This is the sixth and final piece in a series where I’ve translated the interviews with the staff in the Sound! Euphonium official fanbook. This has been a very enjoyable experience to translated the words from many people we don’t often hear from in anime production. I hope this has given you as a reader more insight into the various aspects of production of one anime series. This final piece has comments regarding production from various staff members from the backgrounds to the music production. Please enjoy this one last time.

Staff Comments

Art director:
Matsuo Shinobara

Art Director at Kyoto Animation. Participated in Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions, Clannad, and other works.

1: Please tell us how you were chosen to participate in this work.
I’ve heard that director Ishihara recommended me to the producers during one of their meetings. I feel immensely gracious.

2: When you were creating the screens for this work, what kind of art direction expressions did you use?
During my first meeting with the director, he said that he didn’t want the backgrounds to feel soft and gentle; he wanted them to feel strong. Wind music has this “feminine” image, so we challenged that by making the entire set of backgrounds feel “masculine” as we drew them. We talked about various other works and how, though we weren’t going to try to do too many new things, we wanted to do things like making normal scenes darker and strengthening the contrast to give it a strong and profound feeling. Those were the fundamentals that I wrestled with for this show.

3: What were some troubles that you may have gone through?
I wanted to continue strengthening the aim of this work to make it feel realistic through the backgrounds. In some scenes, we went a bit too off course with the realism, so I struggled with the balance between that as we were on a tight schedule. I still have some regrets at the moment.

4: What scenes would you like to highlight in the context of representing the backgrounds?
For all the places we feature in this work, there may be some points where our location scouting isn’t sufficient to cover everything. Each staff member would then go at that time to collect materials to draw their backgrounds. So I would say….the sheer passion that is put into this work cut-by-cut. This is our home area, so thanks to that, the amount of background information we have is immensely increased. Even on points where I didn’t recommend, pay attention to the expression of light. We constantly worked while being worried about how the shadows would look due to the strength, direction, and shade of light coming in.

5: Please tell us about some interesting events that occurred during production.
As this would be a work that wrestles with the theme of wind music, we began asking our internal staff who had experience playing an instrument prior to working. I was surprised at seeing many people with many different histories playing music. To think this staff has played so much…… To hear that there were members of the background staff who had detailed histories and ones who didn’t was extremely reassuring. Also……since the instruments in both CG and hand-drawn were so amazing, we as background staff kept the desire not to lose in effort to them.

6: Please tell us your impressions looking back at this work.
From the time production started until now, it feels like it went by in the blink of an eye. We had many challenges to overcome and many successes that overcame those challenges; it makes me immensely happy to say that we were able to improve the quality of this work in such a short period of production time. I was surprised by the reaction for this work for everyone around me compared to past works. The combination of people willing to help everyone else connecting with people holding a “we’re going to do this” sprit made this a very high spirited work as they were combined during production.

3D Artwork
Jyouji Unoguchi

Art director at Kyoto Animation. Participated in works like Free! and Nichijou among others.

Click for gif

1: Please tell us how you were chosen to participate in this work.
I’ve been in charge of inserting 3DCG in our previous works, so spontaneously I became involved in working on this one. Director Ishihara likes various movements in 3DCG, so I was excited at being able to do something fun.

2: What were the main reasons for occasionally using 3D backgrounds in this work?
This work is in a music genre where there are gatherings of a lot of people. I created 3D models of places like the music room and the concert hall so that the drawing staff and the BG staff could use them later as they were thinking about the space of their layouts. Up until now, we used reference sheets that the drawing staff would reference while drawing. Each person would have their own interpretation, so there would be a large difference between people. Different cuts in the classroom would be scattered in the representation of space. For that reason, I thought about creating an easy reference template in 3D to improve those situations. Furthermore, we attached hand drawn textures to the 3DCG modeling data to create a system that could be used for a 360° angle background when needed. This system was a boon when creating the whirling around music room cut in the opening. Besides that, the backgrounds in the train while the girls are traveling to and from school needed to be 3D as well.

