Ryosuke Takahashi On Directing Anime And How His Works Have Defined Mecha For Over Three Decades

There are a few major figures in anime when it comes to direction and series composition, so it was fascinating to catch up with the likes of Ryosuke Takahashi and discuss his very large body of work. Not to mention, how his work has inadvertently shaped the world of anime and video games for over three decades.

Takahashi has already had a very long and fruitful career but for many, he is most well known for coming up with and directing a slew of excellent mecha anime.

This is because unlike other mecha anime, Takahashi has always wisely used the hardware as a backdrop to his stories. He’s treated them like everyday vehicles, unique to their world but somehow entirely ordinary within their own context.

The result was that you had a far greater emphasis on character-driven drama as well as a greater degree of nuance in terms of the writing.

Much of this is down to how he laid out specific rules that governed the usage of these mecha and how the characters operated them. However, I will get into that later.

Takahashi’s career is an interesting one though, as he didn’t intend to work in animation at all, as he explains, “I grew up in Adachi ward of Tokyo, while the rivers in Tokyo were still clean. I learned how to swim and row a boat at the Arakawa-housuiro (Arakawa river floodway). It was that kind of age.

“I was originally interested in manga, more specifically the monthly release of manga books. In among that was Astro Boy, which is something I followed. When I was small, I wasn't really interested in animation because it was only really shown in theaters, so it wasn't something I had a lot of access to as movie releases were every few years. When I got a bit older, around the time of middle school or high school, I was still interested in Astro Boy. After graduation I went to work at a trading company, so I started working in something very different from animation. Around that time my friends and I used to discuss the then new Astro Boy animation, as it was then available on television every week. That's when I got interested in animation and I decided to totally change my career to go and do that.
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‘The first animation company I worked for was Mushi Production, with Osamu Tezuka. When I entered the company it was as an animator but I didn't do any drawing at all, instead I checked the progress and helped to manage the production. So to ensure the schedule proceeded as planned. I did that for about one year on Astro Boy. In the second year I then worked on The Amazing 3. Back then there weren't really any directors for TV series in terms of animation, obviously Tezuka was the overall director but the management of the animation was undertaken by other people. On these projects there were around four people doing a director-like job and one of them was me. I suppose maybe like an assistant director.

“Mushi Production also went bankrupt once and was rebooted. I wasn't related to the reboot, only the initial company and I worked there for like five years.”

The Birth Of The True Real Robot

Following Mushi Production, Takahashi ended up working at the then fledgling Sunrise. If you remember, I also recently interviewed the mecha designer Kunio Okawara, who was also a frequent collaborator with Takahashi. As Okawara already explained, the designs and anime they worked on together were primarily done to sell toys. However, this also afforded Takahashi a surprising amount of creative freedom when it came to the narrative, as he went on to clarify, “Fang of the Sun Dougram started around 1981 but I first met with Kunio Okawara I think in 1980. In the case of the Dougram mecha design, it was already completed before I started. So I had no discussion with Okawara in terms of its design. However, for the mecha to be used in the remainder of the series I then had many meetings with Okawara.

“When I worked on Dougram, in terms of the business, Sunrise was still developing and the company management was not yet on track. So in order to continue making animation they had to go and find a sponsor to pay for all the production and development. In this case, the sponsor was a toy company and that then meant we had to have something within the animation to help sell toys, so the sponsor could make money. That's why the design of mecha like the Dougram were often done before a series started. What Sunrise said to me on Dougram was that as long as the toys sold well and made money then I could do anything with the story. So if they sold well, I could do whatever I wanted.

“The Dougram also didn't have a face, it only had a cockpit. I think it's also probably the first mecha not to have a face. While I haven't discussed this with Okawara, I assume that he did that because before Dougram he was working on Mobile Suit Gundam. This was the first story in anime that showed how the mecha were manufactured and on what basis they were made, specifically that they were built for war and made in a factory. In addition, the war was between two clear factions. So it was generally set around a realistic basis. Before that it was all super robots like Mazinger Z, where this one genius professor makes this invincible mecha and out of nowhere bad guys turn up that want to conquer the world. So that was the basic story premise for shows like that back then and there were obviously a lot of shows in that vein other than Mazinger Z. Gundam changed all that and showed how mecha should be manufactured and how they would be used in an actual war. However, while the premise was more realistic the design of the Gundam itself wasn't really updated to match that approach. It still had a semblance of a face after all. So I assume that after doing Gundam, Okawara didn't want to design something with a face. As long as it was a humanoid fighting mecha it didn't really need a human styled face. In that sense, I think Okawara wanted to take the next step and make the mecha itself more realistic according to the story.

