This year's Fanime was unexpectedly amazing. I decided to be lazy and do my simplest costume costume: Chihiro with my giant Haku plush. The costume itself isn't fancy - it's only my Haku which makes it interesting. He does get a lot of love at conventions.
This was the first time in years that I was able to go to the whole weekend of Fanime. On Friday (the first day) I got there a little early and flipped through the program. One of the guest speakers was part of Studio Ghibli. Hirokatsu Kihara worked as a producer on Nausicaa, Totoro, Kiki, and Castle in the Sky. He was there last year, but to my grief, I missed his talk because I was at work. But I could go this year!
His talk was on Saturday. This year is the 35th anniversary of Kiki's Delivery Service. Luckily I got there early. Really early (almost an hour). Because by the time the panel started, the line had tripled back on itself and disappeared around the corner. It was packed. The whole line hadn't even gotten in the room by the time it started.
I snagged a spot on the second row, wearing my Chihiro costume, with my Haku plush around my neck. The girl next to me was dressed as Satsuki, with some Totoro dolls. Kihara-san walked past and spotted Satsuki. I didn't know what he looked like, but I figured it out based on the reactions of everyone around us. He reached over to shake her hand, then spotted my Haku. He patted Haku on the head, and shook my hand too.
Satsuki said that she was embarrassed that she'd dropped her Totoros on the floor when he shook her hand - she'd been nervous. I told her that kind of thing always happened when important people were around, and that I tended to babble like an idiot under similar circumstances (though that didn't happen this time - I guess I now have had plenty of experience talking to people. Or maybe it's because I kissed the Blarney Stone XD ).
Meanwhile Kihara-san was mingling with the rest of the guests. A guy in the front row was dressed as Kiki, and Kihara-san had someone take a selfie of the two of them, making the heart-hands together.
The panel was amazing. He was funny and outgoing, and had great stories to tell. He talked about making the movie, and had brought several sketches as well as complete layered frames. He was 28 when the film was made, and Miyazaki had put him in charge of part of it.
At one point, a baby in the back of the audience started crying. The mom (I assume) took them outside. Kihara-san ran after them, not wanting them to go. When he came back, he explained that animation helps raise children, and that baby will be no exception. Everyone cheered.
He continued on, talking about how they designed the promotional posters for Kiki. One of the drafts had Kiki sitting on a rooftop with Jiji. It was a side-view with her looking out over the city. Someone said that we should see Kiki's whole face. So Miyazaki made a sketch (which I was able to find on the internet, since no photos were allowed to be shared from the talk)
Yep. Kiki sitting in the bathroom. Needless to say, this idea was vetoed.
The final version took a lot of work, and did include Kiki's whole face. Their previous draft had Kiki looking a little more sad, but they ended up giving her a more hopeful look (and giving her a bigger bow, and tweaking Jiji's design).
Kihara-san said that they don't have conventions like this in Japan, and that he hopes to come again next year. I hope I can make it! I love seeing how things are made. Especially movies that were such a massive part of my childhood (and adulthood).
At the end, we all took a big group photo.
I'd never been to one of Fanime's autograph sessions. They'd recently redone the whole system. One of the staff kinda explained it to me before the panel. I followed the first part of her directions, signing up online. I would have to then show up for the lottery, where you get a number that determines your place in the autograph line. What? (That means that even if you get there super early, there's still a chance that you might get a late spot, and be too late to get an autograph?)
I had a bit of time before the lottery started, so I went to hunt down some lunch. I then realized that I didn't have as much time as I thought, so I had to take my lunch in a bag and dash back to the convention. I got in line for the lottery, and drew number four! Wow!
When it came my turn for an autograph, Kihara-san remembered me, thanks to Haku. He put Haku around his neck and I told him through his translator that I'd made it. We took some selfies (I'm so bad at posing!) I gave him one of the dust bunnies I'd made, and told him that I want to write the way that they make movies. "Never give up," he replied. It was a quote from Miyazaki that he had shared during his talk.
When my turn was over, I went out the exit door and found that there was a nice quiet corner, which are very scarce at Fanime. So I sat there and ate my lunch, which was really good. Every now and then, the door would open and people would leave the autograph room. Then one of the volunteers spotted me and hurried over. She said that Kihara-san had wanted to give this to me, but they hadn't caught me before I left. It was a certificate for an event on the following day. I didn't know what it was. The girl said that some of the Fanime guests of honor would be there, and that it would be like speed dating. This description left me very confused, but I was so excited that I would be able to make it on that day.
