As mentioned previously, I have lots of new material to fill up this blog with—I just haven't set aside any time yet to actually focus on posting said material due to my prioritization of certain other projects I'm trying to push forward first. I (finally) have some time today, so I'm gonna begin doing it now 🙏
Today's post is more coverage centered around Toei's 80s Frankenstein TV anime special, featured in a June 1981 issue of Animage. Various production members were interviewed here, so this gives us even more of a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes production of this anime than what is currently available (or known) about this anime online.
As
usual, magazine scans were provided by Mitchell (@RoarkVegeta on
Twitter)—translation was provided by OverworkedSalaryman (@osalaryman on
Twitter).
(Side-note: the end of Pg. 1 ends with a story
summary of the anime, but I am omitting it since I don't deem it
important enough for it to be added in here. Same with the staff credits on Pg. 2)
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Notable TV Work 2 — Summer Break Family Special Summer '81, Part 2 of Toei's horror series has been unleashed!! How will this year's "terror" be drawn!? |
When one speaks of Frankenstein, one would think of the movies "Young Frankenstein" or "Kaibutsu-kun" and their comical image of him, but the real deal (?) was a terrifying monster that rose from the grave and consumed the dead. Coming off of their release of "Dracula" last year comes Toei's main character of the summer of '81, Frankenstein, which means...
Last year's summer break special, "Dracula", was quite well-received—with talks in the works for another one happening this year, which was where talks with TV Asashi came about Frankenstein, something that would be decided near the end of last year.
Not wanting to rehash the original, I tried gathering materials to create an official film—but when it comes to Frankenstein, in spite of its fame, there is very little out there about it. It was tough trying to get even the period and clothing design fixed, as a result.
One might think anime is about movement, but our main character Frankenstein moves very slowly, and there were many constraints on the indoor scenes, which posed many challenges. But there are scenes, such as his birth & final moments, that were quite presentable in the medium, so I'm confident that everyone—from kids to adults—will be able to enjoy this film.
I believe that anime's expressive power is limitless. So, this time with "Frankenstein" too, if we deform the monsters a lot, it would conversely make them a lot more realistic—this was what I was thinking.
In order to make them look more terrifying—while I believe there hasn't been any precedence in anime, we decided to add in scenes of blood and create never-before-heard horror sound effects.
However, this isn't just a mere horror movie; the creation of a man-made human, the professor's responsibility for creating & abandoning a failure, and the terror of the monster moving on its base instincts alone are the main themes.
The created human
(Franken) and its grief, the creator (Professor) and his recklessness, are themes of the show—but as a summer special, we wanted
some horror elements as well. So we made the first half something that
kids can enjoy too, by focusing it on the scariness of the monster. The
reason for Katsuta-san wanting to entangle the character Skell in the
story was probably to give it some thriller aspects, too.
Then, for the later half, we wanted it to be interpretable as Franken maybe even having a heart more beautiful than any human.
In
order to do that, we really needed the first half to be extremely scary—so we designed him right down to the slightest detail to give him an
off-putting feeling. But the more I wrote, the more attached I felt to
him, and the harder it became to just depict him as a monster.
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The character setting sheet was prepared using a lot of solid black areas (beta). If it leaves you feeling dark and heavy, then it succeeded!! |
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| ■ 7/27 Airing on TV Asahi (Planned) ■ |
Art
doesn't differ due to the product. To me, a female foreigner between
the age of 10 - 19 would be someone like Emily, but because I wanted to
bring something different to every product, I try to change some things
up. This time, in order to make them look realistically darker, I tried
using black beta for the art. It is used a lot in American and European
comics, but in Japan, we usually slowly add more blues instead. In order
to make Franken feel more creepy, I went all out with adding more
shadows.
With the movements, it would be weird if Franken was
running—it would've been great if with the way he walks, rather than
having it be a smooth steady speed, we could use still art well to give
it a sense of dullness.
Usually, when foreign animators look at
Japanese anime, they say, "It's not moving—therefore, it isn't
animation"—but it's more important to effectively present that
"movement". In that sense, the only thing that can never become anime is
the news, I think. One day, I hope to draw the spiritual world of
Japanese horror stories in all their passion and resentment in an anime.
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