Category Archives: Interviews

Hirotaka Mori – Interview on Tengoku Daimakyou (Heavenly Delusion)

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Original interview from WEBザテレビジョン published on April 1st 2023, titled: “<Tengoku Daimakyou> Director Hirotaka Mori, ‘the anime’s responsibility’ is to make the appeal of the original work live on and to convey it without distortions“, original interviewer: Rum; genga by Shuuto Enomoto.

— Please, tell us how you felt when you were asked to direct this show.

At first, I was worried whether or not I was fit for the position. However, I’ve known animation producer (Masafumi) Oohira-kun (from Production I.G.) for a long time, ever since I started directing episodes, and so I thought that together with him I could have done it. 

— The anime PV, and also the social media pages, are full with positive comments sent from the fans who are anticipating the show. 

I’m getting really nervous. All the expectations have strongly made me even more determined to create something of proper quality, and I hope I can live up to everyone’s expectations.

~ I payed special attention to the action scenes. ~

— Please, tell us about the appeal and charm of the original work. 

The first time I read it, I was struck by how mysterious and strange it was. Although Maru and Kiruko’s “Makyo” [“Makyō” (魔境) literally means “the realm of demons”, it’s used in Zen meditation to refer to a kind of self-delusion resulting from an individual’s clinging to an experience; Director Mori is using it here referencing the manga’s original title “Tengoku Daimakyou” (天国大魔境) to denote the separation between Tokio’s storyline and Maru and Kiruko’s storyline, one being the “Tengoku” (Heaven) side, and the other the “(Dai) Makyō” side of the story] side and Tokio and the others’ “Heaven” side are two clearly separated settings, they both coexist in one work without feeling out of place. When you read one side of the story, you get more curious about the other. I think it’s amazing how despite the many elements that include foreshadowings, everything fits perfectly without any contradiction in one single work. You’re always curious of what will come next and want to keep reading more and more. 

— Which aspects did you pay particular attention to when adapting the original work into anime? 

First of all, I’d say the action scenes. I believe that by adding sound and movement they stand out even more, and that’s why there’s a point in making it into animation. So, I wanted to put my effort into it. Also, since a manga is fundamentally in black and white, I wanted to depict the ruined landscapes and the school facility, basically the world where they [the characters] live in, in an even more appealing way by adding color to them. 

— Each character that appears in this work has their own distinct personality. What kind of people do you perceive Maru, Kiruko and Tokio, the three main characters, as?

About Maru, I think he’s really pure and I feel like he doesn’t really know anything yet. He being comfortable and lighthearted is what makes his character appealing. I have the impression that, unaware of his past, meeting Kiruko he gradually developed a sense of self, and I wonder what would have happened to him if he’d never met Kiruko. I guess he would have just lived his daily life without ever experiencing any emotion.

On the other hand, Kiruko’s circumstances are very complicated, with a past too heavy to bear alone; so I believe Kiruko too, if not for meeting Maru, would have ultimately been crushed. It’s impossible to narrate these two characters separately, ignoring either one of the two. I think their relationship is mutually complementary. 

And, as for Tokio, she’s a purely adolescent character. Her purity is different from Maru’s; I feel like Maru, despite having experienced some pretty tough things, still retained his purity, whereas Tokio didn’t experience any pressure from the outside to begin with. I think her character represents the various interests and aversions that arise during adolescence.

— By the way, who is your favorite character, director Mori?

Personally, I like characters with a strong personality like the Academy’s Director and Juichi, whom Maru and Kiruko meet, simply because they’re fun to work with. However, I believe a lot of people like Mimihime; she feels like a heroine more than anyone else, and I feel like she’s loved.

~ I was inspired to become a creator by a university senior. ~

— What is it that made you pursue your current career? Please, tell us if there’s any work or creator that has inspired you.

Well, the reason was that the director of “Times of Eve” [“Eve no Jikan” (イヴの時間), 2008], Yasuhiro Yoshiura happened to be my senior at university. It’s not like we were actually in contact with each other, but I thought it was impressive that an individual could create something like that, so it might have been at that time that I started to think actually making it into my job. 

— Well then, is there any message you want to convey to the viewers through this work?

I believe the message (Masakazu) Ishiguro-sensei wanted to convey is already contained in the original work, and there’s nothing the (anime) production team has added to it, but this work really goes over plenty of topics, like calamities, technology, gender, and can be viewed from many different standpoints. I hope that, out of all these scattered elements, each of viewers will be able to pick one out and choose how to enjoy it themself, and I also believe this work has the capacity to allow that.Therefore, I believe that to convey all that without distorting it too much is my responsibility in making this anime. 

— Lastly, please tell us what to look forward to in the early part of the show.

As some foreshadowing is being set up from the first episode, I’d be happy if people could watch the show from various perspectives, like being interested in and curious about the mystery, or enjoying the storyline of Maru and Kiruko exploring the ruins, or many more. From the production-side of things, the first episode was the most difficult one to make. Since it’s the introduction to the story, I made it with the hope that people would fall in love with the world and the characters and would be intrigued to see what happens next. 

From episode 2 onwards, there will be action scenes and the story will move forward, so I believe each episode will provide easy to follow standouts. All of the staff has been working hard to make a show that won’t fall short of the expectations and that the viewers will be able to enjoy, so I really appreciate your support. 

Tatsuya Ishihara & Taichi Ogawa – Interview on Hibike! Euphonium Season 3

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Original interview from Animate Times published on April 13th 2024, titled: “Including the new character Mayu Kuroe, I want to portray each charcater as a human ―『Hibike! Euphonium 3』Director Tatsuya Ishihara x Assistant Director Taichi Ogawa Interview｜The interesting aspect of 『Eupho』is that, since many different situations are portrayed, it’s relatable from any perspective.”, original interviewer: Daisuke Marumoto; genga from Sakugabooru.

“Hibike! Euphonium 3” began airing on Sunday, April 7th. It’s the final installment of the greatly popular series about the youth of high school students devoted to the school’s Concert Band. It’s also the first TV series in 7 years and 3 months, since “Hibike! Euphonium 2”, and has already attracted a lot of attention with its first episode. 

In this second part of the Animate Times Interview Series [the first part consisted of an interview with Tomoyo Kurosawa, Chika Anzai and Haruki Ishiya] we present you an interview with Kyoto Animation’s Director Tatsuya Ishihara and Assistant Director Taichi Ogawa! We asked Director Tatsuya Ishihara, who’s worked as a director (chief director and supervisor in some other works), and Assistant Director Taichi Ogawa, who directed “Hibike! Euphonium: Todoketai Melody” and worked as the assistant director for “Sound! Euphonium: Special Edition ~Ensemble Contest~” which screened in theaters August of last year, about the highlights of the series from now on, while also touching the contents of the first episode that just aired. 

~ We can finally portray Kumiko properly. ~

— In this installment, Kumiko and the other main characters are third-year students, and the series is finally heading towards its conclusion. What are your feelings in regard to that?

Ishihara: It’s something I’ve experienced several times up to this point, but when I’m working on a project, I start to feel like I’m living inside its world, so when a series I’ve been involved in ends, I feel like it’s almost the actual end of the world; it’s like a real sense of loss. But well, my work is still ongoing now, so I don’t feel like this yet (laughs).

Ogawa: I, rather than feeling desolated, once a work is over, instead of just being consumed by it, I’m concerned about whether or not that work was able to leave something in the hearts of the people who watched it. I’m sure everyone has those kind of works that always remain in their heart, and I think there’s a reason, or some deciding factors behind that. What that is differs from person to person, but I’m working hard to create works like that, and hope that I’m able to convey that “something” to the people who watch them. 

— Oumae Kumimo, Kato Hazuki, Kawashima Midori and Kosaka Reina, who entered Kitauji High School in the first installment, have finally become third year students in this one. What kind of image do you want to portray of the four of them, now that they have grown?

Ishihara: I believe that growth is not about a person trying to change, but rather the changes in the environment around them. This time too, I believe that Kuimiko, Reina, Midori and Hazuki will change depending on the position each one of them will assume. It’s strange to say this when we’re the ones creating this work, but I don’t want (their growth) to feel artificial or contrived. I think to me it’s ideal when it’s like a simulation of sorts, where you have a particular setting where you throw in some characters with their personalities, and they start to act on their own. So it’s not like “I want to portray this character like this…” or something. But of course, everyone has grown. 

Ogawa: The third year of high school is a time when everyone has to think of their future and other various things, so it was interesting depicting that aspect of it, and I think that’s one of the highlights. 

— Compared to the change in transitioning between first and second year, the one between second and third year feels even more significant. 

Ogawa: That’s right. When you’re a first-year, you only have seniors [“senpai”], then in second year you have both seniors and juniors [“kōhai”], and in third year you only have juniors. I think the differences between these states are fascinating and make you think. 

Ishihara: I thought that the school system was a strict and stiff place, but if you look at it that way, it’s surprisingly not that bad, or rather it’s an interesting system. When you enter higher education like a university, even though you’re still a student, you’re basically almost an adult. As I was depicting the third year of high school, the period exactly prior to that, I felt that this time the relationship between Kumiko and Taki (Noboru)-sensei was pretty significant. 

— So, her relationship with Taki-sensei, the advisor of the school Concert Band, as an adult who’s close to her, will be featured in the series.

Ishihara: Perhaps because she’s about to become an adult, Kumiko’s eyes are turned towards him. Anyways, if I say anything more about the four main character’s growth, it would end up being a spoiler (laughs).

Ogawa: That’s because you let everything out, Ishihara-san (laughs).

— Then, out of these four characters, which one’s growth was particularly easy to figure out, or which character would you like to draw the attention to?

