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Yuusuke Yamamoto & Naoya Takahashi – Interview on Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru (My Dress-Up Darling) Season 2

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Original interview from Monthly Newtype (September 2025), original interviewer: Hisashi Maeda; genga from studio ClowerWorks’s official Twitter account.

Episode 14: Storyboards and Direction that bring the drawings to life

— I’ve been watching you two chat for a while, you seem to get along really well.

Yamamoto: Well, we’ve been working together on this project for a while now, so… (laughs)

Takahashi: And besides, we’ve known each other for way longer.

Yamamoto: We first met on “Wonder Egg Priority” [Winter 2021], and after that we’ve continued working together at CloverWorks, so we’d often chat like this. Also, we’re close in age which I think played a big role too.

Takahashi: You’re right. Now that a lot of younger people have joined the production team, there actually aren’t many people around our age. That’s part of it, the fact that we’re both in our early thirties and talk a lot probably plays a big role. We can talk comfortably with each other.

— Your roles in this production are Assistant Director and Main Animator. First, can you tell me what kind of work the Assistant Director does?

Yamamoto: It changes from production to production, but in this case, I’m helping out in as many episodes as possible. That, and starting from the script planning, I participated in basically all sorts of meetings together with Director (Keisuke) Shinohara, and helped brainstorming ideas when he needed support. I really wanted to be actively involved in the main story as well.

— I see. What about the Main Animator? You had the same credit on Season 1, so tell me about the differences you’ve been experiencing in this role between Season 1 and 2, if there are any.

Takahashi: In Season 1, as the Main Animator I was mainly in charge of the standout cuts, those that would make the entire series look more spectacular. In Season 2 though, it’s been more like “handling a lot of key animation within a single episode”, so that was a new challenge for me.

Yamamoto: In Season 1, Naoya-kun provided crucial support for many of the good scenes in each episode. For example, the love hotel scene in Episode 11, when Gojo-kun grabs Marin-chan’s hips, her phone goes flying and the lights go out…. And other similar sequences.

— That’s a very memorable scene from the episode you, Yamamoto-san, directed and drew the storyboard for, isn’t it?

Yamamoto: I believe that scene really shows Naoya-kun’s distinctive touch and sense, but that aside, there were cuts like the one of the bed springs bouncing up and down, where even if I drew the storyboard myself, I was sitting there thinking: “How the hell are the animators gonna handle this?” (laughs). I’m extremely grateful Naoya-kun took on them.

Takahashi: It’s because I understand your feeling of wanting to express those scenes in a certain way. Cases like that, even if the animation is tricky to figure out, just make you want to do it.

Yamamoto: There aren’t many animators out there with that mindset, you know (laughs).
Naoya-kun’s taste gradually built up on the screen during Season 1, and concentrating it into a powerful burst was something we were aiming for for Season 2.
That’s why we asked him to handle half the animation work for Episode 14 all by himself. Having a single person work on half the cuts for an episode takes a lot of time, and it’s just extremely difficult with the way anime production works nowadays.
But by doing it that way, you really can bring out such a rich flavor.

— And so that’s why for Episode 14 Takahashi-san handled all three, storyboard, episode direction and animation direction (together with Maring Song). What was the main focus when working on that episode then?

Yamamoto: From the get-go, keeping the number of key animators as low as possible was the goal for Episode 14. Naoya-kun was the perfect fit, and it was indeed a great success.
While his primary focus was the animation direction for the first part, he drew a ton of key frames too. And as a result, Naoya-kun’s distinctive taste really shined throughout the episode, exactly as we aimed for. I’m really happy with the result.

— Talking about Takahashi-san’s peculiar taste, what is it concretely?

Yamamoto: With key animation, animators mainly focus on movement and layout composition, but I always want to say: “No, Takahashi-kun’s drawings are really good!” (laughs). His key frames are really good drawings in and of themselves. That’s why for this episode we consulted with Chief Animation Director Yamazaki Jun-san and decided not to correct them much. Yamazaki-san too wanted to keep Naoya-kun’s drawing as they were.
But then of course, Naoya-kun is also great at drawing movement, so overall it has this well-grounded, interesting quality to it; that’s my impression of Episode 14.

Takahashi: Thank you so much (laughs).

Yamamoto: I really like how Naoya-kun’s Marin-chan is very cute and Gojo-kun is super cool. Thanks to this extra drawing quality, you can really feel a stronger sense of acting. Often, even if the drawings themselves are good, once you add movement the nuance ends up changing completely. But in this case, he really grasped the intentions behind the storyboard and the direction, so the whole thing came together as a unified and cohesive piece of film. That was undoubtedly thanks to Naoya-kun.

Takahashi: It does convey a strong sense of unity. But really, Nara-kun’s [Yamamoto’s nickname] storyboard and direction make it very easy and comfortable to work with. It’s easy to understand what he wants to do, or rather, I think he’s someone who’s really focused on “creating fun film”. It might be a very vague way to put it, but throughout the process, I was really looking forward to seeing how it would turn out once I added my own idea of a “good drawing” to it.

— This decisiveness on what Yamamoto-san wants to achieve, what specifically do you grasp it from for example?

Takahashi: Above all, I think it’s the variety of directorial ideas he has, all stemming from his wish to entertain the viewers. Nara-kun too was originally an animator, and from there he moved to episode direction. The thing is, directors that start off as animators inevitably tend to put the spotlight on the animation itself. They usually put a lot of weight on stuff like the quality of the animation, or how the good shots look, and how smooth the transition between cuts feel. And there’s nothing wrong with that either, but Nara-kun keeps changing and adapting his approach and style, always putting “entertaining the audience” first when drawing his storyboards. It’s of course important that viewers are moved by seeing beautiful, high-quality drawings, but he actually places more emphasis on something else.
In that sense, I feel like we were able to make Episode 14 because we share a similar way of thinking.

Yamamoto: I too like things that showcase good animation, or rather, “good acting”, but since I fundamentally enjoy fun things, I just naturally tend to lean in that direction. Sometimes, my storyboard lack that element of acting to the point where, as a director who came from animation, I can’t help but wonder if I’m really doing it right (laughs).

Takahashi: It’s rare, isn’t it? Directors that started their career as animators can often feel intimidated about using 3DCG or live-action reference. They end up worrying about things like: “Wouldn’t this be easier for the viewers to understand if done with regular hand-drawn drawings?” or “Isn’t the rhythm a bit off in this specific sequence?”.
But Nara-kun goes ahead without hesitation. He’s got incredible guts.

Yamamoto: Though, every now and then the Director or others will step in and say: “Alright, maybe that’s a bit too much” (laughs).
I think that’s a nice balance. But for Episode 14, the core intent was to let the quality of Naoya-kun’s drawings go all-out. Talking about very precise and detailed cuts, the cooking scene had me like: “No way, that’s absolutely incredible! He managed to make it this good?!”, I was moved.
Of course, it was all stuff I had drawn myself in the storyboard, but Naoya-kun went totally wild too (laughs).

Takahashi: I worked really hard (laughs).

Yamamoto: He’s working in a realm that’s way beyond what I could possibly pull off myself. The cooking scene made me think things like: “Wow, it looks delicious” and “He’s cooking with so much care”, it’s truly amazing.

Takahashi: I’m really glad to hear that.

Yamamoto: That’s what I thought while watching the line-art, before the coloring step. And once it got colored, it was even more amazing. This really is the joy of making anime.

Takahashi: There were many situations where drawing movement would have been very challenging, so I relied on still drawings to create the appropriate sense of pacing. In those cases, if the drawings aren’t well made, it just cannot work, so I gave my best in that aspect as well.

Yamamoto: When it came to those scenes, I relied on Naoya-kun’s power as an Animation Director. I had faith the capabilities of Studio CloverWorks as well, but since I knew I could work with him, I drew very demanding storyboards specifically tailored around Naoya-kun.

— In other word, it’s an episode born from the deep mutual trust between the two of you.

Takahashi: It was definitely hard of course, but working together was very comfortable.

Yamamoto: Your help was essential. It was so much fun.

More in this series:

Keisuke Shinohara – Interview on Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru (My Dress-Up Darling) Season 2

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Original interview from Monthly Newtype (September 2025), original interviewer: Hisashi Maeda; genga from studio ClowerWorks’s official Twitter account.

A Season 2 I would find “fun” myself

— Many of the people who worked on Season 1 are participating in Season 2 as well.

It’s something I’m truly grateful for. Since they already know the work’s atmosphere, I don’t need to explain much, and it makes it easier to request episodes that lean more into the series’ specific taste. Anime production is a very fluid environment and it’s hard for staff members to stick with a particular project, but this time they relatively did. Since everyone’s highly motivated and talented, if we prioritize creating high-quality and fun works, there’s hardly any reason to leave, is there? The communication is very lively, so I believe those who fit well together feel at home here.

— That’s all thanks to your charisma and power to attract people, Director Shinohara!

No, I don’t think that’s the case… But I’d be very happy if I could be even just one factor in keeping people around. The animators participating in this project are all extremely skillful, but talented animators usually tend to choose production environments with other talented people, or with brilliant episode and series directors. Objectively speaking, I don’t have the kind of directing talent that can draw people in like that. What I wish to achieve is to offer these very talented people a comfortable and free environment to work in, and capture the charm of the original work on the screen.
Regarding Episode 13, I believe we managed to create something fun. However, it wasn’t exactly a relaxed process for everyone. On top of requiring a lot of precision and carefulness, it was a tremendous amount of work. That episode was made possible by imposing excessive demands on the staff for a TV series. The accuracy even in the in-between animation and the photography was really outstanding, and I’m truly impressed we could reach that level of quality with almost no need for retakes.

