Studio Trigger Christmas Stream: Q and A Highlights
Merry Christmas, y’all!
Trigger just finished up their holiday live-drawing stream with Hiroyuki Imaishi; you can view the VOD here.
I composed a non-verbatim transcript of the stream that might never be properly cleaned up, but here are some highlights! Promare spoilers!
❊ So, in the original storyboard, when Lio and his gangs are escaping from prison, there was a scene where Vulcan confronted Lio. It would progress to an aerial combat scene! It was even cleaned up by Yoshinari, but it was never used. It's unfortunate! I hope that was a satisfying answer, ymzk [sp?].
So, for folks who have seen Promare multiple times, that might have been a fine addition to the film. However, if you're watching Promare for the first time, adding another fight scene would have probably tipped off the balance of the film entirely. It would have been too overwhelming. It was a balance issue that they omitted the scene for.
For those folks who are interested in checking out the storyboard for the aerial combat scene, Wakabayashi says that it will likely be included in the storyboard book that is planned to be released in the future. Check that out!
❊ Okay, so, the question was, “How do you work with the posing for the characters?” The question was obviously for Imaishi. Imaishi says that he tries to pose himself. He doesn't really look at the mirror, but he tries to hold a toy gun or reenact the scene that he's drawing. That usually helps him provide the character with a more dynamic pose.
I was curious, too. I wanted to add on to this question. I took Imaishi out to a shooting range a while ago. It was his first time shooting a pistol. I wondered if that helped how he animates guns shooting. He said no, but it gave him a new perspective on the weight of the gun, the recoil, etc. The tl;dr is that Imaishi tries to reenact the scenes himself, though.
So, the next question was, “What was the thought process on the 4DX with the smells?” So, I'm not sure if it applies to the overseas 4DX. I don't even know if 4DX was available out of Japan. But there was a smell when Lio's Burnish armor came off. For that scene, it was a scene where they wanted to make it a surprise that the person under the armor was such an attractive young man. You would expect someone more intimidating, not pleasing, so they wanted to emphasize the surprise aspect of the situation with the smell.
So, apparently the dubbed version that is apparently being screened in Japan is a screening exclusive and will not be on the Blu-ray/DVD package. So, if you haven't seen the dub yet, now is your chance!
We at Trigger were pretty involved in the voice-dubbing procedure. We made a lot of revisions and a lot of requests. Specifically, with Galo's voice actor, we went through a lot. Originally, Hiromi wanted a very kabuki-esque vocal personality for Galo. That would be near impossible to explain to an American voice actor, I said. I said, “I don't think it's possible!” We changed our approach. We said, “How about 21 Jump Street? How about Channing Tatum?” That was more understandable to people in the US! After we said we wanted someone like Channing Tatum, we got what you saw in the theaters! That's a bit of backstory on the dubbing process!
So, the question was if it is possible to get the dubbed version of Promrae in local theaters. Hiromi says that you have to let the local theaters know that there are demands. That's easier than Trigger telling the particular theater that there's demand.
So, this question was about the part near the climax in Promare. The scene is about Lio and Galo. The questioner notes how dramatic this scene was and asks about how many revisions had to happen.
The answer is that the last bits of the film were done by Yoh Yoshinari. No revisions had to happen. It doesn't get much better than Yoshinari's frames. The answer is no.
The Blu-ray package retake, or the upgrade, doesn't have any particular scenes redrawn. It's just refined. It's a straight-up upgrade. There are no scenes that were altered. A lot of the changes consist of the colors.
❊ Surprisingly, the characters of Meis and Gueira were actually added from the initial version of the storyboard! They were initially a little more like the mob/background-ish characters. In the initial version, Meis and Gueira... they probably had as much screentime as the old geezer Burnish who betrays and backstabs Lio.
There was a question about the secretary. Was her screentime fiddled with? The answer is no. That character wasn't really fiddled with.
The next question was, “Will the edited version of the track used in the 'Gallant Ones' scene be included on the soundtrack?” The answer is unfortunately no.
Next, “Is Lio ambidextrous because he uses both arms?” Hiromi says, “I guess so!”
Our next question is about Lio de Galon, Matoi Tech, etc. Will any of those mechanical units be developed into toys? Hiromi says that if there are any official modelmakers or toy makers who would like to make those toys for us, we are waiting for the offer!
I guess there's potential talk of the Matoi Tech as a plush toy, for whoever is interested in the action figure!
This question is from jetpotato [sp?]. This person was curious on what Krayzor X's actual name is! If you've seen Promare, Krayzor X is just the name that Galo provides. I myself was curious about this as well. Hiromi seems very hesitant to provide this information. He says that someday, he hopes they will provide that information.
❊There is a request from our viewers to have a comic or manga adaptation of Promare. Hiromi says that's probably impossible to do. What is Promare without its colors? If they were to adapt Promare into a comic/publishing medium, whoever does that adaptation will have to see hell. They will have to color each page and panel to the standards of Koyama! That's a crapload of work for sure!
Imaishi says that if he were allowed, he would like to do the comic book adaptation. However, if he did it, it would probably take ten years for it to be completed. That wouldn't be helpful for the fans! Perhaps they could make it a two-page comic! But that would be closer to an illustration, perhaps.
The initial plan for Promare was to make it visually pleasing for the viewers as an animated series or medium. It's very hard to adapt that to a non-motion comic or manga type of presentation.
There's an illustration that Sushio did, I guess. There are “mystery food” that the characters are eating. A person was curious about what foods the characters are eating. Hiromi and Imaishi don't know, either! When Sushio asked for an idea, he wanted to draw an illustration of the characters eating something. Imaishi said that they could eat anything as long as it's kind of squares. They got literal squares! The characters are eating squares, and we can't tell what they are! We thought it was a typical Sushio deal, but we don't know what they're eating!
Sushio is so good at drawing illustration. Even if they're just eating square objects, it kind of looks convincing, which is weird!
There's another question regarding if there's going to be a novel adaptation of the film. There's a short novel done by Nakashima that will be included in the limited edition of the Blu-ray package. I think that's the closest that we're going to get for a novel!
There's a plan for a scenario script book. We just lay out that, you know, it's very different from the finished product, which is the film that you're familiar with. We just want to say that it's different, and any occurrence or alteration apparent in the scenario book is . . . uh, I guess, not official?
So, yeah, it's just... please take it with a grain of salt. It's an asset used for the pre-production of Promare. So, there are a lot of things that are different from the finished product. In no way does it represent what Promare “should” be.
Studio Trigger Live Drawing with Tetsuya Sakurai (02/20/19): Transcript (Non-Verbatim)
Studio Trigger streamed their third Twitch live drawing at 18:00 JST on February 20, 2019. The stream features inbetween animator Tetsuya Sakurai drawing Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill la Kill, as well as producer Hiromi Wakabayashi and translator Tatsuru Tatemoto. A full video of the stream is available on Twitch here.
I’ve put together a transcript of the stream for anyone curious about the Q and A. While the transcript is not verbatim, all the meaning should still be captured.
Transcript
Tatsuru Tatemoto (Tattun): Sakurai started one year earlier than the last live drawing animator, Sato. Sakurai’s first work at Studio Trigger was in DARLING in the FRANXX. He’s been with Trigger for about two years.
Sakurai is an inbetween animator at Studio Trigger. Today, he’s going to draw Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill la Kill. He had some time to practice, so we’ll see what he has for us today. He’s a bit nervous, but he’ll give his best. I hope you enjoy the live drawing.
The producer just came in right now, but he’s going to use the restroom before he comes in.
Let’s get started with some questions on Patreon. This stream is made possible with the support of all our Patrons on Patreon. Thank you. Every bit of support is appreciated. None of the money gathered on Patreon is used as revenue for the studio. All goes to projects or staff and is much appreciated. Thank you very much.
If you would like to participate with questions, we do Q and As with the live drawings. Also, Patrons can vote on who the live drawers draw. We don’t have a link to our Twitch page on Patreon, but we will add it. The Twitch page isn’t too difficult to find and is on other social media, such as our Twitter and official site.
We do have our producer now, Hiromi Wakabayashi. He’s a regular MC for our streaming sessions.
Our first question is from Luke Roberts: “How long does it usually take to draw one frame, and how are the drawings kept so consistent with different people drawing them?”
Sakurai says that it depends on the cut. However, it generally takes about one hour to draw one inbetween frame.
