Yesterday, I edited the first review of the live-action Space Battleship Yamato movie for Otaku USA magazine.
Today, I woke to find that producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki - who was to Yamato what Gene Roddenberry was to Star Trek – had died at age 75, drowned in a boating accident.
I’ll be eulogizing Nishizaki, perhaps my favorite all-time anime industry personality; a man equal parts Walt Disney and Scarface, at longer length at the Otaku USA website.
But for now, here’s a quick and dirty English translation of some thoughts on the man by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was (of course) creator of Mobile Suit Gundam and an original staff member on the 1974 Space Battleship Yamato anime. It perfectly captures the deeply conflicted feelings that Nishizaki can bring up: how he changed the anime industry, pissed people off, inspired others, and did it all HIS WAY.
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If I have to say it, producer Nishizaki is the kind of person I hate. I also have to admit he can be a likeable person, too. But I personally prefer not to like him.
Producer Nishizaki was the first person of his kind that I ever encountered in the anime industry. We (in the industry) were not used to meeting this type of person and everyone was stunned by his character. He was so pushy and he used his power to make the staff do whatever he wanted. Honestly, it scared us and we didn’t want him inside the world of anime.
But at the same time, I also thought that the world of anime would never change unless there was a producer who had good sense for sales and marketing. Maybe the reason I felt that way was because I also knew about the world of TV commercials.
Until that time, the anime world was just a gathering place for children. There weren’t so many people who were saying, “we have to take anime to the next level.” Which is what Nishizaki did…
I didn’t like the Yamato phenomenon when it became a hit. But at the same time I thought it was OK that people from outside the anime industry had come in. Instead of a creator, Nishizaki was more like a business person. The feeling of hate I had towards Yamato was more than just a reaction to his style of working. I felt like the times themselves had changed.
The anime industry started with Tezuka and his gang of manga-ka. We were offended by outsiders who used us for business. In that sense, you have to admit we were naïve. I had to accept the style of business that Nishizaki pursued.
We witnessed the process of Yamato getting more and more popular through TV and on-air. We wanted the TV version of Yamato to be a hit like a blockbuster movie and we wanted to create an original movie version. I envied Yamato’s success and thought that anime had a lot of potential. But I didn’t want Yamato to be the ONLY hit anime. So when I started working on Mobile Suit Gundam, I always felt in the back of my mind that “we need to beat that guy up”.
More than anything, I want everyone to copy and become like Nishizaki.
- Yoshiyuki Tomino
(quotes taken from Nishizaki memorial thread via 2chan, exact source: unknown)
I would like to state for the record that if not for the success of the Yamato plamo, Bandai might not have been able to push for the rebirth of Gundam in movie form, because Bandai might have been a 'C' class player in plastic models at that point. Yamato gave them money to play with and pick up the pieces when Gundam failed. Remember that, Tomino. Gundam failed too.
Posted by: Steve Harrison | November 07, 2010 at 03:43 PM
I don't read any bitterness or animosity into Tomino's statements. Sounds to me more like he resented Nish's audacity to actually place demands on the people who were working for him. Imagine. Pushing people to do better work. I've worked for people like that. You start out not liking them, then noticing that you're doing better work, then developing respect, then eventually "getting it."
I believe that's the process Tomino went through and it's implicit in his comments that it helped to make Gundam possible. Don't read a 30-year grudge into it when it's self-evident that everyone learned the right lesson in the end.
Posted by: Tim Eldred | November 07, 2010 at 04:46 PM
Oh Tomino and his silly double think.
But yeah a good producer to call bullshit on a crazy director and/or other producer is always nice (ie Gary Kurtz in relation to George Lucas).
Though with the NISH I am sure it was kind of the other way around most of the time.
Has Matsumoto issued any statements?
Posted by: Superdeformed | November 08, 2010 at 09:49 AM
Yeah, it helps to remember while reading this that Tomino is coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs as well. Also, this is an older quote that predates Nishizaki's death.
On a related note, Izumi and I are in the process of translating a piece by Toshio Okada about the time he and Anno went to visit Uncle Nish with an offer to make a new Yamato. Pretty incredible stuff, so stay tuned.
Posted by: Patrick | November 08, 2010 at 11:09 AM
I'm sure Nishizaki would have loved a 'turnkey' operation in getting a new Yamato going, back then. It's pretty clear Gainax had at least some of the right 'feel' and 'taste'and just needed proper direction.
This would have been in the slight window just before 1992 (and his connections to Atlantis, Mu Film and Amuse Video, has anyone in Japan discussed this?) and 1994's Yamato 2520.
