Recently, the well-known anime "Detective Holmes", which uses the image of a dog as a character, released Blu-ray BOX. This is a work that was once in charge of director Hayao Miyazaki in 1981, but for various reasons, the work was aborted. Later, under the guidance of the chef Gong, he officially met the audience in 1984. I believe that people of that era must have been impressed by the beautiful melody of the theme song, right? Among them, the well-known animator Tomanaga Kazuhide once participated in the production of the work in the early days, and recently the Japanese media interviewed him.

■ Cannot be compared to Kondo's paintings

Q: Mr. Tokunaga was involved in the production of Detective Holmes as a member of Telecom AnimationFilm, and he has been inextricably linked to the development of the work since the planning stage. Now, tell us a little bit about the environment.

Tokunaga: Originally, it was an anime in collaboration with Italy, and they called the design graphic, which gave it a flat feel like ThePinkPanther. But Mr. Miyazaki was not impressed. He hopes to use a comic film style to make the picture not flat, but more like real space. I had an argument with them for that (laughs).

However, after all, Mr. Miyazaki is preparing for it, so it is only natural that this kind of thing will happen. And Mr. Miyazaki communicated with Mr. Kondo Yoshifumi while creating characters. Looking at his posture, I also imitated his design, and then started to work from the image capture board.

Q: The image capture board is also included in the Blu-ray BOX, so I feel that the weight of the drawing is quite large.

Tokunaga: At that time, it was difficult to get pictures of London, so I went to the official international exchange agency in the United Kingdom and made copies of various materials. Looking at these materials, I expanded my imagination and thought that what shots would make the work more interesting, and then I started to draw them. Mr. Hayao Miyazaki, Mr. Kondo, Mr. Nobuo Tomizawa, Mr. Danneji, and I formed the drawing team.

In the original work, there will also be a plot of Sherlock Holmes using drugs. The animation is a bit strict at the beginning, and it also shows the bright and dark sides of Britain at that time, and even reflects the gap between the rich and the poor. I think this part is pretty good, so I'm going to prepare for that. But the end result made me feel a little silly.

Q: How did Mr. Kondo feel when he participated in Sherlock Holmes?

Tomonaga: Mr. Miyazaki is thinking about what kind of work he wants to make, and Mr. Kondo will accompany him to discuss it. I think this work was also deeply influenced by Mr. Kondo, and his construction also played a big role. When it comes to Mr. Kondo, many people think of works such as "Annie the Red-Haired Girl" first. However, he is very good at creating funny plots and drawing, and he is a character who can control various painting styles.

On the other hand, he is also very concerned about children's literature and social issues. He and Mr. Miyazaki had various exchanges on this point. …… Mr. Kondo's paintings don't have many lines, but they give a very realistic feeling. Even if you just look at the character list, you can feel that the character's body is very full. From here, it shows the Kondo-style sense of survival. It's not just that the technique of drawing is more ingenious. Rather, there is something that cannot be ignored. I don't know what those things are, but I don't think I'm comparable to Mr. Kondo.

■ Experienced "Future Young Conan" and "The City of Lupin the Third Carriostero", and then entered Telecom

Q: It is said that the two characters of Todo and Smayili are based on the images of Mr. Yoshifumi Kondo and Mr. Tomonaga.

Tokunaga: It's been spread out (laughs). Mr. Miyazaki often integrates the image of the people around him into his role. For example, in "The City of Lupin III Cariostro", when Lupin and his people eat Italian solid pasta, the waiters who serve them actually have a template. By the time I was in Sherlock Holmes, I had already made a little bit of a fortune, so the comparison with the characters was interesting.

Q: You started your relationship with Mr. Miyazaki from "Future Young Conan", right?

Tomoyong: Yes. I used to work as a concept artist for Toei's machine qì animation. However, although he is working on machine animation, Mr. Kazuo Komatsubara, who is in charge of the characters and art directors of the works, has been influenced by Aproduction before, so he often incorporates elements of this company in the supporting roles. So in the colleagues who depicted the plot of the mecha, I was also imitating how these characters with the style of Aproduction moved.

On the other hand, regarding the work of Mr. Hayao Miyazaki and Mr. Yasuo Otsuka at Aproduction, I am just watching as an outsider. And when I started to take over "Future Young Conan", the other party asked, "Do you want to help?" So we worked together.

Q: I see. Then you also participated in "The City of Lupin III Carriostro" on Telecom.

Tokunaga: At the time of Lupin the Third City of Cagliostro, I was still affiliated with Oh!production. So it's an expatriate. Telecom was originally founded by President Yutaka Fujioka with the goal of "not doing a small business like Japanese television, but expanding into the United States." Mr. Sadao Tsukioka, who was in charge of human resource development at the beginning, believes that "there is no need for those who are influenced by TV anime," and that he is very special in training animators. After Conan, Mr. Otsuka took over Mr. Tsukioka's work, but at that time, although we were expecting to be able to produce feature-length animations, there were almost no original artists who could actually do the actual work.

So, in order to solve the problem of lack of manpower on the site, Mr. Otsuka sent out invitations from various companies to bring in reliable people from the people who had produced "Conan". That's when I was invited, and I joined Telecom straight away.

