Gearing-Up With the Mecha-Ude Anime Creator Okamoto
by Bamboo Dong,ANN's coverage of Anime Expo 2023 sponsored by Yen Press!
We had the immense privilege of sitting down with director and creator Okamoto herself, who talked about her experience with the new series.
This is not your first time working with Mecha-Ude. What drew you to this story initially?
When the project first started, we were just going to do a pilot episode, but after getting some advice from other people, we decided to aim for a series. After crowdfunding the project, the pilot episode actually became a part of the series. Now we're aiming to just make everything bigger.
The crowdfunding campaign did extremely well. Fans really gravitated towards the project. What do you think it is about this story that draws fans in?
This is just my personal opinion, but I think it's because the characters are so charming. I put a lot of effort into the characters. Rather than just being story-driven, it's more like the story is built around the characters and their interactions. I definitely concentrated on that and built the story from that.
Even from the first episode, I was struck by the camaraderie between the protagonist and his newfound friend. I'm amazed that you can inject so much personality and humor into a mechanical arm. How did you accomplish that? And what was the hardest thing about it?
Alma became as charming as he is because the animation staff loves him so much. They put a lot of effort into his movements and expressions. Also the voice actor who voices Alma is Tomokazu Sugita and he breathed life into him.
On the subject of Alma, it must be very challenging to animate expressions when you just have basically one hinge and an eyeball. During your production meetings, what were some of the things you talked about?
Generally the process was that I would first do the sakuga. I hand-drew the rough sketch and then the CG traces over it. And then we add another layer for more nuance and more details. And then there's another 2D layer on top of that. That's probably why it feels so animated and so full of personality.
In the action scenes, the fight choreography is incredible. It's clear a lot of thought went into every single move in every single fight. What were some of the inspirations you used to do the fight choreography?
I get a lot of my inspiration from shonen manga. In shonen manga, the way they depict action scenes is to present the main visual that they want you to see. I have key moments in mind, and then I build around them and think about how the action should flow.
It's interesting you say that because in action scenes in manga, when you're just seeing the main action points, it's sometimes very minimalist. In this series, it's the opposite of that. It's very maximalist. Every angle is considered, every movement. Is there a reason you wanted to take those extra steps and show every detail of those fights? It must take a lot more time and energy.
The whole series is very much based on the characters. I designed everything around the characters, so I didn't necessarily think that much about the action scenes themselves. But if a certain character is put in a fight scene, then I have to think more about what they would do in that situation. The story is about humans and mechs, so it all revolves around that. When the animators do those scenes, I check them very carefully and make corrections or suggestions on what certain characters would be doing, even if they're in the background. I think about what they would be doing in that scene, or how they would fight, or how they would defend themselves. It basically all comes back to the characters. I have them all planned out in my head.
You seem to really enjoy being part of every aspect of production. What are some of your favorite parts, and what are some parts you would happily delegate to someone else?
I started out as an indie animator and director, where I did everything myself. But I love working with a team now because it opens up so many other perspectives. That involves both the story side and the animation, splitting everything up, and being able to see other people's perspectives. Things would come up that I'd never thought about, but it work well with the story. I am still very involved, but I love working with a team, too.
Was there a learning curve involved moving from a more indie production to a large scale production?
Before, I was in charge of everything, so the end product was my own. Like if the quality was high or low, it almost didn't matter as much because it was 100% my own work. But when I started working with other people, it could be challenging at times when I couldn't accept someone else's work if it didn't match what was in my head, even if it was high quality. It's different now. I very much enjoy working with others. As I said before, collaborating brings ideas to the table that wouldn't have come up before.
I have to say, I think you are so cool! You know, anime has always been kind of a boys' club. Do you have any advice you can give to other young women who aspire to be creators?
At TriF Studio, there actually are a lot of women animators. Some of the best animators are actually the women, although there is a difference we've noticed between the men and the women. If we had to point out differences, of course. The women tend to be more stoic and more serious, and always meet their deadlines. The guys don't always meet their deadlines, but it's because they're concentrating so hard on their work and want to get the drawings as perfect as possible. It ends up taking more time. So it's an interesting balance. The women are very diligent and hit their deadlines, but sometimes the quality might be a little less. The men are more focused on perfecting everything so they turn in good work, but they might miss a deadline. My advice is to try and find the balance. Art is a very creative process, so being yourself and putting yourself into your work is very important. If you're too serious, you can be a little less serious. Don't think too hard about things, and have more fun.
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