Anime Jump interview with Yoshitoshi ABe
ABe explains that Ueda contacted him through his homepage while he was still a student, a couple of months before his graduate school entrance exam, so it was agreed he would start once the exam was over. He brought sketches to the production team; Lain's look settled early, while the other characters stayed more open. Asked about his realistic style, he says he was not allowed to read manga as a child, failed to get into college at first, drifted for a while and ended up as an assistant to a manga-artist friend, so he built his own style without preconceptions. He has been online since early 1996 and started posting art because a friend was into the new Japanese internet and because he was experimenting with digital effects in 2D illustration. He thinks digital art is still leaping forward: in Japan analog and CG work still clash visibly. He partly sympathizes with Harlan Ellison's refusal of new technology, but feels that the feeling a creator puts in still passes through the hand even in digital work. His own method is a quick pencil sketch, cleanup, scanning and digital painting, and he does not expect that to change. He ends by saying he is glad his unusual art is accepted in America when it is considered odd even in Japan.
- Ueda contacted ABe via his homepage just before his graduate exams
- Lain's look was fixed early; other characters were more fluid
- ABe was barred from manga as a child and learned as an assistant
- He has had a web presence since early 1996
- His workflow: pencil sketch, cleanup, scan, digital color
- He sees analog and CG imagery as still clashing in Japanese anime
Sources: lawmune.net