HTT Airlines, Flight JL401:

Boarding seat 7:

B part Animation Director Miku Kadowaki

Kadowaki-san was focused on making the girls look romantic at points. She tells stories about how she conveyed her passionate thoughts for the work and the characters here. We speak to her about the highlights of the part she worked on as well as cuts she focused on.

Redrawing images until Yui’s romantic expression was understood

- Please tell us your impressions of the manga when you first read it.

I prepared myself to think it was a manga about light music, but it was really a tea time manga instead! (laughs) I was in a small club that only had girls in it during high school, so I was quite familiar with entertaining yourself in the clubroom.

- Could you tell us about your drawing plans and way of thought regarding the series? Also, what did you talk to director Yamada about during the TV series?

I worked to keep them appearing like girls no matter what with their expressions and gestures. I didn’t want them to just be girlish; I wanted to show them acting like close girl friends as well.  My lecture from director Yamada about Yui’s retreating figure was quite impressive.

- What were your thoughts when you first heard that the series was being made into a movie?

I was astonished. I had no idea what the movie would be about, so my imagination went wild with ideas. “Will they do the university arc…. Ah, would that mean Azusa wouldn’t show up?! What if the entire movie was a concert…..!”

- As you were working on the film, what did you talk to director Yamada about?

During production, we had many discussions over the primary point of a page. Each time I would have her check it, she’d comment like “make it this expression” and discuss the meaning of that cut until I understood their feelings and put that clearly into the drawing. I drew a lot of images.

- What part of the movie were you assigned to work as an animation director?

The B-part. Starting from the scene in the clubroom where they decide what to get Azusa as a gift until their bye-byes to Love Crisis after performing at the conveyer belt sushi restaurant.  The scenery changed often, there were a lot of characters appearing, their suitcases were always with them; I kept adding more and more setting sheets to my desk just to match everything. (laughs)

- Which portions of the movie did you add force into and what portions did you change how the drawings appeared from the TV series?

My drawings have changed from the time the TV series was made, so as a result all the movie’s drawings have changed. Also, I intentionally added more lines (especially on hair). I would sometimes redraw something over and over again until it conveyed that sometimes the girls had a romantic expression on their faces.

- What did you keep in mind while working as an animation director for the movie and what were you focused on?

I was always focused on making my drawings appear as close as can be to (how Horiguchi-san’s drawings look now).  I would frequently sneak over to the key animator’s desks and look at the Chief AD’s correction sheets. Every time I would be shocked and slink back to my own desk thinking “It’s different!” Though due to changing from the time we started working on the movie, I was able to make changes during the key frame check period.

- What are your favorite scene(s) in your part and what scenes did you focus on?

The scene when Yui wakes up in the airplane and looks outside. I wanted to draw her cute, yet looking romantic at the same time. I kept thinking how her hair should get caught in the eyemask. It’s a peaceful movement that the key animator was able to do wonderfully. The cut where Mugi makes a strange face and goes “harrumph” is my favorite of all of them!

One of Kadowaki-san’s favorite scenes is where Yui wakes up and looks outside the airplane window at the sunrise colors. Yui looks more romantic than usual. The disheveled hair also makes her look amorous.

- What are your favorite scenes outside your part?

Sawa-chan’s flashback scene once the classroom concert gets okayed. Sawa-chan cries having worked so hard to have the girls experience something that was harsh for her. Also I like the scene in the London concert where Yui spots a baby. Babies are so cute!

- Having worked alongside her for three years, what type of director do you see director Yamada being?

She’s the kind who values the atmosphere of a scene. Every time I draw, I think about how best to represent the atmospheric layers outside the image. It’s a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of expressions and gestures that can’t be found in other people’s storyboards. While I think they’re amazing, I’m incredibly envious of her! Also, I think she works hard at finding the cute side of things. (laughs)

- What are your thoughts on the K-On! series, having gone through these three years?

We’ve really gone through three years, haven’t we…. Surely it can’t just be me who feels like we just experienced high school life with the girls. A fumbling around first year. Getting close second year. Teary farewell third year. Thank you for all the fond memories.

- Please give a final message to the fans.

It makes me happy that no matter how many years pass, we can always return to the graduation album. Thank you all for your support!

Profile

Miku Kadowaki Animator at Kyoto Animation. Notable works include chief animation director for Kyoukai no Kanata and designing characters for Kyoukai no Kanata and Amagi Brilliant Park.

HTT Airlines, Flight JL401:

Boarding seat 8:

Producer Yoshihisa Nakayama

Nakayama-san, as a producer, watched K-On! The Movie with a serene glance as the other production staff moved forward. We talked with him on how he thought of ways to make the movie a success through promotion and marketing.

It must have a special feeling that the TV series doesn’t have!

- What went through your mind when K-On! was first decided to be turned into a movie?

As a producer, you want to make a movie from your TV series, but you worry that you won’t earn any money from your customers. As opposed to Over-The-Air TV, where a person could watch free of charge, you have to physically go to the movie theatre and pay money to watch a movie. Therefore, you need to have your advertising promote that it’s something worthwhile and charming in order to get your audience wanting to see it. That’s why I told director Yamada and all the other staff at the beginning that I wanted to create a story with a special feeling. I also wondered if people who didn’t know of the series would come see it. Thus I asked that we create a story that not only the general public could enjoy, but fans of both the manga and TV series could enjoy as well.

- After that, what did you talk about in order to make a concrete outline of the story?

I spoke with the director over what type of material would be suitable for a movie. Nothing that had to be included in the movie, but I wanted to see what she wanted the movie to consist of. After all, if she didn’t think along the same lines, then the movie wouldn’t be made. For example, if the movie was being made and we hit a point that wasn’t feasible, then you have no choice but to stop the process.  And so the director said “We never showed how the girls created ‘Tenshi ni Fureta yo!’ in the TV series, so let’s do that!” From that point, everyone started to contribute various ideas and it became what you saw.

- What topics did you discuss to make it concrete?

When we first decided to make a “movie”, it was going to be about Natsu Fest. Natsu Fest could become big and there were a lot of things that would add to the punch. However, we covered Natsu Fest in the second season already. Though there are things we could delve into with our hands, the framework would be the same as that episode, and so we wouldn’t be able to make it have that special feeling. The director felt that the home of the light music club is the music prep room, so therefore she wanted the heart of the movie to take place there, but that wouldn’t be dynamic enough to make the movie feel bigger. So after all these discussions, the idea of doing a graduation trip came out. It has that ordinary feeling that K-On! specializes in while having the sense of a movie, so we thought that was a pretty good path to go down. We thought the viewers would enjoy seeing the characters go to a place they had never been to and seeing how they would interact there. The reason we chose to go to London was because music was planned to be a big portion of the show even before we broadcasted it. Since then, there has been a lot of staff that came on who enjoy Brittish music, so we thought it would be appropriate to go there for the movie.

Not really wanting to announce they’re heading to London

- Was the movie a hit beyond what you had expected?

We had set our sights on making a hit movie, but the amount of people who saw it made it a hit beyond what we had guessed. Not only that, it was a relief to see it cross over 1 million attendees. There were about 50,000-60,000 people who purchased the TV series on BD/DVD, so we thought that they would probably come, but we didn’t think that we would have over a million people see it once it was completed. Honestly, when it crossed that mark, we all breathed a sigh of relief.

- Earlier, you talked about specializing the advertisements. What kind of advertising did you decide on prior to the movie’s opening day?

Generally, anime today goes into space or in the future with some kind of fantasy component involved, but that’s not the case for K-On!, where it depicts real high school girls. When you’re restricted within that range of activities, there’s not a lot you could put in your advertisements for people to see. Additionally, there’s also a lot of portions of the movie you don’t want people to see as well. You want people to desire to see a charming side of it, but you can’t spoil it and reveal those moments.

- What portions did you not want to show people, but wanted to show them somehow?

I wanted to keep the news that they were going to London inside me. Though it was announced, I really didn’t want to say it.

- You mean, you would be fine if it was announced that they were going on a graduation trip, but without saying it would be in London, right?

No, I wouldn’t have mentioned it was a graduation trip either. (laughs) I wanted people to go in thinking that they would be seeing an ordinary light music club episode, and then before they know it, they’re going on a graduation trip episode, and then again before they realize it, they’re in London and the audience is shocked. Surprising others is the greatest pleasure. That’s why I didn’t want to say they were going to London. But just saying we’re doing a K-On! movie has no hook to it, so I’m sure that if I were to re-do it, I would still announce that they’re going to London.

- I imagine that it was tough for you to select what scenes should be in the PV and what scenes shouldn’t be in the PV when making it.

If I had my choice, there would not be any footage at all in it. (laughs) But you have to make one for promotional purposes, so I had to show some scenes. Since fans would likely be saying “There has to be some performance scenes,” we chose scenes that only had faces in them without the hint of a performance. That way, people would go in thinking it was a story about them going to London and not think there would be any performances.

- So you used seeing London as a mask over the performances?

That would be so.

Nakayama-san himself wanted to hide the fact that they were going on a graduation trip in the advertisements. Instead, it was kept secret that they would be performing in London.

- Earlier, you mentioned that you had over a million people going to see the movie. What advertisements and tricks did you use to get people who weren’t familiar with the franchise to see the movie?

That’s especially true for late night anime; people won’t go to see it because it’s anime. Furthermore, because it’s a show about girls, it might be deemed something just for anime fans to see. That’s not the case here. K-On! is a show that depicts real high school life for those viewers; we conveyed that it’s not some fantasy world much different than our own. I thought about exposing aspects that made people think “I’m curious about what they meant” or “I cried, but it was an entertaining story” just like when they saw real high schoolers. If this were a usual anime series, we’d only advertise in Akihabara and in anime magazines, but for K-On!, we also advertised a lot in ordinary magazines and along places where people meet. It was quite effective for us to advertise like an ordinary film would.

The director’s sense overwrote what Nakayama P felt

- You’ve worked with director Yamada over the past four years on K-On!. What kind of color as a director do you think she is?

She sees a woman and is able to sympathize with her, being able to direct her and bring out real gestures for the characters. Look at Tsumugi’s expressions for example. When I first read the manga, I thought she was the stereotypical gentle, tender moe character. However, the director said “She’s different” and brought out a new character that completely differed from the stereotype. While I felt she was entertaining, she was a bit difficult for me to understand. Even now I don’t understand her. If it were Ishihara-san and I who made this show, she might have become an easier to understand character.  (laughs)

- What about how she builds images?

She’s able to create incredibly detailed pieces that are beyond what I can replicate. She creates such detailed cuts and scenes that I think “is it really necessary to be that detailed?” or “wouldn’t it be alright to leave this out?“ For an example, let’s look at the scene at the end of the A-part where Azusa calls her mom. The director said it was necessary. She said it was necessary to tell the audience “no one has talked to their parents about it.” But if I were the director, that scene would be removed; it wouldn’t be in there. This might turn into a discussion on directing, but it would be there if a Hollywood director made a movie over three hours long or if we were in a country that constantly has long movies screening, but I don’t think it’s useful in a commercial film. If you have a film that long, you’re definitely able to create some emotions for the characters. That’s why it’s so easier to create empathy for them in a TV series compared to a movie.  But for a movie, which has its amazing points, you have to compliment it to match the pre-determined length with your direction in order to create that sympathy from your viewers. Those people who do that are film directors.  That’s why you toss it out if it’s not important. So when I saw the completed film version of that scene that the director said “it’s important” to include, it was easy to understand how Azusa felt as well from her emotions and I was glad it was there. I think that’s the color of director Yamada: she’s able to see the meaning of scenes we don’t think are initially important and put them with such persuasive power and a new meaning. Also, she’s able to skillfully assemble and motivate her animation team to work on their own. That’s awfully important. If your staff don’t believe in you as a director, it’s difficult to create something. And so for that point, her staff absolutely loves her, she has amazing sense as a director, and she has fantastic balance. All of that gets applied to her works.

The problem scene where Nakayama-san was questioning its importance. It’s one of those minute cuts/scenes that director Yamada makes that may not appear important at first glance.

- Looking back, what kind of work is K-On! according to you?

When I think what kind of work it is…. wouldn’t you agree it’s one where everyone tries their best? Over a four year period, we persevered working on it. It was difficult, but it was really fun. Also, since it focuses so much on music, it’s got a different feeling to it than most modern anime. Even listening to it now, I like the music.

- Finally, would you give a few words to the fans?

The phrase “thank you so very much” feels like what a producer should say. It makes me happy to see that this work has given everyone wonderful memories in their lives. Thank you for all your support over this long period of time.

Profile:

Yoshihisa Nakayama Producer and senior manager of TBS Television Media Business Channel Videos. His notable works include producing AIR, CLANNAD, and CLANNAD AFTER STORY.

HTT Airlines, Flight JL401:

Boarding seat 1-2:

Director Naoko Yamada and Scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida

K-On! The Movie opened on December 3rd, 2011 and grew to be seen by over 1 million viewers in theatres. However, all Director Yamada had planned when she first heard it was being made into a movie were fragments of ideas. How was the movie created from stage zero?

When depicting mature situations, you have to make a movie

- When did you hear that K-On! was being made into a movie?

Yoshida: I think that wasn’t revealed until I had finished the last of the scenarios for the TV series.

Yamada: It definitely hadn’t been announced when we were working on the storyboards for the bonus episode “Visit!” (included on DVD v9). Yet I recall the topic being brought up to the cast after recording dialogue for the final episode, so it was determined during the broadcast of the second season.

- So are we to assume that perhaps you made the bonus episode where everyone gets their passports prior without thinking this would affect the movie?

Yamada: A ton of people who saw that episode say “Wasn’t that foreshadowing going on a graduation trip?” assuming that conclusion, but really we didn’t make it thinking like that at all.

Yoshida: It was created without realizing what that would mean. There was no day that came where we thought we could use this for the film.

- Director Yamada, what ideas did you have in mind when you first heard about the movie?

Yamada: I don’t recall any clearly, but I felt like “I want to make it.” Afterwards, I had a meeting with Yoshida-san and Producer Nakayama-san where we would exchange ideas on what the movie would be about. Two ideas that I suggested were a story in the school and a story travelling overseas.

- What would the story in the school be?

Yamada: It’s a story like where the third years made the song for Azusa. I thought about warm comedic ideas like the third years hiding their plans and acting in secret.

- Eventually, the movie became a tale combining the song making process and the graduation trip.

Yamada: It did. We had a lot of ideas concerning the international trip too. For example, we had an idea where the girls went to America and they would be walking around while all these explosions would be around them making it so flashy and amusing.

Yoshida: I remember one where Yui’s guitar was taken away and so the entire light music club had to chase after it.

Yamada: That’s right. In order to somehow get everyone to head to a foreign country, Yui’s father would take Giita on his business trip and then everyone would follow after him. Additionally, we had stories where everyone would visit Tsumugi’s holiday house in Finland, where they set a goal for the world Air Guitar championships and for a trip to head to the world’s northernmost fast food restaurant.

- Each of those sounds immensely entertaining.

Yamada: (laughs) There was also a pattern of ideas during the spring break following graduation. It didn’t stop there either; there was an idea to do a university edition as well. It’d start serialization once the movie’s story would begin.

- What was your recommended idea?

Yamada: A nonsensical tale of having Yui thread a needle for an hour and a half. (laugh) There’d be all kinds of suffering as the thread wouldn’t go into the hole, but at the end everyone would go “You did it!” once it went in. The reactions from others weren’t favorable though…….(laughs) Incidentally, Yoshida-san thought about doing a story where they did a musical performance in kindergarten and I remember Nakayama P definitely joking around about overseas. However, “I want to see them wear their uniforms” was a major premise of the tale, so we began thinking about stories revolving around that theme.

- So that was the reason they carried their uniforms with them as they headed overseas. Though, wouldn’t there be some kind of difficulties like wearing those overseas?

Yamada: Along those lines, I felt the girls’ emotions upon going on a graduation trip became surprisingly re-cleared. There was a sense seeing them that this was only one part of making memories. However, I felt some weird concerns too, like I didn’t want the staff to be making this film only because they wanted to travel overseas.

Yoshida: (laughs)

Yamada: Thinking back now, I did think about those kinds of worries. I didn’t want to make a K-On! movie where the girls become adults, so I contemplated what to do so that I wouldn’t make something that had that same scent. Making a tale where the girls went overseas felt really difficult.

- Since this was a movie, were there any circumstances which made you say “No good”, director Yamada?

Yamada: It would’ve been fine if it was simply the girls heading overseas, but, putting myself in their position, students heading to Europe is something spectacular. Especially since I’d only been to Europe once in my life. I had such an incredibly far place in my mind before going.

- After that portion, didn’t I hear you say that you wanted to put in the story behind the song “Tenshi ni Furetayo!” back at the school?

Yamada: Yes. I wanted to tell a story at the school. So, I was questioning if it felt right to go back again in the past after they had already graduated to tell another story, but I thought that if we told the story around that song, then we could possibly show a side to the third years that hadn’t been seen before.

The hidden production of “Tenshi ni Furetayo!” was revealed from the third years’ point of view after it wasn’t shown in the TV series.

The London Scouting Trip had so many charming sights

- During production, you both went to London to scout it, correct?

Yamada: The first time we went was a scenario hunting trip to see the sights and decide on various scenes for the film and specific locations and then afterwards we went again for photography/material collection for location scouting. In all we just went twice.

- Were the trips for this film your first trip to Europe?

Yamada: This was my first time visiting London and England as a whole, but I had visited Holland and Belgium previously.

Yoshida: This was my second time. I’ve also been to Paris and Italy in Europe.

- How was the schedule for your scouting trips?

Yamada: It felt like we’d make a broad request and then go around there.

Yoshida: Since our coordinator crafted such a wonderful schedule for us, we were able to go around so many different places. However there was a lot of walking. I think we walked all around London.

- I saw the video feature included on the BD/DVD “Naoko Yamada in London”. As we would expect, you weren’t able to include the entirety of your visit into the film, were you?

Yoshida: I tentatively placed a map of London across from me and mapped out the course in my mind, so it did influence how the scenario was written. However, in theory it should be impossible for the girls to cover it all in one day…. probably (laughs).

Yamada: You may be able to see places from the location scouting for an instant during the scene where the insert song is playing. Each place had its own cut, so the location hunting was used quite thoroughly.

- Did your group stay in the same hotel that was shown in the film?

Yamada: During the scenario hunting, we spent one night at the hotel the girls went to first, the Hotel Ibis London City, but we stayed there the entire time for the location hunting trip.

In the C-part of the film, the girls go sightseeing to various places in London. The above image is the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The order these sites were shown in Yoshida-san’s scenario was influenced by the map they used in London.

- What were your impressions of London?

Yamada: I really love the streets. The music and fashion are also the only things fascinating to me, but when we traveled there, London was in the middle of a record-setting cold spell. Each day was -5 degrees.

Yoshida: Snow was also falling because it was so cold.

Yamada: But the snow landscape itself was so pretty. It felt just beautiful on the magnificent streets of London. Usually there isn’t a lot of snow in London, so we were extremely lucky to be able to experience the snowfall ourselves. Also the vehicles to travel in were very huge, so it was very convenient to get around and travel easily. The street sizes were relatively big, so the girls could be lost and still be able to find their destination. I was relieved they wouldn’t become lost while walking around. London itself has a very small quaint feeling to it. It really fits the K-On! atmosphere well.

The K-On! scenario was three times bigger than usual

- The scenario that Yoshida-san wrote was quite large when you see it in person.

Yamada: I’m not sure what the standard is personally, but when I saw it from her, I thought there was a lot of pages.

Yoshida: There’s definitely a lot. It’s about three times bigger than usual. (laughs)

Yamada: That explains it! I kept thinking “This never seems to end” when I was drawing the storyboards. I’d draw and draw and yet the goal never seemed to appear.

Yoshida: Really? Since it’s a movie, there were a lot of conversational scenes. The TV series also had a lot, and especially the final episode’s scenario was quite long as well. (laughs)

Yamada: It was really long wasn’t it?

Yoshida: How long will it go?! (laughs)

Yamada: While I was drawing the storyboards for the movie, a senior director came by and said “That’s an impressive scenario you have.” You reminded me that I kept saying “this’ll never end” for the graduation ceremony in the final episode. Even now I ask “why was it so long?” Then you’d say “There’s so much depth in the lines.” (laughs)

Yoshida: (laughs)

Yamada: Did you know what you were handing to us?

Yoshida: It’s not that bad. But I will say the movie was just a bit too long. (laughs)

- What were your impressions of the first scenario that Yoshida-san wrote for the movie?

Yamada: There were a lot of words, but beyond that, the stage directions really troubled me when making into the storyboards. One line would be written smoothly and then it wouldn’t end smoothly . (laughs) These were just ordinary life scenes and yet due to the never ending depiction, it was intense to put them into visuals to convey that information to the viewers. These directions were packed with atmosphere, feelings, aura, sense of closeness; they were amazing to read. Just like the TV series, I had to scoop up as much of the thoughts and intentions that Yoshida-san packed into the scenario and devote my entire body’s effort into thinking how to make it into visuals/expressions.

Yoshida: It feels like you made it into some kind of mission. (laughs)

Yamada: But while I challenged myself “I’m not going to let her win,” the actual work itself was quite fun. What a dense scenario.

Yoshida: K-On!’s scenarios have a lot of depth to them. There’s nothing in them like battles or adventures; they’re honestly just normal life depicted.

Yamada: I would think that normal life would have a lot of depth anyways. Whenever you really look at a normal story, you’d see a lot of in-betweens and a lot of labor behind it. You see it most when people are talking and you see gestures you’re used to seeing. If there’s anything weird, you feel strange watching it. Therefore, as the number of everyday scenes pile up in K-On!, the scenarios and storyboards keep adding depth to them. It feels like the movie takes that to the extreme.

The frequency of scenes and jokes for those who didn’t watch the TV series

- What kind of ideas did you have for various jokes and references to the TV series in the movie?

Yamada: There were some in the scenario that Yoshida-san wrote and I also added a fair amount myself. During the TV series, there were a lot of references and visuals that were stuffed in, but there were also a lot of scenes and gags that weren’t included there that I wanted to scoop up for the movie. While I was drawing the storyboards, I also included some things that popped into my head there.

In the final episode for season 2, Yui was late arriving to the graduation ceremony. She wasn’t late, but the reason why, working on the song for Azusa until the last moment, was made clear in the movie.

- The reason why Yui was late for the graduation ceremony was revealed.

Yamada: The reason itself was settled to be that Yui wanted to touch Guita in the ceremony and so she was late, but it wasn’t finished in the TV series. For the movie, we could take that kind of point and expand it to be complete. It was quite entertaining. As I was working on it, I felt nostalgic. “These girls would do that kind of thing, wouldn’t they?” I think if you watch the movie and TV series back to back, you’d be able to enjoy it more. The final scene was a shock not seen since “Give me wings” in episode 1.

Yoshida: Actually, I really love that scene. For me, it really symbolizes what work K-On! is. It really leaves an impression on you.

- Director Yamada, what were you very careful with when turning the scenario into storyboards?

Yamada: Making the movie enjoyable and logical for people who were seeing the film for the first time and for people unfamiliar with the setting and characters. For example, after the “Tenshi ni Fureta yo!”” scene, Azusa says “It wasn’t very good!” People who weren’t familiar with the manga or TV series wouldn’t understand the meaning behind that phrase. But I was also careful that, when putting in things that have been built up to the movie, new viewers would be able to make conclusions. For that, it would be like the photograph and flower that Yui hands to Azusa. I felt people familiar with the TV series would feel that completes the moment while people who didn’t watch it wouldn’t feel uncomfortable in that scene.

