The popular comic "ULTRAMAN", which has sold over 1.5 million copies in total, will be distributed simultaneously worldwide on Netflix as a full CG animation from April 1! The "S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN-the Animation-" and "S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN SUIT ver7 -the Animation-" are scheduled to be released in August and September, respectively, and will be available for pre-order from April 8. To commemorate the release of the anime and the conversion to S.H.Figuarts, Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi, the authors of the comic version, and Takafumi Amabuchi, the sculptor of Tsuburaya Productions daction LSS and in charge of 3D supervision, held a discussion. In this first part of the discussion, BANDAI SPIRITS Mitsuoka, who is in charge of planning, joins us to have a look at "S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN-the Animation-"!

■ S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN-the Animation-

-- "S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN-the Animation-" How about the real thing?

Lower mouth:It is finished to a good thing.

Shimizu:Shimoguchi saw the real thing for the first time today, right?

Lower mouth:Yes Yes! That's why Shimizu is looking forward to last year's event "TAMASHII NATION 2018". Because I could not go to the event, I was contacted from Shimizu. "Let's go!" (Laughs).

Shimizu:Really, I think I've been saying down the line ever since then. "S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN-the Animation-, that's good!" (laughs).

Lower mouth:It's really cool.

--- How is the author to be able to figure out both the comic version and the anime version?

Shimizu:It's pure joy already. However, on the other hand (both will be released), "How is it?" I heard that the reputation of the comic version was good, so I'm worried that the user will take over the anime version again.

Lower mouth:It is also anxious to the user whether there is a difference.

Shimizu:However, the difference between proportions with comics is clear, as the animation version originally has modeling data. The anime version has a "feeling that people are in it". The difference is obvious at a glance.

Lower mouth:surely. It looks like a totally different form!

Shimizu:In that sense, the change in design for the anime version was probably inevitable. In order to differentiate the figure from the comic book version "ULTRA-ACT × S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN" released in 2014, I designed the animated version while considering where I wanted the figure to be movable and whether I could actually put the movable parts in the figure. This time, "S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN-the Animation-" was able to include the movable parts that I had in mind.

澗 淵:Compared to the comic version ("ULTRA-ACT x SHFiguarts"), the range of motion of the waist and chest has improved considerably.

Lower mouth:This is amazing.

澗 淵:Until now, there is no solid that makes this part a range of motion. Because it is only this SHFiguarts.

Shimizu:This time, when you reproduce the pose of cesium, do you replace the chest like the last time?

Mitsuoka:As we have added a draw out joint, we have made it possible to reproduce without replacement.

Lower mouth:Yeah!

Shimizu:Let's pull out for a moment.

Lower mouth:Oh, it's true! Good!

Mitsuoka:The internal joint structure has also been upgraded. Due to the internal movement, Ultraman 's unique "fighting pose reminiscent of a stoop" is also possible. The outline of the back itself is divided into parts so that it gives a feeling of stooping.

澗 淵:In the beginning, there were quite a few parts that were diverted from "ULTRA-ACT × S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN", but as the development progressed, the ratio of those parts gradually decreased (laugh). (Laughs.) In the end, it was almost as if we were developing from scratch. (laughs). We didn't ask them to go that far (laughs). (laughs) Rather, it was the effort put in by BANDAI SPIRITS and Mr. Mitsuoka, who was in charge of the project.

Mitsuoka:To be honest, we had originally planned to reuse about half of the model, but in the end, 70 to 80% of the model was newly sculpted. But as a result, it turned out to be a very good product. Of course, the previous comic book version "ULTRA-ACT × S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN" was also a good product, but this time the range of motion has been improved.

Lower mouth:ULTRA-ACT × S.H.Figuarts ULTRAMAN" helped me a lot when drawing, especially when drawing the poses (laughs).

Shimizu:If it is in a manga, you can move it as much as you like depending on how you show it in two dimensions, but when it is made three-dimensional, you can see where it actually interferes and how the thighs rise. At that time, the part I was most interested in was the movable abdomen. If it's a soft suit with people in it, it can move without any problems, but if it's a figure, that's not the case. I changed the details of the abdomen, thinking, "If so, split it up!" Please reflect that. Really, I set the anime version considering the waist movement of this SHFiguarts probably (laugh).

--- Mr. Tatsumi was told that he was in charge of supervision.

澗 淵:It is a color. If it is new, I would like to stick with it. Last time, the entire texture was uniform, but this time, I was aware of the difference between the color of the hard part and the rubber material and the texture according to Shimizu's setting.

Lower mouth:Did you also exchange pretty color?

澗 淵:Well, it was already good when you first showed it. However, I did everything, so there was "Well, can you do this too?" (Laughs). In particular Mr. Mitsuoka's good luck with the color of silver.

Mitsuoka:The color tone of silver was adjusted by communicating with the archeologist many times in order to approximate the texture seen in the image.

澗 淵:Even if I say silver and bite, I had it divided by luster and mat. I'm differentiating between the parts of the armor and the texture of the suit. Please take it by hand.

Lower mouth:I see!

澗 淵:It is difficult to understand that it is moving by animation, but if you look closely, you have changed the color of silver and red (from the comic version), so I want you to reflect it in the product. Silver also changes the degree of gloss, the suit is thin, the armor part has a sense of gloss and shows a sharp color.

―― Did you leave the 3D supervision to you this time?

Shimizu:Of course, we will also supervise, but this is not the only case, and it is customary to have Mr. Tatsumi supervise first. After that, a reflection of Mr. Akira's supervision comes to us, and it asks me, "Is there anything else?", But this is almost nothing. The correct correction specification is included at the time of Mr. Aoi.

Lower mouth:For all of the ULTRAMAN SUITs so far, Mr. Kanbuchi gave us the correct answer as a 3D model at the beginning, so there is no doubt that he understands suits better than us (laughs).

澗 淵:Thank you.

-The whole story of the round-table talk will be published in the monthly HobbyJAPAN April issue (released on March 25)! -
We talked about anime, comics, suit design, and "ULTRAMAN"!!

座 Round-table discussion [the second part] is here!