| Ugetsu Hakua has made quite an impact with his conceptual designs for the characters of Burst Angel, as well as quite an impact on MC Greg Ayers, a self-proclaimed fanboy who couldn't wait to start asking Hakua questions. Much like Range Murata, Hakua started as an illustrator. Working on an anime was different experience, as he was used to working alone, while animation is a group effort. He feels it's nice to be able to go between the two, as that way, if he becomes bored with one, he can switch to the other. Hakua revealed that Jo is his favorite character from Burst Angel, even though he admitted he thought he was not supposed to like the main character. She was also the character he had the most trouble drawing. He likes women who compete and fight with pride, his characters do not have bent backs or bad posture, perhaps, he mused, their showing of skin is tied to their sense of pride. The animators would scold him for his very active designs, which were hard to animate, but Hakua enjoys the movement of objects in the air. There was a lot of freedom given in creating the designs; there were very few restrictions, possibly because of his stubbornness. Big influences on the design were from gun games and westerns staring Clint Eastwood. Flamboyant, his illustration book, will be half Burst Angel, with the other half showcasing game and novel projects. The book is full of energy and momentum, lots of the color red is used to convey this. Besides Flamboyant, he was also involved with Robot, as he knew the editor and Range Murata told him he would be involved with it. Before he became a professional, he did attend an art type college where he studied industrial design. As a child he drew a great deal, and is self-taught. The base drawings are done in pen and ink and are scanned into the computer and are digitally colored. He originally used watercolors, but rarely makes use of them now. In his closing statements, Mr. Hakua said he'd like to come back again after having come up with a new show to display for everyone! (source: ANN) __________________________________________________________________________________________ Interview: Q: Who are your favorite illustrators or manga artists? UH: Range Murata, and although you may not know him as a manga artist, there is a man on the Burst Angel staff that is a pretty good manga artist as well. Q: Who was the hardest character in Burst Angel to draw? UH: Jo, but she is my favorite character as well. Q: What inspirations did Burst Angel draw from? Was there any influence from Bubblegum Crisis? UH: Although Burst Angel is somewhat like Bubblegum Crisis, there was a lot more influence from old Clint Eastwood western movies. Q: How do you deal with the restrictions of dealing with animation directors, producers, and the rest of the anime industry? UH: For Burst Angel, I had a lot of freedom. Sometimes I had to be stubborn to keep some part of the design, but mostly I had a lot of freedom to design what I wanted. Q: Your character designs are of women showing a lot of skin. Do you have a policy in this regard? UH: Well, I like them, so that's what I draw. It's not like the producer or director is telling me that the characters have to show more skin. It's just what I like. I like women who compete, and I want them to fight with some pride. I'm not sure if there is connection with pride and showing a lot of skin, but I want to make them have a lot of pride and not stand with bad posture. Q: What projects are you working on now? UH: There is a project in works to extend the Burst Angel OVAs with a full-length work and a 5-6 minute short film, and I am working on the short film from storyboard on right now. I will keep drawing characters that have a lot of energy and where the stories are, how do I say, not too polite. Q: What can we expect to see in your artbook "Flamboyant?" I understand there are some images from Burst Angel in the book, and what else can we expect to see if we are lucky enough to get one? UH: Half of the artbook is of Burst Angel, and the other half will be mixed original illustrations from other works and projects. There are a lot of images with the colour red, and that is because I think they show a lot of energy and momentum. That's one reason why I wanted the name "Flamboyant." (Ugetsu-san brought a copy to raffle off, along with some of his doujinshi) Q: How did you get involved with the ROBOT color comic? UH: I know the editor for the comic, and also because Mr. Murata told me to. Q: Your character designs have a lot of accesories and flowing hair and things. Did you get a lot of complaints from the animators who had to make all that stuff move correctly? UH: I got scolded quite a bit for those designs. I like things that move around in the dust and the air, and because I am not an animator, I don't know what the difficulty is with that part. Q: You worked on the Hot Gimmick games, and several other well known illustrators have worked on those as well. Did you work with any of them? UH: Each illustrator worked on their own part of the game and there was not any collaboration between them for that project. Q: What was your background before you became an illustrator, and what advice do you have for others who are pursuing this sort of work? UH: I did go to an art-type college, but I studied industrial design and not animation or manga. I would just say "don't give up" and someday you will be sitting up here. Q: What other roles in the animation industry would you like to try? UH: As a hobby, I draw robots and like Gundam, so it would be nice if I could work as a mecha designer. Q: Did the character voices in Burst Angel match what you thought they would sound like? UH: I think characters only come to life when they gain voices, and I was very excited when the BT characters were given voices. Q: How are working as an illustrator and working for an anime production different, and which do you prefer? UH: I get bored of working alone and then I want to work on a team, and then I get tired of that and work alone again. I like both methods. Q: What media do you work in? UH: I use a program called Painter on the Macintosh. Before computers, I used traditional media, but I don't do much anymore. Q. Do you start a work in traditional media, and then scan it and paint, or is it all on the computer? UH: Everything up to inking is done traditionally, and then it is scanned and painted digitally. Q: Do you have any aspirations toward animation and do you think you could make your character designs move? UH: It is a difficult question. When I am doing animation designs, I like to see them move, but when I do illustrations, I have to make everything work in one scene. Q: What influenced you to create Jo's outfit (from Burst Angel)? UH: There was a lot of factors that come into a design, like fashion magazines and such, that any product is a result of a combination of a lot of factors. Q: Is there anyone you would like to work with on your next animation project? UH: For directors, I would like to work with Osamu Kobayashi (also at AX2005). Generally, I like to work with people I meet, but it doesn't matter if they are really famous or not. Q: Was there pressure from the production staff that caused Amy's character design to be the way it is? UH: In the very beginning of the project, we took a lot of inspiration from a Japanese movie about a foursome. Amy was supposed to be the youngest and a cute girl, but she is kind of out of place in the story, so I ask people to protect her character and like her anyway. Q: Who was responsible for the design of Sei's bathing suit in the water park scene? If that was you, thank you very much! UH: That was me. You're welcome Q: What is the story behind Jo's tattoo? UH: The tattoo does have meaning, but there was a lot of complaints from the animation team saying it was too hard to animate, but I think it is part of her pride, like she gets stronger when the tattoo is showing, but they didn't really use my ideas in the anime. UH: Thanks for coming! I hope to see you again here next year at AX! |
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