Animazement 2003 Guest Interviews & Con Report [Kitakubo]

Interviewee Photo
  • Interview with: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
  • Interviewed by: Tsukasa on May 23rd, 2003
  • Location: Animazement 2003: Durham, North Carolina
  • Publication Date: May 31st, 2003
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Editor's note (04/10/08):

This interview was originally part of a single page that contained multiple interviews, and the author's convention experience merged between Q/A segments. We've moved to a new format where each person we interview gets their own page, and our experiences related to the interview appear above the interview transcript. A handful of very minor edits and omissions have been applied for clarity. We realize that some of these older pages will still look funny, but we believe that the consistency achieved makes up for that. At any rate, if you wish to view all of the pages that were originally part of the convention report, click here.

At Animazement 2003, I had the opportunity to speak to a number of fascinating guests who had come all the way to the con from Japan. I had prepared a great number of questions to ask, but ultimately due to time constraints, I was only able to ask a few at each press session in which several of the guests would get to sit down and respond to the questions posed by the few of us who showed up, with the aid of several translators.

On Friday, I sat down at the table with Yasuo Yamaguchi, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Yoshinobu Yamakawa, and Kazuto Nakazawa. Mr. Yamaguchi has directed a number of productions, such as Ge Ge Ge No Kitarou, Getta Robo, and Devilman, but he is best known as having been the chief planner of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. Mr. Kitakubo is best known for having directed Roujin Z, Blood:The Last Vampire, and Golden Boy. Mr. Yamakawa has taken on a variety of jobs, particularly director and character designer in a number of series, and his work was featured in Di Gi Charat and Slayers Gorgeous, amongst others. Mr. Nakazawa is an animator, and best known for his work as the character designer for El-Hazard:The Magnificent World. During this first press session, I was only able to ask a couple of questions, as the time quickly flew during that hour, but I tried my best to make them interesting ones. I opened with a question to Yasuo Yamaguchi.

Anime Dream:

What do you think of the censorship and plot changes anime often undergoes in order to be broadcast on American television?

Hiroyuki Kitakubo:

I think it's stupid. No, frankly, I feel that it is the Americans' accepted norm that animation is a children's and family medium. I feel that this is a preconception that needs to be broken down for the medium to be fully accepted. Ralph Bakshi was amongst those who started this, I hope to be a part of that too. One of my movies, Blood, isn't something you'll see on US primetime TV, but I wanted to make something for someone who wanted to see that sort of film, not create something for everyone to be able to watch without any objections to what the film contains.

Anime Dream:

[Mr. Kitakubo's closing remarks, driving home his opinion on censorship.]

Hiroyuki Kitakubo:

My motto is that the end user has the ultimate right to turn on or off the TV, to buy and tear up a ticket, and to break a DVD of theirs if they find it unsatisfactory. If people don't want to see something, they don't have to, so censorship shouldn't have to be necessary.