Wakabayashi says that the drawings are consistent along the frames because there’s an animator—I think the direct translation is “animation director”—and they are the ones who kind of direct each frame to make sure there’s consistency throughout the series. There are episode directors who do this work.
We generally try to answer off of the questionnaires, but sometimes, we receive some questions that we obviously cannot answer for various reasons. “Can we expect a global theater release for Promare?” is an example, but I’ll ask for the hell of it.
I was not expecting such a thorough answer! Hiromi says that he would want a worldwide release if possible. There have been multiple announcements about Promare. If the opportunity allows, they want a worldwide release. Hopefully, they will get it.
We were just talking about Kill la Kill, the subject of the drawing. There was a close match between Satsuki and Nonon for this live drawing session. Nonon was just short of three votes for winning. I was secretly voting for Nonon with my own account. It’s unfortunate for the Nonon fans. Sakurai was low-key rooting for Satsuki, though, so I guess it worked out for him.
So, we’ve asked Sakurai what he usually works with. He usually likes to work digitally. When he draws for fun, he usually uses digital. When Sakurai doodles, he likes to color the illustration as well.
The next question is from Manuel Armando Marquez Gonzalez. I’m sorry if I mess up your names. The question is, “How is Trigger involved in the development of Kill la Kill the Game? And how did the project start?”
The answer was pretty long! Hopefully I can answer. Kill la Kill the Game initially started with the character designer at Arc System Works, Mori, who is the designer for BlazBlue. Mori watched Kill la Kill. Early after the airing of Kill la Kill, he pitched the idea to Arc System Works about doing a game. The idea was approved, and the idea was given to Studio Trigger’s production committee. That’s when the game project started.
The offer for the game was given pretty soon after the series ended. It’s been the works for a long time. Trigger’s involvement in the game process is to review character models and the stories. Trigger aren’t professionals when it comes to gameplay, though. Arc System Works are the professionals there because it’s their industry, so Arc System Works does the majority of that work. I hope that was a good answer for our questioner.
I was talking to Sakurai now. I get a lot of opportunities to watch animators draw, and I find it interesting that everyone has their own operation on how they draw their characters. I noticed that Sakurai kind of leaves the characters bald and draws hair later. Sakurai says that that’s just kind of how he’s doing the illustration now. There are times when he draws the hair with the face.
I questioned if Sakurai had ever drawn a fan illustration of Kill la Kill before. Sakurai drew fanart of Satsuki and Ryuko right after the final episode aired. He uploaded the piece on Twitter, so maybe you can find it. However, he makes his Twitter private, so it might be difficult to find the picture.
Wakabayashi and I asked Sakurai what his preferences for drawing are. What characters does he like to draw? Sakurai said that he preferred drawing female characters. He likes drawing female characters in long coats, like a long double coat. I guess that’s his kink!
Sakurai explained that he doodles original characters in his free time.
The next question is from Paul Schmidt, who asks, “Sakurai-san, what is it like being a Douga-man? Is it a lot of work? In a typical half-hour episode, how many frames/cuts do you have to draw? I submit anime staff credits to Anime News Network’s encyclopedia as a hobby, and I discovered your name was not in the database (at least not credited).”
I’ll split the question up.
Sakurai says that he currently enjoys being an inbetween animator, but when he first started working, he wasn’t used to the environment and wasn’t too comfortable with it. Sakurai thinks that the workload is pretty average.
Sakurai explained that it’s very difficult to calculate or put out a number for how many frames he works on per episode because each episode can be drastically different. He can maybe say how many frames he works on a week, which is maybe 50-60 frames because he does about 10 frames a day.
We asked our tech guy to pump up the volume for Sakurai’s microphone.
There’s a question that asks, “Is the iPad good for drawing?” I can’t pronounce the questioner’s name.
The third-generation iPad is very good for drawing. Today, we were planning to use the latest model of Cintiq 16 from Wacom for drawing, but it was broken when we tried to test with it. We had it fixed for stream, but we didn’t have enough time to set it up, so we’re using Intuos 5 today. Fortunately, Sakurai likes working with Intuos 5, and it’s his personal item that he brought with him today. He’s working in a preferred environment. We’re not forcing him to work with unfamiliar equipment.
There are a lot of questions regarding Inferno Cop season 2 on the chat log right now. Hiromi says that Studio Trigger wants to do it! However, the issue they’re having right now is that they have so much actual animation work to do. Inferno Cop is an animation as well, but there’s so much on Trigger’s to-do list that they haven’t gotten around to Inferno Cop yet. Ideally, Hiromi says, they only want to work on comical series, but to keep the studio going, they have to do actual work.
It has been a while since the studio has done anything with Inferno Cop, so Hiromi has talked to the studio about doing some more Inferno Cop along the line, though.
Sakurai is struggling with the shoulder parts of Satsuki, Wakabayashi says. Satsuki’s shoulder pads are difficult to draw! When Studio Trigger was designing the character, there were parts put in that Wakabayashi thought would cause a lot of problems for animators.
Wakabayashi says that they had some slight hope that some animators would find it entertaining to draw Satsuki’s shoulder pads. They would have to think about how the shoulder pads would move and work at different angles.
Our previous animator, Mr. Sato, likes drawing mechs and robots on top of characters. I was curious if Sakurai likes drawing mechs as well. Sakurai doesn’t like drawing non-organic objects, though he does like drawing the little details in clothing. Sakurai likes drawing the arm portion of coats, like the creases and stuff. He likes the little details.
There’s a question from Oscar Manjarrez, who asks, “How are the figures made? Do you reach out to Good Smile or other companies to make them, or is it the other way around? Just wondering if a Ryuko Figma would be made in her street clothing.”
Wakabayashi says it works both ways. Trigger does approach the figure companies in the pre-production portion of production. Trigger pitches that they’re making a certain kind of animation or series and asks if the company would be interested in making merchandise. If the company is interested in making merchandise, they can start making merchandise earlier and release the figures during the airing of the series.
What usually happens is that the company watches the studio’s animation and series and has their own interest. If the series is publicly well known, a company might make an attempt to make a figure. They want a profit as well, so they might ask to make a figure of one of the studio’s characters.
It’s not a Figma, but there was a jacket version of Ryuko from Medicom Toy. It’s a very big and pretty pricey figure.
There was a question from a user named by nora_soncho in our Twitch chat log. They ask if Promare will get a lot of figures and figurines.
The answer is “hopefully.” However, Wakabayashi doesn’t see a lot of figures being made for original movie titles. They’re pretty confident with the title, and they can only hope, and they wouldn’t be too surprised if figures were made possible.
We asked Sakurai if he likes collecting figurines or buying them. His response is sadly that he has just a few; he doesn’t really have an appreciation for figures. For hobbies, he likes playing games. He likes both console and PC games. He appreciates indie titles on Steam more.
Wakabayashi was curious if Sakurai knew about Indivisible. One of Trigger’s lead animators worked on the opening sequence for the game. Sakurai knows about the game and the company.
JxSam asks, “How did you guys pick Raemz to do some promotional Trigger art last month? It’s pretty inspiring to see someone non-Japanese be featured like that!”
I don’t think Raemz is the first non-Japanese person we’ve asked to do the Studio Trigger illustration of the month. I think we’ve had others. To answer your question, several of our staff, myself included, liked her art. I just approached her in the Comic Market, or maybe a different event. We were fortunate enough that she agreed to draw for us.
Apparently, Sakurai has finished doing the roughs. Now, he’s working on the final draft of the lines.
Evandro997 says, “Do Trigger receive a lot of portfolios from overseas? If yes, what do you think about them?”
Wakabayashi says they receive overseas portfolios from time to time, but he doesn’t think that they receive them often. They obviously do review these portfolios when they get them, though.
We asked Sakurai if he streams drawings on his private time. He says that he draws for fun, but he’s never streamed before. He’s a little nervous and uncomfortable because people can see all the little mistakes he made. People can see his in-progress illustration, which he thinks is kind of embarrassing.
Sakurai is using an Intuos 5 tablet today, the medium size.
Wakabayashi asked Sakurai about how he feels about Patreon and other financial support that Trigger receives from the fans. Sakurai responded that he appreciates Patreon and the financial support; it feels good.
Wakabayashi says that something like Patreon is a very foreign culture in Japan; there’s no culture of tipping in Japan. People don’t give money because they appreciate others’ work. Simply put, Wakabayashi is happy that they receive so much support from everyone.
