Category: Events

Otakon 2017: 15-minutes with Hidenori Matsubara

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This post contains spoilers for In This Corner of the World

Reverse Thieves: The MAPPA Staff at AnimeNEXT expressed a lot of passion for In This Corner of the World. What was your experience with the atmosphere surrounding the project?

Hidenori Matsubara: We were actually pressed for time while making it. I was stuck in the studio for half a year. It’s almost unethical don’t you think! [laughs] But I do think that everyone working on it had a sense of mission; that they must see it through.

Everyone working on it knew the charms of the original manga. However, we didn’t exactly think the anime would sell well. But we all believed it was a wonderful story so we continued making it. So what we thought was, even if people don’t notice the charm in it at first, as long as it was out there people would probably eventually see it and gradually recognize it. In Japan, it has won lots of awards and lots of people have recognized it.

After the panel yesterday, I noticed myself willing even more people to see it. It’s a very unique experience.

RT: You mentioned at the screening that you did a lot of research for the film. Can you tell us more about that and anything you learned that surprised you?

HM: There’s too much! I don’t know where to start from.

So it was the director who started the research. At the beginning, we did not have the funds to immediately start working, so we ended up with lots of time to research. During the movie, the director became synonymous with a researcher even more than a director.

In Japan, there were many events where we announced some of the findings from this movie. We were thinking of putting in the research as a voiceover on the DVD. But since the movie is about 2 hours and 9 minutes, we’d probably need ten times that much to get through it all. In Japan, there are ways for us to put what we found on the Internet, but over here I don’t exactly know how we would start.

It is a wartime story, but the more you find out about it the more interesting it becomes.

RT: As an artist yourself, did you connect with Suzu and the many hardships she goes through especially losing her hand?

HM: It would be horrible wouldn’t it? But I personally think Suzu would have done great drawing with her left hand. I think I’d do the same if I lost my right hand.

RT: Having spent time at Studio GAINAX in its early days, can you tell us about your experience with Hideaki Anno?

HM: Like what? Oh like maybe how he doesn’t eat meat? [laughs] But he doesn’t eat vegetables either. He’s not a vegetarian though. I think he just doesn’t like things. [laughs] I remember when I was 20 and back then I wasn’t exactly a rich person. Sometimes we would go out for ramen. And the pork slice, he’d give it to me! I remember being very happy. That is how old of buddies we are.

RT: Can you tell us if you are working on the 4th Evangelion movie?

HM: Since the project hasn’t exactly started yet, it will be in the future tense but yes, I will be part of it.

More Otakon 2017 posts:

Otakon 2017: Ani-Gamers Podcast
Otakon 2017: General Impressions
The Speakeasy #092: Otakon, More Ideon, More One Piece
Otakon 2017: Artist Alley
Otakon 2017: Panels

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Otakon 2017: Panels

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hisui_icon_4040_round There was one aspect of Otakon that I forgot to mention in the other places we talked about the event. There were an odd amount of cancellations of panels this year. When I listened to the Cockpit review of the convention they reminded me of all the cancellations. Overall it did not really affect me too much. With eight panel rooms worth of content, I always had something to do. In fact, with all the premieres and guests I went to fewer panels than I usually do. Still, it is a bit odd. It is a little hard to guess why this happened especially because every panel cancellation can have its own very specific reason. I know there was some speculation that the move might have caused some of the cancellations but it also could have been various circumstances in the various panelists lives that cased dropped panels. Neither reason seems more or less prone to be cut by Occam’s razor.

I do wonder how much it also simply has to do with the fact that the Guidebook kept the canceled panels on the schedule with a big [CANCELLED] before their title. While this prevents you from scratching your head as canceled panels no longer just vanish from the lineup but it might have a side effect of making you more aware of cancellations in the first place. I wonder if there were actually more cancellations than previous years or are we just more aware of it than we have been in previous years.

narutaki_icon_4040_round I’m pretty sure I attended more panels this year than I have the last few years of Otakon in Baltimore. Maybe that’s because I never had to wait in line longer than 10 minutes to get into a panel, if I had to wait at all. That wasn’t because panels weren’t popular all of a sudden or something, it just speaks to how much space there was at this new convention center!

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Otakon 2017: Artist Alley

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For the last few years of Otakon in Baltimore, there was a premium on artist tables. The lottery system had to be implemented with space so limited in their Artist Alley. That problem has been solved at the new con center in Washington DC. Artist Alley is now bigger than ever and even has space to expand!

Now Artist Alley shares its space with the autograph section which seemed to have been given a wide enough berth to not cause traffic jams in the alley proper. There was a snag Friday morning though. Some autographs were scheduled right when the alley opened so hordes of fans had nowhere to wait except the hallway and ended up blocking escalators. But this seems like an easily solvable problem for next year.

That was nothing compared with the chaos of Saturday night when a waterfall appeared inside the Artist Alley thanks to the storms outside. Videos from some inside show it pretty clearly, and it ended up closing down the alley for an hour or so. Some merchandise was ruined and many artists had to relocate within the alley causing some confusion. From the sound of things, Otakon responded well to the situation. However, some in the forums say this leak is not an unknown occurrence with this convention center.

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