— That’s very nice to hear. I was surprised that Episode 13 started off with an episode of the in-universe show.

Following the original manga’s flow, I initially meant to start with the encounter with (Himeno) Amane, but that way it didn’t feel like “KiseKoi was back”. I really like the story in Amane’s episodes, but I felt it would have been too emotional as an opener. Changing the order a bit and starting with the TsuCom (“We’re the Tsukiyono♡Company”) episode, this second season could open with Marin and Wakana’s costume-making endeavors, and I felt that was more like KiseKoi.
Also, I’m really glad I was able to ask Ikarashi Kai-kun to handle the designs and key-animation for the TsuCom part.

— He really went all out with it.

For TsuCom, I wanted visuals that would both convey its cuteness and have a strong initial impact. Ikarashi-kun handled both aspect really well, and apparently he’s a fan of the series too, so he was the perfect fit.
Fans who follow the staff might view him as someone with a distinctive style, but he’s a rare talent who not only accurately grasps the director’s intent, but also creates richer visuals beyond expectations. We’re friends, but I’m also a big fan of his.

— I’d also like to hear about your storyboard work for the TsuCom part.

TsuCom was rather condensed in the original work, so we added more content during the storyboard stage. However, I worked only the very first rough draft, then I had Assistant Director (Yuusuke) Yamamoto-kun cleaning it up and adding ideas. He balanced out the parts that felt overdone in my original draft, making it easier for the audience to follow. Without Yamamoto-kun’s help, I don’t think Gojo-kun would’ve found it “so fun”.

— The tempo for the dynamite gag was perfect, it really made me laugh.

I’m really glad you liked it. While staying true to the elements in the original work, we wanted to overwhelm the audience with visuals fully packed of information. I believe we somewhat succeeded. Something like, “It was fun, but what the heck was that…?”.

— Speaking of inside-shows, “The Student Council President is the No.1 Host” must have been pretty challenging.

In-universe series like that are always a lot of work.

— I thought so. In terms of settei, it must be like creating an entirely different anime.

PrezHost took up about half an episode worth of screen-time, right…? When it comes to in-universe shows like that, the most difficult part is making a complete change in style. “Flower Princess Blaze!!” was playful and easy to make in Season 1, but then the number of series grew, and we couldn’t just re-use the same assets every time, so we sort of ran out of ideas. There are more coming up later in this season, so I hope you look forward to them.

— Even in the direction for the actual story, I really the strobe effect on Marin for example. It made me realize how rich an anime this is.

That’s the scene on the stairs in Episode 13, right? Thank you very much.
I wanted to make Season 2 feel “even richer”. In a TV series, I believe including expressions that aren’t necessarily realistic lets the creators enjoy the process more, and makes it more entertaining for viewers too. It’s not like Season 1 was strictly realistic either, but this time, I wanted to go for a more expressive approach.
Even at the script stage for Episode 13, leaving aside the karaoke scene, it felt kind of like a repetition of Season 1. I thought it might have been more enjoyable if we added a little extra creativity in how it was presented. Also, Yamamoto-kun was really overflowing with ideas and he came up with things I would have never thought of myself, which was really a huge help.
For Episode 15, we focused on more down-to-earth approach, and (Tomoki) Yoshikawa-san handled the drama-oriented direction, which I think made the series feel tighter and more polished. It’s a little reminiscent of the more tender episodes from Season 1.

— So, fundamentally, you’re still following the flow of Season 1, but are there any aspects you intentionally changed?

It connects to what I was saying earlier, but most importantly, I wanted to make it more fun. On top of that, I took on various personal challenges. For Episode 13, I tried to approach the storyboard with a particular style of acting that you don’t often see in TV series. Rather than aiming for a more realistic feel, I wanted to build the characters’ acting around the idea that people sometimes move in unexpectedly funny ways. But I didn’t want to simply over-exaggerate it, nor to use stylized or caricatured movements. The animators had to devote themselves entirely to drawing the character acting, so I think it was really challenging.
Then, the tempo. There’s always a gap between the pacing you carefully worked out on paper and how it actually appears on screen, so I’ve been trying various approaches to better match the ideal sense of pacing.
Visually, the art direction and color palette has also changed from Season 1. For the background art, I asked for a solid amount of detail, but made sure not to overdo it. I’ve been asking to simplify and remove elements from the drawings, so that the characters won’t disappear into the background. Thinking about this while drawing takes a lot of consideration, so it’s truly a demanding task for the background artists.

— Lastly, what do you, Director Shinohara, think are the highlights of this Season 2 to look forward to?

Of course the story is one of them, but we’re also aiming to create an anime that’s fun and enjoyable just to watch. As of right now (when the interview was conducted) the PrezHost part in Episode 16 hasn’t aired yet, so I feel a little anxious. By the time this interview will be out, the very popular cultural festival arc from the manga will already be underway, so I hope viewers will keep their expectations high for the story’s exciting moments as well.
I believe it’s a fun anime all the way to the end, so I’d be very happy if you could look forward to it until then.

Shoushimin Series #16 – Direction Notes

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“Consistency” certainly isn’t the most fitting word to describe my production on this blog. That’s especially true for this series of posts aimed at breaking down the direction and visual presentation of some of the shows I watch on a weekly basis. Starting with the fact that (as alluded to in my previous post) I finally decided to change its name to “Direction Notes”, just a little over a year since I started writing these pieces, and just a little under a year since I began calling them “Episode Notes”.
But this sort of rebranding happens all the time, doesn’t it? What’s far more important is that it’s been roughly 9 months since I published my last write-up about Shoushimin Series, specifically, about episodes #3 and #4. Believe me when I say that I still have all the notes, timestamps and screen-caps I took of (almost) every remaining episodes of the first cour, but for one reason or another, I ultimately never got around to putting them together into actual posts.

Fortunately, the episode that came out last Saturday, 6 weeks since the second cour started airing back in April, felt so strong and cathartic that I believe it’s the perfect opportunity to get back on track with this series, momentarily glossing over the episodes I skipped (in the hope I’ll manage to address them sometime in the future), and spending a few words directly on Episode #16, “Midsummer Night” —the climax of The Autumn-Exclusive Kuri Kinton Case Arc.

Episode 16 – 真夏の夜: Midsummer Night

Storyboard: Nobuyuki Takeuchi | Episode Direction: Shoshi Ishikawa

Before I start, I’d like to point out that, as usual, I won’t be covering or analyzing the content and themes at play in the episode; there’s who already has very skillfully written at length about those aspects, far more insightfully than I ever could.
Instead, what I’ll be doing is focusing primarily on the directorial aspects of the episode, the mise-en-scène and visual arrangement that brilliantly framed Honobu Yonezawa‘s story and brought to our screens all the intensity permeating through its climax.

Frame 1

The first impression I got from the very first scene of the episode was how dark everything looked, or rather, how stark the contrast between the background and the lit-up elements felt. To put it yet another way, the emphasis on lighting is something the episode outlines and insists on from the very first shot we’re presented with.

Light, especially its color, and even more-so its source, is indeed the main visual theme throughout the entire runtime of the episode, playing a central role in more than just one way.
What this suggests, on a broader outlook on the approach this episode takes on the mandatory taste of visual storytelling ever-present in this show, is a strong focus on crafting the perfect ambience to keep the viewer engaged, almost luring us in, allowing its subtleties to be conveyed in a more passive and engulfing way.

Frame 2
Frame 3

After the brief introduction featuring a conversation as important as it is short between Kobato and Kengo, we’re welcomed by an alarming yet somewhat comfortingly beautiful red palette. This serves as the stage for a highly anticipated reunion: the one of Kobato and Osanai —the fox and the wolf— and what better setting than the warm light of a raging fire, set by the unidentified serial arsonist on the loose? Yet, despite the unnerving tone of situation and the imminent threat of some fuel tanks potentially catching on fire and exploding (the framing of which doesn’t fail to subtly embed a sense of powerlessness and tease another visual theme that’ll play a major role later in the episode), the sequence is filled with an inexplicable feeling of delight and lightheartedness, if anything, remarking once and for all that there’s absolutely nothing ordinary about our main duo and their relationship.

Much like a moth lured in by lightbulbs, with all his vehemence Urino reaches Kobato and Osanai following the light from the fire, and after a very brief and inconclusive confrontation, our inexperienced make-believe detective runs after the fleeting Osanai —one could say, majestically falling for her trap.

Frame 4
Frame 5
Frame 6
Frame 7

The location changes to an eerie public park, lit-up only by the dim light of a streetlamp enveloping everything in a poignant and ominous green tint.
As Frames 5 to 7 suggest, that of confinement is the main visual theme of this next sequence; Urino, having been successfully lured into the wolf’s den, is as far as he can possibly be from a position of control, despite him supposedly being the one who cornered the culprit.

This idea of Urino being the one who’s actually trapped is rendered very explicitly, with the foreground layer literally depicting a stretch of imposing fences, trapping him from many different angles. At the same time, the same concept is also conveyed in a more intrinsic way, via a very telling use of spacing within the frame, paired with a focal shift effect at the end, leaving him little to no room to breathe.

Frame 8
Frame 9

If it wasn’t already clear enough, another deliberate choice that establishes Osanai‘s presence as the one in control of the situation, is the very physical detail that she, until the end of their confrontation, is always positioned above Urino, the latter forced to constantly raise his gaze in order to meet hers, who’s always looking downwards. Furthermore, Osanai is the only one that gets to move around freely in this environment, while Urino stands still in the same spot almost all the time —after all, it’s her den, not his.

