”Sushidarake:” Exhibition Celebrating 20 Years as a Professional Animator + Interview

Sushio: I have no idea, actually. (Laughs)

Tachikawa (Marketing Designer at Trigger Inc.): When we were on the subject of Trigger’s 5th year since founding, we got onto something like “Oh, well, it’s been 20 years for you, hasn’t it?” And it sort of started from there.

Sushio: Was that how it happened?

Sushio: It was like, “Eh? We’re really doing this?”

(Everyone laughs)

Sushio: It just happened all of a sudden, and then we were doing it.

Tachikawa: We were picking out things here and there, and it eventually turned into an exhibition. (Laughs)

Sushio: “Nothing,” I think.

Sushio: Oh, yes, I am looking forward to it.

(Everyone erupts in laughter)

Sushio: The piece that’ll be on the most prominent display--the illustration for Bump of Chicken’s 20th anniversary T-shirt--is pretty memorable for me right now after having worked on it.

Sushio: Bump of Chicken has all these hundreds of thousands of fans, and they’re wearing T-shirts with The Living Dead cover on it, which I worked on the art for. Even though everyone was happy because they were Bump of Chicken T-shirts, it was still moving that so many people were excited to wear shirts with something I worked on, especially when I think of how no one knew who I was, a long time ago.

Sushio: Seeing so many thousands of people were all wearing it, it made me super happy and all tingly.

Sushio: It really was. I even thought of going around to all the girls there and saying “I drew that!” (Laughs)

(Everyone laughs)

Sushio: Just about anyone who likes art, I suppose. There’s a variety of genres it covers; there are works that are well-drawn, and some works that are actually not conventionally well-drawn, going for a non-traditional feel for those that like that sort of thing--a ton of detail is conveyed through a lot of the art. So I guess the kind of people I’d like to come would be people who’d think that Sushio is the greatest artist ever after seeing the show.

Sushio: It can really be anything. You don’t actually have to buy anything--you can write a letter, or even draw me something. If anything, I would be happier to receive people’s drawings.

Sushio: Art isn’t about good or bad. It’s about the feelings that go into the work. If anything, if somebody hands me something really good, it might make me self-conscious about my own art, thinking I’d like to draw like that.

Sushio: I think it’ll be very apparent when you see what’s on display at the exhibition. I encourage people to come take a look, since every piece has influences from other works in some way.

Sushio: There’s actually more private pieces and sketches than not. That’s why getting authorization to do this exhibit was tricky (laugh). Thank you Tachikawa for that, by the way! I’m actually kind of worried what guests are going to think because just so many of the works are sketches.

Sushio: Well, it’s supposed to be celebrating 20 years of me being an animator, and there’s hardly anything to do with anime in the exhibition.　I’m worried somebody might be excited to see drafts from Kill La Kill, let’s say, and they’ll be like, “Huh? Where are they?”

Sushio: If anything, space was probably the biggest factor. There were just so many to choose from, so when I whittled the list down, it was mostly individual pieces. So there was another stage of selections and replacements.

Sushio: I believe “Sushidarake” as the title for the exhibit fits it perfectly now.

Sushio: Gurren Lagann, for sure. Until that point, I only drew original artwork for my own sense of self-satisfaction. But after meeting and interacting with several fans at a Gurren Lagann event, I realized just how intently all the fans were looking at the characters. That’s when it stopped being about myself. I began to think differently, and about how I wanted to capture and convey movements that were realistic to the characters.

Sushio: I chose to create simple art that’s easily identifiable. Before that, I thought as long as the character was cool, then their actions will be conveyed no matter how complicated the movements are in action scenes.

Sushio: No, it was quite easy. When I was drawing selfishly, I drew elaborate scenes in order to make it eye-catching. The original artwork was full of what I wanted to see. But once I changed my way of thinking, I could focus on how to show the character’s movements, and it became easier in that I didn’t have to show unnecessary actions. Manga illustrators often say “the character moves and comes to life on their own,” but I think it’s really true. Original artwork is about drawing the life of the character itself. Fans want to see their favorite character come to life; no one’s there to see just what I like to draw.

Sushio: I’ve been really able to feel like everyone can properly see and feel the “movement” of the character.

Sushio: If you have trouble, you can try actually acting out the movement and pose yourself. Some movements I already have down in my head from drawing them so often, but there are times when I just have to try doing them myself. Actually, a lot of times.

Sushio: Exactly, and there’s also how center of gravity shifts and such. Like when there’s a scene with swinging a sword, weight has to shift from the leg, then to the sword and the hand that’s swing it, something like that.

Sushio: I take pictures, and I also record. I’ll have someone in the studio stop what they’re doing and act out the motion for me, so I can film it and go back to it later.

Sushio: It is, but breaking it down and coming up with solutions is part of the joy of an animator’s work.

Sushio: In those cases, you have to take your own motions and exaggerate them, I suppose.

Sushio: It’s to not be overly caught up in realism. I try to mix up some exaggeration into realistic motions. This only applies to anime that I’ve worked on, of course, but I believe that while fully realistic motions are nice, too much detail makes the picture busy and hard to follow. So I try and limit the amount of detail and create balanced, “like real” movements.

Sushio: That just comes down to feel. Heh heh.

Sushio: There is a poster of me on a Honda Monkey motorbike. That one I really like.

Sushio: I like to draw them. The bike in the picture is one that I rode a long time ago… but it was stolen a year after I bought it. It was rare too: a 30th anniversary Monkey. So the poster is titled 20th Anniversary Me on the (Stolen) Rare 30th Anniversary Monkey; my tearful illustration.