Interview with Kawamoto Toshihiro

—by Charles McCarter

You may not know his name, but you definitely know his work. If you've seen GUNDAM 0083, or GOLDEN BOY, or more recently GUNDAM: THE 08th MS TEAM or COWBOY BEBOP, then you've seen the handiwork of one of the best character designers and animation directors in the business today, Mr. Kawamoto Toshihiro.
Mr. Kawamoto made his first American appearance at Anime Expo, and he soon found himself overwhelmed with the fans who knew of his work and wanted to ask him questions. But he also gave as good as he got. During one of his autograph sessions, he was asked to sign a cel from GUNDAM 0083. He remarked, "I remember this cel. You know, I checked every cel of this series personally."
Easygoing and low-key, Mr. Kawamoto even spent some time exploring Anime Expo alone, without the aid—or the protection—of an interpreter. But he found the experience enjoyable.
EX was fortunate enough to be able to secure a one-on-one interview with Mr. Kawamoto during his busy weekend. He is a dedicated, meticulous professional, but he is also very easy to talk to and has a very good sense of humor. His passion for his work definitely shows through, as does his personality.

EX: How did you get started in the industry?

KT: I liked anime a lot, of course. GUNDAM and MACROSS were big hits, and created a lot of fans. I was inspired by all of this, and applied for a job, despite not knowing anyone at all in the industry. I got lucky and was accepted.
It's actually relatively easy to become an animator—the door is wide open and they are always looking for new people. But getting ahead and moving forward, going higher up the ladder, that requires a lot of technique and creativity. In the end, most of the people who started around the same time as I did are no longer in the industry.

EX: Were there any particular shows that inspired you?

KT: Mostly MACROSS, and also Gainax's DAIKON films. I was amazed that amateurs could create a work of such high quality. But I can't exactly choose one particular series that made me say, "That's what I want to do!" However, I can say that the character designs of Yasuhiko Yoshikazu were very inspiring to me.
A lot of people got inspired by Yasuhiko in the same way. And when I started working there were a lot of people who felt that strongly about his work. A lot of others wanted to work with him. In fact, [fellow Guest of Honor] Kamimura Sachiko is probably one of those people as well.

EX: Oh, so you've worked together before?

KT: Yes, we both worked on VENUS WARS. She was the animation supervisor. We both worked with Yasuhiko on that.

EX: Let's talk about your character designs. Your recent work, such as BEBOP and MS08, looks very different from GUNDAM 0083. Why do you think that's so?

KT: Well, as the show progressed, I thought that the character designs for 0083 were too detailed, and I wanted to change that. So in my next work, I reduced the number of lines and made it more simple. It matched the director's style for the project, clean and simple—something similar to Miyazaki's stuff. This simplification or lack of detail matched the direction perfectly. So after that, I kept with a more simple style for the most part.

EX: (Producing a picture of COWBOY BEBOP's Faye Valentine.) But I don't really think that they're simplistic. After all, what about this?

KT: Ah well, of course, a woman should always be adorned beautifully (laughs).

EX: In that case, what about [BEBOP's resident hacker] Ed?

KT: Well ... (laughs) Basically, though, my character designs are dependent upon what the director wants—they can be simple or very detailed.

EX: What are the most detailed designs you've ever done?

KT: Well, I was the animation supervisor for the GHOST IN THE SHELL PlayStation game opening. And the Director, Kitakubo-san [one of last year's AX Guests of Honor], was very detailed about what he wanted. In the game, most of the cels were actually drawn on the computer, so it wound up having a gradation effect of four or five shades, rather than the one or two associated with traditional cel animation.

EX: Which style do you prefer to work in?

KT: Of course, my preference is for simple styles. I usually do many key drawings in a very simplistic style. But whether it's simple or complex, I want to keep the quality high and produce a good final product to all who rely on me to create something. The latest incarnation of this is, of course, COWBOY BEBOP.

EX: Well, BEBOP is great.

KT: That's the result of a truly great staff. People like Watanabe-san and Kanno-san and all the others. The staff make the end product what it is.

EX: Did you work very closely with Kanno Yoko on BEBOP?

KT: Only on the jacket designs for the album. Most of the time, composers don't get involved with the design of soundtrack covers and jacket designs. In her case, however, she had specific ideas in mind which made it challenging to work on them.
For example, BLUE (the third soundtrack album), has a lot of illustrations. And she asked that they all look like "fake" art. I was kind of surprised, I mean, how was I supposed to draw a "fake" looking Spike?
I donated one of the pieces, an original watercolor, to the charity auction. [Editor's Note: And it sold for $1,200!]

EX: Are you working on a new project now, or are you just resting after your work on BEBOP?

KT: The industry doesn't really allow you to rest. Right now, I'm working as a key animator on the ESCAFLOWNE movie. And I'm also working on another movie that I can't talk about.