There’s a question from Patreon, from Bill Erak, who asks, “So, how much power do producers have on a show? Like, oftentimes I see that there were decisions made by writers, others by directors, and others by producers. Writers and directors I kind of understand, but if producers have too much power, wouldn’t that make them straight-up directors, too?”
Wakabayashi says the answer to this question depends on the project. For example, a particular project might be started up by producers. A producer might go and find a director that they want their particular series directed by, as well as the staff that they want. In that case, the producer obviously has an agenda that he wants to pursue. He will probably comment here and there on how he wants the series to be executed. There are times when producers might have absolutely no say, though. A project might be very creative driven, where the director and scriptwriter will basically choose every finer detail of the project, and the producer is just there to make the process as stress free as possible.
Wakabayashi says that he can’t speak for other studios. However, with Studio Trigger, not any one person (scriptwriter, director, producer, etc.) has too much power. That’s just Trigger, though. The situation might be different in different studios.
Wakabayashi says that at Studio Trigger, they also feel that you don’t have to be a director, scriptwriter, producer, etc. to provide input. They welcome input regardless of position.
Sakurai is explaining that he’s making a lot of mistakes right now. However, that’s the benefit of drawing digitally. You can make as many mistakes as you want, CTRL+Z, and it’s gone. That’s not the case in physical drawing. You have to erase, and the paper gets worn out.
I explained this a bit earlier. One of our Twitch viewers asked in Japanese if Sakurai wants to work with… I guess digital tablets? I don’t know the correct term in English, but they asked if Sakurai was interested in working with a tablet like Cintiq.
Sakurai was interested initially. We bought a Cintiq 16 one for this stream and tried to test it out. However, when we tried to test a few days ago, there were problems with the equipment. We had to get the tablet repaired. As such, Sakurai is instead using his own tablet, the Intuos 5, which is what he usually draws with.
What time is it in Ukraine right now?
Would Studio Trigger accept donations and have Twitch stamps? We don’t have plans at the moment, but to be honest, we haven’t looked into it too much.
For people living in the east coast, west coast, or wherever where it’s like 3:00 or 5:00 am, please don’t deprive yourself of sleep. There should be a VOD enabled, so you can watch later.
We had a question if this is the studio that worked on Evangelion. Wakabayashi says not really! They’re the sidekick, like the Robin to Batman!
Wakabayashi says that he’ll maybe look into making a stamp. However, if they have to make it, that’s a lot of work that has to go in. They’ll look into it.
It looks like Sakurai has finished the face and is working on the body.
Wakabayashi was the creative officer for Kill la Kill. He commented on Sakurai’s drawing, saying that it looks just like Satsuki!
Wakabayashi is curious about what Sakurai wants to do in the future. Sakurai obviously wants to move up to a key frame animator. Then, he wants to do episodic directing, which is meaty directing on individual episodes. He wants to create something that is highly influenced by his own creative touch. He possibly wants to do a one-man ending sequence where all of the frames are executed by him.
Sakurai doesn’t ultimately want to become a director. He wants to take big steps and go up the ranks of the animators in the industry.
Wakabayashi says that it’s good to have a goal. It’s a motivating factor.
Studio Trigger is a lot more open to ideas, Wakabayashi adds. They try to provide opportunities to the staff. So, if animators keep saying that they’re interested in something and keep telling executives of their interest, sooner or later, it will happen. Wakabayashi says to keep trying.
Blademaster223 asks, “Will Trigger hire more foreign animators if the language barrier problem is solved?”
The question is a little broad, so Wakabayashi’s answer might not be the exact answer you’re expecting. The reason that Studio Trigger can’t hire foreign animators and staff is for a multitude of reasons. Trigger does work with a lot of foreign creators, like with Little Witch Academia and Promare. They don’t come to the studio, but Trigger works with a lot of overseas staff.
There are language barriers, but there are also financial issues. Visas cost a lot of money to obtain. Trigger isn’t big enough to sustain the money for visas.
Again, we covered a similar question in our previous stream as well. In today’s day and age, with all these technologies, you don’t have to be living in Japan to work with a particular entity. You can work online. That’s how Trigger does a lot of transaction with overseas creatives. There are staff like myself, who help with online translations all the time.
I think everyone is too concerned that they have to live in Japan to work with a Japanese studio. That might have been the case like 10 years ago, but I don’t think that’s the case today.
Hiromi asked if Sakurai watches overseas animation. Sakurai watches Disney and Pixar. Sakurai is very excited for Spider-Verse, which is coming out very late in Japan.
It’s very difficult to create those kinds of stunning visuals in Japan, Wakabayashi says. They’re interested in seeing what the movie is like.
Has Sakurai received any influence? Does he like Japanese animation? He likes Evangelion, specifically the reboot. He likes the newer, theatrical Evangelion and appreciates it more because it’s the first Evangelion he saw. The title was Rebuild of Evangelion. The fourth installment is in production right now. Sakurai is curious to see where it goes!
Sakurai doesn’t really have a favorite director, but he does appreciate Mr. Anno’s work. He did appreciate Shin Godzilla as well. Sakurai’s preference is more serious. He likes more serious anime over more comical ones.
Sakurai thinks that Studio Trigger’s method of direction or artistic touch is very American. [Wakabayashi laughs.] Wakabayashi says that is very exclusive to Imaishi’s work.
Are there any favorite Japanese anime series aside from movies that Sakurai likes? He likes the works from Kyoto Animation, though he doesn’t have any particular titles.
I asked Sakurai if he tried applying for Kyoto Animation before Trigger. Sakurai said that he only applied for Trigger, and I asked why. Why wouldn’t he want to work at the studio he likes most? Sakurai explained that he wants to keep what he likes… I don’t know if I can translate well. He wants to be able to enjoy his favorite thing as a hobby and not make it work.
The reason why Sakurai chose Studio Trigger over other studios is because he felt that the art direction seemed like it would be the most interesting to work with. It was the catchiest to him.
Hiromi explained that Sakurai has an interesting perspective. Instead of going to a serious studio and being serious there, it might be good to go to a less-serious studio so that you kind of stand out there.
We asked Sakurai how frequently he draws for fun. He says he draws for fun pretty much every day. At work, he draws in his free time. At home, he draws digitally as well.
This is a question from Zack Gould for Wakabayashi. He asks, “At Anime Expo 2018, you mentioned that if you work on any kind of project along with Imaishi, you would want to do something in the same vein as Panty and Stocking. I personally am also incredibly interested in seeing more hyper-sexual/hyper-violent works from you two, so I need to ask: has there been any discussion about it further than the mention at Anime Expo?”
This isn’t a direct translation, but Wakabayashi says Imaishi likes very orthodox series. He likes working on series like Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill. He likes throwing in a sucker punch like Panty and Stocking and Luluco and taking turns between the two. Wakabayashi says that he would think that Promare is very orthodox. Promare’s genre is super-lit-mega-action-rescue-human drama!
I’m not going to translate what Wakabayashi just said. I’m sorry! I don’t think it’s possible. It’s too difficult. There’s a lot of play on words that I don’t think is possible to translate. If you can translate it, kudos to you. I’m not going to try, though!
I’ll translate what Wakabayashi said now, however. Promare is made for an all-ages audience. They’re not really goofing around this time. Everyone can enjoy the movie.
Hiromi was curious. Sakurai said earlier that he’s interested in animating his own worldview and making his own directed scenes and such. Hiromi was curious if Sakurai wanted to do concept art as well because that’s kind of exporting your own image into a visual illustration. I guess Sakurai is potentially interested in doing concept arts in the future.
Sakurai doesn’t really draw backgrounds or board-like illustrations in his free time, but he is currently studying how to at the moment. Sakurai explained that he’s not used to drawing and talking at the same time. I can’t even draw with my full attention, so I don’t think anyone can blame him for struggling to talk and draw at the same time.
I guess Sakurai’s self-pitch for his illustration of Satsuki today is that he gave a lot of effort to the shoulder parts, so once he’s finished drawing, check out the shoulders! It would be much appreciated.
“Tattun, are you an animator, too?” I wish! I wish I could draw. I wish I could draw all the time so that I could draw lewd pictures, but that is not the case.
This is a question from RYUUy that asks, “What are your favorite drawing exercises that helped you the most getting better?”
Sakurai says to watch a lot of other anime. Watch a lot of other creators’ illustrations and try to figure out what you appreciate and like drawing the most. When you figure out what you like and appreciate to draw the most, then that helps your own process with getting better at drawing.
