POSTSCRIPT

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In the last volume, I wrote that I’m not a big fan of anime, and the first thing I don’t like about it is the art. Now, this kind of like or dislike is a sensory problem, and there’s not much that can be done about it. But when I think about having a character I created drawn in a style I don’t care for, my anger starts to rise even before the chills can set in. Fortunately, I was quite pleased with the way the second D turned out.

Another problem I have is the voices. I believe my dislike of anime can be attributed to the endless volleys of shrill, squeaky voices I endured during the countless kid-oriented anime programs I saw on TV as a child. As you are probably well aware, the voice duties for all anime heroes seem to be handled by women. In other words, the better part of kid-oriented anime is packed with thin, girlish voices, and for someone like myself—who can’t handle anything but the sweetest female whisper—that whole world has left me exasperated since childhood.

What’s more, the way anime characters deliver their lines, they sound so pretentious. I mean, I realize it’s intended for children and everything, but it’s simply too much. I always ended up wondering if what I was watching was supposed to be some kind of opera. And the stories are naturally geared toward children—or as we say in Japan, “so simple they could only fool a child.” Why a program intended for children would want to fool them is something I could never understand—and that must be why I can’t stand them [laughs].

Now, think for a moment about the technology back then—this was about fifty years ago. Movies weren’t too bad, but TV anime was positively wretched. And things only got worse once I became acquainted with American animation like Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Hanna-Barbera’s Huckleberry Hound, Felix the Cat, and others at the movie theater. While Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) was the product of the blood, sweat, and tears of the genius comics creator Osamu Tezuka, when you stripped away the nationalistic cries of “Japan’s first serialized TV anime,” the difference between it and the foreign product was like night and day.

Well, let’s just leave it at that. The quality of our homegrown product has improved greatly in recent years. As I’ve stated before, I’m extremely satisfied with the two animated versions of D. The same director and staff who have expressed an interest in doing an animated version of Demon Journey to the North Sea also made the second D anime (which I particularly enjoyed), so that’s practically a guarantee of high quality right there. The problem is, the president of the production company the director belongs to doesn’t care too much for the project [laughs]. Demon Journey to the North Sea is a work that I’m quite fond of, and I have high hopes for an anime adaptation of it. And I’d be overjoyed if all the readers of the English edition would join us in our support of such a feature.

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Hideyuki Kikuchi

February 19, 2007

While watching Dracula A.D. 1972