【Furusato P (Producer) Anime Path】Episode 4: " Future GPX Cyber Formula, It All Started with a Wonderful Encounter"

It all started with Yoshii-san, followed by Nakagawa-san, Sashida-san, Fukuda-san, and Ryosawa-san. Next, as instructed by Fukuda-san, I had to meet with Inomata (Mutsumi) to have she draw the original character designs. I knew the name but had never met her, so I asked Yoshii-san to make a phone call and introduce me. I was a rookie producer making use of my boss. Looking back, I'm filled with a sincere sense of regret. Yoshii-san, it's a bit late, but "thank you very much for that time."

And so, we decided to meet at a coffee shop called "Miyaden" near Seibu Yanagisawa Station. In fact, as of 2024, this coffee shop is still there. Thanks to Yoshii-san, I was able to meet with Inomata-san safely and explained that I wanted them to draw character designs for characters who would be aged up by two years. Inomata-san agreed with a smile, saying, "I'll draw them if you think I'm suitable." Later, when I told Fukuda-san that Inomata-san had agreed to do it, he looked relieved and pleased, as if that was good news.

Inomata-san has been drawing uniform designs for "Mai-HiME" for a while now. After I left Sunrise and started my own company, I have had Inomata-san draw many character designs for original project proposals. I hope to show them to everyone someday!

The next task is to select an animator who can create animation settings based on Inomata-san's original character designs. Fukuda-san made several orders here. The first was that the animator who draws the character designs for the anime should also serve as the chief animation director. The second was that the design and chief animation director should join the Sunrise studio. So, my job was to check the schedule and the circumstances of Takahiro Yoshimatsu (the designer & chief animation director for the TV version of "Cyber Formula" and the OVA version "11・ZERO") from Studio Live.

After bustling communication, the response from Studio Live was, "We can handle Yoshimatsu-kun's design work, but being the chief animation director is impossible due to other commitments." When I relayed this to Fukuda-san, he asked, "Understood. Then, is there any animator you would like to have draw?"I mentioned the name of Hirowa Kuyuki.

 

Kuyuki-san is an animator who started in the Brave series and moved from mechanical supervision to animation direction. Moreover, "Brave Police J-Decker" had a system where guest character designs were drawn by different animation directors for each episode. I thought the guest designs in the episodes directed by Kuyuki-san were very tasteful, and I liked them. Since then, I had hoped to ask him to handle the design work when I became a producer, so I was pleased that it had come to fruition.

The number of people I meet keeps increasing.

I also approached Masaharu Kawamori for the machine design and received his approval. It was my first time meeting Mr. Kawamori, but having watched TV shows and movies like "Super Dimension Fortress Macross," I always thought of him as a multi-talented individual skilled in mecha design and directing. Since the machine designs of "Cyber Formula" are also full of charm, I was excited about the opportunity to work with such a wonderful creator.

As an aside, it's a secret that I mistakenly thought Mr. Kawamori from "Super Dimension Fortress Macross" and Mr. Inomata from " Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko " and "Windaria," who have been active since their youth, were much older than me. Cough, cough.

I remember calling Mr. Kawamori late at night to hurry up with the designs, and we ended up talking about car designs for what felt like an hour, maybe even two hours. I recall how enjoyable it was to discuss settings with mecha designers during "Brave Exkaiser," but conversing with Mr. Kawamori was incredibly fun. Especially, we talked a lot about car designs, mentioning how elegant and beautiful the designs created by designers like Pininfarina and Giorgetto Giugiaro are. Considering that Mr. Kawamori plays the role of several car manufacturers in the world of "Cyber Formula," it's just impressive. From him, I learned about the importance of building a world view.

Mr. Fukuda wanted to continue working with Ms. Shigemi Ikeda from Atelier Musa, who had been handling the art for the TV series. So, I contacted her and went to the studio. I had never worked with Ms. Ikeda before, but since our first meeting, we worked together on "GEAR Fighter Dendoh" and "Crush Gear Turbo."