Various characters appear in the movie like Love Crisis, Black Frill, Kawakami-san from S1 episode 14 and Norimi-san from S2 episode 10.

- Nearly all the characters appear in the movie, don’t they?

Yamada: Nakayama P says it’s “because it’s a festival.” We included everyone so that all the fans would be able to see their favorites.

- Wasn’t it difficult to include every single character?

Yoshida: Since there were scenes at the school, it wasn’t impossible for them to appear.

Yamada: It made me happy that we were able to take advantage of delving into the characters previously. There were a lot of things that weren’t able to be shown in the TV series. However, getting Sawa-chan to appear in London was quite troublesome. (laughs) It was challenging to show that without having the audience feel like they were being fooled or going “why’d she show up?”

Yoshida: It really was.

Yamada: But Sawa-chan’s quick England trip was pretty much the same schedule that Nakayama-san had when we were location hunting. Adults are amazing. (laughs)

Pretending to be Death Devil is a symbol of K-On!

- This movie is divided into 4 parts. Let’s talk about each one, starting with the first part.

Yamada: The open is certainly striking, isn’t it? I really love them pretending to be Death Devil and fighting amongst themselves. (laughs) It’s certainly representative of K-On!’s stupidity; that constant joking sense that always comes out. When you’re a student, you can overdo things and be alright. At first, Azusa is surprised but she later starts to think they’re idiots….

The four third years have such violent movements representative of heavy metal. It seems Ritsu researched in magazines and videos for that thunderous stick motion.

- They just randomly switched to heavy metal for some reason.

Yamada: I think they’re the kind of people who saw heavy metal, hard rock, or something like that with the motions and thought it’d be a good chance to try something like it. (laughs) Ricchan has that aura like she went to study those motions. Mio also moved like she was trying to play it. The person with the biggest problem has to be Tsumugi though. She must be thinking “How could I remember this?!”(laughs) However, the girls aren’t doing this for themselves, they’re pretending to play for someone else. If you take a glimpse of this scene, you’d think it’s just a gag, but really it’s a spot that shows how they act for others. It feels amazingly deep and that’s why I really love it.

- Did you both think of a way to start the film like that opening from the start of development?

Yamada: It was very important to get a grasp of everyone. (laughs)

Yoshida: Right. We thought about how to show something that felt like K-On! from the very start.

- The scene in the hallway where the girls take out the trash is quite nice. It feels like the photographers did their best to make the light appear so beautiful.

Yamada: They really thought about how the scene would be set and where they wanted the light to be so that it wouldn’t appear in any unlikely places just like live-action shots. Due to all that work, it became a scene that exaggerates their upcoming graduation, a moment where you get a glimpse of them becoming adults.

- In that scene, Yui drops candy wrappers along the hallway. It feels related to the scene in the C-part where the sleepy Azusa starts to follow the wrappers on the floor at the hotel among other things.

Yamada: Being able to draw out that “Ah!” sensation is certainly something K-On! does while it also feels like this is something Japanese as well.

Yoshida: Also, I think director Yamada has a certain love for Ton-chan. (laughs)

Yamada: I just thought it would be a nice thing to spread some gravel along the bottom of Ton-chan’s water tank for the movie. (laughs) When the photography staff asked me what I would like for the movie, I requested “wouldn’t it be nice if we made the gravel look gorgeous?” And then I got a “Uh, that gravel, right?” in response. (laughs) When we were at a business meeting for the movie, I was asked “What pieces from the TV series would you like to use again in the film?” I replied “Please use the ‘Have some tea?’ and Ton-chan’s theme again.” (laughs) Ton-chan is important. Being able to see his close-up on the big screen was certainly indescribable.

Yoshida: I was shocked to see Ton-chan move that much on the screen. (laughs)

When you compare the gravel in Ton-chan’s tank between the TV series and the movie, it’s clearly different. While the gravel in the TV series is sparse, the movie’s gravel is fine and spread out.

- Yoshida-san, isn’t the scene where Yui has “Europe” stuck on her face one of your favorites?

Yoshida: It had the biggest impact for me. I was excited even during recordings. (laughs)

Yamada: You get excited over those things. (laughs) Also, Yui couldn’t escape punishment after fixing the contest, so that scene was created.

- That scene wasn’t included in the scenario, right?

Yamada: I was inspired from the scenario and the reply I got for that scene said to do it if I felt it’d fit.

- The line “Let’s play some old maid” was said by Azusa in the film, but in the scenario, it was by Yui.

Yamada: When we saw things begin to move, it felt like that was something Azusa should say, so it became that kind of meaningful line through the exchange between Yui/Ritsu.

- Continuing onward, the B-part minutely depicts the process of getting onto a plane.

Yamada: This was immensely fun to create.

Yoshida: It’s just something people do and yet I also had so much fun writing it down. Wintery morning, heading off to an appointment, the whole atmosphere, everything was marvelous.

Yamada: That kind of atmosphere is really special. Heading outside early in the morning, waiting for your friends to arrive. Why wouldn’t that be so thrilling? Your chest is stuffed with lots of huge anticipations and tiny worries. Especially since this is the first time any of them (bar Tsumugi) have been on an airplane before. Mio taking all sorts of pictures and getting excited was so cute. (laughs)

- Mio was quite happy when she arrived in London too, wasn’t she? (laughs)

Yamada: That was quite an unusual photograph with her and Yui together. In the first season, those two would’ve easily been together, but there were so many photos of Yui/Azusa in the second season, so you didn’t see Yui/Mio much. It felt very nostalgic for me when I was drawing the storyboards.

- Yui, Ritsu, and Mugi also played around with the performer/media gag in the airport.

Yamada: It’s those three, so of course they would do something like that. (laughs) Azusa was also shocked and was tempted when she was telling them to “please stop it.”

- Incidentally, did you research the arrival times for the planes?

Yoshida: Yes. I have no idea when they are arriving now, but I reviewed the flight schedules that were in use at that time.

- The airport itself is minutely detailed. Did you scout it as well?

Yamada: We inquired about collecting information for the airport and the Japanese side cooperated freely with us. Starting in the backyard, we were able to take a lot of pictures, even up incredibly close to the airplanes themselves. However, for the immigration check in London, the art director and I burned the image into our eyes using thoughtography. (laughs)

- Even the insides of the planes look very detailed.

Yamada: We also took pictures there in the provided time.

- In the scenario, the five girls are seated in the same row. However, in the movie, Ritsu/Mio/Mugi are in one row while Yui/Azusa are in another. Was that due to the location scouting?

Yamada: Right. As we were scouting the plan, those were the seats that put all five of them close together.

- The exchanges in the airplane were quite entertaining.

Yamada: I wonder if people who are afraid of airplanes saw that, would they be able to board afterwards? It was so fun that when I was drawing it, I felt so jealous of the girls. I wanted to get on a plane at that moment. (laughs)

- It felt so real when the seatbelt light disappeared. That feeling of relief when people can stand up and the entire plane feels relaxed.

Yamada: I really love that time.

Yoshida: It’s something you don’t usually see in anime films.

This scene is where the seatbelt light disappears and the mood becomes looser inside the plane. As people are stretching and standing up, it’s a sign of relaxation after takeoff.

- That scene with the flight attendant bringing food was also minutely depicted.

Yamada: The first time you see her, she passes through, so it feels like she’s come back. I got excited thinking “Ah, something’s happening!”

- I was a bit disappointed we weren’t asked if we’d like a Western or Japanese style meal when Yui asked Beef or Chicken.

Yamada: That was a little cliché gag that the girls promised to do, but reality shocked them a bit. It was cute.

- The movie had a lot of scenes where Yui and Azusa were a combo, didn’t it?

Yamada: There were so many times where Yui wanted to head to Azusa during the training camp, vacation, etc, so I wonder if it’s just natural for her now. (laughs) Also I love the set of Ritsu/Mio/Tsumugi. The three initial members of the light music club are together. I could just hear Tsumugi asking Mio “How do you use this remote control?” That spontaneous mood is quite nice.

- By the way, whose idea was it to do the “Azu-cat” gag that starts here?

Yamada: Yoshida-san. (laughs)

Yoshida: She only said it once in the scenario. Director Yamada made it into a running gag. (laughs)

Yamada: The scene Yoshida-san wrote with Yui calling out Azu-cat was so explosively, or revolutionarily cute. (laughs) It’d be a waste if it was only used once, so I made it into a running cat gag. It could be some way to tie themselves to their destination somehow.

- Let’s move to the C-part. Starting from their first night and going until they’re traveling around London. Any thoughts about this part?

Yamada: In the scene where the third years are thinking about their song for Azusa, Ritsu looks very amorous while she’s holding that pillow to her shoulder. It was a rush check for me, so I’m sure that scene made a certain veteran senior animator very happy. (laughs)

- That’s also in the second season too. Was it surprising that Ritsu could be so sensual?

Yamada: She’s captivating, isn’t she? There’s a lot of people who would react to Ricchan doing that kind of scene. It’s that element of surprise she has I guess. I’m a bit jealous that she could just put her bangs down and get a reaction from people. It kinda feels like there’s a lot of hidden charm in her, so I thought let’s show some parts of that in the movie. (laughs)

- There’s also some surprising points for the other members as well in the film. Like Tsumugi being shown to be unreliable in a foreign land.

Yamada: But she’s someone who could be strength for others. She has the strength to not hide or run away. (laughs)

Yoshida: She’s surprisingly stubborn, that Tsumugi.

- It was only her that could go “Excuse me!” and have them prepare a keyboard while everyone else was still in shock.

Yamada: It’s that part of her that makes me think she’s not very reliable. You start to wonder if she’s the one person you’re thankful who came, but then instead of conducting negotiations like you thought, she’s just saying “there isn’t a keyboard here.” (laughs)

- Conversely, it’s the shy Mio, who would step forward very much, who proves to be very reliable.

Yamada: Mio has superb hearing. (laughs) The girls can’t understand the language, so she appears to be their angel… no, wouldn’t she be their dictionary instead? (laughs)

- And finally let’s talk about the D part.

Yoshida: It has the classroom concert scene. I absolutely love that scene.

Yamada: The concert with the morning light coming through the windows gives it a fresh feeling. It’s a dreamy visual.

Yoshida: Also I thought the scene added to the storyboard by the director where the girls are running on the rooftop was really great. One of my friends also stressed that it made the film “feel really warm.”

Yamada: That scene was originally outdoors, but it was moved indoors for the story. However, I was thinking that “ah, it feels like they’re going to confess here.” So of course they would be nervous, anxious, and full of worries. They’d definitely want to look up into the sky. There’s a rooftop near the clubroom. So I thought why not have them show their impatience by running out there?

The suspense of watching a preview and wondering if it’s good

- Finally, what were your impressions of the film once it was complete?

Yamada: Honestly, when I went to the preview I was feeling anxious. “Will it be alright….” I mean I had put my whole strength into the work, but was it good enough? Would my thoughts be communicated well? I didn’t know what to expect. I remember worrying about things like people being too embarrassed to tell me what they felt.

- And it became very popular at the preview screening.

Yamada: That made me happy. It really felt like everyone who made this film put all their love into it so that it overflowed. However, you worry as a director if you can take all the emotions people put into an important work and make it into something that feels right. I couldn’t look at the faces of the customers on the first day’s stage greeting. Some way though, I was able to receive their thoughts and it made me incredibly happy.

- What about you Yoshida-san?

Yoshida: I thought beforehand it felt like a teen movie. High school girls spending time together at their club and normal third year activities packed with cuteness. There may not have been any especially moving portions, but I felt this movie was packed with things that any ordinary girl would remember from their teenage years and fondly remember those lovely everyday events.

Yamada: Like watching clouds pass by and seeing the shapes they make. Now I can’t do that; I don’t have the time to. I think this movie brings out those kinds of memories where you could watch clouds go by. I’ve watched it many times on BD lately and have finally gotten to see it from a fan’s point of view. It’s really entertaining. Once again I feel like “Ah, this is really good! K-On! is such a great series!”

The Cultural Media Arts Festival aims to display pieces of art from canvas art, entertainment, animation, and manga categories. In each category, works are chosen to win “grand prize”, “superior prize”, and “newcomer prize” awards with an eye towards the current cultural trends. In the 18th Cultural Media Arts Festival, the popular anime film Tamako Love Story and its director, Naoko Yamada, won a ”newcomer prize” in the animation category. The film, a sequel to the TV series Tamako Market, is an orthodox adolescent love story that won acclaim from viewers. With the work/director winning this prize, we ask director Naoko Yamada about the film’s highlights and how she felt upon winning the award.

Interviewer/Writer: Shigeyoshi Okimoto

Wanting to depict the radiance of everyday life

– Congratulations on winning the award. What were your thoughts when you heard the news?

Naoko Yamada (hereafter Yamada): I was immensely happy when I heard about it. When we were working on the film, I jokingly said to the staff “Let’s aim to get this screened at the Cultural Media Arts Festival.” I had hoped that aim would be completed, but I was immensely shocked when I won that award.

– Ryousuke Takahashi-san wrote highly of your ability to make the everyday life fascinating, one of the “current trends in modern anime.”

Yamada: When we were producing this film, I wanted to find and show that “radiance of everyday life.” It made me truly happy to read that part of the review.

– I’d like to ask about the film. It’s a bit different than the TV series in how it focuses around the “love” around Tamako and Mochizou. What did you aim to do when making a sequel to that series?

Yamada: After talking with the scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida-san over many components, we decided that depicting Tamako as the protagonist was the utmost important part. Following that, we wanted to make something to conclude the Tamako series. As we wanted to highlight a 17 year old girl, we decided to focus on the “love” motif.

Also, since this is a sequel to the TV series, there would naturally be Tamako fans coming to watch, but I wanted to ensure that people who hadn’t seen the series would still be able to enjoy it.

– It’s also relatively rare for a straightforward adolescent story to be released now. By doing that kind of story, you were able to obtain popularity amongst a wide variety of people, including those who hadn’t seen the series before.

Yamada: I wanted to go more and more “straightforward.” The theme of one girl falling in love is a very very modest tale, so I thought we should not try any kind of hacky tricks. Usually, you say that you plan to go “more spectacular” or to “have a surprising twist,” but I felt grateful that we continued to keep it “straightforward.” Furthermore, that was what would be most pleasing for the customers as well.

– Dera does not appear in the main feature at all. Was that also a way to keep the work as simple as possible?

Yamada: There’s no meaning in the film if the characters don’t take that step forward by their own two feet. If Dera were around, then he’d solve their problems quickly. I kept looking until the very end for a crack so he could appear…. As I apologized to Dera, I resolved myself into “making an adolescent film.”

Connecting with each character

– The movie imagery felt very impressive with the images feeling more life-like than the TV series with your direction staying aware of the lens it’d appear through  and such.

Yamada: I love the approach that makes it feel life-like. When I was using a lens, I wanted to make it feel like you were seeing the screen at a distance. Perhaps that might be my own bias towards wanting it to be a “movie.” When I was younger, I would stay up late and watch movies screening that late. Each time I saw one, I would get so excited that I couldn’t go to sleep. I wanted to relish that feeling. Now when I’m the one making the film, I wanted to have the audience savor that excitement from one of my works. That’s why my intuition to “draw the camera closer” is so strong when I’m directing.

– I understand now. So that’s why it feels like the characters are real too.

Yamada: It’s very important to me to treat the characters as individual people. I don’t think of them as imaginary; instead I try to come in touch with them from their perspective. “How would this girl think?” “What kind of scenery would they see here?” Maybe that’s tied with the life-like approach too.

– This is your second long film project. How does this compare with your previous work K-On! The Movie!?

Yamada: I still was very inexperienced when working on K-On!. It feels like I was also clumsily constructing visuals too. There’s also parts where I reflect and think about my approach for this scene and that scene and how to go about it… But in a way, there’s also a lot of “innocence” in that work that I could only make at that time. Surely I wouldn’t be able to create the same kind of work twice.

I’m sure I’ll look back at Tamako Love Story in that manner later on, but I definitely want to think of it with care as well.

– The film is a piece brimming with the glimmer of adolescence. It feels like you carried that theme from K-On!.

Yamada. It’s been a while since I was an adolescent, but for the characters, they’re all in that period. Every breath. Every blink. Everything is “adolescent.” It’s truly remarkable that you live without realizing you’re in your adolescence while you’re 17. I’ve wanted to make productions that look at those thoughts thus far. I made this film while being aware of it; I didn’t want to miss a single moment of those characters shining brightly.

Loving to draw girls

– Yukiko Horiguchi-san continued on with this project as character designer and chief animation director. What kind of work would you say she does?

Yamada: Horiguchi-san is able to largely put feelings in action without saying a single word. It feels like we sense the same thing we look for in a work. We’re always chatting back and forth with the same creative soul. (laughs)

I never gave her a concrete order for any of the characters in this movie too. She knew it was going to be a movie, so she adjusted the character proportions some and made their hair more realistic.

– Tamako and Mochizou grew through their love for each other. It feels like the other characters gret in their own steps.

Yamada: That’s right. With Shiori-chan also deciding to study abroad, it feels like you take your eyes off them for a moment and they take a huge step forward and bam! they’re own their own. I had quite the problems with the storyboards for the film. I kept worrying “what should I do…” when drawing, but every time I worried, it felt like the characters pushed my back and helped support me. I’m personally grateful for the girls’ growth and courage.

Also, Midori’s existence was quite important for this work. That girl should be nicknamed “adolescence.” (laughs) Ever since we opened her up in episode 2 and showed her heart falling, we strongly felt that we couldn’t ignore her. I was so incredibly happy we could make this into a film for that reason.

– Director Yamada, the way you depict female characters is so charming. You really love to draw them, don’t you?

Yamada: I love to. (laughs) With how brilliantly they shine, my interest will never die out. Conversely, assisting on another of our company’s works, Free!, was incredibly fresh as it was a work with nearly only boys. Director (Hiroko) Utsumi’s approach to her characters was awfully entertaining. It was a really good experience for me.

– There’s a lot of comments regarding your works saying “it’s because she’s a woman director.” What are your thoughts on that?

Yamada: That can definitely be said, but really I don’t know what they mean by that…. There’s so many different ways we can see the world, so I don’t think you could easily divide it into a male view and a female view. When I’m actually drawing girls I feel “Hehehe, she’s so cute,” so I’m sorry if that’s said as seeming “feminine.” (laughs)

Wanting to delve into a character with “comedy”

– Please say a few words to encourage the customers who aren’t anime fans attending the Cultural Media Arts Festival and probably the ones who haven’t seen anime to see your film.

Yamada: Speaking as a person involved in late night anime commerce, it feels like I’m intruding upon the “art” world. It feels somewhat embarrassing and proud at the same time. It’d make me happy for people who haven’t seen any anime or for those who are opposed to late night anime to watch it and think “What? This was actually alright.”

– There are likely people attending the festival who want to become anime directors. What message would you like to give to them?

Yamada: Those people are likely people who have an interest in people and ordinary imagery. They’ve likely never forgotten how seeing a film moved them and made pictures with the intent to move someone’s heart.

I want people who have sights on the film industry to have interests in a lot of things. We’re in an age where there’s a lot of information for people to see and create. That’s why it’s so important to have that analogue feeling where you really feel and experience something. Also they’re probably going to have a lot of failures. I’ve had a lot myself, but each one was an important experience for me to go through.

– At the festival, there are also “artwork” and “games” besides anime. What do you think are the merits of “anime” among those?

Yamada: Anime has soul in it from the very first moment you see it. It’s the same for puppet animation and claymation as well. Anime is one frame by one frame with something a human has created to move around. It’s that “animation” process that moves people. You have to never forget that intent when creating something.

– You’ve continually depicted “adolescence” thus far. What kind of works will you be making in the future?

Yamada: I don’t want to relinquish that theme yet….. I’d like to challenge myself in “comedy.” I want to make something where you gradually pull out what makes someone so interesting and dig down into what makes a character.

Currently I’m working as series director in Kyoto Animation’s new show “Sound! Euphonium.” I also made the PV, so be sure to watch it.

– Finally, please give a message to all the readers.

Yamada: Tamako Love Story was made to truly overflow with emotion. The storyboards, staff, and cast all made it as a love letter to everyone who watched it. It’s a very simple story that carefully depicts the feelings we all feel. Please watch it and be touched by the radiance of “17.”

This is the first of three posts that will translate the three interviews with the big staff members for Free! Eternal Summer.

Director
Hiroko Utsumi

This time it’s about the “future”

– The tagline for Free! was “Swimming x Friendship x Bonds x Upper Bodies.” What would this season’s tagline be?

Free! ES has the theme of “future” inserted in it, so “Swimming x Future x Upper Bodies!”
In the second season, Nagisa and Rei are second years while Haruka, Makoto, and Rin become third years. This third year is where you determine your career path. Retirement. Graduation. Moving on. Those are things you wanted to avoid in high school, so I personally wanted to depict those themes upon doing a second season. We could go with the boys together towards the future.

Decided from the start

– New characters appear in the second season. To start, what gave you the impetus to feature Sousuke?

While working on the second season, Sousuke started appearing from the early drafts of the series.
Sousuke’s position in the original High Speed! novel was very interesting to me; his relationship with Rin charmed me. I absolutely didn’t want to let him slip away.
As I was discussing the series with the composer Yokotani-san, I mentioned that it’d be entertaining if he showed up since Rin would also need partners. So we told his story.

– Please tell us about the secret story of how Momotarou was created.

His older brother, Seijyuurou Mikoshiba, was incredibly impactful, so we created a story where his brother would come as his successor. However, if he had the same personality and high spirited nature as his brother, he’d just become a gag, so we thought about how to separate Momotarou.
He’s similar to his brother in his cheerfulness and his love of girls. He’s the character that Yokotani-san had in mind from the very start. Since he’s hasn’t grown up to be the high school boy we’re used to, he has that certain fresh feeling to him, doesn’t he…..
While his brother’s physique is quite nice, Momotarou has that slender, childish feeling, so character designer Nishiya-san brought it out and touched it up a little.

There are relays!

– With Samezuka gaining 2 new members, naturally everyone thinks they’ll go into a relay. What can you tell us about the events to come?

It’s just as everyone thinks! There are relays!
The Iwatobi side already has 4 members, so since Samezuka is has a history of swimmers, their ratio of successful applicants is high. Perhaps an impertinent rookie may appear!
I think you’ll enjoy seeing who the medley members would be!

– Let’s talk about each character’s high points in Free! ES. Tell us about Haruka.

Haruka’s the same! (laughs) He’s the same cool, nonchalant boy; I think everyone would enjoy seeing his unchanged points.
…….but Haruka’s awoken to the presence of “partners” through the events in the first season. He’s even saying he wants to swim the relay with others. From that point, he’s slowly changing through his own pace. It’d make me happy if you watch over him while he changes at Haruka speed.

– What about Makoto?

He’s the same! (laughs)
Makoto is seen as the same sweet, caring, club president who has also grown up. However, he and Haruka are changing similarly. I can’t say how he’s changing, but it’s how you would imagine Makoto to think. The strong relationship between the two may also change too……..perhaps?

– Nagisa?

Nagisa wasn’t seen without his cheerful naivety in the first season, but there’s a different side featured in the second. There’s a moment where the always smiling Nagisa suddenly changes. When will that come? How would he appear? Please enjoying imagining how that looks!
Personally, it makes me happy to depict Nagisa’s story which we weren’t able to show in the first season. I enjoyed it.

