{"id":25621,"date":"2017-10-12T21:46:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T04:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=25621"},"modified":"2018-10-12T21:47:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T04:47:11","slug":"343a-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/343a-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Mecha Designer Junichiro Tamamori interview, July 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From Star Blazers\/Yamato<\/em> Magazine: for Yamato 2199<\/em> and Yamato 2202<\/em>, it was Junichiro Tamamori who took charge of the mechanical design for the Earth Federation. Mr. Tamamori, who has continued to love and study Yamato<\/em> from his childhood, shares his thoughts about Andromeda<\/em> and the Cosmo Tiger II.<\/p>\n
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For Yamato 2199<\/em> and Yamato 2202<\/em>, it was Junichiro Tamamori who took charge of the mechanical design for the Earth Federation. Mr. Tamamori, who has continued to love and study Yamato<\/em> from his childhood, shares his thoughts about Andromeda<\/em> and the Cosmo Tiger II.<\/p>\n
Published in Star Blazers\/Yamato magazine issue 0, July 2018<\/em><\/p>\n
Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>: a different kind of anime<\/h3>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Please tell me about your first encounter with Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> I was in the lower grades of elementary school. I already liked robots and tokusatsu heroes, but with Yamato<\/em> I got the impression that, \u201cThis is a slightly different anime\u2026different from manga.\u201d There was a battleship with a rocket nozzle behind it, and it was cool. I think the first time I saw it was at the floating continent [Episode 5]. I continued watching it afterward, but besides the mecha the worldview was also attractive.<\/p>\n
I liked the map, because the Japanese islands appeared on the red Earth. I thought, \u201cOh, there\u2019s Okinawa, where I live.\u201d Also, I made my own Planet Bomb using a globe. I attached a flashlight to the globe and dropped it, and it fell like a Planet Bomb, and I was able to reproduce the way the light spread out. It was a beautiful picture, but a lot of people died in the shadows. When I heard the woman\u2019s singing voice, the image of a \u201cfuneral in space\u201d flowed with it. The goddess-like image of Starsha appeared in space, and I felt a strange wonder amid this grim sensibility. My feelings were shaken in various ways.<\/p>\n
The drama was also attractive. Would Kodai and Yuki take a commemorative photo in the rear observation dome? I liked that scene. It was like the world of older brothers and sisters, how a man and woman look before they get married.<\/p>\n
And the scene where Mamoru Kodai goes back to Starsha on Iscandar. When they hugged each other, I felt embarrassed, as if I was looking into the adult world. I\u2019m still impressed by the image of Mamoru Kodai\u2019s hat falling lightly onto the ramp.<\/p>\n
The first series had monster-like episodes that gave me a thrill, with the Balanodon and the bee people of Planet Beemera. This overlaps with what I already said, but there were the Planet Bombs, the graveyard of Iscandar, the ruins of Planet Gamilas, Captain Okita\u2019s \u201cdeath image,\u201d the return of Yamamoto\u2019s plane before the warp, Kodai and Yuki\u2019s commemorative photo, Mamoru Kodai deciding to stay with Starsha on Iscandar\u2026there was something in all of that, a \u201chope to live for\u201d that resonated with a child\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
I realized later that I was doing this precise kind of world-building, so I think that was different, a special anime for me.<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> You kept following it even as a teenager, right?<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> That\u2019s right. Farewell to Yamato<\/em> was released in 1978 and caused a boom. At that time, my sister\u2019s friend came to the house to play, and she had the first issue of Animage<\/em>. I borrowed it, and there was design art for Andromeda<\/em>. Before then, I had only seen Yamato<\/em> on TV, and it was the first time I saw a design drawing in print. There was a new work of Yamato<\/em>, and there would be a new battleship. It had a sharp, modern, square shape, and I got a shock with a sense of the future. \u201cWhat is this!\u201d<\/p>\n
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After that, I got some money as a New Year\u2019s gift and bought the Farewell to Yamato<\/em> Encyclopedia from Keibunsha. That book was just a constant, \u201cGreat, great, great!\u201d A year later, I saw Farewell<\/em> for the first time on TV. I\u2019d seen Andromeda<\/em> and the Cosmo Tiger II (in the book) and now I was entering that design world.<\/p>\n
Even if the shape changes, preserving Yamato<\/em> without making it average is vital<\/h3>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Then I\u2019ll ask you about design. You took charge of mecha design continuously from Yamato 2199<\/em>, and it seems that the expression of Yamato<\/em> in 2202<\/em> is different.<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> Basically, design is expressed in a drawing, and a solid picture is secondary. I made a drawing, and the 3D side is responsible for making a 3D model. Yamato<\/em> looks different in 2199<\/em> and 2202<\/em> because it is designed according to each concept, and I dare to make differences.<\/p>\n
