Animated movie 'LUPIN THE IIIRD THE MOVIE: Immortal Bloodline' interview with Katsuhito Ishii: 'It would be fun to make a Lupin movie with the REDLINE team'
Among the anime series 'Lupin the Third,' the 'LUPIN THE IIIRD' series, directed by Takeshi Koike, is a series that has been developed to have the atmosphere of the early Lupins. It started with 'Gravestone of Daisuke Jigen,' which was released in theaters in 2014, and the series will finally conclude with this film, 'Immortal Bloodline.' We spoke to Katsuhito Ishii, the creative advisor for the series, about how this series was made and how the taste was decided.
Official website for the movie 'LUPIN THE IIIRD THE MOVIE: The Immortal Bloodline'
The poster visual for the work looks something like this.
GIGAZINE (hereinafter referred to as G):
Mr. Ishii, you have been involved in the work from the planning stage, but what was your feeling when you actually saw the footage?
Creative Advisor Katsuhito Ishii (hereinafter, Ishii):
I thought this was an amazing piece of work. This work was basically made with the staff I proposed. The members were almost the same as for '
G:
Huh!?
Ishii:
It took seven years to produce 'REDLINE,' but the mixing experience was so traumatic that I decided I would never touch the finishing touches again (laughs).
G:
It was such an amazing thing to make (laughs).
Ishii:
Since this is the final film in the series, there is an introductory scene that looks back on the previous works, and I thought the tone was really wonderful. I wonder if it's Mr. Koike's particular attention to detail. It's just a small color or tone, but even in 'REDLINE' he was particular about something and said, 'Oh, that's the part that bothers me. If it were me, I'd make it all OK...', and it's wonderful that this film is also coming together in line with what Director Koike was aiming for.
G:
In a past interview, Mr. Ishii mentioned Director Koike, saying that not only the main characters but also the supporting characters are all lively, with realistic acting and detailed direction. Is there any part in this work where you felt that Director Koike was doing a detailed job?
Ishii:
There were many parts where I felt that they really put their hands on the smallest details. At the first meeting, I presented the original plan and enemy character designs and explained, 'This character looks roughly like this,' but I left it up to the director to decide how they would move. Like how they moved and how they portrayed women. Director Koike previously made a promotional video for 'Afro Samurai,' and I felt that only Koike could portray that kind of sexiness in women, and that he was the only one who could portray adult women. On the other hand, the way he cuts out the sexiness of men, saying, 'This is how it looks cool,' is really amazing.
G:
By the way, how did you first encounter 'Lupin III'? Was it through Monkey Punch's manga or one of the anime?
Ishii:
I watched the first animated version of Lupin, directed by Masaaki Ohsumi. When I was a kid, I watched the first five episodes and it really got to me. The F1 race scene in the first episode was great, and the scene where he captures the female spy and tickles her (laughs).
G:
(lol)
Ishii:
They also fight over women, and as a child I thought it was amazing, even though I didn't know exactly what it was. After that, there was a change in direction, but I don't remember much about it after that... The impression of the early Lupin was so strong that when I told Jyoen, 'I want to see that,' he said, 'Do you want to do it in that style?'
G:
So, this 'LUPIN THE IIIRD' series has a very early Lupin feel to it.
Ishii:
That's the kind of Lupin you'd get if you asked me to do it (laughs).
G:
So if you were to expand and develop your initial image, it would end up looking something like this.
Ishii:
So, since Goemon had just joined the Lupin gang, we decided to call him Ishikawa. Since we weren't that close, we thought it would be weird to call him Goemon by his first name.
G:
(laughs) How did you come to work on the 'LUPIN THE IIIRD' series?
Ishii:
Before Director Koike, there was a series directed by Director Yamamoto Sayo.
G:
This is the TV broadcast of '
Amazon.co.jp: LUPIN the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine BD-BOX [Blu-ray]: Kanichi Kurita, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Daisuke Namikawa, Miyuki Sawashiro, Koichi Yamadera, Takeshi Koike, Sayo Yamamoto, Monkey Punch, Mari Okada, Naruyoshi Kikuchi: DVD
Ishii:
The character design was so good that Koike, who was in charge of it, was going to work on the next project. So I was called by Jyoen and asked, 'I want to work with Koike next time, but what kind of feel should I give it?' So I said, 'If I could choose the staff...' and mentioned his name. Nobuo Sekiguchi, who designed the title, is a friend of mine from high school and has worked on all of my movies, including 'REDLINE'. I wanted Marui Tsuneo to do the mix, James Shimoji to do the music, and Shimizu Hiroshi to record the voice... Then, 'Koike will find it easier to work with you that way,' and everything went through. In other words, it was like, 'If we make 'Lupin' with the team from 'REDLINE', it will be really interesting.'
