'Sink of Japan' Shinji Higuchi, he talks about 'Nadia' and 'Evangelion'
Visit Korea for 'pifan 2013', a field in the Japanese subculture industry
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Game Focus Reporter Lee Hyuk-jin (
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Shinji Higuchi (48 years old), a fan of the Japanese film and subculture industry, has returned to Korea. The reason he came to Korea was because he was invited as a jury member of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and this is his fourth visit to Korea.
Shinji Higuchi is a pioneer in the Japanese film and subculture industry active in various fields such as movies, animation, games, and special shooting. He is well-known in Korea as a director of the popular animation 'Nadia' (director after 'Island' in the second half) and as a director of popular movies such as 'Sink of Japan', 'Lorelai', and 'Nobow's Castle'. Since participating in the monster modeling of 'Godzilla' in 1984, he has been steadily active in the special cinematography world, making his name known as one of the highest authorities in special photography.
Although he has a busy schedule as a film director, he is close to Japan's leading animation directors, such as Hideaki Anno (Evangelion), Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell), and Keiichi Hara (Can't Stop Crayon, Colorful), so their works include continuity, etc. In many cases, it participates as In Evangelion, which he worked with Hideaki Anno, he adopted his name as the main character's name (Shinji).
He is also active in publishing, such as drawing the cover art for 'Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn', writing a recommendation for Koichi Suda's masterpiece game 'Killer 7', and writing the continuation of the Tekken animation movie 'Tekken Blood Vengeance' included in 'Tekken Hybrid'. He also has a deep connection with the game side. Director Higuchi himself is also a huge fan of the Musou series such as 'Three Kingdoms Warriors' and 'Sengoku Warriors'.
Directed by Shinji Higuchi. I visited Bucheon by being invited as a jury member of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.
Game Focus met director Shinji Higuchi, who was about to return to Korea after a busy screening schedule, and prepared a time to hear about 'Evangelion' and 'Nadia' that Korean fans are curious about.
The story behind Nadia's production, an adventure that was possible when I was young,
I first heard about the story of directing the second half of 'Nadia' from director Shinji Higuchi.
He began to explain about his struggles as director Nadia, who Hideaki Anno took over.
"Nadia's director, Hideaki Anno, was exhausted around the time of the 'Island' episode. He was exhausted after only making 22 episodes. He said that it couldn't be like this and asked me to direct the latter part.
In fact, his teacher Hayao Miyazaki was similarly tired during the production of 'Future Boy Conan', so he only directed 4 episodes to someone else, and then returned to the final climax and took over as director. Future Boy Conan was okay because he only entrusted 4 episodes out of the total of 26 episodes, but Anno said that 22 episodes were the limit for one director to keep working hard to take over everything directly, so he said that he was also limited to 22 episodes.
There was no alternative but me, so I accepted the directorship, but by that time, the existing drawing team all disappeared. The drawing team I had been working with until then had made 22 episodes and disappeared, so I had to use a completely new team. A completely different team, different people. Naturally, the new team could never produce as good a picture as the old team. There is also an aspect that Anno couldn't stand the quality of his work and passed it on to me. he ran away You can't run away...
After leaving the director to me, Anno started working on the screenplay to make only the last part properly like Future Boy Conan. I was put in as a substitute while taking a break to create the climax scenario.
I was given a difficult task. How should we create and show a story with a manpower that is different from the first half in terms of the quality of the picture?
No matter what I did, the drawing quality did not come out well. Until then, episode 22 was a serious story, and the drawing had to properly support the story. The drawing is not good, but if the content is serious, viewers will be confused. Therefore, for me, the picture did not resemble Nadia before, but the story had to be made interesting. The result is Nadia after the island side."
Director Hideaki Anno and director Higuchi, who were in their 20s at the time, started producing Nadia at the request of NHK. Director Hideaki Anno directed the first half and last part, and director Higuchi directed the middle to second half.
Director Shinji Higuchi also talked about what it was like to work with NHK at the time.
"In the Nadia production process, the basic script was prepared and sent by NHK. However, the script sent by NHK was surprisingly uninteresting. It is educational, serious, and moral.
Actually, Nadia's original setting was just 'a child who likes animals', but I thought there had to be a reason for such a setting. Anno and I were mean when I was young. She likes animals, so she doesn't even eat meat or fish, so Nadia is made into a character with a selfish personality. She made her character and story more interesting by portraying what she likes but dislikes.
After fixing it like this, I was in a situation where I couldn't write the script that NHK gave me. I had to write NHK's script basically, so it wasn't fun, so I kept editing it, but I didn't change the whole frame of the story, and only the bits that went up there were uploaded in the opposite direction from what NHK had prepared. We changed the character's personality and made the content more interesting, and we broadcasted it every week on NHK... We ourselves called our work 'broadcast terrorism'.
