In the newest entry of the “Usopp’s ‘This is True’!” column written by Usopp’s voice actor Kappei Yamaguchi, he sits down with General Animation Director for the One Piece anime, Kazuya Hisada. Besides One Piece, Hisada has also worked on several other big anime series such as Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and Toriko.
What follows are some highlights from the entire interview. These are, for the most part, not literal translations from the interview, but a summary of what was said by Kazuya Hisada and Yamaguchi as a whole.
Q. So let’s get down to business, could you please explain to us what exactly you do?
A. Well, I mainly do the character designs and model sheets used for the anime, as well as checking the initial drawings when there’s a transition in the anime series.
Over time, however, you get that feeling of wanting to improve/evolve along with the original work, but it’s kind of difficult to change anything along the road with anime. That being said, I do always want to try and match up with the manga as much as possible. Because anime’s something created together with a lot of people, if you were to (constantly) change every little thing, nobody wouldn’t know what to do which would make everything harder. It’s kind of like a team battle, with everyone working hard.
Sometimes though, when we have to draw certain characters that haven’t had a lot of screen-time in the original series — like say Ivankov — we either try and draw them as well as possible based on what we’ve seen there, or imagine what kind of expressions, mannerisms that character would have. Those are the two only possibilities, really.
I actually brought this drawing I made for Usopp. First I start drawing the rough sketch. Then, I ink the drawing, add some shadows and lastly, I have it coloured. When drawing manually you can add some “energy” in your lines, and just, have fun with it (laughs).
Q. Hisada-san, is there any character you like and/or enjoyed drawing?
A. Hmm, those with a funny face I guess… Someone with characteristic features like the Kuja pirates. Though, Hancock on the other hand, since she’s a really beautiful character I was actually pretty stressed because she was hard to draw. Not as in, she gave off an evil aura or anything (laugh) but hard to draw as in: if you mess up the balance even just a little bit…
As for characters I just like, I’d say Aokiji and for female characters just about anyone from the Kuja Pirates, I guess.
Q. Hisada-san, what’s the part of a story you were in charge of that you especially liked?
A. Hmm, Ace’s story I guess? The sheer amount of characters appearing in that part, the tension rising… it was really a fully-stretched arc.
(Reminder: Be sure to go read the interview with series director Miyamoto where he answers the same question. His answer might surprise you!)
Q. Could you make a model drawing of me? Like, could you place me somewhere in the middle of the arena’s visitors, please put a Straw Hat member’s voice actor in there! (laugh) Or maybe just make me into a toy!
A. Are you okay with just being in the coliseum’s spectators? But just don’t go raising the bar too high, please … (laugh) I actually brought some character designs that are still work in progress for the Dressrosa Arc, but I haven’t yet inked them so we can’t show these just yet.