3: What were some troubles that you may have gone through?
The reference models and backgrounds I created were not real live-action footage; I created them using the same colors we use for hand-drawn backgrounds in non-photo real 3DCG. That part was incredibly tough. As I was in charge of the modeling, texture, camerawork, and timing for the 3D backgrounds, I would have to re-do the modeling if the texture wasn’t good enough.

4: What scenes would you like to highlight in the context of representing your 3D backgrounds?
For 3D backgrounds, you don’t want the viewer to think “were those made in 3D?” at strange points, so you can only say “I did it!” when you make something that doesn’t feel unnatural in the cuts before/after it. In episode 7 where Hazuki gets off the train, bumps into Shuichi, who is getting on the train, and then mis-interprets their relationship, that entire cut has 3D CG backgrounds for the train’s interior and the station platform. I thought that was really good.

5: Please tell us about some interesting events that occurred during production.
How about episode 12’s Uji Bridge and Kumiko’s running scene? Actually, I was using newly installed software that I wasn’t accustomed to using. I quickly made it in a hurry and while I was at my wits’ end, just like how Kumiko was feeling in that scene.

6: Please tell us your impressions looking back at this work.
While I was constructing the music room and concert hall’s models, I began to reminisce about my own school days as I began seeing the small stools and small objects around the rooms. For me, this work is soaked in nostalgia. I’m able to sympathize greatly with the characters having gone through those same experiences to get where I am now. It takes all kinds of power to create these visuals, so it brings me immense joy to be able to convey them to our viewers.

Color Designer:
Akiyo Takeda

Color designer at Kyoto Animation. Participated in such works as Love, Chunibyou and Other Delusions, Tamako Market, and other works.

1: Please tell us how you were chosen to participate in this work.
It’d be nice if director Ishihara gave me a passionate offer, but he’s probably become accustomed to working with me through our previous works, so he just talked to me about it.

2: What do you keep in mind regarding choosing the colors as you’re making the visuals?
As we are making a “hot blooded club show,” I searched for colors representing “reality” while maintaining that “fantasy” portion native to animation. I consciously chose colors that represented a hybrid world between reality and fantasy.

3: What were some troubles that you may have gone through?
The numerous people and instruments. Though no character by themselves is a minor character, it was difficult to balance everyone so that people wouldn’t be too bland or too dazzling above our main girls. I’ve never come into contact with instruments so, as I had no idea how to construct those, I went to various photo stores, instrument stores, and consulted with our instrument AD Takahashi-san before choosing the colors.

4: What scenes would you like to highlight in the context of representing colors?
Rather than for color designs, I’d say the whole visual beauty of the work itself is a highlight. If I have to pick one thing, I’d choose how the colors for each girl’s eyes and the colors of their belongings and such are complimentary to each other. Also, I would change the colors around in different episodes to better match each character’s mental state, so it’d please me if you would notice that too.

5: Please tell us about some interesting events that occurred during production.
While we were doing our rush check (checking the completed visuals to ensure there’s no mistakes), director Ishihara quickly said “wouldn’t it be nice to add a swallow’s nest here?” and quickly drew the key frames and in-betweens himself. There’s actually a swallow’s nest in the real Keihan Rokujizou station, so the performance reflected reality. If you just look at it at a glance, you might not see it, but if you’re curious, please watch for the swallow flying.

6: Please tell us your impressions looking back at this work.
It’s very adolescent!! We as staff gave it our best alongside the girls. As you watch this work, that sensation of our passion alongside the girls’ can be felt. Thank you very much for your support!

Instrument Animation Director
Hiroyuki Takahashi

Animator at Kyoto Animation. Served as Instrument Animation Director for K-On!.

