Fabre (19 years old)
Protagonist.
Michelle (age 8) Primary school student.
Louise (8 years old)
Primary school student.
Marie-sensei (20 years old) Japanese teacher.
Mayor Gutshu (61 years old)
Mr. Principal (52 years old)
Grandpa Oran (67 years old)
Professor Leon Dufour (age 45)
Granny Maria (58 years old)
Landlord.
Robert (11 years old)
Son of the village chief.
Buzo (17 years old)
Mr. Coach / Tutor (39 years old)
Mr. Naruto (32 years old)
Mathematics Teacher.
I was graciously allowed to document, clean and archive these illustrations created by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko during the early to mid 1990s by their original owner. I have been in conversation with the owner on Twitter for over two years now after they sent an open request to the community to identify the nature of these works and to help them locate any and all information about them. After touching base, we began our conversations, though the trail often ran cold.
To this date, the current definitive information on these pieces is as follows: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, while still employed actively by Sunrise's animation department in the early 1990s, created these pieces for an internally held contest to decide who would be in charge of character design for Sunrise's adaptation of Jean Henri Fabre's eponymous text. The dates of the contest are not known, though based on the illustration quality, I can personally say that these are very indicative of Yasuhiko's early 1990s hand and manner of rendering. This would place them in a window between 1990 to 1995 before he made a genuine departure from animation to focus on his work with manga.
Yasuhiko's animation credits, while ending in the early 1990s with F91 Gundam, did not totally cease. The 1990s proved to be a unique time in which Yasuhiko took major forays into character design work for titles such as Super Atragon, Assault Suits Valken II and Chikyū SOS Soreike Kororin. However, the proposal for Fabre never took off and it became a phantom work, never to see the light of day again until my source was given these items.
These are pencil and watercolor/gouache renderings of the original character designs for not only the protagonist Fabre, but an additional 13 other characters drafted. Each drawing measures 25 cm in height and 20 cm in width (9 x 7 inches), and the character names and their related roles are glued on from clippings made in a word processor. under the character drawings. In addition, since all the characters are numbered from 1 to 13, it is believed that Each drawing is very careful and detailed, and Yasuhiko's specialty full-color watercolor technique and character creation can be seen on each item. These are believed to be the entirety of the lineup as each one is numbered 1-13.
Yoshikazu Yasuhiko himself mentioned the animation of Fabre's Book of Insects in his lecture Anime and Gundam in the 1970s held at Hiroshima City University on August 3, 2008. Its existence is also known by his official biographer and interviewer Makoto Ishii. I, too, knew of their existence though only though asking Makoto via Twitter alongside my source, who was told in turn that these works were forgotten by Yasuhiko as well. However, since these works disappeared at the planning stage, they were never mentioned in any books such as The Complete Works of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko or My Back Pages.
Since there are basically no materials left for the anime since it was canceled at the early planning stage, these works haven't seen the public eye. These pieces were preserved in museum glass and carefully stored for years and were photographed by me. I edited them to match their true color and dimensions as I don't have them physically on hand (they are now going to auction in commemoration of the opening of the Yasuhiko Yoshikazu, the Artist exhibition in Hyogo).