“Looking at the Dougram design, the cockpit looks like one from an attack helicopter. So when I first saw that design I wanted to use sound of helicopter rotors in the animation. That's where the idea to have the Dougram transported by a helicopter-like dropship came from. So those hovering helicopter sounds were important, as before Vietnam the sound of the battlefield was mostly of other aircraft. Whereas after the Vietnam conflict, you had the sounds of jet engines and helicopters. So I really wanted to have those sounds in and the image of the Vietnam war in Dougram. In 1975, the conflict in Vietnam ended and as I was growing up when I thought of war, it was Vietnam that came to mind. In addition, Hollywood movies started to reference Vietnam more around that time and the most impressive of those for me would be Apocalypse Now.
The Dougram from the series of the same name. The cockpit was inspired by an attack helicopter and this anime went on to influence both BattleTech as well as MechWarrior and Western mecha games in general. (Photo credit: Sunrise)

The Dougram from the series of the same name. The cockpit was inspired by an attack helicopter and this anime went on to influence both BattleTech and MechWarrior as well as Western mecha games in general. (©SUNRISE)

“As to how the story of Dougram was made, during the 60s and 70s the security treaty between the U.S. and Japan was a very hot topic, especially with students. So there were lots of demonstrations and even riots. However, the older generation in Japanese society had no real issue with the treaty and were continuing their lives as normal. While students on the other hand would go to demonstrations and throw rocks. For me, I wasn't involved with either group. I was a moderate, holding the middle ground. This was because my family was just my mother and I. My mother also worked at a labor union and as I child I grew up with that. In addition, inside the labor union I understood that there were many layers of management. It wasn't a simple boss in charge and everyone else working, there was complexity. Though my mother was at the lower end. From that point of view, I didn't agree with the communist approach. So I was more moderate. That's why I wanted to show that kind of story in Dougram, where Crin's father is part of the establishment and the guerrillas oppose that with Crin in the middle, as he doesn't really know how the world works yet. As I was given a lot of freedom on the story, I put a lot of thought into it as well as my experiences.

“Obviously, with this kind of freedom with the story I really had to also think about how to sell the toys properly. One of the ideas I had for that was for people to make dioramas with mecha from Dougram. I thought that the plastic model kits would sell well if people would make dioramas and that dioramas would then be popular. In my mind, I thought these dioramas would try and show things like weathering and even the mecha with damage, almost broken. That's why you see the Dougram sitting, broken and weathered at the beginning. It was to help sell toys and model kits by having people recreate that kind of thing in a diorama.”

This is where we get onto the first of many games that Takahashi’s works have inspired, which in the case of Dougram would be BattleTech and MechWarrior.

Many of the designs and much of the narrative setting for BattleTech and MechWarrior were directly copied from Dougram. With the titular Dougram becoming the Shadow Hawk battlemech, among many others.

I was curious how he felt about this but like Okawara, he too was quite open minded about the whole thing.

“As for BattleTech and MechWarrior, I wasn't really aware of the fact that they used the mecha designs and story setting from Dougram. Personally, I don't tend to think about my own copyrights all that much. As long as people are happy with something I've made then that's OK with me. Of course, if Sunrise finds legal problems with copyrights and asks for me to do something about it, then I will consider that. As an individual though, I don't follow those things. In addition, I am not interested in gaming and don't work in that either. Naturally, as a creator I am happy that people in gaming reference my work a lot. I really like that.”

The Lonely Soldier Boy

After Dougram, Takahashi worked on a very gritty and realistic anime that dealt with the brutal effects of a century-long war upon a galactic civilization. While somewhat futuristic, the technology used felt tantalizingly close, which in turn made the resultant narrative all the more believable and harrowing.

