“Yamato was definitely what inspired me to become a designer!”
Inspiration from Space Battleship Yamato
Space Battleship Yamato is highly regarded for its amazing mecha design. Countless boys were fascinated and enthralled by its coolness. With those feelings in mind, one man chose to become a designer as his lifelong career. We spoke with Nissan car designer Yasuhiro Tani.
Photo: Kentaku Aoki (WPP) Text: Ryosuke Kobayashi
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Yasuhiro Tani
Born in 1969 in Miyazaki Prefecture. After joining the company in 1992, he was in charge of the C34 Laurel and the first-generation Stagea. After working in sales at Nissan Sakura Chiba, he was involved in the exterior design of the F50 Cima and Y50 Fuga. He was then put in charge of advanced development models, and in 2020 he was put in charge of NISMO and accessories. His work is diverse, including the NISSAN GT-R NISMO, the Fairlady Z customized proto, and the Skyline NISMO (pictured above).
Original battleship drawn by a boy who loves Yamato
Yasuhiro Tani is active as a designer for NISMO, a familiar sports brand for Nissan. As a child, he loved Yamato, and not only copied the battleships that appeared in it, but also designed original battleships.
“For this interview, I tried drawing Yamato freehand for the first time in over 20 years, and I was surprised that I could draw it so well without looking at anything,” said Tani. The reporting team was surprised by his original work, which conveyed Tani’s love for Yamato. However, Tani also liked cars, so he decided to become a car designer. And now, he says that Yamato‘s mecha design has had a big influence on him.
“The memories of copying Yamato‘s mecha design and thinking about it myself are definitely still in my mind. I have Yamato and Andromeda in my ‘drawer of shapes’ and I can’t help but feel like they come out unconsciously. In particular, the front of the GT-R NISMO (2024 model) is almost all Andromeda. (Laughs) When I looked back at my recent designs, I thought, “This is it!”
It’s hard to believe that Tani’s drawing of Yamato was done freehand without looking at anything, and boasts such high quality. The overall form, as well as the shape of the third bridge and anchor, are simply “amazing”, but this is the work of a pro! It’s formidable.
In addition, an original battleship design he drew at the time is reproduced here, a mix of the missile ship Goland and the Wave-Motion Gun shape of Earth’s main battleship. Like Andromeda, the bow is straight, but the stern has a beautiful curve. “I like the missile ship Goland of the White Comet, and I wondered what would happen if I combined Andromeda with the two vertical missile arrangement.”
Red cruiser: the shape of the red cruiser model is taken from the Spitfire fighter plane, and the design is very cool, combining it with the atmosphere of an Italian air racer!
Silver submarine: attracted by the idea of the submarine that appears in Yamato, this is a projection of the image of the plastic model “Submarine I-19” that Tani built as a child.
The GT-R NISMO combines the red lines that are the symbol of NISMO with the body color Stealth Gray. The concept of Stealth Gray is that it is an intermediate color between the road surface of a circuit and the sky.
“I can’t help but feel that the cool combination of red and Stealth Gray is something that Yamato imprinted on me,” says Tani. However, it seems that this is not limited to him.
“I was talking with my colleagues, and most designers of our generation are influenced by Yamato or Gundam. And Star Wars. We are definitely influenced by these. No, there’s no way we haven’t been influenced by them.”
The lower part of the body is red and the upper part is grey. “Although I wasn’t conscious of it at the time of designing it,” Tani laughs, “Looking at it again, it’s Yamato.” He also said, “The idea that painting the inside of the front bumper opening red would make it look cool may have been inspired by Andromeda‘s wave gun muzzle.” Who would have thought that “Yamatoism” was in the GT-R NISMO? It’s amazing.
Now that he’s a professional designer, how does Yamato‘s mecha design look to him?
“For example, Andromeda. I think everyone has talked about how cool the overall shape is, but if you look closely, you’ll see that the surfaces on the body side change from flat to round as you go to the back. I think it was an epoch-making event that such complex curved design was completed in this era.”
The original battleship that Tani drew as a young boy also has curved changes, just like Andromeda.
“Just like Yamato, the side surface is concave near the bow, but becomes convex toward the stern. From a designer’s perspective, I think it’s amazing that such a three-dimensional effect can be created with just cross-section lines. I learned about such surface changes when I was drawing pictures of Yamato.”
When he was a boy, Tani made a sketchbook for himself, drawing both ships in the show and original ships of his own. The four illustrations on his desk are his latest works, which he sketched while remembering those days, but Tani says, “There’s no doubt that Yamato was one of the reasons I wanted to be a designer.”
He also says, “The unique designs that leave a strong impression have a timeless appeal, and I learned from Yamato the coolness of angles with passes and the effective use of cross-section lines to create a three-dimensional expression.”
The Fairlady Z is also a popular car with a long history. The love of the fans is incredible, so there is a lot of pressure being in charge of the design. “It’s difficult to create something new from the past without disappointing the fans,” says Tani. Talking about the difficulties of remaking a car gives him a feeling of sympathy with the production staff of the Yamato remakes.
The difficulty of remaking something as a designer
Tani says that he has watched not only the original works, but also remakes. He says that he was particularly impressed by the Garmillas battleships, which featured many ships with designs that did not exist in the original works.
“Compared to the Earth battleships, the Garmillas side was more modern. The White Comet was redesigned, and my favorite Goland was redesigned, and the missile ships were redesigned, but it was interesting to see how they were redesigned with a wide range while still following the ‘grammar of White Comet design’.”
“Speaking of remakes…I think Yamato is superior content like the Skyline or Fairlady Z for Nissan, and I feel great sympathy for them in creating something new without betraying their old fan base.”
For the Skyline NISMO announced last August, Tani was in charge of modernizing while also paying homage to previous models, incorporating the grill shape of the Hakosuka into the lower grill and adopting side steps reminiscent of the surfing line that is the symbol of the Skyline.
“It’s very difficult to get the balance right. So I think the design team for Yamato must have had a lot of trouble figuring out how to do it without disappointing expectations.”
When you think about it like that, it might be fun to take a fresh look at Yamato from a design perspective.