In another unconcealed symbolism, the direction cleverly indulges in a particular framing of the lamp, shot from below much like Osanai during the entire sequence, where increasingly many bugs are lured in by the lightbulb. The cold and dim light emanated from the lamp serves as an obvious metaphor for our small (in size, but certainly not in ego) girl and her pale warmth towards the School Newspaper Club President, while the moths represent of course Urino, and his mis-directed deductions.
As clouds partially obscure the moon, lost but confident in the middle of the night, he ends up clinging to an artificial and contrived source of light, unable to see —let alone reach— the far away truth his own ambitions set out to unveil.

Frame 10

Even in the confidence of his flashbacks, the framing leaves no room for doubts in conveying Urino‘s flawed approach. His impulsive and overzealous personality isn’t exactly fit for the role he appointed himself to play, as neither back then nor now his figure is able to break out of the very narrow perspective, outlined by the window’s frame, that he confined himself into by failing to even consider taking a broader look at the situation before drawing the conclusions.

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but an unnerving feeling of tension unsurprisingly lingers throughout the whole sequence, which lasts for about 3/4 of the entire 23 minutes runtime of the episode. Contributing in making this sensation feel even more palpable, is a subtle matter of rhythm. While Urino and Osanai are having their conversation, the former’s lines are often visually cut in half; in other words, the camera erratically changes position or angle while he still isn’t done talking. It’s jarring, deliberately so, since it’s something that rarely happens under normal circumstances. Here though, it’s a very tastefully employed trick to make his assertions feel questionable and hesitant before he’s even given the chance to fully articulate them.

Speaking of dialogues, I cannot fail to mention the incredible performance by Hina Youmiya, Osanai‘s voice actress, reaffirming hers as one of the best castings in recent times. Her whispery tone seems to come directly from the character’s lips, precisely controlling the many emotions she’s feeling during the sequence, whether it’s fervid excitement, utter disappointment, or both.

Frame 11
Frame 12

In the final phase of the episode, when Osanai reveals the last and definitive piece of the puzzle to the poor Urino, the camera trembles like it never did before; his self-confidence shatters and the lingering feeling of uneasiness coalesces in a cathartic sense of impotence. The visual verticality of the scene is once again crucial to its presentation, as Urino raises his gaze even higher, and finally gets a proper, humiliating glance at the moon, which too is looking down at him, now clear of any obstacle.

Defeated, the ill-fated prey runs away, while Osanai is juxtaposed with the very same streetlamp from before —this time, with no bugs flying around its light anymore.
Emerging from the depth of the wolf’s den, there’s Kobato, who naturally finds himself at home there, and has been patiently waiting for this sophisticated hunt to reach its end.

In all honesty, as soon as this second cour of Shoushimin Series started airing I was already sure I would end up writing at least one blogpost about it. It’s been quite a while now, so whether or not this short piece meets the quality standards of my previous posts on the show, I leave up to you to decide. Nonetheless, I hope I was able to provide some interesting insights on this shows’ ever so resourceful direction, that you may (or may not) have missed while watching through the episode.
I had a lot of fun putting this write-up together today, but I don’t plan on making a return to a regular publishing schedule any time soon. That being said, if the opportunity arises again for another sporadic post like this one, I might find myself back at the keyboard sooner than expected…

Your Forma #1-4 – Direction Notes

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It’s been quite some time since I last wrote at length about anime on this blog, my last post being the one on Cardcaptor Sakura from last November —a staggering 5 months ago— and to be honest, calling that post “writing at length” seems a bit like cheating, considering all it was is ultimately just a refined and remastered version of a bunch of jumbled Twitter threads. This brings us back even further to August 2024, when I published the last, to date, episode of the Episode Notes series (seriously, I should consider doing some radical rebranding here), talking about Shoushimin‘s direction.

But with the current Spring Season having shaped up pretty nicely by now, my writing power seems to be back in shape as well, as one show in particular has been piquing my interest ever since before it even started airing. No, I’m not talking about the second cour of Shoushimin —which by the way, contrary to no one’s expectations it’s been just as incredible as the first one— nor am I talking about the second season of another anime that’s been featured on this blog before, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto.
The show that I’m currently finding myself to be attracted to the most this season is a seemingly unknown and overlooked (here in the West, at least) project by Geno Studio, Your Forma.

Directed by Takaharu Ozaki (who’s been recently interviewed about this very series), Your Forma is an anime adaptation of a currently releasing Sci-Fi Drama light novel, but you’re not here for formalities, so let me get straight to the point: why do I find this show interesting?
Answering this question requires at least a little flashback, so bear with me for a little more.

As you may or may not know, I’ve been in Japan for three months starting last January, so I left just in time to see the blooming of the cherry blossoms, and more importantly an insane amount of marketing and advertising all around Tokyo for the shows that were going to air this season, like, you guessed it, Your Forma.
The first time I saw the PV was, I believe, in Shinjuku, and despite having never heard of it before, I got immediately hooked by its visuals and style, to me very reminiscent of the imagery from Ghost in the Shell.

Flash-forward to today, four episodes have come out and while it’s by no means a “sakuga show” nor something as directionally idiosyncratic as Shoushimin might be, the visual identity it managed to build up since its premiere is nothing short of impressive.

Starting with the holographic user interface the character view directly through their eyes, it’s clear that much work went into its design, both statically and dynamically as the many windows and pop-ups feature personalized animations and styles for each character. Enhanced by a spot-on sound design, that places the digital assistant’s voice uncomfortably too far back in the head, the way these interfaces are portrayed feels realistically invasive and obnoxious, with the POV cuts strengthening our compassion and bond with the characters right off the bat. As it’ll become more relevant later on, emphasizing the human aspect of this story, rather than the Sci-Fi one, is indeed a deliberate choice by Director Ozaki, as he himself has stated multiple times in the interview mentioned earlier.

Before shifting the focus over to that however, I want to at least mention the Brain Diving sequence.
Akin to the transformation scene of a magical girl, it’s shown every time our female lead electronic investigator Echika Hieda performs the so-called “Brain Dive”, a procedure that, through the use of special cable, lets her connect and dive into the brain of the victims, in order to find clues about the crimes she and her robotic partner Harold are in charge of investigating.

The imagery showcased throughout this sequence (again, accompanied by a perfectly matching sound design) evokes dissonant and eerie feelings —slightly stepping into body horror territory, with that weirdly uncomfortable depiction of three Echikas engraved into the surface of a brain— and the mixing of different techniques, palettes, and compositing filters really drives the point home that brain diving isn’t exactly for everyone, and more importantly, contributes greatly in defining the visual language of the show as a whole.

Another seemingly small but actually very significant detail, that plays a big role in shaping up the visual identity of an anime, is definitely its typography. Take Eva‘s title cards for example, no matter what context you see that font it in, it’s become iconic to a point you’ll always instinctively be reminded of the series. Nowadays, it’s not that uncommon for TV anime to have stylized and dedicated title cards, but it isn’t exactly common either, at least not in the same fashion as in Your Forma.

When the first episode’s title card popped up on the screen, it left me completely stunned; the fonts, colors, layout, compositing, background animations and sound effects are all perfectly designed and perfectly executed, working in seamless sync with one another to make the handful of seconds that the title card is shown on the screen absolutely memorable. It’s like a declaration of intent, concise yet comprehensive, condensing all of the show’s visual identity in a brief, fleeting image. For a moment, I thought I clicked on the wrong episode and somehow ended up watching something from the 2000s era.

Deep down, as soon as I saw that title card, I knew this show would be the catalyst that would get me back into writing after so many months of break.

I have to admit that one of the reasons this show has me so hooked lies in its writing; more than one perhaps, as I’m very interested, academically and professionally so, in the topics of AI and its interpersonal and ethical impact on society. Focusing on the writing is not what this blog is inherently for, but nonetheless I’d like to briefly talk about it for this show.

As Director Takaharu Ozaki explained, while it’s still undeniably science fiction, the world of Your Forma feels very familiar and contemporary. I strongly agree with this sentiment, since the “fiction” aspect of Your Forma‘s science lies mostly in its shape rather than its technology. This is to say, with the continuous release of better and better (on the surface, at least) large language models, an AI assistant capable of manipulating language in a way it seriously gives off the impression of thinking like a real human being has already become a reality in our very world.
Your Forma is clearly not the first show to tackle these thematics, far from it, but “gives off the impression” are the keywords here. Since the very first episode, I’ve found Your Forma‘s take on the “will AI ever become human?” dilemma to be very grounded and nuanced, especially in comparison with the general superficiality this topic is usually treated with in Sci-Fi-like settings. If anything, the characters’ stances on (in-universe) AI developments feel very informed, repeatedly remarking how Amicus (the AI-powered humanoid assistants like Harold) are just “making it look like they’re thinking” but deep down really aren’t, or how “it’s not that easy to replicate a human” since “things that resemble humans don’t necessarily become similar to them on a fundamental level”.

This kind of concepts being at the very core of the drama Your Forma aims to depict, makes its narrative feel grounded and relevant, because it finally tackles the same issues we’re dealing with with today’s AI models, in a way that doesn’t neglect their currently well-known and researched technical limitations. It builds its foundations on top of a more informed outlook on today’s technology, resulting in an even more engaging discussion on an already hot topic. This gives further, non-trivial relevance to the characters’ dialogues and internal struggles in relation to the societal issue they’re facing, making the human drama side of the story stand out significantly more.

