Patrick and Evan were lucky enough to sit down with the creator of MacrossShoji Kawamori and celebrities Macross mechanical designer and illustrator Hidetaka Tenjin, to discuss the past, present and future of Macross around the world. This interview was conducted at Otakon 2023 in Washington, DC and on the heels of major announcements from Mr. Kawamori, Big West and their partners regarding the future of Macross and the possibility of the franchise finally being licensed and released in the United States. This also followed the announcement that Mr. Kawamori would be working directly with the famous animation studio Sunrise on a new series in the Macross franchise.
Additionally, we took the opportunity to discuss advances in AI with Mr. Kawamori, as it plays an important role in one of his most famous works. Macross Plus. As a reminder, since This interview was conducted almost three years ago, in 2023and discusses technologies such as AI that have seen significant development and discussion since then, it is quite possible that the opinions of both interviewees have evolved since this interview was conducted.
Ani-Gamers: To start, after seeing them at the Big West Macross panel, it seems like you are very happy to be here properly representing Macross again. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you feel about finally being here for Macross and the fact that everyone will be able to watch all of these shows properly in the West after all this time.
Shoji Kawamori: The time has finally come. We have wanted this to happen for 30 years. And I feel like we’re very happy to be able to get to this point in time. It’s like watching the Cold War take hold, because there’s no time to fight each other when there’s things like COVID and stuff out there. So it really feels good to see the progress.
Hidetaka Tenjin: I don’t really have the same kind of 30-year-old context that Mr. Kawamori has, but what I can say is that seeing the change between the relationships between Harmony Gold and being able to properly represent Macross for Americans is definitely a big thing for me. Because I have a lot of American friends and associates, I’ve met them through conventions like Otakon, and they keep telling me how Macross It means a lot to them.
And for us, seeing people talk about Macross In this way, we can finally give them what they have wanted for a long time. So I feel very happy that we can finally work with the friends that we have developed here and work with Big West to finally see progress on the Macross situation. So I would say that this is the beginning of something completely different, something new. So I’m very happy to be able to witness that.
Ani-Gamers: The following is a two-part question for Kawamori-san. You and Haruhiko Mikimoto worked on a famous gundam doujinshi called look one.
Kawamori: *Laughs* Wow. That’s amazing.
Ani-Gamers: Can you talk a little about how your early activities as a fan shaped your career? And what does it feel like to have started as a fan and now work directly with Sunrise, the studio behind it? gundam do Macross?
Kawamori: So with Mikimoto-san, I was friends with him since high school, and we were drawing buddies, and we had attended a lot of fan events together.
So, regarding Sunrise, I’ve been a fan since I liked it. Reideen and Fighter V. And also, the first time I had the opportunity to work with Sunrise was in Fighting General Daimoswhere I designed the guest mecha for daimos once. So I think there’s a gradation going on here between fan work and actual industry work. The lines are a little blurred.
And even with regard to gundamI had a senpai working on gundam as a part-time worker. So I had the opportunity to observe the scene of gundam before it aired, and I was thinking, “this is going to be a very interesting era…” And then I thought, “okay, I’m going to do this.”
As I mentioned, gundam It was going to be very interesting. I actually asked Studio Nue if I could do some fanwork and they said, “Okay, but don’t use your given name because you’re semi-professional now, so use your pseudonym.” But that made me think: if this is what television animation could do nowWhat could we do in the future?
And that’s what got me thinking about fan works and the things I do. So there was a relationship between industry events at the time and my work as a fan.
That’s a part of my life that I really appreciate because the fan works I did were about gundam. And I thought mainly about Minovsky physics, saying “how does this setup work? How does White Base, this box-like thing, float?”
Mr. Tomino actually saw that and liked it. So that’s when the things I did as a fan transitioned into the professional realm. So, that’s a part of my life that I really appreciate.
So being here at Otakon, I really remember my time when I was a fan. We had something called Sci-Fi Marathon (EDITOR’S NOTE, a rough translation), and that was back in the days when the anime marathon didn’t really happen. It’s something where many fans came together to make something science fiction related, or later anime related. And Otakon is something that reminds me of those times when I was doing things as a fan, mixing with the fans. So I feel a lot younger now that I’m in this kind of environment.
So, regarding the second part of that question, going back to I was a fan of Reideen and Fighter VI had the opportunity to eventually work with Sunrise, who was the creator of those shows. I have had the opportunity to work with them through programs such as Cyber formula, Escaflowneand Gundam 0083. However, now that I have the opportunity to do Macross With Sunrise, thinking about how the flavor of Sunrise could affect my future works is something very interesting that makes me think.
Ani-Gamers: Mr. Kawamori, you have explored AI as a theme in your projects, particularly in Macross Plus. What do you think about the current state of AI in the real world, particularly artistic AI technology?
Kawamori: To put it bluntly, I would say that in the days when we were working on the first Macross, Do you remember love?or even Macross PlusWe thought about the future almost naturally, as if we were breathing. But the last two or three years have been a time of extreme and rapid change. And I really don’t know what will happen in the world tomorrow. So, we are in a very interesting moment.
How will it revolutionize anime? How it will revolutionize the things I do is one thing I think about. But apart from that, I also think about how to change education. Because education has been uprooted from what we currently know.
We are at a time when we must ask ourselves: what can people do and what can’t AIs do? If you look inside, I guess you could say that AIs don’t have emotions, or they can’t do this or that. But I think we’re at a point where we’re forced to ask ourselves those difficult questions.
And in a way it is questioning human motivations and identities. That’s why I think the idea of human capabilities and how we will build future societies around that knowledge is a very interesting topic. I also think that the Osaka World Expo that is being held would also be a look at topics like that. So I’m looking forward to that too.
Ani-Gamers: Thank you very much.