"My Neighbor Yamada-kun" is adapted from a four-frame manga by Ishii Shouichi. The Yamada family living in Yamano City has a total of five people: the head of the family, Yamada Takashi, is a clerk in the sundries section of a small company. He is a bit macho, and often quarrels with his wife over trivial matters, but is overwhelmed by his mother-in-law. Aaron's wife, Matsuko, is the same age as her husband. Everyone's diet and daily life, but they are confused and often lost; Songzi's mother is young, but she is in high spirits. A middle school student with a mediocre appearance and study, he inherited his mother's confused personality and has many joys in life; his youngest daughter, Nonoko, is still a third grader in elementary school. forgotten object.
To be honest, "My Neighbor Yamada-kun" doesn't really fit the style of Studio Ghibli. Since most of the works on the film market at that time were describing the inner world of the characters, Toshio Suzuki discussed with Isao Takahata whether to make a movie that reflects the outside of the characters. In this way, the production of "Yamada-kun" began. Although the characters of this animation look very simple and simple, the money spent is not a lot. The total budget is as high as 2 billion yen. You must know that the final ration income of the best-selling "Heisei Tanuki War" supervised by Isao Takahata is only 2.65 billion. In order to make the picture look more like a watercolor painting, the supervisor used a painting method that allows the color to overflow the character line, which is three times more than the normal painting method. The total number of paintings of "Yamada-kun" exceeds 170,000, and the production cycle is as long as three years (text note: October 1997 - June 1999, yes, the production has not ended a month before the release), which consumes a lot of time. Time and effort. It is a pity that the box office of a movie is a metaphysics, and the quality of the work is not directly related to whether the audience buys it or not. Supervision Takahata Isao's reputation for not being a big hit was fulfilled. However, the artistic value of "Yamada-kun" has been recognized by professionals, and was selected into the Museum of Modern Art in New York as their permanent exhibit.
Many Japanese critics emphasize Takahata's artistry when referring to him. Rather than taking the initiative to cater to the audience's appetite or to satisfy investors' expected returns, Supervisor Takahata seems to have his own perseverance. It doesn't matter if the animation can't be released as scheduled, it doesn't matter if you can't make money, it doesn't matter if the staff are all tired, it doesn't matter, as long as you can make good works, everything is worth it. From the audience's point of view, it can be said that it is lucky to meet such a supervisor. But for Takahata Isao's work partner, this is undoubtedly a hellish practice. After the death of Superintendent Takahata, Mr. Toshio Suzuki, the famous producer of Studio Ghibli, "complained" a lot in the interview (text note: The interview is from the Ghibli library "The Story of Kaguya Princess"), and it can even be said that In detailing Takahata Isao's "crime|. The reason why this issue of the Middle Ages Projector cites this aspect is not to criticize or deny Takahata Isao Supervisor. On the contrary, we believe that only by understanding the true working status of the supervisor can we explain why he His works are unrepeatable treasures in the Japanese animation industry.
In the eyes of producer Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata is really a problem supervisor. After Studio Ghibli was established, all works supervised by Isao Takahata, without exception, will go wrong in the production schedule. "Grave of the Fireflies" was not released on time, and there were two blanks in the screen during the first round of release. In order that "The Fairy Tale of the Years" will not repeat the same mistakes, Toshio Suzuki made a special poster for Isao Takahata, replacing "Summer Open" with "Spring Open", but to no avail, in order to be released on time, "The Fairy Tale of the Years" 》Have to delete some content. The experience of "Heisei Tanuki War" is similar to that of "Fairy Tales of Time". When it came to "My Neighbor Yamada-kun", Studio Ghibli simply joked in the promotional video that "the production is being postponed smoothly". "The Story of Kaguya Princess", which has been honed for eight years, was originally planned to be released at the same time as "The Wind Rises", but it did not catch up in the end. For the audience who love Ghibli, it is impossible to reproduce the "Grave of the Fireflies" and "Ghibli". The scene of "My Neighbor Totoro" competing on the same stage is more or less a pity. However, Superintendent Takahata Xun felt that doing such a stunt during publicity would actually divert the audience's attention from the work (text note: The postponement of "The Story of Kaguya Princess" is not because of Supervision Takahata's "hype" The struggle is simply slow.)