The series was Armored Trooper VOTOMS and it has gone on to be one of Takahashi’s most popular and enduring works.

“When I started on the second mecha series, VOTOMS, I started to think about what needed to be fixed after Dougram. The problem with Dougram was the mecha's size. The Dougram was around 10 meters tall, which in animation can be depicted as being both small and large. So that wasn't great in terms of the mecha's sense of scale. The other major problem was the mecha's speed at this size. Compared with Gundam, which features fights mostly set in space and looks fast, Dougram was entirely ground based. So battles were just running around on the ground and that lacked speed. I really wanted to do something about both the size of the mecha and its speed for the second series I did. From that point I thought about what would be a realistic size, so maybe 2 to around 5 meters. If it was 2 meters, maybe some small Japanese person could pilot it but it's closer to a powered suit than a full on mecha. Also powered suits and powered armor were getting popular around that time too. Though, for me at that size, that wasn't a mecha it was a powered suit, so 2 meters was too small. However, if it was 5 meters when drawn in the anime it won't be that different between the 10 meter tall Dougram. People wouldn't really notice the difference in terms of the animation. So I thought 4 meters was just right. At the same time, Okawara was thinking along the same lines and he too thought 4 meters was the smallest size where a mecha could still have a pilot and be a mecha. So we both agreed at that time that 4 meters was the right size for a realistic mecha.

“The roller dash was to make the mecha faster but what I was really concerned about was that adding wheels under the feet would make the mecha look like a childish toy. In my childhood, the tin toys I had always had wheels underneath. So maybe adding wheels would make it feel like one of those toys. To solve that I decided to have a good sound effect, so something realistic and almost violent sounding might fix the problem.

“One other thing, it's assumed that the roller dash was used to reduce the number of frames of animation as it would mean the mecha wouldn't need to walk as much. That's what people say. However, that's not the real reason for the roller dash. This is because Dougram was a successful series, so VOTOMS had enough funds to have the artists draw those frames of animation to have the mecha walk step by step if we wanted to. So the roller dash wasn't a cost saving idea but to make the mecha move a lot faster.

“In terms of the story for VOTOMS, I had two main choices; one based around someone fighting within a hierarchy like in Mobile Suit Gundam, with the main character part of that system, and the other focused on a totally free man, so not part of any group or faction. I couldn't really decide on which story to do and so I asked Yoshiyuki Tomino for his advice, on which story should I pick. Tomino thought it should be the free man, so from that I took the story in that direction. Following that I thought how would this free man need to pilot a mecha, so being free and still able to pilot a mecha. I took a hint from the Steve McQueen film, Junior Bonner, as he travels around different towns with his horse as his rodeo partner and makes money by winning the rodeo. That lead into Chirico Cuvie, where his partner is not a horse but a mecha and he fights from town to town in battling arenas to make money. This allowed Chirico to pilot a mecha without the need to being part of any kind of military faction or organization.
The Scopedog from VOTOMS. This mecha and the series' setting played a big part in the development of the Heavy Gear series. (Photo credit: Sunrise)

The Scopedog from VOTOMS. This mecha and the series' setting played a big part in the development of the Heavy Gear games. (©SUNRISE)

“The mecha battling idea I also got from pro wrestling but I wanted to make it more serious, as it was obviously more deadly. One additional thing is that in my childhood and younger years, there were Jeeps everywhere left over from the Second World War. These Jeeps were originally made for military use but after the war ended, they were used everywhere and for non-military purposes. In that sense, I wanted to have the mecha in VOTOMS show up in a situation where the war was over and the mecha is no longer used in the way it was originally intended. Though, I didn't want the mecha being used in construction or anything like that, so this rodeo type tournament in the form of mecha battling was a good fit.