1: Please tell us how you were chosen to participate in this work.
Before this work was determined, I could feel series director Yamada-san’s indecision when she was in a neighboring seat as she flipped through the novel in her hand. The indecision was how to portray the instruments. I thought if she was that worried, I’d give her a push forward by telling her “I’ll do it Yamada-san. Please let me help you out again with the instruments.” I didn’t want her to hesitate about doing this work because of how to draw “instruments.” I wanted more than ever to do something that took place near us in Uji, so I said that I definitely wanted to do that. As I hit the mark a little, the thought of ”…we’ve not seen anything like this before with our works, why don’t we try it out” started to rise in her. I have no idea if that’s what pushed it to be done, but I believe my words helped her want to do this show. I’m immensely happy we were able to tell this story. By the way, I had no knowledge of these instruments. All I knew from my school days was playing electric guitar at a friend’s house. However, that experience has tied together to previous works where I was an animation director or created setting, so I understood it would be tied into this one as well.

2: What do you stress and what do you keep in mind as you’re representing instruments in animation drawings or setting creation?
First, I cut out the animation part and begin working on reproducing the instrument through the finest details. There’s nothing you can do if you don’t scrupulously work on that part. For that reason, I created a six-sided diagram as setting materials. This was the best reference I could draw to show part placement, proportions, and so forth. I thought if they could understand the details here, they could apply it later while drawing. When it was decided I would serve as instrument AD, I began thinking about how to finely detail everything as well as how to regulate it at that stage as well.

3: What were some troubles that you may have gone through?
There were many types of instruments that we borrowed from Yamaha, but when production started, they weren’t here. We wouldn’t have been able to distinguish between types if it wasn’t for their cooperation. However, we were able to work using reference photos and searches on the internet, but I remember worrying about how the parts would not come together as one in the drawings until people could understand how to draw them. They wouldn’t even come together in my wildest dreams. Finally, we were able to use the real instruments and the six-sided diagrams before we finished, so it made me happy when I was checking things. I finally got confidence we could pull it off.

4: You also served as instrument AD. What parts were you particular about? Was the degree of difficulty of depicting instruments as different as we think it is?
We created the first PV without rehearsing how to draw instruments, so I considered it a bout about how to use shadows and highlights. For this show, the instruments are all covered in plating, so it’s not a matter of how you highlight or shadow something; the entire piece itself should be reflecting something. The lights in the room from outside’s sunlight to the fluorescent lighting in the room should reflect for the bright parts and the dark parts should reflect people’s bodies. However, representing that in animation is difficult and our schedule was strict. So we highlighted their beauty by halfway representing highlights on and highlights off as well as shadows on and shadows off. I thought about only using background reflections a little bit when it’s needed for the mood, if the chance arises, or for promotional illustrations. Also, for instruments, I’d say it’s not so much the degree of difficulty as it is the degree of time is much larger. A high school girl would have a huge contrasting image if she were walking with something like Haruka’s baritone sax. I think Kumiko’s happy from the bottom of her heart to play her euphonium.

5: Please tell us about some interesting events that occurred during production.
Some people would say think that everyone around me was immensely troubled or would let out ghastly screams, but that wasn’t the case at all. The entire production felt like it was in sepia, so I can’t recall anything at all. At least I can’t remember anything now that we’ve reached the time where everything was completed.

6: Please tell us your impressions looking back at this work.
I’m from Kobe, so I’ve already spent about half my life here in the Kyoto/Uji area. For me, even though Sound! Euphonium is mainly about music, it’s also an Uji anime. Even though I spent my time only drawing instruments, to me, it still felt like I was always drawing Uji. Being able to boast that we made an animation about our local Uji is what concerns me the most.

Director of Photography
Kazuya Takao

Director of Photography at Kyoto Animation. Notable works include Free!, Nichijou, and other productions.

1: Please tell us how you were chosen to participate in this work.
Recently, director Ishihara has said “Takao-kun’s using some lyrical photography” so I believe that is what moved him to pick me! I believe!

2: What did you keep in mind as you were creating the screens for this work?
Director Ishihara would say things like “Make the background beautiful by using boke!” “I want to express this by using the two-type boke!” “Make it feel like you’re shooting a documentary!” “Also, make it lively!” He always said lively…….lively…….what?

3: What were some troubles that you may have gone through?
It wasn’t troubling, but I always regulated the way that light reflected off the instruments 1-cut at a time. It’d be bad if the final person’s who holds it screws up how it’s put together. Ah, I just fixated at the computer screen…..