Ogawa: In think the one I want to stand out the most is Kumiko, after all. 

Ishihara: Yeah, you’re right. 

Ogawa: Now that we’ve reached the third season, we can finally portray Kumiko properly. I believe that’s the biggest thing. 

— At a roundtable discussion held before the first episode aired, Kurosawa Tomoyo-san, who plays the role of Kumiko, also said that this time too there are a lot of things to work hard on.

Ishihara: We really have to work hard all the time (laughs).

Ogawa: Kurosawa-san was really worried this time around, wasn’t she?

Ishihara: I was watching her as well, and felt that way too. Saying that Kumiko is feeling down would be misleading, but as the club’s president there are many things she has to worry about.

Ogawa: Kurosawa-san too seemed to feel exactly that.

Ishihara: I’d like to talk directly with Kurosawa-san and ask her how she actually felt about that (laughs).

~ Mayu Kuroe is not just a plot device. ~

— At the end of Episode 1, the new spotlight character Mayu Kuroe also made her appearance. Without entering the spoiler territory, tell me about her appeal or some aspects of how you’re depicting her. 

Ogawa: As the creator of the work, Mayu is a very difficult character. 

Ishihara: I, for starters, wanted to portray her in a cute way. 

Ogawa: That’s a unanimous feeling (laughs). Though, the same goes for every other character… Actually, it may not be appropriate to use the word “character” here, but I wanted to portray “Mayu Kuroe” as a proper, independent and self-reliant person. There are times (in other works) where a new character suddenly appears, seemingly to rival the protagonist, but as things go on, ultimately they end up being no match for the main character at all (laughs). 

— There are times where it feels like their [= the secondary characters’] presence is long gone by the middle-point of the story (laughs). 

Ogawa: I believe that kind of development is possible at times, due to the structure of a story, but that’s not the case for Mayu Kuroe. She’s a character that’s supposed to taste more strongly the more you chew it, so I hope you look forward to her. I think it’s gonna be a pretty controversial part, or rather, the way people who watch it will feel about it, will change depending on their standpoint and experiences. So, personally, I’m looking forward to seeing how everyone will feel about it.

Ishihara: Well, personally I like Mayu. 

Ogawa: She’s gentle and cute, and her temperament is pretty tender. But I think just learning that the transfer student plays the euphonium is enough to make people a bit nervous (laughs). To put it simply, she’s a mysterious character, and I believe that how all that will unravel, and also how Kumiko will receive it, are one of the highlights of this story. 

— Director Ishihara, you mentioned that you like Mayu, but what exactly do you like about her?

Ishihara: Well, a lot things (laughs). At first, I thought she was just a rival character to Kumiko, a mirror image of her. However, as he just explained, Ogawa-san really valued the human side of Mayu Kuroe, so I think she’s no longer just a plot device. 

— At last year’s “New Information Presentation” when it was announced that Haruka Tomatsu-san would have played Mayu’s role, Tomatsu-san said that before the recordings for the first episode, Ishihara-san said to her that “Mayu truly is a difficult character”.

Ogawa: You brought up this topic pretty roughly (laughs). 

Ishihara: I simply meant that, even though I said she’s a difficult character, if you try putting yourself in Mayu’s state of mind, you can understand her.

— So, she is not an alien-like incomprehensible person? 

Ishihara: Yeah, exactly. How Club President Kumiko will deal with her is one of the main aspects, I think.

— Including the four close friends Suzuki Kamaya, Yayoi Kamiishi, Kaho Hariya and Sari Yoshii, new first-year students have joined the club. Tell me about their appeal and the way you depicted them. 

Ishihara: I can’t help but empathize with Kumiko, so I end up seeing them from her perspective, but in that sense they’re a “somewhat troublesome and cute group” (laughs). 

Ogawa: Troublesome but cute, that’s exactly it (laughs). Also, the four of them are often together, and when it comes to each one’s personality, it’s just like how I said before with Mayu, I wanted to portray each one of them as a proper human. 

— Their relationship and interactions, with Suzume and Yayoi’s incomprehensible gags and Kaho easily laughing at them, is really cute. Is it difficult, on the contrary, to portray as entertaining gags that are confusing and hard-to-get?

Ishihara: But Kansai’s laughter is so infectious, isn’t it.

Ogawa: They’re like slip gags [すべり芸, basically, gags not meant to be “understood”, but rather to create an awkward atmosphere]. But Yayoi and Suzume are not making gags in order for others to get them; they simply let the words flow out as they feel. And then, to keep a good balance, Kaho’s there to laugh at them. Yayoi and Suzume sure are happy to make her laugh, but it’s not like they’re deliberately trying to achieve that result. 

— So, Kaho too isn’t doing that for them either, she genuinely finds them funny and that’s why she laughs, right?

Ogawa: Exactly. And then there’s Sari, who, being well used to that situation, is there to put things back in order (laughs). The balance between these four is very interesting, and I’d like people to simply enjoy this indescribably joyful space. 

~ I wanted the first episode to focus on the joy that “Eupho has begun!”.  ~

— Tell me what important points and aspects you wanted the first episode, which aired the other day, to mainly focus on. 

Ishihara:  After all, since this is the beginning of the story, we placed great importance on the relationship between Kumiko, Shuichi (Tsukamoto) and Reina, who are now the leaders of the Concert Band. 

— Assistant Director Ogawa, you were in charge of the storyboard and episode direction for the first episode. 

Ogawa: Personally, it was my first time storyboarding and directing the first episode of a TV series, but above all, I wanted to make an episode I myself would have been exited to watch.

Ishihara: First episodes are tough; you also have to properly introduce the characters. 

— First episodes tend to have lots of tasks that need to be addressed in them.

Ogawa: Sure enough there are those kind of tasks, or rather there are some aspects like the one of introducing the characters, but beyond that, I think the most important duty to me was to make it so that people would get immersed into its world. That’s where an episode director can really show off his skills… I did my best (laughs).
As Ishihara-san said, the positions of Kumiko, Shuichi and Reina have changed significantly from before, so while properly showing their relationship, I also personally sought to convey the joy that “Eupho has begun!”. 

Ishihara: Episode 1 had a special opening, and I think that it starting off with brass instruments was extremely exciting. 

Ogawa: Thank you very much. Also, third-year high school students are somewhat special, but at the same time they really aren’t, don’t you agree?

Ishihara: Huh? I think they are pretty special? I did feel special, like “ah, I’m already a third-year”. 

Ogawa: Well, of course there’s something special about it. I guess it’s that since it’s your third year experiencing high school life, you’re well used to it at that point. So, it’s indeed a special year, but in terms of school life and club activities, you’re the most used to it and can naturally fit in. I feel like at that point I was a little more conscious of that aspect as well. 

~ Even for those who have never seen Eupho before, the third season will still be interesting.  ~

— Was there a scene in particular you were especially focused on, in regard to the storyboard and direction of Episode 1?

Ogawa: I really put a lot of effort into the opening scene, which Ishihara-san also mentioned. Since it’s the very beginning of Season 3, I wanted to make something compelling that connected to a feeling of excitement. This kind of things are not decided or included in the script, so figuring out how to structure it by myself was the most difficult aspect of it.  

— I heard that for the regular opening that will play from Episode 2 onwards, Director Ishihara was in charge of the storyboard and direction, just like for the ones for the first and second seasons. 

Ishihara: I feel like that, when I was making it, I focused primarily on how to show Kumiko’s position. However, looking at the finished product, it felt like a look back at the past, it was a little heartrending. I wasn’t really conscious of this aspect (laughs).
Also, if you watch the opening again after watching every episode up to the last one, I believe you’ll realize what it’s all about. 

— You’re saying that if you watch it again after the final episode, the way you feel about it will change?

Ishihara: I think so. Also, TRUE-san (whose real name is Miho Karasawa) who wrote the lyrics for the opening song (“ReCoda”), as always, truly understood what this work is all about. That’s why I feel like, compared to the lyrics of all the Eupho’s songs up to this point, this time they have a little different perspective, and it might be fun if you watch the series while thinking what this thing I just said means. 

— Lastly, I ask you to give a message to the all readers who love “Hibike! Euphonium”, hinting some highlights from Episode 2 onwards.

Ogawa: I think you will enjoy it even more if you pay attention to the growth of every character. Also, I have the feeling that if you watch the episodes two or three times, you’ll be able to see different sceneries each time. I think there are many different ways to look at it, but there are also some things that you won’t be able to understand until you watch it to the end, so I’d be glad if you could watch it without missing anything. It’s been like this with all the previous series as well, albeit not always being about fun things (laughs). All in all, I think we were able to create a really good depiction of youth, so I hope you enjoy it until the end. 

Ishihara: As I said at the beginning, I feel somewhat sad thinking that a work I’ve been working on for nearly 10 years has reached its first chapter. However, I’m grateful that I was able to depict this story all the way to its end, and since I think the viewers too feel the same way as I do, to all the people who have been watching since the first season, I hope you enjoy it till the very end.
I also think that even for those who have never seen Euoho before, the third season will still be interesting. Anyways, since there’s the opportunity to watch the previous works on many different platforms, I believe you will enjoy it even more if you watch the first and second seasons first. As mentioned earlier, the third season becomes more interesting the more times you watch it; talking out of our experience, the dubbing process started around the time we finished making (the storyboard etc. for) the final episode, and during the recordings I ended up crying at scenes I didn’t expect to (laughs). So, I’ve first-handedly experienced how it gets more interesting when you watch the beginning again after knowing the ending. I’m sure everyone will feel this way too.