– And Rei?

How could Rei, the ascetic beauty lover who showed various expressions in the first season, change in the second? Would he learn to swim other strokes…..or would he end up only swimming butterfly like Haruka only swims free? How would Rin grow from the first season? Make sure you see with your own eyes!

– How about Rin?

The Rin who hit his own wall and overcame that wall with the help of his partners in the first season has only gone swimmingly since. I don’t think anyone would stop after that.
In the first season, Rin had many dark and spicy expressions, but now we see many different expressions now. That doesn’t mean he’s gone back to the way he used to be, but rather we may be seeing the original Rin.

– Anything for Nitori?

Nitori, who showed up sparingly in the first season, appears again in season 2! And he swims!! Nitori also goes through some changes in season 2, so look forward to seeing how he grows at Samezuka.

– Some words for Sousuke?

I’ve already mentioned parts about him, but there’s still many mysterious portions remaining. Things like “Why does he have a sharp glance towards Haruka?”
Also, I want to highlight the relationship he has with Rin. Their past also shows up. Pieces will gradually be revealed, so don’t miss them!

– Finally, what about Momotarou?

He’s cheerful and high spirited just like how he looks, so it’ll be fun to see how his vigorous actions appear in the scenes. His relationship with his older brother also comes up later, so definitely pay attention. ☆

“Physical beauty” is still strong!

– What did you focus on when making the visuals?

For drawings, I wanted to continue to display and convey “water’s charm” and “beautiful muscles”. Emotions were the important point in regards for the story. As I began thinking about how the boys would feel, I soon saw their natural expressions and movements.
But this time I had to think about 8 people! That’s obviously a pain! But, by thinking about how everyone would act and the reasons behind their lines, it was really easy to create how the scenes would look and sound since I understood everything. If I hadn’t done that, I would still be thinking how things should go and nothing would happen. It’s really necessary for me to think about that.

Always making you laugh

– Were there any impressive episodes during your discussion of the scenario with Yokotani-san?

Yokotani-san and I are both from the Kansai area, so I feel there’s a lot of times where we both laugh at the same points. He just writes scenarios that make you want to laugh. You add me into the mix and there’s even more comedy coming in. (laughs)
Our pauses and timings are quite similar, so there were a lot of points where I said “YES! This should have that timing!” (laughs)
Also, he and I have different opinions on how a character should look, so we take our time bouncing ideas on each other.

– I’m very curious about the conversations between Rin and Sousuke. Could you compare them to the childhood friends Haruka and Makoto?

Both relationships are in the same position of “close friend,” but you’ll see that the relationship between Rin and Sousuke is different than Haruka and Makoto. Those differences were one point that I wanted to depict. I feel they became a highlight of this season!

– What points and direction advice did you give to the drawing staff in order to create “movement of the characters on paper?”

I told them and acted for them just like for the first season. For example, if I wasn’t able to convey the timing and motions through words for a scene, I would act it out in real life for the animator when I had my meeting with them.  That happened in the motions for the boys in the welcome party for the new students in episode 1. While they would say something like “My specialty is Free!” each of them would swim in the air for four different styles. As a result, the animator for that scene said “Now I get it!!”
That made me start to constantly think about how best to convey the actions to the staff so that they don’t get discouraged when drawing.

– Do you have any stories about how you directed emotional moments?

There’s a lot of emotional moments where works can’t fully explain the feeling, so I would try and convey nuisances about their expressions in the storyboards. Nishiya-san is amazing at uncovering the meaning and being able to put it in drawing. He’s always saving me.

– In Free!, you were the one who conceptualized the themes of the opening and endings. What can you tell us about those in Free! ES?

I was anxious over whether or not I could create visuals to match the music…. Could I create something that’s cool, yet heartrendering at the same time……. This one didn’t just focus on Iwatoi; Samezuka was also included.
The many swimming scenes also helped strengthen the feeling that it’s a sports show. Also, the visual of the bird helped tie everything together visually.

Theme is “Unknown Future”

– Please tell us a little about the ending.

I first started with fleshing out the images in my head of everyone and requesting similar music. Like the first season, I wanted to show the boys in ways they won’t appear in the main story.  Though this isn’t necessarily unrelated; it connects to the theme of “future” shown in season 2.
There’s a time in everyone’s life where they think about what they want to be when they grow up. That unknown future became the theme for that reason.

Upper bodies continue!

– Director Utsumi, what for you has changed from the first season into the second?

The first season was the first time I was in the role of “director,” so everyday I was stumbling around and feeling nervous. Even though I was incredibly happy to feel the love that all the fans had towards the show, I still didn’t have any self-confidence. That anxiousness has nearly gone away now. Also my biggest concern is what to do for the people watching who don’t have any interest in “muscles.”

– You’re nervous about that?!

I’m very nervous!! Of course, if I don’t have confidence in the charm of muscles in a scene and it wouldn’t be good to show them, then we won’t show them. It definitely makes you nervous though.
But since we started airing, I’ve received some responses saying “though I have no interest in them, I can see why someone would.” Muscley pose struck.
Even on the staff side, we’ve had some people wake up to the charm of muscles. (laughs) I want to gradually spread the knowledge of their charm from here on.

– Please tell us some funny secret tales or hidden production stories.

This is a story about how Nishiya-san, color design Yoneda-san, and I chose the color of Sousuke’s hair. Both of them mentioned that Sousuke should have a dark hair color, while I said “White would be nice!” We tried it out and he looked like someone who had gone through hell.  From then we went on. “It’s gotta be silver!” “That won’t match his white skin!” “Then let’s make his skin browner!” He then became a foreigner. After trying this and that, this and that, we eventually came back to where we started.
All three of us felt “Black’s the best….yeah.” And so that was how Sousuke’s hair color was determined. (laughs)

– What motifs did you have in mind for the new characters?

This time we had to decide what the Samezuka characters’ motifs would be.
Sousuke is a whale shark. Something like a Rhincodon typus in my mind. For some reason I think of the English phrasing for it; likely from Rin’s “shark” motif. Since he and Rin act similarly at times and he’s someone who understands Rin, picking a friend shark was definitely a good decision.
With his tall height and big sturdy body, that matches him pretty well, don’t you think?
But at first I was concerned over other ones that didn’t fit like polar bears, eels, or sting rays. (laughs)
Since Momotarou swims the backstroke, he’s a sea otter.  The general image of otters is a very cute animal, but when you see them innocently breaking open the shells of shellfish, that image gets betrayed quickly. Momotarou also is like that.
Nitori was also assigned to be a “duck.” Just like in the tale of the “ugly duckling,” will Nitori become a beautiful swan, or will a duck be a duck after all……. I felt that enjoyment would suit him nicely.

– Please give a message to all the fans waiting for the second season.

Thanks for waiting! Truly thank you all for waiting for us…..
Because of your loud support, we were able to make this second season. I’m filled with gratitude. In return, I offer this second season to you all. Please accept it with thanks.
For those who didn’t see the first season, and those who saw a “sight they’ve never seen before,” let’s all go through this summer with the boys!

This is the second of three interviews I’ve translated with the three big staff members of Free! Eternal Summer.

Character Designer/Chief Animation Director
Futoshi Nishiya

– Looking back, what were your impressions of Free! following it’s conclusion?

I became quite familiar with drawing guys. (laughs) It felt really worthwhile due to all the support we received. It was much more than I expected.

– There was quite a lot of support from the female fans.

Though there were a lot of times I had to study in order to fulfill Utsumi-san’s requests, since the story was so entertaining, I found myself getting pulled in. It was fun to work on it.

The natural evolution of muscles

– Having spent a year working on them, how have your drawings of “muscles” changed?

At first I spent a lot of energy drawing them, but I’ve gradually chipped away the pointless portions, so now they feel natural. I feel like I’ve found a good compromise for anime. I don’t know if that’s a good way to draw real musculature though. I’m still in the middle of evolving my style.
Since they’re swimming, it’s inevitable there’d be lots of scenes where muscles are exposed, so I had no resistance. If I got upset, it’d just take longer to do.

– This is a work with a lot of female fans. Knowing that, did you focus on anything in particular?

I worked while ensuring that they had a cool expression on their faces at all times.  I received a extortionate amount of lessons from Utsumi-san on the topic, so while I worked hard to ooze out the coolness through expressions and poses, I did add a few portions of my own style of coolness too.

Rin became more cheerful

– Were there any alterations you made for the characters who changed outside the first season in this season?

Fundamentally, their appearances haven’t changed at all, however their growth from the first season is faintly apparent. As production on the first season was nearing its end, I begin attaching muscles to everyone to make them appear more manly. Though there are some portions that became sharply built, I endeavored to return to our starting point.
Rin, who was limited to irritation and frustration in the first season, has finally broken through that and is shown smiling with everyone in the second season. As the original Rin expressions have shown, so has his depth.
Haruka is also opening up his soul as well bit by bit. Through swimming the relay, he’s become aware of others around him. But Haruka is Haruka. We didn’t rid him of his usual expression; he’s still got that cool sense around him.

– In Free!, each character grew in their own way in portions. What did you talk to director Utsumi about during production about how to best express that growth in the characters?

It definitely has to be about Rin. He changed from his stoic self-conceited ways to chase after his dream. Utsumi-san told me “He’s separated himself away from the others, but he could never have enough joint practices with them.”
I did want to keep drawing that stingy rival atmosphere when it was time for them to compete though.

– What did the director explain to you about the new characters added?

She explained that while Sousuke was still Rin’s childhood handsome friend, there was a sense of distance about him regarding practicing with each other. She also mentioned that Momotarou inherited that same lively feeling that his older brother Seijyuurou had.

His superior expression matches him

– Again, could you please tell us the points you focused on while designing them and what portions troubled you?

I wanted Sousuke’s dressed up portions and his upward looking points to become more manly. I firmly worked to differentiate that from the other characters as you need to make a new character’s prescience felt. He’s also intimidating with his body and strength due to that highly trained body. Above all other looks, his superior expression towards others matches him the best. It give that impression that he alone is taking a farsighted look on events.

– Was he a character that felt like he was competition inside your studio?

Sousuke was a character whose image became solidified inside Utsumi-san. His hairstyle also wasn’t like the time with Rei where we couldn’t find a pattern; we settled on it surprisingly quickly.

– What kind of feelings do you have about Momotarou?

As he’s Seijyuuyou Mikoshiba’s younger brother, he’s got that lively feeling and abundant expressions that really make him feel like a true first year. He’s that mischievous mood maker character that you need. He means well, so you have to bring out the good aspects so he doesn’t turn into an “annoying character.”

They’re not characters, they’re “human”

– While you were drawing, what did you pay particular attention to or what did you point out to the staff when they were working?

That sense of humanity. I kept in mind that they were “humans” living in that world as I drew.

Wanting to see everyone wearing a white suit

– Is there anything that makes you go “I want to see everyone wearing this!” during Free! ES?

I’d like to see everyone in a white suit….. Not just the Samezuka side, but the Iwatobi members too. (laughs) Also, it was great to draw everyone in the winter uniforms during episode 1. That was very enjoyable.
Makoto, Rei, and Nagisa’s casual wear was really easy to draw. Anything looks good on them.
But Haruka worried me. You want to bring out his personality, but also how different he is from the other characters too. Rin was mostly dressed in blacks during the first season, so perhaps he’s a bit more colorful in this one.
It’s a swimming show, so there are many times where I’ve had to draw them in sailor suits. I think it’s a good match with the show’s image. Personally, I like their summer uniforms the best. With the abundance of swimming scenes in this season, there’s a lot of times for them to wear their jerseys for those who didn’t think we’d draw them.

– How about the swimsuits?

Yes, the swimsuits have been changed!
Both schools have changed so please enjoy seeing their new competitive swimsuits!

– What kinds of things that may not have been designed in the settings materials, but you included in images?

That’d be Makoto’s glasses, right? (laughs) We only used them once in an endcard.

– Who was the one to design those glasses for him?

I instructed the illustrator for that scene on how I felt they should look. After all, they don’t appear in the main series themselves. They’re just glasses he wears in his room; not stylish ones Rei wears. I was pleasantly shocked to hear how popular that illustration of him was. (laughs)

– Do you have any secret stories from your conversations with the staff that you can share?

These are my impressions rather than any secret stories. Everyone really loves Free! and works while pouring their love into the production. They don’t need any special motivation; they just put their effort into it for it to be seen. It’s really seen in the magazine illustrations. I enjoy checking every one of those.
Since Utsumi-san’s vision is so precise, everyone wants to research the current high school trends in order for them to be able to draw them effectively.

The storyboards are the guide

– Were there any impressive episodes in your conversations with Utsumi-san?

Utsumi-san will find one way or another how to explain an image, so it’s easy to immediately visualize it.  She would find various ways to present her ideas without giving her own personal comment on the material. She and I feel the same points are cool, so I wanted to dig out the ideas inside her this season as well.

– Please tell us any hidden tales about the designs of “Sousuke” and “Momotarou” before they were completed.

While we were concerned that giving Sousuke black hair would overdo that “dark” feeling for him, it just fit him so well that we had to decide to use it. He’s not a character that would have a new side to him, right? It really made me happy to hear that Momotarou was popular from the very beginning.

– What kind of characters do you see them as, Nishiya-san?

Personally, I’m really fond of Sousuke. He has that kind of manliness that none of the Free! characters up until now had. The story moves forward with both Iwatobi and Samezuka members balanced in depiction, so I think the fans will enjoy seeing them equally depicted.

– What kind of developments did you want to see this time for the Samezuka side?

This time, we’ll depict new and other members of the team. Everyone wants to become that strong “veteran Samezuka” power. Please enjoy seeing Nitori improve as a swimmer and the process by which the Samezuka team is formed. Of course we also wanted to depict the Iwatobi side and their continual growth from the first season.

A 2^nd season with no regrets

– Please give all the fans awaiting the second season a message.

It made me really happy and I enjoyed depicting the two different teams growing. The matches and showdown scenes have been enhanced visually from the first season. We wanted to have no regrets! Definitely enjoy it!

This is the third and final interview I’ve translated from the Free! Eternal Summer fanbook released from Kyoto Animation. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these.

Series composer
Masuhiro Yokotani

Please, by all means, let me do it!!

– What was your impression when you first heard about the plans to do a second season?

It felt like “I’m ready! Please, let me do this!” I thought “There won’t be any of that antagonistic, depressing relationship between Haruka and Rin that we first saw,” so I said “Definitely let me do it! I want to write this one. Leave it to me Utsumi-san!” And then as I was writing this time, this season created its own difficulties. (laughs)

– Please tell us your feelings looking at the growth the boys made from the first season.

Haruka has really grown up, but keep at it Haruka! Grow more!
Rin has also grown as well. I’m pleased that he changed greatly from the depiction in the first season and become more manly in the second season.

– While you were creating the second season, what did you and the director discuss during your meetings?

While we have fun and refreshing conversations, we also had some deep and serious talks as well. (laughs) This time we had a lot of them with Sousuke’s tale, and the inescapable events that the third years tried to run from…..

– Was the decision to start when they’re in their third year (except Naigsa and Rei) inserted from the beginning?

We had already done the second year summer (or 1st year), so we had to go to the next year’s summer. This show lacks something if it’s not during the summer.

– What did you keep in mind while writing the scenario and what did you struggle with?

I recall an earth shattering amount of things I had problems with. (laughs) The first season was the first time I had written that type of show before, so I was able to write freely. This time, as I was thinking about how to improve on the first season, director Utsumi said “you overdid it.” (laughs) Also, there’s a lot of swimming in this season. Sports series are very enjoyable when there’s a lot of matches. However, there’s not a lot of variation in the ways to describe swimming, so I was a bit of a hindrance for the episode directors. For example, I would just say “swam with a violent stroke” and end with that.
Also I had some issues with the results of meets. I continued to worry about that during the scenario discussions. In swimming, even if you lose one heat, you can move on if your time is good enough. For example, you could lose to your rival, but both of you could move to the finals… Their feelings at that time would be complex. Also there’s 8 swimmers at once, so I constantly thought about how to draw out that match feeling. Swimming meets are quite difficult to write about.

– As you were writing the scenario, what scenes were easy to write and which characters were easy to depict?

Those would have to be Rei, Mikoshiba, Momotarou, and Nitori, right? Also, since Rin became re-invigorated, he was easier to write. He became a character who could say things you wanted to say.

 There’s lots of pauses!

– In Free! ES, you had to change how you wrote the scenario in response to the characters’ growth, correct?

Rin changed a lot, didn’t he? The first season took place in his second year’s summer while this season started in March of his second year. With that half a year blank, it’s like he became a different person. (laughs) I was receiving a request from director Utsumi to use some “!”s for Rin since he became cheerful. Isn’t that a bit different than last time? (laughs) I had written Rin like that during the drama CDs, so I wondered if I had made him a bit too happy….there wasn’t that same tension. It was difficult to gauge how cheerful to make him.
But, it was easier to write him becoming a more active character.
Haruka also has become a bit more cheerful himself, but he also has trouble spots himself. I noticed there were a lot of times he would be gloomy and become silent!
Makoto also has the same kind of troubles any third year would have alongside Haruka. This time Makoto’s trying his utter best. His emotions come out more. Nagisa and Rei also appear as second years.

– Free! had a lot of comedy. Was it difficult to write the comedic (gag) portions for the sequel?

I had inserted various gags into the scenarios like the club introduction scene in episode, but the director commented that I had overdone it. (laughs) So we made the first episode full of gags and shaved off them in the rest of the story when they appeared in different places. (laughs)
With gags, if you don’t sell them well, they won’t be entertaining. So I have complete faith in director Utsumi with how they are spoken and how they are displayed on the screen.

– Please tell us about any memorable conversations you had with director Utsumi.

There’s a lot of works that are supported by women, but due to Utsumi-san’s precise directions, we were able to succeed alongside them. Our conversations about the visual presentation saved me many times.

 I had the toughest time with Sousuke

– With the new characters “Sousuke” and “Momotarou” appearing in this season, was there anything different that you paid attention to when writing?

I’d probably say I had the toughest time bringing Sousuke together into one character. I kept running into a lot of problems in the scenario. Sousuke has a lot of different sides to him, but it was also difficult to treat him like a key character as well. However, if Nitori wasn’t there anymore as the person Rin talked to most, then he’d work out. (laughs) He’s also not the type to tell jokes. With this season having Samezuka add characters, it was easier to increase their camera time. I ensued that their stories were just as deep as the Iwatobi side.

– How about when Momotarou appeared?

Momotarou is the younger brother of Mikoshiba, so he became that same kind of comedic character as well. However, as the person in charge of the comedy, I didn’t want to overdo it, so I made sure he wouldn’t act that way unless Gou was around. (laughs)

 Getting a “Is this necessary?” from director Utsumi (laughing)

– Did anything change for you regarding Free! from the first season until this one?

The first season was something completely different and out of my usual genre. Though there were a lot of portions where I had no experience with the topic, once I started writing, I started to think “this actually may fit me!” As a result, I started to gain some confidence in myself. But director Utsumi would gently cut out some of the gags and comedy, asking “Is this necessary?” (laughs)

 I’m bad at sports!

– How has Free! influenced you?

Though a lot of people are interested in different sports, I’m not one of them. I’m not even the type who’s good at them. When I was a child, I couldn’t even do a pull-up…. However, through depicting this series, I’ve started to study different areas and get some information about them.

– Please tell us about some interesting secret tales or hidden episodes.

I don’t know if it’s a secret tale, but I’m not the kind of person who can silently write in my own room. I go to a cafe to work. If I’m in a place no one can see me, I can’t concentrate….. (laughs) If I take a little break, then I get a little left behind…. (laughs)
When I’m working in the cafe, I see people watching videos on their laptops. Then you have me writing lines like “Swim for my sake!” I think people walking by and looking in may be startled with what’s going on my screen. (laughs)

– Please give a message to all the fans awaiting the second season.

Please enjoy Free! Eternal Summer! Thanks for watching!

One of the items I purchased while in Japan was the first Sound! Euphonium (Hibike! Euphonium) novel while I was in Kyoto.  Over the past two weeks, I’ve taken the time to read through the novel and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading through it. There was a finely executed story that looked into the drama of a wind music club leading up to a performance.  As I looked around at the impressions thus far from people looking towards the anime, I saw some people who would go into the series with some misconceptions about what it would be and wanted to counter that with a post talking about the setting. Thus, here’s a primer on Sound! Euphonium.

Story

Spring of Kumiko Oumae’s first year in high school.
Kumiko, who had been in the wind music club throughout middle school, goes to see the wind music club alongside her classmates Hazuki Katou and Sapphire Kawashima.

There, she sees her former classmate Reina Kousaka. While Hazuki and Sapphire immediately decide to join the club, Kumiko is hesitant due to remembering an event that occurred at a middle school concert with Reina.

Through practicing and performing, irreplaceable events are discovered. This is an adolescent story of the girls discovering those truths.

Characters (Main/minor characters)

Kumiko Oumae (voiced by Tomoyo Kurosawa)
Height: 162 cm/Birthday: August 21/Sign: Leo/Blood type: A

Enrolled in North Uji as she was attracted to their sailor uniforms. As she had no specific instrument she wanted to play, she was assigned to play the euphonium in the wind music club. An easy-going person. She has a habit of speaking without thinking. She’s fixated on something she said to Reina at a concert in middle school.

Hazuki Katou (voiced by Ayaka Asai)
Height: 155 cm/Birthday: February 13/Sign: Aquarius/Blood Type: A

Kumiko’s classmate. Played tennis in middle school; thus a beginner playing music. She was attracted to the club by the trumpet, but she was assigned to the tuba. An energetic mood maker.

Sapphire Kawashima (voiced by Moe Toyota)
Height: 148 cm/Birthday: November 3/Sign: Sagittarius/Blood Type: B

Kumiko’s classmate. She attended a famous rich girls middle school. Plays the contrabass. Joined the wind music club due to wanting to have fun playing music. She’s a proactive person, but has a bit of a tic about her name.

Reina Kousaka (voiced by Chika Anzai)
Height: 158 cm/Birthday: May 5/Sign: Tarus/Blood Type: O

Went to the same middle school as Kumiko. Has played the trumpet since she was young due to her father being a professional musician and continues to play the trumpet in high school. A very stoic girl.

Asuka Tanaka (voiced by Minako Kotobuki)
Birthday: December 25/Sign: Capricorn/Blood Type: AB

Third year. Vice president of the wind music club. Leader of the bass instruments. Plays the euphonium. Often displays her exorbitant amount of knowledge to the people around her. Wears her trademark red glasses.

Haruka Ogasawara (voiced by Saori Hayami)
Birthday: October 28/Sign: Sagittarius/Blood Type: O

Third year. President of the wind music club. Leader of the saxophones. Plays the baritone sax. Assigned to be the president due to her gentle personality.

Kaori Nakaseko (voiced by Minori Chihara)
Birthday: September 3/Sign: Virgo/Blood Type: A

Third year. Leader of the trumpets. The Madonna of the wind music club that everyone adores.

Shuuichi Tsukamoto (voiced by Haruki Ishiya)
Birthday: September 18/Sign: Virgo/Blood Type: A

First year. Known Kumiko since childhood. Played the horn in middle school, but plays the trombone in high school.

Noboru Taki (voiced by Takahiro Sakurai)
Birthday: August 23/Sign: Virgo/Blood Type: A

A new music teacher that transferred to North Uji High School. Became the new adviser for the wind music club.

