Yoshitoshi Abe is the character designer for Anime such as Serial Experiments Lain and NieA_7. He also worked as both character designer and screenwriter for Haibane Renmei. Yasuyuki Ueda has been the producer for all of Abe's projects.

Q: In all of your works like NieA_7, Haibane Renmei and Lain, you use a lot of silence and ambient noises instead of music. Is there any concern that it will bore the audience?

Ueda: That's more of the area of the Sound Producer. But I actually try to make it so the final product will not bore the viewers.

Q: What or who inspired you to become a manga artist?

Abe: I didn't really start drawing until I graduated from High School. I was an assistant for a no-name manga artist who just got a new artist prize. That was my first time drawing seriously

Q: How do you feel about using digital mediums such as Photoshop, Painter, and 3D?

Abe: I believe that any digital medium is the same as any analog medium; they're just a means for drawing. I get that kind of question a lot, and I think the distinction is rather ridiculous. I believe that as long as the medium is fit for the piece, it's okay. For example, I draw my rough sketches in pencil and then I color it in Painter; it doesn't mean that I'm a digital or an analog person. But if you're talking about Macs or Windows, I'm definitely a Mac person. (Laughs)

Q: What inspired your stylization of Lain?

Abe: I didn't really have a lot of influence on how I created the characters. It was basically my first work in the Anime field. I didn't have a lot to work off of, so I basically threw in everything I could, and that's what I came up with.

Q: Was there a lot of transition from being a manga artist to working in the animation industry?

Abe: The main difference would be that manga artists usually work alone. A lot of manga artists nowadays hire assistants to help with the drawings, but we usually think of the story and do a lot of the drawing by ourselves. In Anime, a lot of people are involved, so we use a lot of teamwork.

Q: Are you surprised that Lain and NieA_7 was so well received in North America, or were you trying to make a more globally appealing story from the beginning?

Abe: I wasn't really thinking of the global audience in mind; after all, Lain was my debut work. I didn't know what to expect, feedback-wise, so I didn't know whether it was going to work; I couldn't make any predictions.

Q: Haibane Renmei started as your doujinshi (fan-created comic), which is a very personal work. How does it feel to have so many people see such a personal work of yours?

Abe: Despite the fact that Haibane Renmei started as a doujinshi, I thought of it as any commercial work; I want as many people as possible to see it. But there is more responsibility when you're working with publishers. When you write a doujinshi and you can't come up with an idea, the only net losses are the price of self-publishing the book. But if you're working on an Anime or a commercial manga series, you'll be losing a lot of money for the company as well.

Ueda: I'll kill you if you ever get in a slump on one of my works. (Laughs)

Q: Starting from being a manga artist, how did you become the character designer for Lain?

Abe: I've drawn some illustrations for my website, and the producer had randomly wandered into it and said, “Hey, I want to use your art.”

Q: Are you seeing the trend to be more global now that your creations are more popular overseas, or are you just going for the Japanese audience?

Abe: Now that I've been invited to various Anime conventions outside of Japan, I know that there are fans out there who watch the series; but being someone who grew up in Japan all of my life, I have a lot of ideas and parts of my characters that are very Japanese. For example, a lot of gags in NieA_7 are based on Japanese culture. But at the same time, as compared to when I was working on Lain, I have a lot of ideas of how people overseas will look at it.

Q: Why do you think that Anime is so popular in North America?

Abe: I think animation in itself is a very good way of presenting your thoughts and ideas, and it should be used more often. But in Japan, it's getting into a bad loop where the industry is being targeted toward a more otaku maniac audience, a very narrow-minded audience. It's becoming more and more of a niche market nowadays in Japan. In that way, the American way of watching Anime is a lot healthier than the Japanese way of watching Anime.

Q: Recently, it's been very difficult to get Anime on television due to production costs and lack of sponsorship. Did you find it difficult to find sponsorship for Haibane Renmei?

