A talk event was held on March 16th at the 3rd Niigata International Animation Film Festival, an anime film festival being held in Niigata City, with Toshihiro Kawamoto, an animator known for his character designs in anime series such as Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory and Cowboy Bebop. Kawamoto looked back on his career to date.
Kawamoto was born on July 15, 1963. He began working as an animator with Group Donguri, and later went freelance. He made his video debut in 1985 with Urusei Yatsura. His first experience as a character designer was with Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. He has worked on such titles as The Cockpit: Sonic Torpedo Attack Squadron, GOLDEN BOY: The Wandering Study Guy, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain, Tenpo Ibun: Yokishi, Towa no Quon, Noragami, Blood Blockade Battlefront, and Metallic Rouge. He is currently a director at Bones.
He said that he "was allowed to draw only a small part of the key animation" for "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam," and became a key animation artist for "Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ." He said that he was influenced by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's drawings, saying, "I was very conscious of his drawings. I wanted to draw pictures like that. I tried to somehow bring out his taste." He drew his first licensed illustrations for "Violence Wars," which was also produced by Yasuhiko.
He said that the character design for "Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team" was heavily influenced by Egawa Tatsuya, the original author of "GOLDEN BOY: The Wandering Study Guy." He said, "08 was an audition, but the picture I wanted to draw was in Egawa's style. That's what they chose."
When the opening video of "Cowboy Bebop" became a hot topic, he said, "The taste is similar to the atmosphere and coloring of a Blue Note record jacket, with some noisy processing."
With "WOLF'S RAIN," he said, "I changed my mindset and wanted to move away from the style of 'Bebop,'" and with regards to "Blood Blockade Battlefront," he said, "I like (original author) Naito (Yasuhiro)'s drawings. I wanted to incorporate that exaggerated style. I tried to bring Naito's style to the forefront."
He has worked on many character designs for anime based on original works, and revealed his thoughts: "My theme is not knowing who drew it. I want to respect the fans of the original work. I want to make them move as they are."
The festival aims to be one of the largest festivals in Asia with a competition category for feature-length animation, with the aim of spreading the culture of anime from Niigata to the world. The first festival was held in Niigata City from March 17th to 22nd, 2023, and the second from March 15th to 20th, 2024. The third festival will be held from March 15th to 20th.
