{"id":41124,"date":"2024-06-27T18:40:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T01:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=41124"},"modified":"2025-07-09T19:14:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T02:14:53","slug":"figurekinginterview1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/figurekinginterview1\/","title":{"rendered":"Figure King<\/em> design interview 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yamato<\/em> Testimonial 1 <\/h3>\n

Kenichi Matsuzaki<\/h2>\n

\u201cI think people could sense that this was created by someone who understood science-fiction.\u201d<\/h3>\n

Studio Nue, credited as \u201cdesign collaborator\u201d in the first TV series, was founded as a studio specializing in science-fiction illustrations and became a group of science-fiction enthusiasts. In its early days, the studio’s main work was designing for TV programs such as Hirake! Ponkikki<\/em><\/a> and anime works. Space Battleship Yamato<\/em> was a project led by Kenichi Matsuzaki, a founding member of Nue, who served as the liaison between Nue and Office Academy, the anime studio. In addition to assigning tasks, he also worked as a designer himself, drawing many of the settings.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> When you first became involved with Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>, it wasn’t called that yet, was it?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> When the offer came, we were still Crystal Art Studio, the predecessor to Studio Nue, and the title was Asteroid 6<\/em>. There wasn’t much in the way of design yet. Of course, there was no trace of Yamato<\/em>. The only concept was that an asteroid had been hollowed out to create a spaceship. In battle, the rock would be blown up and used as a weapon or defense.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> According to Haruka Takachiho, the reason you got involved was through an introduction by Kazuaki Saito, right?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> I don’t remember that part clearly. Crystal Art Studio was originally a company founded by SF enthusiasts, so I think it was through connections in that field.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> From there, the project evolved into Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>, right?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> I was drawing a spaceship inside an asteroid. At first, [Exec Producer] Yoshinobu Nishizaki asked me to draw a ship like the battleship Mikasa<\/em>. Mikasa<\/em>? I thought it was kind of ugly, but since he asked me to draw it, I had no choice but to do so. As I redrew it several times, it gradually took on the shape of a battleship, with an angle from the bow to the wave-cutting part and a hull at the bottom. The hull also developed this curved shape. When the staff saw it, they said it looked like the Nagato<\/em>, so I asked, \u201cSo is this the space battleship Nagato<\/em>?\u201d But they said Nagato<\/em> didn’t have enough name value, so it should be Yamato<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> So that’s how you ended up flying the Battleship Yamato<\/em> in the sky?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> Yes. It just happened naturally as the staff discussed it. But once we settled on Yamato<\/em>, the project was scrapped. This was because Mushi Pro, the production company, went bankrupt.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> What led to the revival of the project after it was shelved?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> I’m not really sure. At the time, we were just low-level employees, so we weren’t told anything about that. However, before the project was shelved, the decision to use Yamato<\/em> had been made at the top, so when the project was revived, it came down to us as Yamato<\/em>. Leiji Matsumoto also drew the designs with Yamato<\/em> in mind.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> After production started, how were you involved in the project?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> My main job was to attend meetings, bring the results back to Nue, and pass them on to Katoh and Miyatake for design. Nue participated with a team of three people. The meetings were held in a conference room called the Gamilas Room. There, we decided on things like, \u201cFor the scene in Episode X, we need this kind of mecha,\u201d and then we would take that back and design it as a team of three. The designs would be checked by Mr. Matsumoto, and if they were approved, they would be adopted as is, or sometimes revised. It was similar to script rewrites. The designs included small mecha that appeared in each episode, as well as cleanup work for things like Yamato<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However, this method only worked in the very early stages. By the end, we didn’t even have time to take designs back to the studio. I had to draw the necessary designs on the spot, and even though they were just rough sketches, the animators would use them to create the actual drawings. There was no time to create proper settings.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Indeed, toward the end of the series, the guest mecha you designed become more prominent.<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> What stands out to me is the transport mecha used to load the Cosmo Cleaner parts onto Yamato<\/em> when they arrive at Iscandar. I thought the crew would have trouble loading and unloading such heavy cargo using tracks. I also thought it wouldn’t look futuristic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Based on the Asteroid 6 (Asteroid Ship)<\/em> concept by SF writer Aritsune Toyota, Yamato<\/em> underwent various revisions and was finalized just before production of the pilot version of Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>. The Yamato<\/em> depicted in the promotional pamphlet, which was used in various forms, was based on art by background director Hachiro Tsukima. That’s why I designed the flying mecha like that. Looking back now, it was a drone.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Were the parts divided among the three of you?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> We didn’t decide that in detail. We each had our own strengths, and there were time constraints due to other work.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Did you divide the work between the Earth side and the Gamilas side?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> There was some division, but it was on a case-by-case basis. When things got hectic, we couldn’t say who was responsible for what any more.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Studio Nue also played a significant role as staff members who understood science-fiction, correct?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> At the time, it wasn’t so much about science-fiction as it was about science in general. Among the staff, aside from director Noboru Ishiguro, almost no one understood it. This wasn’t so much about the staff as it was about the general public’s understanding at the time. It was an era when many people still believed there was air in space. They didn’t understand zero gravity either. It was a time when it was almost a joke to tell someone to open the window in a spaceship because someone was smoking.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I hear that Mr. Ishiguro himself corrected the animation of the explosions.<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> When there was an explosion and debris flew around, it fell downward even though it’s in space. No matter how many times it was pointed out, it wouldn’t get fixed. So he had no choice but to fix it himself. Mr. Ishiguro would complain, \u201cI’m the director, you know,\u201d while fixing it. But of course, you can’t fix everything. For example, in the first episode, Yukikaze<\/em> explodes and looks like it’s falling downward, but we had to convince ourselves that it was just moving off-screen.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> As an SF fan, did you contribute any ideas at the time?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> Mr. Ishiguro was a fan of SF, so it was easy to talk to him, but that meant I had to listen to his complaints (laughs).<\/p>\n

