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Born in 1958, director Hirotsugu Kawasaki graduated from Tokyo College of Art and joined OH Productions in 1981. In 1990, Kawasaki resigned his position to become a freelance artist. Contributing to such legendary productions as Laputa and Akira, Kawasiaki's talents received much deserved recognition. In Otomo's anime anthology Memories, Kawasaki took charge of character design and even directed one of vignettes entitled "The Stinkiest Weapon". Otomo undoubtedly trusts Kawasaki's precisely calculated drawing technique. For his directing debut, Kawasaki personally chose Spriggan. He could have had no better supervisor for his first big screen production than the renowned Katsuhiro Otomo.
Interview
Q: Why did you choose this original story for the film?I was a big fan of the original comic. I thought the original's quick story development and large scale story telling were suitable for an animated film. It was also very challenging to find an effective way to express the original's interest in film form.
Q: What kind of film did you aim for?
I made a film, not an animated-film. I wanted to make a film that people who didn't know the original story could enjoy. We used Noah's Ark as a theme, but we tried to change the image of the Ark. We also added a lot of human drama including the hero's personality and emotion. It has a lot of tension and action. I think people like that.
Q: How did you utilize computer graphics?
We didn't use it in an obvious way. We used CG when it was impossible to express what we wanted to with standard animation. We ended up with many scenes that couldn't have been shot without CG, so I guess we did use it a lot after all.
Q: What is your relationship with Otomo?
He influenced me immeasurably. I am from the animation community. He started out as a comic artist, yet he brought brand new ideas about animation and original methods to our community. He gave me a lot of inspiration, and he helped me greatly. I asked him to do construction on part of this film. I really appreciate his attitude towards filmmaking and his idea on theatrical film.