“After Dougram, the manager from the sponsor Takara came up to me and had one request; while Dougram was popular, the visual side was somewhat weak. So for VOTOMS Takara wanted to have the anime have more of a visual impact. From that I came up with the city of Woodo, so something along the lines of a futuristic city like in Blade Runner but with fallen spaceships sticking out of the ground. So in Woodo I took care of that visual aspect but for the character of Chirico I wanted him to be a soldier boy who only knew war ever since he was born. However, the war suddenly ended and Chirico was thrown into this Blade Runner-like town. Someone that doesn't know anything other than fighting and the story then would be about rehabilitating this person into a human being.

“With the request from the sponsor for VOTOMS to have more of a visual impact, Chirico first goes to the city of Woodo and then the jungles of Kummen. So my idea was for every 12 episodes or so, there would be a totally new kind of visual impact in terms of the setting. Along with this was the story to rehabilitate Chirico but Wiseman was always monitoring him, as it knew what super abilities Chirico had and that it wanted him to be the next supreme ruler of the galaxy. To that end, Wiseman gave Chirico Fyana to allow him to rehabilitate into his successor. However, that was Wiseman's plan but Chirico didn't rehabilitate in that way, as he started to seek his own way of life and find his own independence. So in the middle of the story, I placed the theme about fighting against a dominant force and living your own life."

One of the many interesting spin-off series was Armor Hunter Mellowlink, where the titular Mellowlink vowed to avenge his fallen comrades against the superior officers that betrayed him. The catch was that Mellowlink had no mecha to speak of and had to hunt down his targets on foot.

“For Mellowlink, Takeyuki Kanda was the director. He'd worked on Round Vernian Vifam. The producer gave Kanda the series and I thought he was good with stories that dealt with younger characters. So I made the main character of Ality Mellowlink to be younger than Chirico and the word "Mellow" meant he was also a softer and more emotional type of character too. I also really wanted the story to be based around people's beliefs. In that, Mellowlink believed in his team mates and that he'd avenge their betrayal. So the story was all about revenge really. In things like jidaigeki, there are lots of those kinds of revenge stories so I wanted to do that in a mecha anime.

“The idea for the armored trooper hunters came from a really good VOTOMS book called VOTOMS Odyssey. In the book, there was this one illustration of a panzer hunter. It was only an illustration and no story attached to it but I really liked that idea and design, which gave me the desire to do a story like that. Following that, in this story this character used to be a mecha pilot but had had his mecha taken away from him, leaving him to exact his revenge without his mecha. That then became about how could one person do that with just their strong belief and will. So that's how I went about setting up the story to show how that might be possible.

“The pile bunker weapon that Mellowlink uses was also great at showing his passion of revenge in a really physical and tangible sense, it was also visually quite good as well.

“Originally, I wrote novels of this story, so all the ideas of Mellowlink comes from that. However, the plan was to write two novels but I only published the first one and the second one was never released. I ran away from the pain of writing a novel. I am ashamed about that.

“Regarding Akio Otsuka's performance of Lt. Keak in Mellowlink, I heard that it was his first major role. As I had that relation, I also wanted him to participate in my latest work of Young Blackjack, which he did the narration for. I also had Akio's father, Chikao Otsuka, voice Yoran Pailsen in the Pailsen Files.

“Talking of Pailsen Files, the opening beach based assault is not based on Saving Private Ryan at all. With my generation, it's much more inspired by the movie, The Longest Day. As for the shift into 3D CG in the newer VOTOMS series in terms of the mecha, for one I think mecha look very good in 3D CG but in Japan due to the low cost of animation, even the complex mecha animation with large volumes were still hand drawn. So in the past, with those backgrounds, mecha were fighting one-on-one due to both the story and the cost. Whereas, with 3D CG you can practically build an army of mecha and have them all fight.”

Swords, Magic And Mecha

Considering how brutal and dark VOTOMS was as a series and universe, the next anime in the form of Panzer World Galient took a very different route.

Set on the seemingly medieval planet of Arst, the despotic Marder has somehow found mysterious new mecha that have allowed him to conquer half the world. Thrust into this is the infant Jordy, a prince whose kingdom was destroyed by Marder but whose legacy could have far-reaching consequences.

Galient kept the focus on realism and stringent rule sets for the mecha but placed them in a more fantastical setting, where swords and a hint of magic were present.

