Hidenori Matsubara needs little introduction. While he was attending the International Animation Research Institute in Tokyo, he bought a copy of the Royal Space Force pilot film from General Products, then under production at the animation studio they spun off to make it: Gainax. He applied to join, passed their admission test, and over the next few decades, he would gather a reputation as a character animator and designer, working both under and alongside some of the scene’s greatest directors. His freelance animation circle Studio Ebisu, co-founded with school buddies Takahiro Kishida and Eiji Suganuma, was a powerhouse known for their ability to execute demanding jobs with both panache and professionalism. They were moreover a locus which shaped the early careers and sensibilities of many animators our longtime readers will know – from Norio Matsumoto to Toshiyuki Tsuru – a topic which deserves its own article someday.

Most recently, Matsubara worked alongside the core staff of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, adapting Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s classic designs from the original Gundam, and guarding their considerable charm as an animation director. He also personally drew some of the show’s most memorable character animation. It was for this reason that he came again to Otakon in 2025: his fourth visit to the DC anime convention, and the second where I was able to see him. However, this is the first time I found myself, with Otakon and Khara’s blessing, in a position to ask him questions on your behalf. The conversation went something like this:

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Nate A.M. (>>Nate): Alright, Matsubara-san, you are known today as a master of character animation-

Hidenori Matsubara (>>Matsubara): (quietly) Oh? (softly laughs)

Nate: -but was that what interested you the most when you entered the industry?

Matsubara: Yeah…so back then I was interested in mecha and effects too, but…hmm…I kept getting told by staff on various productions that I was so good at character animation – it felt like everyone just decided I should be put to work drawing characters instead of effects and mecha, and those were the projects I kept getting.

Nate: Haha, I see!

Matsubara: So of course I was interested in those things – mecha and effects – but when we were dividing up the storyboards and talking about what parts we wanted to do, I’d tell everyone “I want this battle scene!” But then everyone would ask me “hey Matsubara-kun, wouldn’t you like to do this scene of a girl taking a shower instead?”

(everyone laughs)

Matsubara: And it went on for so long that now I can’t draw mecha and effects anymore.

Nate: Alright, well if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask about Patlabor the Movie. What was your first impression of director Oshii [Mamoru]’s layout system?

Matsubara: Hmm…well, up to that point, it was kind of vague what everyone was supposed to draw: we’d draw with our own personal quirks, based on our interpretation of the limited materials given to us. The idea that the team could create a tool for the spatial aspects…the visual-spatial aspects…I thought it was nice that the team could share and pass down that information in a much more concrete, well-defined form. It seemed clear to me that the nature of the Japanese animation industry had changed – had evolved. Before then there was Akira of course, and Akira also had a futuristic setting, but people were still drawing largely on vibes. Compared to that, the layout system was pretty cool, insofar as it allowed us to draw things with a greater sense of clarity and reality.

Royal Space Force, Akira, and the first of the Patlabor movies all came out one after the other. It felt as though the whole anime industry had become a rather harsh place, where what mattered most was how well you could capture a sense of “realism.” It was crazy. I’d have thought anyone who wanted to become an animator after seeing Akira was insane.

Nate: In that case, what does “realism” mean to you in terms of character animation? Because there were a couple of different interpretations of the concept around that time. [clarifying to the interpreter] In the late 80s and 90s. For instance, you had Nakamura Takashi-san on Akira, who had a different interpretation of “realism” than someone like Okiura-san or Iso-san.

The interpreter took this as a question about directing, but Matsubara-san heard “Okiura” and “Nakamura” and seemed to understand the intent close enough that I didn’t clarify further.

Matsubara: Hmm…how humans move is an important part of it. Speaking as an animator of course, personally, I’d say that whatever the character happens to be doing, one must find the sense of reality in it. For instance, in a scene where someone is eating, I think it’s important to depict their unconscious gestures and mannerisms. It’s more important for “realism” to consider the character and their environment holistically than just to use a lot of drawings. Realism is at its best where animation, imagery, and the situation being depicted intersect.