Apparently, it’s Shiny Chariot’s birthday today. She’s one year older. I’m not sure she appreciates that!
Hiromi was curious. He just found out today that Little Witch Academia is that kind of series where you choose all the characters’ profiles. That’s not the case for Nakashima’s work like Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill. That’s because Nakashima doesn’t want people to have a biased opinion of the character because their birthday is on a certain date. He wants the viewers to view his characters in the purest form.
I’m getting a lot of comments regarding the dice for the birthdays. I think I used a Dungeons and Dragons-type template to come up with the birthdays for the Little Witch Academia characters. Some of the birthdays were changed intentionally by the producer, obviously, but some birthday dates are completely random.
This is a question from Familiar Stranger_: “If you could remake any non-Japanese cartoon however you wanted, which cartoon would you do?” Hiromi says that it’s not a cartoon, but he would like to work with Star Wars.
Sakurai explains that he’s not too familiar with western cartoons. He doesn’t have any franchise that he would like to reboot under his name, but he would like to see Powerpuff Girls with Yoshinari’s touch. I agree that this would be nice!
We’re planning to stream for another 90 minutes. That’s how long we have the room for. However, if there are no other people booking the room after that, we might be able to extend if Sakurai doesn’t finish in an hour and a half. So, we maybe have an hour and a half to go!
This is another question from Patreon. It’s from Kikoman589. The original question was from Thorn14. The question is, “Are there seasons (winter/spring/summer/fall) that are easier or harder on anime studios?”
Wakabayashi says that Trigger doesn’t really have a laid-back season. Obviously, this would depend on the studio as well, though. As a studio, they have the most free time available when they finish a series. There’s an interval time between two projects.
Wakabayashi personally wants a project that doesn’t go over New Year’s Eve. He wants days off. The end of the year is one of the very few times that Japanese people get legitimate times off from work. They just want to take a break when allowed to.
We recently announced that we’re selling a Studio Trigger custom suitcase. There’s a question if we’d sell the suitcase to overseas audiences. I believe the suitcase we’re selling is sold through Good Smile Company? Obviously, the shipment is going to be nasty, but I don’t see why not. We’ll look into it! We don’t have whoever’s in charge of that with us right now. Since we’re not using any IP, I don’t think there’s a problem with selling the suitcase overseas, but the price of the shipment would be high.
I think the question was, “Will Trigger ever do Isekai—is that the term in English?—genre?”
Wakabayashi’s answer is that Trigger has so many other things that they want to do that they don’t have any plans to do that kind of series in the near future. If they do an Isekai, they’ll probably do their own original Isekai series, though, not an adaptation.
There was a question in Japanese. “How was the opening and ending song determined in this particular series?”
Wakabayashi says that if the creative staffs for a particular series want to throw in their own opinion or two cents for what opening or ending will be used for a particular series, then they might make a request to the production committee, which usually has a production label company within it, who would be the sponsors for a particular series. The creative team might make a request to the label company, saying that they want this type of music or soundtrack, and the label might try their best to accommodate the request to the best of their abilities.
In the case that the creative team doesn’t really have any preference, the music production label company usually will make the decision themselves. For Studio Trigger, it depends on which production group is involved as well.
Imaishi or Hiromi Wakabayashi’s creative team does usually make specific requests to label companies. What Wakabayashi generally sees from the director is that the director is usually more interested in choosing who is in charge of the soundtrack for the series than the opening/ending themes.
Sorry! I’m taking a one-minute absence from the keyboard. My throat is drying up, and I need to buy some kind of drink.
Sorry, I’m back. I believe they’re talking about the program Sakurai is using right now. He’s using Sai. I’m not sure if that program is well-known among the western community, but Sai is a pretty popular program in Japan. People generally use Sai or Clip Studio in Japan. Sakurai explained that in Sai, it’s easier to paint. He usually finishes all his process of illustration in one program.
Sakurai’s reason for using Sai over Clip Studio Paint is that Sai isn’t too demanding on the hardware. The user interface is pretty simple, too. Sakurai has also been using the program for a while.
This is our third stream. All of our animators so far have used a different program! It’s an interesting showcase. Yoshinari used Photoshop and Painter. I think Sato used MediBang Paint. Sakurai is using Sai. I think we’re only missing Clip Studio Paint now.
If you’re interested in getting into drawing digitally, you can check out our archive on YouTube and see how each individual program functions. You can choose which program works best for you.
We asked what creative artists Sakurai respects a lot. He said Minamino Aki. I guess this particular creator was in DARLING in the FRANXX as well, as an outfit designer.
Sakurai also likes mebae and Uki as well. Uki is obviously known for Cencoroll. Wakabayashi says that Cencoroll is one of those frontiers. It was a title that was early for its time. Uki kind of made Cencoroll by himself. There were other creators mentioned as well, like Shinkai, who is probably very well known by now but who is still working pretty much solo.
Sakurai didn’t really read manga prior to becoming an animator, but if he had to choose a title, it would be Danjon Meshi. I’m Googling for an English title. I guess it’s Dungeon Lunch.
When we asked Sakurai what games he likes, he said Breath of the Wild for Zelda. I asked Sakurai what other Zelda games he played. There was this one Gameboy title. I don’t know what it’s called in English… it’s The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. The game is being released on Switch soon. I guess Sakurai is playing Splatoon and Smash Brothers a lot as well. Sakurai’s favorite PC game is Cave Story.
There’s a question from maxie721: “Does Studio Trigger have any after-activities after work? Sports, Mario Party, etc.? Or only Nomikai???”
Sakurai says he occasionally goes drinking with his colleagues. Hiromi apparently goes straight home. Hiromi hangs out enough with his colleagues because his work hours are unfortunate for him.
I guess Sakurai doesn’t play games with his colleagues. His taste of games is different from the rest of the crew. He also likes playing the same game for hours. His colleagues like trying out different titles more. At Studio Trigger, Switch is popular. Everyone is playing Smash Brothers.
Maybe we’ll do a Kill la Kill stream once the game is released. I believe it’s available for PS4 and Steam at the moment.
There was a comment saying that we must be playing FGO. I guess Sakurai doesn’t play any mobile games or app games anymore. Hiromi plays a lot of Granblue. I hate app games with a passion and don’t play any of them.
Hiromi is saying that the selling point of the app games is that you can pick them up any time and enjoy them whenever you want. You don’t have to go through the hassle of turning them on and stuff. It’s an easier version of “plug it in and play.”
I won’t name it, but one of my favorite titles was ruined by app games, so I don’t like app games!
I guess Hiromi was saying that the more passionate gamer tends to hate app games. Sakurai says it’s an interface issue. You feel like you have to get the controller-in-hand feel better.
My favorite game ruined by apps wasn’t Diablo, by the way. I gave up on Diablo after Diablo III.
This is a question from Patreon, from Alex B, who says, “Tweeners are the most interesting job! So excited to have an inbetweener doing this! The real heroes in anime! How did you get into the job? What about it do you find interesting? Would you prefer to have a different role in the animation production process?”
We’ve covered a little of the question already, but I think it’s interesting to ask why Sakurai was initially interested in applying to Trigger.
Sakurai wanted to be an inbetween animator or become an animator because he wanted to get better at drawing. He initially started drawing in his high school days. He was trying to draw his favorite character from a social app game, and things got out of hand from there.
When you’re an inbetween animator or an animator in general, you’re not always drawing what you want to draw. There’s also a high level of skill required because you have to draw a lot of different angles, etc. Being an animator is the right place to be to get better at drawing.
We got confirmation that our room is extended for five more hours. I don’t think this stream will take that long, though. I don’t want to keep you guys deprived of sleep for that long, either. I think Sakurai will finish in maybe another 30 minutes or so. Sakurai is adding highlights and shadows now, so he’s prepping to finish up the job right now.
We’re explaining now that even younger animators these days are getting really good. The level of technique that younger animators have now is unmatched to what we saw when we were younger. When Yoshinari was younger, Hiromi doesn’t think animators were as good. It’s like the Olympics. 30-40 years ago, the demonstrations at the Olympics were still outstanding feats, but you can see how much humanity or mankind has improved since then.
There’s a comment being made right now saying that the animation budget was higher in the 80s. Hiromi claims that this is not true. Budget doesn’t really equal quality, I guess, if that’s the right term. There might have been a high-budget project here and there, but the general consensus is that the budget was the same in the 80s as it is now.
