Director/Producer Noboru Ishiguro was not only a master craftsman, he was also a true friend to American anime fandom. Fittingly, it took two writers to pay proper tribute; we begin with a biography written by Jonathan Clements and conclude with a personal memoir by Ms. Jan-Scott Frazier that could have been written by no one else.
The first-ever interview with the chief director, published in a fanzine titled Yamato from the Cosmo Battleship Yamato Laboratory fan club. The interviewer was Tatsuya Nakatani, who now works as a professional anime writer under the name Ryusuke Hikawa.
From the September, 1977 issue: an interview with Mr. Ishiguro about the making of Yamato Series 1, in which he discusses the phenomenal workload, lost story idea, the change of Gamilas skin color, and other trivia being committed to print for the first time.
In this 1992 interview, Director Noboru Ishiguro shares his thoughts and memories about working on Space Battleship Yamato 2, including some of the new techniques he developed to take the series to a new level. Accompanied by vintage coverage from Roadshow Magazine.
Chief director Ishiguro co-wrote an account of his life as an animator titled TV Anime Battlefront, published in July 1980. This is the Yamato chapter from his book, which includes gossip and stories found nowhere else.
This interview was conducted at Anime Weekend Atlanta in the fall of 2007 with Mr. Ishiguro attending as Guest of Honor. He participated in a panel entirely devoted to Yamato hosted by this website’s editor-in-chief, Tim Eldred.