In our several meetings and conversations, I often found myself learning things that could enhance my skills. For example, she explained that settings are drawn with pencil lines, but backgrounds are expressed with a brush in terms of areas. Expressing in terms of areas means something like laying the pencil flat to draw with the side of the lead for a background. It makes sense when you think of drawing backgrounds with areas and shadows.

Lines and areas, settings and backgrounds—there is a big difference between them, but I had been considering both as aspects of art, so this was a significant shift in my perspective. Settings involve drawing lines with a sharpened pencil to create cities, schools, bases, mountains, etc. This means that even within drawing, some people are better suited to drawing settings, while others are better at drawing backgrounds. I learned this at that time. This applies to animators as well. There is a difference between those who are good at designing and those who are good at animating. I am grateful for learning that it is crucial to make an effort to see what and which aspects to look at in creators—this teaches the essence of what to observe.

For the sound director, it was decided to continue with Mr. Sadayoshi Fujino from Cruise, who had been in charge since the TV series. Like with Ms. Ikeda, the art director, I had never worked with Mr. Fujino before, so I contacted him to go and introduce myself. When I visited, I was relieved to find Ms. Keiko Chida there, who had worked on sound production for the Brave series—a familiar face.

I plan to write more about sound-related matters and voice actors in the future, so for now, I will mention that I was able to successfully greet Mr. Fujino and Ms. Chida.

Ms. Chida cheerfully said to me, "Oh, Furusato-san, you've become a producer now, that's wonderful, congratulations," and I remember feeling genuinely happy. I learned a lot from Ms. Chida. The topics were quite deep, and I wonder if I can write about them, but for me, it became a learning opportunity about what sound direction and voice acting involve, and what it means to choose voice actors.

Meetings with Director Fukuda and various creators progressed steadily. Gradually, the anime production of "Cyber Formula SAGA" began to operate. However, at that time, it was still under a tentative title and the final title had not yet been decided. I feel like the addition of "SAGA" to the title came quite later.

As a production manager, finding the right studio, the so-called production site, was crucial. Although it was provisional at first, we finally settled on a location. Furthermore, the important studio name was also decided. Sunrise has studios named sequentially, like Studio 1, Studio 2, Studio 3. Back then, there were no vacancies in the younger numbers, so it ended up being named "Studio 10," which was on the higher side of the numbering. I asked Mr. Yoshii for a studio name since we didn’t have one, and he named it "Studio 10." Later on, the name of my studio changed to "Studio 8." "Studio 10" was my first studio name, and since Mr. Yoshii gave it to me, it remains a very memorable name in my memory.

But I secretly wanted to name it "Studio 0 (ZERO)" after the title of "Cyber Formula."

P.S.:
I've also started the YouTube channel "Furusato P Anime Road" today, so please make sure to subscribe and check it out.

🔻Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_jrvVljSFUhGmxpCvYuq5A

 

🔻Furusato P Photo Album: This Week's Photo

Naotake Furusato

Born on May 3, 1961, in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, began his career in the anime industry in 1982 as a production assistant at Nippon Animation. By 1985, he was working as a production assistant on Studio Ghibli's "Castle in the Sky." In 1987, he joined Sunrise, where he contributed as a production progress staff, setting creator, production desk, and assistant producer (AP) on projects like "Mister Ajikko" and the "Brave Series." He was promoted to producer starting with "Future GPX Cyber Formula SAGA" and went on to plan and produce 14 original animation titles, including "Outlaw Star," "GEAR Fighter Dendoh," "Go! Machine Robo Rescue," "Mai-HiME," and "Mai-Otome."

In February 2011, Furusato established his own planning company, Odd Eye Creative, Inc. He served as planner and producer for series such as "Phi Brain: Puzzle of God" and "Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragons." He also assisted in planning "Revue Starlight" and participated as an associate producer on "Grendizer U." Currently, he is involved in the gaming sector and is preparing new projects.