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Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Even in the original works, the designs for Yamato<\/em> were redrawn. Were you conscious of that?<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> Yamato<\/em> has changed according to the times, depending on how it is depicted in the story and the expression in the drawing. And they are all Yamato<\/em>. Therefore, it\u2019s natural that everyone imagines Yamato<\/em> differently. You have to be careful with it. However, there are several vital points and it shouldn\u2019t just end up as the greatest common denominator. Therefore, by exploring two or three different designs, I decided, \u201cWe\u2019ll go with this for 2199<\/em>.\u201d And then if there was a next time, we could make the Wave-Motion Gun slightly larger and make the nozzles a bit thicker\u2026that\u2019s what I thought at the time.<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> And 2202<\/em> started.<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> When it got to 2202<\/em> and Director Nobuyoshi Habara, we exchanged opinions about wanting to change Yamato<\/em> a little. I talked with Assistant Director Makoto Kobayashi, and we immediately came up with specific points to fix. In making a different series, I think it\u2019s difficult for it to correspond to one fixed Yamato<\/em> image. Something like, \u201cIt\u2019s slightly different, but the impression has the same result.\u201d I think in a direction that is non-linear.<\/p>\n
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I digress, but in the first internal illustration for the first series in 1974, the \u201cmouth\u201d of the Wave-Motion Gun was a \u201chole.\u201d As the \u201cWave-Motion Gun hole\u201d grew later, it gained the character of a \u201cmouth.\u201d We could conclude that one of the characteristics of the first work was to have a small hole, and there is some corroboration.<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Have you been studying that all this time?<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> I think it\u2019s the same for all the creators involved in Yamato<\/em>. We\u2019ve been thinking about it for decades. Therefore, I had a common language with the staff when we met for the first time. It\u2019s not quite like that on other works.<\/p>\n
\nOriginal Andromeda design by Kazutaka Miyatake\/Studio Nue, 1978<\/em><\/p>\n
Readiness to face the presentation of Andromeda<\/em> properly<\/h3>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Next to Yamato<\/em>, I would like to ask you about Andromeda<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> The Yamato<\/em> series is a world founded on the achievements of past creators. In light of that, I prepared for drawing Andromeda<\/em> in 2202<\/em> by saying, \u201cWe have to face up to this properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> A lot of fans have a special love for Andromeda<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> That\u2019s right. As opposed to that level of activity in Yamato 2<\/em>, it was treated a bit harshly in Farewell<\/em>. (Laughs). Since it was sunk, there are also those who felt that was good, too. <\/p>\n
I previously answered this in another interview, but Andromeda<\/em> has a goddess image. It projects a modern interpretation of Eros (impulse to life) and Thanatos (impulse of death) from Ancient Greece. Considering it from a contemporary Freudian psychological viewpoint, I think the dual nature of the impulse to life and the impulse to death is inherent in its weapons. You can find both in the thrill of the hidden power of guns and tanks. Life and death are right next to each other, and if you have the feeling of, \u201cI don\u2019t want to die!\u201d it leads to the power of living. Would you call this a wild thought?<\/p>\n
The essence of human beings can\u2019t be captured\u2026it\u2019s a primitive contradiction that can\u2019t be explained with reason, but when it comes to beautifully expressing human nature and summarizing it, I think Andromeda<\/em> is more symbolic than Yamato<\/em> in that sense. I think how we deal with that contradiction will continue to be an issue in modern society.<\/p>\n
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Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> What kind of effort and ingenuity did you put into the design?<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> In facing up to Andromeda<\/em>, the answer it led to came not just from the past designs by Kazutaka Miyatake, but after considering how Andromeda<\/em> moved in Farewell<\/em> and played and active role in Yamato 2<\/em>. That made it possible to get into a good mindset.<\/p>\n
The design drawings from those days were done for animation, not to make something three-dimensional, it was an image described to be deformed. For example, in the expression of overlapping wings and torso, the wings are shifted and it seems like the bridge is being swept backward. That\u2019s a good representation of this feature. The Wave-Motion muzzle, which looks like sunglasses, is also a vertical face on the drawing, and when I decided to incline the front face of the guns, the atmosphere of the design image came out.<\/p>\n