There’s a lot to put into consideration, though. There’s a lot more staff working on a project now compared to in the 80s. There’s a different amount of budget allocated at a different time. What determines the quality of the project more is the passion of the creators. Passion has a lot more to do with the quality than the budget, Hiromi says.
However, I would like to note that more budget will obviously help. With more budget, Studio Trigger can maintain a larger staff, which helps with quality. What ultimately affects how fun and entertaining a project is is how involved the staff is in the production.
axelsaurus asks, “Sorry to ask again, but can we hope for some Trigger ‘Parallel Works,’ like the TTGL ones? KLK spin-off shorts are in my wet dreams.”
If you’re looking for a spin-off of Kill la Kill, Hiromi believes that the game, Kill la Kill the Game: IF, will satisfy your thirst for a parallel work. It’s going to feature Satsuki as the main character. It’s a “what if” story examining if Satsuki was the main protagonist for the series. If you’re interested, Hiromi thinks it is well worth the money. The script is also done by Nakashima himself.
There was a question regarding how artists keep themselves motivated in drawing. Sakurai explains that keeping an old archive of all of your artwork and trying to compare it with your more recent work to see how much you’ve improved is a good way to see if you’re making any progress.
Also, Sakurai likes posting on the Internet and receiving feedback or praise. That’s always a plus.
There’s a question from syworks: “Is there any secret to keep your wrists from overstraining from working so long and so many hours?”
Sakurai says that he doesn’t really have any secrets for that. If you work too much in a single day, his hands do get sore. He has to take breaks in between and relieve the stress in the middle. He doesn’t really have any secrets.
We asked Sakurai if he has a Twitter or pixiv account he would like to share with the community. He says he doesn’t want to show it and is a little uneasy right now, but maybe one day, he’ll make it public.
Another question is, “How great is Studio Trigger’s snack/bar pantry? What delicious treats do staff have access to?”
I guess that Studio Trigger doesn’t really have a bar/pantry. They want one. People do receive snacks or gifts from fans that is available for anyone in the studio to take in the middle. As such, there’s not something specific that they always have.
Studio Trigger do want a kitchen or bar. In the studios that Trigger was able to tour overseas, they found that every studio had some kind of pantry, even if it was just a cereal buffet. Wakabayashi thought it was cool and wanted one in Trigger, too. Maybe when Trigger has more money.
Hiromi is saying that, knowing himself very well, even if there was a pantry, kitchen, or bar, he’d probably get bored of the menu or whatever is available pretty quickly. He’d probably only use it once or twice.
I disagree, though. I know Hiromi likes coffee. I would use the snack/pantry if we had one!
We probably can’t do a studio tour stream. It’s probably not possible. We’d have to tear down a lot of the studio to avoid anything being leaked!
Maybe we could put the GoPro on a Hot Wheel and have a quick, short tour, but it probably wouldn’t happen. There would be too much risk!
There’s a question from luluraoul in Japanese: “Are there any plans for future streams?” We usually communicate with our Patreon for our streams. The goal is to stream once a month. That’s a goal, but we don’t always do a good job on it. We have had three streams, and the Patreon has been active for longer than three months. We do a stream about once every 2.5 months. We will have a stream in the future, and we’ll continue to do so until our Patreon dries up.
We actually have our next participant chosen, an outside creator. She’s kind of not Trigger, but she works with us very frequently. She’s Mago, the character designer for Space Patrol Luluco and our mascot characters. She was supposed to stream this month, but there were schedule conflicts, so she’ll stream next month. Our fourth stream is very, very soon. We’ll make an announcement about that stream early next month.
I don’t know Mago’s Twitter account off the top off my head, but I think it’s magodesu. She’s pretty active on Twitter. She’ll probably come up easily if you search. Yes, it seems magodesu is her Twitter.
I guess Sakurai is using a very unique method of adding this lighting gradation.
There’s a question from EiGi696969 that asks, “Recently, the Studio Trigger documentaries have been focused more on the voice actors and less on the artists (Kill la Kill or LWA or Kiznaiver and FRANXX). Have you guys switched the documentary production team? Would you mind in the future if you can make sure there’s more into the art stuff in these documentaries?”
Hiromi is saying, just FYI, at least half of the documentary for FRANXX was focused on the artists. The focus on voice actors is… they want to focus on their creative process more, but it’s straining to the studio if there’s an entire camera crew filming all the time. It’s detrimental to the schedule. That’s maybe why there is less footage of the creative process portion. I guess it’s something that we want to focus on more, but we might not have been able to. It didn’t really come up to our minds until it was just mentioned now, Hiromi says.
Wakabayashi says that a lot of the staff don’t like being recorded or photographed. Also, the documentaries are more entertaining if the camera crews come in without respect of the creators. That kind of footage is more entertaining, but we can’t do that because our creators are delicate individuals. Personally, Hiromi wants more documentaries focused on the creative process, though.
Sakurai apparently finished his illustration. We’re asking him to zoom in a little bit right now.
That was it for the live drawing. For those who are interested in the Sai composition files for this illustration, if you’re part of our Patreon, you’ll have access to this and our previous illustrations as well. If you had a great time, feel free to support our studio and creators. We much appreciate it!
Thank you, everyone! There are about 1,200 of you at this weird, awkward time on a weekday. Our next stream is with Mago in early March. Thank you for joining our stream! We’ll be wrapping up our stream now.
Studio Trigger Live Drawing with Mago (03/13/19): Transcript (Non-Verbatim)
Studio Trigger streamed their fourth Twitch live drawing at 19:00 JST on March 13, 2019. The stream features Space Patrol Luluco character designer Mago drawing Trigger-chan from Trigger Girls and Luluco from Space Patrol Luluco, as well as a Q and A with producer Hiromi Wakabayashi and translator Tatsuru Tatemoto. A full video of the stream is available on Twitch here.
I’ve put together a transcript of the stream for anyone curious about the Q and A. While the transcript is not verbatim, all the meaning should still be captured.
Transcript
Tatsuru Tatemono (Tattun): Okay. Thank you for joining us on our fourth live-drawing session. We have Mago as our guest tonight. I’m aware that it’s very late for a lot of our followers. Thank you for stopping by. It’s 3:00 am in Seattle. Thank you very much for stopping by.
Again, Mago is our guest animator or guest illustrator today. As usual, Hiromi Wakabayashi is here as our MC. I, Tattun, will be doing the translation and moderation for the stream tonight. Tonight, we are having Mago draw Studio Trigger’s mascot character, Trigger-chan. I believe we had a special request from Mago that she wanted to draw Luluco as well. So, I think, uh, we would like…
Mago says that it’s a pleasure to meet you. She says that her name is Mago the Illustrator, and she’ll do her best today. Hiromi Wakabayashi says konnichiwa, as usual.
I’m sorry if it looks dark. It’s our camera. We’re going to be focusing on the illustration part a little bit more, so hopefully, the darkness won’t be too bothersome. I guess Hiromi brought a pre-release item from Promare that he was quality checking.
I’m very sorry. We’ll have our audio pumped up a little bit more.
So, we noticed that there’s a little glare on Mago’s tablet. We’re going to try to get rid of the glare so that you have a better view of how she is working with her illustration. Today, Mago is working with SAI 1, the first version of SAI. I believe she’s using the Cintiq 16, the newest tablet by Wacom. Otherwise, she’s using a wireless keyboard and mouse. When we upload the video on YouTube, I’ll make sure to cover all the specifics in the comments section.
Okay. So, I think we will get started with the Q and A session like usual. However, before we do so, note that this stream is brought to you by all the lovely support we receive from Patreon. Thank you. If you’re interested in becoming a supporter as well, the link is provided on our Twitter page. Please check it out if you’re curious. We try to provide digital rewards as frequently as possible, so if you’re interested in those things, do definitely give our Patreon a glance when you have some time!
So, for the people who are unfamiliar, Mago usually works on a lot of Studio Trigger’s SD character designs. She’s been a part of every single project except for DARLING in the FRANXX, which doesn’t really count because DARLING in the FRANXX is a collaboration work and not a 100% genuine Trigger show. Mago wasn’t part of Inferno Cop, either. Inferno Cop is a prestigious Trigger title, Hiromi says, so she needs more experience with Studio Trigger. We’re receiving some comments that Mago’s not a part of Turning Girls as well.