Takuya Gotou (Voiced by Kenjiro Tsuda)

Second year. Plays the tuba. Assistant part leader for the bass instruments. Big in size, small in speech with a serious expression.

Riko Nagase (Voiced by Miyuki Kobori)

Second year. Also plays the tuba. Dating Takuya. Gently instructs Hazuki in playing the tuba. Part of the calming bass group.

Natsuki Nakasu (Voiced by Konomi Fujimura)

Second year. Plays the euphonium.  Not very serious about playing in the band.

Yuuko Yoshikawa (Voiced by Yuri Yamaoka)

Second year. Plays the trumpet. Really likes Kaori. Fights like cats and dogs with Natsuki.

Aoi Saito (Voiced by Yoko Hikasa)

Third year. Plays the tenor saxophone. An old acquaintance of Kumiko. She also goes to a prep school to study for her exams.

Michie Matsumoto (Voiced by Aya Hisakawa)

Assistant adviser for the wind music club and instructor in music. Kumiko’s homeroom teacher. Nicknamed “the Evil Sargent” by her students.

Mamiko Oumae (Voiced by Manami Numakura)

Kumiko’s older sister. A third year university student with experience playing the trombone.

Relationship Chart

Comments

Sound Euphonium has been described by both the director, Tatsuya Ishihara, and the assistant producer, Rina Sezaki, as being a straightforward drama. This is not your standard slice-of-life show like K-On! or Tamako Market. It has more in common with Hanasaku Iroha and Chihayafuru than those shows. There’s an inherent belief that the show will be focused around lazing around or romance than what the novel does. Are there moments of downtime? Yes, but they’re there to advance the plot of the novel and to expand the characters more than eating sweets. Is there a bit of romantic interest? Of course, they’re high schoolers in a co-ed environment, but that’s not what the story is about.

Essentially, the story is about the wind music club and their goal of making the national concert performance. There’s trials and tribulations along the way just like what would happen in real life with real people getting into arguments. There’s a lot of drama that goes around the club and thinking there wouldn’t be any is a big mistake.

I personally felt the story is perfect to be adapted with the attention to characterization from Kyoto Animation. It’s a good drama that separates itself from the recent catalog of shows. Definitely look forward to the performances as they should be a fantastic show of animation. Just don’t expect Euphonium to be something it’s not. Let it be its own story and appreciate that for what it is.

Anko’s Happy Romantic Diary

Author: Mutsuki Ichinose

Date: ☆/☆
Weather: Rainy!

Today I headed home immediately after school to take over for Gramps. Father was off on a delivery and Gramps had his knitting class in the afternoon, so even though it was just going to be a bit until Father returned, I was going to run “Tamaya.”

“Well, we trust you Anko.”  Gramps had a kind smile as he looked at me.

“ Yep. Leave it to me!”

“ It’s only going to be for a little while. Tamako should be coming home from school too.”

“Ah, that’s right.” I looked at the clock as Gramps spoke. Big sis and her new boyfriend have been walking back to the shopping district since they got together. Only about half the time though.

Right, it’s raining today. Perhaps they’ll be sharing an umbrella. The main street of the district has a cover over it, but there’s none in front of our stores. Maybe, just maybe…… As I was thinking, I pulled out the cutest notebook from my backpack. I set it on my lap right above my knees and prepared to write in my diary.

“Oh, are you going to work on your homework out here?”

“Uh, umm…. This isn’t something like that.” What I write in here is a secret from everyone. Not that I hate Big Sis and Mocchi, but I can’t say these things to them. “Is it alright? If a customer comes, I’ll be ready to help them!”

“Ah, it’s fine. Well, since it’s raining today, I don’t think we’ll have a lot of customers stopping by.”

“Oooooh! Don’t say something like that or I’ll suddenly lose my passion!”

“It’s ok, it’s ok. Well, I’m relieved.” Gramps smiled again and went toward the sliding door.

“Have fun Gramps!”

“Ah, I’m off.”

“Co~me back safel~y!” Gramps was in his usual scrunched look as he picked up a huge paper umbrella and walked outside the store. He stopped before I couldn’t see him and faced the store across the street. Rice Cake….something or another. He gave a short greeting to Mrs. Michiko in “Oojiya”, the mochi shop like ours across the street.

Splash, splash. Taptaptaptap…. The rain struck calmly outside the store. Though it was noisy outside thanks to the rain, it was silent as night inside. I was the only person inside our small “Tamaya” store. Just for now, no one was inside the living area or on the second floor.

But I didn’t feel scared or lonely. Outside there’s a lot of shopkeepers I know. And there’s Mrs. Michiko looking over here. As our eyes met, she gave me a wave.

It doesn’t look like either of us will have any customers today though.

This diary’s real purpose will be after this though. After all, it’s a…

They’re here.

Well uh…….. Big Sis, you’re carrying a typical umbrella for yourself! This long-awaited rain comes and you’re supposed to leave your umbrella at school on purpose and go to Mocchi saying “I forgot my umbrella!” or something.

Well, you didn’t, did you? That’s Big Sis for you. At least it looks like they had fun chatting on the way home. Maybe it’s fine if they’ve not gone that far…..

At least she’s carrying an umbrella. Maybe it’ll be good for them if Mocchi comes inside as well. I’ll wait for the next rainy day.

“Anko, I’m home!”

“Welcome back Big Sis. Welcome to you too Mocchi.”

“Ah, I’m home.” The two greeted me as they stepped inside. Big Sis had a nonchalant look on her face as she folded her umbrella. They appear to have enjoyed their walk home together, but Mocchi may look a bit embarrassed. Big Sis… looks like usual? Hmm… I can’t really tell. She has a big smile on her face, but I can’t say if that’s any bigger than usual. Her complexion is fine as usual.

I really want to hear how she felt a little while ago when walking with Mochi… but I know it’d go into some strange territory if I asked her…. I don’t really want to have something like burnt mochi in my stew again.

“Wait a minute. Are you taking care of the store yourself Anko?” Big Sis asked as I was writing in my diary.

“Oh, yeah. Father is making a delivery and today’s Gramp’s knitting class.”

“Come to think of it, they mentioned something like that this morning. That’s great Anko!”

“Really? You’re finally manning the store by yourself Anko? If something comes up, don’t be afraid to run and grab your Big Bro-in-law.”

“Um…. Who would that be again?”

“Well… Well…… Your Big….”

“Big….?”

“If your big luggage needs to be moved, call me! I’m good at carrying things!”

“Right. Thanks Mocchi.” I have this weird feeling now. Let’s not think about it too much.

“Anko, do you know how to tend the store?” Big Sis asked as she placed her bag inside the living area.

“Well…. I’m fine. I just started a little bit ago.” In my first time running the store, not a single person has stopped by. Nothing’s happened and yet Big Sis wants me to leave it to her.

“Then, how about we tend together?”

“Together?”

“Yep. Here we go.” Big Sis moved a stool to sit beside me.

“You can sit over there and I’ll sit here. If a customer comes, we can help them together. If no one comes, we can just talk. Okay?”

“Okay. That sounds fine.”

“Then let’s go!”

“………storetending, huh………” After we decided on a plan, Mocchi spoke in a monologue. “Oh, looks like I’ve got to help out too… It’ll be trouble at home if I don’t.”

Hmm, I look through the glass at the store on the other side of the street. “Is that so?” I asked as I saw Mrs. Michiko yawning a while ago.

“That’s right, huh. You’ve got to help out too Mochizou?”

“Ah… that’s right.” Though a bit embarrassed, Mocchi had a smile on his face.

“Later Tamako. If it stops raining, we’ll talk tonight.”

“Right. Toss the phone tonight.”

……..what is this? Big Sis’s face looks somewhat…..

“Later Anko.”

“Yep. See you later Mocchi.”

‘Ahhhhhh” Mocchi put his hand over his head, opened the sliding door, and went back to “Oojiya.”

☆

“Up we go.” Big Sis, still in her uniform, sat down beside me. Beside me. On this rainy day in “Tamaya.” I’m not alone anymore. The store is still quiet with raindrops hitting outside. They sound like background music now.

“……..”

And then suddenly,

“Covered in twi~light~”

“Radiantly shi~ning~”

We both started to sing at the same time and we both stopped suddenly. When my face looked at her shocked one, we both laughed at how funny it became.

“Oh?” Big Sis noticed the notebook I had on my lap. “What are you writing Anko?”

“Well…” Pull it together. “I’m, I’m doing homework, right? It’s something like an observation diary…..”

“Oh? I did something like that too. A mochi observation diary.”

“You, you really did that?”

“But it got out of date midway through. And then Father… Ah!”

Midway through her sentence Big Sis looked outside the glass door.

“…….”

“It’s Mocchi.” Mocchi had taken over for Mrs. Michiko to tend the store across the street. “It’s unusual for Mocchi to tend the store by himself.”

“Right. That’s true.”

As we were talking, both Mocchi and Mrs. Michiko looked over at us. She had a sweet satisfied smile on her face and waved to us. Both of us gave a small wave back. She lightly tapped Mocchi on the head and went inside their house.

“………”

Big Sis started to look down.  Her eyes flickered up, then down, up, then down. If Mochi would look over, she would suddenly look down.

“What’s going on?”

“An, um… nothing?” As she started to call my name, she looked bashful and put her hand to her head. “I remembered something that I forgot to say to Mochizou earlier.”

“Oh, is that it?”

“Yep. Nothing important though.” Another embarrassed smile.

“Then wouldn’t it be fine if you go over and tell him in person right now?”

“It’s, It’s fine!” It’s not really that important….!”

“Really?”

There again our conversation stopped.

“………”

Big Sis continued to look back and forth at “Oojiya.” Though the rain had fogged the glass window, we continued to look at Mocchi.

Suddenly Mocchi started to realize something and looked over at us puzzled. Big Sis glanced away nonchalantly and suddenly it was only me that Mocchi was looking towards. He tilted his head in a confused gesture and I returned one similarly.

“……..” Big Sis had started to try and think of something else, tilting her head and looking up at the ceiling.

“If it’s bothering you that much, just send him a text.”

“What?”

“You do know Mocchi’s address, right? Since you’re not going to meet or call him, wouldn’t sending a text be alright?”

“……..”

Big Sis looked at me with a gentle look. “….His hand was warm!” And suddenly was energetic again.

She went to her bag, reached into it, and pulled out her cell phone. She came back, sat down on the same stool, and then gradually…

“Ah.”

“What?”

“I just thought about something. I’ve never texted him before….”

“Really……..” You two always use that string phone…….. Another sigh comes out when thinking about them.

“Then wouldn’t it be fine for today to be the first time?”

“Right. I’ll do my best…..yeah!”

“Do you need to do your best just to send him a text?”

With huge eyes and quivering hands, she starts to tap to send a text. You text your friends constantly Big Sis. It’s not like you haven’t used a cell phone before.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“Again? What is it this time?!”

“I accidentally sent Mochizou a weird text!”

“What, what did it say?”

I stopped writing in my diary and looked over at her cellphone.

“This….. this…..”

Big Sis, while trembling and crying, showed me the screen after she had sent her text. It was full of hearts and among them was “Build me a house.”

“How did you mess up and send this…..?” Seriously, isn’t this like proposing?

“Earlier, Kanna had”

Mid-way through talking, Big Sis looked up. I also looked up. We both looked towards the glass door through the gap between the stores to see Mocchi, running the store, notice that Tamako’s text had been delivered. He picked up his phone, flipped it open, and stopped pressing buttons.

Up to that point, Big Sis had been watching with huge eyes and muttering “oh no, oh no.” Neglecting his duties, Mocchi rapidly stood up with a dash.

And then he looked towards us.

“……………ehhhhhhh!”

“Big, Big Sis?!”

Her face had gone completely red. She suddenly dashed to the second floor.

Instantly I heard the door to the store open.

“Tamako!”

That was Mocchi, who was supposed to be at “Oojiya.” Before I noticed, he had already entered “Tamaya.”

Wiping his damp hair from the rain, he yelled toward the second floor. “Give me five years! No, wait three years!”

“That’s a bit too soon Mocchi!”

Oh! These two are definitely the weirdest pair!

“That was a mistake! I sent the wrong text!”

“The, wrong text…..?” Mocchi looked surprised, ”No, no. Then how was it a mistake? That text,”

“Let Anko tell you why it was!”

………Maybe these two will always be like this? After all that, they’re finally a couple in high school. Wouldn’t it be better if they were sweeter and miserabler, flirting in love like the other couples?

“Is that right? It was just a wrong text……?”

“Yep.”

I can’t say how dejected and relieved his face looked.

“Big Sis had something she forgot to tell you. But she had never sent you a text before, right? That’s why….”

“Ah, so it was like that? But how was it wrong….”

“It’s fine now. But besides that,” I continued to talk to the flustered Mocchi, “Welcome to the shop!”

I cheerfully gave our customer a smile.

“What?”

“Not ‘what?’ Mocchi. This is a mochi shop.”

“I know but….”

“Mocchi, do you have your wallet on you?”

“Um,” he reached into his back pocket, “I do.”

“Then, you’re a customer Mocchi.”

Ding.

Thank you for buying 6 mamedaifuku~!

☆

“So, Sorry Anko. I said we’d run the shop together.” After Mocchi had left, Big Sis timidly came down the stairs and went out into the store portion.

“Did you send Mocchi a text again?”

“Wha? Not, not yet….”

“Then, since the store is fine, why don’t you head back and send one. Isn’t Mocchi waiting for one?”

“But, but there was that one. I don’t know if I can really send one…”

“It’s fine for you to go and send one, okay? If a customer comes, you can leave them to me. Head up to the second floor and send one.” I was a bit angry while I spoke to her.

“Hehehe, Anko’s pretty strict.”

“It doesn’t matter if I don’t see it. Both of you!”

“Sorry. Thanks Anko!”

“Tamaya” on a rainy day.

I’m still alone.

I was writing in my diary until that point while running the store alone when the female butcher from Just Meet opened the door and stuck her face in and spoke. “Hey hey, Anko.”

“Ah, welcome to the store!”

Relax!

Stealthfully, she snuck inside the store.

“……..we heard Mochizou yell earlier. What went on?”

“Ah, well, there was a bit of crossed messages.”

“Crossed messages! What happened…..?”

“Nothing really big…. Wait, why are we whispering?”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Are things going well with our shopping district couple?”

“Well, have you heard anything Anko?”

“Please tell me! Look, we’ll even buy some mochi!”

Sure. I’ll tell you.

“Is everything going well? I saw they came home together again today.”

“That true? That rascal Mochizou!”

“Eh, is that a good thing?”

“It definitely is! Now tell us if anything else happened!”

“……?”

But it wasn’t just the lady from Just Meets anymore.

“Anko, I know Mochizou and Tamako are but,”

“Anko, maybe you might know,”

“…. It’s raining. That makes couples get closer….perhaps…”

Everyone who was curious about Mocchi’s yelling had gathered at “Tamaya.” Everyone was only interested in hearing about Big Sis and Mocchi.

“Oh! Why are you all asking me about them?”

“Well, it’s difficult to ask those two.”

“Right, right. It’s tough to talk about that kind of romance, right?”

“…….”

Those two definitely don’t have that type of romance at all.

“I understand. I’ll tell you all I know.”

“””THANK YOU ANKO!”””

Sigh. Again, this shopping district….. Maybe I’m cursed due to watching those two all the time. I’m done with this lovey dovey couple observation diary.

☆

“What the… What happened?”

The rain had stopped and finally Father had come back from his delivery.

Upon seeing that almost all of our mochi was gone, he said, “Amazing…. So you sold an absolute ton of them?”

“Something like that. I’m bad at making them round, so I’ll leave that to you.” But Father praised me for managing the store today. In the end, since it was only people I know…..I’m pretty worn out.

“I’m hungry. Is it alright for me to eat?”

“Oh, sure. Thanks for your work.”

I went to the second floor while eating some mamedaifuku.

“Ahhhhhhh” While holding my shiny notebook, I sighed. “I wanted to see a couple in love to reference for my future with Yuzuki, so I watched people I know. Big Sis and Mocchi aren’t any reference at all….”

As I finished that, I went into my room on the second floor.

“It’s hereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Big Sis is still wearing her uniform and sitting on her bed. She stared at her cell phone while crying out in joy.

“What’d you get?”

“Tehehe….. this!”

Standing beside my smiling Big Sis, I looked at the screen.

“Today was fun. Thanks Mochizou!”

“Same here”

Hmm, perhaps these two are actually a romantic couple after all.

Maybe it’s just romantic for those two though.

☆The End☆

Founded in 1981 and incorporated in 1985, Kyoto Animation (once known as Kyoto Anime Studio) is a good studio to look at the evolution of a studio that once focused only on one aspect of animation into a subcontractor into an animation producer into an multimedia studio. This is a look at how they grew into who they are now.

In 1981, most animation was produced for TV through hand-drawn pictures put onto cels that were painted and then photographed onto film. One painter that would later go by the name of Yoko Hatta painted cels for Tatsunoko Production and Sunrise. She married Hideaki Hatta and moved to Kyoto. In Kyoto, Hideaki and she started Kyoto Anime Studio, which was later re-named Kyoto Animation. The studio originally focused on solely painting cels, but later added a drawing section in 1986 after it became a company in 1985. The studio was a subcontractor for studios like Sunrise and Production IG (which Hideaki helped found in 1987). They would get episodes contracted to them from long-running shows like Inuyasha and complete the episode’s animation for the animation production studio. With the switch to digital animation coming, the Hattas had bigger ideas.

Fumoffu. We’ve come a long way…

In 2002, Fuji TV wanted to animate a spinoff of the popular Full Metal Panic! series and asked Kadokawa to make a committee. They did, but instead of using Gonzo like the main series had done, the company decided to chance the series on a studio who wanted to produce the animation for their own series for the first time KyoAni accepted the funds and made the show. Since they weren’t on the production committee, they did not receive any additional financial support from this project. Later in 2003, the studio would produce the first of two self-funded OVAs for advertising their services, Munto.

Later in 2004, producers from TBS, Pony Canyon, and Movic saw their work and decided to partner with them to produce AIR, their second self-produced series. It was a success and KyoAni got some of the returns from the sales. The cycle went on between Kadokawa and TBS/Pony Canyon for nearly ten years with KyoAni moving up in the production committees. Eventually, we started to see a trend being formed with two main committees KyoAni worked with:

Kadokawa clique: Haruhi, Lucky Star, Nichijou, Hyouka:
Kadokawa Shoten (publisher/international rights)
Kadokawa Pictures (video distributor/domestic distribution (TV and internet), later combined into Shoten)
Kyoto Animation (animation production)
(Lantis) – Only in a couple of shows (music distribution/production in all shows)
Klockworx (rental distribution)
Movic – Nichijou only (merchandise production)

TBS clique: AIR, Kanon, Clannad, K-On!:
TBS (main financier/domestic distribution (TV and internet)/international rights)
Pony Canyon (video distributor/music distributor & producer (K-On! only))
MOVIC (merchandise/live event producer)
Kyoto Animation (animation production)

Two sides to every yen.

In 2009, KyoAni decided to alter their role as a studio even more by announcing a contest for novels, manga, and scenarios to be published/animated. They received entries and announced no Grand Prize winners, though a few Encouragement Award winners were awarded. This wasn’t viewed as anything important at the time in the industry, but it marked a huge course change for the company. Instead of being contracted to animate someone else’s work, KyoAni wanted to be the producer of their own material. This led to our third clique:
KyoAni clique: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!, Tamako Market, Free!, Kyoukai no Kanata
Kyoto Animation – (publisher/animation production)
Pony Canyon – (video distributor/music distributor/producer (Tamako only)
Lantis – (music producer/distributor excluding Tamako)
TBS/Asahi Broadcasting Company(Free! only) – (digital distribution/international rights)

Notice the huge shift in committee lineup? Instead of being third/fourth on the list and earning a smaller portion of the profit, KyoAni not only became the biggest financier of the project, but owned the copyrights/publication rights to get a much bigger share of the earnings. They have to invest more (higher risk), but they get to earn a lot more than before (higher reward). For a show like Chuunibyou, they not only got a much bigger share of revenue from BD/DVD sales compared to something like Kanon (15k sold to 18k sold) as they are actually selling the disc alongside the committee (unlike Sunrise’s shows), but they also got their novels published in many new stores and increased demand for that label. People look at Chuunibyou‘s earning as only BD/DVD sales, but it was much much much more profitable than that for them when you add in novels, merchandise, and copyright ownership. They took a big risk, and got rewarded heavily.

It’s a bit delusional, but that’s the way you have to be sometimes.

Following the airing of the final CTFK work, Kyoukai no Kanata, two new productions started while work was progressing in sequels for all the CTFK works. While both would adapt properties owned by other publishers, they both told different sides to how the studio would work in the future.

Amagi Brilliant Park production committee:
TBS (main financier/domestic distribution (TV and internet))Kadokawa (Shoten: Video publisher) & (Fujimi Shobo: Print publisher)
Kyoto Animation (animation producer/self-produced merchandise seller

Amagi was a light novel series written by Yasuhiro Takemoto’s old friend from the Full Metal Panic series, Shoji Gatou. He wanted to adapt Gatou’s new novel series, but Kadokawa wasn’t funding a lot of 12 episode productions anymore. Hideaki Hatta and Takeshi Yasuda (from Kadokawa) asked TBS’s Nakayama for assistance in funding the show and they agreed. This was the first Kadokawa/TBS co-produced show (not counting the Media Factory brand the Kadokawa group purchased in 2013) and it was made possible through the connections from the past. This was likely a one-shot pairing as the three sides each want different goals with animation production in the future.

Hibike! Euphonium production committee:
Kyoto Animation (animation producer)
Pony Canyon (video publisher/publicity/international rights)
Lantis (music production/distribution)
Rakuonsha (sound production)

Released in December 2013, Ayano Takeda’s novel captured the interest of two producers at KyoAni, Eharu Oohashi and Riri Senami. They made a proposal and presented it to the publisher of the novel, Takarajimasha, who allowed them the rights to animate the novel. Again, this is unlike before. While KyoAni had adapted works from other publishers, they were either on the committee (Kadokawa) or the rights were requested by TBS. While the revenue sources aren’t as large (due to not publishing the novel and owning copyrights), they still are larger than other productions.

It’s really amazing to see how far the studio has come in 30 years.
1986: Subcontractor
2003: Animation Producer
2011: Content Producer
2015: Content Acquirer

Who knows what else may come in the future? With Euphonium, we now see that KyoAni has the ability to acquire good works from other creators and lead those committees. The potential for creation from the studio has opened up and now can focus on appealing to an audience outside the general otaku fandom. As the studio looks to grow larger in control of their productions, it’s fascinating to think where they go from here. Time will tell what happens next, and no one outside knows what direction the studio will go with their next work, so there’s no use guessing what the future holds.

A couple years ago, I wrote a piece talking about the Anibin blog and how the author measured resolution of anime by using the television broadcast. Later on, I noticed that the methods used to judge the productions from Kyoto Animation was a bit suspect. Simultaneously, I started to notice the photography of shows a lot more, especially on the Blu-ray versions of the show. I’ve seen many people quote that KyoAni produces at 955.5p for main feature and full HD for openings and endings. I accepted it initially as I trusted Anibin as a source, but later I started to question that as the logic behind producing something like that didn’t add up. The following is a brief overview of the photography of anime and how that affects Anibin’s resolution guesses.

From wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_animation#/media/File:Animation_cells.png

In the past, photography for animation was literally that: taking pictures on film of the painted frames on the background framed a certain way. Some photographers used special lenses and added effects through other methods. This created a master of the show on film (either 16mm or 35mm). That film can be scanned (and fixed if need be) at higher resolutions to provide clear images of older productions. Generally, people don’t classify these shows with any resolution as it’s meaningless and the show can be either re-scanned from the film or upscaled via video master.

Haruhi 2006 – Produced in SD, upscaled by Q-TEC in 2010.

Toradora – Produced in SD, upscaled by Sony PCL in 2011.

Starting in the late 1990s and early 2000s, production shifted to scan line art and background from paper and put them together digitally instead of putting the cels on the background and photographing them. This process creates a master at the resolution set at that time. Higher resolutions require more file size to work with, so most productions in the early to mid 2000s were done in standard definition (480). The original materials can be re-scanned (possibly re-painted if not already done) and re-composited into a higher resolution master later on, but that requires additional time/effort/costs that most video distributors are not willing to take on for a HD copy. Instead, those masters tend to be “upscaled” using different technology to enlarge the size of the image in order to create higher resolution masters (Q-Tec and Sony PCL are the two more well-known labs that do such a thing).

Haruhi 2009 – Produced at 720p

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun – Produced at 720p

Hanasaku Iroha – Produced at 720p (Look at the contrast between the colors of the line art/background and how it doesn’t /quite/ match)

As time went on, file size and time for drawing/painting more detailed key frames/backgrounds became more streamlined and so productions started to shift to high definition. This required more detail on the line art (meaning more details for hair, eyes, and clothing) as the paper was also scanned at a higher resolution. Generally these productions were done at 720p as there was no reason to go to a higher resolution at that time. When put onto a Blu-ray disc, the masters were upscaled to 1080p, leaving a slightly visible blur alongside the animation lines.

In more recent years, there have been more productions that have shifted towards producing shows in full HD. KyoAni began doing so with the OP/ED for K-On!! and the re-mastered Haruhi 2006 and started producing shows at full HD with Nichijou. Other studios such as JC Staff and Xebec have also made the shift to full HD, but, having dropped many shows, I can’t really expand much on which studios are doing so.

Hyouka – produced in full HD

Now let’s talk about the current state of photography. The current software used by the industry is Adobe After Effects. This software can add filters to the image to make the final image look different (providing a cool filter at twilight/dawn for example). Such filters can also be used to blur the line-art of the drawings into the backgrounds so that they do not appear to be two separate pieces put together. Two main animation studios that have been working to advance this process are Kyoto Animation and ufotable (among some others, but those two are the most well-known and do their photography in-house). Other studios like T2 (which handles the PA Works and Sunrise productions among others) are content to apply little filters and leave the line art as visible as need be.

Added special effects and camera work to artwork/background. (Also note the 1920×1080 resolution; proof KyoAni works in full HD for main feature)

No filter applied

Filter applied to have more “realistic” color for main characters and to make the colors a bit more “bitter.”

For me personally, I’ve changed to notice this style of photography a lot and it kinda bugs me in some scenes. Part of photography is to ensure everything looks similar and some works are rushed out such that the lighting in the back and the colors of the characters don’t match up. They literally are put onto the scene and moved on. It bugs me, but it doesn’t bug others.

The addition of these filters makes the resolution hard to tell as the lines from the characters are blurred to match the background. This leads the method from Anibin, which takes the line art and runs it through a program to measure the depth of the line, to give a false number of 955.5p for Kyoto Animation productions. In the behind-the-scenes features on the Chuunibyou Blu-ray/DVDs, we see that the photographer is filming a scene from episode 3 in 1920x1080p, or full HD. Obviously Anibin is incorrect, but the 955.5p number continues to go around.

No filter

Filter added to brighten the atmosphere of the BG. Side effect-line sharpness dulled.

As mentioned above, not all studios use such filters and so you can measure the resolution from the line art. This is how we know JC Staff is producing shows in full HD as well. The big thing to keep in mind is that filters will offset any measurements of resolution as we are only measuring post-hoc, once the final piece is airing. In short, keep skeptical if you see a filter about what the AniBin resolution may be. Look at how the details are for the line-art and compare that to other productions to see if that work was made in HD or not. Obviously movies will have more detail due to the intent of being shown on a bigger screen, but this method works well for TV shows.

In 2013, Ayano Takeda wrote a novel based on her and her friends’ experiences in concert band/wind music called Sound! Euphonium: Welcome to the North Uji High School Concert Band. This was her second novel published after she won the Japan Love Novel award for her manuscript Today, We Breathed Together. Takeda’s novel caught the attention of two producers at Kyoto Animation (Eiharu Oohashi and Riri Senami). They approached the publisher for the rights to adapt it into an anime and, after partnering with Pony Canyon, Lantis, and Rakuonsha, they began airing it in April 2015. This review covers the first Japanese Blu-ray volume of the show published by Kyoto Animation and the Hibike Production Partners.

The volume contains the first two episodes “Welcome to High School” and “Nice to Meet You, Euphonium.” Included with the disc are two postcards featuring the eyecatches of the band members, a big card of a newly drawn Asuka illustration, and a booklet all enclosed in a newly drawn digipak featuring the bass section members. A serial code to be entered in a lottery for priority status of purchase to the Euphonium event in October is included but not pictured (I gave the code to an acquaintance in Japan).

The booklet itself details Kumiko and Reina on the first two pages before delving into the instruments of the bass section. Next are details about the episodes on the disc with comments by the episode director and episode animation director. Following that are preliminary drafts of the character designs and art boards of various locations from the show. It finishes with a short dictionary of wind music terminology and the credits for the show/package.

Image quality is very good, though there are some spots with banding issues. The photography techniques used by the staff are very clearly shown in contrast to the streams from Crunchyroll. The additional detail provided is very noticeable and provides a much clearer/higher contrast visual product. These are definitely the versions you want to save.

Similar to the video, the audio included on the set is much cleaner and more crisp than either the legal stream or the fansub rips from Japanese TV. The performances sound much clearer and I was able to easily distinguish the issues the band played in episode 1 and the “very good” performance from Kumiko’s middle school at a easier level than with the streams. It sounded great coming from my surround sound system.

Included on the disc is a variety of extras. First we have a short running about 2 minutes long where Hazuki asks about bathing instruments in water/taking a bath with your instrument. It’s a cute little gag, aided by the short running time. Next are two “making of” features that show the Senzoku Gakuen Freshman Wind Ensemble performing the pieces in the first two episodes. Bits of commentary are provided before/during/after the performances to aid in comprehension. These were fascinating to watch and are a great supplement to the animated performances. There’s also the next episode preview published online for episode 2. We have the standard textless opening/ending and the promotional videos/commercials (excluding the short version immediately uploaded on the KyoAni channel) to close out the disc.

Two sets of audio commentaries are included. The first is a cast commentary featuring the main four girls’ seiyuu: Tomoyo Kurosawa (Kumiko Oumae), Ayaka Asai (Hazuki Katou), Moe Toyota (Sapphire Kawashima) und Chika Anzai (Reina Kousaka) covering both episodes. The second is a staff commentary with Tatsuya Ishihara (Director)/Naoko Yamada (Series Director) on episode 1 and Ishihara/Jukki Hanada (Series Composition) on episode 2. I confess to only listening to the staff commentary and it was pretty interesting. I loved Ishihara/Yamada talking about layers of reporting when describing her role as a series director.

And finally, since I ordered this volume from the KyoAni Shop website, my volume had a couple of bonus items included. The first is a newly drawn illustrated card featuring Sapphire and Reina. The original plan was to make an encompassing illustration with all 7 cards, but that text has since been removed. Secondly was a booklet containing original key frame and background artwork for the first two episodes. It’s a very cute little booklet that’s well worth paying the extra costs in my opinion.

That is the first volume of Sound! Euphonium‘s blu-ray sets. A new volume is planned to be released each month, and while I don’t plan to review each volume, I’ll include a picture review of the whole set when it is completed.

In 2011, the producers at Kyoto Animation and Pony Canyon decided to re-unite the staff from the hit series K-On! for an original production. Through many changes during the planning process, the final version became a show about the daughter of a mochi shopowner in a little shopping district. Tamako Market had little promotion before its initial running of January-March 2013, only a few magazine articles and commericals promoted the show. It failed to catch fire like the previous show from the staff, but it wasn’t for a lack of love towards the characters. In 2014, a sequel film, Tamako Love Story was produced. Following that release and the popularity of the film, KyoAni and Pony Canyon decided to re-release the series in a Blu-ray box. This review covers said box of the show published by Kyoto Animation and the Usagiyama Shopping Street.

The box contains all twelve episodes on two 50GB blu-ray discs. Included with the discs is a special bonus drama CD, a special booklet (with newly drawn wide illustration), a newly drawn photocard, and a book containing the storyboards for episodes 2 and 9.

The booklet itself details the main characters on the foldout before delving into the members of the shopping district and contents of each episode. Each episode has a comment from the director for that episode. Next are two hand-drawn messages from Aya Suzuki (Tamako’s voice) and Naoko Yamada (director) followed by two excerpts from the singles’ booklets (preliminary designs for Choi and details regarding the “Koi no Uta” lyrics). The final pages include the staff/cast for the show and for the package.

Image quality is very good, though there are some spots with compression issues like the second image above. The photography techniques used by the staff are very clear and give a great representation from what the original design was meant to be. Pony re-encoded the video, but I notice no differences between these versions and the one on the singles. These are definitely the versions you want to save.

Similar to the video, the audio included on the set is much cleaner and more crisp than either the legal stream or the fansub rips from Japanese TV. It sounded great coming from my surround sound system.

The discs themselves have very few extras. The only ones kept from the JP singles were the 3 Dera’s Bar shorts and the 3 Birdbrained Choi-chan shorts. Japanese subtitles are included for everything animated.

The likely reason why there’s so few extras included likely has to do with the commentaries. Audio commentary by Suzuki and Yamada are present on episodes 1 and 9. Each other episode has a second audio track, but that is a replication of the original audio. The extra space the audio took up could have been used for textless OP/ED and PV/CMs if nothing else. Commentaries are not subtitled.

And finally, since I ordered the box from the KyoAni Shop website, my set had a bonus item included. This is a booklet detailing the steps taken for one cut (camera position/scene/action) from the opening: Tamako’s dance and cap flip. They include the steps from the storyboards, through the layouts and into the key frames drawn (including the corrections from Yamada (pink) and chief animation director Horiguchi (yellow). Following that are the set of in-betweens (yes, every one) and the color design/photography/BG artwork. At the end are handdrawn messages from everyone involved in this one cut. It’s a fantastic booklet and definitely added enough value to buy it from the KyoAni Shop.

And so that is the Tamako Market BD-Box. I truly love this show and to be able to support it one more time (and get storyboards/production booklet) truly made my day. I’d easily recommend this set to anyone who can listen to/read Japanese.

Anko’s Happy Romantic Diary

Author: Mutsuki Ichinose

Date: ☆/☆
Weather: Rainy!

Today I headed home immediately after school to take over for Gramps. Father was off on a delivery and Gramps had his knitting class in the afternoon, so even though it was just going to be a bit until Father returned, I was going to run “Tamaya.”

“Well, we trust you Anko.”  Gramps had a kind smile as he looked at me.

“ Yep. Leave it to me!”

“ It’s only going to be for a little while. Tamako should be coming home from school too.”

“Ah, that’s right.” I looked at the clock as Gramps spoke. Big sis and her new boyfriend have been walking back to the shopping district since they got together. Only about half the time though.

Right, it’s raining today. Perhaps they’ll be sharing an umbrella. The main street of the district has a cover over it, but there’s none in front of our stores. Maybe, just maybe…… As I was thinking, I pulled out the cutest notebook from my backpack. I set it on my lap right above my knees and prepared to write in my diary.

“Oh, are you going to work on your homework out here?”

“Uh, umm…. This isn’t something like that.” What I write in here is a secret from everyone. Not that I hate Big Sis and Mocchi, but I can’t say these things to them. “Is it alright? If a customer comes, I’ll be ready to help them!”

“Ah, it’s fine. Well, since it’s raining today, I don’t think we’ll have a lot of customers stopping by.”

“Oooooh! Don’t say something like that or I’ll suddenly lose my passion!”

“It’s ok, it’s ok. Well, I’m relieved.” Gramps smiled again and went toward the sliding door.

“Have fun Gramps!”

“Ah, I’m off.”

“Co~me back safel~y!” Gramps was in his usual scrunched look as he picked up a huge paper umbrella and walked outside the store. He stopped before I couldn’t see him and faced the store across the street. Rice Cake….something or another. He gave a short greeting to Mrs. Michiko in “Oojiya”, the mochi shop like ours across the street.

Splash, splash. Taptaptaptap…. The rain struck calmly outside the store. Though it was noisy outside thanks to the rain, it was silent as night inside. I was the only person inside our small “Tamaya” store. Just for now, no one was inside the living area or on the second floor.

But I didn’t feel scared or lonely. Outside there’s a lot of shopkeepers I know. And there’s Mrs. Michiko looking over here. As our eyes met, she gave me a wave.

It doesn’t look like either of us will have any customers today though.

This diary’s real purpose will be after this though. After all, it’s a…

They’re here.

Well uh…….. Big Sis, you’re carrying a typical umbrella for yourself! This long-awaited rain comes and you’re supposed to leave your umbrella at school on purpose and go to Mocchi saying “I forgot my umbrella!” or something.

Well, you didn’t, did you? That’s Big Sis for you. At least it looks like they had fun chatting on the way home. Maybe it’s fine if they’ve not gone that far…..

At least she’s carrying an umbrella. Maybe it’ll be good for them if Mocchi comes inside as well. I’ll wait for the next rainy day.

“Anko, I’m home!”

“Welcome back Big Sis. Welcome to you too Mocchi.”

“Ah, I’m home.” The two greeted me as they stepped inside. Big Sis had a nonchalant look on her face as she folded her umbrella. They appear to have enjoyed their walk home together, but Mocchi may look a bit embarrassed. Big Sis… looks like usual? Hmm… I can’t really tell. She has a big smile on her face, but I can’t say if that’s any bigger than usual. Her complexion is fine as usual.

I really want to hear how she felt a little while ago when walking with Mochi… but I know it’d go into some strange territory if I asked her…. I don’t really want to have something like burnt mochi in my stew again.

“Wait a minute. Are you taking care of the store yourself Anko?” Big Sis asked as I was writing in my diary.

“Oh, yeah. Father is making a delivery and today’s Gramp’s knitting class.”

“Come to think of it, they mentioned something like that this morning. That’s great Anko!”

“Really? You’re finally manning the store by yourself Anko? If something comes up, don’t be afraid to run and grab your Big Bro-in-law.”

“Um…. Who would that be again?”

“Well… Well…… Your Big….”

“Big….?”

“If your big luggage needs to be moved, call me! I’m good at carrying things!”

“Right. Thanks Mocchi.” I have this weird feeling now. Let’s not think about it too much.

“Anko, do you know how to tend the store?” Big Sis asked as she placed her bag inside the living area.

“Well…. I’m fine. I just started a little bit ago.” In my first time running the store, not a single person has stopped by. Nothing’s happened and yet Big Sis wants me to leave it to her.

“Then, how about we tend together?”

“Together?”

“Yep. Here we go.” Big Sis moved a stool to sit beside me.

“You can sit over there and I’ll sit here. If a customer comes, we can help them together. If no one comes, we can just talk. Okay?”

“Okay. That sounds fine.”

“Then let’s go!”

“………storetending, huh………” After we decided on a plan, Mocchi spoke in a monologue. “Oh, looks like I’ve got to help out too… It’ll be trouble at home if I don’t.”

Hmm, I look through the glass at the store on the other side of the street. “Is that so?” I asked as I saw Mrs. Michiko yawning a while ago.

“That’s right, huh. You’ve got to help out too Mochizou?”

“Ah… that’s right.” Though a bit embarrassed, Mocchi had a smile on his face.

“Later Tamako. If it stops raining, we’ll talk tonight.”

“Right. Toss the phone tonight.”

……..what is this? Big Sis’s face looks somewhat…..

“Later Anko.”

“Yep. See you later Mocchi.”

‘Ahhhhhh” Mocchi put his hand over his head, opened the sliding door, and went back to “Oojiya.”

☆

“Up we go.” Big Sis, still in her uniform, sat down beside me. Beside me. On this rainy day in “Tamaya.” I’m not alone anymore. The store is still quiet with raindrops hitting outside. They sound like background music now.

“……..”

And then suddenly,

“Covered in twi~light~”

“Radiantly shi~ning~”

We both started to sing at the same time and we both stopped suddenly. When my face looked at her shocked one, we both laughed at how funny it became.

“Oh?” Big Sis noticed the notebook I had on my lap. “What are you writing Anko?”

“Well…” Pull it together. “I’m, I’m doing homework, right? It’s something like an observation diary…..”

“Oh? I did something like that too. A mochi observation diary.”

“You, you really did that?”

“But it got out of date midway through. And then Father… Ah!”

Midway through her sentence Big Sis looked outside the glass door.

“…….”

“It’s Mocchi.” Mocchi had taken over for Mrs. Michiko to tend the store across the street. “It’s unusual for Mocchi to tend the store by himself.”

“Right. That’s true.”

As we were talking, both Mocchi and Mrs. Michiko looked over at us. She had a sweet satisfied smile on her face and waved to us. Both of us gave a small wave back. She lightly tapped Mocchi on the head and went inside their house.

“………”

Big Sis started to look down.  Her eyes flickered up, then down, up, then down. If Mochi would look over, she would suddenly look down.

“What’s going on?”

“An, um… nothing?” As she started to call my name, she looked bashful and put her hand to her head. “I remembered something that I forgot to say to Mochizou earlier.”

“Oh, is that it?”

“Yep. Nothing important though.” Another embarrassed smile.

“Then wouldn’t it be fine if you go over and tell him in person right now?”

“It’s, It’s fine!” It’s not really that important….!”

“Really?”

There again our conversation stopped.

“………”

Big Sis continued to look back and forth at “Oojiya.” Though the rain had fogged the glass window, we continued to look at Mocchi.

Suddenly Mocchi started to realize something and looked over at us puzzled. Big Sis glanced away nonchalantly and suddenly it was only me that Mocchi was looking towards. He tilted his head in a confused gesture and I returned one similarly.

“……..” Big Sis had started to try and think of something else, tilting her head and looking up at the ceiling.

“If it’s bothering you that much, just send him a text.”

“What?”

“You do know Mocchi’s address, right? Since you’re not going to meet or call him, wouldn’t sending a text be alright?”

“……..”

Big Sis looked at me with a gentle look. “….His hand was warm!” And suddenly was energetic again.

She went to her bag, reached into it, and pulled out her cell phone. She came back, sat down on the same stool, and then gradually…

“Ah.”

“What?”

“I just thought about something. I’ve never texted him before….”

“Really……..” You two always use that string phone…….. Another sigh comes out when thinking about them.

“Then wouldn’t it be fine for today to be the first time?”

“Right. I’ll do my best…..yeah!”

“Do you need to do your best just to send him a text?”

With huge eyes and quivering hands, she starts to tap to send a text. You text your friends constantly Big Sis. It’s not like you haven’t used a cell phone before.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“Again? What is it this time?!”

“I accidentally sent Mochizou a weird text!”

“What, what did it say?”

I stopped writing in my diary and looked over at her cellphone.

“This….. this…..”

Big Sis, while trembling and crying, showed me the screen after she had sent her text. It was full of hearts and among them was “Build me a house.”

“How did you mess up and send this…..?” Seriously, isn’t this like proposing?

“Earlier, Kanna had”

Mid-way through talking, Big Sis looked up. I also looked up. We both looked towards the glass door through the gap between the stores to see Mocchi, running the store, notice that Tamako’s text had been delivered. He picked up his phone, flipped it open, and stopped pressing buttons.

Up to that point, Big Sis had been watching with huge eyes and muttering “oh no, oh no.” Neglecting his duties, Mocchi rapidly stood up with a dash.

And then he looked towards us.

“……………ehhhhhhh!”

“Big, Big Sis?!”

Her face had gone completely red. She suddenly dashed to the second floor.

Instantly I heard the door to the store open.

“Tamako!”

That was Mocchi, who was supposed to be at “Oojiya.” Before I noticed, he had already entered “Tamaya.”

Wiping his damp hair from the rain, he yelled toward the second floor. “Give me five years! No, wait three years!”

“That’s a bit too soon Mocchi!”

Oh! These two are definitely the weirdest pair!

“That was a mistake! I sent the wrong text!”

“The, wrong text…..?” Mocchi looked surprised, ”No, no. Then how was it a mistake? That text,”

“Let Anko tell you why it was!”

………Maybe these two will always be like this? After all that, they’re finally a couple in high school. Wouldn’t it be better if they were sweeter and miserabler, flirting in love like the other couples?

“Is that right? It was just a wrong text……?”

“Yep.”

I can’t say how dejected and relieved his face looked.

“Big Sis had something she forgot to tell you. But she had never sent you a text before, right? That’s why….”

“Ah, so it was like that? But how was it wrong….”

“It’s fine now. But besides that,” I continued to talk to the flustered Mocchi, “Welcome to the shop!”

I cheerfully gave our customer a smile.

“What?”

“Not ‘what?’ Mocchi. This is a mochi shop.”

“I know but….”

“Mocchi, do you have your wallet on you?”

“Um,” he reached into his back pocket, “I do.”

“Then, you’re a customer Mocchi.”

Ding.

Thank you for buying 6 mamedaifuku~!

☆

“So, Sorry Anko. I said we’d run the shop together.” After Mocchi had left, Big Sis timidly came down the stairs and went out into the store portion.

“Did you send Mocchi a text again?”

“Wha? Not, not yet….”

“Then, since the store is fine, why don’t you head back and send one. Isn’t Mocchi waiting for one?”

“But, but there was that one. I don’t know if I can really send one…”

“It’s fine for you to go and send one, okay? If a customer comes, you can leave them to me. Head up to the second floor and send one.” I was a bit angry while I spoke to her.

“Hehehe, Anko’s pretty strict.”

“It doesn’t matter if I don’t see it. Both of you!”

“Sorry. Thanks Anko!”

“Tamaya” on a rainy day.

I’m still alone.

I was writing in my diary until that point while running the store alone when the female butcher from Just Meet opened the door and stuck her face in and spoke. “Hey hey, Anko.”

“Ah, welcome to the store!”

Relax!

Stealthfully, she snuck inside the store.

“……..we heard Mochizou yell earlier. What went on?”

“Ah, well, there was a bit of crossed messages.”

“Crossed messages! What happened…..?”

“Nothing really big…. Wait, why are we whispering?”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Are things going well with our shopping district couple?”

“Well, have you heard anything Anko?”

“Please tell me! Look, we’ll even buy some mochi!”

Sure. I’ll tell you.

“Is everything going well? I saw they came home together again today.”

“That true? That rascal Mochizou!”

“Eh, is that a good thing?”

“It definitely is! Now tell us if anything else happened!”

“……?”

But it wasn’t just the lady from Just Meets anymore.

“Anko, I know Mochizou and Tamako are but,”

“Anko, maybe you might know,”

“…. It’s raining. That makes couples get closer….perhaps…”

Everyone who was curious about Mocchi’s yelling had gathered at “Tamaya.” Everyone was only interested in hearing about Big Sis and Mocchi.

“Oh! Why are you all asking me about them?”

“Well, it’s difficult to ask those two.”

“Right, right. It’s tough to talk about that kind of romance, right?”

“…….”

Those two definitely don’t have that type of romance at all.

“I understand. I’ll tell you all I know.”

