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Transcript will begin when the panel starts.
Note: ( ) is usually commenting on the panel and was not said.

10:07:54 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Hello everyone
10:08:11 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> How's everyone, it's the third day of sakuracon, you aren't too tired yet?
10:08:38 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> This is our 3rd q&a panel but i plan to make the most of it and thank you for coming
10:09:33 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Moderator Q: What's the difference between comedy like Golden Boy and sci-fi like Cowboy Bebop
10:10:16 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: So for comedys, with golden boy, that was an adaptation of an original work, so we had to pay attention to the original work
10:11:01 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So with sci-fi and gundam.... startdust memory was an original anime, so we had to meet the director's wants and wishes
10:11:31 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> and so with gundam, we were seeing what we could meet the demands of the director and what we could accomplish realistically and what he wanted to express
10:12:33 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: Any stories behind the design of the characters of Cowboy Bebop, like Ed, Faye and Ein
10:12:58 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: So with Cowboy Bebop, we were working on completing the director's vision and what he wanted with the series
10:14:05 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So for Spike, we modeled on an old tv drama, tantei monogatari and on one of the actors there
10:14:39 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So we created various hairstyles and expresions for Spike and we showed those to the director and he picked the ones that matched his vision
10:15:15 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: For Faye, we created a number of designs of Asian or Chinese origin, and then created the various patterns and examples, and again, the director selected the one that matched his vision
10:15:35 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Another factor was how easy to animate the hair style would be, so we had to think about that when choosing her hair style
10:16:19 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> And with regards to the secondary character Jet Black, we had to think about his relations to Spike when we were designing him
10:16:42 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Some of the choices for Jet Black did have hair, but the director selected the current version
10:17:46 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> And with regard to ed, originally the plan was to have 5 members of cowboy bebop , a boy hacker and a girl who would lounge around and sleep on the sofa, and during planning, it was decided to merge those two characters
10:21:01 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So the idea of ed was a catlike girl that was always lounging around and sleeping on the sofas, and so the director told me to design it like Yoko Kanno....
10:21:20 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> at the time I had not actually met the composer, so it was hard for me to imagine this great composer as someone who would always be falling asleep on sofas and during meetings,
10:22:37 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> but later on i did have a chance to actually meet her, and at first glance, she seemed like a normal attractive woman, but during our discussions, she began to fell asleep and it was like "oh, i see, that's ed",
10:22:41 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> so ed is very honest and relax and enjoys life, she's a really wonderful but eccentric and unique woman
10:22:45 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> and with regard to the dog ein, keiko one of the plannners for the show wanted to add a corgi to the cast, so that's how ein was created
10:22:51 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> so i receive an action video of a corgi walking around from a friend for reference, but then i decided it would be better to have one, so i decided to buy a corgi
10:23:12 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> so there are some parts of cowboy bebop where the corgi appears, and those were parts where i was affected by my experience with the corgi
10:23:32 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> And also on the DVD jackets, that's really more my corgi than Ein
10:23:46 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Questions from audience..
10:27:51 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q/A: (not typing this one.... it was about Goldenboy)
10:26:59 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: Since there's been a lot of new animators coming through bones and new talent coming in...what kind of rules, training and inspiration is given to new artists to help them excel
10:29:02 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: So this is kinda going to be a specialist discussion ,first of all, animation is drawing pencil on white paper, so first we train them on what kind of lines need to be drawn for animation
10:29:39 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> No matter how good the person initially is, it always takes them time to get used to it and there are people who give up as they can't handle the transition
10:30:11 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So what I say to young animators, who have graduated from animation school, is to forget everything they have learned in school
10:31:08 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> And one of the reasons is that animators are people who have been taught many things and had many influence during their schooling and they can get confused (paraphased)
10:31:37 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> And so if they aren't able to think flexibly, it may be hard for them to take that kind of advice, i think being able to think flexibly is important
10:32:27 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> I've heard that people's way of thinking comes to become more fixed around age 25 and it's more set around 30, so people need to take these habits into these 40s and 50s so it's good to set a good direction
10:33:05 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So I will be 50 soon, but even if i get request to draw moe characters, I will do it. I am confident i can do it
10:33:42 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: Who is your favorite of cowboy bebop?
10:34:46 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: We've been receving a lot of questions about what's your favorite and those are really hard questions because I love them all
10:35:09 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> But as I mentioned, I do have a corgi, so i think i have special feelings for ein
10:36:01 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> For some reason, i'm lucky enough to have things that i was always interested in like dogs (misheard?)
10:36:18 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> I had heard that it was really hard to animate dogs, but i had a lot fun with it
10:37:39 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: (Wants more Blu-rays from Bones over here. Season 3 of Darker than Black?)
10:38:53 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: So I'm not a production specialist so this may be incorrect, but I've heard that the production cost for blurays is more than that of DVDs
10:39:21 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So in Japan, there are cases of works that can't be released on blu-ray unless there isn't a certain number of sales
10:40:51 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> And so there are reasons in Japan, because it doesn't have sufficient audience ...but how widespread in the US is it , in Japan, it's up to around 50% who watch on blu-ray
10:42:49 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> (turned into discussion about reverse importation in the audience)
10:43:38 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Regarding Darker than Black Season 3, that is currently not planned at this time
10:44:03 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> But there is a lot of our staff who love darker than black and would love to do season 3 if they had a chance
10:44:07 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> I think it depends on the sales of season 2
10:44:13 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Buy it
10:44:38 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: When designing the character, how important is the hair style in determining the personality of the character
10:44:57 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: That's a good question
10:46:26 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So when you draw a human silhouette, you are bound by 2 arms, 2 legs, fat or thin
10:45:49 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So when you are trying to distinguish a character, make them unique, one of the things is hair style
10:46:09 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So I think we should really aim for over 50% of the design originally should be based on hair style
10:47:01 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> In animation, the actual clothing doesn't change that much, so you have to think about hair style more than clothes because it doesn't affect the silhouette that much as opposed to closed
10:47:12 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: What's your defintion of moe and which of your characters is the most moe
10:47:33 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: Even if I wanted to draw such characters, I don't receive such requests
10:48:41 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Bones is really a comparatively, creates more action and male audience works, so even if such a request arose, the director might (reject it?), i don't have a problem with it but that's the kind of place bones is
10:48:48 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> I do watch moe anime from time to time, i find it interesting
10:49:25 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> In Wolf's rain, the genta(?) character, she's not really moe is she
10:50:03 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So recently, there seem to be many characters that have n line for their nose, so if you were going to use that for my characters, it would have to be ed who falls into that category
10:50:13 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> But I don't anyone has ever thought of ed as a moe character
10:50:16 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Ed is a strange organism
10:51:02 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Q: What was the idea that inspired you and your team to make the second Eureka 7 TV series?
10:51:33 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> A: I wasn't the character designer, but should I just answer?
10:53:26 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So the character design was done by the animator yoshida kenichi and also the person who worked on oreimo, so he was able to bring his style to it
10:54:49 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> So I think the goal was with the new staff was to (lost)
10:54:28 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> And it looks like we're running out of time, and this is the third panel, but thank you very much for coming
10:55:06 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> I plan to take all of your feeling and comments and feedback and roll them back into my work in Japan
10:55:14 <bay|SC|Kawamoto> Thank you for your continued support.