Well, that was the introduction. Let’s get started with the Q and A session. Again, if you’re a part of our Patreon, you will have the opportunity to cast a vote on what kinds of questions will be asked and what kinds of illustrations will be drawn during these streams.
Hiromi and Mago are explaining that Mago’s drawing is an interesting line-up of characters. You don’t usually see these two characters together because they’re obviously the same character.
I have a question from Paul Schmidt: “Mago-san, I noticed you're only credited as the character designer and with ending illustrations on Space Patrol Luluco in Anime News Network's (ANN) encyclopedia, yet on your Twitter profile introduction, you list Kill la Kill, so I was wondering how you were involved with Kill la Kill? The reason I ask is because I personally submitted the staff and company credits to the ANN encyclopedia page for Kill la Kill, and your name (まご) is not credited in any episode, at least according to the corresponding page on the アニメスタッフデータベース [staff database].”
So, Mago says that she wrote Kill la Kill on her profile because she was responsible for one of the back illustrations for the Blu-ray/DVD jacket and was also in charge of the small SD characters for merchandise. That’s why she wrote about her involvement in Kill la Kill on her Twitter profile.
What is an SD character? I think SD stands for “Small Deformed” or “Super Deformed.” I’m not too sure. If that’s not the term used in English, I’m very sorry. Please tell me the term used in English. It’s Super Deformed?
So, Hiromi says that it’s called Super Deformed or SD in Japan because it started out originally from Gundam or Macross, which had a mini-mech series called “Super Deformed.” Hiromi suggests that you should stop calling the designs “chibi” and use the term “SD” because that’s the term that the proper anime industry uses! [Laughing.]
I guess Mago is going to take her time on the color and make a very Canvas illustration.
We have a question from Chen Luohan (I’m sorry if I mispronounce your name): “Hi Trigger! The production of anime fascinates me. What is the pipeline in the production of an anime series? What do you consider first when starting out with the ideas? Story? Character? Settings? Thank you very much!”
Wakabayashi says that they come up with a concept and foundation for what kind of series they want to make first. The concept might be something very, very broad, like family love or family bonding. Imaishi might be simpler; he might just want an anime with drills and that’s it. Once Trigger has that keyword—for example, Gurren Lagann would be “drill”—Trigger gets together to brainstorm how to make an interesting story from the one keyword, like “drill” in the case of Gurren Lagann.
Mago says she’s never put too much thought into her style formation. She generally likes drawing illustrations with very few shadows and lines. Before she knew it, she came up with her current style.
Hiromi noticed that Mago likes to clean up or refine her lines. She says that she cleans up where she feels like it! Mago says that she thought it might be more interesting for the viewers if she’s working on various parts of the illustration rather than concentrating on one part.
Mago and a few of our studio staffs went to Comic Fiesta, a decently large event in Malaysia. The event was a few months ago, I believe, during the Christmas season, but we were talking about how it’s actually summer during winter in Malaysia, so the event was very warm.
All three of us are saying that if we’re invited to a local event, we’ll most likely come out if it’s not conflicting with our schedule. This year, we want to try various places and go outside of the States more, to anywhere in Europe, Asia, etc.
We have an interesting question from EiGi696969: “Mago, do you have any interest in directing? Would you like to direct an anime one day?”
Mago says that she has no interest. She is a manga artist as well. She explains that when she draws a manga, she has to do everything; she has to come up with the story and concepts, which is like directing. It’s a lot of work. She doesn’t think she enjoys it too much.
For example, Mago says that it’s hard to motivate herself when she’s coming up with a story because she wants to... If she’s told to draw a manga, she tries to draw a character she’s currently interested in drawing. It’s hard for her to draw a pre-existing character that she’s told to draw.
A while ago, Mago was drawing a series of manga that featured Studio Trigger. The manga was about the daily nonsense of Studio Trigger. I think it was published through Utek Magazine [sp?]. Mago likes doing that kind of diary-type manga, she thinks.
We have a question from reportas1: “What are your favorite characters that you have drawn?”
Mago enjoys drawing Luluco the most. She also enjoys drawing Mako from Kill la Kill.
Wakabayashi says that they receive a lot of questions about DARLING in the FRANXX, asking if they are satisfied with the story and ending.
Studio Trigger’s general stance, as a studio, is that they basically try to give an idea to the director. The director, Nishigori Atsushi, usually comes up with a concept or idea that he wants to do. The studio gives him feedback and sees if he likes the feedback. The director obviously makes the final call. It’s very hard to say if Studio Trigger “liked” the ending sequence of DARLING in the FRANXX or not, Wakabayashi says.
Sorry, there was a misunderstanding! We’re not talking about the ending sequence. Wakabayashi did the production for the ending sequence of DARLING in the FRANXX, so he’s super satisfied with that! If the question is about the how the story was wrapped up, Wakabayashi says that the ending is the director’s choice, and he doesn’t think that it’s right of Studio Trigger to comment on how the story wrapped up.
There’s a question from Patreon’s Bill Erak: “How involved is Trigger in the dubbing process of their shows? I've heard of directors that sometimes get involved in dubs, but that's more of an exception. I ask because KLK had an amazing dub, Luluco's was pretty dope too, while LWA's sucks. Are those things left to whoever distributes it on the west? Can't you, Tattun, maybe check the dubs, and if they suck, tell them so that they change them?”
So, I thought this was a pretty interesting question. To this day, I don’t think many Japanese studios or production committees give much thought into this matter. Studio Trigger obviously doesn’t check or even receive a notice for a revision of the dubbing process. Wakabayashi says that he thinks that, if they made a request to the dubbers and distributors overseas to check on the dubbing process and auditions, they might be able to comment. However, distributors don’t even ask if the studio is satisfied with their work, so Wakabayashi guesses that it’s just very unnatural—or there’s no previous incidence—for a studio or production committee to comment on the dubbing process.
If given the opportunity, Studio Trigger would like to direct their dubbing as well, though, Wakabayashi says. Wakabayashi says that he would like Inferno Cop to be dubbed by Leonardo DiCaprio! [Laughing.]
tigermac from Twitch asks: “Mago, how many sketchbooks have you filled up since the start of your art career?”
Mago says that she doesn’t have a sketchbook! I guess she doesn’t really practice. She likes to doodle on her PC, and if it turns out well, she’ll share it on her Twitter. If not, she’ll usually toss out the files.
Whatever illustration or doodle Mago feels satisfied with is updated on her Twitter, so please check out her Twitter. I’ll post her Twitter on the YouTube upload as well, so please check that out if you’re interested, but I’m sure it’s not too difficult to find Mago’s Twitter if you just Google “Mago.” We have a couple of viewers posting Mago’s Twitter now!
I guess Mago is having a little trouble drawing Trigger-chan. Mago doesn’t draw Trigger-chan too often. She’s going to redo the drawing from the rough draft portion, she says.
There’s a question from Patreon, from Harry Bonyari (very sorry if I mispronounce your name): “I know you’re a big fan of sneakers. How do you let your interest in fashion inform your work?”
Mago says that she’s not too keen on fashion, but she does like sneakers. When she feels like drawing particular sneakers, she’ll usually draw the character in some kind of cool clothes to go with the sneakers. However, she doesn’t know if she lets her choice of fashion affect her work too much.
There’s a question from Cesar A. Morillo: “Is Inferno Cop Season 2 coming either this year or next?”
There’s no ETA for Inferno Cop, says Wakabayashi. It’s ready when it’s ready. If Studio Trigger focused on Inferno Cop, they would have to delay Promare, and Wakabayashi is sure that you don’t want that! He’s sure that you’d prefer to watch Imaishi’s and Amemiya’s new actual series instead!
Wakabayashi says that the studio has a lot of ideas for Inferno Cop 2, though. In every creative meeting for other projects, they usually get derailed and talk about Inferno Cop. They are waiting for the opportunity to utilize their ideas. Maybe Mago’s SD designs will be featured in the new Inferno Cop season, Wakabayashi says! [Laughing.]
There’s a question from Ben Veltri: “For Mago: In terms of drawing ability, how do animators and illustrators differ? Do you think illustrators are better?”
Okay, so we got some pretty interesting answers! This was a question from Patreon, again.
So, I guess, the question was, in terms of drawing abilities, how do animators and illustrators differ, and which is better? Hiromi and Mago said that the two jobs are different and can’t be compared; different skills are involved. An animator has to draw a character or object from every angle and in motion. An illustrator is meant to express with one single illustration, which might be hard for an animator to do—to convey a message with a single illustration. It’s very hard to compare. Mago says that she feels like it’s harder for an animator to acquire their set of skills, though.