In addition, Supervision Takahata is also a person who is not soft on spending money. As we mentioned in the last video, "Castle in the Sky" was born to fill the funding gap of "Yagawa Horikita Story". According to Toshio Suzuki, after the success of "Nausicaa", Hayao Miyazaki, in order to express his gratitude to the producer Takahata Isao, gave the money earned from "Nausicaa" to Takahata Isao to shoot the movie as him (Note: In the book "The Wind of Ghibli", Toshio Suzuki's statement has changed again: because "Yagawa Horikita Monogatari" has no investors, the money for "Nausicaa" happened to arrive, Toshio Suzuki So he suggested Miyazaki to invest the money in Takahata Isao. These two statements are combined into one, which should be closer to the truth at the time.) Supervisor Takahata Isao was also not polite at all, and spent less than half of the money on the film. Of course, all of them were used for business, and Miyazaki, who almost killed him, also mortgaged the house. "The Story of Kaguya Princess" used a sky-high production fee of 5 billion yuan. With such large hands, it is normal to make ends meet. "My Neighbor Yamada-kun", which was released immediately after "Princess Mononoke," could have caught up with the boom and achieved another success at the box office, but it ended up selling only 1.56 billion ("Princess Mononoke" sold 19.3 billion), plus Supervisor Takahata often made some "unreasonable" requests to STAFFs, and the atmosphere of the entire Studio Ghibli became miserable. This made Miyazaki angry enough, and even said: "I will never let Takahata make movies again" and so on. However, the failure of "Yamada-kun" at the box office is indeed the result of a combination of factors, which we will explain in detail later.
Since "Princess Mononoke", the advertising agency of Studio Ghibli has been handed over to Dentsu and Hakuhodo. But Naoya Fujimaki, the head of Hakuhodo, is an unreliable person and has no enthusiasm for his work. As a result, "My Neighbor Yamada-kun" has no publicity partners. In desperation, the only option is to seek help from the post office. In terms of film distribution and arranging, "Yamada-kun" is equally difficult. For some reason, the then president of Studio Ghibli, Tokuma Yasushi, had to change the publisher to Shochiku, who had never collaborated before. Coincidentally, some problems occurred in Shochiku at that time (Chairman Okuyama Rong dismissed his son Kazuyu Okuyama, who was the manager, causing an uproar within the family), and there was a contract dispute with a local movie theater, from the west of Osaka to Kyushu. , Shochiku can't provide a place where "Yamada-kun" can be shown. Production, promotion, distribution. Every step of "Yamada-kun" is very difficult.
In an interview with Ghibli Bunko's "The Story of Kaguya Princess", Toshio Suzuki described Takahata Isao as a person who "doesn't respect the people around him" and has no gratitude to his work partners. Dare to say that in this world, Isao Takahata I am afraid that he is the only one who supervises. Indeed, in many places, Supervision Takahata is a bit inhumane, or even paranoid. In the production of "My Neighbor Yamada-kun", Takahata Xun once did an animation production method. The "reform". Japanese animation usually draws the storyboard first, draws the layout according to the storyboard, and then draws the original painting by the artist. In the STAFF table, we often see a position called "animation", who is responsible for drawing the original painting. The work of creating a line that can be colored, and adding an intermediate frame according to the original drawing. Supervisor Takahata thought that it would be better if the original drawing and the drawing line could be done by the same person, so he arranged it like this. As a result, Studio Ghibli Five More than a dozen animations have no work to do, and the staff who are responsible for both the original painting and the animation at the same time are too tired because of the workload.
On the other hand, Supervisor Takahata is very strict with the talents he values. Impossible tasks are often presented to them. When making "The Story of Kaguya Princess", Isao Takahata asked Osamu Tanabe to draw the entire scene by himself. He also often lost his temper at Osamu Tanabe, who went out early and returned late to work hard. Although it sounds like a trivial matter, just imagine that a world-renowned superintendent claims that this animation, which has invested billions of dollars, cannot go on without you. When you return to the studio, he says that you can’t do it every day. Buried in a sea of work all day, and self-doubt. It's no wonder that Kondo Yoshifumi would cry non-stop because of his work, feeling that Takahata Xun wanted his life. In fact, there has always been a discussion about whether Studio Ghibli "squeezed" employees. Even Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki said that the work-oriented Isao Takahata destroyed many animation talents who had high hopes. Working under him is not just as simple as studying, it must be done with the consciousness of being arbitrarily driven, exhausting talent to the point of exhaustion, and facing collapse at any time. In the words of Hayao Miyazaki, "The STAFF who can survive by Isao Takahata in the end is only me" (Actually, the comments of Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki are somewhat exaggerated. Some Japanese netizens have carefully studied Ghib. After the establishment of Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata supervised the list of original paintings of the works and the whereabouts of the original artists. It was found that only one person completely quit the animation industry, and most of them participated in the production of subsequent works of Studio Ghibli, even if they left. Studio Ghibli is also active as an animator.)
However, Miyazaki's requirements for young animators are actually equally strict. Interested viewers, Grandpa can search for the documentary "The Man Who Never Stops: Hayao Miyazaki". The attitude is really scary. Although it makes sense to use good medicine to be bitter or to teach a good student with a strict teacher, such a working atmosphere is indeed not conducive to the physical and mental health of social animals.
Having said that, is Superintendent Takahata Isao really squeezing employees? Let's take a look at what the employees of Studio Ghibli said. Animation is a hard work, and it is even more difficult to work with a work-oriented genius like Takahata Isao. As audiences, there are very few things we can do. In addition to using money to support the works we like, it is to respect every STAFF who works hard for the works.
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