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They knew they had talent, and that they were going to take the world by storm.
Over the 20-plus years that we ve been friends, they ve done nothing but prove that
talent to me over and over again.
The opening animation
Anno said he could make anime, but he had never attempted a cel anime67 before.
That wasn t a major problem, because we had all kinds of people on our staff willing
to offer up random information. Apparently, there was a ship called Animepolis
Pero68 that sold anime cels for insane amounts. Each second of anime footage burns
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Takami Akai (1961-) Game director and illustrator. Originally from Yonago in Tottori Pre-
fecture. Akai is currently a member of GAINAX s board of directors. While a student at the
Osaka University of Arts, he met Anno and Yamaga, and together the three created the opening
animation for DAICON 3. Though he is of a fairly diminutive stature, Akai is a multi-talented
individual, and an absolute genius when it comes to models, illustrations, movies, special effects
and games. He took the gaming world a giant leap forward when he created the PC game Princess
Maker, giving rise to an entirely new genre of nurturing simulation games, wherein players make
decisions that will affect the main character s actual personality.
In 1994, Akai left GAINAX to launch his own software development studio, Nine Lives. However,
he returned to GAINAX in 2001 to become a member of the board of directors. He again got the
chance to show his incredible talent when he did the character designs as well as some additional
artwork for GAINAX s Seikai no Monsho ( Crest of the Stars ).
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Many anime fans back in the day had a strong desire to try their own hands at animation. A
so-called paper anime only requires some drawings done on paper and an 8mm camera. Thus
it is really cheap and simple for individuals to create their own anime. However, cel anime isn t
so easy. Paint and cels are expensive, and it takes more than a handful of people to color the
huge number of cels required for any given project. The DAICON 3 opening anime was the first
animated feature Anno and the others had ever attempted. Lack of experience aside, the very idea
of making a cel anime by hand in the first place was just absurd!
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The granddaddy of all anime shops. The stores sold anime goods, used cels, and design sketches,
and were usually located next to Toei-affiliated theaters. This chain laid the foundation for today s
anime shops. Back then, they were the only places you could buy a blank cel and the right kind of
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through several cels, so if you have to buy each individually - and at a high retail
markup - your budget is blown before you can even begin.
But we had a plan. We bought a single cel at Animepolis Pero and took it to the
vinyl yards in East Osaka69.
Scuse me, you have anything like this? we asked the guy working there.
Sure do! he replied, bringing out a roll of sheet vinyl. he said he d sell it to us for
Â%1Å‚2000 a roll (about US $9 in 1981 dollars).
Now we re talking ! we thought. We bought one, took it home, and cut it up. Then
we tried painting on it. . . and it was nothing like a cel. You could get the color on
there alright, but as soon as it dried it would peel off. And if you stacked the cut
pieces while the paint was still wet, they d stick together.
But then again, it wasn t like we had any other options. So we kept right on working
with the vinyl sheets. It was bad enough that this was our first-ever cel anime, but
using the wrong materials for the job only doubled the headaches.
Our production site was an empty room in the factory/house where Okada s family
lived and ran their business, Okada Embroidering70. For animation paper we used
B5 (176 x 250 mm) sized accounting paper, we made our own tap71 by hand, and
punched the holes for the tap into the cut vinyl sheets with a two-hole punch - the
kind that office workers us.
Anno, Akai, and Yamaga were working full-time on the opening animation. There
were always others around as well, though, and things could get pretty cramped.
What s more, we didn t divide our production process into the appropriate stages
(unlike how we do now, as pros). Okada would discuss things with Anno, Akai, and
paint to do an anime. The problem for us was, the supplies were sold for hobby use, and buying
in bulk for a full-length anime was far too expensive.
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East Osaka is home to many small factories, including vinyl manufacturing plants and other
specialized production yards - enough to form large industrial districts. Each district is commonly
referred to by the type of product manufactured there. Thankfully, these places welcome amateur
buyers. A real anime cel is made of acetate film, but we didn t know that and used thin sheets of
vinyl instead. The sheets ended up sticking together when stacked, and the paint wouldn t adhere
very well, either.
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The embroidering company run by Toshio Okada s family, conveniently located near Osaka Pre-
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