EiGi696969, your question is interesting. It doesn’t hurt to answer your question twice. The question is, “What is your stance on piracy? Does it cost the studio any money when people pirate their anime? Do you think it’s a necessary evil? Do you think it’s something that will go away or get worse in the future?”
I guess Hiromi is saying that nowadays, there are so many different streaming services that everyone can watch what people in Japan can watch. In the past, that wasn’t the case, though. A lot of anime weren’t made available for much of the anime community. Those people had to illegally download, view, or stream anime elsewhere. Also, those people supported the community. Hiromi does agree that piracy is a necessary evil (or used to be).
Hiromi is speaking about an ideal situation, but even if you did watch Studio Trigger’s works illegally, he says to please watch it on a legit streaming service as well because it leads to success for the general industry.
We got a question from faux_wizard from Reddit, I believe. By the way, thank you for your help a while back. The question is: “How did Mago end up working alongside Trigger?”
Okay, so this goes pretty back in the days. Wakabayashi was working on... There’s this idol unit called Emitsu Private Middle School [sp?]. Uh, I’m sorry. There’s this talent, named Ai Ai [sp?]. There was an offer to do an illustration on her; Wakabayashi had an offer to draw her, and Wakabayashi talked to Nishigori Atsushi, the director for DARLING in the FRANXX and character designer for Gurren Lagann, about how this person named Mago draws really cute girls.
So, Wakabayashi and Nishigori thought that Mago’s illustration style was cute, so they asked Mago to do a comic spin-off about Ai Ai. Mago agreed. Two months later, the studio started working on Kill la Kill and asked Mago if she was interested in creating the official SD designs for Kill la Kill. Ever since then, Mago has been working on various Studio Trigger titles.
It’s been maybe roughly seven years, Hiromi says, that they’ve been working with Mago. They’ve been working with Mago since before they were making anime series. It’s been a long time! Mago is the studio’s go-to person when they need a cute design, Wakabayashi says.
Wakabayashi says that when they were coming up with Space Patrol Luluco, which was their fifth-year anniversary anime title, they approached Mago. It was kind of a joke series at the same time as well.
There’s a question from cataphractz: “Do any of you have a particular anime character you like outside of Trigger?”
Mago’s favorite character outside of Trigger works is this pirate character from Nintama Rantarou. Have you ever heard of Nintama Rantarou? The series is about these little ninjas in training. The anime is very, very… it airs every day on NHK. It’s a longtime-running series in Japan. Mago’s favorite character’s name is Atoi, the pirate. He only appears about once a year in the series. Mago made a lot of doujin.
I guess Hiromi is going to Google some fan illustrations that Mago posted.
So, we were discussing that it’s hard to come up with a character that we like. We have so many characters that we like! We thought it might be easier to think of a character we that we like from a series we recently watched. Hiromi didn’t know! He couldn’t think of any off the top of his head, so he told me to go first!
The studio boss, Masahiko Ohtsuka, bought Porco Rosso on Blu-ray recently, and I watched it. That film has always been one of my more favorite Ghibli films. It’s like waifu wars! You guys get new waifus every month. I don’t get new waifus that frequently; it’s hard to choose from all the numerous waifus. I recently watched Porco Rosso. I liked Fio. Porco is awesome as well, but Fio is smashing cute. At the moment, I like Fio. That’s what I was trying to say to Hiromi.
Mago says that she likes SpongeBob because it’s such a cute and funny show. She likes Gary, the cat-like snail!
Hiromi says that he likes Gwen more for Spider-Verse.
All right, this question is from Kuribo4: “Did you know Luluco would turn into Trigger when you designed her? Love your characters!”
So, Wakabayashi says that this goes a little bit back. They kind of neck-wrote their mascot characters 5-6 years ago. They wanted to do an April Fools’ joke. At the time, the mascot characters didn’t have names, but they just went with “Trigger Girls” for the joke. The joke was about making a new anime series about the Trigger Girls. The illustration for the joke was drawn by Mago.
Then, a few years later, they had the opportunity to do Space Patrol Luluco. Hiromi personally wanted to link that series with Trigger Girls. That’s also the reason why he wanted Mago to be the character designer for Luluco. Wakabayashi says that he wanted Luluco to transform into Trigger Girl in the end. He made a special request to director Imaishi and pushed for Mago to be the designer.
Luluco has a weird pigtail, Wakabayashi says. Hiromi says he made the request specifically to Mago because he wanted the pigtail to turn into… I don’t know how “ahoge” translates. It’s like a bad hair day? I don’t know what it is! We call it ahoge! I hope that answers your question, Kuribo! I see the term “cowlick” for “ahoge.”
Mago is currently doing a stage performance in Osaka. The script is done by Nakashima Kazuki. I’m assuming it’s doing well. It’s a pretty popular title.
This question is from Patreon. The user name is Grandpa: “Waka-Sama, when are we getting another Promare trailer?”
Wakabayashi is explaining that you can expect a new trailer in the near future, very soon.
[In response to unvoiced questions on the chat log about pizza.] So, Wakabayashi likes pizza and coke. Mago doesn’t really have a favorite type of pizza. I wondered if she supported pineapple on pizza. She’s indifferent, so I’m guessing she’s okay with pineapple on pizza.
So, everybody says that Galo from Promare looks really close to Kamina from Gurren Lagann. Wakabayashi is curious if people really think that way. Why don’t people think that Galo looks like Mikisugi if we’re thinking about half-naked guys with blue hair, Wakabayashi asks?
Wakabayashi says that Galo’s hairstyle is very natural if you think about his profession, which is firefighting. When running into a fire, there is a lot of hot air coming up, and that’s why Galo’s hair is always spiked up. There’s almost a buzz on the side because the hair on the side burns off!
So, no_04, I’ve seen your name on Twitter a few times. I think you follow me on Twitter. You strike a good point. Galo is basically Panty’s hair with Kamina.
So, again, no_04 made a good point, Wakabayashi says. Panty is the main character of Panty and Stocking. Galo is obviously the main character of Promare. If you notice, when Ryuko gets her Kisaragi outfit in the final episode, her hair is kind of spiked upwards, too. In all of Imaishi’s work, his main characters have this spiky hair. Even before Imaishi was a professional, he had a fan manga with a character whose hair spiked up as well. The hairstyle is an icon for a main character in Imaishi’s work. The hairstyle represents Imaishi’s stance to rebel against whatever is oppressing him. That’s why a lot of the characters—especially main characters—have spiky hair in Imaishi’s works.
I have a question from maxie721 who asks, “What about Mago? Any special features in her characters?”
Mago answers that she doesn’t really have any special features in her characters. When she tries to think too deeply, things don’t work out; she feels like she restricts herself too much, and it kind of kills the illustration on a whole.
There’s a question from Tony on Patreon that asks, “Would Studio Trigger ever do a “Basics of a Trigger Animation” tutorial on a live stream?”
Wakabayashi says the content in a Trigger animation tutorial would be pretty lecture-like and might not be too entertaining. There is a producer at Trigger who likes doing tutorials, though, and goes to colleges to do so. They would need a different line of staff to do a tutorial, however.
For those who want to know how to draw in general, Wakabayashi says, these kinds of streams are basically a cheat guide for you guys, which is why we do it. We make the streams available for later. If you don’t have time to watch a 2-3-hour stream, we make an edited version available for later. We should upload the stream within a few days. However, we haven’t uploaded the March stream yet because the tech staff has been too busy. We’ll hopefully get to it soon. If you’re a Patreon supporter, we provide .psd files for these illustrations, which is even more of a reference to work with for those who are interested. Please do check it out!
There was a question earlier on our Twitch chat log. The question was something along the lines of, “I saw one of the rougher illustrations or rough takes on Lalaco Godspeed. Why did you decide on short, bob-like hair for Lalaco?”
Wakabayashi says the answer is that Lalaco had a big fur coat and didn’t want the hair to overlap with that coat. Also, in terms of the design process for animation, Wakabayashi says that shorter-haired girls tend to be perceived as more energetic or active. Girls with longer hair tend to be perceived more as… I have to choose my words properly. They’re not docile. That’s a bad word! [Laughing] “Calm” or “reserved” would be what I’m thinking of. Short hair was used, Wakabayashi says, because Lalaco’s obviously a very aggressive person, and they thought the short hair would better portray her personality.