4: What scenes would you like to highlight in the context of photography?
Even if your lens is good and you make it feel like its being shot on film, that doesn’t mean it feels like you’re shooting with an actual camera. So we made the camera move a little more than usual, used dirty lenses, and made it feel like a real cameraman was shooting the girls as we photographed.

5: Please tell us about some interesting events that occurred during production.
During the rush check for episode 1, director Ishihara said “There’s a swallow’s nest at this station. I’m going to draw a swallow!” and quickly drew the animation himself. I really love that part about the director.

6: Please tell us your impressions looking back at this work.
It was very enjoyable during production; my tear ducts wept so many times. Regardless, I won’t forget how emotionally moved I was during the rush check of the final episode. Even though the sound wasn’t added, it still felt that you could hear their performance. I realized the power of visuals in animation all over again. I felt like “Animation’s the best! It’s spectacular! Drink it up already!” I won’t forget drinking up this work. (laughs) Really, I’m happy to have been involved in this show!

Sound Director:
Youta Tsuruoka

Sound Director and representative at Rakuonsha. Participated in works such as Free!, Tamako Market, and Beyond the Boundary among others.

1: Please tell us how you were chosen to participate in this work.
Representatives from Kyoto Animation approached me and, since I’ve worked many jobs alongside director Ishihara and series director Yamada, I certainly wanted to participate. Concerning the work, since they were going to depict performances straightforwardly, I thought at first it would be a lot of physical work.

2: What points did you pay attention to during the direction of dubbing?
I always ensured that I never lost sight of how the characters were pulled to a direction as they were described in particular scenes. Among that, my impression was that this was a music series that merely incorporated everything, even things with no concrete connections.

3: What did you pay attention to in your use of music?
Director Ishihara mostly left me to use the background music as I wanted. I was particularly cognizant of how the music would fit and flow from the depths of the story without ruining the effectiveness of the direction.

4: Please tell us about any scenes where you particularly felt a response when you saw the completed visuals with the voices and music added.
Rather than a response, it’s more of an impression. When Kumiko was conflicted about “wanting to improve” in episode 12 when she finally realized what Reina was thinking as they played “Orpheus in the Underworld,” I felt that it was a thick expression that’s somewhat rare and smart in more recent works.

5: How was the atmosphere during recording? Please tell us any memorable moments that may have occurred.
We have so many young seiyuu that at first it felt like they were clashing against each other during recording. And then, even though getting physical would be impossible, the way their figures would move from being directly opposite to move in front of them remains with me today.

6: Please tell us your impressions looking back at this work.
This work has resounded to me by being a challenge that required me to carry many personal feelings toward music as I was working on it. Having worked on many jobs previously, this is something that I wish for many people to see.

Music Supervision
Masahiro Oowada

Saxophone player. Assistant professor at the Senzoku Gakuen School of Music. Works as the planning and budget supervisor for the Freshmen Wind Ensemble.

1: Please tell us how you were chosen to participate in this work.
While music lessons at the Senzoku Gakuen School of Music are lively, the “Freshmen Wind Ensemble” consisting of first years was chosen to perform for this work as they were the closest in age to high school students.

2: What did you do as a music supervisor?
Frankly, I merely concentrated on leading rehearsals and commanding the performances. The actual exchanges and business related tasks were left to my superiors who I am thankful to have completed such tasks.

3: What were some troubles that you may have gone through as music supervisor?
Definitely the level of quality of the performance. I struggled at ensuring the performance would not be too superior in order to match how the band was in the show prior to coaching. Also I concentrated on ensuring that the main song, “Crescent Moon Dance” would be strongly represented to have that emotional attachment that a performance piece has.

4: When viewed as a show that’s a “character drama inserted into wind music,” what scenes would you like to highlight?
It has to be the passion abundant in musicians where they are attached to a single note, wrestle with activities without giving up or being embarrassed, and the passion that people of all ages share that’s properly represented in this anime. I feel that people without any history of music would sympathize with everyone in the show.

5: Please tell us any memorable moments that may have occurred.
The way that the student members’ motivations came in high to their performances as a group and remained high day after day was quite memorable.

