EX spoke with Mr. Sato (creator of KEY THE METAL IDOL) and Ms. Shibahara (voice of KEY's Miho and HYPER POLICE's Sakura) at a press interview on the last day of Anime Expo '97. Asked what he felt was his most important work, Mr. Sato said it had to be KEY. After all, it's his first project to be totally his own creation, and that makes an enormous difference. As one might expect, it's harder to direct someone else's project. Mr. Sato told us it's very hard to put his own personality aside, but he must try in order to remain faithful to the original work and its intentions. It takes a special kind of talent to adapt a pre-existing work to the screen. "I think Mr. Miyazaki is #1 at that ...keeping the original flavor of the work." Ms. Shibahara told us Miho is definitely someone else's creation; the character's personality is not at all like her own. She's probably closer to Beniko, a character who didn't show up until about volume 10 of the Japanese series, putting her at about volume 5 or so of the English releases.

In fact, Ms. Shibahara's casting for the role of Miho was a surprise to her. She hadn't been interested in doing voice acting and she was looking for work as a singer. Meanwhile the KEY staff had decided that, because of the nature of the role, Miho's voice actor would have to be a great singer as well as have a great voice. Ms. Shibahara thought she was auditioning for a singing job and didn't know it was an acting part! She feels fortunate to be a part of something like KEY and hopes to continue helping to bring such dreams to fruition. Mr. Sato commented on the use of computer animation in anime. He pointed out that early use of the medium was pretty heavy handed and poorly executed. For instance, in GOLGO 13 the digital scenes were much too contrasted with the cel scenes. They stuck out and didn't blend with the rest of the film. But by the time LENSMAN came around, the industry was getting the hang of it. Using computer graphics for things like big spaceships and cel animation for the rest of the film seemed to work well. These days it just depends on the structure of, and the objects in, a scene. Mr. Sato is fairly confident that traditional cel animation and CG will be able to coexist and even work together in scenes, now that the technology is advanced enough to allow it.

Both guests were impressed with the masquerade show at the expo. They commented on how North Americans seem to be physically more closely proportioned to their costume characters, as Japanese costume players tend to have shorter legs! Mr. Sato was particularly impressed with the Akane and Iria costume players. Ms. Shibahara was disappointed that Miho didn't win any prizes!

We asked the two what other types of projects they'd like to work on. Mr. Sato would like to try his hand at writing as a final product, perhaps a book. He'd also like to try working on a live-action film, or even a totally computer animated film. Ms. Shibahara would like to do some dubbing for foreign films, filling in for the voices of actors like Julia Roberts. In terms of singing, "I'm just starting out, so I'm still searching for the best way to express myself." Mr. Sato suggested she do some stage acting. She shook her head, smiling, and said, "I'm shy!" In the meantime, Ms. Shibahara asked us to keep watching KEY, promising that it'll all make sense by the end! And don't forget to keep an eye out for MEE's HYPER POLICE television series. But if Madonna and Cher can do it, I'm sure the stage will adore this charming woman.