California Crisis Betamax Notes 1986

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Story

As I(Noera) was heading to Ross for work one late hangover morning, I got caught in this one crazy car chase. As my luck would have it, the girl that got in my car apparently had stolen cargo on her, and we ended up getting targeted by all kinds of freaks. According to the girl(Marsha), the stolen cargo was meant to be a “present for the U.F.O.”, and apparently, something would happen if it was brought to Death Valley. Of course, an adult like me would never believe something like that. This isn’t “Encounter with the Unknown” or something. But more and more creeps kept coming after us. On top of that, even police cars got involved... What the heck is going on here?! At the end of the intense car action, I somehow managed to drop off the girl and her cargo and was about to head back to work, but... this time a friggin’ attack helicopter showed up! Even the American military was after us and that cargo.
Our escape began once again. Amidst the helicopter’s wave attacks, we drove through valleys of buildings, wastelands, sand dunes, and rocky mountains as we made our way to Death Valley. We can’t go on for much longer! The moment that thought raced through my mind, to my complete surprise, we actually managed to reach Death Valley. The “present for the U.F.O.” then began to violently glow...

(bottom right) The mature-for-her-age Marsha is bringing a “present for the U.F.O.” to Death Valley...

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A mysterious story is taking place between the light and shadow of California...

Miho makes an appearance in a cafe live performance scene in the anime.

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1: (top) (red) Character Introduction (pink) Matsuri Okuda’s expressive character design shines!!
2: (top left) Marsha
I’m Marsha. As for my age... I’d be considered a high school student. I’m energetic, playful, and on top of that, I’m a super realist. I’m *this* close to being done with acquaintance Noera’s incompetence!
3: (top right) Noera
I’m Noera. I’m pretty close to my 30s by now, but I’m still enjoying the single life. But when I get on my surfboard, I become “Matt Johnson”, and I’m “Tom Cody” when I’m on my Harvey. There’s no way I wouldn’t be popular with the girls like this. There’s no way, but somehow I’m still single. Are there any cute girls around?
4: (below 2) Fumya
5: (below 4) Jack
6: (left of 5) Soldier A
7: (left of 6) Police Officer
8: (right of 4) Man in the Dodge
9: (right of 8) Cain
10: (right of 9) Mister from the Second-hand Shop
11: (below 10) Detailed and realistic mechanical design

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1: (top left red) California Crisis Production Diary
2: (right of 1 blue) The Steps Taken Before the Animation Hit the Screen
3: (right of 2 black) Producer: Tochihira Yoshikazu

4: (below 1) 1985/09/30
I met with General Producer Shibazaki, who had just come back from a long stay overseas, and the topic of creating an original video with the American west coast as the setting popped up. The company at the time was all for making an original video, so we went straight ahead to building up our stuff.

10/12
We had developed the original story, and we even managed to get Nishikubo as a director, as we were sure he’d be able to vividly display the light and shadow of California on screen. We were once on the same production team together 10 years ago, but this would be the first time we’d actually both be in charge of the same project. After 10 years, we were finally able to work together. He was ready to start on “California Crisis”.

11/02
The first draft of the synopsis was completed, and General Producer Shibazaki and I had a meeting over it. We decided that Torao Arai would be the art director.

11/28
The first draft of the scenario is completed.

12/04
We had a meeting over finalizing the scenario, and the director soon went to work on the storyboard.

12/11
In the art direction meeting, we decided on Matsuri Okuda to be in charge of character design and animation.

Year 61 1986/01/09
After getting over the new year high, we moved straight to collecting reference material. We were able to get a good chunk of reference material from the American Culture Center, the library, General Producer Shibazaki’s acquaintances from America, and so on.

01/16
The long-awaited storyboard was finally completed. While it was a story that took place in modern times, it had many scenes that brought to mind the 60s, including scenes involving car action and military helicopter chases and such. It was just as we expected.

01/20
The characters are almost done, but we had surprisingly fewer props that brought out the air of California than expected, so there were many days that involved us rushing to gather more reference material.

01/22
We had a meeting over the animation. For the producer, this would be considered the first hurdle to conquer. I believe it was a tense and scary moment for the animation staff as all the storyboards and character designs and such were laid out to be examined.
(The linework for the characters was very detailed, with many thin lines...!)

02/08
While later than expected, we held a party for our project. Everyone on the staff felt that the project went through more changes than we expected, and no one spoke of the project as we just ate and drank our fill. Tomorrow we would have to go straight back to work.

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1:
(top left)
Yoshito Yasuhara (Noera)

Born in 1949/11/17, affiliated with Theater Echo. His roles include Nyanpachi from Hisashi Inoue’s “11 Piki no Neko”, Majisu from “Minikui Ahiru no Ko”, as well as playing in works such as “Suizokukan”, “Udezuku”, “Natsuman Hyakkiyakou.” In terms of television roles, he was the detective in “Taiyou ni Hoero”, and played in “Shabondama Holiday”, “Necchuu Jidai”, “Kid”, and so on. Anime roles include “The Rose of Versailles” (Louis XVI), “Muteking, The Dashing Warrior”, “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils”, “The Flying House”, “Cat’s Eye”, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, “Perman”, “Tantei Haado & Makku”, and more. In “California Crisis”, he played the role of the main character Noera who had a mysterious experience after getting caught up in a car chase.