Even if we talked to NHK anyway, it wouldn't work, but even if we sent the finished animation right before the broadcast, we couldn't refuse or ask them to remake it, so NHK had no choice but to broadcast what we sent. Anno and I used to joke around, 'Isn't this how we get arrested?'"
In Korea, for a long time, there has been a rumor that the quality of the Nadia Island version was lowered because it was subcontracted to Korea. I also asked Higuchi about the collaboration with Korea.
"Nadia did half of the work in Korea, but it was a condition NHK suggested during production. Collaborating with Korea was a prerequisite for the Nadia series production, so I proceeded that way. Everything was drawn in Korea, color was added, background was made, filming, and development were all done in Korea.
When I send the original drawing that passed the drawing director's check, the result came 3 months later, but there was a misunderstanding in the process of conveying the intention, and the picture was different from what I thought, so I had to make it again.
The obvious advantage of leaving it to Korea is that the longevity of fairy tales was able to far surpass the average TV animation.
In the case of TV animation in Japan, only about 6,000 fairy tales can be written per episode. These days, there are even 4000 pieces. However, the condition of NHK was that it was OK to write a few fairy tales. Korean companies do not have any conditions for purchasing Dongwha, so it doesn't matter how many copies.
When we ordered incredibly detailed animations, the Koreans worked hard to create them. All of Nadia's great action and so on was made possible by using the number of fairy tales that Japanese TV series couldn't do. I'm sorry to say that now, but it was possible because all the hard work was passed on to the Korean companies.
Thanks to that, Nadia was able to make almost full animations compared to Japanese TV animations in the time sheet, which use 8 frames per second and the screen moves once every 3 frames. I am reflecting on what I did to the people who worked in Korea. But it was all allowed by NHK, and the bad thing is NHK. (Laughs)
Contrary to such 'New Year', I think that I was able to create an interesting work thanks to the people who worked hard in Korea. I will never be able to make a TV animation of such high quality again. At that time, Nana Anno was young in her early to mid 20s. I think it was possible because she was young.”
Production of Evangelion New Theatrical Version and Final Version Begins
Evangelion is a work closely related to director Shinji Higuchi's name to the extent that the name of the main character was used. In the TV series, director Shinji Higuchi mainly participated in the part where 'Asuka' appeared. "She feels like a daughter," he said of Asuka.
First, I heard from him about what it feels like to keep being called by his name in the play.
"Honestly, it didn't feel good to keep being called by my name during the recording process. Others keep calling me 'idiot' (ばか). Asuka used to call me a fool in the TV series and the old movie version, but the new theatrical version I became a kid (がKI) in Es. It was painful to listen to."
Next, we asked about the parts he was in charge of, such as the scene of 'Operation Yashima' in 'Seo' in the new movie version.
"Operation Yashima is the part that Masayuki is in charge of alone in the TV series. Masayuki is a friend who draws a very good storyboard and continuity. I thought it could be used in the new movie, but Anno wanted to change it, so I took over. I drew it after thinking about how to describe it. I am happy that the results I have produced have been well received.
In 'Far', I was in charge of the continuity of the part that changed episode 19 of the TV series, and I had to rebuild the part that Masayuki was in charge of in the TV series. In both cases, Masayuki's work was so good that it was difficult to change it to look good.
and queue. I think the best parts of the TV series are the Yashima operation part, the battle part of episode 19, and the part where Kaoru's army appears. Masayuki was in charge of all three of the most important scenes. Among them, I entrusted the battle rebuild of Operation Yashima and Episode 19 to me, and I was worried that Kaoru-kun would be entrusted to me, but fortunately, I entrusted it to Mahiro Maeda.
To be honest, I don't have the confidence to draw Kaoru-kun properly. As I say now, the thing I hated the most because the main character had my name on it was the scene in which Kaoru-kun appeared. Whenever Kaoru-kun said 'Shinji-kun', he couldn't stand it (laughs)"
Next, we asked about the production status of the final version of the new Evangelion theatrical version, which anime enthusiasts would be most curious about. Director Higuchi gave the good news that production of the finale had begun, but he said he did not know what it would be like.
“The preparations for the final version of the new Evangelion theatrical version have begun, and of course I am also participating. You may be curious about the contents, but I do not know what will happen.
The new Evangelion theatrical version is being produced by Anno himself, not through the production committee method. Usually, it is made with money, and it is necessary to listen to the wishes of the investor, but now Anno is making money himself, so he can proceed as he pleases.
If Anno tells you to make it again, you have to do it again, and if you say no, it's not. At first, I thought it was a theatrical version that was edited and fleshed out for a TV series, but when I participated, it was a completely new work and it was constantly changing. You never know when what has been decided now will change. So it's true that it's a lot of fun."
Director Higuchi gave cool answers to all the questions while wondering if Korean fans would really be curious about this story.
