Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
“It amazes me that Japanese animation can
produce such a wide variety of works.”
One of the most internationally acclaimed animation production companies, Production I.G is well known for Ghost in the Shell and the animated segments of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1. The president of I.G and a veteran animation producer, Mr. Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, has played a key role in the internationalization of Japanese animation. Upon the release of Production I.G’s first 3-D feature animation, Oblivion Island: Haruka and The Magic Mirror, he talks about the renaissance of I.G films and shares his view of the industry.
In the US, Production I.G is known for action-oriented anime. Would you tell me why you chose a heart-warming, family-oriented theme for your latest 3-D animated film, Oblivion Island: Haruka and The Magic Mirror?
First of all, I define Production I.G as a group of creators. With this in mind, finding a way to maximize the creators’ motivation is crucial. In the beginning of this project, I realized that many of the creators wanted to make something amusing for children, something they could be proud of for their kids. Yes, I.G has mainly produced edgy anime for grown-ups, but it was the enthusiasm of the creators that urged us to produce family-oriented animation this time.
It’s impressive that you combine the features of 2-D and 3-D beautifully and create a unique textural quality. I believe it is extremely difficult, so why did you tackle this technical challenge?
Animation in Japan has a long-established and deep-rooted tradition as a two dimensional method of visual expression. This has probably been influenced by another two-dimensional medium that is hugely popular in Japan, manga. From the interaction of these two media, this country could enjoy a wealth of high quality and both visually and narratively sophisticated manga and anime. These works also improved the readers’ and audiences’ critical views. So, I would say that 2-D is the foundation of Japanese animation. Then 3-D came along. I thought it was time for I.G to take advantage of our animators’ talents and move on to making 3-D animation. What we were particular about while employing 3-D was reproducing the “kawaii” [cute] attributes of the main character, a 16-year-old girl. It was certainly tough. The 3-D characters made by Pixar and Dreamworks are mostly drawn using deformer animation [changing the shape of an object], and I think they intentionally avoid reproducing realistic characters due to the production difficulty. So, it was an adventure and a challenging mission for us to create the kawaii expressions and movements of the character. We went through trial and error and tested again and again and again to create the movements of the character. We were absolutely overwhelmed until we realized how difficult it is to make a realistic girl character look cute.
How would you describe the essence of Production I.G?
I understand that it is important to stay close to the audience, but what we treasure at Production I.G is the fact that the talented people here make efforts to explore how visual images can evoke audience identification, no matter how multi-layered and complicated the content may look. I’m confident that each animator here has world-class competitive skills and that it would be hard to find any other anime studio where such brilliant animators work together.
What about the essence of Japanese animation, then?
It amazes me that Japanese animation can produce such a wide variety of works, first of all. They are not always 100% successful in terms of business, to be honest, but there is room for failure. We are able to produce tremendous amounts of anime in the most diverse genres, from heart-warming animation for kids to cutting-edge stories for adults, combining 2-D and 3-D techniques in ever-evolving creative styles. Also, as long as I have observed, the people in Japan’s anime industry tend to be mass-oriented. Here, “mass” refers both to the public and to a niche market that attracts a massive audience. Japanese animators can make works that appeal to these two different types of audiences. That’s the remarkable thing about Japanese animation.
What problems have you observed recently in Japanese animation?
In my opinion, the business model is overly focused on the niche market and tends to produce films mainly for the DVD market. The balance between mass market and niche market is off, I think. This is actually one of the reasons that I.G made Oblivion Island. We were fearful it would endanger the company to keep making films geared mainly toward the niche market. So, the fact that I.G could make Oblivion Island is a milestone that will lead to our next projects.
Japanese animated films have not achieved commercial success in the US market so far. What is necessary for the Japanese animation industry to produce works appealing to Japanese and foreign audiences alike?
I think 3-D is the key. We may be able to compete with Hollywood giants like Pixar and Dreamworks by using our unique 3-D technique that reproduces realistic facial expressions and movement without relying on techniques like motion capture. Besides bringing the audience into the story, what is crucial for the Japanese animation industry now is to step up from 2-D to 3-D. I don’t think we have to push ourselves to produce big-budget animation films like Hollywood, but rather we should polish our technique so that it will be sought after from outside the country. I strongly believe that there is no gap between the abilities of a Hollywood animator and one of Japan’s. So, it’s just the matter of a creative decision either to make a big-scale film or highlight the unique technical aspects of making the character look more attractive, and I know there are substantial demands for the latter. If the Japanese animation industry improved its standard in 3-D, it would be able to compete with Hollywood 3-D animation as well as 2-D. But to tell the truth, Hollywood is ahead of us in terms of 3-D technique at this moment.
It would be a perfect scenario if Hollywood producers offered a project to I.G after viewing Oblivion.
Right. From the viewpoint of sales promotion, the works we have produced are the best sales tools. It would be ideal if they offered a project to us from their sheer appreciation, and it’s the best way to establish a good business relationship.
A few years ago, the Japanese government started a program at Tokyo University to train film producers. As one of the lecturers, would you tell us how it’s going? Any considerable progress?
Well, it’s hard to tell at this point, and all I can say is that it will take time. I expect we will be able to see some progress in five, ten years. Movies cannot be produced by people who are willing to compromise the quality of the film, no matter how intelligent they are. Intelligence is important, but what film producers really need are insatiable passion to do more and hunger for better works. This type of producer would attract followers.
Would you recommend a few destinations or activities to Chopsticks NY readers who are planning to visit Japan?
What comes to mind when thinking of Japanese culture is “mishmash.” So, I think it’s fun to visit Akihabara or Nakano Broadway in Tokyo to experience this mishmash aspect. While Akihabara is a bit stretched out, Nakano Broadway is compact and easy to explore. Strolling down Nakano Broadway would be better for those who don’t have much time.
—– Interview by Noriko Komura
Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
Born in Tokyo in 1958, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa founded Production I.G with the character designer Takayuki Goto in 1987. The company has produced a number of acclaimed feature films, OVA (original video animation), TV shows, and videogames. Such works, which have earned international critical acclaim for their high-profile storytelling and top-notch animation quality, include Ghost in the Shell (1995), Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999), Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), Innocence (2004), and The Sky Crawlers (2008). Cutting-edge I.G animations are said to have influenced many pre-eminent Hollywood creators and resulted in collaboration with Quentin Tarantino on the animation sequence in his world hit, Kill Bill: Vol. 1. In 2003, Ishikawa was appointed Entrepreneur of the Year Country Winner for Japan. In December 2005, Ishikawa had brought the little studio he founded to a JASDAC-publicly listed company with 130 employees and more than 150 animators.
Oblivion Island: Haruka and The Magic Mirror
Production I.G’s first 3-D CG animation film delves into a female protagonist’s adventure, exploring (and rediscovering) what’s really important to her. Mysteriously finding herself in a parallel world called Oblivion Island, she looks for her mother’s mirror and starts remembering the precious memory of her childhood.
Director: Shinsuke Sato Animation Director, Storyboard: Naoyoshi Shiotani Screenplay: Hirotaka Adachi, Shinsuke Sato Character Design: Ren Ishimori, Ryo Hirata CG Director: Takashi Nagasaki Art Director: Masanobu Nomura Music: Tadashi Ueda Animation Producer: Shinji Takagi
Animation Production: Production I.G in association with Polygon Pictures
www.production-ig.com
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