Ogawa: It’s like, being supplemented with many different information, you’re able to understand some things better by yourself. There are times when things unexpectedly come to your mind. So many different situations and positions are depicted in Eupho, and at times I thought that if I were to put myself in some of the characters’ shoes, I would have been to see things the same way they do. Eupho has been this kind of work since Season One, and in the making of it I was once again reminded that that’s what makes it such an interesting work. 

Keiichiro Saito & Shoji Hata – Interview on Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)

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Original interview from Animage (April 2024 issue), genga by Yoshihiko Matsumura.

~ We crafted it together while figuring it out. ~

— I’ve heard from the members of the cast that they tried to feel more natural in their acting, how did you decide on this direction for their performance? 

Saito: I didn’t specifically request for them to act in a more natural way; personally, I listened to what they proposed, and we crafted it while figuring it out. It wasn’t necessarily a direction I gave, but I remember saying something along the lines of “I don’t know who these words are gonna resonate with, so I want you to do it conscientiously”. Rather than having direct and powerful lines, I felt it was a work whose words could smoothly move you. 

Hata: That’s right, the original work itself has a superb choice of words, so there was no need to exaggerate the acting to convey the message. I think that’s what the cast interpreted as “to act naturally”.  

Saito: All the cast members were people with great sensitivity, so I was the one to learn a lot from them. 

— I would like to ask you about what you particularly paid attention to when directing the main characters. Let’s start with Frieren.

Saito: Frieren isn’t a very expressive character, and her lines too are rather abrupt most of the times; I think that’s because she doesn’t want to give off a bad impression and just wants to be liked. So I told (Atsumi) Tanezaki-san that Frieren conveys more human warmth through her mild voice than her facial expressions. 

Hata: Because of Frieren’s personality, and the fact that, being an elf, she lives much longer than humans, I thought she would end up sounding detached and cold. But she was well conscious of the balance in her output, despite her expression being a poker face all the time she does have emotions, she wants to express them but she’s certainly not a character that puts lots of effort in talking. 

— How about Fern? I think she’s a character who carries human potential and possibilities on her shoulders.

Hata: Stark is like that too, but Fern lives with the human perception of time and is present in the show since she was little, so, while casting, we looked for someone who could express her growth in a realistic way. I had the impression that (Kana) Ichinose-san’s cool and determined voice was really in sync with Fern. 

Saito: I’ve worked with Ichinose-san several times, and I believed she could really fit into Fern’s character. To Ichinose-san and (Chiaki) Kobayashi-san, who plays the role of Stark, I didn’t give any direction on how to craft their characters. 

Hata: During the recording, Kobayashi-kun payed attention to Tanezaki-san and Ichinose-san’s performances as he acted, and thanks to that, I feel that the balance between the three of them was really good. 

Saito: He himself said that as they started recording he could feel that the right atmosphere between Frieren and Fern was already present in the recording room. I think Stark too has a caring side, or rather, he’s good at reading the room, so they too were a good match. 

— What did you pay particular attention to when directing Himmel, who appears in almost every flashback scene? 

Saito: Himmel is not only cool, but also an interesting and approachable person, and that’s how I wanted to depict him, representing these characteristics of him. 

Hata: To Frieren, her journey with Himmel’s party is the basis of her current journey understanding humans. In a sense, Himmel is the representation of humanity. Most of the times when he appears in Frieren’s memories, he doesn’t look like a hero or a savior, but rather, he feels human. If one’s heroism can been switched “on” and “off”, she remembers only the times when Himmel’s was “off”. That’s why we asked (Nobuhiko) Okamoto-san to soften his acting a little.

— It is true that when Frieren recalls Himmel, it’s often in mundane and everyday contexts. 

Hata: There are some scene where he’s actually actively working, like fighting demons (laughs). However, Frieren is currently becoming aware and realizing the meaning of all her interactions with Himmel when he was “off”; I think this is a key aspect of this work.

Saito: Also, I think Himmel’s vanity for his handsomeness is a complex feeling, on one hand, it’s something that he lets out because he’s aware of his position as a hero, and on the other, he’s also saving himself by doing do. 

— You mean that he’s saving his actual self?

Saito: Himmel himself said something similar to this, living an honest life and helping others is something that will return back to you and connect you with the future; I think this is what he really feels and holds on to. Then there’s also the part of him that just wants to look cool in Frieren’s eyes (laughs). But I believe that’s just his way of showing himself in public, and not some mere narcissism. He clearly understands that his and Frieren’s perceptions of time are different, and there’s a hint of sadness in him as well; I think he’s a character that can’t be taken too naively. 

— In the currently airing “First-Class Mage Exam Arc” a lot of new characters have made their appearance.

Hata: I think that in the Exam Arc there are a lot of characters that stand out for their symbolic meaning, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear how every one of them is carrying their own life on their shoulders. I wanted to carefully portray these characters in a way they won’t just end up standing out for being flashy or funny. 

Saito: They appeared all at once, so at first I had a hard time grasping all the characters; there are also some of them who play an active role in episodes beyond what this anime will cover, and the more you dig into it, the more flavors you get out of them. It was fun thinking of how to depict the way they act now, taking into account their future developments.

Hata: All the cast members actively looked deeply into their roles, and I feel they really got into their characters. 

Saito: There weren’t many characters we had trouble casting for, it went quite smoothly. Kanne is the type of character (Azumi) Waki-san is known to be good at, so I didn’t have to give her that many directions for her dubbing. (Sayumi) Suzushiro-san usually acts the roles of lively characters, but on the contrary, I thought she was a good fit for Lawine. Lawine’s cynicism is kind of defiant, or rather, she gives off the impression she’s like a child being a little too hard on herself. I thought Suzushiro-san might be able to bring out Lawine’s bold front. 

Hata: When it comes to casting, I believe Serie was the most difficult one.

Saito: It was rather troublesome.

Hata: Serie is a character full of mysteries even in the original work, you know. It’s that type of character you even wonder whether it’s male or female, or neither of the two. We couldn’t quite figure out who Serie was, so it was a difficult character.

— What was the deciding factor in casting Mariya Ise-san?

Saito: While we were looking for candidates for the role of Serie, Hata-san proposed the name of Ise-san. 

Hata: Among the staff members everyone had their own ideas, we couldn’t agree even on the type of voice. We didn’t know what kind of person Serie was, but on the contrary, that meant she could have become any kind of person from that point on; that’s why I thought Ise-san might be a good fit. 

Saito: It’s the same for Frieren, elves as characters have an aloof side to them, but also are a bit inattentive, it feels like they do have a weak spot somewhere. Serie too is by no means flawless, there’s a cute side to her too. I believe Ise-san’s acting is the perfect for that compromise. 

~ It’s a show with some not-so-realistic breaks in it. ~

— I think the comedy in this work is also impressive, it makes you giggle, and the more lively gags are exquisite too. Are there any aspects in this regard you particularly focused on when directing? 

Saito: Hmm, I wonder… (laughs). It’s hard to put into words, but it’s not like I consciously tried to make it funny, it’s intrinsically amusing and that’s what I tried to do. Also, when I’m directing comedic scenes, I always think of my sister, or rather, I always feel that “if it makes my family laugh, then it is funny”.

Hata: Generally speaking, I believe the behaviors of characters in this work are very conscientiously thought, and they feel real. The comical scenes too are not symbolical, and don’t disrupt the natural flow of the play. It’s not like we intentionally hold back with the direction to make it funny in the little details, but it feels like that’s what happened as a result. 

Saito: There are scene where we made Stark raise his voice to make the gag stick out, but fundamentally it’s funny because everyone is so worked up. I think what makes the gags funny is that the earnest feeling behind them usually results in unexpected outcomes. 

— But that time in Episode 3 when Fern says “Gulp” out loud was a direction you gave on set, wasn’t it.

Hata: Yeah (laughs). 

Saito: Well, it was sort of a gamble. I didn’t know whether it was fun or not, but I wanted to do it. Frieren [the show t.n.] could have been made in a more realistic way perhaps, but I wanted to make it a work with some breaks in it. I wanted to show the audience a work where you could hear “Gulp” said out loud. 

— I heard that the soundtrack for the first four episodes that aired as the 2 hours special and for some of the other episodes as well, was composed in film scoring [composed while watching the footage t.n.] to match the images on screen.

Hata: That’s right. For the whole first special episode, I had the soundtrack composed in film scoring, and after that, as an extra, I had it done that same way for some other crucial scenes too. As a result, the soundtracks for the final stages of Episode 8, the scene of Himmel’s ring in Episode 14 and the dance scene in Episode 15 were all composed that way (laughs).

Saito: (Laughs). In Episode 8, Frieren, Fern and Stark take action separately, so, in order to reach the climax, I had them composing a pretty long track.

Hata: I asked to arrange it in a way that, when it changes tracks adapting to the scenes and dialogue lines, it would feel like one big flow.

Saito: For Episode 14, we were thinking of making it play along the flashback between Frieren and Himmel, but then I decided to build up the climax from the moment Frieren goes up into the sky, so that’s where the soundtrack starts playing. 

Hata: For the dance scene in Episode 15, I didn’t want a usual ball-like track; I wanted to depict the sense of distance between Fern and Stark. Considering all these subtle and complex adjustments we requested for, (Call) Evan-san was the right person for the job. Even for the initial film scoring, he did a great job of depicting Frieren’s slight change in mood and Fern’s body temperature changing.

— Is there any track composed in film scoring for the “First-Class Mage Exam Arc” as well?

Saito: No. In the second cour the drama has more continuity to it, so instead of using film scoring to make a single episode memorable, I chose to use single tracks in order to convey the flow of the story. 

