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Hisashi Abe served as animation director on the upcoming "Vampire Hunter D" film, "Bloodlust." At Dome for years, Abe's most notable work has been with Madhouse where he has served as character designer for "Petshop of Horrors," "Twilight of the Dark Master" and "Shin Kujaku-Oh." His work with Clamp productions includes "Wish," "Clover" and "Card Captor Sakura," as well as "X" the movie and the upcoming OAV series. Abe has also directed "Devil Hunter Yoko 2" and "Devil Hunter Yoko s." Akadot asked Abe-san for a quick interview in-between events at July's Anime Expo 2001, an invitation the Madhouse animator graciously accepted. A lot of people at your panel asked questions about the new "Vampire Hunter D" that should
be aimed at the director or character designer, not necessarily the animation director. You have filled all three roles,
so could you describe the role of the animation director for clarity?
Hisashi Abe: A character designer creates a character, and then the key animators draw that character on a
cel. The animation director unifies the work of all the key animators so that the image flows seamlessly. In thirty
minutes of a piece, many different artists draw each character, and each artist inflects his own work with a subtle,
unique style creating slight difference in the overall work. They're not going to be automatically balanced as one.
So, it's an animation director's job to check the cel work against the original artwork to make sure the images are
consistent throughout.
How is directing different from animation directing? HA: The director is in charge of everything - the story, pictures, characters - but the animation director
basically focuses on the animation, how the film looks, and has little to do with the storyboard.
Do you have any plans to direct in the future? HA: I would love to, but for the near future, I have no plans for directing.
You've worked with Clamp quite a bit. What are the biggest Clamp titles with which you've been involved? HA: I was the key animator on "Tokyo Babylon." For "Wish" I was the character designer and animation director.
I was key animator on "Clover." I worked on 66 episodes of "Card Captor Sakura" as well as the movie. I'm also working on
the "X" OAV series, which will be out soon.
Are you one of Clamp's favorite animators? HA: Yeah. That's right.
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