G:
Wow, that's definitely hilarious as hell.
Ishii:
And the content was going to be early Lupin. Then I came up with a draft idea that I thought 'Koike-san would definitely like something like this.'
G:
I see, 'This is the kind of Lupin that Director Koike wants to do.' Was there anything that caught your eye at the time that would have made Director Koike interested?
Ishii:
First of all, the enemy character. The first Lupin had characters such as Paikaru from 'The Man Called Magician,' so I thought, 'Wouldn't it be good if the enemy character was interesting?' So I suggested an assassin. (After seeing the sketches that Mr. Ishii had actually drawn) After that, I suggested things like, 'Wouldn't it be good to have this kind of feeling when Fujiko is bullied?' and 'Wouldn't it be good if a lot of people with this kind of face appeared?' and I felt like I was making it more exciting.
G:
The visual image fits perfectly and it's easy to understand. Do you draw these kinds of illustrations in a rush, or do you carefully consider them?
Ishii:
Well, it's all about momentum. Whenever I have an idea, I just draw it out and think, 'Wouldn't it be nice to have someone like this?'
G:
The illustrations we are showing you now are drawn in a diary-like notebook, but do you always carry a diary like this with you when you draw? Or are you the type who just sits down at your desk and says, 'I'm going to draw now,' and gets really motivated?
Ishii:
Generally, when I come up with something, I do it on the spot. If I'm at work, I write it down and copy it onto copy paper. If there's something I don't understand, I just throw it all to Suzuki-kun in the literature department and Takagi-san in the planning department (laughs).
G:
Listening to your story, it makes sense that you are called a 'creative advisor.' I see, you are indeed the creative advisor for the work.
Ishii:
Anyway, I just wanted to show him 'How about this?' and for Director Koike to take a bite. In this film, the enemy character Muom is a bit of an unusual character, so I drew a lot of him, thinking that drawing a lot of different things would help him understand that he's that kind of person. If I wasn't worried, I wouldn't draw so much. For example, I might say, 'I think the interesting part of the action scene will be like this.'
The enemy in this game: Muom
G:
This is a sketch that could easily be published as a manga.
Ishii:
'Wouldn't this be good for a fight with Goemon?' I wanted to make him more convinced because Muom is such a pervert. 'Is this really the final enemy?' (laughs)
Fuua, the enemy that stands in the way of Lupin and his gang
Similarly, the enemy Luuo
G:
No way (lol)
Ishii:
I was a little worried, but Director Koike liked it and said, 'Isn't it good?' However, he said, 'There's no car action, but I want to do car action' (laughs). Director Koike is amazing. I've done character design for the animation part of 'Kill Bill' before, but when it comes to drawing, it's inevitable that a little is omitted. Usually, it's because it's easy to draw, but in Koike's case, he adds a little.
G:
Add!?
Ishii:
In reality, he would have liked to omit it, and producers tend to dislike going in that direction, but Koike adds it.
G:
Wow, I had no idea there were people who drew in an additive manner... But when you see all the sketches lined up like this, it really does feel like a concept design.
Ishii:
From here, Koike-san chooses what he wants to draw. But sometimes it seems impossible to connect the ideas, and when there are lots of ideas but only partial storyboards, I have to explain the content. In that respect, characters like Sarifa come from Koike-san and the scriptwriter Takahashi-san. They are the ones who calmly explain things, or rather, they are in that situation. If it was just me, only male characters would come out...
G:
(lol)
Ishii:
It's completely reminiscent of the old Lupin, with only male characters, and the only other character is Fujiko's eroticism (laughs). So Takahashi-san has done a great job of balancing it out.
G:
There were a lot of sketches, but did any of the ones you drew end up being rejected? What was the adoption rate?
Ishii:
Of course, there are some that are rejected, but most of the things I suggest as 'this might be good' are accepted. However, sometimes when I submit a second draft, they say, 'The first one was better after all.'
G:
How long does it take to actually decide on a design?
Ishii:
When we first got together, we talked about how we would do it in this order, and it took anywhere from half a day to a full day. Then Koike-san would say things like, 'I want to do some car action,' or 'I want an airplane scene,' and the scriptwriter Takahashi-san and the literary writer Suzuki-kun would put it together. Producer Jyoen just listened to what we were saying, and everyone talked through it, until at the end, we were like, 'Please stop now.'
G:
It seems like the meeting will be extremely exciting. I think Mr. Ishii has a long relationship with Director Koike, but has there been any change in Director Koike that you have noticed up until this film? Or has he not changed much?
Ishii:
It hasn't changed much since the old days, and my impression is that it is very easily absorbed.
G:
'Absorption'?
