NEWSPAPER CLASS 25 May 08
Dog teach dog: Canine characters have human traits in NHK's
'Little Charo' series
Tom Baker Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
With a few simple lines, a skilled cartoonist can create an appealing character with
readily apparent personalitytraits. It looks easy, but those
seemingly casual lines are likely the result of a series of deliberate choices.
To learn what goes into bringing lines to life, The Daily Yomiuri recently
asked character designer Toshihiro Umekita to explain how he came up with the look
for the cast of anime characters who debuted last month on the
NHK TV program Little Charo.
Little Charo is an educational show about a young Japanese dog who is lost in the
United States and must communicate in English with the dogs he meets there. After
the anime segment of each show, a panel of live students in a studio discusses the
story and the English that was used in it.
The animation is done by Spooky Graphic, based in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. NHK Educational
Corp. provides the scripts for each episode and describes the desired "taste"
for the characters. It is then up to Spooky, in consultation with the broadcaster,
to design the characters, storyboard the scripts and then
do the animation work.
Charo himself is a little dog with a big head, babylike proportions that are meant
to convey how young he is as well as make him look cute.
"Charo is made of very simple parts, but the important thing is the eyes,"
Umekita said through an interpreter. "The way I draw the eyes, a little bit
bigger or a little bit smaller, I can express how surprised he is, or whether he
is close to shedding tears, or something like that."
"Charo is the main character, so we use natural colors for him," Umekita
said. His name is short for cha-iro, or brown, which is the color of one of his ears.
Other than that he is mostly white.
More creative license was allowed for other characters, such
as Candy, the fluffy, beribboned heroine. "We used pink
for her, because, in Japan, girls like pink."
Similarly, purple was the most evocative color for Margherita,
an "old lady" dog who warmlytakes Charo under her wing
in New York.
"In Japan, old ladies like her like purple. Sometimes their hair color is like
this. So we were inspired by old ladies and chose this color," Umekita said.
Specifically, Margherita is meant to suggest a canine version
of an "Osaka no obasan," a stereotypical older woman from Osaka. Such women
have an image, fitting Margherita's character, of being brash,
talkative, gaudily dressed and big-hearted.
"Sometimes old Japanese ladies wear too much makeup, so Margherita has eye shadow,"
Umekita said.
Margherita often tilts her head to glance down affectionately at Charo as they walk
along side by side. This is an example of another aspect of character expression
– posture.
"I always care about their posture, and how they stand,"
Umekita said. "Charo often has his head down."
Dread, an old boxer dog who has had a hard life, is slightly bowlegged, and his front
paws are turned inward. The younger or stronger dogs on the show stand up straight,
and their paws point directly forward.
"We have an idea how old these characters are, so we imagine, 'What if they
were human beings?'" Umekita said
In the episodes that haveaired so far, Charo speaks broken English,
but by Episode 19 it is clear that his fluency will have greatly improved.
If Umekita's carefully crafted characters can hold viewers' attention, perhaps the
viewers' English will improve, too.
fluffy
adjective ( fluffier, fluffiest )
of, like, or covered with fluff : fluffy white clouds | a fluffy towel.
evocative
adjective
bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind: powerfully evocative lyrics
| the building's cramped interiors are highly evocative of past centuries.
brash
adjective
self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way : he could be brash, cocky,
and arrogant.
• strong, energetic, or irreverent : I like brash, vibrant flavors.
• (of a place or thing) having an ostentatious or tasteless appearance : the cafe
was a brash new building.
gaudy
adjective ( gaudier , gaudiest )
extravagantly bright or showy, typically so as to be tasteless : silver bows and
gaudy ribbons.
air
verb
[ trans. ] (often be aired) express (an opinion or grievance) publicly :
a meeting in which long-standing grievances were aired.
• broadcast (a program) on radio or television: the programs were aired on India's
state TV network.
posture
noun
a position of a person's body when standing or sitting : he stood in a flamboyant
posture with his hands on his hips | good posture will protect your spine.
ADJECTIVES PERTAINING TO ANIMALS
| Animal Name | Adjective |
| dog | canine |
| cat | feline |
| lion | leonine |
| horse | equine |
| cattle | bovine |
| bear | ursine |
| fox | vulpine |
IDIOMS
To take a person under one's care or attention, in the way a mother bird takes care of its offspring.
The teacher took the new pupil under her wing on his first day at school.
A fiercely competitive situation, where only the strong survive.
See also Animal idioms,Doraemon, Television