There’s a question from no_04: “Was it difficult for Mago-san to adapt Gridman or the kaiju to the SD style for the line stickers?”
Mago says that the kaiju was not very hard for her. She had more trouble redesigning Gridman and his other mechs. So, Mago can draw monsters and kaiju because they’re basically animals, she says. However, she has trouble drawing mechs and robots.
So, Hiromi was asking if Mago was having trouble redesigning this black object that the studio asked her to draw (and of which he can’t give too many details about).
So, this was a question from berikpo: “What are Mago’s favorite accessories to wear and to draw?”
Mago’s answer was sneakers. She likes Nike Air Force 1 in particular. However, the one she owns most are Air Jordans.
We have a question from Kikoman589: “Has Mago’s childhood or upbringing influenced her art in any way?”
When Mago was very young, her first manga she ever bought was Urusei Yatsura. She feels like she was pretty heavily influenced from that series. She used to copy from that book a lot and drew her own illustrations.
I asked Mago about why she doesn’t draw any male characters. I was curious if she doesn’t like drawing males. She doesn’t! She likes drawing girls! Hiromi asked about Nova, who is a guy. Mago says that that’s the reason for there not being much passion.
I guess I got it a little wrong, but Mago doesn’t like drawing male characters. Old dudes are out of the question. Luluco’s father was actually designed by another of the main animators.
This question was from k3shanberk. They ask when Mago committed to a career of drawing.
Mago says she hasn’t really committed herself to drawing yet. If she gets offers for her illustrations or her designs, she thinks she can get herself into another line of work immediately.
Last year, Mago felt she needed to take a little break from drawing to gain a bit of sanity. She worked part-time at a shoe store for a while.
Mago’s nickname was “Mago” when she was younger. She just picked that up as her penname or handle for illustration. I don’t think she feels comfortable sharing her full name.
Ex_trident asks, “Any kind of media you guys are into lately? Like a specific movie, a song, novels, or even games?”
I guess Hiromi is into Legos right now. Hiromi bought some kind of kit for Lego Movie 2. The film isn’t available in Japan right now. He’s too busy to build it because he has to work on Promare. If Hiromi has time, he wants to make vehicles or mechs from Promare with his Lego kits.
I guess Mago was playing Fortnite on iPad. I didn’t even know you could play that on iPad! I’m surprised! Again, I’m surprised that Fortnite is playable on iPad.
Hiromi says that maybe they’ll do some streaming on the Kill la Kill game when the game is released. Maybe Mago can stop by and play as well, he says!
There’s another question from no_04: “Is Wakabayashi planning to continue Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt: CEMETERY HILLS story where Nova means Panty and Brief in the end?”
By the way, Hiromi would like to inform everyone that CEMETERY HILLS is not a Panty and Stocking series. There is no relation with Panty and Stocking, but he would like to continue.
Sorry, there is a relationship between the two. In Panty and Stocking, the main character is Panty, but in CEMETERY HILLS, the main character is Geekboy; that’s the distinction. Hiromi would like to make a sequel. In the next sequel, Hiromi would like to introduce gun morphing like in Space Patrol Luluco in Panty and Stocking as well. He would like to see Panty transform into a gun!
There’s a question from evsanata: “Does Mago have any favorite artists? Who are the artists that have inspired her and influenced shaping her art?
I think we answered the later part of this question already. We’ll answer the first half now. Mago’s favorite illustrator and animator is Akiman. Mago’s first encounter with Akiman was over the Internet. There was a special forum where Akiman regularly converses with his fans, and that’s where Mago first met him. At that time, Akiman was looking for an assistant to help him with his series. Mago took that job and was helping Akiman for quite a bit.
Mago doesn’t remember how long she had that job. However, ever since she helped Akiman out, they have been in contact with each other. As such, Akiman has been a good moral support for Mago ever since the job.
totallynotnameddan says, “It was unclear from your phrasing. Is this supposed to detail the origin of gun morphing ‘cause that would be cool?”
I’m sorry if it was unclear. Hiromi wanted to make Panty able to transform into a gun with gun morphing as well.
How many of you have visited Comic Market? Have you visited Mago’s booth for Comic Market?
InfectedAdri asks, “Mago-san, how’s your dog doing?”
Mago says her dog is doing well. I guess she took her Chihuahua grooming, and now the dog is looking like a baby. There are two types of Chihuahuas, she explained. The one that I’m familiar with has short hair, so I wondered if Chihuahuas really need grooming. She says there are two types: one with long hair and one with short hair. Her Chihuahua has long hair, so if she doesn’t take her dog to grooming every once in a while, he has dingleberries, where the poop gets stuck in the hair. He needs regular maintenance.
ThexIncinerator asks, “What are the next conventions lined up for you guys? Will Mago be appearing at any of them?”
Wakabayashi says that he doesn’t think they’ve announced any of their 2019 events yet. They haven’t visited many conventions because they’ve been working on Promare. As soon as they finish Promare, they’ll probably make their presence at various cons. Mago is planning to appear at Comitia, which is a lot smaller than Comic Market and only allows original titles.
Personally, I like Comitia better than Comic Market.
It is Mago’s birthday in April, so she plans to do a birthday event! She will probably announce that. She wants to be pampered once in a while.
PraQnickstream asks, “Where can we find the dates of those comic events?”
Just Google Comitia. It takes place four times a year, so it’s a pretty frequent event.
Mago’s birthday is on April 11th. It might be on a different date! Mago doesn’t have too much of a pleasant memory… in Japan, you change your grade level every April. In April, you have a new class with new classmates. It’s hard to have a welcoming environment even if it’s your birthday. Mago didn’t have a very cheerful experience.
Ulric10 asks, “Idk if you’re gonna answer this, but could I have some tips for drawing like you?”
Mago says to draw what interests you and what you want to draw. So, if you just simply want to draw for your own entertainment, Mago says, draw just what pleases you. However, Mago says that if you want to get good at drawing, you should draw your own manga. You’ll be forced to draw various angles and backgrounds that you probably wouldn’t enjoy drawing otherwise, so you’ll gain experience.
There’s a question from NeoCoill from Patreon: What is Trigger's stance when it comes to creators making profit through fanworks of Trigger’s characters and shows (e.g. Doujinshi sold at Comiket or digitally)?
So, Hiromi thinks that it’s similar to cosplay...
Mago finished drawing! This is the final illustration! The illustration will be available on our Patreon page. If you’re interested, please do support us. All of the money goes to our creators, illustrators, and character designers who make guest appearances to our streams. None of the money goes to the studio. The support is appreciated.
Let’s finish up the question. Hiromi was saying that it’s similar to cosplay. If they shut out every aspect of fan community activities, it kind of halts the growth of their content as well. Even though they came up with the designs and concepts of these characters, for people who sell doujin and fanart, they are ultimately the ones drawing the individual art pieces. He doesn’t think that it’s right to say that it’s not their work to sell. Hirmoi personally doesn’t have anything against doujin or fanarts. He’s genuinely happy about people drawing their characters. If that’s what people do, they should continue to do it, he says.
Mago is happy to see her characters on other people’s doujins. She thinks that if you draw, it would be awesome to draw more of her characters in your doujins and illustrations.
We would like to ask Mago what her selling point for her illustration today is.
So, when Mago usually receives a commission or request for illustration, there’s always an offer from the client talking about the proportions of the characters, and these proportions are made pretty specific. It’s hard to organize these proportions. Today, Mago drew two characters who are basically the same character and have the same proportions. Mago is proud that the two characters are in the same proportion and will pat her own back!
This will be our last stream until maybe June. We need to concentrate on the production for Promare. We will take maybe two months off from our stream activity, but we will continue our smaller activities on Patreon. We upload the monthly shikishi for our supporters to see and will continue to do that. The livestreaming will have to wait until June when we finish Promare, though.
Thank you for coming to our stream. I bet it’s like 5:00 am on the west or east coast.
Would you guys watch if we streamed like random people from Studio Trigger playing games? We were curious. For example, would you like to see me and Hiromi play Apex? We might be able to do those kind of stupid—not stupid; I mean non-creative—streams in the near future. We’ll have to stop on the illustration streams until June, but there’s a big response for these gaming streams, so we might have to do that!
All right. That will be it for tonight’s stream. Thank you for your participation. Have a good night, everyone.
