainax, that is, our products were produced for a small audience of fans, for maniacs. We had a small budget at our disposal, it's not like we had big things. We had to be careful with everything, we didn't have a budget, so in the beginning we did just those things that were super necessary or we didn't make the characters move. Our challenge, our challenge, was to make beautiful, interesting things, even though we didn't have a lot of means at our disposal.


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