
English: 
The strength of sculpting is the fact that
you can convey what you're thinking immediately.
I was actually 4 years old and the movie Jaws had come out a while back.
I did it, and this was my first sculpt ever.
Ever since, I practiced everyday.
I think it was my junior year in high school,
when I was able to take a ceramics class.
My teacher told me, "You need to work for the toy industry."
The past 6 years, I started picking up 3D,

Japanese: 
造形では頭の中にあるものを直に伝えられる
４歳のとき映画「ジョーズ」を見て 初めて作った彫刻がこれだ
それから毎日練習して 高二の時に陶芸の授業を受けた
その先生に玩具の世界で働くことを勧められた
６年前 ３Dでの制作を始めたんだが

English: 
The cool thing about 3D is you can go back many steps.
All the way to the beginning.
In terms of traditional sculpting, being able to go back a few steps
requires you to start from scratch.
With sculpting you can grab the whole thing and feel it tangibly.
It's an immediate reward.
Being able to hold a clump of clay and create these amazing shapes and forms?
I think that's fascinating.
The character I chose for this year's tournament was future Trunks.
The overall aesthetic and the design of the character is just awesome to me.
Trunks, to me, is a character that knows who he is.
He knows how powerful he is, but he's not bragging about it.
This artwork specifically captures that.
He's holding on to the hilt of his sword, looking to the side,
he's like "oh okay, I'm ready."
That's what's cool about him. Like a samurai. He's ready.
There's a lot of elements that have forced perspective.

Japanese: 
作業工程を幾らでもさかのぼれるのが素晴らしい
今までの造形ではほぼ全てやり直さないといけなかった
造形では手で直に触りながら より直感的に作業ができる
粘土を手でいじりながら素晴らしい形を作っていくことに魅力を感じるんだ
今回大会に選んだのは未来のトランクスだ
キャラクターデザインが全体的に美しくかっこいい
トランクスは自分のことをよく知っている
自分が強いのも知っているがそれを自慢したりしない
この画にはそれが顕著に表現されている
柄に手をかけて横を向いて こう言ってるみたいだ
「いつでもいけるぜ」
超クールだよ 常に構えてる侍みたい
物理的に無理のある要素が多くあると

Japanese: 
三次元の世界ではそれが問題になる
平面ではごまかせても 立体ではそうはいかない
立体では見えてきづらい脚や胴体を再現する過程に
可能な限りの力を注いでいる
同時に 模型を回したときに
どの角度からでもかっこよく見えるよう気をつけている
これで生計が立てられる事をすごく感謝している
無上の喜びだ
僕が好きな部分、クリエイターが好きな部分、
ファンが好きな部分でのバランスが大切だ
サウンドトラックを大量に聞いて
漫画も大量に買う
それから瞑想する時間を設けて
キャラクターが感じている怒りであれ何であれ
その感情を捉えようと努める

English: 
And that tends to be a problem in the real world.
In 2D you can cheat it, but in 3D that's a different thing.
So trying to replicate the negative areas, legs and torso,
that's what I try to go for as much as possible.
And at the same time, when I rotate the model, I was making sure that
he would look cool from different perspectives or angles.
I value the fact that I'm able to do this for a living.
It's pure bliss to be honest.
I think there has to be a perfect balance between what I like,
and what the creator liked,
and what the audience likes.
What I do is I listen to a bunch of sound tracks.
I bought a bunch of Manga.
I also try to take a time,
seriously, to meditate, and try to capture
the feeling, the anger or whatever it is
the emotion that the character is expressing.

Japanese: 
勉強は一生終わらないと思っている
それが僕の最大の強みかな
ドラゴンボールに教わったんだ
悟空は向上心を絶やさない
だから悟空が大好きだ
実はトランクスよりね…！
平面だと描けるものでも
それを実際に立体にした時
回すと矛盾が生じる事がある
彼の右側は全く見えないんだ
だからそこは調整を加えた
肩のねじれや重心を微調整して
体の流れを作るのに作業が必要だった
フィギュアの右側 彼の背後から見ると
重心を後ろにして寄りかかっているだろう
それが余裕な感じでカッコイイ
でもいつでも行けるぜみたいなね
注目してほしいのは腕の位置かな

English: 
I fancy myself a student for life.
I believe that's probably my greatest strength.
If there's one thing that Dragon Ball has taught me,
it's that Goku is always trying to get better.
And that's why I love the character.
Even more than Trunks... anyway.
In 2D, you can represent things in a certain way.
When we're actually translating that into 3D,
you rotate the piece, things don't match.
His right side, you cannot see at all.
So that's where I tweaked things.
I played with the shoulder, contrapposto.
Just to give body more movement, so I did that.
And when you look at him from the back, or the right side,
you can tell that he's leaning like that.
So he looks really cool. He's chilling.
But he's ready to attack. I think that worked.
I'd like you to look at the position of the arms,

English: 
and the right hand.
I tired to make the hand match the art,
but at the same time I tried to make it look really cool.
There's a lot of movement in between the fingers.
When you look at it from the back, it looks cool.
I'm so excited just because it's cool to see all these people I look up to come together.
It's not so much about competing against each other. It's actually the fact it's a journey.
Like we're all doing the best we can
so that the audience can get a product they really love.
I hope this year I can show something more refined, more relateable
in terms of aesthetics of Toriyama's style.
I'm just trying to bring my own little flavor to this.
Hopefully even though it's not something that mimics or basically
it's a clone of the style they all manage,
my style inspired by their own can create a cool little mix.

Japanese: 
あとは右手だね
他から浮かないようにしつつも
カッコよくしたくて指先や指間も細かく造形した
後ろ姿もすごくクールだと思う
自分が尊敬する人たちが集まるから
すごく楽しみにしている
競争するというよりは一緒に旅するような感覚かな
観る人が欲しい作品を作るために
全力を尽くす同志だよ
今年は より洗練されて共感を呼べるものを披露したい
鳥山先生の美学の観点でね
自分の色を出せるよう努めている
原作のスタイルを真似たり
クローンにしたものではないが
それに影響を受けつつ僕のスタイルを出した

Japanese: 
賞金3000ドルを手に入れたら日本に数カ月滞在するよ
日本の友達から色々勉強したいね
本気だよ

English: 
If I win the 3,000 dollars from the people's choice, I'll probably stay in Japan for a few months.
Maybe try to learn from one of my Japanese friends. That's what I'll do.
Seriously.
