n 1988, Masamune Shirow's Appleseed began its American run in a five-volume series for the boutique comic-book label Eclipse International. Flash forward 16 years, and it's become an outright phenomenon. Deunan and Briareos, the resilient saviors of the series' dystopian future, have become icons to multiple generations of manga and anime fans, while Shirow himself is now synonymous with the medium's greatest achievements, having gone on to create the venerated anime classic Ghost in the Shell and its sequel Innocence. Despite his worldwide acclaim as an artist and animator, however, Shirow still considers Appleseed to be the greatest achievement of his career.
This month, Shirow's Appleseed returns to the silver screen for the first time since 1988, when a hand-drawn incarnation of his characters was produced for Japanese audiences. Director Shinji Aramaki, who previously served on the production team of such classic series as Bubblegum Crisis and Megazone 23, takes the helm from Shirow and reinvents his world for a whole new generation of fans. Aramaki recently spoke to Science Fiction Weekly about the prospect of working on such a highly anticipated project, on developing the technology to make Shirow's future look so fantastic and on creating a cohesive and compelling story for world audiences to follow.
Shinji Aramaki, how involved was Masamune Shirow during the making of the film, and how did the idea for this originate?
Aramaki: Shirow was involved with working out the scenario, and we met several times to exchange ideas, but he said that he was going to leave the movie to the staff and he would not be giving us directions and telling us not to do this and that kind of thing. He would let the schedule evolve on its own accord, and he would pretty much stay uninvolved. I'm sure, having seen what we completed, he may have had much to say. He told me that he was satisfied with the work that I had done on it, so I am very happy to have gotten that evaluation from him.
In the comic-book series distributed in the 1980s by Eclipse Comics, Briareos was already a cyborg, and he and Deunan lived together outside of Olympus. What prompted you to change the story for the film?
Aramaki: It's a matter of transferring the original story to a movie version. The comic books, I think, were four volumes, and were still in the process of being created, but for the movie it would be one storyline, and I wanted to emphasize the dramatic aspect of the relationship between Deunan and Briareos, so I began the story with them being separated.
How long ago did you begin developing the look of this film, and what opportunities or obstacles did the technology present while you were working on the film?
Aramaki: The CG technology has been out there for the past 10 years, and I've made several films using this kind of technology, and the style that I came up with is where 10 years of exploration brought me. The only problem had to do with character expression on cel animation—2-D technology—and how the characters could be expressed using this new technology, with the 3-D animation as a means.
How did you overcome that challenge?
Aramaki: To put it simply, it's a result of daily efforts by the people involved and the individual efforts of the staff involved. But from a technical point of view, there's something called a "facial capture" part of motion capture, where the actual faces of actors are used and digitally captured. Another aspect has to do with animation. There's a staff member by the name of Yamata who was involved with this, and he was able to give us a great deal of advice [about] how to get from 2-D to 3-D; there were a number of technical things that were incorporated to create the very satisfactory results that we were able to get in 2-D.
When you're dealing with such overwhelming imagery, how tough is it to create this world and then still tell a cohesive story?
Aramaki: There are many aspects to this. I mean, there's the scenario, the storyboards, and in animation there's something called animatics, where the overall movie is made in a rough form; that's where the editing takes place so there's an overview and a balance. We look at it with each cut, and we look at it overall as well; this is a very time-consuming process that needs to be done with great care. That's how we oversee the balance of the entire movie.
Do you feel like anime and other Japanese films have a different storytelling discipline than those of American or other countries' films?
Aramaki: I really don't have much of an idea of American movies and Japanese movies having that much of a difference. Maybe there is some sense of that, but it's entertainment, and it's about how we can move the audience and what you're aiming at—the theme and what you want to tell in it. In Japan, in terms of marketing, I don't think it's as much of an influence, so that it's possible for the director to do what he or she most desires and can create the cinematography in such a way that they are not so controlled.
Are you concerned that some elements of the story or characters might not translate to international audiences due to cultural differences or the language barrier?
Aramaki: There may be some aspects of that, but that doesn't really concern me. Earlier I spoke about what it is that I can deliver to the audience in terms of excitement and emotion and entertainment, but basically I'm making what I want to see, so it's a pleasure for me to have people see this anime and then to watch their response. It's not as though I'm wanting to be accepted, and I'm not doing anything to what it is I want to do because of concern over that kind of thing.
Have you been satisfied with the response thus far that the film received as it releases worldwide?
Aramaki: Yes. There's been a great deal of interest outside of Japan, and many people have enjoyed this anime, and there were some things that happened that were unexpected, but I've enjoyed very much the response that I've received.
Has there been any discussion of future installments of the Appleseed series? Do you have ideas where you would like to take the characters?
Aramaki: We are already working on the next Appleseed, and I think that there will be a different way to create the characters, but it won't be in the same style of drawings that were used for the current Appleseed. It will be more evolved, and I hope the audience will find new surprises and things that visually they will be able to enjoy. So we are continuing in the development process, and it won't be based on the same data. It will be a new style of movie that will be created.
Given the years that it took to master the technology to make the first Appleseed, how long do you expect it will take to create a sequel?
Aramaki: Well, I can't promise anything, but the completion of a new Appleseed anime in 2005 is not possible. It may be possible to create in 2006.
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Also in this issue:
The cast and crew of Elektra