Since I wasn’t involved in the story development, I couldn’t contribute much in terms of ideas. However, there were times when I asked the writers to stop using certain descriptions because I thought they were scientifically inaccurate. For example, there was an episode (Episode 11) where Dessler’s mines appeared. Yamato<\/em> was surrounded by countless mines and gradually tilted its hull to avoid contact. There was a line that said, \u201cIf we tilt any further, we won’t be able to recover.\u201d While that might be true for a ship floating in the ocean, it doesn’t apply to a ship floating in space. I got that line cut, of course.<\/p>\n

We could make corrections in cases like this, but most of the time we couldn\u2019t. Design requests were made on a scene-by-scene basis, so it was hard to see the big picture, and as the lowest-ranking staff members, it was difficult for us to speak up to the higher-ups about such details. Plus, if we had brought it up during a crunch time, it could have led to a broadcast accident. (Laughs) So there were many times when I watched the broadcast and ended up scratching my head.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> In some cases, lines were written to bring out the reality.<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> Even though there were many imperfections like this, I think people could sense that Studio Nue, Mr. Ishiguro, Mr. Matsumoto, and others who understood science-fiction were working on it, even if only to some extent. That may be what made the work so enduring. As I mentioned earlier, this was an era when people still thought there was air in space.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> As an SF element, for example, the show carefully explained what a warp is in order to make a 148,000-light-year journey possible.<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> First, I wonder if people understood what a light-year is. 148,000 light-years? That’s farther away than America? (laughs)<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> How did you perceive the feel of the work at the time?<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> At that time, I think anime was still in its experimental stage. Space and sea stories were said to be unpopular. But in the long run, I think it was a success to take on the challenge of a space story. However, that was only the result in the end. At first, it wasn’t appreciated at all. The same is true for Mobile Suit Gundam<\/em>. There was no internet at the time, so it took time for it to gain popularity.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> SF didn’t really catch on with the general public until Star Wars<\/em> came out.<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> That’s right. But Star Wars<\/em> came after Yamato<\/em>. Until then, Japanese works were only influenced by overseas works. But with the arrival of Yamato<\/em>, I think we can finally say that the relationship became mutual, where one influences the other.<\/p>\n

Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> It’s been 50 years since the first work.<\/p>\n

Matsuzaki:<\/em><\/span> We’re surprised that we’ve also survived, not just the film itself. Back then, it was normal to stay up for three or four days straight, but we were young, so we could do it. However, because we pushed ourselves so hard back then, we’re now feeling the effects as we get older. That’s why some people in the industry are dying even though they’re not that old. Considering that, I think we have survived well.<\/p>\n


\nSome of Matsuzaki’s designs for Series 1<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PROFILE<\/p>\n

Born on October 15, 1950, in Tokyo. While still in university, he ran the SF fan club SF Central Art. Later, he co-founded Crystal Art Studio with Haruka Takachiho, Kazutaka Miyatake, and Naoyuki Katoh. Initially active as an illustrator and mecha designer, he contributed to the design of Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>. He later shifted to scriptwriting, starting with Daitarn 3<\/em>. His major works include Yamato, Mobile Suit Gundam, Legendary God Giant Ideon, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Century Orguss<\/em>, and Hell Target<\/em>. He is currently working independently, handling not only anime but also original works and screenplays for games.<\/p>\n

See his credit list at Anime News Network here<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Return to previous article<\/a><\/p>\n

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