Finally, we heard about 'The Giant Beast Appears in Tokyo', which was screened at the same time as the Japanese release of Evangelion Q, directed by Shinji Higuchi. When 'The Giant Beast Appears in Tokyo' was released in Korea, it was unfortunately not screened at the same time due to copyright issues.
“The Giant Beast Appears in Tokyo is a short film made for screening at the Special Cinematography Museum.
It was not originally planned, but Hideaki Anno may have wanted to show it to the audience. At the time of making it for screening at the Special Film Museum, I didn't use CG, but made it with the old special film expression, but I think I was thinking about how far CG could be. There were a lot of requests from Anno to put this in CG and to put that in. He did it because he wanted to show a different way of showing the wings of a giant monster flying in the air.
There was talk of putting it together as a movie in front of Evangelion, so everything, including the window of light, was overlaid with CG. The same goes for parts of the city that are being destroyed, such as buildings. If you need more power poles, you can't take additional miniature shots, so I create and add CG to give it a miniature feel, etc. The sound was also newly recorded in 5.1 channel.
It's hard to explain why I put this in front of the Evangelion Q. There is no relationship with Evangelion at all, and there is a 14-year gap between Wave and Q, and I was thinking about how to express it. Maybe it was meant to be conveyed. Could it be that too?
In fact, what I was worried about was that Megumi Hayashibara's voice appeared in the narration of 'The Giant Beast Appears in Tokyo', and if I put this in front of the main episode of Evangelion, it would change the impression of Rei Ayanami. However, seeing that she was finished, surprisingly, Rei Ayanami had very few lines, so she felt like ‘what is it?”
Why
Higuchi Shinji Won't Direct Animation After Shinji Higuchi took over as director Nadia, he never took on the role of an animation director again. He was also named as a director on 'Band Red', but he said he only took charge of editing as the director of a full-length compilation that edited an existing series.
Why didn't he ever take on the role of an animation director again? It's not that I didn't have time to work on animation because I got to work as a live-action film director. While showing live-action films non-stop, he has been participating in various works whenever he has time, regardless of cel animation or CG animation.
Director Shinji Higuchi cited his personality and the circumstances of the Japanese animation industry as the reason for not taking on the role of animation director again.
First of all, regarding his personality, he said, "I don't really like to go out, so I don't like being a director that much," he said with a shocking remark, "I don't like taking responsibility.
He continued, "It's probably because of that personality that I didn't take on the role of the animation director again," he said. He continued, "There is a director who is really good at live-action movies, so if you entrust it to this person, if you want to do better, leave it to me and I just want to help," he said. .
Next, we listened to the situation in the Japanese animation industry.
“It’s going to be a serious story, but a director alone cannot make an animation. The most important thing is an animator who can draw the original picture. There are only about 50 people who can use that animator in Japan. It doesn't come back to people.
Once Hayao Miyazaki says he's working on a new work, he goes there. If Mamoru Oshii said it was made, it would go away again. Oshii-san is a little less now. When Production IG or Otomo Katsuhiro do a new work, I go there again.
These days, when Mamoru Hosoda says he's making a new movie, they all go away. In the Japanese animation industry, it is a competition to see who has more talented animators of about 50 people.
Satoshi Kon was most loved while he was alive. He lost a sad person.
When he was alive, four people, including Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell), Keiichi Hara (Can't Stop Crayon, Colorful), and Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Child), drank together. What the four of us had in common was that without Satoshi Kon (I can secure talented animators), my work could also be improved in quality. He started out as a cartoonist, so I remember saying things like, 'Go back to the land of comics'.
When Satoshi Kon made animation, he was so attractive that everyone wanted to do his job. Everyone was worried about not having a good animator take over their work.
Kenji Kamiyama has released '009 Recyborg' this time. It's CG animation. It's like, 'I'm not going to use an animator to make animations'. Because talented animators have such a high scarcity value, it is true that they are all selfish and difficult to control.
Even if he entered the fierce competition, it was unlikely that he would win the competition. Animators respect people who can draw, so they want to work with people who can draw well. I won't be popular because I can't draw. I think it would be better for someone who can draw well for animation.”
Then, I wondered if it would be possible for Higuchi to make CG animation like Kamiyama did. He explained, "CG may be more difficult." He explained, "You can fix a picture, but it's hard to fix CG."
He continued, "We've been developing our animations for good pictures, cool pictures, and great character poses," he said.
Director Shinji Higuchi has had little news since he released 'Nobou Castle' as a co-director with Isshin Inudo in 2011. However, it has been confirmed that he has already started preparing for his next work.
He said, "I'm preparing for my next film and waiting for the script," he said, "It's my fourth time coming to Korea, but I like it as a country where there's always new discoveries, and I hope you get along well with Japan." "The next movie will probably surprise Koreans too. It will be an amazing movie, so please look forward to it.”
FelipeFritschF wrote:
