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Interview: Toshihiro Kawamoto


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ZBrass



Joined: 27 Aug 2003
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:38 am Reply with quote
"So you're more of an ass man?"

Interviews just keep getting weirder.
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Proman



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 947
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:00 am Reply with quote
ZBrass wrote:
"So you're more of an ass man?"

Interviews just keep getting weirder.


Yeah lol. Imagine someone like Rumiko Takahashi asking a similar question Laughing . Or Go Nagai (I think it's obvious what he would answer).

Great interview! I really enjoyed reading it.

P.S. I'm totally a "leg man" Wink .


Last edited by Proman on Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:29 pm; edited 1 time in total
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:31 am Reply with quote
i would've never imagined Ed was modeled after Yoko Kanno, but i guess there is a fine line between genius and insanity


no offense, but was it really necessary to ask how the guy's dog died? that just seemed a little unprofessional for some reason.


Last edited by v1cious on Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Jadress



Joined: 08 Oct 2003
Posts: 807
Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy!
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:42 am Reply with quote
Yay! Great interview, I love Kawamoto's work.. ::pets new Wolfs Rain wallscroll::. Man, I wish I had it uploaded so I could post it, but I did this parody fanart called "Corgis Rain" with the 5 wolves as stubby corgis. It really seems to apply more than I thought! Anyway, thanks for this interview, Kawamoto's one of my favorites. ^^
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xanbcoo



Joined: 19 Dec 2003
Posts: 245
Location: Houston/Austin Tx
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 1:39 pm Reply with quote
I had no idea Bebop and WR had the same Character designer. No wonder Hige and Spike look so similar :p

I knew about the Yoko Kanno/Ed parallel. Apparently, she's a very odd woman. Nice interview.
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ampersand



Joined: 01 Apr 2005
Posts: 31
Location: Brampton, ON
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:08 pm Reply with quote
xanbcoo wrote:
I knew about the Yoko Kanno/Ed parallel. Apparently, she's a very odd woman. Nice interview.



I was at the New York Anime Expo, where Kawamoto, Kanno and Watanabe were the guests of honor. I forget what year, but I do remember everything about their panel, which revealed that little tidbit about Ed/Kanno. Apparently, while composing her music, Kanno would jump up on her furniture and squat on them like a monkey, instead of sitting on them. That, and she constantly did rolls on the floor just like Ed does, whenever she couldn't think. It was really quite amusing, since she did the same thing in the panel (not the rolls, though).
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darkhunter



Joined: 13 May 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:10 pm Reply with quote
xanbcoo wrote:
I had no idea Bebop and WR had the same Character designer. No wonder Hige and Spike look so similar :p

I knew about the Yoko Kanno/Ed parallel. Apparently, she's a very odd woman. Nice interview.


A lot of Bones's staff were ex-sunrise member.

Also just to throw it in, Hubb and Cher were model after Xfile's Mulder and Scully
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Alchemist449



Joined: 04 Aug 2004
Posts: 341
Location: LED ZEPPELIN! nuf said
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:16 pm Reply with quote
darkhunter wrote:


A lot of Bones's staff were ex-sunrise member.

Also just to throw it in, Hubb and Cher were model after Xfile's Mulder and Scully

Fight the Future!
I love that show... sigh...

And the interview was very interesting. I personally didn't know anything about the Kano/Ed connection.
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Vekou



Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Posts: 329
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:26 pm Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
no offense, but was it really necessary to ask how the guy's dog died? that just seemed a little unprofessional for some reason.

I agree. That and the "ass man" thing marred what should have been a really good interview with a great guy. I know this isn't the Wall Street Journal, but I found this interview to be really unprofessional.
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
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Location: CO
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:16 pm Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
i would've never imagined Ed was modeled after Yoko Kanno, but i guess there is a fine line between genius and insanity


no offense, but was it really necessary to ask how the guy's dog died? that just seemed a little unprofessional for some reason.


I didn't know she was dead. =/ Had I known, I wouldn't have asked. He just said he didn't have her anymore, so I thought maybe he gave her away after the series ended.
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Proman



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
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Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:29 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
That and the "ass man" thing marred what should have been a really good interview with a great guy. I know this isn't the Wall Street Journal, but I found this interview to be really unprofessional.


