Yoshitoshi ABe interviews and appearances, 2000 to 2002 (Otakon panel, Zigzag Asia, Anime Central, Mangaes)
A group of shorter ABe interviews that together sketch his early career and how he talks about Lain. To Zigzag Asia he says he barely drew until after high school, handed in a blank exam paper, and got pulled into art when a friend who won a newcomer prize from Spirits asked for help; after a year of cram school he entered the Japanese painting department of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in spring 1994, and won a Shiki Award from Afternoon. He drew strategy-guide art for games to pay fees. He says Lain's producer emailed him in the winter of his senior year, and that he joined officially the next spring after his graduate exams. NieA_7 grew from a one-panel cartoon he drew in a literary magazine. At Otakon's character designers panel, beside Utena's Shinya Hasegawa, he described designing Lain as bringing many sketches to meetings, and said the creators wanted Lain asymmetric to show her drifting between worlds; he found cosplay a little embarrassing because the backs of the characters were never published. At Anime Central 2001 he refused to give an official reading of the show. To Mangaes he names Yukinobu Hoshino's 2001 Nights and Masayuki Kaneda as influences, says the red spots in shadows were the director's stylistic choice, that he designed every NAVI including the phones, and that the name NAVI was Konaka's.
- ABe entered Tokyo Geidai's Japanese painting department in 1994
- Ueda emailed him in the winter of his senior year; he joined the next spring
- NieA_7 began as a one-panel magazine cartoon
- The creators wanted Lain asymmetric to show her between two worlds
- He will not give an official interpretation of the show
- He designed all NAVIs; Konaka named them
Sources: archived page · archived page · archived page · lawmune.net