And it’s exactly this focus on the human aspect that narratively shined the brightest throughout the first four episodes. Again, it’s not surprising at all, given the Director’s own words on it:

What I really wanted to portray through this work is ultimately the “connection between people”.

This focus on the characters is not just related to the writing though, as the direction cleverly indulges on shots that aim specifically at conveying the thoughts and emotions the characters are feeling before they even get the chance to state them themselves.
This attention to the layouts is especially clear in the first episode, when Echika is shown to be conflicted about her own perception of her partner Harold, after learning another Amicus of the same model as his was found guilty of assaulting a human. The very spacious yet asphyxiating layouts, isolating the investigator from the people around her, yet completely surrounding her with elements smacked onto the foreground, give a very clear outlook on her reflective and introverted personality, voluntarily trapping herself in the maze of her own intricate thoughts.

Another clever use of framing and space can be found again in episode 1, when Echika‘s taking part in an augmented-reality meeting with the International AI Ethics Committee. As expected, the discussion forces her to face her doubts again, and the clear difference between the narrow and confined layouts when the other participants’s holograms are “visible” to the camera, and the wide-open shots of her sitting alone in the physically empty meeting room, precisely convey what’s going on in Echika‘s mind without the need for any additional word.
The positioning of the camera is also pretty functional; while the committee members are actively discussing the matters, the camera stays low and neutral, shooting them directly from the front. But as the focus moves on Echika‘s thoughts, the camera is suddenly watching from above, making the already dense atmosphere inside the dimly lit room feel even more oppressive and suffocating.

Purposeful layouts aren’t the only approach to visual storytelling though, and a very clever (yet straightforward) scene in episode 4 makes instead use of the character’s movement to spice up the nuance of Echika‘s actions.

The repetition of misunderstandings and reunification between the core cast, Echika and Harold, is an established theme of the show. Closing the first arc of the story, there’s a scene where the investigator decides to forgive her assistant after a fundamental mismatch in approach they had early on, and in the act of doing so, she physically steps out of the darkness engulfing her, to reach out to the light shining all around her partner.
This contrast of lights and shadows is a very rudimental visual tool, as effective as it is straightforward, and combined with Echika‘s act of stepping out of the shadow of her own volition, it strengthens the idea that she’s actively making an effort to understand Harold‘s mind, and willingly work on her relationship with him.

The palpable sense of rhythm throughout the sequence, slowing down with the final pan-up, makes the viewer not only more invested in the scene per se, but also aware of the positive tension between the two characters, resulting in a satisfying and well-earned conclusion to this first chapter of their relationship.

Another highlight of the fourth episode was certainly the very voluminous and warm character acting. Even if it’s not consistent throughout the 23-minute runtime, I found these cuts by animator Takaya Sunagawa to be a really nice finishing touch, the cherry on top of an already very convincing and engaging sequence.
The last cut of the episode too, again animated by Sunagawa (whose involvement in the project isn’t all that surprising given the presence of his close friend Shunji Akasaka as the sub-character designer) takes on a more abstract note, reinforcing once again the unanimous direction Echika and Harold‘s relationship is going to take from this moment onwards.

Talking about engaging character acting, nothing beats an ending sequence featuring the characters singing along with the singer, and Your Forma‘s ending does exactly that. A choice that, if it wasn’t clear enough already, seems to further reaffirm the human aspect of the story as central, giving its characters a familiar human dimension even outside of the narrative itself.

It’s this attention to details that can make an overall average production like Your Forma stand out between many others, and if it also happens to be backed up by a strong and firm vision like Ozaki‘s, the stage is set to create something truly valuable and well worth spending a few words about.

In a season filled with so many high-profile titles like this spring, I certainly didn’t expect a relatively under-the-radar production to be the one I’d end up rambling about on here, let alone it being the main focus of my first post in months. That being said, I’m glad I managed to find the time to write this piece all in one go, and I’m also really glad I was able to address all the points I planned on tackling, even though my writing skills have gotten pretty rusty to say the least.
I’m not sure whether I’ll come back to this show in the future, or when the next Episode Notes post will come out, but nevertheless, I hope this somewhat organized stream of consciousness was able to pique your interest even just a tiny bit, and as always, I’m really grateful for your time. Until next time…

Takaharu Ozaki – Interview on Your Forma [Part 1]

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Original interview from the official Your Forma website; genga from the official Studio Geno Twitter account. All the images used in this post are directly sourced from the official Your Forma Twitter account.

I really wanted to portray the “connection between people”

— First of all, Director Ozaki, please tell us what you believe the appeal of Your Forma is.

Your Forma has the look of a regular SF, but actually, I believe it’s a very contemporary work. For example, the virtual world depicted in the story is like having the functions of a smartphone embedded directly in your brain, and AIs like Harold, assisting humans in their daily lives, already exists in our society, albeit not in the form of humanoid robots.
It creates an easily recognizable and familiar worldview by cleverly incorporating topics of interest of today’s society, and I believe that’s one of the appealing aspects of this work.
Then, the ubiquitous human drama that unfolds within this SF-like setting is the real essence of the story, and I think it’s its greatest appeal.

— Adapting such story in a single-cour anime, what are the important points you primarily focused on?

It connects back to what I was just saying, but what I really wanted to portray through this work is ultimately the “connection between people”. Therefore, rather than the SF aspects, what I valued most was placing emphasis on the human drama.
This story features “Amicus”, robots in the shape of humans, but the way I approached it was by treating every character as a real human being. We humans have a tendency to treat others, whether they are robots or dolls, objects or even nature itself, as if they “have a heart”, don’t we? That sense of familiarity you feel when chatting with an AI, for example. If that “heart” we feel was actually real, then what exactly would it be connecting us to one another? I want to explore this direction as one possibility.

— Did you receive any specific request from the author of the original novel, Kikuishi-sensei?

Kikuishi-sensei often came to observe the dubbing sessions, and willingly collaborated with us during production, which I’m really grateful for. It was all basically left up to us, and we didn’t receive any significant requests. Though, since the original is a novel and has no visuals, we asked many times for advices about the SF-esque items and elements. For example, in the novel, the 3D images that serve as user interfaces are called “holograms”, and the screens visible to ordinary humans are called “holo browsers”; at first, I confused them to be the same thing. But thanks to an advice by Kikuishi-sensei, I was able to understand the difference.

Additionally, the story takes places in many different countries, and I thought that the customs and habits of each were meticulously taken into account. I’m sure that Kikuishi-sensei did a lot of thorough research when writing the original novel. Cultural differences between countries were a rather tricky and complex aspect. For example, in Russia, people wear their wedding rings on the right hand, a custom that’s different from Japan, so it’s easy to get wrong if you don’t pay enough attention. It would have been great if we, the anime production team, could have gone to each location to do further research, but due to the instability of the global situation in these past few years, for this project we ended up gathering information through the internet and other sources.

— Please tell us about the appeal of the protagonist duo, Echika and Harold.

Echika, a cold, machine-like human, and Harold, a robot who’s friendly with everyone. At a first glance, the two seem like polar opposites, but in reality, they share a common ground: their complete inability to convey their true feelings and inner thoughts to others. Throughout this drama, they misunderstand each other repeatedly, and only come to understand each other’s true emotions at the end. I think this clumsiness is part of their charm and what makes them so endearing. 

— What are your thoughts on Kana Hanazawa-san and Kenshou Ono-san, Echika and Harold’s voice actors’ performances?

I always had the impression that Ono-san speaks in a gentle and friendly tone, so I felt he was a perfect fit right from the start. On the contrary, at first I couldn’t picture Hanazawa-san playing an introverted and clumsy role like Echika. However, when I actually heard her perform the role, she conveyed the emotional intensity so brilliantly that I was genuinely impressed; exactly what you’d expect from someone of her caliber. Her performance holding back her voice while still letting the emotion spill through, is really wonderful, and even the casual conversations between Echika and Harold are incredibly engaging. I hope viewers too will pay attention to the natural flow of their conversations, like when Harold, with a hint of mischief, teases Ethica with a question and she responds to him in kind.

— Lastly, a message to the viewers looking forward to episode 1!

This is a drama that simply portrays the connection between people, so I hope you won’t find it too difficult to watch, and that you’ll grow fond of Echika and Harold as you enjoy following their story. I hope you’ll stay by our side and watch the story unfold until the final episode. I look forward to your support!

Yuki Sugitani – Interview on Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

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Original interview from Monthly Newtype (May 2025), original text by Hisashi Maeda and Makoto Ishii; cover image: official character design sheets from the “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: -Beginning- MATERIALS” pamphlet by Yumi Ikeda.

My number one goal is to create an interesting and enjoyable work

What Director Tsurumaki wanted to do

— Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is the first TV series directed by Director (Kazuya) Tsurumaki, so what was your approach in gathering the staff?

First of all, both the Director and I had already decided to ask Ikuto Yamashita-san for the mechanical design. As for the character design, when I asked the Director if he had anyone in mind, he immediately answered “I want Take-san”. We went with the first choices without any trouble.
Previous to this work, there was this project called “Nihon Animator Mihonichi” [日本アニメ（ーター）見本市, Japan Anima(tor)’s Exhibition, 2014], where many different creators made a short animated movie each. In that project’s context, Director Tsurumaki made the short titled “I can Friday by day!”. 

— It was re-released on YouTube just the other day, right?

Exactly. Take-san did the character design for that work too, and it’s a short I personally really like as well. The concept behind the “Nihon Animator Mihonichi” project was to have the creators make their animated shorts as freely as possible, exactly the way they liked and envisioned. So, once again, I had the confirmation that Director Tsurumaki really likes Take-san’s designs (laughs). 
For the rest of the staff, I basically picked the people who I knew could truly understand and realize what the Director wanted to do. As a result, a lot of them naturally turned out to be people who had already worked with him in previous occasions.