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I also examined the design from about 20 years ago for the renewed Andromeda<\/em> in the Farewell to Yamato<\/em> Playstation game (Bandai), and in the rear pass the entire bow was narrowed down to the front. I read that as something Mr. Miyatake wanted to say there, that the Wave-Motion Gun isn\u2019t straight since it narrows down in the front. After we\u2019d had it slightly inflated in the front, we thought about narrowing it forward.<\/p>\n
\nPlaystation redesign by Kazutaka Miyatake, 1999<\/em><\/p>\n
Adopting a Coke bottle-like line in the 2202 Andromeda<\/em><\/h3>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> You changed the face, didn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> If you look at common mecha designs such as robots, it\u2019s cool when the overall proportion is emphasized, and it\u2019s pleasing. In the case of a ship, the way you apply curved surfaces becomes very important. So I thought, \u201cdesign it like a face.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I had drawn Andromeda<\/em> illustrations as a hobby, I didn\u2019t make that connection anywhere. The front part of the Wave-Motion Gun is hexagonal, and the rear of the hull is rounded. The line work doesn\u2019t explain how that happens, so it can differ considerably depending on how you interpret it. I applied automobile design to it this time. Automotive design makes something that looks very smart in limited dimensions, and devises something thick and sturdy. Even if the height of the bonnet is uniform, there\u2019s a trick to shaving a little off to make it look like a sports car.<\/p>\n
\nCG render of Andromeda for Yamato 2202.<\/em><\/p>\n
For Andromeda<\/em>, I squeezed the middle of the hull, a bit like a Coke bottle. I gave it a glamorous feeling of fattening it up in the rear. You can understand it when a line of reflected light passes from front to back. I wanted the Wave-Motion Gun to have some freshness to it, not just a simple hexagon shape. If the hex plane connected to the rear just as is, you wouldn\u2019t see a breakthrough in the design. Therefore, I rounded the sides of the gun a little. It\u2019s an invisible line, but it connects smoothly. When the light hits it, it\u2019s possible for that line to be a main highlight. This is another application of automobile design, near the door handle of a car. It\u2019s the same as the part where the light swells out a little, then continues straight. I designed the surface that way and also made a 3D model myself, then handed it off to the staff for reference.<\/p>\n
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Because 2202<\/em> is a remake, I made a form with a sense of respect for the original, and I also wanted to make it a design that could be used in various ways. So you might get a sudden glimpse and say that it hasn\u2019t changed at all, which would be just fine.<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> It hasn\u2019t changed at all, but when I look closely it\u2019s completely different, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> I want you to pay more attention to my predecessors, to pay attention to what the creators made at the time. I didn\u2019t invent it. As I often say about Yamato<\/em>, it\u2019s a cultural asset. I want to preserve it and utilize it well. There\u2019s a part of it that should be protected and a part that should be utilized. So by all means, I\u2019d like to see young people turn their eyes to the original.<\/p>\n
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The simplicity and complexity of the Cosmo Tiger II<\/h3>\n
Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> After Andromeda<\/em>, please tell me about the Cosmo Tiger II.<\/p>\n
Tamamori:<\/em><\/span> Although the Cosmo Tiger II of Farewell to Yamato<\/em> seems to have a simple composition, I feel that it was designed with a great sense of mecha. A squarish fuselage\u2026a nose and wings. Especially as it narrows down the center of the fuselage. This is beautiful. In the world of airplanes, this narrowing is done for air resistance. This expresses its resemblance to an airplane, and it\u2019s necessary to follow this message properly.<\/p>\n
\nOriginal Cosmo Tiger II design by Kazutaka Miyatake\/Studio Nue, 1978.<\/em><\/p>\n
Rather than drawing it according to the design image, I think many people are strongly impressed when it is deformed, as Yoshinori Kanada drew it. Everyone is a fan of cool Cosmo Tigers, so I was strongly conscious of how to include that action. Therefore, the nose is Kanada-style. In Miyatake\u2019s design is thicker, narrowing at the front. This time I narrowed it a bit and gave it some swelling like a cobra. I thought a lot about whether I should do it or not, then just decided that I should.<\/p>\n
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As I said earlier, the overall shape is a complicated thing with a simple configuration. More specifically, when you see it from the side, it isn\u2019t level. You can see a wavy flow in the design with a basic S-shape. The fuselage rises at the front, and the wing has an angle of attack. The nose is broken, and the underside is straight. On the other hand, the rear is inclined and has triangular blades that makes it look like the two corners of the rear are jumping up, so it can be seen as a \u201cwave.\u201d Miyatake gave it elements that brought a charm to this simple structure, and I was conscious of preserving that while also exaggerating it.<\/p>\n
\nLeft: CG model in standard form. Right: deformed for \u201cKanada style.\u201d Read more about this process here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
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