2: (top right red) The singer for the theme song and insert songs for this west coast mood action anime, Miho. The songs are full of her “Pop Funk”!!
(black) Born on 1962/06/24. Her full name is Miho Fujiwara. Her hobby is billiards. She’s participated in calligraph 7-dan and competitive mountain climbing in inter-high. She was originally a graphic designer involved in magazine editing. She was fortunate to have had a solid music background while growing up, and after performing in live houses in Roppongi, she attracted many fans with her cute, pop 3-octave vocal range. Her support members include Chocolate Lips Family, who had experience in the west coast of America and backed up Miho’s unique characteristics. (Theme Song/Mini Album Miho “California Crisis” 1500 Yen Record RHL-4508 Cassette RHT-4508 (Sold by: RVC))

3: (bottom left)
Miina Tominaga (Marsha)

Born in 1966/04/03, her full name is Yoshiko Tominaga. Her hobbies include jazz dancing and watching theatre. Joined “Kodomori” when she was 6. She’s been in movies(starring in Moscow Film Festival Work “Koi no iru Mura”), television, regular radio performances, recordings, foreign film dubbing (about 30 lines of Tatum O’Neal from “Paper Moon”), disks (“Sound of Music” and more), anime (“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” Movie and more, television version of “Touch” and more, video “Megazone 23” and more), concerts, commercial songs, photo collections, and so on. She’s involved in many different artistic outlets. She’s the perfect fit for the bright snappy heroine of “California Crisis”, Marsha.

4: (bottom right)
General Producer - Kansei Shibazaki
Assistant General Producer - Mamoru Suzuki
Producer - Yoshikazu Tochihira
Scenario and Storyboard Director - Mizuho Nishikubo
Animation and Character Design - Matsuri Okuda
Original Picture - Iguchi Chuuichi / Hiroshi Kagawa / Akio Kawamura / Takashi Kimura / Masayuki Gotou / Katsumi Shimazaki / Yuuji Hamano / Matsuri Okuda
Animation - Studio Unicorn
Animation Check - Takehiko Abe
Art Director - Torao Arai
Background - Production Ai
Color - Kumiko Satou
Finishing Touches - Studio Unicorn
Photography - Studio Cosmos
Development - IMAGICA
Sound Director - Matsuura Noriyoshi
Sound Production - Gen
Music - Masaki Kurihara / J&K
Theme Song - Miho
Production Direction - Shigeru Murata, Shouji Abe

Planning and Production - Hiro Media / Studio Unicorn

5: (cat) Animation Director and Character Designer, Matsuri Okuda-san

6: (box below 5)
(green) Voices
(black)
Noera - Yoshito Yasuhara
Marsha - Miina Tominaga

7: (below 6)
Color, 45 minutes

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(red) Personal American Dream
(pink) What was the American dream in his eyes? Here he will be giving a bit of thought to it.

“Easy Rider”, that’s when America’s strong impression on him began. Peter Fonda has become pretty much the “Scooter Oji-san” now, but the sight of this sunglass-wearing long-legged man riding around in a chopper and numerous trips involving and the pursuit of marijuana and LSD was incredible to this high school boy in rural Japan. And of course, he went out on a day-trip wearing his Ray-Ban sunglasses and riding his 125cc bike with his short legs, but...

Jimi Hendrix’s “Woodstock” guitar, Janice’s laugh, C.S.N.&Y.’s harmony. He was constantly sending his handshakes across the screen to these talented musicians. The big dream of “love and peace” when it came to rock.  Several years later, he hosted an outdoor rock concert with his friends(there were songs from Purple, Santana, BB King, and even Julie!), to which they found themselves dealing with the neighbors yelling “Shut up!” to them... Full respect to the adults that understood them.

Around the time “Strawberry Statement” came out, the high school he was attending was in the midst of various conflicts regarding school rules. However, with the members that were the crux of the problem being expelled, the conflicts changed to one of a struggle over entrance exams. And that’s where “Strawberry Statement” came in. The military barged into the school auditorium and beat up, kicked, and threw out the students... As he left the movie theater, he found himself filled with excitement, as well as resentment towards himself. However, since he was now a college student, he knew those exciting disputes no longer existed. Blood was scattered about the school, and the table threw down from the roof landed on the student’s head.

The films “Last Show” and “American Graffiti” were two opposite views of American youth. “Last Show” with its dreary monotone scenery and Hank William’s depressing music. “American Graffiti” with its bright neon visuals, colorful cars racing about, and a big exciting rock ‘n roll upbeat personality. There was both dark and light, but they were both American youths that had existed at some point without a doubt. It went without saying that he had not personally experienced those time periods. But for some reason, he felt a happy(or perhaps lonely) nostalgia from it. They were both films he wanted to see again, sitting in the corners of the worn-down theaters of Iidabashi.

When he saw “Big Wednesday,'' he did not think that he wanted to become a surfer. The only impressions left on him from what should have been a bright-colored surfing movie were for some reason the scenes of the gloomy skies and waves. The once legendary surfer who fell low and taught surfing to the main characters was wonderful. The scene of the main characters chatting it up in front of the grave of their friend who died in the Vietnam war was sad. And the last scene that had them heading for the big wave overlapped the concerns in his heart that were asking him when he would finally become an adult. The names of the main characters that wanted to make a big finish in their time of youth were Matt, Leroy... and Jack.

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