— What’s your personal understanding of Director Tsurumaki’s vision and intentions for this work?

Well… at the stage when he told me about Take-san, I figured the characters would take on a pop direction. Defining the scenery and backgrounds is largely up to the art director’s discretion, so I asked Hiroshi Kato-san, who always deeply understands Director Tsurumaki’s taste and intent. Rather than making something entirely new and unique, I believed this project should go for the “usual Tsurumaki imagery”. Last time I asked the Director to “create something exactly the way he wanted” the result was “I can Friday by day!”, after all.
Even if it’s Gundam —so it slightly leaned into the “real” direction— I interpreted the director’s intent as going for that very pop and stylish kind of imagery.

— Sugitani-san, you temporarily worked under Sunrise [now Bandai Namco Filmworks] and were involved in the production of “Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn”. Did you intend to carry the “Gundam-ness” you felt back then over to this project?

Being involved in the production of a proper, legitimate Universal Century Gundam work like Unicorn, was really a great experience for me —it was like a dream coming true. Now, I want to make sure readers understand this clearly; my desire to “work on a Gundam series” was entirely fulfilled that time. So, for this new project, my original aspiration was to have Director Tsurumaki create something beyond my expectations, like anything I’ve seen before, that wouldn’t be bound to the same outline and framework of the past Gundam entries. While of course being approved by Sunrise, I wanted to create something with a totally new and fresh approach that only Director Tsurumaki could come up with, something that could be only made at Studio Khara.
To put it bluntly, I believe that if another company were to make a Gundam series trying to incorporate elements from Evangelion in it, the chances of it being received poorly would be very high. On the other hand, I thought it might actually work if it were the very studio that created Eva attempting to put its unique elements into Gundam, in a way only they were capable of.
In that sense, when we were planning the project, I remember telling Director Tsurumaki that “I wanted to create something that could be only made at Studio Khara”.

— Going back to the previous topic, what about the other members of the main staff, aside from Yamashita-san, Take-san and Kato-san?

In the initial phases, the first person I contacted was Hajime Ueda-san. Director Tsurumaki told me that before starting the new project, he wanted to have a talk with Ueda-san. I didn’t know about it, but it seems that the two of them had already discussed a project with a girl as the protagonist in the past. That was the first meeting with Ueda-san; then, during the second or third meeting, the Director already proposed his idea of a story set in a world where Zeon had won the One Year War, and the direction for the project was decided. After that, we invited Yoji Enokido-san to join as the scriptwriter. 

— I’m starting to see how it came together now.

That was how the story came about, so now I guess it’s the visuals’ turn. With Yamashita-san as the main mechanical designer, I thought the mechanical animation designer and chief mechanical animation director couldn’t be anyone other than Sejoon Kim-san. For him too, “Nihon Animator Mihonichi” was the occasion where we first met. There, he did the mechanical animation direction for Yamashita-san’s short “Iconic Field”, then he worked again as the mecha animation director for “Shin Evangelion Movie:||” [シン・エヴァンゲリオン劇場版:||, EVANGELION:3.0+1.01 THRICE UPON A TIME, 2021], and besides, he’s been heavily involved in Gundam before. GQuuuuuuX’s mecha designer is Yamashita-san, and it’s a Gundam series, so there was no one more fitting than Kim-san. To be honest, I was really hoping for him to accept, or I would have been in big troubles (laughs).

— And what about the animation character design?

For the characters, it might have been audacious, but we held a competition aiming to find someone who would cover both the roles of animation character designer and chief animation director at once. Out of the people who took part in the competition, the Director selected Yumi Ikeda-san and Shie Kobori-san. These two were hired as douga staff at Studio Khara, and are what you’d call homegrown members of the studio. As someone who has worked with them since the days of production management, I was truly happy to be able to ask them to join this project. Actually, Director Tsurumaki has been looking over their drawings since their very first days as douga animators.

— What do you mean by that?

When douga staff are hired at Studio Khara, Director Tsurumaki is the one to first review their portfolios at the document screening stage, and he’s also responsible for the hiring exam. He oversaw the exams to promote douga staff to key animators as well. And even aside from all that, he’s basically responsible for the guidance and supervision of young animators at Studio Khara. Having gone through that process, these two were originally members who Director Tsurumaki had recognized for their talent —what you might call the “Tsurumaki children” (other members of GQuuuuuuX’s staff who joined the studio around the same time include Gen Asano, now working as the mechanical animation director, and episode director Touko Yatabe).
It feels like the seeds Director Tsurumaki has been steadily and carefully sowing have finally started to sprout.

— There’s a real sense of continuity with the studio’s history.

Also, the CG for every episode is directed by Khara’s in-house member Takashi Suzuki-san, and the color design is made by Wish, who we always work together with. T2 studio is in charge of the compositing, and I believe the experience and know-how accumulated during Eva’s production are being put to excellent use.

— As the producer, what are your personal goals with this project, Sugitani-san?

I’ll be repeating the same things from earlier, but what I wanted the most was to see what would happen if the staff who worked on Eva made a Gundam series. Fortunately, I’ve been involved as a production manager and producer in both franchises, so seamlessly merging together the good elements I found in each of them was also one of my goals. This aspect was emphasized as the tagline for the work, wasn’t it?
I hope this will also be an opportunity for those of the younger generation who don’t know “Mobile Suit Gundam” yet, to experience the franchise for the first time. But ultimately, my number one goal is to create an interesting and enjoyable work. I’m a huge, huge Gundam fan myself. That’s why I’d be incredibly happy if we managed to create a Gundam series that the viewers would find “interesting” too. And if it becomes an opportunity for more people to approach Eva as well, I’d be even more grateful. After all, both Gundam and Eva are extremely important works to me.

Yoji Enokido – Interview on Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

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Original interview from Monthly Newtype (May 2025), original text by Hisashi Maeda and Makoto Ishii; cover image: official character design sheets from the “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: -Beginning- MATERIALS” pamphlet by Yumi Ikeda.

There are going to be some quite high tension developments, like a roller coaster

The characters are all going to take it to the limit

— How did you approach Machu, Nyaan and Shuji’s characters when writing the script?

Machu is sort of a textbook protagonist, so it went relatively smoothly with her. In the first episode, she’s introduced as a regular girl living her simple, daily life, and then, all of a sudden, she sneaks inside of a Mobile Suit. It might seem like she’s a bit reckless and eccentric… but in my interpretation, the most unique trait of Machu’s personality is that she doesn’t have prejudices.

— She doesn’t have prejudices?

Side 6 is basically a normal, everyday world, somewhat resembling present day Japan. But there’s an area inside the colony where immigrants —both legal and illegal— and refugees live, people who are relatively discriminated against within the colony. Even in a society with such a dark side, Machu doesn’t hold any prejudice towards the refugees and the illegal immigrants there. Whether that’s because she fundamentally lacks the concept of prejudice, or because she simply doesn’t want to acknowledge it, even I am not totally sure.
If a normal girl were to come in contact with a smuggler of illegal Installer Keys like Nyaan, she’d probably report her to the police immediately. But not Machu, she’d just go ask for the “compensation for her broken smartphone” or something. This is to say, Machu basically considers Nyaan to be her equal. In this sense, inside that Side 6, she’s certainly a peculiar girl.

— I see.

It’s exactly because Machu sees Nyaan as her equal that the moment she notices the bruise on Nyaan’s face left by the military police, she feels so angry inside. She’s thinking, “Why is the police beating up a girl about the same age as me!?”. And then, she gets even angrier at Nyaan’s attitude of it being only natural that they’re being violent against someone like her. Machu’s inner anger reached its limit when the military police Mobile Suits started to arbitrarily destroy the buildings in the refugee settlements, with the excuse that “they’re illegal anyways”. It’s at that point that she decides to sneak in the Mobile Suit —it was a manifestation of all the anger she was bottling up deep inside herself.
Actually, it’s very similar to the anger Amuro felt in the first episode of “Mobile Suit Gundam” [機動戦士ガンダム, 1979], when he saw Fraw Bow’s family getting bombed. That’s why I believe I was able to get Machu to step into the Mobile Suit in the proper, traditional way of a Gundam protagonist.

— So, she might not be hot-tempered, but in terms of sense of justice…

She has one. Perhaps, that sensation is something very closely linked to the abilities of Newtypes.

— What about Nyaan’s character?

Contrary to Machu, Nyaan was very difficult for me to handle. I couldn’t quite grasp the balance Director Tsurumaki wished for. It felt like a déjà vu… it was the same with “FLCL”’s [フリクリ, 2000] Mamimi. No matter how many times I asked the Director to explain that character to me, I couldn’t fully understand her. In the same way, I would make Nyaan feel somewhat like a refugee, then more like a smuggler… but each time, I’d get told there was “something not quite right” about her. In the end, we settled for a “shy illegal smuggler fearful of strangers”. Although, of course, there is a fully correct interpretation of her character still inside the Director’s mind. 

— What about Shuji? I think he’s a pretty mysterious character…

As a scriptwriter, Shuji was a rather troublesome character. The Director told me he’s “a character who doesn’t talk much”… Well, thinking of it, characters who don’t speak much are always the Newtype-y ones (laughs)

— Writing the dialogues is a big part of the scriptwriter’s job, after all.

