Mr. Masashi Ando -- Interview Record	NOMOTO, Kazunori
Masashi Ando profile
Masashi Ando was born in Hiroshima Prefecture. He graduated from the Nihon University, department of Science of Arts in 1990 and joined the STUDIO GHIBLI. He started working on the animation at first. He took charge of the original pictures "Porco Rosso", "The Sea comes and grows fertile" and "Year of Heisei Raccoon dog battle Ponpoko". He firstly signed responsible as supervisor of illustration for the promotion film of Chage & Aduka, called "On Your Mark". After that he supervised the illustration of "Princess Mononoke", next "Mr. Yamada" and "Spirited Away". Since he is now working on a self-dependend base, he is freely participating in the production of two original pictures, called "King Gainer" and "Tokyo Godfathers"（still in process).
The Circumstances of Entering the GHIBLI Company
It all started with a job offer by GHIBLI while Mr. Ando was still a student in university, which he surely accepted. "Nausica of the Valley of Wind"（with Hayao Miyazaki as the supervisor）seem to have had a huge impact on him, even now.
Animation, Original picture and Supervisor of Illustration
Since Mr. Ando joined the company as an animation designer he worked in this field at first. (The role describing the picture between the original pictures drawn with the animation.）He took charge of "Neighbor Totoro". Then, he took part in an examination for becoming an original picture designer. It happened that he was given the possibility to take charge of the original picture "Porco Rosso". And he took charge of the illustrating as a supervisor for the first time when it came to the production of "Princess Mononoke". Of course he did his very best, since he was supervising the illustrating for the very first time.
"Spirited Away": How the Production Process was done
Mr. Ando was already working in the field of illustration for a while when it came to the production of "Spirited Away". Therefore, he was given the responsbility another time. In the first setting stage it was decided that the main character, the little girl Chihiro, was supposed to be just an ordinary girl. It was the theme of the "ordinary girl" that seemed to be interesting. Normally, those heroes who appear in animation until nowadays are always given some special power or any other special ability to make them interesting. So the setup of an "an ordinary girl" was very new and fresh. The production of "Spirited Away" started in such a change. The theme of the "ordinary girl" is visible in the very first scene, when the little girl is in the car with her parents, driving the way to their new house. She is looking out of the window and swelling her cheeks, bored of the things to come. Furthermore, a small child has a different body compared to an adult. This time Mr. Ando tried to adopt the reality by a different, a natural way of moving that fits to the physical ability of a real child. He said reality was considered and "this was making the character act." However, according to Mr. Ando the little girl CHIHIRO would not remain the "ordinary girl" in the second half of the tale; she became the hero-character, gaining special powers by the intention of Director Miyazaki during the design process, it became unwilling deployment. For GHIBLI the latter, not to have a fixed layout of a story from the beginning, is kind of characteristic - so the tale had become totally different in its second part. Otherwise, the first purpose which CHIHIRO commits in the hot spring hotel of YUBABA (the witch of the East which aged) was returning man the parents of CHIHIRO made into a pig at YUBABA. However, if it enters in the second half of a tale, it will have been suddenly exchanged to deployment like the love story of CHIHIRO and HAKU (the Eastern white dragon and a boy's figure is carried out usually). Although the parents made into the pig have man return finally and a tale finishes, since it is forgotten completely till then, it is the existing somewhat impossible deployment. But even though this developement of the tale seems to be somehow impossible, the fact that it could become reality can be seen as a feature of the animation of Miyazaki. It is because every single scene has so much power in itself to such an extent that even such unreasonableness is allowed, Mr. Ando told me not without a glimpse of pride.
Features of Miyazaki's animation
The girl can be surely seen as the leading character. Mostly, those characters appear with special powers or any kind of unusal existence (for example a "princess"). Furthermore, adventuruos fighting scenes are likely to be used in some cases. Next to that, Miyazaki's animation is very famous for those scenes where the characters are "floating in the air". That is maybe, because Director Miyazaki is after all an aeroplane lover.
What moves people's mind
It has been lost that people's mind is recently moved with an animation work. That is, when it says with an old animation work, they are "TIGER MASK" (the wrestler who wore a tiger's mask fights with a secret organization), "TOMORROW`S JOE" (JOE which is the rowdy of a downtown area plays an active part in boxing), etc. By what children look at, these works have the power of changing their life.　（If it is this example, they will make it thought that it will become a wrestler and a boxer. The pro wrestler who wore the mask of a tiger called TIGER MASK actually appeared. Moreover, the WBC world champion of boxing called JOE appeared. The real name of JOE is Jyouichiro Tathuyoshi. He grew up in the downtown area in Osaka.）　Such works stopped existing in recent years. The charm of characters is insufficient or aren't characters utilized?
Mr. Ando's present condition
Mr. Ando left Studio GHIBLI a short while after the "Spirited Away" production had finished. Because, if it is working in STUDIO GHIBLI as it is, making the movie of the school of Mr. Miyazaki will be able to be continued. However, he will not get used to a person with the ability beyond it. Therefore, it is not good that he works by GHIBLI as it is.Due to this change he had become a free working designer. According to his new position he was able to take charge of the original picture "King Gainer" (Director Yoshiyuki Tomino), and the original picture of "Tokyo Godfathers" (Director Satoshi Kon) that is now in production.
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