Interview about Mr. Yuji Sakai, Godzilla's leading expert, about Godzilla of animated movie "Godzilla monster planet"

In accordance with the release of the first animated movie "Godzilla monster planet" of the Godzilla series, from November 17, 2017 (Friday)The biggest lottery GODZILLA Monster Planet ~ Monster King evolves ~The deployment of "has begun. Animation Godzilla of about 20 cm in height, which is a prize of the "Big Soft Vinyl figure award", is known as the leading figure of Godzilla modelingYuji SakaiMr. is in charge of prototype and coloring. I was talking about how Sakai-san was fascinated by Godzilla and how he invented this overwhelming Godzilla while actually seeing the prototype.

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GIGAZINE (hereinafter referred to as G):
Sakai's blog "GODZILLA DREAMIf you are reading "The word" Tokyo "comes out. Since the factory is located in Fukushima Prefecture, can you come out to Tokyo every time you work?

Yuji Sakai (hereinafter Sakai):
Yes, the basic is modeling in Fukushima, and I am in Tokyo as necessary. Since recently several Godzilla exhibitions continued, I went to various places at the work exhibition.

G:
Mr. Sakai is actively disseminating information on his blog, so I can also see how recently he is making something recently.

Sakai:
The staff is updating the blog. The basic is a twice a year Wonder FestivalGarage kitAs we announce the new work, we are focusing to some extent there. We also inform you when manufacturer's products are released. At first, we also put out a private part, but there are not too many interesting things, so recently it is only information dissemination.

G:
To the Wonder Festival, it seems to be working from the first time.

Sakai:
At the beginning, we are going "on the side of customers" and eventually came out on the creator side, but I participate naturally every time.

G:
There is a "monster area" where Godzilla and others are lined in one festival. Among them, is there something like a boom?

Sakai:
It was made in Heisei "VS series"There were quite a few impressions. Even now"Shin · GodzillaIs a big hit, is not it increasing? It's a nice thing, because there is demand for the garage kit.

G:
As for the encounter between Mr. Sakai and Godzilla, as a work it was published "1964"The Three Great Monsters The Greatest Decisive Battle of the Earth"It was an illustration that was published in a magazine for children before seeing it at a movie theater.

Sakai:
Rather than looking at the movie, before seeing Godzilla's existence, I saw it at a friend's house like a picture book for children. Mothra larvae etc. were drawn in a very dramatic way and I thought, "What is this isnt?", Soon the movie was released. In line with the local cinema rows, I was absorbed in the front seat. Since then, I came to go to Godzilla's movies, but my frustration remains after seeing it.

G:
Dissatisfied?

Sakai:
I still remember clearly. "It would be nice to have a real Godzilla toy, model as it appears in a movie." I wonder if that also leads to my current job.

G:
Did you actually knead Godzilla by kneading clay? Childhood was "Fujimaru with a boys ninja styleBecause I mean that I liked it, did you draw a picture?

Sakai:
You know well, I love you already! (Laugh) Whether it was in kindergarten, Fuji Maru kept a sword in the opening and he liked the scene lightning shining (just before the title logo appeared), I adore it was cool. Apart from Fuji Maru "Astro boyI also loved it. So I used to think that I would like to become an animator, and tried making an animation with a cell picture as a flip book. When I was a junior high school student, this was my favorite "Star of the Giant"I was painting.

G:
When was the time when it began to make molded objects?

Sakai:
Godzilla love continued for a long time and went to see every time it was released, but the Godzilla movie finished once with "Mechagodzilla's counterattack". After that I went on to study at the university, but in the third year of university, I saw "Mothra vs. Godzilla" and "King Kong vs. Godzilla" for the first time in the event "Godzilla all night" held in Shinjuku, the heat reburned , I began to buy Godzilla 's Mook Book. After graduating from university, I learned about existence when I worked for an advertising agency "garage kit". Although I bought a lot of things I made, I thought that "it is slightly different from the image in myself", of which I began to make prototypes on my own. So I applied for the 1st Artpla Grand Prize at Kaiyodo with "King Kong vs. Godzilla" Kingoji, won a prize and applied for a grand prize by applying 1 meter Biogogy (Godzilla v. Violante) in the next year. I was doing work as a semi-professional from around Kinkogi with a part-time job.

G:
Although it was said that two years later worked together with the company as a modeling activity, what was the opportunity to focus on modeling?

Sakai:
On Sunday morning I went to Tokyo by photography of a magazine and came back to Fukushima in the middle of the night and the next day I felt the limits to my life as a company. Another thing is that when I was working on decorating paintings of famous painters one day, I thought "Why am I exhibiting people 's work?" "Let's do the work that I really want to do." I made up my mind and quit the agency who was 35 years old for 13 years and founded "Sakai Yuji Molding Studio".

G:
There is an episode that "I want to make Godzilla as much as making a different monster", is it true?