■Anyway, I want to make the screen move

Q: Looking back at the history of Telecom from the late '70s to the early '80s, I feel like it was also the hottest period for the company.

Tokunaga: That's right. With Mr. Miyazaki and Mr. Otsuka as the core, everyone is working with the momentum of "making new feature-length animation". When I was at Oh!production, I thought, "That's a promising company, and I'd love to go there." ”

I've always loved things that move, such as Toei's feature-length anime "Animal Island", "Puss in Boots", and "Ghost Ship Flying in the Sky". And I want my work to move like theirs. Compared to TV's storyboard animation, I hope that I can draw a theatrical version of the feature without caring about the number of original pictures. I want to make the characters move, and that's a stronger idea than anyone else. When I first found out about Hayao Miyazaki's Sherlock Holmes, I thought, "I can do it to my heart's content!" (laughs)

Q: In the image capture board you draw, are there any images that have been used in this story?

Tomanaga: I don't think so, but because I wanted to draw a battleship, I thought about whether to make a story about a battleship in "Treasure Under the Sea" (Episode 9). And from the point of view of impressing, I also remember the battleship plot of the episode "Treasure under the Sea" vividly.

Q: Not to mention the battleship, the mountain-like naval crowd also had a big impact on the audience.

Tokunaga: Ever since the Toei period, I've wanted to one day be able to draw the characters of passers-by, just like Mr. Miyazaki did. That's why I'm pretty hard (laughs). The other day, I was given the opportunity to re-watch the plot of this battleship, and even I was shocked: "I was able to draw something like this" (laughs). It's not a fantasy now, but it's hard to recreate this kind of image. Animators are just like athletes, if they don't draw often, then no matter how good they are, they will forget how to draw. On the one hand, it is a matter of body, and on the other hand, it is also a question of the fighting spirit of "wanting to paint". Both are important. The plot of the battleship, including these dragon sets, was drawn with all my might, and this is the result (laughs). After all, I was young at that time~

Q: From the impression at the time, Sherlock Holmes gave people the feeling of the style of a previous comic book movie, but I should say that the producer also wanted to reflect the relationship between real problems, and I think the amount of information in the picture is quite large.

Tokunaga: That's right. After all, there were people like Atsuko Tanaka who were able to draw luxurious original paintings. In "Blue Ruby" (Episode 5), there is a scene like this: the pterodactyl plane collides with the truck, and the chickens in the car run around. And this shot is what she expands through the guò storyboard. But despite only storyboarding, she still built a great picture. It's probably rare for a woman to be able to draw such an action scene. And when I saw her work, I also had a fighting spirit, thinking, "Even she can do this, so what am I waiting for!" ”

It's just that just trying to satisfy Mr. Miyazaki has already made me do my best...... If it were Mr. Kondo, he would have been able to do better than me.

■ "Sherlock Holmes" in the period of animation transformation

Q: When I was making Sherlock Holmes, I began to realize that animation should be important in various senses. Do you think so?

Tokunaga: It's true that since the "Masterpiece Series" for a while, the way animation is made has also changed. The picture has also been made more realistic. At the time, I thought about making the image more realistic, but I didn't have to think about what kind of camera I wanted to use for the shooting, and how I could change the image with the subtle tilt of the lens. If you make zuò works one by one, it won't be interesting. This also made me feel the change of the times.

Q: In that sense, Sherlock Holmes is a work that fully blends the style of comics with realism.

Tokunaga: If the way we grasp space becomes realistic, then no matter what kind of comic manga comedy the characters do, it seems unreal. Be sure to make the character feel down-to-earth. I was aware of this at the time.

Q: After Sherlock Holmes, you made Little Nemo.

Tomoyong: At the end of the day, that's what the company was all about. In the first half of the '80s, we mainly produced "Little Nemo" and other overseas collaborations, and rarely got involved in Japanese animation. I was 30 years old when I participated in the production of "Little Nemo", and "The City of Cagliostro" was 32 years old, and I was 36 years old by the time the work was completed. Mr. Iko Kaneda showed a lot of amazing things in "Phantom Wars", and I just watched from the sidelines. It can be said that before the age of 35, I was almost working on "Little Nemo".

So, when "Little Nemo" ended and I returned to Japanese animation, I felt like I had become Taro Urashima (laughs). As for "Little Nemo", I think it would be better if I could give a little more time and be a little more detailed about the plot and storyboarding. I've always felt quite unwilling to do this.

Also, looking back now, I just watched American animations and learned and imitated them. During the process of making "Little Nemo", I often traveled between Japan and the United States to work, and I learned a lot about it, and I felt a lot of emotion. And in the midst of this, the fact that I was able to make "The City of Cagliostro" was enough to satisfy me.

Q: What is the place of Sherlock Holmes in Mr. Toonaga's career?

Tokunaga: I worked on Sherlock Holmes between the ages of 25 and 30, and as an animator, it was the most fulfilling time for the characters. In the process of dealing with Mr. Otsuka, Mr. Hayao Miyazaki, the people of the company, and other people, I once again felt the joy of animation. It was because of that experience that I was able to survive as an animator to this day. That's how I feel about it.