It's an interesting question. If Gainax had signed on and worked on a new Yamato, would Nishizaki have forgone the trips to America, to NYC, and maybe kept him from the latter arrest on drug charges?
I have a theory that hanging around the American music biz scene may have gotten him hooked on dope...
Posted by: Steve Harrison | November 08, 2010 at 12:43 PM
Based on the Okada report, Nishizaki's style of "production" back then seemed to consist of throwing - and then taking back - huge sums of money away from assorted studios and animators.
He told Anno he could make Yamato "any way he wanted", but balked when Anno mentioned that he wanted to keep the Matsumoto characters and mecha intact.
He also had several female "assistants" in mini-skirts that interrupted the meeting to give him his "medicine".
I guess this project just wasn't fated to be. Wonder why.
Posted by: Patrick | November 08, 2010 at 01:19 PM
I'm leaping to assume, by 'after Nadia' this must have been before Evangelion. I'm doing this on the fly so bear with me. Eva was running 1992, so ramp-up to production was 1991, Nadia was '89...narrow window there. Only thing I can think of is Anno was grinding on Eva and Bandai Visual jumped on Nishizaki due to successful sales of the Yamato LD box sets. "Hey! make us a new Yamato! here's lots and lots of monies!"
The Nishizaki/Matsumoto relationship was seemingly quite sour at that point. I think this is reflected quite clearly in Yamato 2520, he just wanted quits from the man and the legacy that was created.
Man, the PS game stuff must have really chapped Nishizaki's shorts. not for the mecha but those lovingly 'spirit of Leiji' chara designs.
I wonder, and this is complete speculation, if hearing of Matsumoto getting a big deal Government medal while he seems shunned and ignored, if that was just the last straw...
Posted by: Steve Harrison | November 08, 2010 at 01:46 PM
Begrudging respect is about as good anyone is going to get in Tomino's world. But Tomino seems to be a difficult guy, so this is actually pretty complimentary.
Posted by: penguintruth | November 08, 2010 at 02:10 PM
That report has got to be awesome stuff. Where did you find it?
Posted by: Tim Eldred | November 08, 2010 at 02:15 PM
I used to have a copy of a weird Making Of video that showed the making of Yamato Rebirth and Yamato 2520. In the video Nishizaki is seen constantly twitching w/ facial tics. I wondered if that was due to drug abuse or maybe he had some sort of debilitating medical condition that's caused him to self-medicate. I also wonder if Yamato's psychedelic warp sequences were his idea.
Posted by: Evan Jacobson | November 08, 2010 at 04:20 PM
That's 'The Quickening,' a documentary/promo piece from '93. You're right, he was pretty twitchy in that. His last onscreen appearance was an interview on the Yamato Resurrection DVD. The tics were gone, but he was pretty slurry, enough to require subtitling. He actually sounded kind'a drunk, but I'm sure it was just age and fatigue.
About the warp sequence, here's a weird twist: that episode of Yamato was the one (and only one) storyboarded by Tomino! But I heard from Ishiguro that the warp sequence was a group effort.
Posted by: Tim Eldred | November 09, 2010 at 07:59 AM
> Eva was running 1992, so ramp-up to production was 1991, Nadia was '89...narrow window there.
--Steve Harrison (http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2010/11/farewell-to-yoshinobu-nishizaki-tomino-dishes-on-the-nish.html?cid=6a00d8341bfb8d53ef013488d05a93970c#comment-6a00d8341bfb8d53ef013488d05a93970c)
Huh? Eva in 1992? Source please; in *1993*, Gainax was still working on the _Honneamise_ sequel which Anno was supposed to direct, and certainly hadn't done anything on Eva:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_%28anime%29#Honn.C3.AAamise_sequel
Posted by: gwern | November 17, 2010 at 10:32 AM
I think Gainax was able to have several irons in the fire at that point in their history, but hey, it's not a show I really care about. I'm going off the 'secret planning book' pictured in the Evangelion Newtype 100% collection, which seems to have a 1990 date tagged to it.
but hey, '92. 93, in AmeriOtaku (tm) terms that's the same time, because it's old...
Posted by: Steve Harrison | November 17, 2010 at 09:13 PM
Steve, if you mean the Proposal (http://wiki.evageeks.org/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_Proposal), that was definitely 1993.
(The Notenki Memoirs (http://www.gwern.net/docs/2002-notenki-memoirs) are pretty clear about the timeline. The only stuff happening in 1992 was _Aoki Uru_, and a claim by Okada that he was discussing some sort of mecha anime.)
Posted by: gwern | September 29, 2011 at 07:51 PM