6: Please tell us your impressions looking back at this work.
Being able to perform in a real music studio with dozens of mikes and cameras is an incredibly valuable experience that cannot be replicated for our first years. It appears that deep memories have remained for all of them. I feel that being able to play a variety of genres from classical music to the upbeat opening and ending themes will surely improve their art. Conversely, it’s me who should be thanking everyone. Thank you all for letting us participate.

This is one of the three staff interviews featured in the guidebook for Amagi Brilliant Park. All three will be translated, but let’s start off nice and easy with the director of the show: Yasuhiro Takemoto!

Amaburi Staff Interviews

Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto

Director at Kyoto Animation. Notable works include Hyouka. Has participated as director in past Shoji Gatou animated works.

While including many original elements, director Takemoto also endeavored to show the charm of the original novels. Here we talk to him about the charm of the anime and the portions he was fixated on.

Properly re-show the charm of the original in the visuals!

– What impressions did you have when you first read the novels?

When I first read the novel, I felt “this is really a Gatouesque work.” I thought Yuka Nakajima-san’s illustrations are cute after I quickly saw them for the first time. Moreover, taking place at an amusement park makes it a wonderful setting and a lighter work. Furthermore, the story’s base is rather stout and the writing is both simple and yet thorough. Once again, I thought “Gatou-san is mentally a macho man” like I did when I read the Full Metal Panic! series.

– When you were making Amaburi into an anime, what points did you endeavor to keep?

“Properly deliver what I feel are the most emotional parts of the source I’ve been entrusted with.” It’s not just for Amaburi; our staff has handled each of the works that we’ve adapted like that. In Amaburi’s case, its greatest charms ares the cute visuals from Nakajima-san combined with the stout story from Gatou-san. We’re always thinking about how best to convey the atmosphere of a work like that.

The storyboards for the OP’s hook. One aspect of Takemoto’s direction for the OP was to increasingly add the cast’s hands clapping as they were gradually introduced throughout the episodes.

– Gatou-san served as series supervisor for this anime production. What discussions did you have with him as production advanced along?

Every time we met, he would chatter about “let’s make Amaburi a bright and fun work.” I felt the same and probably our staff also shared that sentiment. There’s often a lot of give and take when creating the details you pack into the setting for anime, but we didn’t experience any struggles though this process. All my conversations with Gatou-san were always entertaining.

– The protagonist Seiya is a cool yet narcissist protagonist who’s a bit detached from the other characters. What did you focus on when depicting him?

You could say that about him, but I personally find him to be an awfully cute boy. He’s not used to being frank in public, so he spontaneously begins to act that way in front of others. That’s why I always worked to bring out that cute portion of him since it was so important to his character. If perhaps everyone thought he was “cute” it would make me very happy.

– Then what did you think about one of the heroines, Isuzu?

Isuzu is a stiff personality with no lovely portions at all. But there’s a gap for her character because attached to that stiff personality is a sexy body. In order to convey that sexiness, I fixated on the camera angles and her trifling gestures.

The last scene for the OP. As it’s the last scene in episode 12 as well, this cut where all the cast greets the guests is a memorable image of this work.

– What about the other heroine, Latifah?

Usually, I have no interest in the so called “princess character” description, but Latifah is a special case. Despite being in such a sad situation, she has such a brave personality and a strong core above that. She also has a proper understanding of right and wrong as royalty; I think she’s a marvelous girl. I very much wanted to show off the various smiling faces a girl like that would show.

– Other than those three, please tell us about your favorite character.

Since every character in Amaburi is distinct, I have a certain impression for each one of them. Of course, I have special thoughts for Seiya, Isuzu, and Latifah, but other than those three…. It’d have to be the idiot trio of Moffle, Macaron, and Tirami. Those three are the symbol characters of Amaburi. If they weren’t around, the story wouldn’t start. I felt the performances by (Ryouko) Shiraishi-san, (Ayako) Kawasumi-san and (Ai) Nonoka-san splendidly fit their characters in the anime.

