Thomas Romain is a world designer who worked on Macross Δ and its theatrical adaptation, Macross Δ Movie: Passionate Walküre while he was working at Satelight. He started his own Tokyo-based studio, Studio No Border, which focuses on project development and design work for animation in France and Japan.[1] He also runs a Patreon for his Father and Sons Design Workshop. In 2015, he released a ten year commemorative book on his work at Satelight, Lost In Anime Design Works.
Career[]
Romain was born on August 1, 1977 in Besançon, France. He began his career in Japan working on Aria: The Animation and the Franco-Japanese animated series Ōban Star-Racers before moving to Satelight where he did conceptual and world design for Bodacious Space Pirates, Aquarion Evol, AKB0048, AKB0048 next stage and Space Dandy.
He first met Shōji Kawamori while doing background layout for the science fiction series, Engage Planet Kiss Dum. During an interview with Anime News Network, he stated that he wasn't aware who Kawamori was and his body of work. The two then collaborated on Basquash! which helped Romain develop an appreciation for the robot anime genre, even wanting to draw mecha as well as Kawamori.[2]
Kawamori and Romain then worked together on AKB0048, drawing the initial image boards and visual product documents. He was responsible for designing the "Akibastar", the giant shelter-town where all the group members live. He developed much of the series' first episode's backgrounds and oversaw the world design for the rest of the season, describing the experience as fun, despite its challenges. Romain is quoted saying that working on Kawamori's anime were very challenging because he describes elaborately complex worlds and for that reason, is a very demanding individual. He is said to have also gained an appreciation for idol anime, saying that the series highlight the problems with Japan's idol system, which Kawamori transposes into a science fiction context, making it fun and fresh.
From 2015 to 2016, Romain worked on the world design for Macross Δ and its theatrical adaptation, Macross Δ Movie: Passionate Walküre. Following the end of their production, he left Satelight to work on his Father and Son Design Workshop collaboration art project.[3]
In 2019, he worked on Shinichiro Watanabe’s newest science fiction series, Carole & Tuesday under his new Franco-Japanese design studio, Studio No Border.
Gallery[]