Right. Gundam as a series doesn’t have many characters with signature lines or catchphrases, but I thought it would be better for Shuji to have one; that’s when I came up with his “…that’s what the Gundam is saying” line. Basically, I interpreted the Director’s order that “he doesn’t talk much” as “he doesn’t express his own thoughts much”. So, using the “that’s what the Gundam is saying” line, it’s not Shuji who’s talking, but the Gundam. And Shuji comes across as a character who doesn’t speak all that much.
And then of course, I also hoped that the line would stick with the viewers and catch on (laughs)

— Ahaha. You can tell some of the lines are pretty intentional. Like the smugglers’ “Hello, are you in a hurry?”.

Yes, yes. Reusing that passphrase from Mobile Suit Gundam’s Miharu was my idea —it was like a declaration of intent that “I’ll reference the First Gundam whenever I get the chance to”. I feel like references to the First have been made in so many works to the point of exhaustion, but that’s precisely why I’ll be intentionally making the most fanatic-level, exotic references I can (laughs). 

— Talking about lines, the poetic ones that don’t make perfect logical sense, like [Machu’s] “I don’t really get it, but I sort of get it!”, feel really good.

Director Tsurumaki hates explaining things through dialogues, you know. To him, “It’s okay even if it’s not clear”; he’s inclined to think of dialogues with the premise that “that’s how real life conversations work to begin with”. 

— But a script is something written rather logically, isn’t it? It must be hard…

It really is! (Wry smile). I can’t quite write like that unless I become a Newtype myself. Oh, but in that case, that would make me an Artificial Newtype (laughs)

— (Laughs). Well then, lastly, please tell us what to expect from the future developments of the story.

It’s going to be like a roller coaster, with some quite high tension developments, so keep your expectations high. Machu, Nyaan, Challia Bull, Shuji, Xavier… They’re all going to take it to the limit, so brace yourself for what lies ahead!

Kazuya Tsurumaki – Interview on Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

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Original interview from Monthly Newtype (May 2025), original text by Hisashi Maeda and Makoto Ishii; cover image: official character design sheets from the “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: -Beginning- MATERIALS” pamphlet by Yumi Ikeda.

I thought that by depicting the feelings I’ve experienced under the Cold War, I could convey a unique atmosphere unlike that of any other Gundam before

A “Cold War” feeling in the Universal Century

— When talking about this work, you’ve often mentioned the genres of “Alternative” or “Fictional War Stories”, what do you think the appeal of these genres is?

Rather than the militaristic component, I’d say the interesting and thrilling part is the SF one. The first half of the theatrical pre-release version, “Beginning”, is an alternative version of the One Year War, so I mentioned the words “Alternative War Stories” before, but in terms of composition, I think it’s more like a “Historical What If”, a genre close to SF, about a world set in the aftermath of a rewritten history. An alternative history work I like is “Red Sun Black Cross” [レッドサン ブラッククロス, a board game and novel by Daisuke Sato]…

— The one by Sato Daisuke?

Yes, that one. Do you remember how it starts? As a whole, it’s an alternative history version of the Second World War, but it starts off depicting the beginning of the Fourth World War set in 1990. Right off the bat, it threw us into a world we knew nothing about —a world where, forget World War II, even World War III was already over. I keep coming back to its prologue, and it still excites me even to this day.
I feel that this sense of excitement, at least for me personally, is the kind of thrill distinctive to SF. 

— Talking about Sato Daisuke’s works, there’s “Nobunaga-den”, in which he ponders how Japan could have won the Second World War, and arrives at the conclusion that “Oda Nobunaga shouldn’t have died at the Honno-ji Temple”.
In a sense, I felt that this idea was similar to GQuuuuuuX.

I just told you how, to me, GQuuuuuuX is a “Historical What If Science Fiction”, but originally, the idea of a story set in a world where “Zeon won the war” was more akin to the alternative history genre. I believe there are two main approaches to alternative history works; the first one is to make a historical change in the initial setting or premise of the story, and then develop what happens next like a simulation. The second one, is develop the events that lead up to the historical change, thinking in what way history would need to be altered to make that change possible in the future.
In GQuuuuuuX’s case, it’s clearly the latter, and there’s this point often discussed among Gundam fans that “The Federation wasn’t able to defeat Zeon just thanks to the efforts of Amuro and the single Gundam unit alone”… Though, it’s mostly the military fanatics that bring this up… (laughs)

— Like bringing up the difference between a “tactical victory” and a “strategic victory”.

That’s why, to lead up to GQuuuuuuX’s future, there are some more military-oriented, realistic changes to the OYW, like for example “Zeon’s colony drop being successful and the Federation suddenly losing their headquarters in Jaburo”. But then I thought: “This is Gundam, after all” (laughs) “and since it’s Gundam, the existence of the Gundam itself has to be the trigger for the turning point in history”. That’s when I came up with the idea of “What if the pilot of the Gundam was Char instead?”.
That’s the exact opposite of how (Hideaki) Anno, who wrote the script for the One Year War part, conceptualized it. I believe he wrote that script starting from his desire to write a version of the war in which Char pilots the Gundam and achieves great things. Though, ultimately, they’re still both like an alternative history work.

— The place where the protagonists, Machu and the others live, Izuma Colony, is an interesting setting. Starting from the name itself, it has a Japanese flavor to it, and overall it somewhat resembles modern day Japan. 

There are two reasons why I decided on such a setting. The first one is that I wanted to use Japanese language. At the time of “Top wo Nerae 2!” [Gunbuster 2: Diebuster (トップをねらえ2！DIEBUSTER), 2004, it was prohibited to show (Japanese) characters and writings, and in terms of direction, it was a nightmare to work around it (wry smile). I thought that using written characters would have made it so much easier to express many different things.
The other reason is, if you watch any Universal Century episode up until now, it’s clear that English is the official language. However, there are a few colonies, like Moon Moon or the Texas Colony for example, rooted in a special and distinctive culture of their own. So, I thought it would be fine if there was a colony whose customs were heavily influenced by Japanese ones. Side 6 from the first “Mobile Suit Gundam” was originally designed as a caricature of Japan. I thought it would be okay if there was a colony with many residents of Japanese origin. 

— And what about the time setting?

To tell the truth, I wanted Machu and the others to be born after the end of the war; I thought they would give off a stronger impression of being a “new generation” that way. But in the end, things happened and we decided on UC 0085 as the time setting.

— I find that “I wanted Machu and the others to be born after the end of the war” really interesting. What are your thoughts and feelings on dealing with a post-war scenario?

Rather than a post-war, I’d say it’s a Cold War. When I was a kid, we were right in the mist of the Cold War; the US and the USSR never fought each other directly, but it felt like the next war could break out at any moment. There were novels or movies about the USSR army suddenly landing on our territory and turning Japan into a battlefield, and back then, it didn’t feel all that unrealistic.
When we decided on UC 0085 as the time setting for GQuuuuuuX, a certain member of the staff pointed out that “You’re doing Gundam but you’re not writing about war?”. All the previous Gundam up until now have portrayed a war of some sort, be it a full-scale war between different powers, or a factional struggle within the military, almost like a civil war. So I thought that writing about a “Cold War” would have worked as well. I thought that by depicting the feelings I’ve experienced under the Cold War, I could convey a unique atmosphere unlike that of any other Gundam before. 

— It’s true that, despite not being directly at war, there’s palpable tension between the two factions, and the atmosphere in the colony turns really tense just by the arrival of a battleship like the Sodon. It really gives the impression of a Cold War. Those under 40 today only became aware of the world after the Cold War was already over, so they don’t know what that atmosphere felt like.

That’s right. I think (Yoshiyuki) Tomino-san’s generation is the last to have known the experience of war throughout their childhood. My generation, of course, didn’t experience actual war, but we do understand the feelings of the Cold War. Naturally, conveying those sensations to the current, young generation is very difficult, but in today’s reality as well war has broken out in Ukraine, and conflicts and civil wars continue unabated in the Middle East. It’s not outside the realm of possibility for the current situation to escalate in a world-wide conflict. I believe that, to some extent, the prospect of a “future war” between nations has unfortunately become a reality among the young people of today.
That’s something that hasn’t been felt for about 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, isn’t it?

— Indeed, I understand the feeling that the thread of terrorism has taken us back to the terror of the Cold War.
I think a world where a space colony, while certainly not depriving the characters of their freedom, still somewhat feels like a claustrophobic place that’s tying them down, is reminiscent of your previous works… 

Well, that’s the influence of what I felt like when I was young. I grew up in the middle of the rice fields in Niigata, and even though the horizon stretched out in all directions, it still somehow felt “narrow”. Of course, if I walked all the way past the mountain, I’d eventually reach Tokyo, but that wasn’t actually feasible, was it? I felt like I was trapped inside my small, familiar garden, and I wondered, “Am I going to spend my whole life in this place?”. I depicted that fear in “FLCL” [フリクリ, 2000], as well as in this work.
It’s not like Machu thinks that “A space colony is too narrow, I hate it”, but she feels like “The world has to be much more vast, more free…”. She could, in principle, go to other nearby colonies, but in reality, she doesn’t. She lacks the freedom to say “whenever I want to go, I can do it in an instant!”; that’s especially true for children. I’m depicting the same things I myself felt in the past.

— So, that’s really a theme you want to focus on in the works you direct?

It’s rather because I want young people to watch my works. When I ponder what kind of feelings the youth of today would actually feel, I think it has to be something similar to the sense of confinement, or the fear and the anxiety about the future I too felt back then. 

— Machu being bothered that the gravity inside a space colony isn’t real is too an extension of those feelings?