Nate: Agreed!

Matsubara: And neither one works on their own. The harsh thing about realism is that if your backgrounds have a terrific sense of reality but the characters don’t move, it’s flat and boring, and if the characters have a tremendous amount of motion but there’s no reality in the backgrounds, the whole thing will lack that sense.

If I can talk about Gundam a bit, you have things like Hathaway with a real sense of realism, but on the other hand even in GQuuuuuuX with Pokemon-like designs – Take-san designed those of those of course – there emerges a sense of realism from simple designs like that too: from the enshutsu, and the way it sets up the drama.

Nate: (enthusiastic aizuchi) So on that note- wait a second are we almost out of time? [switching languages] Has it really been fifteen minutes?

(everyone laughs)

Alright, I guess one last question real quick on the topic of layouts. You’ve worked with Oshii-kantoku, Kon-kantoku, and Anno-kantoku at different points, so I was wondering if you had a sense for how all three directors handled their layout checks.

Matsubara: Layout checks huh…hmm…well, they all envision their animation like it’s a live action film – like they’re actually shooting a movie – so I guess they’re largely similar. Oshii-san’s specialty is that he can keep all the elements of the scenario in mind even though he’s always using holds. Now Kon-san’s images were just so tremendously good…it was his world. Truly great – absolutely the best.

(contemplative pause)

Anno-san has his own very particular way of doing layouts. It seems like sometimes he’s got the layout exactly as it needs to be down to the millimeter in his head. In any case, they’re all quite interesting.

I’ve been pulled in by some other characters as well: like Ootomo Katsuhiro-san, like Katabuchi Sunao-san, and they’re all basically…well, it goes without saying they’re all happiest when you’re really putting your back into your work, I hardly need to say that.

I think someone’s peculiarities – I mean when it comes to what they’re trying to accomplish – is something you find out when they tell you “nope that’s wrong” and ask you for a retake. Now I personally almost never hear those words of course, I wouldn’t know anything about that.

(everyone laughs)

I’m not bragging or anything, I’m just saying, I don’t get that many retakes.

Nate: Hahaha. So, I still have many questions, but I’m afraid that concludes us. Thank you very much for answering our questions. And Matsubara-san, it’s a great honor to meet you.

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Thank you again to Otakon and Khara for facilitating the interview.

Due to scheduling conflicts, I was unable to attend either of his panels at Otakon in their entirety. On Sunday, he spoke some with production desk manager Hayato Tanaka about GQuuuuuuX while sketching Lalah, Challia Bull, and of course Belldandy. You can probably find more extensive notes than mine, but I’ll post them for posterity.

• When asked how he became involved with Sakura Taisen, my notes say that Matsubara answered that he got to know the director of Bubblegum Crisis EP08, Gouda Hiroaki. They would become buddies, and work together on the game. That said, since Matsubara is the chief sakkan of all the character art in the game, and Gouda is only a gengaman for the animation, there seems to be more to the story than what I wrote down or recall him saying. Did Gouda really bring Matsubara onto the game, or was something lost in communication? [Thank you to Ukrainian Z’gok for the clarification, though it leaves me with more questions than answers]
• Hayato Tanaka says he had to plan for about 1.5 episodes worth of flashback, which meant finding staff who could draw in the older style. Naturally, Matsubara was the key to his plans.
• Tanaka was quite pleased how well Matsubara and Take’s designs meshed in practice.
• Matsubara was assigned to draw the memorable cut of Lalah screaming in EP12, but he denies responsibility: the director handed him a sketch of what he wanted, and he drew what he was told.
• Hayato Tanaka came up with some of the names of the weapons, including the “Tomenosuke heat hawk.” He did this not out of a desire to participate but because he was worried animators would get the settei sheets confused without memorable names. “Tomenosuke” is a reference to a famous Blade Runner doujin circle which makes replica props.
• Matsubara says he enjoyed not having to draw internal lines for Gankutsuou