The next day dawned, and I return to Fanime. I wandered in circles for a while, trying to figure out where this mystery even would take place. Finally I found the hotel across the street, but no one there knew what room it would be in. I sat for a while, and eventually someone told us where to wait, and other people trickled in to wait with me. One was the girl who'd handed me the certificate the day before. None of us knew what we were here for, which was hilarious and mysterious. But finally we were invited into a room, with several other guest speakers from Fanime. We would rotate around their tables, talking to them in turn.
I started out on Kihara-san's table. We hung on his every word (at least after it passed through the translator). He had the original full-colored layers from Kiki's Delivery Service.
During the scene where the movie title is displayed, Kiki is flying in front of the moon. He showed us that the way they did the moon, it actually appeared illuminated when viewed through a camera. He invited us to look through our own cameras (though we weren't allowed to take pictures).
In a lot of movies, the artwork isn't saved once the movie is finished. It's trashed. But Kihara-san said they should archive it. He was put in charge of the project, and thanks to him, we still have all of these beautiful originals! You can lift up each clear layer, seeing the characters and different elements of the background. He took a scene from the end of the movie, where the crowd is watching Tombo hang from the rope. He peeled back the layers, showing the painting of the street beneath them. It has incredible detail, even though it's mostly covered by the people. There's even a manhole cover, though I wasn't even able to see that when I later watched the movie. These background paintings take so long to create, but last only seconds in the finished film.
In another scene, near the beginning in Kiki's house, he showed how amazing the lighting was as it came from different windows and fell on different surfaces.
One of the images of Tombo was signed by the Japanese voice actor. His voice is one I know well from things like InuYasha, The Twelve Kingdoms, and You are Umasou.
At one point, Kihara-san was moving papers around and one of the storyboard pages got bent. I pulled it back out of the way, having a super-nerd moment as I did so, thinking, "I'm touching the original art for Kiki's Delivery Service! (They were in protective sleeves though).
The city in the movie is a mix of cities, like Stockholm, and San Francisco. The Bell Tower is Stockholm, while the trolleys are SF, for example.
He talked about other parts of making the movie, like how Kiki's hair would move when she was about to take off on her broom, and how they settled on a sort of figure-eight motion.
I think we all could have listened to him for ages. He had so many stories. But then the call came, and it was time to switch to the next table. There were two English voice actors there: Kira Buckland, Casey Mongillo. I don't usually watch English dubs, so I wasn't familiar with them though. Though Casey did a bunch of Pokémon sounds! Now I want to go listen to them.
Next was a Japanese voice actor, Yu Hayashi. I have seen him before! Or at least I've heard him in anime. Mostly Haikyu. He's also done voices in Japanese dubs of things like Bambi, and Steven universe. How do I find those in Japanese? I want to hear that! When he saw my Haku plush, he said that Haku's voice actor worked with him in Haikyu!
The next table was a band called Survive Said the Prophet. They also commented on my Haku plush. I know nothing about bands, so I looked up their music afterwards.
And the final table was the author of a Japan travel book, Gilles Poitras.
Though I didn't know all of the guest speakers ahead of time, they all had fascinating stories to tell.
After the event, I was outside chatting with some of the other attendees. Kihara-san came out, and someone asked him a question. He talked about how important hand-drawn animation is. And about how digital animation eventually becomes mostly a tech company. Though there are digital animations I love, I think I agree with him. I told him that I was heart-broken when Disney trashed their hand-drawn animation.
Later in the day, there was a fan discussion about Nausicaa elsewhere at Fanime. The panel before it was about Godzilla, and was given by Kihara-san. I sat in at the end, since I'd gotten there early. He did another group photo at the end of that panel, which I also ended up in.
The Nausicaa panel was interesting, largely because the guy running it had some clips from Warriors of the Wind. I'd heard horrible things about it: the first English dub of Nausicaa, which they completely butchered (removing all of the environmental themes, for example). But I'd never seen any of it before - I hadn't been brave enough to search for actual clips. Though I had seen the godawful movie poster they'd made for it.
And later on, I saw Kihara-san pass by in a different part of Fanime. He was everywhere!
So, wow. What an awesome Fanime. All thanks to my Haku plush!
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