Amin Abbas
Takuya Wada has been a veteran Japanese animation director, producer and character designer for over 45 years. He has a simple mantra in life — never give up on your dreams.
“I originally loved drawing, so I decided to become an animator,” said Wada.
Wada shared exclusively to Arab News Japan about his inspiration for anime and manga.
“My favorite Japanese anime includes Tomorrow’s Joe 2 and Space Cobra, in which I participated as an animator, and Lupin the 3rd, with which I have had a deep connection since I was 15 years old.”
“One day, a staff member at Tokyo Movie asked me, Wada-kun, what do you want to do in the future?’ I answered that I would like to be a live-action film director, but I also like drawing, so I would like to become an animator. “
“A staff member said to me, “I’ll introduce you to a great teacher, so follow me,” and he introduced me to Yasuo Otsuka and Hayao Miyazaki, who were in the production preparations for ‘Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro’ at the time. I then became an animator after graduating from high school,” he added.
Wada mentioned that the first work that he was involved in both as training and as a job was Lupin the 3rd Part II (1977).
“After graduating from high school, I joined an animation studio and the first thing I was involved in was Sunrise’s robot anime Muteki Robo Trider G7. After that, I was affiliated with Sunrise Studio 2 for a while, so I was involved in robot anime up until Combat Mecha Xabungle. After that, I worked as a key animator on Space Cobra at Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and my first role as a sub-character designer and animation director was on Ashi Productions’ Special Investigation Cavalry Dorvack.”
About the challenges that he faced during his career in the animation industry, Wada said: “As expected, there were so many amazing and talented seniors, so my strongest feeling was that I just had to practice as much as I could and quickly improve my drawing skills to become a professional. Every day was a series of new encounters. Anime is not just about good drawings; it is a visual work. So, I watched a lot of movies to learn about camera work, composition, and character acting.
“When I first started working as an animator, a senior colleague told me ‘An animator is a director, an actor, a cameraman, and a lighting technician. An animator’s job is to express all of these on a blank piece of paper’. I still think that’s exactly right,” he added.
About the differences of animation between the past and present in terms of quality and concept, Wada said: “I’ll be honest (laughs), I prefer old animation. There was no digital, everything was done by hand, and it was still rough technically, but I think old animation played a very important role in children’s development. Of course, I’m one of them”.
“I admired Ultraman, stood on a high hill, put my hands on my hips, looked up at the sky, and thought that I would become stronger. I watched Tomorrow’s Joe and Star of the Giants, and learned about what a man should be, what friendship is, etc…”.
“When I was the animation director for the Fist of the North Star TV series, I really did a lot of different things. I think that the person drawing it was the one having the most fun, so I think that power is transmitted to the viewers.
“The quality of the animation today is very beautiful with digital technology, but aren’t there a lot of girls with swords?” he added.
Wada hasn’t been to the Middle East region before, but he is looking forward to visit it especially Dubai. “I want to talk to a lot of anime culture fans there and experience the culture. I also want to see with my own eyes the skyscrapers where Tom Cruise used to run around (laughs)”.
Regarding his upcoming projects, Wada said: “As I wrote earlier, I want to create works that are full of dreams and that give the viewer hope, motivation, and longing.
“In terms of technology, I want to use the good parts of the past, such as the energetic touch in character design, and make the backgrounds more unique than the backgrounds in modern digital anime, such as game backgrounds, instead of the monotonous backgrounds found in games. I want to create an animation work that combines the good parts of analog and digital.”
About his recommendations for those who wants to be an animation artist or working in Japan for animation projects, Wada said: “It’s very important that you love animation more than anyone else, but I also want you to make sure you have the minimum knowledge and lifestyle required of a working member of society. University is a different matter, but I hope you graduate from high school. Having lots of friends, having fun, and communicating with people will definitely help with anime production.
“After that, practice a lot. Be interested in a variety of things. It’s good to be able to speak some foreign languages especially English. Nowadays, as long as you have an internet connection, you can take part in Japanese anime no matter where you are. You don’t even have to go to Japan.
“Of course, there are many people who come to Japan and are involved in Japanese animation works. I still think that no matter where you are, it’s important to never give up on your dreams and to keep learning toward them. I wish you the best.” he added.