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Okhawa Nanase (From Clamp) x Taniguchi Gorou interview From Newtype About the Character designs of Code Geass (Season 1)

There were seemingly Okhawa-san designs appearing on the magazine to illustrate the interview but I was unable to find the source or the againe, so i'll illustrate this interview with Mokona Apapa's final Geass designs **Will indicate Celiss (still the translator)'s personal note "...." Will mean those are direct quote she didn't rephrase.

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Suzaku originally had a "sharper” look to him. Ookawa : “Originally I imagined him as having Chinese-like, sharp, single-eyelid eyes.” Taniguchi : “In order to have Lelouch stand out more, I had this design changed to a softer, rounder image.”

On the early design for Lelouch (white hair) Ookawa : “I imagined Lelouch as someone everyone will find to be "cool”; a beauty, to put it simply.“ Taniguchi : "We talked about Tackey & Tsubasa as well as early Kinki Kids.” (Popular Johnny’s idols in Japan)

Ookawa attended the Episode 1 sneak preview / test screening; according to her, a large number of reporters and other mass media-related personnel showed up as well because of the pre-show hype. When the 1st episode ended, the room went dead silent. With the fast-moving plot and the episode ending with Lelouch going “Die, all of you” as he Geasses the soldiers into killing themselves, everyone was left speechless. However, the momentary silence was later broken by tremendous applause. Taniguchi himself wasn’t at the screening, but he heard about what happened as well.

How did CLAMP come to be part of the Code Geass project? Producer Kawaguchi was the one who wrote to them first. That was the first time CLAMP heard from him, and also the first time they received a request to design characters for an anime. The members only met the director more than a year later; They were already on board the project when the characters and world view were nothing more than a vague concept. CLAMP offered some “interesting ideas” and these helped shape the world of Code Geass.

The character illustrations shown on the page (not the ones i'm using there) are preliminary designs; When these were first drawn Code Geass wasn’t about a war with an Empire but something different. Taniguchi said “We’re making a hit show”, and wanted to create a show which appealed to everyone. They ended up using the Johnny’s artistes (Tackey & Tsubasa; early Kinki Kids) as a sort of model for the characters (**probably for Lelouch; those Johnny’s artistes are usually thought of as “Prince” types, especially early Domoto Kouichi of Kinki Kids)

The character “Zero” was decided from early on, and is one of the characters left unchanged even when they adjusted the story. CLAMP members call Zero’s mask “Tulip” (because of it’s appearance) They wanted to create a mask never seen before in previous Sunrise shows. They were told to create a mask showing only one eye, and there were two possibilities for that, the other being the masks used in palaces (**…which kind of palace? Asian or Western? I'd say Western) Taniguchi : “When I saw Zero’s mask, my thought processes all came to a halt (laugh) It was extremely simple yet had impact.” The biggest merit of having CLAMP do the designs is that, according to Taniguchi, they can come up with things normal animator-turned-designers can’t. The clothes, for example, may seem impossible (**coughZeroandC.C.‘scostumescough*), but CLAMP still went ahead with them anyway with the simple reasoning that : “These are better!”

How did the designing process work? CLAMP members drew a certain number of illustrations, handed them to Taniguchi and he would later return it to them with his own comments. The designs would be changed according to his wishes and the cycle repeated. The comments ranged from “I want you to redraw just this part” to “I want you to add this part of the character with this part of that character and come up with a new character.” Taniguchi pretty much gave CLAMP free reign over the designs, telling them not to worry about what the CG world was like, and because of that they came up with all kinds of variations, from SF to Classical, for things like the military uniforms. There were altogether some 40 ~ 50 designs; C.C. also had traditional Japanese clothes as well as Western Barbie-style clothes. (**Now we know why C.C. cosplays so much. Taniguchi probably included them because he thought it would be a waste not to…) ***It's also interesting to note C.C.'s royal gown which appeared in the Mutuality artbook wasn't a command from the staff, Clamp made this one of their own, C.C. really was their favorite doll to dress.

Ookawa : “Taniguchi doesn’t like girls with big breasts.” (**This is true; Taniguchi is famous for being anti-fanservice. He supposedly hates “jiggling chests” the most, but it seems that since GunxSword he’s had to compromise on this area because frankly, sex sells) Ookawa : “Even though I drew all kinds of female figures and body shapes, only the flat-chested designs were returned.” (The unreturned designs = No Good) Taniguchi: “It’s not that those aren’t allowed (laugh) It’s just that when you transfer them on to the screen it usually ends up even more exaggerated, so I wanted to keep the original designs under control, at least.”

Taniguchi also likes having characters who have something different on one side of their bodies (**the “unbalanced” balance) Lelouch has one red eye, for example; Villetta’s and Jeremiah’s hairstyles also fall under this category. Taniguchi : “I like it. It’s sexy, don’t you think?” Ookawa : “You like characters with sex appeal, huh.” Taniguchi : “Sex appeal is important. CLAMP’s characters are all sexy. That’s another reason why we decided to request designs from you.”

Before doing the character designs, KimuTaka (Takahiro Kimura the other character designer of the Geass anime) spent every day copying CLAMP’s art from their artbooks and manga. After analyzing CLAMP’s art to his best ability, he then started on the character designs. He did his best to design them in a way so that the other animators would be able to draw them without deviating from CLAMP’s original artstyle.

According to Ookawa, Schneizel was designed with “Lelouch’s arch nemesis” in mind. The most time was spent on his design. Taniguchi wanted someone who could appear either good or bad and had a large sense of scale (**2 meters… okay so he probably wasn’t referring to height, but still)

Lloyd is the professor-type CLAMP is good at (**Ookawa’s own confession), but originally he wasn’t supposed to be that much of a mad scientist. It happened mostly because of Shiratori Tetsu’s acting (**In the audio commentary for episode 1 Taniguchi mentions that he gave Shiratori free reign over Lloyd’s character) Ookawa was surprised when Lloyd turned out the way he did.

Which characters do the CLAMP members like? Mokona (**she did the final character original art you can see on this post ) liked Clovis, so when she saw that he was offed after only 2 episodes she was really depressed. According to Ookawa, Clovis was killed off a lot earlier than originally planned. Taniguchi apologizes for this, and then remarks that Jeremiah, on the other hand, has survived longer than originally planned. (**The power of 2ch, indeed, as he was really popular in there and within the staff)

Taniguchi: “If you rewatch the first half of the show after watching episode 23, you might discover new things you didn’t see before.” He refuses to say what these things are, saying that this is an enjoyment exclusive to viewers who noticed themselves. (** He is talking about season 1)

Okouchi was the one who insisted that a mask was necessary in order for it to be a Sunrise anime.

Ookawa : “Director Taniguchi is someone who makes it clear what his likes and dislikes are, and this really helped our work. I like Cornelia, and I hope she can be happy.” (**I’m sure she’ll get along well with Fu-kuyama, that crazy Cornelia fan)

Ookawa seems to be a Lelouch fan. She says that she worries whenever Lelouch does something stupid or uses the Geass in a wasteful manner.

Translation By Celiss Galvea. Hope you enjoyed.