I’m planning to go see the Space Battleship Yamato Complete Records Exhibition in Ebina on the morning of the 9th. After that, I’ll grab some lunch somewhere and then head back to get some work done. Come to think of it, this will be my first time ever setting foot in Ebina.
I snuck away from work and headed to Ebina! I really enjoyed the Complete Records Exhibition. I even made some new discoveries. I also managed to buy some Kenji Tsuruta merchandise. All right, time to head back and get back to work.
I’m currently wrestling with the layout for my Yamato 2199 serial. The drawings I did last night while sleepy turned out to be no good, as expected. I’ve been redrawing them since this morning. I really should have just gone to bed early. It’s a never-ending cycle. That’s frustrating, too.
When drawing fighter jets or battleships, I often get hung up on the details and end up messing up the overall proportions. On top of that, they take many times longer to draw than panels featuring characters. Mecha isn’t my strong suit, so it’s an extra struggle.
I’ve got the Summer Comiket manuscript to deal with too. I feel like I’m about to hit a breaking point with everything piling up.
This is what the flyer for my lecture at Kyoto Seika University at the end of the month is shaping up to look like.
Since the lecture is closed to the public this time, I probably won’t get in trouble even if I touch upon some risky topics.
As for the content, I plan to talk about my stance as a manga artist while discussing the historical significance and value of Space Battleship Yamato as an animated work, the path to its revival through remakes, and my own personal involvement with the franchise. I’ve already put together an outline and received the university’s approval on the general direction, so now I just need to prepare the presentation materials alongside my regular serial work.
Currently at the Yamato lecture in Ebina. The organizer, Osamu Kobayashi, speaks very fast and has a voice quality that’s hard for the microphone to pick up, so there are times when I have no idea what he’s saying!
Streaming for Yamato 3199 Chapter 6 has begun now that most theatrical screenings have wrapped up. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I participated in an audio commentary for the first time in the series since 2199.
Since the production team was gathered together, the conversation focused quite a bit on direction and visual composition. I think this will allow viewers to enjoy Chapter 6 on a deeper level from those perspectives. I recall talking about some pretty edgy stuff, but that might have ended up on the cutting room floor!!
I’m generally not good at telling funny or entertaining stories; I tend to gravitate toward gloomy, dark, and heavy topics, which often puts people off. For this commentary, I’m trying my best to keep things upbeat, much like on a radio show, but please bear with me, as it won’t quite have the vibe of a TV variety show.
Now that the release has reached a milestone, here is a rejected design for the monitor graphics used to pinpoint a location by matching the mountain ridgeline seen at the start of Yamato 3199 Chapter 6.
In the proposal I submitted, I illustrated the difference in the ridgeline between 2026 and 2207, showing how it had been altered not just by planet bombs, but also by a massive earthquake and a volcanic eruption of Mt. Fuji that caused a structural collapse. The production team rejected it, though. Even though that eruption and massive earthquake are coming soon…
That said, I believe the silhouette of Mt. Fuji was used in the background when the Yukikaze departed for Operation M in 2199, so the impression was that the ridgeline hadn’t been drastically ruined from certain viewing angles. I imagine the next eruption will occur on the mountainside, shifting toward the foothills like the Hoei eruption. Everyone living in the Tokyo metropolitan area should be prepared for an eruption!