“””THANK YOU ANKO!”””

Sigh. Again, this shopping district….. Maybe I’m cursed due to watching those two all the time. I’m done with this lovey dovey couple observation diary.

☆

“What the… What happened?”

The rain had stopped and finally Father had come back from his delivery.

Upon seeing that almost all of our mochi was gone, he said, “Amazing…. So you sold an absolute ton of them?”

“Something like that. I’m bad at making them round, so I’ll leave that to you.” But Father praised me for managing the store today. In the end, since it was only people I know…..I’m pretty worn out.

“I’m hungry. Is it alright for me to eat?”

“Oh, sure. Thanks for your work.”

I went to the second floor while eating some mamedaifuku.

“Ahhhhhhh” While holding my shiny notebook, I sighed. “I wanted to see a couple in love to reference for my future with Yuzuki, so I watched people I know. Big Sis and Mocchi aren’t any reference at all….”

As I finished that, I went into my room on the second floor.

“It’s hereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Big Sis is still wearing her uniform and sitting on her bed. She stared at her cell phone while crying out in joy.

“What’d you get?”

“Tehehe….. this!”

Standing beside my smiling Big Sis, I looked at the screen.

“Today was fun. Thanks Mochizou!”

“Same here”

Hmm, perhaps these two are actually a romantic couple after all.

Maybe it’s just romantic for those two though.

☆The End☆

In 2004, TBS’s producer Nakayama decided to create an adaptation of a popular visual novel to run on TBS’s broadcast satellite channel BS-i. He chose to collaborate with Pony Canyon, Movic, and a studio which had aired its first TV animation production the year prior, Kyoto Animation. The adaptation of the novel began in January 2005 and ran until March 2005 with DVDs releasing throughout 2005 including a bonus OVA disc containing two special episodes in October 2005. In early 2006, TBS and Pony Canyon began promoting it as one of the first anime Blu-ray releases before delays pushed it back to a December 2006 release time. This is a review of that Blu-ray Box for the series AIR.

I’ve recently commented on the series itself, so I’ll link that post here for my thoughts on AIR the series and devote this to a review of the Blu-ray Box itself. AIR was one of TBS’s first Blu-ray releases, and so they chose to package it in a 4 disc stack case on a digipak inserted into a carrier box. With AIR obviously focusing on the skies, the producers went with a sky-blue theme for both the outer case and the newly drawn illustration from anime character designer Tomoe Aratani on the digipak. The inside has new illustrations for each of the 3 main “heroines” and the main female lead from “Summer” on the discs and left digipak side. Other characters not on the discs are on the right side of the digipak. The cases are arranged flimsily with the size being much smaller than the digipak and allowing it to move around. My digipak also likes to creak when it’s being opened more than 90 degrees.

There are 4 discs for this box, three discs containing the 14 feature episodes and a bonus disc containing the special features. Discs 1 & 2 have 5 episodes each while disc 3 has 4.

The image quality is one of the first things that would be noticed. The upscaling process for AIR took the image and did a blanket upscale on the video causing the line art to become jagged. Contrastingly, this did not affect the backgrounds or the color of the images. When I viewed the episodes from a decent distance away, I could not see the jaggies on the line art. As this was new technology, Pony Canyon encoded the video using the MPEG-2 codec commonly used on DVDs, which meant episodes took up more space than they had to. They also encoded the episodes at 1080i at 30 fps. Most animation is performed at 24 fps, but the use of 30 fps helped the CGI look good for most scenes. There’s some moments where the camera pans with the backgrounds moving much faster than the characters are moving, which creates a huge contrast. I’d love for TBS and Pony to re-visit this and do another pass with newer upscale technology from Sony PCL, but that’s unlikely to happen. It is what it is and I got to a point where it didn’t bother me.

TBS hired Ted Jensen to re-master the audio into 5.1 surround sound, which was provided in both lossless Linear PCM and lossy Dolby Digital formats. The audio is quite nice with the 5.1 surround providing a good experience for the opening song “Tora no Uta.” Excluding that, it’s not used to huge effect. Two stereo tracks, also in Linear PCM and Dolby Digital, are also included.

The bonus disc contains three bonus features. The first is an illustration gallery of promotional art in magazines and key visuals for the show. Unlike later galleries on Kanon and Clannad, illustrations for the DVD covers were not included. The second bonus feature is a newly created long (3 minutes) opening animation for the show featuring scenes from the novel that were not animated in the adaptation. It’s provided in two forms, one with the three heroines silhouettes effects added and one without. Finally, the main feature from the “Memories” DVD, a 2 hour long cast interview session, is provided. The audio commentary tracks, textless opening and ending, promotional clips, staff appearances on shows, and the recap episode (along with special openings/endings) are not kept from the DVDs. It’s quite bare. Japanese subtitles are provided for everything though.

And so that is the AIR BD-Box. It’s a relic of its time for BD production, so it doesn’t compare to newer releases/upscales, but it’s what the technology was at that time. The show itself is a mixed bag, but I enjoyed my re-viewing of it. TBS’s Key policy of not including extras really bugs me as there’s a lot I wish I could see, but at least I only have to find 2 DVDs rather than an entire set. I honestly can’t say this set is worth it in 2015 unless you’re a huge fan of the show (in which case you likely bought it sometime in the past 9 years). I’d say pass for most people.

In 1998, Shoji Gatou’s second novel series Full Metal Panic! began serializing in Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Magazine before being published in their Fantasy Bunko label. This work became popular and so Kadokawa Shoten’s producer Atsushi Ito began work to have it made into an animated series. He was able to get two more adaptations created following the first series’s conclusion before the main novel series ended in 2011. In October 2013, Kadokawa celebrated the 15th anniversary of the novels by publishing a special Blu-ray Box that contained all 3 anime adaptations of the series. I’ll be reviewing that box while commenting on some of the previous releases.

Full Metal Panic! (season 1) was partly financed by the TV station WOWOW in Japan and ran on it from January 2002 until June 2002 after being postponed from a Fall broadcast due to the September 11th hijackings.  The second adaptation, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, was partly financed by Fuji Television and ran on it from August 2003-November 2003. Kadokawa partnered with WOWOW again for a sequel to the first season called Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, which ran on WOWOW from July 2005-October 2005.  Each series was released on DVD initially with separate Blu-ray boxes being released in 2008 following Kadokawa purchasing timeslots to re-air each series throughout the year.

This “All Stories” Blu-ray box is a re-release of those three boxes in one package. The previous releases were in a digipak containing 5 BDs, 2 BD+1CD, and 3BD+1DVD discs respectively while Kadokawa has remade those discs into 10 BDs and 2 CDs for this set. Season 1 is a re-pressing of the 4 main feature discs released before with new menus and disc art. Fumoffu is a re-pressing of its two BDs excluding the textless OP/ED with new menus and disc art. The Second Raid is newly authored (though not encoded) to have 5 episodes on 2 discs with the remaining 4 on another disc. All previous bonus features (textless OP/ED, TV commercials, bonus footage, Hong Kong Location Scouting, interviews, and excluding the image gallery from S1’s BD) are re-authored onto a bonus disc. There are two drama CDs included: a re-pressing of the collection of shorts from the Fumoffu DVDs that was with its BD-Box, and a re-pressing of the bonus CD with the TSR OVA DVD release.

Each series has its own amaray case containing all relevant discs with the final amaray case holding all the bonus discs. A bonus booklet fills the rest of the box.

I’ve contributed two posts on my thoughts for Fumoffu and TSR having re-watched them for my KyoAni re-watch. In short, the former holds up very well on multiple viewings (I’ve honestly lost count on how many times I’ve seen it), but the latter doesn’t work as well when you know what’s coming. In contrast to both of those, I found myself more engaged with the first season than I thought I would be. Outside of the original Helmajistan arc, it’s a very good mixture of seriousness and humor that’s lost in the two “sequels.” I’d still recommend this series to anyone who hasn’t seen it; FMP is a very solid series with a good “ending” in TSR.

Video-wise, Kadokawa encoded these episodes in 1080i, which is generally not used for Western releases (because most encoders at those companies put out subpar releases with those settings). This is generally due to the OPs being 30 fps compared to the standard 24 fps for most TV anime. Having seen the releases from Funimation, who encoded the episodes at 24 fps to make it a 1080p release, it’s a great improvement for the OPs and the video looks better. Having said that, it’s still an upscale and has some issues, especially in Fumoffu’s student council room due to the lighting. I didn’t notice the banding issues as much with this release, though some scenes like the Danaan’s motion scenes have it.

There are two audio tracks provided: a Linear PCM Japanese track in stereo (S1/Fumoffu) or in 5.1 (TSR) and a 5.1 Dolby HD English track (all). The commentaries for TSR are kept in a Dolby Digital 2.0 format, but they’re meant to be sound, not kept in lossless. I’m honestly happy with both tracks as they work in their own way. When playing the disc in a BD-player/software, the English track has mandatory Japanese subtitles (to the English dub, not to the Japanese audio) and cannot be toggled on/off without accessing either the top menu or the pop-up menu. Of course, there are alternatives, which is how I know for certain the subtitles reference the English audio and not the Japanese.

Bonus feature-wise, this set compiles together the bonus features from all the previous blu-ray boxes onto one disc. This is accomplished by encoding everything (except the Gatou & Koichi Chigira interview and TSR textless opening/ending) at 720×480 (displayed at 640×480 or 852×480). I cannot say for certain if the previous boxes had these specific encodes or not (except the location scouting since that was on a bonus DVD with the TSR set). It’s a fantastic amount of extras that help add to the value of the set. I’m still amused by the location scouting commentary, which remains a huge recommendation for any FMP fan/viewer. Most of these are kept on the NA Funimation releases, except for the Fumoffu DVD promotional video shown in stores.

The booklet contains information about the construction (arcs and broadcast dates) for each of the main series as well as the OVA. Each episode is given a brief synopsis along with an image. Inter-spliced between productions are character designs along with some costumes worn throughout the series (highlighted for which ones they’re worn in). At the end, we have details and specs for the various mecha for the series (including one Bonta-kun). The final page gives the script, storyboards, episode director, and animation director credits for each episode.

Overall, I was very very very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this set. It’s a great purchase for any FMP fan and the sheer amount of bonus material makes this the “must-buy” for anyone who hasn’t picked up the JP sets before, especially with the previous boxes out of print.

This is a translation of the (long) roundtable discussion between Director Ishihara, Series Director Yamada, and Author Takeda that was published in the Sound! Euphonium Official Fanbook (published on September 25, 2015 by Takarajimasha). Thanks to @yuyucow, @tadamari, and @animenewsdotbiz for their comments and reviews.

Director x Series Director x Author Roundtable

Director:

Tatsuya Ishihara
Anime director at Kyoto Animation. Previous works directed include Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, Nichijou, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Series Director:

Naoko Yamada
Anime director/animator at Kyoto Animation. Previous works directed include K-On!, Tamako Market, and the award-winning Tamako Love Story.

Author:

Ayano Takeda
Author. Debuted with “Today, We Breathed Together” in 2013. Also in 2013, Sound! Euphonium was published; currently there are 3 volumes and a collection of shorts published.

It’s rare to see an ordinary protagonist among anime characters

– Director Ishihara and Yamada-san, what were your thoughts when you first read the novel?
Ishihara: Actually, there had been discussions at a “talking about it” level about wanting to produce a work that was set in Kyoto by people inside our company. With the setting near our company, my true first impression was that I wanted to animate this more and more. (laughs) Also, since I always think about how I would animate something when I read it, I pondered how we would animate the SunFest parade. (laughs) For animation, we would have to animate a lot of people walking and holding instruments. It’d burn a lot of calories watching it.
Yamada: My first impression was that the atmosphere felt right somehow. It was depicted lively with lots of adolescent palpitations and breaths, so I was immensely hooked. I thought that it would be good to depict anything where people get fired up and that you could sympathize with the ongoing relationships with the people taking part in it, not just the concert band itself.

– Takeda-sensei, what were your impressions about your work being made into an anime?
Takeda: At first I had no idea what that meant. (laughs) It didn’t mean that it was a hit, so I wasn’t that startled. Honestly, when I met with the staff for our meeting, we would just talk about various topics.
Ishihara: Rather than feeling like it was a business meeting, we had random discussions that made it feel more like an introduction. After that, it was more like steadily creating the setting for the anime for us, but what did it feel like to you, Takeda-sensei?
Takeda: It felt like I was talking about my whole family. At first, I was just passing on information about the characters as well as the minor characters, but after a while, I started to steadily pass on settings for the story that I would write. After it was decided to make the novel into an anime, I believe I took some of our talks and put that in the two volumes published afterwards. (laughs)

– As you were working on the series, how did you think about how you were going to portray the work?
Ishihara: What do you mean?
Yamada: We went a little here and a little there. At the beginning of the scenario stage, there were discussions about putting more gag-type elements in it.
Ishihara: Definitely. By comparison, the novel is more a pure story, right? But the broadcast time was one where the people watching were late night anime fans, so I thought about making it have a more manga-type tempo in favor of them. Eventually, we didn’t go that route, but the storyboards for episode 2, which I drew, may have the most manga-type comical gags portrayed. (laughs) When you compare it to the first episode, the tempo definitely feels different. The reason is that the beginning feels more like trial and error still but as the episodes progress, the feeling solidifies into one tempo as well.
Yamada: In the novel, Kumiko’s personality is very charming, but she’s a type that isn’t the general anime character. She’s so ordinary feeling; not at all like you’d picture a heroine being. She started to play music because her older sister played it, she worries over the flavor of the ice cream she bought afterwards, and so on. (laughs) If we depicted Kumiko, she’d feel a bit out of place as a character in an anime. But because of that, this was a very fun challenging production.

One page of Ishihara’s storyboards for episode 2

– She certainly doesn’t feel like she’s the protagonist in an anime.
Yamada: Furthermore, she goes along with the flow, but she’s at the core of the story. One question was how we can bring that out in anime-form.
Ishihara: I’d say her outward appearance is also a bit low on the range of late night anime heroines. But when she’s with the other three girls, her height on that range is her tallest point. To comment on what Yamada said earlier, an ordinary protagonist would be a prodigy player or be absolutely awful, but Kumiko plays her euphonium reasonably well. It’s rare to see that type of protagonist for an anime character.
Takeda: Actually, there is a real person I modeled Kumiko from. Since she was tall as well, I was pulled by that image of her. Of the other characters, Sapphire also was modeled after someone. The bloody hands incident was an episode that happened entirely in reality.

– Takeda-san, what was the process for how you put Kumiko as a protagonist character?
Takeda: After I wrote my debut work, “Today, We Breathed Together,” (published in the Takarajimasha Bunko) my editor asked me “what would you like to write about next?” I told them that I wanted to write about an ordinary girl in a concert band and their first response was that it was too ordinary. (laughs) However, I wanted to capture the insides of the people there rather than merely depict the ups-and-downs of club activities. I consciously kept that balance between the two as I wrote and eventually, it felt like Kumiko’s current personality came out. She became the kind of girl you see around who has that strong will of a protagonist and is still able to be recalled in someone’s mind.

– Was it also a difficult part to portray a too ordinary protagonist in an anime?
Ishihara: It was part of it. For novels, readers have the ability to stick their own kind of love onto the protagonist, but it’s difficult to make anime in that first-person setting. The standard is to get involved in fun things with a protagonist-seeming protagonist in anime. On the other hand, there are group setting styles from the past that have their own charm by depicting each protagonist one-at-a-time like “Two Years’ Vacation.”
Takeda: I love that style. When you combine various types of personalities and ways of thinking and not just one, it gradually settles together like a puzzle you can’t quite piece together at first. Each girl has their own traits and when their mutual traits meet, it starts a chemical reaction of entertaining moments. If one girl doesn’t move a certain way, then another girl with a different personality can cover for her. It’s really fun to depict relationships like that. I’m thinking that I’m a reader wanting to constantly watch over them.

– After depicting things in the anime, were there any things that you became conscious about?
Ishihara: With it being a 1-cour 13 episode show instead of a film, there’s no practical turning point scene as the episodes go on one-by-one. I thought for a while about various locations to put one in the series. Though we were to divide the novel into 13 episodes from the beginning, I was re-arranging and fine-tuning the contents until the final episode was finished.
Yamada: That reminds me, at the first scenario meeting, I clearly remember you and series composer (Jukki) Hanada-san saying “let’s end the first episode with Kumiko kicking Shuichi in the back.”
Ishihara: Eventually, that didn’t happen.
Yamada: That’s right. I believe you two shook on it, said farewell, and then at the next meeting it was “let’s think about that again.” What happened there? (laughs)
Ishihara: The first episode itself has to have a turning point and so ending with Kumiko talking to Shuichi felt a bit lacking in that aspect. Due to that, as we were inserting the flashback scene for the middle school concert, we decided to use that flashback scheme for every episode as well. Incidentally, the original plan in episode 1 was for people to sense that the school song was being played poorly as a link to that concert, but the audience wouldn’t know what the school song for North Uji High was. Thus we thought about how to convey that clumsy playing. Since we wanted to have an entertaining song, we put in the theme from “Abarenbou Shogun.”
Takeda: That was an incredibly entertaining moment. (laughs)
Ishihara: Modern anime end the first episode with properly raising a question to be answered. The general show would move the story along to the end of our episode 3 where Taki-sensei rebukes the band’s performance by asking “What is this?” However, I thought it fit this show’s tempo to have episode 2 have the students picking their instruments. And there are a lot of works with that kind of tempo who have the protagonist as a beginner. In that instance, Hazuki saved us. With her there, adding a subplot where she previously bought the wrong mouthpiece was a plus to the story. Both I personally, and the likely large number of viewers, with no knowledge of concert band, would purchase the wrong mouthpiece because we had no idea it was wrong. That fundamental mistake would continue to add up bit-by-bit and feel entertaining.
Takeda: Sapphire was enjoyable as well with her slightly “old man” elements and her knowledge of music.
Yamada: She’s the type of girl who would cite sayings by musicians, so basically we depicted her as Joe Strummer. (laughs) Thanks to that, we were able to improve the scenario to have her move around more and bring out more of her charm from the novel.

– Takeda-san, what were your impressions as you read the anime scenario?
Takeda: As I read it, I felt “so you can make an anime like this.” The contents were so enjoyable. I was surprised at Sapphire-chan’s proper Japanese (Note: While all the characters in the novel except Kumiko speak with the Kansaiben dialect, Saphire really uses it.) and her interest in Tuba-kun. (laughs)
Yamada: That mascot has the “just right” feeling to put the euphonium in the shadow of a tuba. When I was a child, we would collect “Sylvania Families,” but the series with musical instruments had a tuba included, but not a euphonium. I really remembered it and felt that we could use it as a technique to convey how minor the euphonium is.
Ishihara: Did you know what a euphonium is?
Yamada: Yes I did. My older sister played one. When she explained instruments to me, she said “It’s a small tuba” and “There’s a lot of tuba merchandise but…..” and her depressed mood is an image that remained with me. (laughs) Eupho-kun has a different facial expression than Tuba-kun; one that matches Kumiko, and is cute too. As I was creating the goods for inside the show, I thought about how to add the character’s charms.
Takeda: Horn-chan is also cute.
Yamada: There’s also Sax-kun, but Eupho-kun recently came out. (laughs)
Takeda: It’d be funny to create a UFO-themed Eupho-kun design. (laughs) Either way, I truly feel thankful these goods were made.

Wanting to depict fellowship greater than love

– The characters’ distance is a bit different than in the novel. How did you think about that range?
Ishihara: Reina, in the early stages, would touch Kumiko, like point point, during the entire conversation.
Yamada: Additionally, we really paid attention to the imagery paying attention to that distance from the beginning when they weren’t close.

– It feels like the composition of their distance and the growth of Kumiko is somehow weaved or linked together.
Ishihara: At the beginning, I don’t think it was this deep, but as we were producing the show, perhaps it led towards this direction. They’re different than ordinary friends. It’s like you’re friends with this amazing person and you want to try your best so that you can be on their level. To Kumiko, Reina is that presence.
Yamada: The descriptions in the novel when Kumiko sees Reina were so unbearably stimulating. Therefore, I wanted to properly depict that.
Takeda: Thank you very much.
Yamada: I planned to measure the amount of force so that I wouldn’t make a mistake, but it felt like the entire detailed atmosphere that I worked so hard to gather between Kumiko and Reina was just released. (laughs) On one hand it was difficult, but it was irresistibly fun to create on the other. I wanted to convey that adolescent uproar of excitation. Kumiko’s the type of girl to be looking around herself constantly and sometimes her depiction of what she sees is interesting. From her point of view, she sees Reina somewhat sensually, but that’s also a characteristic shared by girls too, right?
Takeda: (laughs) In almost every work, not just novels, there’s so many that put romance above fellowship, aren’t there? I wasn’t satisfied with that, so I wrote this work thinking of making fellowship above romance. It’s just as Yamada-san says, Reina is a bit sensual from Kumiko’s point of view. It’s something characteristic that a girl would sense and describe. If a man were writing it, wouldn’t it be more like a lusty wolf coming out? (laughs)
Yamada: In this world, there’s so much that doesn’t just move because of love for love’s sake.
Takeda: Shuichi is special as well, but for Kumiko, Reina is depicted as a presence that is above him. Before Kumiko met her, he may have been her special guy, but now her relationship with Reina is eternal. It’s not just those two; that type of relationship is throughout this entire story. I wanted to show fellowship as this vastly important thing that gets cultivated by mankind depending on each other and working hard in that closed space of club activities.
Ishihara: Relating to that description, honestly, Yamada saved us by being present. I don’t know the first thing about girl friendships or fellowships, but I can surmise from this discussion that it’s quite difficult. By all means the way guys look at girls may be depicted in stereotypes. While there is a portion of this work that feels like the processed view guys see, it was important to escape away from that stereotyping.
Yamada: There were some points that Ishihara-san felt he couldn’t grasp. Therefore, I worked as the series director so that not only could I provide a feminine intuition for the work, but I could provide another way of thinking for portions that he was able to grasp. Listening to him is also important as well.

– Were your conversations grounded on Takeda-sensei’s experiences?
Takeda: I previously played in a concert band, so I included that experience. There are a lot of novels about concert band with flashbacks or written from the point of view of an instructor, but how many would want to read a story depicted from the point of view of a real student? Since I was able to write from a new point of someone who hasn’t lost her love of it, I was able to write freely while weaving and mixing in my own experiences. (laughs)

– Was that image shared when the anime was being made?
Ishihara: As the setting was in a location near our studios that we know quite well, we talked about wanting to try to make it feel like on-the-spot filming. I was obsessed over the camerawork while making sure that the background and layout of the screen felt like it was from a real camera.
Yamada: The locals were surprised. Uji is Uji, but to have North Uji as the setting surprised people that we would go that far to depict it as such. (laughs)
Takeda: I had a moment with my editor when I told them about the setting being in North Uji. It was a kind of “maybe we should put in an episode about green tea” moment. (laughs)
Yamada: That’s so true. For my screen layout image, I thought it might be better to have the space seem more masculine despite there being girls in the room since there are so many girls in the club. If we did that, we could use stronger colors in the backgrounds.
Ishihara: My ideal backgrounds for this production would not feel like they were taken by a digital camera, but processed like how Kodak film used to be. Older film has somewhat narrow latitude (the rate of light exposure), so the contrast is strong and shadowy parts properly sink into the image. As I was saying that to her, Yamada replies “wouldn’t it be better to have the background hues seem more masculine.” Though Yamada and I both love film, the amount of viewers who would support us who love it is unknown, but we went that course anyways. Additionally, there’s a self-documentary atmosphere feeling as well. While it has the quality of a special about concert bands, we very skillfully chased after the appearance so it would have a feeling of a documentary as well. (laughs)

– Can you give a concrete way of how a documentary would be shown?
Ishihara: The camera is from a third person point of view. It’s not from one particular character’s point of view; instead it feels like there’s a cameraman chasing after the subjects. There are still some cuts of that left in where I said “I don’t dislike this style” like in the characters being introduced again in the fourth episode.