Sakai:
Sometimes I said something like that (lol) But once again after seeing the latest work, other monsters are well built. Looking back at the work, 90% is Godzilla, but about 10% is King Ghidora or Gamera. If you have the opportunity, you also want to challenge a variety of things. Well, the basic is Godzilla, though (laugh)

G:
The Godzilla series is a "counterattack of Mechagodzilla" after the Showa series finished, it revived in 1984 and had the VS series till 1995, continuing intermittently with the Millennium series from 1999 to 2004, but everything is followed Is it done?

Sakai:
of course. After all, Godzilla must see it in the movie theater.

G:
In the middle of watching a movie, do you think that "I want to make this figure, this scene?"

Sakai:
While watching the movies of Godzilla, I think that many wish to "want to become a director" and "want to make images". But in my case, when I saw a cool scene or a famous scene in the play, there is a feeling that "I want this scene" "I want to make it" first.

G:
Mr. Sakai said that Mosgosi of "Mothra vs. Godzilla" is a favorite among the successors of Godzilla, so he came to see various Godzilla for about 40 years and got the latest "Godzilla monster planet" Godzilla How was your impression of seeing it?

Sakai:
Historic Godzilla thinks that each director is pursuing a new Godzilla in each movie. Godzilla of "Monster Planet" also saw designs and basic materials, and frankly received the impression of being "new Godzilla". Since animation is a culture that Japan is proud of in the world, Godzilla gets out to the world in the form of animation, so that people who do not know Godzilla much, that not many people watching Godzilla also know Godzilla, so far in the Godzilla series I am looking forward to it if it would be a chance to be touched.

G:
This time I noticed Mr. Sakai side by side not only Godzilla of "Godzilla monster planet", but also Shin · Godzilla and Biogoji, I feel clearly the difference of the style, the difference of the expression etc. again.

Sakai:
Godzilla series "Shin · Godzilla" is the 29th work, and this "Godzilla monster planet" will be the 30th work. Among that number, Godzilla has different faces and different styles. Sometimes I use the previous setting, but each movie is cool, there is goodness of Shin Godzilla in Mosgodzi, Mosgodzi, Shin Godzilla in Mosgodzi. The figure of "GODZILLA monster planet" also had a desire to pursue coolness and make it.

Godzilla you are seeing now, in 2016Shin Godzilla's best betThe second prototype of Banprest's No. 1 lottery, which follows. We kept materials in February 2017, made two posing designsHiroyuki SakashitaDirector and model directorOne-sidedness law, And the staff, I decided a certain direction.


G:
I see.

Sakai:
At this stage I had the rough prototype looked at and repeated the exchange so that various keywords could be obtained. When I make a prototype, I want a lot of information, so let me look at the actual actual thing in front of me and draw out information like "This kind of wind is good" from the expression of the face and hand. For example, in the face of Godzilla this time, I originally opened the mouth with a big mouth, but I got information that I do not scream. It was an image that appeared something with a painful, anguish expression. So, I opened the mouth halfway, and the expression also matched that kind of image. My hands were hands that I would set aside as Illustrated as I submitted, but I told Mr. Katakawa that I was talking about "feeling like appealing something" and "image like an opera singer" We have made it again.


G:
When making rough prototypes, are they made from setting materials? It was a story that I got the documents in February, but at that stage it is still before the publicity video is released ...

Sakai:
Yes, I did not see the image, I got the material "This is a design of such a Godzilla", I first drew a posing rough based on that. Rough has two ideas, one was the basis of the present figure and the other was a little flashy movement.

G:
As I mentioned earlier, the mouth of a posing rough is wide compared to this prototype.


Sakai:
That's right. With that, I made rough prototypes and got information such as "Mouth is this way" from the staff, and I tailored the details to the images in the directors' head. I'm taking pictures on the way I am making it, so I'd like you to see how I finished it. I am a "creator" and not a "speaker" (lol)

G:
I definitely want to see it!

Mr. Sakai during molding


Sakai:
In building the prototype, we received data on the exterior but we wanted to explore the inside as well, so we went directly and communicated with the directors and staff members to realize the image of the directors. As a result, it is this Godzilla you are seeing now. The flow of the dorsal fin noticeably swells along the way, but this is the part that took a motion in response to the request from Mr. Katagiri "I can not make it a little more". The muscular body shape was that "image of King Geon" as an image.

G:
When I first heard that this time Godzilla is the setting of "plant origin", I thought about what Godzilla is all about with plants, but also that there was an image of "Geumgang statue" further ....