Hata: In the Exam Arc, a lot of mages make their appearance and battles are more frequent, but that’s not what I wanted to emphasize, in fact, I thought of it in a way not to make it too catchy. Even in the first cour there were some bloody episodes and battles with demons. What I wanted to focus on was the story of Frieren, Fern and Stark’s journey, or that of Frieren becoming more caring of humans. 

— I see. Then, what aspects did you consider when selecting the tracks? 

Hata: The emphasis on following the scenes’ mood and feel might have been a little different from what you see in other works. I think Evan-san’s speciality is writing songs that are able to touch people’s heartstrings, so this time too I asked him to write tracks to fit not what was happening, but rather the emotions and feelings of the scenes. Even from Episode 5 on, I chose the tracks that were in sync with the emotions I felt. and used the same track for the other scenes that made me feel the same way. 

~ Direction techniques not to depict emotions in a tasteless way. ~

— Anime original scenes, like the cut in Episode 1 when Frieren looks at her ring during Himmel’s funeral, or in Episode 14’s when Frieren makes a surprised expression when Himmel kneels, have become hot topics. 

Saito: There are a lot of elements scattered throughout the original work, and all these points are often connected in a line. And in the anime adaptation as well, I wanted to convey the feeling of these points being connected, I wanted to make it so that not only were the episodes enjoyable one by one, but the series as a whole formed one single story. Adding the ring cut in Episode 1 was also meant to hint at the development in Episode 14. 

— This was already brought up in the cast interview, but by paralleling the key visual for the first cour to the cover of the first volume of the original work, I had the impression that making Himmel look towards Frieren in the KV depicted his feelings for her in an even more powerful way.  

Saito: Rather than making it feel more powerful, the idea was to make it more “noticeable”. Personally, I think that anime, unlike manga, is fundamentally more fleeting, it’s a one-shot deal. Unlike manga, that you can read at your own pace and re-read over and over, I believe that with anime, that cannot be watched at one’s own pace, the opportunities to go back and watch it again aren’t that many. That’s why, while making it, I wanted to include things that would catch people’s attention and stick out to them when they watch it. The design of the KV too is one of these things. 

— The sound of the bells when Himmel puts the ring on Frieren in Episode 14 was impactful as well. 

Saito: That was an idea of Episode 14’s episode director and storyboard artist (Shinya) Iino-san. 

— What was the intention behind it?

Saito: It’s just the chime of the city’s time signal, so I think the interpretation is up to the viewer. This is something that Hata-san has mentioned but, there aren’t many words that hint at romantic elements in this work to begin with.

Hata: I noticed this while reading the original work, but the kanji for “love” is never used even once. The same goes for expressions like “I love…” [in a romantic way t.n.]. 

Saito: Just the time they explain that the meaning of the mirrored lotus in the flower language is “eternal love”, and that’s about it. 

Hata: That’s right. Personally, I hope it’s because there’s something planned for the future in relation to that. 

Saito: Therfore, whether or not Himmel has romantic feelings for Frieren is, after all, up to interpretation. For the scene where he gives her the ring, I focused on what was happening rather than the emotional side of it. To expose those feelings in the anime adaptation seemed tasteless.

Hata: The original work isn’t concluded yet, it’s still in the process of building things up. Considering Frieren is the main character, the story may go on many hundreds of years in the future. I believe the contrast between the different perceptions of time of elves and humans too is an interesting aspect of the original work, so, as I was getting involved in this work, I internalized an elf-like perception of time and might have slowed down the tempo a bit in some parts.  

— In a scene in Episode 17, whereas in the original work Stark carries Fern on his shoulders, he carries her in his arms instead, why was it changed that way?

Saito: That was because Stark carries his axe on his back, so… (laughs). 

Hata: (Laughs).

— So, it wasn’t a depiction of Stark’s growth or something like that (laughs). 

Saito: I just thought Stark would do it that way, I didn’t mean to add any particular meaning to it. Well, it’s more gentlemanlike of him to carry her that way, isn’t it (laughs). 

— Also, it’s a minor detail, but I think in the anime, the farewells convey more a feeling of gratitude.

Saito: Like at the end of Episodes 11 and 17, right? I made those scenes focusing on the flow of the emotions, not for the sake of drama. Besides, in Frieren, encounters and farewells with people are something that’s constantly being depicted. I think that in a sense, it’s right, or rather natural, to end things with a farewell. 

— Lastly, a massage to all the readers that are supporting the anime? 

Hata: This work has a lot of static and dynamic parts, and it feels like the words and lines are chosen very carefully. I think that lines that become cues to notice something, or subtle changes in facial expressions, or the drama where, at first glance, nothing seems to be happening, but underneath, the emotions are moving greatly, are the fascinating and appealing aspects of this work. I believe we were able to gain this much support thanks to the viewers carefully paying attention and not overlooking all this.  

Saito: In the original work, you can understand and notice new things as you re-read it, so as the creator of the anime, there are several things I’m really glad I haven’t failed to notice. I was quite nervous that if I was missing something, it would have been some serious trouble (laughs). 

Hata: (Laughs). There are some scenes where the lines can be conveyed properly without necessarily playing a track in the background. Also, another feature of this work is its loose and relaxed portrayal of the passage of time, and I think that too is an aspect people will enjoy. 

Saito: Earlier I mentioned the connections between past and present in this series, and Fern’s growth being one instance of these. Up until now, Frieren has passed many things on to Fern, but the climax shows Fern achieving something by herself. I put effort into it, and hope it will be an emotional ending for those who have watched over Fern since her childhood. I’d be really happy if you payed attention to what Fern has gained as she grew. 

Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack - Genga (Amuro)

Yoshiyuki Tomino – Interview on Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack

Original interview from the 1988 MOVIC Cinemabook, transcribed from “Char’s Counterattack Complete Collection of Official Records —BEYOND THE TIME—” (2022).

This translation is pretty outdated and may contain some inconsistencies or inaccuracies! It might get a revision sometime in the future…

~ It became a story where I didn’t like Beltorchika to appear in any way, so I chose to leave her out. ~

— “Mobile Suit Gundam” is, as of now, composed of three series; where is this new movie “Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack” placed in relation to the aforementioned shows? 

Of course it’s not unrelated to them. It’s the successor to “Mobile Suit Gundam” and “Mobile Suit Z Gundam”. However, it does not inherit “everything” from them, “Char’s Counterattack” is a story that was constructed step by step. “Not everything” means things like why Beltorchika Irma, a character introduced in Mobile Suit Z Gundam, is not present in Char’s Counterattack. Basically, I can’t say it inherits everything in terms of how the characters were arranged. 

Why doesn’t it? Originally, it should have inherited everything, but when I initially wrote the script that way, it was rejected. If I had more freedom with that, and Beltorchika would have appeared as Amuro’s significant other, the two of them would have ended being married. Basically, if they were married, perhaps they also had lived together for a long while, and at that point the sponsoring company was doubtful that a protagonist like that could have worked in a robot movie. I thought it was a very reasonable doubt. But while I was actually working on the plan and writing the script for “Char’s Counterattack”, I couldn’t think of that much myself. Basically, because I imaged “Char’s Counterattack” to be the sequel to “Z Gundam” which was the sequel to the first “Gundam”, I was sure Beltorichika had to be there. However, when I realized it wasn’t appropriate to make her appear in this movie due to the aforementioned developments, I removed her from the story, and I also made sure not to mention any information about her character. If I still included things like that in the movie, it would have quickly exceeded the 2 hours limit. 

However, that wasn’t the only reason I stopped her from appearing in this movie. 

When I finished writing the first script, I realized there was another major problem: it ended up becoming a story where the human power was so strong that Mobile Suits weren’t needed anymore. This too would have been a critical issue for the affiliated company that kindly sponsored “Char’s Counterattack”. And for me as well, it was something I didn’t like. After all, it is “Gundam” because it has mobile suits, like the Gundam itself. 

Eventually, it became a story where I didn’t like Beltorchika to appear in any way, so I chose to leave her out. 

— It sounds like the result of really hard work.

Nevertheless, on the other hand, it’s also natural to wonder why I had to leave her out of the story for a reason like that. However, to me, a movie should fundamentally be a one-episode self-contained story. You might ask what the previous “Mobile Suit Gundam (I, II, III)” movies are then, but the difference is that they’re the remaking of the tv series. So, if you ask me if it’s ok for movies like that to exist, since I too make them, I’d say it is (laughs). But it’d be a problem if every movie was like that. Also, for me personally, I wouldn’t like people to think that even if, for example, I divided “Char’s Counterattack” in “Part 1” and “Part 2”, it would have still been profitable, and since I was making a movie to be the conclusion to the first “Gundam”, I wanted it to be a one-shot episode no matter what. 

In other words, if I had those claims on my part, and the affiliated company that invested in the project acknowledged them, I instead think that the story I proposed, in which Amuro may be married and the Mobile Suits are not needed, must have been suppressed. This isn’t a give-and-take situation, rather a requirement that must be met in order for the movie to succeed. 

I fully accepted all these things as I was realizing them myself, and I’m glad it turned out to be a lighter movie this way. If Beltorchika made her appearance in order to have more natural-feeling dialogues throughout the movie, it would have been a little different from the kind of movies you simply watch and enjoy, it would have been something more true-to-life. However, there are two editors currently publishing the novel versions of “Char’s Counterattack”, and I know that there already are a lot of opinions that the version of the story in the novels, where Beltorchika is present, is better. I think it’s a good thing. Now you might ask why I didn’t forcedly do it then, and that is because if I did, “Gundam” as a product wouldn’t have been able to go on. It’s not just for practical reasons like investors not putting their money in it; if I possessed the power to do that myself, and actually made that happen, I would have become unable to write anything about Mobile Suits at all after that. If you’re wondering whether a story that denies the role of Mobile Suits would still be good or not, after all, the answer is no. Basically, what needed to be included in the novel adaptation was the first version of the script I wrote. 