The work was produced by all the staff and cast supporting it

– You yourself were in charge of directing and storyboarding the opening animation. Please tell us about parts you put a lot of effort into, highlights of your direction and anything else.

It was nice to be able to create something where, as we introduced more characters, they would be added into the opening visuals. The last cut of the opening and the last cut of episode 12 were constructed similarly. That image was completed relatively early on in production, so I thought it would be interesting to include it in the opening animation. I’m personally happy with that effect. I wasn’t sure if the viewers would be able to feel the way I do, but I think they would be entertained with it regardless.

The three kindergartners who usually appear to torment Isuzu comedically appear as the key men to reaching 500,000 customers. It’s a touching and yet laughable scene.

– You also were in charge of the scripts for the anime original episodes 3 and 7. Please tell us about the highlights of those episodes.

While I think that they became entertaining episodes thanks to the staff who worked on them, I personally look back and think “they could have been more entertaining” and “we weren’t able to think of a better way to show this.” For those who watched those and were able to find something to enjoy, I feel incredibly happy. That’s why it’s tough for me to say something is a highlight. ….If I’m forced to say something I’d say how everyone in episode 7 is dressed like a pirate or in swimsuits. I’m especially pleased with Isuzu’s pirate captain outfit.

– Then, looking back at everything, what episode do you have a particular attachment to?

I have attachments to each episode, but the one I have the most to is episode 12. The scene where all the characters celebrate after achieving that impossible goal of “250,000 customers in 3 months” which had been built up episode-by-episode, was, in one word, moving. When it came time to make episode 12, I was swamped with various other jobs to do, so just for episode 12 I said “I definitely want to draw the storyboards myself.” I’m very thankful that the staff was able to construct it along the way I hoped it would be made.

Seiya holds the unforgetful and crying Latifah in his arms. This scene sorrowfully and beautifully depicts the fated twosome: the frantic Seiya and the pitifully cured Latifah.

– Were there any memorable scenes with the cast’s give-and-takes?

When I talked with Latifah’s seiyuu, (Yukiyo) Fujii-san, afterwards, she said “I’m immensely thankful for you allowing me to play as Latifah” incredibly sincerely. It made me immensely happy and still remains strongly with me today. I too am incredibly thankful for her to play Latifah. Of course Amaburi was created with marvelous performances by all the cast. I truly think everyone in the cast was a perfect fit for their role.

– Finally please give a message to all the fans who supported Amaburi.

Thank you so much for continuing to support us. Though the anime has ended, the story continues to continue in the novels and the manga versions. I think you’ll be able to enjoy the story in that form as well. If you enjoyed this anime, and think back with fond memories for the scenes you watched from time-to-time, it would make me very pleased.

This is the second of the three staff interviews featured in the guidebook for Amagi Brilliant Park. All three will be translated, but let’s unite the elements with the producer of the show: Yoshihisa Nakayama!

Amaburi Staff Interviews

Producer: Yoshihisa Nagayama

Producer at TBS Television. Has produced many anime shows including the K-On! and Hidamari Sketch series.

Nakayama P supported Amabrui through various jobs like bridging between the novels and anime and publicity. Here we talk to him about his enthusiasm for the work and various behind-the-scenes stories during the broadcast period.

It’s fun to produce a work with various faces.

– To begin, please tell us how you were invited to participate in the production of the anime adaptation of Amaburi.

I was approached by representatives of Kyoto Animation, who were handling the production, and asked “We’re wanting to animate this work. Would you be interested in it?” I really loved the Full Metal Panic! series and I’d wanted to work together with Gatou-san for a while, so when I read the novel and instantly found it entertaining, I decided to have TBS produce it with them.

– What were your impressions when you read the novel?

My impression was that each character was their own person and it was extremely easy to read. Though there are TBS anime which have a strong story aspect, there’s also a lot of works that you can watch carefreely and ones that have the characters at the front. It’s those points which nicely meshed with TBS as an anime. With “the characters are from a magic world” as its backbone, the story can expand in many interesting ways.

– As a producer, what kind of requests did you ask of the anime staff once it was to be animated?