That in particular incorporates another slightly different thematic. Is the Red Gundam that Shuji pilots the real one? Are Newtypes and their abilities real to begin with? Is the alternative world of GQuuuuuuX itself real at all?
This idea of whether something is “real or not” is present in many ways within the story, and I believe it might be another element especially interesting for the young viewers.

— What do you mean by that?

For example, thoughts like “I wanna become a mangaka” or “I wanna become a musician” always come together with doubts like “Is this talent actually real?” or “It works in class or at cultural festivals, but would it really work as a profession for the future?”, “Is it a real, genuine talent comparable to that of famous mangaka or artists that everyone knows, or does it only work among friends?”. In this sense, I feel like it’s a very valuable theme.

— From what you said today, I feel like what you’re trying to do is depicting a sensibility close to that of the 80s and 90s, in which anxieties about the world and adolescence are mixed together, in a new, modern way. 

You’re right. Even if I were to research the feelings of today’s youth, I doubt I’d be able to properly portray them on screen… (laughs)

— From this perspective, I’m really looking forward to see how the three main characters, Machu, Nyaan and Shuji will be portrayed. Talking about young characters, there’s also the poor Xavier…

Xavier’s a character I like. I hope I was able to portray him in an interesting way. Please, look forward to it.

Seika ArchiveD – The Digitalization of Anime Production Materials & The Mary and The Witch’s Flower Exhibition

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During my journey exploring the various attractions Kyoto has to offer to its many tourists, I visited the Kyoto International Manga Museum, arguably one of the most significant efforts in manga preservation throughout the entire country; out of professional habit, I especially enjoyed the anime section—despite the facility being a manga museum first and foremost—which offers not only great insights on the anime production pipeline, via some neat schemes and graphs that thoroughly describe the entire process, but also a few volumes worth of genga, layouts and corrections (along with the corresponding timesheets) from Production I.G’s 2012 short movie Wasurenagumo (わすれなぐも, Li’l Spider Girl) you can browse through while watching the cuts they cover play step by step throughout the production process, from their storyboard-form to shiage.

Here is one of the aforementioned “neat graphs” displayed at the Kyoto International Manga Museum, visualizing each single step of the anime production pipeline in a vertical timeline, ordered from Pre-Production (プリプロ) to Production (プロダクション) to Post-Production (ポスプロ), giving a clear idea of the sequentiality of the process while also introducing its many intricate and convoluted building blocks.

Anyhow, after spending more than an hour in the anime room alone, on my way out of the museum I spotted a poster that read:
Seika ArchiveD, the organization that aims at digitally archiving animation material, will showcase its recent results in an exhibition of genga data and materials from Studio Ponoc’s 2017 movie “Mary and the Witch’s Flower” on February 23rd at the Tsuki no Niwa Gallery in Keihanna Commemorative Park.

Needless to say, I went to the exhibition and spent there my entire Sunday afternoon, and I want to take this opportunity to write not only about my experience there, but also about Seika ArchiveD; what they do, how they do it, and why it matters. 

Seika ArchiveD

Seika Anime・Archive・Digitalize, ArchiveD for short, where the capital A stands for “Anime” and “Analog” and the capital D stands for “Data” and “Digitalize“, is—borrowing the words directly from their official website—an industry-academia-government collaboration between Onebilling Inc., Kyoto Seika University and Seika Town, with the goal to digitalize the important intermediate deliverables that anime production materials (timesheets, layouts and key frames) represent, into high resolution data through the use of a digital camera, and then utilize this data for eduction, research or commercialization purposes. 

Their home-page also highlights how this is the first instance of an anime-archiving initiative led by a local-government institution (Seika Town, in this case), as well as the first time a digitalization mechanism relying on a digital cameraーas opposed to a regular scannerーis being deployed in the context of anime material digitalization.

The above graph illustrates the working process at Seika ArchiveD: cut-packs (カット袋, folders containing the aforementioned production materials for each cut of animation from a particular project) are delivered directly to them; the materials are then carefully extracted from the folders, photographed with the digital camera, and thoroughly catalogued via software one after the other. Once the digitalization process is complete, the cut-packs are repackaged and sent back to the original animation studio or entity they belong to. The high resolution data is ultimately used for a variety of purposes, including education and exhibitions—like the one I had the pleasure to visit yesterday—further academic research or business analysis, and also commercialization through art books or anime records collections, or, notably, digital key-frame collections like the popular E-SAKUGA, which you may have already heard of, or even got a copy of yourself, and which also happens to be an initiative backed by the same Onebilling Inc. mentioned earlier.

One thing you may be wondering is, why using a digital camera instead of a regular scanner? Well, thankfully, the exhibition’s booklet provides a very straightforward answer to that question, and the reason might be much more practical than you think. The amount of drawings produced in the process of creating anime is, unsurprisingly, very huge, averaging at around 5000 sheets per episode (according to the data directly from the booklet). Multiply that for 13 episodes, and you get to a staggering 65000 drawings per TV anime cour. Using a scanner to digitalize all those drawings might sound pretty reasonable at first, so much so that it’s in fact the norm when it comes to anime digitalization as things stand now, but as Seika ArchiveD points out in the booklet, scanning anime drawings takes effort and precision, as the scanner’s lid needs to be pressed relatively hard to avoid shadows and wrinkles of the paper being captured in the final image. On the other hand, with their special digital camera setup, the time it takes for a single drawing to be digitalized is significantly reduced; and not only that, but it’s also substantially easier and quicker to produces higher quality image files as well, capturing the many pencil strokes in much better detail than a regular scanner could possibly achieve.

A picture showing Seika ArchiveD’s digitalization setup from the Mary and The Witch’s Flower exhibition

To make all this actually possible though, their digital camera is set up in a special way, aimed at optimizing the speed and precision of the digitalization process. At yesterday’s exhibition, they showed a neat recording of this special setup in-action: the camera is placed on a stand facing downwards, where a bunch of properly adjusted lights shine on a glass panel, under which the drawing—whether it’s a key-frame, a layout or a timesheet—is placed, tightly pressed down to avoid any distortions in the final image. On the monitor right next to it, the operator can see real-time footage from the camera, and dedicated software plots perpendicular guidelines over the image to help adjusting the drawing’s position in the frame. With just a click, the picture is quickly saved, and after typing in the necessary details, the drawing is fully digitalized and archived in a matter of minutes.

Iterating through this simple process over and over for countless times is what lead to the creation of a massive library of digitalized production materials, like the ones from Studio Ponoc’s Mary and the Witch’s Flower showcased in yesterday’s exhibitions at Seika Town’s Keihanna Park.

The Mary and the Witch’s Flower Exhibition

There isn’t much I can actually show you in this section, since, as obvious as it sounds, cameras were strictly prohibited inside the exhibition room. So, instead, I’ll do my best to describe and explain what I was able to see and experience in there.

The Tsuki no Niwa Gallery is a small space located inside of the Keihanna Commemorative Park in Seika Town, south of Kyoto City; yesterday, the entire room was used to host the Animation Material Exhibition, showcasing the results of ArchiveD’s efforts to digitalize timesheets, layout, key & in-between frames from Studio Ponoc’s 2017 anime movie, Mary and the Witch’s Flower (メアリと魔女の花).

Aside from a few physical layouts and genga displayed in a glass case at the center of the room, the gallery was equipped with a dozen of tablets, each containing the digitalized drawings—timesheets, layout, keyframes and in-betweens—from a different cut of the movie, for a total of well over a thousand distinct materials from the film.
The interactiveness of the setup was the main attraction of the exhibition: you could browse through each of the displayed cuts by interacting with the corresponding tablet, swiping through each key-frame or quickly scrolling through the sequence by rapidly tapping on the screen; you could even pinch and zoom-in on each drawing to appreciate the incredible level of detail the camera-captured image had to offer—as they claim in the booklet, you could really feel the bump in resolution and overall clarity of the picture compared to a regularly scanned image.

The experience was really fun, and the amount of data they were able to archive was nothing short of impressive. What (positively) surprised me the most though, was the number of people who attended the exhibition; granted, the sunny weather on a Sunday afternoon, the fact that it was held in the city’s largest park, and the complete lack of an entrance fee, all definitely played a role in its success, especially considering many of the visitors I saw during the few hours I spent at the exhibition (and at the nearby café while writing this post) were families with little kids, likely attracted by the movie’s title more than anything else. However, a consistent portion of the attendees—spanning across all demographics—was really, really invested in the exhibited materials, reading with visible interest through the explanations on the various steps of the anime production pipeline hung on the walls throughout the room, or thoroughly browsing the countless key-frames and layouts at display, appreciating all their details and intricacies (I believe the strong interactive element of the tablet-setup really helped in making the material feel more fascinating and intriguing to engage with).
And if this is sounding like it’s no big deal, since, well, we’re in Japan, the land of anime, of course the locals would be more interested in stuff like this, you may be correct in assuming as much, but I believe that’s only part of the truth here. Anime as a medium (as well as its aesthetics in general) is deeply rooted in the cultural and social context of Japan, to the point literally everything can be intertwined with it—and believe me when I say this, you’ll see anime everywhere here, from train station stamps and mascots, to life-size anime-miko cardboard cutouts at shrines… That is one thing, but being interested and invested in the creation and production of the craft is an entirely different story, and even more so is appreciating the considerable effort put into archiving and preserving the material that comes out of such creative process—the “valuable intermediate deliverable”, as ArchiveD refer to it on their home-page—especially here in Japan, where the idea of preserving analog media has only recently begun to gain traction, with Seika ArchiveD standing as one of the very few contributors when it comes to archiving production material related to anime.