After all, a movie should not be made solely based on the ideas from a single staff member. For a movie, first you have to think of the audience, then come the investors and the director. Then many more people need to be involved, like animators, art directors, voice actors, and the people who took the recordings. If it was to be based on the preferences of only one person, then creating a movie wouldn’t need to involve that many people. But even so, ultimately, a movie is still influenced by its director’s intentions, so it can be said that it does belong to the director. The work of balancing these aspects is what makes a move so interesting. 

— You’re saying it’s the result of the intentions of many people, but it must also be the result of one single person’s will. 

There’s often debate about whether it’s right for directors to convey their egos into their movies or not, but the answer is no. If you look at successful movies, they’re made with the collective effort not to let individual egos shine. Those movies feel like actual movies because they’re made oppressing the director’s ego and accepting many different opinions. It’s when movies are made that way that I think they’re successful, and I believe “Char’s Counterattack” is like that too. At least, I believe it didn’t turn out to be that kind of heavy and painful works that just conveyed their director’s ideas. 

That’s why, in my case, I can only say that I couldn’t think of “Char’s Counterattack” as something to watch after the previous tv series, but I could only create it as a one-shot story that just inherited something from them. It’s not something to compare to the tv series, and at the same time it does not have incongruences with everything that has happened until now. It’s the only result of all these things. 

— New characters, like Quess Paraya, made their appearance in “Char’s Counterattack”, can you say something about them?

After deciding Beltorchika wouldn’t have appeared in the movie, I thought it was necessary to add something to spice up the film, and after all, a female character to shoulder the protagonist was what was needed, that’s why I made Chan Agi to be Amuro’s partner. 

Also, since “Char’s Counterattack” is the story between Amuro and Char, the characters are arranged in a very particular way so that they’re not simply divided into enemies and allies. In order to achieve that, when I was thinking of Char and the antagonist-side, I thought a character to form a connection between the two sides was necessary. When I was thinking of that character’s disposition, I couldn’t think of anything different than someone like Quess Paraya. So I made her a supporting character, so that even though the parties are divided into allies and enemies, there’s a connection between them. For that reason, if Beltorchika was to appear in the movie, she would have ended up covering the roles of both Chan and Quess by herself. Under such circumstances, a new character had to be introduced. And what I came up with after that was “Char’s Counterattack”.

— Besides Beltorchika, what about the other characters from the previous “Gundam” and “Z Gundam” that didn’t make an appearance?

While making “Char’s Counterattack” I didn’t think at all of the other characters. As for why I didn’t consider other parts, this is also my personal opinion but, movies should have a good pacing, and if I had to expand on other parts as well, the pacing would have gotten worse, and on top of that, considering I knew for certain that drawings and animation wouldn’t have been completed in time, I removed most if not all of the parts that felt superfluous.  

Well, the running time of the movie was exactly as I planned. The cuts that got removed were about 300, all originally prepared because they were necessary to explain things like the human relationships between characters in the movie, there was no element [that got removed] other than that.

~ I believe that if they work hard and get their job done, and gain experience from that, truly amazing animation can be produced. ~

— What do you think about the production staff? 

The fact that there are seven animation directors who worked together is clear to anyone who watches the movie. As for why there were seven of them, it’s simply because no animation director alone was able to do as good as Yoshikazu Yasuhiko did with “Gundam”. At the same time, creating something like “Gundam” after Yasuhiko, would require a tremendous amount of strength. The reason for this is that “Gundam” has a certain volume to it. Expecting people who are barely 25 years old to be able to handle that kind of work would be a pretty cruel thing. As the production process continued, what made an impression on me was that especially in the first four months, to put it bluntly, not a single cut was completed. Supposing things were going smoothly, over these four months I believe even the after recording and dubbing processes would have been completed to a good extent. 

As for why it ended up like this, there are many other reasons. Anyways, regarding only the “Gundam” part, it had a “certain volume” to it, meaning it was pretty demanding work, and because of that the staff must have been nervous and even if they tried their best, they couldn’t make it. That one cut took a lot of time and even when it was finished, the end result wasn’t really great. 

In short, the desire to work harder made them waste more time. It’s the same thing I said earlier, when I wrote a version of the story in which Beltorchika appeared as the first script. I wanted to do my best and I had to, so I ended up writing a story in which Amuro had become like an old man, all to be told in the end that that kind of thing couldn’t have worked in the movie; in this exact same way, everyone was burdened with that cut and couldn’t move on at all. In other words, this proves that wanting to do your best only by yourself will never bring good results.

If that wasn’t the case then, someone experienced like me should have seen this situation coming and prevented it, and I deeply regret I didn’t. As a result, I felt that young people were put under undue pressure. I am sorry for what happened. When I saw all those young staff members of today being stuck trying to do their best, I thought they must have been all very nervous. However, feeling this nervousness when doing business is extremely troublesome. It becomes a negative factor. All this nervousness creates is a loss in terms of time and money, and these inconveniences end up affecting even other aspects like the post-recording and dubbing, creating even more inconveniences to other people. My message to all staff members is to try to maintain a good balance in this regard. 

And also, when it comes to work, it is also a problem to take things too seriously. In other words, I think that all the staff needs to be trained in order to become able to skillfully handle this middle-of-the-road aspects, and if they got trained like that, most of the staff members that worked on “Char’s Counterattack” would become able to effectively utilize their skills in the field to complete their works. There are some exceptional individuals, but most people already possess really good skills and understanding of the fundamentals of animation. I believe that if they work on two or three more projects like this one, and gain more experience, truly amazing animation can be produced here in Tokyo. This isn’t just cheap flattery. That’s why I want them to take real care of the power they have right now. 

— Moving on to another topic, did you as the Director draw designs or rough sketches for this project? 

No, I don’t do that kind of work anymore. That’s because it’s no longer at a level an amateur can handle, so I don’t get my hands on it anymore. However, as I said earlier when we were talking about the staff, the main trouble was that, although the skill level of each individual has improved greatly, unfortunately, they neglected the more fundamental issues and focused only on the less relevant and smaller details. That’s no good. Because of that, they had hard times especially with the mechanical design. To the point they felt genuinely angry. 

I recognize that the animation, or rather, the drawings that form the animation are really good. But the essential thing is that this is animation, you don’t have to draw with an illustration-level finish. That’s not animation, that’s illustration. You can’t make drawings like that move. That’s why they’d come to a point where almost no one could think of the action lines for the animation. Moreover, even if you know how to depict the movements that have been popular in tv animation for the past two to three years now, that’s not animation. There are a lot of people who, in order to learn just that technique, have forgotten how to do ordinary animation. 

Even when it comes to mechanical design, I know they’re supposed to draw mobile suits and mechs with a new and fresh feel to them, but when I look at the designs, I feel I’ve already seen them somewhere before. The details on the exterior are drawn in a cool and meticulous way, but in the end if you remove everything on the surface, it’s just the copy of another character. That’s why I want people to understand not to let details fool them, and that a design detailed like an illustration can’t be made to move around in animation. 

The end result is that the animation of the last few years, especially the one that comes out of the world of video editing software, all looks the same. It’s not an independent work. 

However, I’m not doing any design work myself. It’s all done by the individual designers. Anyways, because we had to spend so much time just to get to that point, the finish ended up being a bit sluggish, and the fact that it wasn’t really an independent work was painful.

— Going back once more to the work itself, it looks like “Char’s Counterattack” brings a breakpoint in “Gundam”, did you feel something in this regard?

Unfortunately, after finishing editing this film, I realized I didn’t really hit a breakpoint with it, so I don’t have that kind of feelings about it. To be honest, now that the prologue is finally over, I’m just looking forward for “Gundam” to start all over again. 

I’ve come to the realization that I myself have been living inside of “Gundam”. 

— What do you want people to see in “Char’s Counterattack”?

The reason I made this movie is that I wanted the audience to see it and I had something to tell them through it, so all I can say is please watch it. And whether they like it or not, it’s not just the audience’s business. As the creator, I can only ask “I made the work this way, what do you think?”. If it was just to say “I made the work this way, so please understand it”, I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to make a whole movie, I would have just written a publication or a novel, and a pamphlet with dozens of pages explaining what I meant to write in the movie. But if I did that, there would have been no reason to make the movie at all, and if there’s no movie, there’s no pamphlet either, so that would have been a contradiction (laughs). 

Also, those who have already watched “Char’s Counterattack” will understand, but I really don’t know whether the things I did in the movie, like withdrawing Beltorchika or the last scene with Amuro and Char, are good or bad. I’m not saying I just summed it up and made it that way. The screening time was limited to at most two hours. If I wanted to add more details, it would have exceeded that time limit. It might have been possible to create a great work even exceeding the time limit, but I didn’t have the self confidence to do so. 

Anyways, it’s not related to the main body of the work, but there’s something on a technical extent I would like people to notice. My approach in direction for this movie was to make it look like a regular animation movie. I can say with total certainty that there’s no basis to say this is a just regular movie, however, I thought this kind of baseline would have worked, so I made “Char’s Counterattack” this way. This type of technical attention, like how the drawings are connected to each other, should be reflected on the screen. 