Ishii:
It's like 'absorbing and adding more.' Previously, it was more 'animated' and had a sharp feel, but for example, when I did 'Fujiko Mine's Lie,' I said, 'I'd like it to feel more like ' Gloria ,'' and they made it a bit like Gloria, with a live-action base. In 'Goemon Ishikawa's Blood Spray,' the setting is the Izu Peninsula, so I said, 'I want to do it in Shimoda,' and they made sure to include depictions that really fit the atmosphere of Shimoda. I can now depict a very mature, live-action-like atmosphere, and my previous sharpness is still alive, so I think I have a lot more weapons now.
G:
Once again, he is an amazing person... I'd like to move away from 'Lupin' for a moment and ask about Mr. Ishii himself. Mr. Ishii has been interviewed many times in the past, and in one of his interviews with 'NEW PEOPLE Travel' he talked about an episode that he told when he was a child, when he saw someone reading a manga on the train, and because manga was prohibited at home at the time, he decided to draw it himself in his sketchbook. I thought that was amazing.
Ishii:
(lol)
G:
After that, when the ban on manga was lifted and he copied various things, he got tired of drawing with a pencil, and while referring to the Space Battleship Yamato posters, he started to draw full-scale pictures with paints and an airbrush. It's a story of a master... What on earth happened to get him to this point?
Ishii:
I wonder (laughs). At first, I met someone who was reading 'Astro Boy' when I was in the third or fourth grade of elementary school, and I was really interested in the wrinkles on the uniform. I thought, 'This is amazing.' So I asked them to buy me one copy, whichever volume it was, and I drew Uno Yakyuichi. Meanwhile, the 'Space Battleship Yamato' boom came, and even though the poster was an anime, it somehow looked live-action, so I thought, 'It would be pretty amazing if I could draw this,' and I thought, 'I'll try practicing coloring for now,' and I drew every day. I'm a bit of a meticulous person, so when I was drawing Uno Yakyuichi, I drew it in my entire sketchbook, and gradually I got better at it, so I thought, 'If I keep going like this, I might be able to color it too.' I couldn't draw Yamato at first, but gradually I got better at it. Then, when I was in junior high school, I was able to use an airbrush.
G:
Wow...amazing...
Ishii:
Then I became interested in cel animation. At the time, cel animation was being sold in the gift shop at the animation studio, so I tried drawing backgrounds to match them.
G:
The background?
Ishii:
The backgrounds were drawn by another company, so the only cels for sale were the characters. When I saw the background cels, I thought, 'Maybe I can draw these myself?', so I drew backgrounds to match the characters. At the time, I was also imitating Yoshinori Kaneda. Some of the cels for sale were by Kaneda, but they were too expensive for me to buy, so I was like, 'I have some too' (laughs).
G:
(laughs) I heard that you were also making fanzines when you were in junior high school.
Ishii:
Before Katsuhiro Otomo started drawing 'AKIRA,' I was a big fan of his works 'Kibun wa Mou Senso' and 'Domu' when they were serialized. So I put a lot of effort into making doujinshi. Although I only took turns reading them with my friends.
G:
Otomo's style of drawing is more realistic than manga-like. What was your impression when you first encountered his work?
Ishii:
I thought this was amazing, this guy is amazing. I thought the women weren't very cute, but the men were well drawn (laughs). So I was really happy when I was allowed to participate in the making of 'SHORT PEACE' after that. We went out for drinks together, and it was a dream come true.
G:
Finally, I would like to ask you again about the highlights of this film, 'LUPIN THE IIIRD THE MOVIE: The Immortal Bloodline,' and what you think are its highlights.
Ishii:
Speaking of things to see... I think there are lots of things to see (laughs).
G:
Full of them (lol)
Ishii:
I mean, it took 11 years to complete the IIIRD series. That kind of work doesn't usually happen. I want people to watch it and think, 'Tom's really taking risks in making this,' and think about the social implications.
G:
Certainly, from that perspective, it's amazing to see a work take shape and be shown in theaters.
Ishii:
In addition, it is packed with all of Director Koike's particulars. It is not in 3D, but is cut in fixed frames, but it is a proper 'modern movie'. I would like you to see this. The story progresses with detailed descriptions without relying on expression or camerawork, and Takahashi's lines are also very good. It is an adventure that takes place on an island as the last of the 'LUPIN THE IIIRD' series, but if you are new to the series with this film, you will definitely want to watch the series from the beginning again. And after watching it, I would be really happy if you could watch 'Lupin III: Lupin vs. the Clone' up to 'Lupin Ondo'.
G:
thank you!
The film 'LUPIN THE IIIRD THE MOVIE: The Immortal Bloodline' is currently showing and receiving rave reviews.