Anime NYC had a number of guests at the convention, and I was part of the media contingent that interviewed Taiwanese artist VOFAN. A long-time illustrator for different types of media, you likely know him as the illustrator for NISIOISIN’s Monogatari series. While famous for that, he’s also drawn covers for Vertical (Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters per Second ~ one more side and The Voices of a Distant Star novels) and was the character designer for the PS3 game Time and Eternity.
One of his latest releases, however, involves an art book. Colorful Dreams marked the first art book release of his in the US this past October, and there was a lot of enthusiasm regarding the book (I say this from personal experience at Anime NYC, and the long lines at the convention to get the art book). So I asked about that and a bit more in the interview below.
Please note that similar to Rie Kugimiya, this was also a group interview. Unlike that one, I was able to ask questions to VOFAN directly, but within a 60 minute time frame alongside other approved media. So the questions are reordered for clarity and readability.
So without further ado, here’s TheOASG’s portion of the interview with VOFAN:
TheOASG: Colorful Dreams is the first art book of yours that’s available in the US. Can you discuss some of the challenges in working on a remastered version for a new audience?
VOFAN: So initially it was going to be hiring a designer to redesign the text and the layout and the format of the illustrations. But then I felt like the characters looked kind of old and out of time, so I wanted to fix that as well because if I just changed the characters in the illustrations and then it doesn’t really mesh with the background, it just looks like the character is superimposed onto this older background.
So in the end I ended up redoing and touching up on everything almost. But the most difficult part was that my editor stopped me from redoing everything, but that’s because it would take over half a year for me to do that.
So good job, Editor! *laughs*
Can you explain the origin of the name VOFAN?
It’s from a game actually. It’s like fan is actually a fan of this game, which starts with V O, so he’s actually a fan of this game, so it became VOFAN.
Any anime, manga or LNs that caught your attention in the past couple years?
I really like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and I like a couple Satoshi Kon works like Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers.
How would you say your style has changed from when you first started illustrating professionally to today?
There are two things specifically: One is that I put more attention into the story and second, I pay more attention to the shadowing — so the light and shadow and the kind of the contrast. Both of them are actually related to my personal hobby of photography, and I think that has been an influence on my art.
What was your first thought when you were assigned to illustrate the Monogatari series? Did you know about NISIOISIN?
I’m very much into anime and manga, and I had actually read the Zaregoto (Decapitation: Kubikiri Cycle) series by NISIOSIN before I got this assignment.
It’s been mentioned that Makoto Shinkai has been one of your inspirations — was Vertical aware of this when they asked you to draw the cover for the Voices of a Distant Star novel or did you reach out?
(Editor’s note: VOFAN just finds out Vertical did not know Makoto Shinkai was one of his inspirations before asking him to draw the cover.)
VOFAN’s editor: So Vertical likes to use original artwork for their covers, so they thought it might be a good idea to try this combination of VOFAN and Shinkai’s novel. And of course when they asked VOFAN he was really happy about it and immediately took the job.
However, they had no idea Shinkai was one of his influences. So that was a complete coincidence that they reached out to draw the cover. A miracle. *laughs*
How has your time in Anime NYC been? Is this your first time in New York?
VOFAN: This is my first time in New York. I actually really like the juxtaposition between the old architectural structures and the new ones. We have some buildings that are hundreds of years old, but right next to it might be a building that is just being built.
Especially around the Javits Center.
Right, exactly. So that kind of contrast inspires me to want to create.
