Guest of Honor Kikuchi Yasuhito (left).

Kikuchi Yasuhito has worked on various anime projects, but is perhaps best known as a director on JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE and as the director for the EL HAZARD: THE ALTERNATIVE WORLD television series. During his early days as an animator, he worked at two landmark institutions in the anime industry—Tatsunoko and Gainax. During his press session at Anime Expo, Mr. Kikuchi spoke out on a wide variety of issues, and had some rather surprising things to say.

Q: Is effects animation harder or easier than character animation in terms of trying to pull off an action sequence (much like the impressive water sequence of parts 1 and 2 of JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE)?

Kikuchi Yasuhito: Special effects animations are much harder than character animation because in character animation, you can just take one shot and it's done, but for special effects, you have to take it five times. Once lighted, once dark, then all the motion in-between, so it's much harder.

Q: Does that require more cels per sequence than character animation?

KY: It's five times as many cels.

Q: How do you feel about the increasing use of computers in animation? Do you feel it's beneficial or are people relying too much on special effects?

KY: My company is using a lot of computer graphics, but the problem with that is that the more computer graphics you use, it looks more like live action rather than animation so that the gap between animation and CG is more apparent.

Q: Well, then how do you think animation should look?

KY: It's more of wanting to put computers and animation together rather than just using computers to make it look like real life, because if you want it to look like real life you might as well use live action.

Q: So do you feel the look of cel animation should be preserved?

KY: It's ok to use 3D, but right now it just does not match well with cel animation.

Q: Why did you want to get into animation?

KY: I used to be a computer programmer, and I was directly affected by one of my friends. I first started as an in-betweener at Tatsunoko then, when I moved to Gainax, I became one of the key animators. Right now at the company I work at, I have the freedom to do whatever job I want (in-between, key, directing, etc.) and it's much easier to work with that way.

Q: What works did you do at Tatsunoko?

KY: You know ... It's been too long.

Q: How long did you work there?

KY: About 6 years.

Q: If you had the freedom and opportunity, what story would you want to tell?

KY: I've worked on a lot of shows which have involved a lot of girls, and I'd like to work on something masculine, maybe even Shakespearian.

Q: Are there any stories trapped inside of you?

KY: There's a lot of them, but they're all secret. (smiles slyly)

Q: In OTAKU NO VIDEO's documentaries, are they real or are they mock-documentaries?

KY: About 60% is true. I was drawing it as I was looking at the model I used for the character.

Q: Do you have a preference for comedy or drama and, from a technical point of view, which is easier to animate?

KY: They're both good. The comedies are a bit harder to direct, but from a scenario point of view the dramas can be more fun, but they're both equally fun to do.

Q: Why is a comedy harder?

KY: It's really hard to get the timing of each line of the dialog because if you mess up by 0.03 seconds, it can get all off, so I have to time it with a stopwatch so that it flows well.

Q: What feelings do you get between the differences between the North American anime scene and that in Japan?

KY: Everyone here seems to be having fun. The Japanese fans aren't very nice ...

Q: Do you have any horror stories in particular?

KY: A lot of the questions are mean-spirited and trick questions in Japanese sessions, so it's much harder to deal with them.

Q: In JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE, how much of that stuff came from you or someone else, and where did the strangeness come from?

KY: I would have liked it if it was even weirder.

Q: There are people here that have the impression of Japan as being so straight-laced, so why do shows like this come out in Japan?

KY: It's probably that they can keep going with all the fight-fight-fight stuff because of the once-in-a-while, what-the-hell-is-going on stuff.

Q: Where do you get new inspirations from?

KY: I go out to drink with the producers, and when we have fun, one bottle of booze will produce a story in about 15 minutes.

Q: In the interplay between manga and animation, as animation director are you involved in the adaptation work in figuring out what to tell in the anime?

KY: When we first get the time slot as how long the anime will be, we contact the original creator to discuss what to do with it.

Q: What are your current and future projects?

KY: I'm working on a show with Pioneer called KACHOU OUGI, basically a salaryman story. It's a comedy where the main character is sort of a musician but still basically a salaryman.

Q: Since you've worked at many companies now, how would you compare Gainax to the rest of the industry?

KY: Gainax is not a bunch of professionals ... just a group of otaku. But they really love what they're doing so everything they do is done well.