Amin Abbas
Hidetaka Tenjin is a renowned Japanese mechanical illustrator, designer and voice actor who created plastic model box art for numerous manufacturers, including BANDAI SPIRITS, Hasegawa, and Good Smile Company.
He has provided mechanical art for anime series like Macross Zero, Macross F, and Genesis of Aquarion, and mechanical design for titles such as Van Helsing, Macross Delta, Knights & Magic, Super Robot Wars T, Back Alley, and YASUKE.
Furthermore, he supervised the mechanical design for Space Battleship Yamato 2205.
Tenjin has contributed to numerous video game and animation projects. His versatility extends to designing a quadruped robot for Sansei Technologies.
Tenjin began his drawing career at the age of three and has since become a renowned professional artist in Japan’s anime production and plastic model kit industry.
Tenjin’s art style brings a realism to some of anime’s most iconic mecha properties, which among them most notably includes The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and its many sequels.
Tenjin told Arab News Japan he enjoys the roughness and simple beauty of Japanese anime and manga. “I enjoy a lot of anime, but there is one that changed my life, which is called The Super Dimension Fortress Macross.”
“As for manga, I enjoy a lot of different manga, too, but my favorite is ‘AREA 88.’ The manga gives a detailed account of the Middle East. Now that I think of it, it wasn’t until I read this manga that I became aware of the Middle East,” he added.
Tenjin explained that he established his career in 2001 after he worked on a Sci-Fi robot anime, which was about nature, gods and extraterrestrials like Macross Zero. The animation took four years for him to complete.
“Until then, when I worked on showing single pictures, I would always focus on showing them for a long period of time like I would the box drawings on plastic models. With animation, however, I usually spend less than a second. I began to think seriously about what and how I wanted to show and communicate in those situations,” he told Arab News Japan.
Tenjin received the Comic-Con International’s Inkpot Award at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Where he attended the event in person as Udon Entertainment offered early copies of Tenjin’s Artistry of Macross: From Flashback 2012 to Macross Frontier book, which was the first in a series of Udon Entertainment books featuring Tenjin’s art from the Macross franchise.
Exclusively to Arab News Japan, Tenjin said about receiving the Inkpot award:” It came at an unexpected time. Just before my panel session at San Diego Comic-Con started, the staff of the event took the microphone and announced the inkpot award and handed the trophy to me”.
“I didn’t know anything about the inkpot award. It was my first time attending SDCC as a guest, and this time I was there for the release of my first art book ‘Hidetaka Tenjin the Artistry of Macross’ in North America. The panel session ended successfully with the audience applauding for the award. Actually, at that time, I was wondering if it was the SDCC participation award”.
“After that, I researched about the inkpot award and learned how great it is. I would like you all to do your own research, but the winners are all well-known actors and writers who have made great achievements. What I felt at first was a big surprise, and I thought maybe I made a mistake. I’m so happy. Even overseas!”.
“It’s been over 25 years since I started working as an illustrator, designer, and voice actor, but I’ve simply continued to pour my passion into my work. I feel like I was able to prove the importance of that, and now I’m very happy and fulfilled. I also received a supplementary prize. Lifetime pass for future Comic Cons. With this, it seems that you can enter the Comic Con at any time, including your family. Some people seem to envy this one!”.
“Japanese anime content is still highly respected around the world. In order to make that power even more valuable, and to deliver its charm to everyone around the world, I intend to create many works,” he added.
A special ’25th anniversary Hidetaka Tenjin Art Exhibition’ was held last December in Japan for celebration of Tenjin’s career in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. The exhibition featured plastic model box art and mechanical designs by Hidetaka Tenjin from various titles, including Mobile Suit Gundam, Evangelion, and Mobile Police Patlabor.
“This was my first solo exhibition in over a decade in my 25-year career, and thanks to you all, I was able to make so many people happy,” Tenjin told Arab News Japan. “I hope that one day many people in the Arab world will be able to see my work up close. I once again realize that it is only thanks to your support that I have been able to continue my career as an artist”.
Also, Tenjin has featured a special mechanical design unit (Quadruped Walking Robot SR-02) at the Gundam Factory Yokohama last December where he was the mastermind behind the captivating exterior design of this cutting-edge robot.
SR-02 is a quadruped walking robot ride developed by Sansei Technologies, Inc. The robot control system, named V-Sido, is provided by Asratec Corporation under the guidance of Wataru Yoshizaki, the system director for the Gundam Global Challenge.
The prototype machine currently under development measures approximately 3.4 meters in length, 1.6 meters in width, and 2.7 meters in height, and is capable of walking and moving with four people on board.
Tenjin is currently working as chief mechanical designer for Dark Machine, an original game and anime project that raised more than US$8.7 million from more than 6,000 investors including Tencent, web3 game platform Immutable, and blockchain company Sui.
He told Arab News Japan the story behind Dark Machine Project:” This dark machine design is a game that we have been working on for several years already and is a very new form of WEB3 project that we hope to be able to introduce to everyone in the Middle East region”.
The staff are developing the game with Unreal Engine 5. The game will feature the blockchain-based in-game currency MACHINA ($MXNA), and will also feature NFT asset ownership and an NFT marketplace for direct sales and peer-to-peer exchanges. Players will still be able to install and play the game without having to purchase any NFTs, and will also get free NFTs to start playing the game. Decentralized tournaments will be integral to the gameplay.
The anime will have its own unique world setting, which will include Dark Machine being a popular gaming metaverse, and will take place “in the not-too-distant future.” The anime is planned for global distribution.