1998October November December

Jan. 29, 1999
Hi, it's me, Muramatsu.

Today, a girl in Promotion planted a big kiss on a piece of paper. Believe it or not, this was part of their work for KareKano. The plan is to use this lip-print in an upcoming episode of the series.
To begin with, I went to the animation director's apartment on business, gasping all the way. While there, Takamura, one of the animators, called to me and asked if I had any red lipstick. As I wondered what this was about, he asked me to make a lip-print.
However.
Sadly, the lipstick I have isn't all that bright red. That's where the abovementioned girl comes in. Now she had a lot of lipstick in bright red shades, as you might imagine a really grown woman might. (Insert applause here. )So I promptly prevailed upon her. She seemed not to care much for it, but went along good-naturedly, with the results you read at the top of this piece.
It was hard getting a clean, sharp lip-print, though. They asked for a retake, saying they wanted more of a pucker. I couldn't believe we were doing a retake of a kiss.
There you have the trials and tribulations of one woman's lip-prints. Who knows when you might actually get to see the finished results? Stay tuned for the details.

Well, that's all for now. Love Love Happy.

(Muramatsu)


Jan. 22

Hi, it's me, Muramatsu.

Sato Tencho returned to the Third Floor around Noon, and suddenly said, "What is with that cat on the Second Floor? It's been there since this morning." I went to look, and sure enough, there was somebody's cat, wearing a yellow collar. What was it doing here, though, and moreover, why was it lying on the copier, only to get tossed off when somebody used the machine?
Maybe it came around because one of the GAINAX cats appeared in last week's ending animation, and decided it wanted to be next? Or did it come to help the KareKano staff, who are so busy they can use all the help they can get?

The latest info on the cat is, he (yes, he's a tomcat) apparently goes around to key animators who are taking off from work, checks on how the animation directors are getting on, and also checks to see how the scriptwriter is doing. Everyone here likes cats, though, so they're all thrilled. Maybe the ending credits for the next episode will say "Producer: Cat". But if that happened, then I would be the cat's assistant. Sob...

Well, that's all for now. Love Love Happy.

(Muramatsu)


Jan. 14
Hi, it's me, Muramatsu.

This morning Tencho came to work looking much happier than usual. No sooner did I start to wonder why than it came out that early this morning, he'd bought a CD at the Kichijoji Animate.
(My, but he takes this seriously.) And now he's listening to old hero theme songs that I couldn't possibly recognize.

Anyway, we had good weather in the Tokyo region today. And when the weather's good, you feel good, and I just naturally start humming while sending faxes...
Only to learn that you should make sure that no one is around before you start humming."
It was a bad idea to put the fax machine next to the stairs, too. Hiramatsu, who was right under the stairs, heard everything. Eeek!! Why did I have to pick this day to do that?
I was so embarrassed when he commented on what a good mood I must be in. I thought how amazing Kaworu was to be able to say how nice songs are when he was caught humming to himself. Oh brother.

Well, that's all for today. Love Love Happy.

Jan. 8
Happy New Year. It's me, Muramatsu.
The first episode of the New Year turns out to be a digest. First we have a digest at year's end, and now another one. Talk about no fun. After all, there are too many interesting things to fit into 30 minutes. There were some new parts, though, so depending how you look at it, you could come out ahead.

Now to work. I overslept and rushed to work, where I spotted some guy I didn't recognize. When I looked again, I realized that it was Hiramatsu, with a haircut. He looked younger, as if Kaji had suddenly turned into Touji (at least, that was how I saw it). I'm glad I didn't ask who he was. Instead, I asked why he'd gotten the haircut, and he said simply that it was because of the New Year. Looking around, I noticed others as well who'd done the same. So that explained it.

Thus began the new year. KareKano moves into the second half. In the series, it's still Summer. We're going along like it's midsummer, so we can use all the hot support we can get. Love Love Happy.

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