Ueda: It was actually the reverse in that there are too many series. Sure, there's no money, but there's a lot of TV series. (Laughs) There's about a hundred and twenty TV series just for this year, so there's not really a shortage.

Abe: But it was relatively hard getting money for Haibane Renmei, because if it was based on another medium like manga, the sponsors know it will sell. But if it's an original idea, even if it's someone who has the credentials and a good portfolio, it's a higher risk because they don't know if it will sell.

Q: When you design characters in Lain and NieA_7, are they based on people you know in real life?

Abe: I have a few character whom I got ideas from the people around me, but I don't make it so people can recognize it as a certain person. I combine traits from several different people, or take a single trait from a person and add another trait that I will never see from that person. It's embarrassing if they find out. (Laughs)

Q: In all of your works, your main characters have always been female. It's quite a change from the male lead stereotype. Why?

Abe: Actually, it's the opposite in that the industry wants female characters as the lead. In Japan, you need a cute female character or it won't sell. (Laughs) But in Texhnolyze, the main character is a guy. He doesn't speak at all.

Q: In America, the usual policy is to create sequels because the ideas and audience are already there. Have you ever thought about doing a sequel?

Abe: My only original works are NieA_7 and Haibane Renmei. For now, I don't have any plans for creating a sequel.

Q: Where do you get ideas for your mangas?

Abe: I try to have ideas towards everyday life. If I try to live a life where I look for ideas all the time, I'll be so focused on looking for them that I'll be missing the important ones. So I try to live life as is and look back at what I've been doing and look for good ideas. I don't want to think about work when I'm living my life. (Laughs)

Q: How much sleep do you get?

Abe: I get about 6 hours a day. But for some reason, every week, I have at least one occasion for an all-nighter.

Q: Are you active in any sort of online communities, and what are your thoughts on them?

Abe: If I say anything about them, they'll completely slander me (there), so I won't.

Note: the community talked about here is a giant web forum in Japan where you can post anonymously about almost anything. I do not have a lot of details, as the name is somewhat blurred in the recording. Sorry.

Q: What do you start with when you design a character?

Abe: I don't really have any particular place I start with. I doodle a lot of sketches and start whittling down the final design. Or I think about something that happened to me earlier and use that as a motive to start designing.

Q: Now that you have experienced screenwriting (in Haibane Renmei), do you want to expand to it, or would you prefer to stay as the artist?

Abe: If I'm ever to write again, it'll be one of my original ideas. Professional screenwriters are amazing in that they take someone's ideas and add their own flavors to it. Even when they're working in groups, everything has to connect and make sense. I don't feel that I have the capability to do so. After working with Chiaki Konoka, who is an amazing screenwriter, I'm very scared to say that I am capable of writing any script.

Q: So, what kind of reaction did you get about the Indian character in NieA_7 from the Indian controversy?

Abe: Someone actually made a doll and sent it to me. In the Anime previews, the Indian guy was actually the Best Curry champion in Japan. I didn't know the guy was that amazing, so I was very surprised.

Q: Do you prefer working with your own characters, or just being the designer, like in Lain?

Abe: Both of them are important; when I'm working on my own designs, it's important that I project my own thoughts into the designs, and if I'm working on someone else's ideas, it's very educational for me to pick out the best of the ideas and add my own flavor. In Texhnolyze, the producer, the director and the screener all have their own ideas. So every time I bring the designs, one of the three will say, “this isn't what I'm looking for.” So I had a very difficult time finalizing the designs.

Q: What are you most proud of in Haibane Renmei, what you want American audiences to notice?

Abe: Since I'm working on character designs and screenwriting, there are a lot of places where I can subtle nuances, which wouldn't be possible when working in a group. The series is something you can watch over and over again to find new things, so that's something to look forward too. And of course, it would be nice if you purchase the DVDs. (Laughs)

Q: In the back of your Essence sketchbook, there were some designs for a character. Will you be using that someday?