The bottomline is, events and exhibitions like yesterday’s, raising the interest and engagement of the general public towards the more niche aspects of anime production, that may still be broadly perceived as aimed specifically at the enthusiasts of the field, are truly remarkable, and certainly a step in the right direction for analog media preservation as a whole. Moreover, seeing industrial and government-backed initiatives like Seika ArchiveD successfully garner such interest as the result of their hard work, truly felt like the cherry on top of this collaborative and steadily growing effort.

This concludes my little report on yesterdays’s peculiar event. I hope the content of this piece—quite unusual for the standards of this blog, I know—was able to pique your interest nonetheless, and maybe bring to your attention the current state and recent advancements of cultural preservation here in the Land of the Rising Sun, that you may not have been aware of.

I won’t deny that this article is, in a way, an experiment on my end as well, so I apologize if the exposition feels somewhat messy or yet unpolished. That being said, I have to admit I had a lot of fun writing this piece, and I truly hope the opportunity to further explore this format will present itself again in the future. Until then…

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Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-: Creators Talk vol.2 – Interview Highlights

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The second part of the Creators Talk on Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- premiered yesterday on the official Gundam Channel on YouTube, this time featuring Episode Director Daizen Komatsuda and Storyboard Artist Mahiro Maeda, as well as Director Kazuya Tsurumaki and Producer Yuki Sugitani, who already talked at length about the project in the first part.

This latter half of the interview focused directly on the team and the environment behind the project, as well as a more detailed look at the storyline. This is to say, this post will inevitably contain a few spoilers about the story and setting of GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-, so read at your own risk.

Much like last time, instead of translating the whole talk word by word, I picked out only some of the more interesting questions and answers, compiling a list of highlights from the interview, as I believe this format works best when translating spoken interviews as opposed to the usual written ones.

Original interview from the official YouTube Gundam Channel, conducted by Mafia Kajita and released on February 7th 2025.

— Well then, the words “One Year War” that we so strictly withheld last time have finally been unveiled. […] Director, how do you feel about the public’s reactions, now that this trick you’ve kept secret until this very moment has finally been disclosed?

Tsurumaki: Well… I believe Gundam fans have something to say… to me, or to Studio Khara… “What the hell are you doing?”

Maeda: On X or something I’ve seen people writing “Anno’s clan”… I thought that was a fantastic expression, like, we’re a clan already.

Everyone laughs

Sugitani: I’ve also read a post saying Anno-san is Tsurumaki-san’s M.A.V.

Maeda: Well, that’s true (laughs)

Tsurumaki: Everyone’s saying “Anno this” or “Anno that”, but this idea of writing an alternative version of the One Year War… it wasn’t actually Anno who proposed it. We had him write the script, but it’s not really his fault. It’s… Khara’s fault, if anything.

— You mentioned this in the last interview already, but you said you didn’t expect your proposal to actually get accepted; you thought it would be rejected, but it unfortunately got the green light, right?

Tsurumaki: Yeah… of course I also wanted it to be accepted, but I really believed at least half of it would get turned down. So, I was surprised when they said it was all good.

— I really thought, “that madman, he really did it… he touched the taboo of all taboos…”.

Everyone laughs

— “This will definitely get him in the firing line”… this “Alternative One Year War”.

Tsurumaki: Yeah… well, in the past, during the Gainax era, there was “Cyber Comics” [An anthology comic specialized in robot anime published by Bandai. Gainax’s predecessor, General Products, was also involved in its editing], and inside this… how do I call it, otaku manga magazine maybe…? Well, inside that, there were a lot of bizarre Gundam stories that had nothing to do with it…

— Like side stories?

Tsurumaki: Hm, not exactly “side stories”… there was one featuring a ninja Gundam for example, or one with magical girls… They played around a lot with it. So, yeah, there was also a time when Gundam was written in such a way —not officially, of course, it was just an unofficial manga, but I sort of “grew up” with things like that. There’s also the game, Gihren no Yabou [ギレンの野望, Gihren’s Greed, a series of turn-based strategy video games], I’ve actually never played it myself, but I thought it would have been interesting to do something similar.

[…]

— Thinking about the One Year War in Gundam, there are some historically unshakable and firm points and events; did you ever ponder whether it was really okay to change or alter them?

Tsurumaki: Me personally, I read a lot of alternative versions of stories, so I do know and understand how to effectively set them up, but even so, for this project, I did worry about what the fans would think of the changes like, for example, Amuro not appearing even once. Though, I also understood that worrying too much about that wouldn’t be a good thing, so, in the end, I made it the way I wanted. 

The discussion then delved into more specific details about the story; Director Tsurumaki explained how, in his vision, the Gundam itself was the very key that lead the Earth Federation to win the One Year War, and not Amuro, like some may think. Therefore, initially, his and Yoji Enokido’s plan was to make a 5-minutes-or-so introduction, showcasing the alternative OYW just until the moment Char gets his hands on the RX-78-2 Gundam, to then jump directly into Machu’s world, and gradually explain the alternative OYW through “documentaries-like flashbacks” throughout the course of the series.
Since this initial plan didn’t line up well with the serial TV broadcast structure, it was Ikuto Yamashita who proposed the idea to make a whole, independent episode focused solely on the OYW. In the end, Hideaki Anno was appointed as the script-writer for that very introductory episode.

When asked if there was anything he finds particularly impressive about Anno’s work, Director Tsurumaki answered that the number of modifications (and how thorough and attentive they are) is truly remarkable —something he wouldn’t have been able to achieve by himself. Producer Sugitani then mentioned how well-written the dialogues are, as they really “feel like something written by Tomino himself”.

After a brief section where the two new interviewees revealed their favorite Gundam series and Mobile Suit, followed by yet another brief section where the staff answered a few questions Kajita gathered from the fans, to wrap things up, he asked everyone to leave a message for the viewers, starting with Maeda.

Maeda: I’ve always thought that Tsurumaki-san is an incredible person. We’ve always worked together on Shin Evangelion [シン・エヴァンゲリオン劇場版, Rebuild of Evangelion]; not on the TV series, but I’d always been looking at it from afar, noticing the parts he worked on and thinking “Ah…! this is Makky’s work!”

Tsurumaki: (laughs)

Maeda: Of course, Anno-san is an incredible person too, but I’ve always believed that, looking from afar, it’s thanks to the individuality and great qualities of all the people around him, like Tsurumaki-san‘s, that they were able to create such an amazing work. He really is his right-hand… his M.A.V., his buddy… though he may not like me saying this (laughs)

Tsurumaki & Sugitani: (laugh)

Maeda: I believe he created some amazing works, and he still is to this day; when I went to the US, anime fans over there were saying things like, “if I have to pick a favorite anime series, that’d be FLCL!” —the works he creates are just that incredible. And that [FLCL] was his first ever TV series, right? Having your first major work become that famous and popular is truly outstanding, so I’d be glad if you could support and enjoy this new project as well.

— […] Next, it’s Komatsuda-san’s turn.

Komatsuda: Evangelion has become the “main” title associated with Studio Khara, and it’s always talked about as the work by the genius director Anno-san… but, well, since Eva Ha [ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版:破, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance] I’ve been working on it as the assistant director; basically, there was Anno-san at the top, then Tsurumaki-san supporting him, and then me supporting him in turn, and Tsurumaki-san supervised a very substantial part of the work, like the storyboard —the blueprint of the animation; basically, he was the one who controlled and checked it, for example- 

Maeda: -and [he managed] the communication between the staff as well. 

Komatsuda: Yeah! So, an entire TV series directed by Tsurumaki-san is something I’d wholeheartedly want everyone to watch and appreciate. After all, I’m one of the “Tsurumaki children” within the industry; back at Gainax, I was one of his students. One of Tsurumaki-san’s amazing qualities is his ability to communicate, he’d often come up to me while I was at the desk to ask questions about my work. Whenever he has a doubt or a question, he immediately speaks up and asks it. This quality and nature he has to start conversations, being frank and honest with the people around him no matter whether they’re younger or older, asking about every doubt he has, makes him really approachable. So, when even someone like a key animator is struggling with something, like, say, having problems understanding the time-sheet, it just feels natural to go ask Tsurumaki-san. He’s the kind of person who can teach many different skills to many different people; he’s a mentor to everyone who’s ever worked under him, on his projects. This is something I really want people to appreciate this time as well. 

— […] Now, Sugitani-san.

Sugitani: Well, I’m someone who stays outside of the actual production so, for me, it’s a bit different from what Komatsuda-san said, but even so, when we had to work on Evangelion for example, if I had doubts about something, like the content of a scene or some directorial decision, it was natural for me as well to just ask Tsurumaki-san. I too thought that Tsurumaki-san was simply amazing in that sense, and this time too I feel very grateful that we managed to make a show with him as the director. At times, I wonder why, given how strict and severe he is about the production, everyone seems to love him (laughs). He’s the type of person who never gives in to compromise… but people just naturally gather around him. Sometimes I think it’s really unfair (laughs)

— I think it’s really admirable and charming. 

Sugitani: The Director alone cannot make an anime by himself, but many people gather around him with the will to assist and support him…

Tsurumaki: It’s something I’m truly grateful for. […] Well, Sugitani-kun… Producer Sugitani was behind the production desk managing the schedule for Shin Evangelion, and that was an extremely tricky and difficult task, so half the reason why I accepted this job was to pay the favor back. I’m really glad it worked out so well… well, I mean, it’s not over yet [talking about the production of the TV series], so I don’t really know how it’ll actually play out in the end (laughs), but at least, as of now it’s been a great success, and it’s an important achievement for Sugitani-kun as well, so I’m really glad.

Part 1 – Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-: Creators Talk – Interview Highlights

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