Have you already seen it?
The Hobonichi Techo Day-Free has a cute flipbook comic featuring a ghost. dwarf, known for creating characters such as NHK's Domo-kun, made this flipbook and short video for us. The Hobonichi Techo team worked with them for the first time and felt their energy in enjoying everything they work on. We visited their filming studio in Tokyo to see how their cute and eye-catching characters are created.
After filming, we moved to the meeting room to hold an interview. To the front-left is Goda, and to the back-left is Matsumoto.
- Hobonichi
- When I hear of dwarf, Domo-kun first comes to mind. Can I ask you how Domo-kun was created?
- Goda
- It was just around the 10th anniversary of NHK’s satellite broadcasting. Matsumoto heard that NHK was looking for a character to celebrate its anniversary, and suggested that we try something. We asked animators and illustrators around us to create characters, and out of the 70 ideas that came out, we picked out 10 characters and brought it to the NHK. One of those 10 was that guy.
- Hobonichi
- So it was chosen among those ideas. To think of it, there aren’t any characters like Domo-kun. Is it in a shape of something?
- Goda
- No, I hadn’t thought of anything. (Laughs) I drew a few characters, but nothing felt right and I ran out of ideas. When it was around 3-4 in the morning, I came to a point where I needed to have an idea for tomorrow’s meeting. I randomly drew circles, triangles and squares, then that face came out of nowhere. I randomly drew an outline to find out that this character might have a story behind it.
- Hobonichi
- So you first came up with the face, then its outline.
- Goda
- Exactly. After that, I somehow squeezed out an idea for the proposal, so I actually can’t answer what it really is. (Laughs) Having said that, the people at NHK immediately thought it was in the shape of a TV.
- Hobonichi
- Now that you say it, Domo-kun looks like a TV-shaped ghost. I also think the name “Domo-kun” is great. Did you already have this name in mind when you were doodling ideas for a character?
- Goda
- No, NHK asked me to come up with a name. At that time, NHK had a strict and serious image, so I thought it was up to the character for them to have a more friendly image. While I was mulling over ideas, the person next to me was on the phone.
- Hobonichi
- Yes.
- Goda
- ”Oh hi, thanks for the other day, yes, see you soon”
*In Japanese, the majority of this conversation can be said using the word “domo”
- Hobonichi
- (Laughs)
- Goda
- He was able to communicate by just saying “Domo”.
- Hobonichi
- To think of it, “Domo” is such a all-mighty word.
- Goda
- I thought “this is it!”
- Hobonichi
- When exactly was Domo-kun born?
- Matsumoto
- Domo-kun debuted towards the end of the year of 1998, so just around 20 years.
- Hobonichi
- 20 years. That’s about the same as Hobonichi. It doesn’t seem to get old.
- Matsumoto
- That’s true. Before I knew it, 20 years passed by. (Laughs)
- Hobonichi
- How are your characters born, Goda?
- Goda
- There isn’t a secret recipe to ensure that all the characters end up cute. I draw on my notebooks, saying this isn’t right, that isn’t right… My mind is free while I move my hands. Through this process I try to find “the one”.
The notebook Goda uses. It has the same drawing of a whale that appears in the Day-Free video.
- Hobonichi
- So there isn’t a method.
- Goda
- It’s not something I can think about thoroughly and shape in my mind. For example, if it was a cat, I’ll draw it first, and think “let’s make the eyes smaller” “let’s make it more plump” “what if it had 3 legs?”
- Hobonichi
- That’s exactly how Domo-kun was created, wasn’t it.
- Goda
- Yes, exactly.
- Hobonichi
- What about you Matsumoto? I believe there are offers that come in asking dwarf to create a character, but what do you as a director think is important?
- Matsumoto
- It’s different depending on whether it’s a character for a company, or a character in an animation or a movie, but I think the background story is crucial.
- Hobonichi
- Their story.
- Matsumoto
- It was the same when we proposed Domo-kun. While a lot of people simply drew a sketch on a single piece of paper, Goda’s proposal comprised of a few pages. In the first three pages, he illustrated where the character lived, and what it was like, but it wasn’t until the 4th page that Domo-kun finally appeared.
- Hobonichi
- So he described all the background details to introduce the character.
- Matsumoto
- I think that is what’s different to characters that are just cute. Because it’s a character, you have to be able to answer what their personalities are like and what kind of environment they are living in.
- Hobonichi
- I see.
- Matsumoto
- Of course there are times when we purposely choose not to set their backgrounds, but I believe it’s essential to think thoroughly, up to the details when coming up with a character. But… as Goda said, there isn’t an equation to success in character making. (Laughs)
（To be continued tomorrow）
- Director, Character designer, Animator
- Tsuneo Goda
- Producer
- Noriko Matsumoto
- Text designer & Animatior
- Tomomi Komazaki
- Director of photography, Editor
- Kan Sugiki
- Music
- Masashi Iino
- Production manager
- Momo Hiramatsu