friday
The Toshio Okada panel took place as a large
public forum in the main upstairs ballroom of Anime America.
About 80 people were present to hear and talk to
Okada.
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PANEL: So, uh, sir, um,
what--what's going on now? As a producer, as a
president--former president, excuse me--what progress have
you made as a creative force?
OKADA: Well, basically, I
started off as an otaku, and I jumped from being an amateur
to a pro--I'm really not sure when that happened; it was
sort of in the early '80s, or perhaps 1984 or 1985. In 1981
I made the "Daicon III Opening Animation"--that was only an
8mm, five-minute film. In 1983 I made the "Daicon IV Opening
Animation;" that was also an 8mm, five-minute film. And
after that, my staff wanted to become professionals, because
all of that had cost me, they were all volunteers, and we
had already spent much money and much time...So, and then,
we had already quit our universities and colleges, or most
of us had lost our jobs, so we must make money doing
something, so we went to Tokyo and became professional
film-makers.
PANEL: My personal favorite of
all your work is OTAKU NO VIDEO, just because it's a very
universal story, with situations I think many people can
relate to if they're fans of something, the culture is very
universal--Did you see yourself investing a lot of emotion
into making OTAKU NO VIDEO as a fun thing, as your
experience, as the experiences of your friends?
OKADA: I had a lot of fun
making making GUNBUSTER, but I didn't have that burning
sensation when I made OTAKU NO VIDEO. It was something that
I lightly made. I made it that way because I thought the
people who watched it were like the people in the
live-action portion--not the people who made it. 1983 was
the turning point for myself and my friends. Basically what
I wanted to do was set the stage for 1983 because that was
when everything was changing; I wanted to show people what
it was like during that period back in 1983, how we lived,
basically, what our life was as otaku. [TO AUDIENCE MEMBER]
You're hiding your finger with the flash, so you probably
didn't get a picture.
AUDIENCE: Arigato.
PANEL: I'd like one more
question, and then I'm going to open it up to everybody:
There are many themes...I go back to OTAKU NO VIDEO--you
talk a lot about, and it seems like you predicted in that
film, a lot of the commercialization and product management
that is now very, very common in the animation industry. Do
you feel more strongly now about the way things have to be
processed, and managed, and shoved out the door--you see all
around you the selling of creativity?
OKADA: That world we made in
OTAKU NO VIDEO, it was not a prediction: it was an otaku's
dream. Maybe we can be more major, or a bigger group, or
maybe we can make our own theme parks! But in these days, I
can't believe all of the things that are happening--our
otaku's dreams are beginning to become a reality in the
United States. I am very surprised, and very glad.
continued...
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