“For the third mecha series, Panzer World Galient, I wanted to have the world setting be based around having mecha salvaged from a previous age. So mecha dug up from the ground basically. Around that time, swords and sorcery type fantasy was getting popular as well. From the merchandising and business point of view I wanted to have this fantasy type of aspect present in the story. So the designs were based around swords and magic. As for the story, as I briefly said before my family was just my mother and I. This is because my father died fighting in Second World War, in New Guinea, and he left for the war a month before I was born. So I've never known my father. In that regard, all the stories I make tend to have a father like figure as an integral part of the narrative. Mostly to oppose the main character. In Dougram, the father figure was Crin's actual father but with VOTOMS this father like figure was in fact Wiseman. However, in the case of Galient this opposing figure was Marder. Where Marder had this idea about how the human race should be and he wanted Jordy to act in that way but Jordy obviously opposes that. So it's always this opposition between father and son.

“Following that, in fantasy you often have the protagonist use a legendary sword pulled out from the rock or something like that. So I replaced that legendary sword with the mecha, Galient.”
The Galient and its new sword and sorcery approach. While the Galient was designed by Kunio Okawara, the rest of the mecha in the series were penned by Yutaka Izubuchi. (©SUNRISE)

The Galient and its new sword and sorcery approach. While the Galient was designed by Kunio Okawara, the rest of the mecha in the series were penned by Yutaka Izubuchi. (©SUNRISE)

One particular point I wanted clarification on was who did the mecha design for Galient, as it’s not really been clear but thankfully Takahashi was more than happy to clear this up.

“The Galient was indeed designed by Kunio Okawara but the other mecha were done by Yutaka Izubuchi. It's because back then Okawara was immensely popular and all the mecha related intellectual properties must have his designs. This meant everyone was pulling Okawara in all sorts of directions. This meant while Okawara could do everything, he was in great demand from other people. However, I knew Izubuchi before Okawara designed the Galient. I also knew Izubuchi was really good at designing Western style armor, so I wanted him to design the rest of the mecha in that Western fantasy armor type way. I also liked that Izubuchi's designs had a hint of eroticism to them, so I really wanted him to do the designs. Izubuchi was also around Sunrise at the time and we'd go drinking together. One thing I didn't realize was that while Okawara was fast in doing his design work, Izubuchi was super slow and never had the designs delivered to the studio on time. That's one mistake I made.”

While the original series for Galient was quite realistic, the OVA spin off Crest of Iron was more magical in tone and this it seems was down to some of the other staff that worked on its production.

“To clarify on the Galient OVA, Crest of Iron, while Masashi Ikeda is listed as unit director in fact around 80% of that anime is down to him. Ikeda also recently worked on the latest VOTOMS OVA, Alone Again. Although I wrote the novel version for that, but in terms of the direction it was Ikeda. He also worked on Samurai Troopers back in the day, as well as series like Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. I work very closely with Ikeda and I know he can make characters and mecha pose in really cool ways. Specifically, like mie in kabuki, where in an important scene the actor shows this dynamic kind of pose. Ikeda was really good at that, so for Crest of Iron I thought Ikeda would be the best to do this kind of story. So this visual aspect was how it became more magical in tone compared to the original TV series.”

The Beautiful Blue Comet

For me, one of the most interesting and influential series in terms of gaming has to be Blue Comet SPT Layzner. Set in the then future of 1996, the Cold War is also still raging and both the USA and Soviet Union have military bases on Mars.

In a move to foster peace, children are sent to Mars to further their understanding of the situation and perhaps find a solution to the Cold War.

Unfortunately, in amongst this are the Gradosians. An alien race of what look to be humans who have plans to use the Cold War to their advantage. However, not all agree with this plan and Eiji, a half human and half Gradosian soldier, plans to use a mecha known as an SPT called the Layzner to try and avoid genocide.

Layzner is a fascinating series on many counts, from the amazing narrative pacing and characters to the fastidious approach to how the mecha and world worked. It also had some of the best animation of the period, most of which is still highly regarded even today.

