-What are your thoughts on Director Takemoto?
Ishihara: His sense of balance is amazing. He’s able to not only balance his sense as a director, he also keeps production on schedule easily.
Takemoto: Personally I think it’s quite difficult. People who create works are a bit strange; they’re able to fulfill what they originally wanted to do unlike normal people; or rather they’re able to recognize things that ordinary people don’t. Thus, I’m a bit envious of Ishihara-san and Yamada-san. (laughs)
Yamada: When I was a key animator, I wasn’t affected very much by scary things. Thus as we were working on the final episode of TSR, he handed me about a mountain of rough key frames and layouts and said “these aren’t good enough,” and made me re-do them all. If Takemoto-san hadn’t judged my work so harshly, I wouldn’t have worked as frantically as I did to improve. (laugh) Also the visuals for “Super Driver” (The 2009 Haruhi Suzumiya opening) was so cool. Oh, the first opening for Nichijou was also cool; it’s one of the highlights in recent years.
Takemoto: Whenever my kids see that opening they scream and start dancing. (laughs)
Based fucking Takemoto
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Anonymous2013-12-23 7:44
-Are there any characters you have a strong emotional attachment to in a work you didn’t direct?
Yamada: Free!’s Gou-chan is the cutest ever. I absolutely love her. Her long skirt, her perfectly fitting uniform, her somewhat thin ponytail…. She just looks cute. She’s not just girlish too; she’s got some boyish traits in her as well. Like her hair color is the same as her onii-chan’s.
Takemoto: Yamada-san’s love of high school girls is too much. (laughs)
Yamada: I love them. I would always compete to do Gou-chan’s cuts with Free!’s Usumi-san. (Hiroko Utsumi was the director for Free!) I think I may love Gou-chan more than she does. (laughs)
Takemoto: Utsumi-san talked with me one time saying “Takemoto-san…. I’m worried that Yamada-san and (Taichi) Ogawa-kum love Gou-chan too much!’ (laughs) You let your love of Gou-chan show way too much. (laughs) (Director Utsumi-san wanted you to) Enjoy drawing the guys instead!
Yamada: But it was natural for me to draw Gou-chan when her scenes came up in the episode I directed, so I didn’t feel guilty about that. (laughs) It’s not like I switched from a different cut. (laughs)
Ishihara: Utsumi-san directed episode 5 of Chuunibyou and an episode of Hyouka. I don’t think that anyone else would have drawn Houtarou’s (Oreki from Hyouka) rear with as much vigor as she did. (laughs) Women have a fainter drawing stroke, so when I saw that the storyboards for episode 5 of Chuunibyou were so thin during the school swimsuit scene, I had her re-do it.
Takemoto: Yamada-san loves high school girls. Utaumi-san loves high school boys. (laughs)
Yamada: However she continues to draw muscles as much as she wants until she’s pleased with how they look.