– Yamada-san, was there any other proposals that you suggested for this show?
Yamada: For this show, there were a lot of times that we would just say “that’s right” in agreement for something in contrast to disagreeing with each other. Each person has their way of directing, so there were some points of disagreement with the way to use the camera, but the screen layouts we each wanted were similar.
Ishihara: I love cameras, so I’m very perceptive when it comes to depth of field or the way to use aperture. We could use soft focus to make the subject stand out more so they would be more beautiful, or we would obscure the background like a gravure photo shot so that the subject would stand out and still be beautiful. I would control for that kind of difference when creating a screen.
Yamada: Sometimes that can be used to depict their psychological state besides how beautiful the subject is.

– It felt like the scene where the girls are waiting for the walk light to turn green in episode 1 was very impressive photography.
Ishihara: That’s right. It might sound bad to say, but we intentionally blurred the screen. Recently, TV shows and digital cameras are incredibly clear and pretty, but reality is not like that. From our point of view, the background isn’t so clear; it’s a more blurred point of view right? Older film styles let you experience that kind of reality.
Takeda: It definitely felt like I was watching a movie. It didn’t feel like so-called modern anime; it felt more like the characters were really living in the real world. Coupled with the performances by the seijyu, the show always penetrates with that beautifully feeling of reality.
Yamada: We also used a similar effect in the scene with the sakura tree rows. I asked to film it with a lens similar to how a bad milk bottle would look. Originally, Ishihara-san is the director, but he asked me to draw the storyboards for the first episode, so I was very worried. But when I see Kumiko’s standpoint and think back about it after later events, that sakura tree row scene image comes to mind as a symbol of where she was. I depicted it as Kumiko wondering how long they’ll be remembered while mingling in a guardian’s point of view. Furthermore, I wanted it to be burned into her swirling heart, so I made it feel more like film.
Ishihara: It’s generally associated with a simple Photoshop where you gradually remove the detail, but the so-called 2-line boke can be used sometimes when you want something to appear as if you have a bad lens.
Yamada: That shaded-off feeling looks magnificent like in the scene where Midori’s waiting at the station in the final episode. I love that representation from the director of photography (Kazuya) Takao-san. He’s able to process images to create a very good creation.

One page of Yamada’s episode 1 storyboards

– Takeda-sensei, was there any scenes that you wanted to see at the time the anime was determined?
Takeda: I looked forward to seeing the climbing of Mt. Daikichi. Also, while I had a lot of expectations for the show, I watched it with fresh feelings much like an ordinary viewer.

– The direction for that felt so detailed. For example, the way the water flew was very deliberate.
Ishihara: For an example, if we were to overlap a pretty flower over a girl, it would appear to be more beautiful than the girl, wouldn’t it? We aimed to have a similar effect here.
Yamada: Directing is psychological battling. Therefore, one of the points where you show your craft is how much you unintentionally move things around to a point where you affect the feelings of the viewers. For that reason, you study daily and keep lots of things secret. (laughs)
Ishihara: Is that so?
Yamada: Yes. I think I’ve said a bit too much today, so I’m stopping there. (laughs)

Presenting musical instruments with a great deal of unknowns

– Let’s look back at how you portrayed wind music since it’s one of the themes of this show.
Ishihara: From before we started work on production, we, as novices, underwent various forms of preventions to guard for unforeseen errors in handling or playing of musical instruments. As you’d imagine, we had quite a bit of them. (laughs) Our contrabass stand would inevitably start to lean down on the rightward side when it was on its stand for example. The reason why is because the right side would disengage once we set the sound post onto the pillar supporting it, and so it’d lean down on the right. We had no idea it would do that, did we? (laughs)
Yamada: Similarly, when we were told the keynote for our horn was wrong, I immediately went into a panic without immediately understanding what they said. (laughs)
Ishihara: We first drew the tuba with its tuning pipe closed too. But during performances, we were able to make alterations to progress somewhat normally.
Takeda: I can feel your obsessions from hearing you talk about them. (laughs) Additionally, there’s a lot of re-occurring parts that would surprise you.
Yamada: Also, there was a girl who would play the trombone in our studio who said “When I played in concerts, I would close the tuning pipe and intentionally sound different during tuning.” (laughs) After she said that and I replied “hmm, that so,” I quickly went back to correct her work.
All: (laughs)
Yamada: I was so nervous every time we would bring in experienced musicians for what they would correct. (laughs)
Ishihara: But it helped us tremendously to being them to our studio.

– Do you have any memories of how you were able to handle the highly energetic performance scenes?
Ishihara: You can’t run away from them.
Yamada: That’s right. It may be the charm of this production, but our staff would research how each instrument would perform during those performances. They would try to convey things like the weight of each piston in their drawing.
Takeda: That is amazing.
Yamada: It’s worth doing that to give this work credit. From the very beginning, Kyoto Animation as a company has pursued finely detailed expressions. Everyone always carries with them that feeling to always do more for a production.
Ishihara: It’s tough work, but it helps you clearly present what you’ve sought out. For example, if I were to depict an overhead spaceship, all I would have to go on is my imagination, right? But musical instruments have form and a way to play them that you have to clearly understand.
Yamada: It may seem like you do whatever you can to make the image look better, but it also helps make the portions excluding music with universal human relations come together easier too.
Takeda: While I was re-reading the novel, I thought about how the beginning performance and the SunFest performance would look. In the story itself, I had to limit the tale to the characters mentioned or else it would get too confusing, but you constructed settings for all the members of the band. (laughs) I was astonished that you would go so far to determine parts and names for everyone.
Yamada: That reminds me, when I asked you about the mysterious step for SunFest, you replied that it’s “A certain samba.” (laughs) As I was conveying it to the episode director (Ichirou) Miyoshi-san, it got a bit entertaining.
Ishihara: If it was an ordinary production, the animator would want to stop drawing pictures as soon as possible.
Yamada: Miyoshi-san is the kind who would resolutely take it on as a challenge. At the time we would decide to give him certain episodes, he’d do a determined pose. At the same time, he might be increasing his resolve not to quit on it. (laughs)

– Takeda-san, going through the whole show, what scene is your most memorable?
Takeda: The performance scene with Kumiko and Reina on Mt. Daikichi in episode 8. In the novel, I didn’t insert musical instruments to link the two girls, but I was moved more by the anime scene. Also, the visuals were immensely beautiful.
Ishihara: There were a lot of circumstances where we refined the musical performances in the novel. When we had an opinion that an entertaining performance would fit the anime we tried to insert them as much as possible like the performance of the three girls playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in episode 6 or the duet with Kumiko and Reina in episode 8.
Yamada: We included episodes 6 and 8 as episodes from the short story collection. Since the short story collection would be announced during the real-time production of the anime, we actively moved to mix in the episodes during the storyboarding phase. Actually, it felt really good to include the portrayal of Hazuki’s unrequited love in episode 8.
Takeda: I’m glad I wrote it. (laughs)
Yamada: Ishihara-san and I were glad when Chikao Takigawa showed up.
Takeda: I borrowed the names that were attached to them in the anime when writing the story where the guys get together.
Yamada: It felt like we were writing an exchange diary as we were working on the anime and then the novels were announced. I would learn that Taki-sensei likes coffee milk and then it’d show up in your writing. (laughs)
Takeda: Right. It was very fun.
Ishihara: I’ve wanted to ask Takeda-sensei something. The first novel contains elements that affect the second and third novels. Did you include them from the beginning to write a sequel?
Takeda: I included them feeling “If I write one, then that’ll be good.” Also, I included meaningful overcoming reluctance scenes because I think stories that resolve things up very clearly are quite nice. Since I was pursuing realism for the first novel, Asuka became this mysterious upperclassman who thinks about various things and that aspect gave weight to her character image. If the novel and anime clearly explained why you don’t know a lot about her, then she wouldn’t be that realistic mysterious upperclassman, would she? (laughs)
Ishihara: Along with that way of thinking and what I mentioned earlier about photography, we purposely would use an unclear lens to bring that feeling closer to the viewer. Our thoughts were that it would strengthen that realistic feeling to not bring everything in focus clearly.

– Please give a message to all the fans about your thoughts that were affected by this work.
Ishihara: I’ve made shows with high school protagonists many times now, but I learned a lot from this work since it was my first time using a concert band as a stage. It’s been a fun production year. I can’t say something profound like it was slowly reliving my high school days all over again but, through the frantic wrestling with this work, I was able to experience something valuable such as that frantic perseverance I felt during that time.
Yamada: This work is something similar to taking all the feelings of Takeda-sensei, the staff, and everyone who watched and putting them into one mass eruption. With all that power pushing me forward, I was able to firm my heart and persist in depicting the strong emotions of adolescence. During the various forms of production, it was troubling, but looking back on it, it was quite fun……
Takeda: Being able to have a work animated like this feels like I won the lottery. (laughs) Minutely depicting the depths of wind music, bringing each and every character into reality, and furthermore diligently scraping the novel for all information, I’m thankful for everything. Furthermore, I was blessed with the chance to write sequels and safely conclude my work. All of it was a blessing I never knew once it was set to be animated. I truly thank you all.

This is the second of a series of interviews with various staff members of Sound! Euphonium that was published in the Official Fanbook released by Takarajimasha on September 23.

Series Composer:

Jukki Hanada

Scriptwriter. Notable works include Beyond the Boundary, Love, Chuunibyou, & Other Delusions, and Steins;Gate (series composer for all).

A scenario packed with the atmosphere of a concert band

– What impressions did you have after first reading the novel?
It was a very entertaining read. I was completely absorbed into the story as I read, especially with the power behind the last part with the showoff between Reina and Kaori for the solo. As I took notes for the scenario, I wondered if we would be casting too big a net with the number of characters we have for only 13 episodes, considering the number of people in a band is so huge. How we would narrow down our depiction of which characters was something I was aware of from the very beginning. In a novel, you aren’t concerned with characters that are around the protagonist if you don’t write about them, but you’ll see them in an anime.

– Did Director (Tatsuya) Ishihara give you any requests concerning how the scenario would go?
Ishihara-san thought about thoroughly depicting the story of the first volume so that we could put it into 13 episodes. Generally, when novels get animated, there’s a lot of works that put the content of 2-4 books into 1 cour (12-14 episodes), but with one book, we had to insert elements between scenes to thoroughly depict it. Even if I felt the other way was easier, I would have to stop that in order to meet what Ishihara-san wanted for the composition.

– What did you concentrate on while thinking about creating the series composition?
Well, the peak of the novel was during the re-audition between Reina and Kaori, so how would we set things in motion to arrive at that point? Also, I proposed how we would depict the final part of Kumiko’s plot. The anime would arrive at a temporary final episode through a different path, so I wanted a different arrival and climax for her. Thus, while I was creating the episode structure, I kept in mind that the 12^th episode would be Kumiko’s turning point. From the very start, Ishihara-san was fixated on having the final episode’s B-part contain the final performance scene. Since they are part of this work’s very nature and that there was an extraordinarily large emphasis on performances, I was very aware of when I could insert them in the planning stages of the composition.

– I was curious: what considerations did you have in mind to change the distance between characters as the story progressed?
I wanted that sense of moving forward step by step that you get when making a TV anime sometimes. For example, episode 8 holds the summit of Kumiko and Reina’s relationship, so how do I shorten that distance between them as I move to that point? Though the point at the start of episode 2 isn’t in the novel, perhaps I could insert that exchange so viewers will be aware of how far apart they are…. However, I had to stay alert and make allowances here and there so that I don’t overdo it and ruin the novel’s merits. From where we reach the summit for their relationship, I then surged into the novel’s peak of the re-audition and furthermore into Kumiko’s climax point. It’s a bit rough, but you get how that feels.

– What do you keep in mind when adding portions that were not in the novel?
I try to use my imagination as necessary while keeping the contents of the novel in mind. Hazuki is a beginner and she has a wild personality, so perhaps including an episode where she buys the wrong mouthpiece would be appropriate. Sapphire is really self-conscious about her name, so her having to correct Asuka-senpai every time she calls her “Sapphire” would fit. (laughs) As work progresses, my understanding of the characters grow, so I can strongly move them around with my own hand, not worrying so much about the logic. I personally like the president, Haruka, a lot, but unfortunately, she doesn’t have many appearances in the latter half of the novel. (laughs) So when I would write her lines for that part, I used a certain kind of image of her that I had in mind as she speaks. Also the conversation with Asuka and her before the re-audition felt like it came out so spontaneously.

– Were there any orders from Director Ishihara relating to each episode’s scenario?
Actually, there weren’t any at all. From the very beginning, he told me ”please write this as freely as you want.” To start I had to figure out what kind of work this was and to put it in a crude state. Using that as a chopping board, we would boil down the contents during discussions with everyone saying “would this character do such a thing?” or “this scene is surprisingly important, isn’t it?”

– Besides the performance scenes, what elements did you include to make the show seem more like a concert band?
When I went to observe a concert band, their practicing imagery was something that remained with me. Elements like instruction given to members and how those members responded are portions people don’t see on the stage. That experienced feeling of tension and the sudden rush of sounds pitter-pattering in like a mosaic inside the room is truly unique. Both Ishihara-san and Yamada-san, who I went with to see the band, gave me an order that “[we] want to insert scenes around practicing as much as possible.”

– What points in particular did you see while you were observing the band?
We observed high school and collegiate concert bands and a concert performance. At the start of our observation, the students were performing the “Crescent Moon Dance” piece and we were also able to see them practicing it as well. There were many instances where the instructor would say “play this song like this” and while the students listened to their explanation, they would know what to do to make the song sound like what the instructor wanted. (laughs) It’s so much of a positive to see the song being plated and understand how to play that song. I was scribbling notes for what Taki-sensei would say as we were observing them. (laughs) Additionally, the specific phrases the instructor used were memorable. “A bit more stingy” or “More cool.” Someone who’s new to playing instruments wouldn’t know what they’re saying, but it’d be properly communicated to someone who’s played a lot. Also, this is something people may not remember, but try to think back to when you listened to a concert band when you were a student. The tune doesn’t suddenly stop after 2 stanzas, right? At that time, what part is the band practicing? When I listened and heard that in reality, it immediately intrigued me, so I thought it would be great to try and skillfully add that to the scenario. There’s a lot of modern anime shows that have depictions which suddenly float away from you, but this work feels like you thoroughly depict everything about it.

A youthful drama reflecting student hierarchical relationships

– One of the side aspects of this work was adolescence. What did you have in mind to depict that side of it?
For us, there doesn’t appear to be any difference between first, second, or third years in high school. But looking back at that time, there was a huge difference that a single year makes. You act like a first year would when you are one and you start to act like a second year when you become one. I remained aware of things like the difference between Reina’s immature conduct and Kaori’s more adult attitude and their subtle differences despite being students in the same decade. At the time I wrote Gotou saying “You’re a first year. Don’t worry about it,” I was thinking I would say the same thing when I was in his position. (laughs) It’s also a bit easy to use club activities as a spot to show the entertaining ups and downs of a scripted drama.

– Kumiko is a bit disconnected from what you would imagine a protagonist to look like. What issues did you have while you were writing her?
I’m a similar person to her, so it never felt difficult at all. I’d just write myself as a base and then it would become Kumiko’s lines. (laughs) Can I depict all of the flaws that Kumiko has…. She says just a bit too much, she’s like a cold splash of water on everyone else burning around her, and while she says some profound things, she’s not profound herself. If they aren’t recognized, then Kumiko should be seen as detestable, but it’s not like that at all. Everyone in the staff and cast shared that “Kumiko component” and worked towards the same direction to depict her well.

– What impressions remain with you of the depictions of the other characters?
Perhaps the character who changed the most from the novel is Sapphire. Everyone in the novel (except Kumiko) spoke with the Kansaiben dialect, but Sapphire used it in the most lively and chattery ways. When I changed it to standard Japanese, she became this ordinary character. So then we had to change her tone a bit. After that, as I added Yamada-san’s idea that she “loves rock,” Sapphire became this entertaining character. From the beginning when she says “I’ll risk my life on it,” and nothing else, Sapphire became this necessary character.

– Now that you’ve seen the completed visuals, what scenes remain impressive for you?
It’s gotta be the last scene in episode 12 where Taki-sensei confesses to Kumiko “I haven’t forgotten that you said you can do it.” Actually, at the scenario stage, it was “I still truly believe we will go to Nationals,” just like it was in the novel. That was what episode director (Ichirou) Miyoshi-san changed it to in the storyboards and it became this truly impressive line. As a screenwriter, I feel like “I lost!” (laughs)

– Please give us your final thoughts after participating in this work.
This was something truly worth doing. I can say that it’s one of my most notable works. Before this work, I put it as a standard and felt my next work would be indexed according to it. If our fans would continue to forever love this show and watch it again while recommending it, it would greatly please me.

This is the third of a series of interviews with various staff members of Sound! Euphonium that was published in the Official Fanbook released by Takarajimasha on September 23.

Composer x Music Producer

Akito Matsuda

Composer/Arranger. Composed music for Baka and Test, Natsuiro Kiseki, and Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions.

Shigeru Saito

Music Producer at Lantis. Began work as a producer with Kyoto Animation’s productions and has since produced music for countless anime titles.

Explaining the trusted and unique menu of music for shows

– Please tell us the details of how Matsuda-san was chosen to compose the music for Sound! Euphonium.
Saito: He helped Director (Tatsuya) Ishihara with the music before for Love, Chuunibyou, and Other Delusions. Their affinity for that production was quite good as a pair, and I thought this work would have an extraordinarily high amount of trials and tribulations, so I nominated the positive and proactive Matsuda-kun to give it his best.
Matsuda: There are very few anime that have wind music as a theme and I myself haven’t been involved in any of those productions. I thought it would be a challenge in a new field, so I felt like giving it a shot.

– Do you have any knowledge or experience with wind music Matsuda-san?
Matsuda: It didn’t come up at my college of music, so while I’d like to say that I know a ton of detailed information, that’s not the case at all. (laughs) But I was a member of the concert band from middle until high school, so I was able to use that experience in studying for this production.

– By the way, what instrument did you play?
Matsuda: I played all kinds. (laughs) I started out playing the trombone and then switched to the percussion section. When I graduated from high school, I was studying conducting.

– How did you settled on a concrete direction for the music in this show?
Saito: Usually when I deal with the staff at Kyoto Animation, I produce a large menu of options for the director. After that, the sound director and I begin to plump it up during our discussions. For this show, in addition to how strongly obsessed sound director (Youta) Tsuruoka-san usually is, he also worked as a representative for his company, Rakuonsha, on the production committee. I could easily feel how strong his enthusiasm for working on this show was. Rakuonsha has always been in charge of producing the sounds for Kyoto Animation’s works since they moved from being a subcontractor. Due to how long we’ve worked together, I know that I can propose something and leave it up to the director, and this time Tsuruoka-san, to implement it. When I’d talk about something, Tsuruoka-san would say “I definitely want to do that!” Therefore he had a key role in deciding everything about producing the sound for this show. He spoke with Matsuda-kun about the image for every single piece of music.
Matsuda: Yes. The approach this time felt different than usual for anime; instead of making BGM, it felt like I was making musical creations. Because of that, the titles for our music menu were a bit hard to understand. (laughs) There’s a lot of them that feel literary which later made it to the soundtrack titles like “Spreading Consciousness.”
Saito: Usually when we create a menu for anime, there’s a lot of titles like “fast rhythm, stringed instruments” or “everyday 1,2,3.” It’s rare to see poetic titles like this menu had. We didn’t create tunes with these titles in mind; these words were the memories we had when creating these tunes.
Matsuda: But they aren’t easily expressed when you see them as sheet music. (laughs)

– So were you instructed not to use certain instruments and melodies for this work?
Matsuda: Basically yes. I mentioned that I did not want to use wind instruments before we started since this is a work that has wind music as a theme. If we included them in BGM, people wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the sound of the instruments during practice scenes.

– Not being able to use wind instruments was quite difficult, wasn’t it?
Matsuda: It was. Usually, you feel safe trusting melodies to wind instruments. (laughs) Since I couldn’t do that this time, when it came to creating melodies, my options were either the piano or woodwinds. It was quite difficult to create variations around those.

– Was there a symbolic instrument?
Saito: It’d have to be either strings or the piano. Rather than say we aimed to use those, we were more or less forced to use them. I’d say Matsuda would agree. (laughs)

– What piece did you start with?
Matsuda: The first BGM piece I made was used for promotion inside the Comiket hall called ”Starting the project (Big Band Ver).” I was asked to create a wind music-like piece for demonstration, we went into a different direction, and eventually it became something with a taste of jazz. Usually, I’m happy inserting some wind music theme in promotion, but here it felt very wasteful to not contemplate how it would be used. Somewhere I thought to use “Crescent Moon Dance,” as the face of this work.
Saito: But I also liked the “That’s Wind Music” kinda feeling for the first tune as well. For a promotional tune, I feel that it was a nice bluff to use a rather jazzish piece.

– “Crescent Moon Dance” is a piece that’s depicted in the novel. Did you keep its descriptions in mind while working on that song?
Matsuda: Of course. It’s depicted as starting with a trumpet melody and then the woodwinds start to pile in, so I remained firmly aware of how that went.
Saito: You remade it how many times, right?
Matsuda: Too many. (laughs)
Saito: There’s many ways that one could interpret that title, so the staff at Kyoto Animation carried with them a complete image of what they wanted the song to be from the beginning. On our side, Matsuda-kun would think about a more smooth melody and then it took time combining the two into the same image. Every time we talked about it, they said to “make it more violent!” (laughs)
Matsuda: That’s right. I wasn’t going to change directions to be too violent.

– What did you keep in mind while working on its trumpet solo part?
Matsuda: When the solo part was first proposed, I thought “isn’t that too easy?” I continued to ask about it, searching for the right level of difficulty. I asked “Is it alright if I put it at a professional level?” (laughs) Additionally, I wrote a very difficult phrase for it. Not only do you have to use all three pistons, but you have to alter the sound that comes from your lips. It’s a very busy phrase that uses lots of high notes as well.
Saito: As we watched this exchange, we were constantly worried over what the performance level would be set at. Almost all of the people who would watch the anime would not be experienced with wind music, but while you don’t want to create something unpleasant for experience musicians, you have to make something so people who know nothing about wind music could understand the situation. Eventually, we settled on having a high level of talent for the skilled players in the anime as it would be easier to convey. We pushed aside the middle level and set the differences in talent at high and low so that it would be easily understood.

– How were the insert music pieces decided?
Saito: We decided on them with all the staff at the scenario meetings. The theme from Abarenbou Shogun was chosen because many people from all walks would know it and it would be a surprisingly entertaining tune. “Rydeen” in episode 5 was from (Naoko) Yamada-san and using “The Place Where We Found Love” as Kumiko and Reina’s duet in episode 8 was Director Ishihara’s wish. When we asked Senzoku Gakuen’s School of Music’s (Masahiro) Owada-sensei “what songs would be good for the rival schools,” he advised us to use “The Fairest of the Fair March” and “Scheherazade” and so we settled it then.
Matsuda: I arranged “The Place Where We Found Love” and it was a bit difficult as I had no visuals to use while arranging. Originally, I had Reina’s trumpet play the melody and Kumiko’s euphonium become the base of the song, but I received an order saying they wished it to be more intertwined like their friendship. From that, I organized it so that the A melody would be the trumpet the first time and the euphonium the second time and the hook would combine the two sounds into one. It took about 5 times of reworking it with small modifications until it was complete.