“Moving onto Blue Comet SPT Layzner, I wanted to do something new that I hadn't done before, which was to make the mecha fly. I also thought about how the mecha should fly, so when it was flying around it was like a beautiful blue comet but once it's out of control it's just a bunch of metal. So there would be the big difference between in control and out of control. In terms of the story, all the mecha I'd done previously were just vehicles. In that, they were totally under the control of the person piloting them. However, in regards to Layzner I wanted the mecha to have this will of its own. So something sentient with its own spirit. That said, from the beginning I didn't want it to be this talking mecha that was a buddy to the main character. In that sense at the start the Layzner is just a vehicle that is piloted by Eiji but as the story goes proceeds Eiji discovers that the mecha has its own internal will. This is manifested in Fouron, who is the will of Eiji's father and that again is where the father figure appears in this series.

“Back then there was the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union. If I could go back, I would have tried to show how that might be solved in Layzner. How to solve the conflict between those two nations. It's just an anime but within that I would have liked to show the children watching the show how this conflict could be resolved.

“The name for Eiji also came from Eiji Yamaura, who was Sunrise's planning division manager back then. We were really close and he came up to me one day and said that your series are not selling well enough and that I should do something about it. Yamaura gave me some advice that there are only really two versions to a situation where a child can really feel and understand the sense of crisis; one where the Earth is in danger and the other is when the family is under threat. Between those two, I picked the Earth being the target of danger and that's why this is Eiji's first line in the series, that the Earth is under threat. Since all these ideas were given to me by Yamaura, I thought what the heck I will call the main character Eiji.
The Layzner and its pilot Eiji, who was named after Eiji Yamaura from Sunrise. This series and its mecha has also influenced a lot of mecha games over the years. Such as Omega Boost, Zone of the Enders, Bangai-O and Armored Core For Answer, to name but a few. (Photo credit: Sunrise)

The Layzner and its pilot Eiji, who was named after Eiji Yamaura from Sunrise. This series and its mecha has also influenced a lot of mecha games over the years. Such as Omega Boost, Zone of the Enders, Bangai-O and Armored Core For Answer, to name but a few. (©SUNRISE)

“In terms of the meaning behind Rei and Fouron's names, they don't mean zero and one. I chose Fouron purely based on the sound of the name. I had a list of names and I think at first I started out with the word "Philosophy" and I played with the letters and spellings to come up with Fouron. It just sounded nice to me.”

Unfortunately, Layzner came to an early end and had its TV run cancelled. This was originally thought to be down to one of the sponsors, Sanyo, dropping out but Takahashi wasn’t so sure about that, “Regarding the early cancellation of Layzner, I don't know the details behind what Sanyo, one of the show's sponsors, did. Though it is true they pulled out their sponsorship of the series. The reasons why Layzner likely stopped early are only probably two; either the ratings of the show were low or the toys and kits didn't sell well. I am guessing it was probably both in this case.

“As for the mecha action, Anime R was the studio which had the best quality animation in Japan at the time. This is why Layzner likely had such good quality animation, as many top animators worked at Anime R. Moriyasu Taniguchi made Anime R and we're the same age. Back then, I thought I was getting old and out of date, maybe I should resign. However, Taniguchi who is the same age as I, said that he himself felt that he hadn't done anything yet. So believing in his strong desire, I had Taniguchi do Layzner's character designs and a lot of the animation direction. So that was why he was really into the series and likely why the animation is quite special and at such a high quality. In addition, Anime R was a studio located in Osaka but most of the animation studios were concentrated in Tokyo. So for Layzner I called Taniguchi to Tokyo to work on the series.”

Layzner also retained this concept about an ancient and technological powerful civilization and this theme is something that Takahashi has intended across his various works, as he explains, “To be honest, I am not very knowledgeable about science fiction and military type things. So from this lack of knowledge I have more of a vague idea, where civilization has been prospering and dying out only to be reborn again in a new cycle. So this renewal continues. Probably some kind of technology that exists now may have existed far in the past, perhaps in a different style but similar. From this idea I built my stories.”

GaoGaiGar, Gasaraki And The Future

After the 80s, Takahashi worked on a lot of other anime and I was curious as to how he had ended up on the production for a super robot show like King of the Braves GaoGaiGar.

