Fist of the Character Designer
—by Charles McCarter

Hayama Junichi, while perhaps not the best known of this year's Guests of Honor at Anime Expo, is certainly not new to the industry. He has worked on FIST OF THE NORTH STAR—both the movie and the TV series, BE-BOP HIGH SCHOOL, and of course, JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURES. When EX managed to talk to him, he was still in the middle of working on his latest project, KING OF THE DESERT GANDALLA.
During a rare calm period one day during the convention, I managed to interview Mr. Hayama and get to know him. Quiet and unassuming, he answered all the questions I asked without hesitation, although he occasionally paused to ask his wife what she thought as well. We touched on many different topics and managed to spend two hours over some coffee in one of the hotel restaurants. With anime fans all around us eating their late breakfasts and early lunches, we conducted an interview in relative peace and quiet.

EX: What made you decide to become an animator?

HJ: Since I like to draw, I wanted to work at a job where I would be able to draw. I originally wanted to be a manga artist, but I discovered that I didn't have enough upstairs to create stories, so I needed to find something close. As a result, I decided to become an animator.

EX: What was the first project you worked on and what did you do?

HJ: Well, among my early works was the television series G.I. JOE.

EX: The American series?

HJ: Yes. And let's see, my very first job was doing the inbetweens for a show called GU GU GANMO. My first time serving as animation supervisor was for the FIST OF THE NORTH STAR television series. And my first time as a character designer was on BE-BOP HIGH SCHOOL. That's where a lot of the American fans seem to know me from, and I am very surprised that people in America even know this title.

EX: Your most recent work is KING OF THE DESERT GANDALLA. Since not many people in America have had a chance to see it, can you tell us something about it?

HJ: It's about this five person band in Los Angeles. Aside from singing, they investigate a lot of mysteries. I can't really say much more because it's on television now. It shows on the WOWOW satellite network. And someone here at Anime Expo said to me that it was one of the first anime he's ever seen. I was very surprised at that.
For this show, I did the original designs. However, at some point, another character designer did a design for one of the characters. And so when I look at it now, it seems incomplete, like there's a hole in this project that I worked on.

EX: I think I know which character you're talking about.

HJ: A lot of people see it and notice that the character doesn't seem to fit with all the rest of the characters.

EX: Moving more into specifics of your work, how do you decide what a character will look like?

HJ: In the beginning, I take into account a lot of things, including how old they are, what kind of personality they have. Oftentimes the producers will tell me what they want. Then I will do some sketches to get a rough idea of the character. A lot of these sketches are the same, especially when the description is only "a nineteen-year-old girl." To make these drawings more individual and different, I use photos of real people for inspriation.

EX: Is there anything specific you use when doing this?

HJ: I use a lot of fashion magazines for this. I don't read them, I just keep them around for reference (laughs). I have an interest in things like clothes and such, but only in using it to design characters. They can help give a character personality.