Why is that? I think that it's exactly this kind of unexpected questions that make interviews more personal and intersting to read. Kind of like the questions on Bravo's "Inside the Actor's Studio".
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MeggieMay



Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 607
PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:51 am Reply with quote
ampersand wrote:
xanbcoo wrote:
I knew about the Yoko Kanno/Ed parallel. Apparently, she's a very odd woman. Nice interview.



I was at the New York Anime Expo, where Kawamoto, Kanno and Watanabe were the guests of honor. I forget what year, but I do remember everything about their panel, which revealed that little tidbit about Ed/Kanno. Apparently, while composing her music, Kanno would jump up on her furniture and squat on them like a monkey, instead of sitting on them. That, and she constantly did rolls on the floor just like Ed does, whenever she couldn't think. It was really quite amusing, since she did the same thing in the panel (not the rolls, though).


How tall is Ms Kanno, anyway? I'm taking it she's a fairly small woman if she's doing that but I've never seen her in real life (I'm trying to get a visual in my head on this Very Happy).

I had actually wondered if Yoko Kanno was who Ed was based on but didn't know for sure. The reason I had wondered is that I had read a article previously that mentioned that the character was based on a musician who was sleeping on the directors floor but the article didn't mention anyone by name Laughing. I wasn't sure if it was Yoko, the directors girlfriend, or just what was going on, but at least this clears up just who it was.

As for asking about the Corgi - that was a honest enough faux pas. Corgi's usually have a life span of around 12 - 15 years IIRC, so she died early. As it was, it sounded like he missed her but had made up her room to be full of nice memories of her and maybe talking about it helped him a bit.

The only thing I went "eh" at was the "ass man" comment. His response was clear enough and a lot more poetic than calling it "ass man" Rolling Eyes. IMO I thought it broke the flow of the interview and made it end on a different note than most of the rest of the article had (but everyones milage is going to vary on that).
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
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Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:57 am Reply with quote
There was absolutely nothing wrong with asking Kawamoto if he's an "ass man" or about his dead pet. People are being oversensitive. Anime News Network doesn't have to worry about "reputation" - they interviewed Man-Faye - and Kawamoto certainly seems good-humored enough on panels and in other interviews for these questions to be asked.

It was the best interview I've read on ANN for a while.
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Juniper



Joined: 07 Dec 2004
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:06 am Reply with quote
I don't find anything wrong with the ass-man comment. It's hard to tell in transcribed interviews what the atmosphere of the conversation is. Sometimes when people are joking around and having a good time, it's just not possible to convey that in text.

Personally, I found the ass-man comment to be entertaining. The interviewer is already joshing around with the "leg man" and "breast man" comment, and it's not uncommon that guys in the US will respond with, "I dunno, I think I'm more of an ass man!" so I'm sure she wasn't trying to be crude for the sake of being crude.

If there was a video posted of this interview, I'd bet anyone $10 that by the end of it, everyone was warmed up enough that they could crack jokes and try to break up the seriousness of the interview. Laid back interviews are much nicer than stiff, strictly business ones.

Informal, quirky questions let you know much more about someone's personality and thought processes much more than the same old "So, how did you get into character designing?" junk that they already have memorized answers to.
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jvowles
Otakon Representative


Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 219
Location: Maryland
PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:20 pm Reply with quote
I've met Kawamoto-san several times, and I am fairly certain that he was happy to talk about his dog, and took no offense at these questions. In fact several of the guests seem to get a kick out of the questions that Americans ask, and none of these cross the line. If they did, the interviewee would likely have simply pretended he didn't understand the question, or given a non-answer.

Keep in mind that people like Kawamoto, Nightow, etc., see themselves as merely doing a job they like doing, and they're happy that people react positively to it. Frequently they're astounded by how popular a particular work might be in the US. They appreciate being treated with respect, but need not be treated with reverence. Everyone likes to be appreciated, and successful, but you're best served if you simply treat them politely and talk to them like they're everyday people. Questions like the ones in this interview are part of normal conversation, and most likely indicate an interview that felt like a comfortable casual conversation. (Talking about one's pets or family is perfectly acceptable conversation, and Kawamoto knows that we are aware he had a corgi, so asking what happened to it was not at all out of line.)

Food is usually a very good topic of conversation, too. My last conversation with Kawamoto-san was about food in the green room at Otakon, where he advised that the chicken salad was pretty good. He was right. Smile
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