“On GaoGaiGar I was the producer, not a director, and it was the final part to the Brave series (Yusha series). Following that, the boss of the studio that owns the Brave series (Yusha series) was the general manager Shinichiro Kobayashi. Separately, I also often do matchmaker for marriages and I did that for Kobayashi and his wife. In that sense I knew him very well and he came up to me saying that GaoGaiGar would be the final part of this series and could I handle the production. While this meant as the final part of the Brave series (Yusha series), it was also a process of having the same staff work on another series, which turned out to be Gasaraki. In that sense they wanted to me to have the staff get ready for the next series. That's why even though it was a Brave series (Yusha series), that it had an essence of realism about it so that they'd be ready for something like Gasaraki.

“With Gasaraki, the idea of having the ancient past involved in the present day is again something I used. However, the idea to use Noh in the series was new. When it comes to actors in Noh theater, while their actions aren't very fast or violent, it is true that their heartbeat is way faster than normal when performing. So much power is put into each movement. What's more, the stage is determined beforehand and is very fixed. So the size of the stage is fixed and where the instrument players will sit is fixed too. That means when the actor walks three steps, three years in the story passes. When the actor moves in a circle around the stage, in the story thirty years have passed. So I came up with the idea that maybe Noh plays were originally intended to bring power from an alternate dimension. Naturally, in the present day Noh is theatrical entertainment but maybe in the beginning it was more like a summoning ritual to bring forth power. In that sense, I thought about involving things like oni too. Whereas in the present day those oni would become mecha. Both my staff and I went to see a lot of Noh plays to explore this idea further.”

Finishing up I wanted to know how he felt about how his anime has influenced video games over the past three decades, with series like Heavy Gear taking a great deal of inspiration from anime like VOTOMS, as well as what were his hopes for the future.

“I never thought my anime work would have so much of an influence on gaming. The reason I have such a rule-based approach with mecha is that there are many styles of animation directors. For instance, Yoshiyuki Tomino studied drama at Nihon University whereas Hayao Miyazaki is a brilliant animator in his own right. However, in my case my background differs between those two directors. After all, I started out at a trading company calculating things and that has nothing to do with animation. I also don't have much knowledge about science fiction and no real interest in military things either. So from that standpoint I decide what a character or mecha can actually do, make some precise rules. Such as adding the roller dash to VOTOMS, where it could initially glide for 30 meters and the fact it has a camera on the head that turns when it changes lenses. So I decide on all these specific rules on what things can do. After coming up with all those rules, I then let the staff use and play with them. With the focus that they have to make it look good using those rules. A good example of this is again the roller dash in VOTOMS, as it was originally only meant to dash in a straight line for thirty meters and that was all. However, the animators would have the mecha bank and use the dash in a curve. It was really cool and that was an idea from the staff. In that sense, while I give the rules it is the staff that makes them come alive and the overall production better. So that's how I approach things as a director.

“I don't really have any hopes or requests from my side in regards to the future really, as I am always happy with what I have made. So for VOTOMS I am very happy I got to make that and I am happy that I have finished doing Dougram. I am always happy in being able to finish and make those kinds of things. Naturally, if people ask for a sequel to something like VOTOMS then I would be happy to do that too. So I am happy with that, I am not the kind of person that wants more and more. I am always happy with what I have currently. Actually, I am not so interested in mecha. It's just a coincidence that I have worked on so many mecha based projects. Perhaps something new that is not mecha related might be interesting. These days I am working for both Tezuka Productions and Sunrise in planning and maybe something totally new will come out of that but I have no idea what that might be.”

As always I am surprised at how warm and affable, many of the people who work in animation are. Takahashi was very much this type of person and was also very keen to ensure that he didn’t take all the credit in my discussion with him, that many people brought these anime to life.

That is obviously true and again interesting to find out who really did what. However, Takahashi has a very clear and agile way of thinking. The rule based approach to building his narrative settings, as well as his skill as a writer, are all things that he clearly brought to the table.

My only hope is that his works are treated with the same kind of care and attention he poured over them during their production. Though for now, I am more interested in whatever he may come up with next.