Abe: I was just trying to make a basic catalog of characters so that when a new project comes up, I can just give them the whole stack and ask, “what kind of character would you like?” and which character is closest to the image, so I'd have a starting point, unlike Texhnolyze. But it was becoming such hard work that I stopped the process. When I showed those illustrations to Ueda, he said, “these old characters look so dumb, who would ever use them?” And despite all that, Texhnolyze is full of middle-aged guys.

Ueda: That was then, this is now.

Q: What do you feel is your greatest challenge as a manga artist and character designer?

Abe: I feel it would be trying to overcome my lack of skills. I always feel like I have the greatest masterpiece when I think of the ideas, but when I draw it, it doesn't come out great. So trying to keep it a masterpiece on paper is a challenge.

Ueda: He doesn't have a lot of time to fool around, but every time a new Mac comes out, he buys it, has trouble with it, has to fix it, and he loses a lot of time doing so. He already has a reservation for a G5. It'll probably arrive broken.

Abe: Stop saying that! The people at Apple will feel bad if they're watching this.

Q: Aside from Macs, do you buy a lot of technology?

Abe: It's my hobby to buy small gadgets. I have 6 PDAs, and yet I can't get a grasp on my schedule. I didn't even bring a single one here.

Q: How is the US con experience, compared to a Japanese con?

Abe: The American audience is very open and friendly, as opposed to the Japanese audience, who is very closed and picky. In American cons, you invite guests to have them talk. But Japanese cons are a lot like the Comic Market (Comiket), where the attendees draw and sell their own goods, more like a trade show than a convention. Like for the Comic Market, there's a lot of smut material, so if there are any TVs in there, it might be a little dangerous.

Q: Do you have any particular influence on your artwork?

Abe: I absorb a lot of traits from all sorts of people, places and ideas, so I don't have a single influence on my art; I try not to have just a single one. So when I look at other people's art, I try to look for the best traits and qualities, and when I look back on my own, I try to find all the faults.

Q: What Anime titles are you watching right now?

Abe: I'm watching shows like Last Exile because my friends make it. I don't really watch a lot of Anime and read a lot of manga in general. I find it fun to find the scenes my friends worked on.

Q: What are your hobbies?

Abe: Macs and bicycles.

Q: When did you switch to Macs?

Abe: When I was in elementary school, I was programming in basic, and I wanted to be a programmer when I grew up. I bought MS-DOS and Windows 2.0. I was basically a hardcore Windows person. I was thinking that Macs are all snobby, especially since they were so expensive. Around 1983, I went to a friend's house and he had a Quadro 700. I used it to play around in Photoshop and Painter, and I fell in love on first sight.

Q: What was the strangest place for you to get inspiration?

Abe: I bought a bicycle recently, and I've been riding around the neighborhood. I was using my old route to get to my junior High School. I was riding up the hill, thinking it looked familiar. Then I realized it was the hill I kept seeing in a recurring nightmare. I was very shocked.

Ueda: That's not the question! It wasn't what he was asking!

Abe: Most of the time, I usually get my ideas when I'm eating, bathing, in the bathroom, or in front of my desk. One of the stranger places is when I'm playing rally racing video games. Because you're racing the same circuit over and over, your hand starts moving on your own, and you go into autopilot. When that happens, my mind wanders off and starts thinking of different ideas.

Ueda: That's just an excuse for playing games by ditching work and playing around. You're escaping from reality.

Q: Aside from rally racing, do you play video games?

Abe: I don't have a lot of time to play video games nowadays. When I was a child, I played a lot of games and I was heavily into things like Wizardry.

Q: Have you ever thought of doing character design for games?

Abe: In 1994, I helped out co-designing characters in Wackenroder for the Sega Saturn. The gaming industry isn't doing as well as before, so I don't get a lot of offers for work nowadays.

Q: Do you have any message you'd like to say to your fans; not just otaku, but people who appreciate your work?

Abe: I'll do my best, so please cheer for me.

Ueda: Oh my god, that's so average!