If possible, it would really be educational if, instead of thinking “why does it look like this?”, you thought “what did the director do to make it look like this?” and tried to figure out the answer. However, this is something highly technical that cannot be really put into words. Even if I explained it, it would be really hard to understand, instead I would really like you to learn it by looking with your own eyes. If, while watching “Char’s Counterattack”, you felt something was strange, like how it looked or didn’t look like a regular movie, that’s what I’m talking about. Also, if you wondered how the story of the movie seemed to fly by so quickly, if you pay special attention to it, you will understand how to connect the moving drawings together [to make it feel so quick T.N.]. When you’ll have the chance to make a movie in the future, that will become some very remarkable knowledge to have. 

~ If I were offered to make a live action robot movie, I would want to create a work that doesn’t let the animation say anything. ~

— Except for your own works, what kind of other works do you like?

Speaking of movies, I don’t like them to a point I can actually say “I like it”. However, if it’s just a matter of preference, I would say I like the black-and-white version of “King Kong” that was produced in the United States in 1933.

— Did “King Kong” have any influence on you as a movie creator?

I wouldn’t say so. And that’s because it’s a movie with a low degree of perfection. However, I like it because it conveys something that makes me feel like saying “I love King Kong”. I guess that’s what movies are all about, that feeling of having fun. Also it’s because I think the stupidity of the people who created such movies, still in black and white, at the time when talkies (vocal films) began to spread before World War II, might be the true spirit that animates filmmakers at their core. 

Accordingly, that’s why I really hate the color version of “King Kong” that was shot on 70mm film. As for why that is, [in the b&w 1933’s version] their true intentions were unusually apparent and the unhinged nature was on full display, if it were me I would think that was great, and their attitude towards their work was totally positive. In other words, now that color film has become commonplace and anyone with the right financial backing can set up such a large location, arrange a 70m camera and do it, I can’t stand hearing the staff from that movie saying that was the real “King Kong”. 

— Is there a recent movie that caught your attention?

I told you, I don’t really like movies, so I think that last year (1987) I haven’t watched a single one…

Oh, I forgot to mention, when it comes to movies, horrors are absolutely a no go for me.

— Is that because they don’t personally suit your personality? 

Rather than not suiting my likings, I just can’t bear them. So when I accidentally went to watch “Alien”, I was so scared that I closed my eyes for about an hour (laughs). I’m just that kind of person (laughs).

— There’s quite the difference in genre between “Alien” and “Alien 2”, the latter being more of an action movie. What’s your opinion on “Alien 2”? 

“Alien 2” is kind of a stupid movie (laughs). At least I’m glad it wasn’t that scary. The first one was really scary… I want to whack whoever makes it air on tv. Don’t you think? But when it’s broadcast on TV, it’s not that scary. Isn’t that callous approach the same as the callousness of the color version of “King Kong”? 

Anyways, I really don’t watch many movies. Of course I do have interest in the ones I work on and I’m glad if they do well, but generally I hate even my own films. That’s because if I end up liking my own movie and get absorbed into it, I always have the fear somewhere in my heart that I won’t be able to come up with the next one. 

And yet, when I watched “Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space” about four or five years after its release, I was moved (laughs). “There really are people who can make such great movies out here, that’s remarkable”, I thought (laughs). Basically it’s because I hate them for a while, that somehow I don’t see them as my own work. In that sense, I am a relentlessly forgetful person (laughs). 

— Lately, “RoboCop” has been a hot topic when it comes to movies, it’s a shame that robots, a speciality of animation, has been stolen by live action movies, don’t you think? 

I knew this was going to happen three or four years ago already. I’m angry at myself for not making “Live Gundam”. Perhaps if the talks for “Live Gundam” had been concluded well, it could have been released around fall of last year.

— Do you think animated robots can break out of the current difficult situation?

No, they cannot. There’s no clear reason why. But it’s definitely the case. For example, if I were offered to do a live action robot movie, I would want to do it. If that happens, I would like to create a work that doesn’t let the animation say anything. I think I’ll have that kind of opportunity sometime before I die (laughs). 

There’s a part of me that foolishly believes that. It’s also true that I would like to believe that even right now, from a practical standpoint. I would like to think about what the mechs would be like in such situations. Maybe not right now that “Char’s Counterattack” just got released, but when summer comes I would love to forget about my current job and think more about that. Maybe this joke will turn out to be true in the future (laughs). Even though I don’t know how far in the future it may be, since I believe it, I’m already starting to make plans. 

In that sense, if the staff who helped with “Char’s Counterattack” works on several other animation products over the course of, say, three years from now, and doing so also learns the skills to create real animation, and becomes able to make a real movie, then, when that time comes, it’d may be possible to create an [animated] movie that can silence the live action robots produced by Hollywood. 

Actually, I do believe that’s possible. In fact, I would love to make an animated movie that even makes people want to see a live action adaptation of such a movie instead. And this means that if you don’t believe in this like the joke I talked about earlier, you have to seriously plan a route to this end. If you just have a vague idea to do something, you’ll get nowhere. I believe it can be done. 

— After all, if you don’t start thinking about it, it’s not fun. 

It’s not that it’s not fun, it’s that you won’t be able to take it seriously unless you think about it. It is because we believe in this that we are able to create things.

~ If Char was really a lolicon, he would have teased Mineva and it would have been a rotten story. So, let’s assume he forgot about her. ~

— Let me change the topic back to “Char’s Counterattack”; I would like to hear something about the voice actors.

Well, I had no freedom in that regard anyway. I mean, some of the voice actors were already an obligatory choice, right? A lot of them, actually. As a filmmaker, when creating a new movie I want to refresh things a bit. And first of all, there were a lot of characters that appealed to me in that sense. On top of that, to select the voices for the new characters, I had to listen to about 80 audition tapes, but I had the impression that the new aspiring voice actors sound all the same, they all act the same way. But for this movie, we had no choice but to use this kind of cast. It really bothers me from the bottom of my heart. 

However, this does not mean there is something wrong with the people who performed in “Char’s Counterattack”. On the contrary, there isn’t anything wrong at all with the people who played the roles. What I’m trying to say is that new options have become so narrow. Also, I would have loved to work with a young, fit-looking girl (laughs). However, I couldn’t abuse my authority to that extent (laughs). In other words, the pool of voice actors has become narrower. It’s the same thing I talked about before regarding the animators. Well, it made me realize that the nature of various things has become narrower nowadays, and also that we need to create a world where we can work with people with different tastes and characteristics. Compared to about 4 years ago, it seems like there are fewer options, and it really came in as a surprise to me. 

After all, the cause of this are the new tendencies like to have a predetermined image of what animation is, or for production companies to bring in cute girls, and I would want this to stop immediately. I would like to say that animation is not a place as narrow as this. Anyways, this is not a problem for the individual voice actors to solve, but for the animation industry as a whole.

— It’s similar to the idol singers being all the same type of cute girls, isn’t it? 

Yes, it’s exactly the same. Whether they’re good singers or not is a problem that comes after. This kind of thing depend on the horizons and personal fondness of the people at the top who select these girls.

— For this movie, the dubbing process lasted for three whole days, right? 

If you ask me, three days were not enough. But there are many practical issues regarding budgets and guarantees in the Japanese television and animation industry, so we could not ask for any more than that. That’s the current state of things, and I hate it. However, I also think I understand that everyone else too isn’t working under ideal conditions.

— Not to ask about the parts of the story that weren’t depicted this time, but I’m really curious as to why Mineva Lao Zabi wasn’t there alongside Char. She would be already 14 years old, so she should be old enough to express her thoughts on her own now, right? 

Well, about that. I didn’t make her appear because of my personal preference, so I didn’t mention anything about her. If I did that, it would have ended up becoming the story of Char and Mineva. And that’s an entirely different story. If Amuro were to interfere in such a story, it would have only become more complicated. It would have ended up in a similar fashion as that feeling of intricacy and confusion when Haman Karn appeared in “Z Gundam”. So I instinctively avoided writing a story like that. 

So then, in response to the question of what kind of relationship is there between Char and Mineva in “Char’s Counterattack”, ultimately, Char solved his issues with the Zabi family, so even making him kill Mineva wouldn’t have made sense as any kind of vengeance story at all, so think that he just let her be or forgot about her. Otherwise, the story would have easily focused on how tragic of a character Mineva is, and I didn’t want to dive into that kind of thing. 

It’s briefly mentioned in the movie, but if Char really is a lolicon, for better or worse, he would teased Mineva. She would have been harassed and tormented, or even molested. But either way, it would have been a torture for her. I personally don’t like stories like that. This kind of desire to portray the inherently sadistic side of humans doesn’t really suit robot stories. So, let’s assume that Char forgot about her. Otherwise, it would be a rotten story…

Obviously, I completely understand your interest to know about the story of the two of them. Maybe it’s because “Char’s Counterattack” has finally left my mind, but the truth is that I could create another story about both Mineva and Char. 

— Mineva too is a character with a considerable weight in the story, isn’t she?

For this very reason, isn’t it okay for at least one little girl to be forgotten for once? In Beltorchika’s case, I had plans for her but then withdrew them, so it’s fine. I guess it’s because this aspect of choosing which character to pick up is an inherent trait of “Gundam” as a work. That’s why I think I shouldn’t always use every single character. I feel like if I did everything too methodically, it would become an unhealthy practice. I think I’ll definitely include Mineva in the extra edition and deal with her… no, I won’t (laughs). 

Anyways, if I were to deal with her, I would probably do it with an adult Mineva. Otherwise it’ll end up naughty and I’ll feel bad, so I’d wait for her to come of age and not be a child anymore. Once you become an adult, it’s okay for you to decide things by yourself. Now that I have this idea in my mind, I’ll use it for the next “Gundam”… (laughs).