– Senzoku Gakuen’s Freshmen Wind Ensemble were in charge of performing the pieces. Please tell us how they were asked to participate in this production.
Saito: One of the companies that our firm coordinates music with introduced us to them. We met with the assistant principal and explained our plan to him of which he very cheerfully decided to cooperate with us. Senzoku Gakuen has four wind music courses. One is a course that only the upper two years may choose whom collects a group of skilled players that could put professionals to shame. For us, the Freshmen course that we used was one that all first years must participate in. The assistant principal recommended them to us saying “since this is a high school story, wouldn’t using the freshmen be more realistic since they are the closest in age?” We decided to use them according to his wishes.

– Were there any other benefits that Senzoku Gakuen added to production besides their performances upon collaborating with them?
Saito: Of course. The director and scenario writer (Jukki) Hanada-san went to observe them practice and that observation influenced the work greatly. One of those was watching how the conductor instructed; but there were a lot of things they observed for the first time. For example, a Japanese person has difficulties distinguishing between “B” and “D,” so in a situation where they want to indicate “start from B,” they’ll say “Let’s go from B as in baseball.” As they took notes on statements like that, Taki-sensei’s lines began to take form.

– Were you able to meet them Matsuda-san?
Matsuda: I wasn’t able to directly talk with them. I did meet them while we were recording though.
Saito: Matsuda-kun isn’t a wind music specialist, so he was very nervous at the beginning.
Matsuda: I was.
Saito: When the mentor for Senzoku Gakuen, Owada-sensei, saw the sheet music for “Crescent Moon Dance,” he gave us some hurtful advice. He quickly pointed out points that made him nervous so quickly making me clench my abdominals, but then he said “It’s a good playing piece, so it’s fine.”
Matsuda: While it gave you some relief, it also made you feel a bit uneasy, right? (laughs)
Saito: But when I heard “DREAM SOLISTER Wind Orchestra Ver” play over the final episode, I said “I’ve leveled up. Through these various trials, I’ve gone from the sheet music of “Crescent Moon Dance” to create something even more enjoyable.”
Matsuda: I’m happy to hear that. Rather than clash together, wind music has many points where you can hear the different sounds mingle together. I was able to make the final episode’s ending arrangement come to life because of the experiences I went through with “Crescent Moon Dance”
Saito: When we were recording “Crescent Moon Dance,” we were also recording the classic “FUNICULI FUNICULI” at the same time. Matsuda-kun saying “there’s songs with some easy to play elements in them, huh” when comparing the performance of sheet music he wrote to a song that’s been loved for many years is something that remains with me.
Matsuda: The recording atmosphere is very important. You can see how a song will sound well when performed as compared to by your side when you create it. That’s why I’m always thinking of various things to try next when I watch the recording live.

– Based on that experience, what tricks did you use when creating the orchestral arrangement of the opening theme?
Matsuda: I created “Crescent Moon Dance” with different instruments playing the same phrase to give it that powerful feeling. If I can say a negative, there were no moments where each instrument and each note were given their own emphasis. For the arrangement for the opening theme, I limited the ensemble to only woodwinds and brass while making beautiful chords.

The images obtained through repeating the same pieces

– Let’s return to the background pieces played in the show. Matsuda-san, what pieces did you first create when receiving the orders?
Matsuda: I began with the main theme for the show, “The Beginning Melody.” Tsuruoka-san requested a definitive piece that could be used in many ways, and I feel it’s became quite a good piece in itself. Because of that, I was aware it would be an emotional theme when we also would use it for the climax in the final episode. Also, though I had composed a fair amount of melodies for background music, it was decided that it would be playing as the first episode opened to somehow give it that “beginning” image. Since I had a bit of freedom to do what I wanted for the latter half of the show, I originally wanted to create some long pieces as well. So I slowly began to compose all at once and meandered a bit. That welcomed a lot of troubling points during the BGM composition. (laughs)
Saito: If you overly meander during music development, it’s tough to use when editing. But “The Beginning Melody” is truly a very good piece and is, what I think, the one piece that embodies all of Sound! Euphonium. When you hear it again during that final episode, it sounds like it’s given more strength that time. That tune you created is truly amazing, Matuda-kun.

– Was it true that there were no re-takes for the tunes you composed from Tsuruoka-san?
Matsuda: None at all.
Saito: Tsuruoka-san was quite pleased with the tunes Matsuda-kun created. Even going as far to say “They’re academic.” While Tsuruoka-san would get involved in deciding what tune, I think he would be prepared from the very beginning to meekly accept whatever he was given. From his standpoint, I think that’s quite a challenge. It’s an enjoyable and unpredictable chemical reaction when you toss out an order and let a musician fulfill it. I think it’s a move befitting a veteran sumo wrestler. If a musician isn’t given a chance to grow, then there’s no certainly no meaning at all for its production.

-How many BGM pieces in total were made for this show?
Saito: This show has a bit fewer than usual. Recently, modern anime would have around 40-50 background pieces for a show, but this doesn’t even have 30. Perhaps people who have seen the show would realize that we used the same songs repeatedly for similar scenes. Tsuruoka-san was concerned about building up this image as we moved towards the final episode. As we would watch, it was building up, unbeknownst to us, and making the music in the final episode very moving. Similar to Pavlov’s dogs, when we would play a certain tune, it would be associated with a moving scene. If you use a lot of pieces, this effect wouldn’t happen, so this was a trick we used for this show so that the music would create a maximum effect for the viewers where they could be emotionally invested.

– Which of the background pieces continues to have an impression on you today?
Matsuda: Around the time episode 8 aired, I received an order for more music. I used how I saw the anime on-air while creating “The Flow of Fate”, so that song suggests what I felt while watching the show. I was aware of how that sisterly tune would be inserted and how it would sound while making it.
Saito: Maybe for me it would be the approach of “Crescent Moon Dance.” We consciously used its melody while creating the background music, so it was thanks to doing that for Tsuruoka-san to accumulate those emotions and have a huge effect which remains with me now.

– So all the background music has a taste of “Crescent Moon Dance” in it?
Saito: That’s right. Matsuda-kun did a good job responding to our wishes this time. As an artist, there’s many times where you go through troubles like “make your orders more concrete so I can understand what kind of image you want.” At first, I think Matsuda-kun was perplexed, but as he silently worked with the music, he very much saved us this time around.

– Do you not get beat down while you are composing music?
Saito: I think there’s times we all are, but we don’t show that we are.
Matsuda: But I think this time, due to how we produced it, I frankly didn’t let it show at all. (laughs) I adopted a stance where I would get worried, say there’s no use in getting worried, and then gradually make it take form.
Saito: Because of the unique way we ordered, you had to simply follow up with what you were given. Also, Matsuda-kun would be persistent in wanting to know what we said at the business meetings, which was nothing at all, so I couldn’t say anything else to him. That was reality though, so he had to be prepared to make music however he could. Of course, those were the moments where I was the most busy too. (laughs)
Matsuda: Also, I think you dig your own grave if you listen to so many different things. (laughs)
Saito: If you listen to something, you have to reply to it in your product.

– Were there any memorable scenes that have stayed with you for how they were used?
Matsuda: Perhaps how well “Thoughts Wanted to Convey” was used when Taki-sensei appeared in a scene. My request from Tsuruoka-san was to make a “holy sanctuary” feeling piece, but when we opened the bottle, it became something like Taki-sensei’s theme. (laughs) So while it wasn’t what I had imagined, seeing it was entertaining.
Saito: When it was used in episode 8 by the Agata Festival, it was impressive, but when you look at it overall, it makes a strong impression with Taki-sensei. We had made a court music version as well, but in the end, it wasn’t used in the show.
Matsuda: That’s a bit too individual piece. (laughs) Speaking of episode 8, I was completely surprised at how well the images matched when “The Place Where We Found Love” played. There’s other scenes that felt the same way like the beautiful playing when Yuuko was crying at the re-audition in episode 11.
Saito: I also loved the way that music was played.
Matsuda: It makes me happy when the music I make can evoke those feelings. It’s impressive how many scenes come to mind like that for this show.

– What’s your favorite scene?
Matsuda: I look back at that re-audition scene at times. That tension in the air is absolutely amazing. I think the staff at Kyoto Animation has to prepare some kind of schooling to make those detailed gestures by the characters. It’s not just Reina and Kaori; you can clearly see all the characters’ expressions.
Saito: It’s episode 11 for me too. When you think about it all, not just the performances, you can feel how heartbreaking it is for Yuuko, who wants Kaori-senpai to play the solo.

– Who was your favorite character?
Matsuda: Yuuko. I think it’s absolutely lovely to have a character who tries her hardest for someone else’s sake.
Saito: I like Natsuki personally. She’s not going to be your star athlete, but I think that sense of balance she brings feels nice. She’s like the lubricating oil for the wheels. I feel somewhat similar to her position in my own role.

– Please tell us your impressions about this show.
Matsuda: I’ve written many wind music-esque pieces before, but this was a challenge to write actual music for the first time. It was extraordinarily wonderful to hear the music I wrote played magnificently. I was enchanted. As for the show itself, I feel it’s something that both people who know music and people who don’t can find entertaining. Perhaps it may bring up some old wounds for those experienced musicians, but that too is part of the charm it brings. (laughs) I’m incredibly happy to have participated in this show. Thank you very much for having me.
Saito: I’ve produced the music for various types of anime, but this was the most difficult one in all well meaning. Firstly, this is a group of 50 people with some good and bad players, so finding that right mixture of people is quite unlikely. And then while we’re recording, it’s difficult to ask the students to play an approximate amount poorly. This was my first time as a recording director, so I was nervous about pointing out the things that needed improvement after a performance. Additionally, it was decided that the music scene storyboards would be determined based on the performance, so if the sound was lacking, we would have to continually do it again every time. With all those conditions, this work was the one I spent the most time, effort, and brain power on, but it made a marvelous show. As I have gained new experiences working on this show, I feel blessed to have been able to participate in creating it.

This is the fourth in a series of posts where I’ve translated the various staff interviews about Sound! Euphonium from the official guidebook published by Takarajimasha last week. This post, unlike the others thus far, is a compilations of mini-interviews with the various producers for the show. It’s rare to hear from this side of production, so I hope you enjoy reading these comments from the people who make everything happen via arranging things together.

Producer:
Eharu Oohashi
Member of the Sales Department of Kyoto Animation

1: Please tell us what position you held during the development of Sound! Euphonium.
I was the Executive Secretary for the production committee for my firm (Kyoto Animation). For me personally, I worked as a producer for the committee.

2: What do you feel is this work’s charm?
In one word: “passion.” At the beginning of this work, Kumiko doesn’t feel that “passion” on the outside, but as she meets the various characters who have their own “passion,” and goes through various experiences with the people around her, that “passion” begins to unconsciously and gently surface.

3: Please tell us what your favorite scene is.
I’d like to stay above picking out a particular scene. (laughs) If we have to go “personally,” then it would be the first PV we made. We made a simple offer of “we want to make a cool PV!” and when it was done, both the animation and music truly made it “cool.”

4: Please tell us a memorable event that happened to you during production.
I had the priviledge of doing many things during the production process, but the one that I remember most has to be experiencing that “passion” that the wind music students whom we met had in overwhelming amounts. I vividly recall thinking “I could never continue playing to this kind of level” from seeing all the students with my own eyes both from our model concert band’s students and advisor at East Uji High School and going to see the participating students from various schools at the Kyoto Wind Music Contest.

5: When you think about the modern animation environment, where do you see Sound! Euphonium fitting into that space?
Modern anime has a huge variety of shows, so I can’t say where this show exists in that spectrum. As someone who works at an animation producer, we want to be aware and keep in mind to create something that lands “right in the middle.” That is a very important direction for us.

6: Please tell us your impressions relating to this work.
I mentioned earlier that the students who devoted themselves to wind music had quite a lot of “passion” about them. During production, our own staff was covered in “passion” so that we wouldn’t lose out compared to them. I could feel the “passion” from everyone: cast, sound staff, music staff, publicity and broadcast staff, video disc package staff, and everyone else involved in the animation process. I think that if everyone watching were able to also feel that “passion” that the staff held, it would bring us utmost pleasure.

Producer:
Shinichi Nakamura
Employed at Pony Canyon’s Crossmedia Headquarters

1: Please tell us what position you held during the development of Sound! Euphonium.
In addition to serving as a producer for the production committee, I also participated in bringing together the publicity, video package sales, and foreign contact staff at Pony Canyon.

2: What do you feel is this work’s charm?
What I liked the best is that this work has first years, it has second years, and it has third years. It spun together everything into one story as it piled together those one-on-one relationships. I really liked episode 11 where that was most abundant.

3: Please tell us what your favorite scene is.
Nothing in particular feels above the other, but I did enjoy the scenes in episode 8 where Reina runs along Kumiko’s nose and says to call her “Reina,” Sapphire’s “I’m George-kun, keep at it!” in episode 9, the conversation between Natsuki and Kumiko at the fast food restaurant in episode 10, and so forth.

4: Please tell us a memorable event that happened to you during production.
When we were meeting about the entire scenario, series director (Naoko) Yamada-san was extremely fixated on this character she created called “Tuba-kun.” At that time, I had no idea what she was trying to convey, but it because an important key item for our first years.

5: When you think about the modern animation environment, where do you see Sound! Euphonium fitting into that space?
For animation, we have a tendency to want to curl up with our most sentimental works, but, as a business, we have to take a wide viewpoint as if we’re at the base of a mountain. Analysis and forecasting is important, but it’s essential for us to create anime that makes people feel “I’ve never seen something like this before” and believe that it could reach everyone’s hearts. In that kind of meaning, this work has magnificently been able to breach into many peoples’ hearts and awareness.

6: Please tell us your impressions relating to this work.
Often when I’m watching this show, I miraculously feel caught and think “what am I seeing right now?” You can tenderly see the passion born from their thick expressions. Those feelings can be sensed because it deviates from a lot of television anime categories. As a producer, it was extremely wonderful to be able to produce a work like this. If I were to lose my life right now, it wouldn’t be that bad since I made this.

Producer:
Shigeru Saito
Lantis Company Executive

1: Please tell us what position you held during the development of Sound! Euphonium.
I served as both the music producer as well as a producer for the production committee

2: What do you feel is this work’s charm?
How it depicts adolescence. It has enough tenacity to not lose to a hot-blooded sports program. One of the beauties of this work is that you’re able to love all the characters who appear in it. Because the characters and story is told episode by episode, you’re able to magnificently sympathize with them. The animation itself is spectacularly done too. With a splendid scenario, you can feel the passion in the direction and animation. Being able to experience that “passion” and “love” from the participating staff and cast is amazing as well.

3: Please tell us what your favorite scene is.
The scene in episode 11 where Kaori-senpai loses to Reina. In many episodes I wonder “what would sound good here?” Technically, Reina should sound better, but due to how much history and contributions Kaori has put into the club, her music may resonate better in everyone’s hearts. I always think “good music raises the bar for a good drama.” Kaori has built up a lot of drama behind her while Reina has none. The choice to pick Reina is the correct one for those watching the performances in the concert hall, but Kaori’s tones may sound better to the club members. Being able to think about that makes me love episode 11. That and the music made it feel like God had descended. I wept.

4: Please tell us a memorable event that happened to you during production.
This is more related to my role as a music producer, but I was immensely worried about how to direct and record the poor and good performances. How bad should we have the theme for Abarenou Shogun played so that people will know that it’s being played poorly? Since they’re still a concert band, when we say they’re playing poorly, it doesn’t mean they’re playing awful. However, it needs to be bad enough so that the many potential viewers for the anime who have no familiarity with playing need to think “ah, that’s definitely bad.” And so forth. I was extremely concerned over the “level of badness.” In the end, I went for the masses and concluded “let’s make it extremely easy to tell. They’re going to play incredibly poorly.” I resolved myself to hear the critics say “there’s no way they would play that badly!” However, I felt relieved since it was coupled with wonderful direction. I was also extremely concerned over the differences between Reina and Kaori during the trumpet solo competition. We needed to express that while Kaori plays incredibly well, Reina is outrageously talented. As I was thinking this scene also needed to be oriented towards the general public, I thought how best to make the difference easy to tell. Kaori’s performance was performed by the best girl in the band (Senzoku Gakuen’s freshman team) while I asked a professional concert band’s top trumpeter to perform for Reina. Reina isn’t professionally better than Kaori, so I worried that I might have overdone it, but I needed to emphasize that “easy to tell” portion. Regardless, there were many other worrying points that made me nervous until every broadcast day. It was necessary for experienced musicians and for unexperienced people to understand the story. I thought every day about that balance between the two in my music direction.

5: When you think about the modern animation environment, where do you see Sound! Euphonium fitting into that space?
It’s a rare work that depicts adolescence as it should. Additionally, it’s an important event in anime history for how it expresses the world of wind music as well. Drawing instruments (by hand) is extraordinary difficult. When you take that challenge head on, this show is what you get in return. You’re always having to constantly face that challenge of expressing music (drawing as well as sound) without running away. This is a work where every surface is difficult. But because of that, the staff’s immense “passion” and “love” can be felt. Animation is team power. This work has the biggest display of team power I’ve seen. Cut-by-cut, sound-by-sound, everything is loaded with “energy.” I think the meaning of this work is all the “passion” and “love” from the staff in order to give rise to a good work. The current generation should check it again and see that.

6:Please tell us your impressions relating to this work.
I’ve participated in a number of various works in this industry, but this show is number 1 on the list of works that I have a deep connection with. Of course it’s due to the struggles I went through when creating music, but above that, it’s the best team that I’ve been able to be a part of. Being able to work for such a dreamy team like this is the best joy I can say.

Publicity Producer:
Takayuki Konishi
Member of Pony Canyon’s Cross Media 3^rd branch at the Cross Media Headquarters

1: Please tell us what position you held during the development of Sound! Euphonium.
I was in charge of this work’s publicity. It was my job to think about promoting this work and how to bring it out into the world by answering questions like “when can this information be revealed?” or “how about holding this kind of event?”

2: What do you feel is this work’s charm?
It has to be that “real” feeling, right? I was in the concert band myself, so though this show, I was able to awaken memories to those days by going “oh, that’s right.” It brought tears to my eyes when I saw the tuners sitting on the music stand. (laughs) Though club activities, Kumko grows a bit. Also, since they’re high school students, they have arguments in the clubroom. If I didn’t look outside, I’d think I was dreaming with how “real” the activities are on screen. The atmosphere and other parts of the club activities are so “real” that I think I’d still be touched fondly and reminisce about my school days even without the concert band. It feels like a work that surpasses the anime label.

3: Please tell us what your favorite scene is.
If I have to pick one, it has to be the “final episode’s performance scene.” I was entranced by the feeling of the spectators looking towards me. (laughs) You could feel that unique atmosphere only present at performances throughout the screen. The feeling of putting your whole soul into that “Crescent Moon Dance” performance you worked on all summer was quite moving. I was crying so much that it looked like everyone had a halo on top of their head. I also pictured everyone’s faces as they practiced. It’s an irresistible moment where everyone, the performing members and the supports like Hazuki and Natsuki, become one team.

4: Please tell us a memorable event that happened to you during production.
During the broadcast, we had an event in Kyoto. After it ended, the four main seyuu and I went to impose on Kyoto Animation’s production studio. At that time, they were working on creating the end card for the final episode which shows everyone together. It was so impressive that the girls started crying once they got to see it. Of course the production side did as well. It lifted up everyone’s spirits once again for all of us to put all of our energy into this work and strengthened our feelings to deliver this work to many, many people.

5: When you think about the modern animation environment, where do you see Sound! Euphonium fitting into that space?
It aired in the late night slots, but there were many comments that stood out like “parents and children are watching this.” I think it resonated with a wide range of users. There’s also a lot of people who cosplay as the characters from this show at foreign events as well. It’s a magnificent adolescent story that has resonated not just in Japan, but all around the world.

6: Please tell us your impressions relating to this work.
I was once a member of a concert band and I even played the euphonium, so it feels like it was fated for me to be in charge of this work. (laughs) With a work that faithfully replicates wind music and develops a spectacular story, there was no hesitation in my promotion. Every time an episode broadcast, there would be many warm comments flowing out into the world, so its familiarity piled onto the broadcasts making it well-known. I’ve been able to return back to my starting points through this work. It’s a show that people want to keep sounding both domestically and internationally!

Publicity/Assistant Producer:
Riri Senami
Member of the Sales Department of Kyoto Animation

1: Please tell us what position you held during the development of Sound! Euphonium.
I participated as an assistant producer and helped with publicity. Also, while it wasn’t directly related to being a producer, I was a member of a concert band during my school days, so I was asked a lot of questions every time they needed an experienced musician.

2: What do you feel is this work’s charm?
It’s an adolescent story featuring many young girls who are giving it all they have. Despite having different views on life, everyone in the cast is trying their hardest. When you gather various people together for one goal, everyone may be yearning and sympathizing for the same outcome, but each person has their own feelings that cry out. Also, it was a new challenge to “depict a concert band.” In addition to the high level of difficulty for wind music itself, you have to tackle the activities head-on. For that reason, one charm of this work is that it’s a fresh type of animation that hasn’t been experienced.

3: Please tell us what your favorite scene is.
There’s too many for me to pick just one, but I love scenes where characters communicate their beliefs with actions. Episode 4’s Taki-sensei declaring “we’ll go to Nationals,” episode 8’s confession from Reina, episodes 10-11’s scenes with Kaori, Yuuko, and Reina each with their own thoughts, episode 12 with Kumiko being influenced by Reina, and so on. I can’t trim them down to just one. Everyone handles things so earnestly; it feels like their strong will was born from them trying their hardest. When I see scenes with people saying “I want to do it!” instead of “I can’t do it,” I’m absolutely charmed. Though everyone feels differently, there’s never a time where there’s only one right answer. I also love how the girls aren’t afraid to collide with their strong emotions against each other for fear of hurting each other.

4: Please tell us a memorable event that happened to you during production.
I was deeply moved at the scene in the opening when Yuuko plays her trumpet and presses down on the third piston at the same time the hook of the song is playing. This wasn’t expressed in the storyboards, so I unintentionally asked the director (Ishihara) “I understand movement is needed, but that’s too trivial! How was this cut completed to match the music?!” once I saw the video. (laughs) It was a musician who handled that scene, so it was their proposal. Their obsession is amazing……!

5: When you think about the modern animation environment, where do you see Sound! Euphonium fitting into that space?
An unlikely adolescent story, right? This work feels like you have to head into it incredibly earnestly to depict a difficult subject. It’s a work that straightforwardly depicts school life emotions, but as it’s the first work with concert bands, it’d please us if everyone remembers it.

6: Please tell us your impressions relating to this work.
I remember wanting to see an anime about wind music when I was a student. However, having worked in the actual animation industry, it feels like it couldn’t have been done until now. There’s a lot of instrument variety and people variety, the depiction of performances is quite difficult….. regardless, it’s quite hard! (laughs) On the other side, it feels like there’s a big challenge being the first to show something distinctly new. Now, I’m happy that I was able to meet and be affected by this show.