Sakai:
It was not an animal, but a plant evolved. From the tip of the head to the end of the tail, the concept is packed solid. Both skin and dorsal leaf veins look like blood vessels, and the body surface is an image of the tree, the tail is the image of the root of the tree, so it is embodied. It took about half a year for the exchange, so I had a hard time, but when I brought it I knew that the eyes of the directors were shining and I felt very rewarding. After coloring was painted with the color presented at the beginning, it changed to a different setting and it repainted. Since it is Godzilla passed through the year of 20,000 years, it means that the surface of the body is mossed, expressing the moss in metallic form everywhere based on the color of the green lineage, "reproduced" finely. As I supervised and saw what I had done, I said "This is exactly this image", so I had a hard time but I feel that there was worth the effort.


G:
Because Godzilla has an image of "black", it is somewhat different color.

Sakai:
Certainly the image of black is orthodox, but I think that Godzilla of this time is natural from the setting that it is plant origin.

G:
However, although it is brighter than black as a color, it is a heavy weight feeling. Is there something to make a heavy feeling for someone seeing?

Sakai:
I think it is one of the reasons that Godzilla itself is a design with a heavy feeling, but I think that it is related to being posed as a reminiscent of the movement after this.

G:
The tail that it is the image of the root of the tree, combined with this thickness and powerful movement, will receive the impression that it will become a particularly strong weapon even in successive Godzilla. It is also a weapon that the tip is sharp ... ....


Sakai:
The tail and nail are quite sharp, but this is the image of "thorns". I am sorry that it is dangerous if it is too sharp, but I think that it is not as sharp as the prototype in the product version. By the way, when you look at the nails, do you know that painted with the same color as the part of the arm unlike Godzilla so far?

G:
Even if it is made to Biogoji or Shin Godzilla, the nails are painted separately by the white line separately from the skin.

Sakai:
I do not carefully paint this. Although it has the shape of the nail, it is the image of the "spur of the plant", so it is not the color of the nail but the same color as the whole.

G:
I see, so ... ...! Unevenness on the body table that imagines trees has not much the same unevenness.

Sakai:
It rubs fairly finely with a manufacturing method called a dry brush, and it finishes all at random. thismoldAlso, we adjust the density and so on based on the materials. Looking back, it was really hard (laugh)


G:
It is convinced that this facial expression, it was necessary only for that exchange to produce Godzilla of this figure. Even if you look at the face again, if you say Godzilla for the first generation, there is an image that looks like Gyoro and here, if you are Biogogy, there is an image that looks like a front face but this Godzilla has small eyes and a mouth as half- The impression is quite different from Godzilla so far.

Sakai:
The eyes are clear blue and it's amazingly beautiful. It seems that he is suffering with gentle eyes. But since the body looks strong, I have not seen the movie yet, but it is the impression that it is "kind and strong."

G:
I really want this look to see the real thing, but the picture of the best expression is also posted on the most favorite page. By the way, when photographing such a picture, Mr. Sakai surely attends.

Sakai:
As it is still the theme of expressing Godzilla's "coolness" and "charm" to the utmost, so even if it is a prototype, taking a picture by taking the angle by himself, photographing it, hand it to the cameraman and together I am trying to attend the basics so that I can convey the wishes of writing while watching. The pictures posted on Banprest's site are also sticking to details, checking the angle. I would like to photograph the angle in my head as it is, so I think the cameraman is in trouble (laugh)

G:
The difference in lighting will make a difference considerably in the difference in the final appearance ... ....

Sakai:
"Godzilla" is important for "shadows". Because the lighting has a big influence to reproduce the Godzilla of the screen. Also, the angle is also important. In one festival, we will raise the position of the exhibition hall to exhibit, so that the eyes look up from the bottom. Because a monster does not shine if overlooked.

G:
Certainly, the strength and coolness when looking up at a monster is irresistible. Mr. Sakai always said that important things in Godzilla's shaping are "cool", but in this Godzilla, is there a point that "I want you to see here!"

Sakai:
Basically it is "all" (laugh). Since I am including all my thoughts and including all of my directors' intentions, I want you to take a closer look at the tip of the tail from the tip of the head.


G:
Talking about the story, as a catch-ball between Mr. Sakai and the staff of the movie was held, the inner face of this Godzilla was deepened and it seems to me that the soul entered into such expression.

Sakai:
Well, as I tried to get the information on the inside as much as possible, I think that it was in shape.

G:
Then, just as Mr. Sakai gets information with a catch ball, there may be a part that the thing cultivated in the catch ball was reflected in the image.

Sakai:
I am glad if that is the case. As for color, we supervised and saw what we had done and said, "This is exactly this image", so I have a feeling that it was good. Since I am going to see it when the movie is completed, I am longing for the scene to be developed "I want to make this".

G:
Thank you for talking.

On this day, in addition to 'Angorge', I was able to show all the Godzilla of Mr. Sakai's hands, but every Godzilla has plenty of charm. As well as "GODZILLA Monster Planet", I also want to look back on the past Godzilla series.


The film "GODZILLA monster planet" whose powerful Godzilla is active as well as powerful shaping by Mr. Sakai is open to acclaim from Friday, November 17, 2017.