~ Even if Amuro and Char died in “Char’s Counterattack”, their existence will never disappear. ~

— Well then, lastly, I wanted to ask about Amuro and Char in “Char’s Counterattack”, which of these two characters do you personally prefer?

Well… as their creator, I shouldn’t answer that; I know them both very well. Anyways, Amuro is an ordinary character, while Char is more like a recipient for the desires and ambitions of many people. However, everyone knows that to become something like Char is highly dangerous, so I have the feeling that if I have to choose which one I prefer, Amuro would be my choice. Also, Char as a person is what I tried to become myself, and since I couldn’t, sometimes I feel like I can’t stand that bastard. This is just a comparison between the two, but I really cannot say which one of them I like the most in my heart. 

However, as a deep emotion I feel towards both of them, I do feel both Amuro and Char did a great job until now. I also think there is some problem with the meaning of “Counterattack” in this movie. 

— I believe that at their core, their personality is the same for both of them. Did you make them with this in mind? 

If that’s what you feel, there’s nothing I, as the creator, can say. But it’s not like I made them with that intent in mind.

— There have been moments when I figured it wouldn’t be strange if the two of them were swapped. 

I see, I too totally understand that. That’s why Amuro and Char should be able to become good friends. Yet, people with the same “character” can never become one. Especially in a community, whether it’s a nation or a company, only one person can stand at the top. The remaining people have no choice but to become their assistants or subordinates. But Amuro and Char are both men who stand at the top. And that’s exactly why they can’t exist simultaneously. To make that possible, it would take the world to change. 

Ultimately, “Gundam” is a war story because mobile suits are there; if I were to depict only Amuro and Char in a different way than the others, it would no longer need to be a war drama. That’s right, “Gundam” has created a world that led to characters like those two to appear, in other words, it gave life to characters whose personality even I cannot change. In that sense too, it was impossible for me to deliberately mess with them.

— It often happens that characters become independent from their creator. 

Yeah, it’s like that. It’s not as easy as it sounds on the surface, but it’s definitely as you said. They exist as humans with actual personalities. That’s why even if Amuro and Char died in “Char’s Counterattack”, their existence will never disappear.

— Thank you for your time. 

Masakazu Ishiguro & Akiyuki Shinbo – Interview on Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (And Yet the Town Moves)

Original interview from Shinbogatari (2012), check it out on the SoreMachi fansite too!

This translation is pretty outdated and may contain some inconsistencies or inaccuracies! It might get a revision sometime in the future…

~ While I was watching the anime, I was reminded of the feelings I had during the original serialization ~

— First of all, congratulations for concluding the anime series “Soredemo Machi ha Mawatte Iru”.

Ishiguro: I watched the anime every week, not by recording of the episodes, but in real time right when they were airing. Though, the airing time for SoreMachi got changed and it broadcasted too late in my opinion (laughs). Due to sports programs, it slowly got delayed further and further and at times it even aired after 3 AM… It was tough…

Everyone laughs.

— I’ve already asked this before, but what’s the most dear thing to Director Shinbo about SoreMachi? 

Shinbo: Getting involved with it. This time I did a lot of unusual things, I wanted to create a film filled with the ideas and feelings of the whole staff, one that would have made everyone delighted once it was completed. That’s the basic idea behind SoreMachi.

Ishiguro: Watching the SoreMachi anime, I was reminded of what I thought I wanted to do in the beginning. In fact, as the series goes on, different elements like school-life and SF are presented, and the story explores various directions. But, the anime mainly focuses on the initial chapters, so while I was watching it, I was reminded of my feelings at the beginning of the manga. At first, in SoreMachi I drew a lot of the Made Cafè in the Shopping District. At the very beginning, before the serialization even started, I planned of having Hotori not wearing maid clothes that often, I wanted her to wear them only in the most critical moments. Like the Battle Protector in Future Police Urashiman. The Battle Protector gets used only once in the 10th episode, right? (laughs). That’s about what I felt I wanted to do. But well, due to the editor’s demands, that ended up not being the case.  

Shinbo: I heard that Naoyuki Tatsuwa-san, the series director, worked so excessively hard that he almost got some bald spots in his hair.

Ishiguro: Tatsuwa-san also put on some weight, didn’t he. He was so thin when I first met him. As far as I know, his whole body got bigger. 

Shinbo: Also, Yasutoshi Iwasaki-kun, the chief animation director, did his absolute best. He actively participated and made great efforts with the parts we struggled to picture. For example, he helped out with dubbing synchronization and other small and fine details. He was like an all-rounder. I’m really grateful. 

Ishiguro: The animators’ drawings thrilled me a lot. They animated characters walking around while wearing a purse, or singing while playing the bass, I think it’s impressive how they were able to pull that off. I too, when I was still in school studying under Toshiyuki Sato-san, have drawn some animation, but I couldn’t really make such sakuga. 

Shinbo: Ishiguro-san, are you still interested in working as an animator?

Ishiguro: It’s not like I’m not interested, but I’m a mangaka, so… I think it’s better to leave anime to the people who are competent in the field. Hotori and the others are more cute in the anime (laughs). I think my contribution would be superfluous. 

Shinbo: Which parts do you think were cuter?

Ishiguro: I thought “oh, I lost” in Part A of the first episode, when Tattsun turns this way while puffing out her nose. It was so cute I hurried up and took a screen capture and saved it.

Shinbo: Up until now, I used to make products that relied on the right tempo and ratio between cuts to create animation, without actually using movement. But with SoreMachi, I tried a different approach focusing on the character acting, with more dynamic facial expressions and gestures. Also, I thought it would be a good thing to convey a somewhat detective-like ambience so, in order to convey a slightly mysterious feeling, I used reflections on door knobs or glass and lower camera angles. For the DVD/BD version, I wanted to redo the photography all over again, and applied new filters to the compositing. Back in the days, there was an actual gap between the cels and the lens of photography machine, so the ambience was naturally put into it. But now, unless you put on filter during compositing, you can’t quite convey the right atmosphere.  

Ishiguro: Since when anime became digital, drawings are made with clicks and some aspects of it have lost their appeal, haven’t they. Personally I like anime from the hand-made cel times better. 

Shinbo: Now it’s more difficult to understand how good the film sensitivity is. Now, watching TV programs, I too am unfortunately getting used to see digital drawings, to the extent some times I even do want to watch those made-with-clicks drawings. It’s really sad. 

~ It might have become the most mysterious story of SoreMachi ~

— Well, then. Today I would like to hear about the point of contact between the anime SoreMachi and the original manga. One example is the 9th episode in the anime and manga chapter 71. 

Shinbo: The “Bechiko Yaki” from episode 9, right? 

Ishiguro: That was an idea that Director Shinbo told me about a long ago. Eventually, other people were about to use that same idea, so I wanted to do it first. 

Shinbo: It was about having the manga version by Ishiguro-san being published in the Young King OURs magazine, and the anime version broadcasting immediately the next day. I’ve always sat on the idea of releasing the anime and manga in the same season while working on an anime adaptation. But I didn’t think there would have been a busy mangaka down to help me realize it. It was a really difficult thing, but Ishiguro-san said he definitely wanted to do it. I believe people who were up to date with the Young King OURs manga magazine and then watched the anime version right after were surprised. Because we wanted to see those astonished expressions (laughs) we both worked hard. 

Ishiguro: I came up with the “Bechiko Yaki” story after this whole thing was planned. I wrote it already knowing it was going to be adapted into anime, so it took me quite some time to finish writing the draft. I dragged it for so long it was almost too late when I presented the work to the anime staff. 

Shinbo: Based off the draft Ishiguro-san gave us, Takayama Katsukiho-san (the series’ scriptwriter) wrote the actual script and from that we completed the storyboards. It was an original episode, so later while Ishiguro-san was checking the manuscript, adjusting things to make it more coherent and consistent.

Ishiguro: Half a year before I finished with the draft, then I wrote the manga manuscript in October 2010. I wanted to make a self-contained story completely detached from everything else. And I also wanted the characters not to have a proper introduction. That’s why I chose Kameidou, who has very few appearances, as the main character. 

Shinbo: This episode was an original, so new characters models were necessary. The character design drafts Ishiguro-san gave us were already colored in anime-style. 

Ishiguro: I thought it would have had a certain appeal to the anime industry (laughs), I put lots of effort drawing them.

Shinbo: That story might have become the most mysterious story of SoreMachi.

Ishiguro: You’re right. It might also have surpassed “Hole” (episode 10 Part A) (laughs).

Shinbo: The anime staff was bewildered, wondering what Bechiko Yaki were (laughs). 

Ishiguro: They’re mythical sweets (laughs).

Shinbo: During production, we were lost about what color they actually were, physically speaking.

Ishiguro: After completing the draft, I worked at the manga as usual but… I thought of them with the assumption that they would be colored, so Bechiko Yaki’s real color was truly a big trouble (laughs). After all, manga is in the black and white world. 

Shinbo: I would definitely like to compare the manga and anime versions. 

Ishiguro: Personally I’m curious about the anime staff’s reactions. Takayama-san’s reaction was merely just “It’s white, it’s white”, I want to know about other people’s reactions as well. 

— Anyways, the subtitles for the SoreMachi anime are a bit odd, aren’t they? Like “The Most Popular Sexual Harassment Trial” or “The Cat Boy”.

Ishiguro: Those are Director Shinbo’s conspiracies (laughs). For the anime subtitles, there was a rule that the original subtitle for Part A and the original subtitle for Part B must be combined into one.

Shinbo: When I was thinking about what to do with the subtitles, accidentally I realized how good combining the two subtitles “Hole” and “Grandpa Tsukkomi” into “Grandpa Tsukkomi Hole” sounded.

