Interview with Shinya Ogura, Setting Researcher/Designer of “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet” 3/4

Wandering around before reaching today’s job

Ishikawa: So, you always liked thinking about settings like this, and that’s why you became a setting researcher?

Ogura: A lot of sci-fi fans like to think about the settings that appear in novels or anime. I was no different from that majority. In my generation, there were interesting anime that are being remade now, such as Space Battleship Yamato or Mobile Suit Gundam. These were an influence to me, so I thought I’d like to work on sci-fi anime in the future. I was a kid who would go the library and look at drawings whenever there was something space-related on my mind.

Ishikawa: You instantly looked up the things interesting to you.

Ogura: I had various turns in my life. First, I entered Tatsunoko Production’s Graphics Research Institute as a trainee in anime drawing right after graduating high school. Drawing anime is pretty difficult, and after doing it for one or two years, I worked myself sick and was unable to continue. But I still wanted to do work related to sci-fi, anime, or films, so I was troubled. That was when the person who gave me the advice, “You can draw well, you should go for anime,” at the time of graduating high school came to my aid. That person introduced me to a job to draw plans and illustrations for making special effect models at Ogawa Modeling, a job for someone like me who likes sci-fi and can draw well.

Ishikawa: For models?

Ogura: In order to make models, you have to draw an image to show the customers what kind of model you would be making. After receiving their approval, you draw it in three dimensions, and draw plans including that of the components. The staff then will make the components based on those plans, and in the end, you get a model by assembling the parts. I was able to gain some knowledge required for constructing systems as my work.

Ishikawa: I see, that’s amazing.

Ogura: I had this special effect model job until around the mid ‘90s, but later, with the rise of CG, I had to experience how my job lost its value in a moment. I was intent on doing the most cutting edge thing in the world, and in a moment, it simply lost all its value. I experienced that in my twenties or early thirties, and it was pretty rough.

Ishikawa: That is some experience.

Ogura: Although there were such things, I did an imaging job in that company for maybe 10 years. I also did special effects model work and CG-related things. As I was working on videos and piling knowledge, I started to have thoughts like, “For entertaining videos in my own style, I have to do like this.” However, starting up a company requires an entirely different way of thinking. In order for a company to be profitable, you might actually need to make it cheaper, even though it might not be so advantageous to cut corners and things like that. You are required to think with the company’s profit in mind, but such circumstances have nothing to do with the customers, do they?

Ishikawa: Yes, that’s true for the business aspect.

Ogura: With time, my way of thinking and the company became incompatible, so I ended up quitting. Just when I was thinking, “Quitting was a good decision, but where do I go now?” I became involved in the video of a Gundam event called Green Divers that was held at the site of the former Gotoh Planetarium in front of Shibuya station. The basic plot was ready, but then someone dropped in, “How do you enter the atmosphere, isn’t there someone here familiar with these things?” Sunrise’s senior executive manager of Gundam of that time, Shigeru Horiguchi, said, “It so happens that there was someone at Ogawa Modeling who knows a lot about space. Oh, he quit the company? Let’s call him.” I was called because he remembered that I worked on a job for an attraction called “Gundam the Ride” in Fuji-Q Highland while still at the company.

Ishikawa: It was because of a connection.

Ogura: It wasn’t like I knew the details, but if I didn’t say I can do it, I wouldn’t have gotten the job. So for the time being, I said I could do it, and I got the job. I went to an acquaintance in JAXA and asked, “The way I know it is like this, is it right?”

Ishikawa: Sometimes it can happen that you take the job first, and start thinking about things later.

Ogura: That time, I lied. However, when I submitted the work and it turned out to be of decent quality, that wasn’t a lie.

Ishikawa: This is an example of when circumstances justify a lie (laughs). By the way, you just mentioned that you were called by someone from Sunrise. Are you affiliated with Sunrise?

Ogura: No. I go to different studios like a mercenary.

Ishikawa: So you don’t belong to any company?

Ogura: Not really. I’m absolutely free. I was mentioned on some overseas site as Sunrise’s senior advisor or something, but that’s a misunderstanding by overseas anime fans.

Ishikawa: And I was so sure that you were from Production I.G.

Gargantia x Tokyo Otaku Mode Special Site:
http://otakumode.com/sp/gargantia

Source:
http://gargantia.jp/#kaito_2 (Japanese)

© Oceanus / Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Production Committee