Ishiguro: And so, to follow the scheme of this “Grandpa Tsukkomi Hole” subtitle, Director Shinbo stick with the rule of combining the two of them into one (laughs). For example, episode 7 “Lovers Night Escape” comes from “Romantic Runaway” and “Night Walker”, and episode 8 “Automatic Orchestra” is the combination of “Automatic World” and “Labyrinth Orchestra”. The audience too began to realize the patter, but for episode 9 they couldn’t put it together (laughs). 

Shinbo: Episode 9 “Duel! Adults Buying Plan” was the latest chapter in the manga that wasn’t yet included in the tankobon (laughs). 

Ishiguro: Episode 11 “Kon’s Summer Crying” come from “Summer of Josephine” and “Kon-Senpai’s Silent Rage” but at first the original subtitle idea was “Josephine’s Summer Crying”. That one was pretty fun.

Shinbo: The last episode’s subtitle “SoreMachi” was nicely put together as well! Ideas like this always come while eating dinner together after reading a book.  

~ I believe Omigawa-san’s voice was a stroke of luck ~

— Speaking of dinners, Ishiguro-san and Director Shinbo, I heard you meet often and had dinner together.

Shinbo: We do meet a lot. We used to met with the excuse of gathering material, and after that we went out for dinner. 

Ishiguro: Even when Director Shinbo was collecting materials on his own, I rushed over (laughs). When we meet, we discuss our impressions upon watching the SoreMachi anime and chat a lot. At times I want to send him emails, but then I think Director Shinbo is a very busy man and end up not sending it. 

Shinbo: It’s fine at anytime. Please, send me emails. 

Ishiguro: Well then, I’ll send very brief, concise and simple mails.

Shinbo: No no, long texts are fine too (laughs). Recently though, when me and Ishiguro-san go out to eat together, the rest of the staff won’t come with us. However, it’s not like just anyone is fine, after all it’s better to be with someone who can praise you (laughs). If you don’t get to be praised, then it’s fine even if no one comes at all (laughs). 

Everyone: Uh?? (laughs)

Shinbo: When I was young, when someone praised me I used to think it might have been a lie, but lately I grown to accept compliments more honestly (laughs).

Ishiguro: I too am concerned about the reception of my work. At first, I looked up for opinions on the internet and read them. But my master Shinji Ohara-san says that if you worry about your recognition too much, the gap between what your fans want you to draw and what you want to draw gets bigger, and you end up not being able to draw manga anymore. So I haven’t looked for opinions on the web for 5 years now. But since the anime adaptation., I’m reading a lot of impressions and comments about it online (laughs).

Shinbo: Why is that?

Ishiguro: Well, when it comes to anime, a lot more people are involved and your personal responsibility is lower; I think that’s the reason. Probably, because of that I feel more at ease (laughs).

Shinbo: I read opinions on the internet from time to time, but not so many about SoreMachi. I stealthily look for them too some times, but it’s not really a good thing for your mental health. 

Ishiguro: SoreMachi’s reception is pretty good. I believe its reputation got better with time. From the second half of the show, the appreciation for the voice actors got incredibly high. 

Shinbo: I personally agree with the characters and characters being popular. 

Ishiguro: Speaking of voice actors, I recently listened to the character song album from “Natsu no Arashi!” the Director gave me. A song I thought was super cute was sung by Chiaki Omigawa-san (Hatori’s VA). Then I listened to another song and I found that one super cute as well, and it too was by Chiaki Omigawa-san… Perhaps I really like Chiaki Omigawa-san’s voice (laughs). 

—  In Ishiguro-san’s mind, Hatori’s voice was a strong one, right?

Ishiguro: That’s right. Years ago, when I was watching Variety Bangumi at midnight, I noticed the narrator had the perfect voice for Hotori. So, I hurriedly made a recording and said to the editor in charge at the time that was about my idea for Hatori’s voice. Then, when I was attending the voice actors auditions for this anime adaptation, there was a person whose voce was identical to the one I heard. That person was Chiaki Omigawa-san. I believe it was a stroke of luck.

Shinbo: I think Chiaki Omigawa-san fits Hotori perfectly. Speaking of V.A. from the “Natsu no Arashi!”’s character song album, Ryoko Shiraishi-san was a good fit too. 

— In SoreMachi, Ryoko Shiraishi-san has voiced Harue Haribara, right? 

Ishiguro: My wife got mad at me because of that, she said “What role are you making Ryoko Shiraishi-san play?!”.

Shinbo: Harue Haribara has a great personality, you know. 

Ishoguro: At the first recording session, Shiraishi-san played Harue’s role being aware of her bucktooth (laughs). Like, she talked al the time exposing her teeth. 

Shinbo: She didn’t need to be that worried about the teeth (laughs).

Ishiguro: To you, Harue Haribara is just a normal high-school girl, so you said there was no need to act her role in a different way, didn’t you. I went to attend every recording session I could, Tattsun’s voice actress Aoi Yuki-san’s butt was really impressive. 

Shinbo: Her butt?

Ishiguro: At the recording session, we were in the booth with the sound mixing console, separate from the recording room. From there, you could see the voice actresses only from behind, or am I wrong? Yuki-san’s stature is pretty small, so when she stood tall facing the mike, she looked like she sticked her butt out in front of us, that’s why. 

Shinbo: Voice actors for the characters in the shopping district were good too. The one for the guy at the laundry had the same eyes as the character (laughs).

Ishiguro: At the recording sessions, Tatsuka-san told me that the guy from the laundry was there in the studio, and he really was, the voice actor I mean (laughs). 

Shinbo: There aren’t many products that can use such harsh male voices, so it sounds really fresh. Nowadays, voice actors  like that are almost only used to dub foreign movies. 

Ishiguro: Yeah, you’re probably right.

Shinbo: Uki’s voice actor, Takahiro Sakurai-san was great too. So much so that from now on I would like to think that old ladies should always be played by men. Yukio Aoshima-san played a role in “Ijiwaru Baasan” didn’t he? Ken Shimura-san played a lot of old lady roles too. Instead of having actual women playing that kind of role, I think male actors can play it in a more “vigorous” way. However, Sakurai-san’s got so hooked and absorbed acting towards Uki’s husband Zenji it became a strange situation. I totally couldn’t tell Sakurai-san was acting in that moment.

Ishiguro: It wasn’t Sakurai-san, I got the impression it was Uki herself. 

Shinbo: Sakura-san’s physique looks like Uki’s. That may be the reason why. 

Ishiguro: His hair was gray as well, and his boy is thin too. Their body shape is really identical.

Shinbo: After all, the voice comes out of one’s body and skull, right? That’s why if the physique is similar, the voice is as well. It was a satisfying discovery. 

Ishiguro: For people like me who always look at voice actors from behind and aren’t really knowledgeable about them, it was pretty confusing. When I attended the auditions, a lot of famous voice actors were present there, but ultimately I didn’t understand at all who played which role. Why at the recording studio you can watch only from behind? 

Shinbo: There are so studios where you can look from the side too. But I don’t think there’s one where you can see the voice actors from the front. After all, if the actors and the studio staff look at each other in the eyes, it may be an awkward situation. Also, voice actors must look at the images while they’re performing. At times, narrators happen to look forward. 

Ishiguro: When I was in the recording studio, I was there basically just to watch. When DoA Toshiki Kameyama spotted someone misreading a kanji he boastfully reported the mistake (laughs).

Shinbo: Members of the cast said that Ishiguro-san in person is different from the photo in the tankobons.

Ishiguro: That’s Jeremy Brett, not me! My face doesn’t look like that! 

~ There still are episodes I want to adapt into anime ~

Shinbo: After the recordings, we used to go to launch or inner meetings a lot. After the recordings for the last episode, many members of the cast and staff joined as well. Productions like this one that brought so many people together are rare nowadays. This too must have been because we were working on SoreMachi. 

Ishiguro: Thank you so much. 

Shinbo: I would love to make a second season for SoreMachi. The more into the second half I were, the more I wanted a season two. 

Ishiguro: That’s true (laughs). Lately, I already start to feel lonely. It’s more desolate everyday. Now that the script meeting are over, I won’t see Takayama-san and the other scriptwriters anymore… The recording sessions are over too and I won’t see the voice actors and Director Toshiki Kameyama either… There a lot of people I won’t meet anymore. Normally, when I work on manga, I’m alone, and getting used to work with so many people around makes me feel even lonelier. Well, that’s why I still meet with Director Shinbo so often (laughs). 

Shinbo: Working on the same project like this certainly builds up a sense of solidarity. Like a particular atmosphere that creates only in that occasion.  Especially with SoreMachi the atmosphere was great, the mood with the whole staff was good. I would love to have fun for some more time. 

Ishiguro: Precisely, I feel the same way. 

Shinbo: When I was still a student, the professor’s house was a temple, and one year during summer break I stayed there overnight with classmates. The next day, when everyone had to go back home, it was so sad I still remember it to this day. When I finish working on a project, I always feel somewhat the same way as that day. 

Ishiguro: That feeling, I totally understand it. I get reminded of my third year of high school. Since the instant I became a third year student at high school, I felt sad and lonely (laughs). I kept feeling lonely day after day and everyone was taken aback by it. But after we graduated, I received calls from friends telling me they finally understood how I felt, and that they wanted to meet up. 

Shinbo: I too want to have more fun. There still are episodes from SoreMachi I want to adapt into anime, and there are things left undone in these 12 episodes too. I definitely would like to complete it. I surely hope there will be a second season.

Ishiguro: Thank you!