I asked them to show the powerful edge that Gatou-san gave the characters. That’s the charm of this work. Ordinarily it’s quite hard to do that during a TV broadcast, but Gatou-san and director (Yasuhiro) Takemoto-san had discussed what to do prior to my joining production, and instantly appreciated what I wanted. We were easily able to talk about what to do when it came time to produce the scripts. As we also included ideas from series composer (Fumihiko) Shimo-san, we were able to safely complete a story suitable for broadcast.

-Ah, I understand.

I also had one other request: “as it’s a TV series, I want to make this so that the viewer to be very curious about what would happen in the next episode.” I don’t know if people who watched it realized it or not, but nearly every episode at the end had a hook to pull people to watch the next one.

The final scene of each episode, like Isuzu posing in front of Macaron (episode 7) or Muse looking bewildered (episode 8) tied into the next episode’s contents.

– During composition, episode 12 was made to be the actual finale of the show while episode 13 was more thrown out as an extra episode. What was your intention with that?

Due to programming concerns above my station, I knew that we could reliably air 12 episodes, but the ability to air up to 13 episodes was much less fluid. Knowing that, we fundamentally made it so that the story would pause at episode 12. Episode 13 was a story that took place after the pause so that people could enjoy it without worrying about the progression.

– On the PR side, what points did you take into consideration?

Gatou-san’s previous works like the Full Metal Panic! series are very popular and well-known, so of course I took into account promoting it towards Gatou-san’s fans. But with it being broadcast over-the-air, I wanted many more people than that to see it. I wanted many more people, like those who may not watch anime but are interested in theme parks, to see it. To do that, we ran commercials at various electronics shows and promoted it outside the various anime-related media at various places.

– There were a lot of collaborations too.

For this work, we collaborated with a croquette shop in Tokyo called Saigoutei so that we could bring the fictional world into reality and have fans eat croquettes based on ones made by Latifah. The collaboration with the J-League’s Tokyo Verdy was also a derivation of the story from the show.

– On May 17^th, you held a collaboration event with Yomuri Land in Inagi, Tokyo. Was this real life collaboration a mark similar to the one held on the final day of the story?

That’s not what it was meant to be at all. There were some questions towards me asking “aren’t we going to collaborate with this or that amusement park?” but as I only wanted the viewing audience to comprehend the park that we created for the anime until the broadcast was over, I held back from collaborating with any parks. As a matter of fact, we went to a fair number of parks to do the location scouting. However, I wanted to avoid everyone thinking that it was from a specific place’s motif. Once the broadcast was over and everyone was able to enjoy the Amaburi world, we could have a web radio public recording at Yomuri Land since people wouldn’t be tempted to judge Amaburi like other parks. As it had been a while since the broadcast ended, we brought out the seals from episode 7 in order to spur up memories of the anime’s story. While they were wondering what was going on, it made me happy to hear such a huge reaction.

– So it was like that. What gave you the idea to start “Buri Radio” in the first place?

“Buri Radio” started as a simple way for those who wanted to learn more about the show to do so. This was Latifah’s seiyuu, (Yukiyo) Fujii-san’s, first time as a radio personality, so it felt incredibly fresh and became a truly wonderful program. When she and Isuzu’s seiyuu, (Ai) Kakuma, would talk about the various seiyuu world activities, it really felt like they were two OLs talking about their job. I believe it became a wonderful broadcast with their strong will to learn more about the world outside of being seiyuu and strong will looking to have a career change. With it being full of originality as I thought it would be, there’s no one that would argue about it being an entertaining broadcast.

Showing his fixation for casting and music

– With Amaburi being Gatou-san’s latest work and one that was highly anticipated as an anime, what kind of reaction did you receive from the fans when it was announced to be an anime?

This is just concerning Isuzu and Latifah’s voices, but I received a lot of “they’re really pleasant” voices when casting those two. For casting, Kakuma-san and Fujii-san were the best fit. Also, I got a lot of requests for Seiya’s seiyuu to be (Kouki) Uchiyama-san. He can reliably work as a high schooler and he served as a child actor previously, but even though I questioned if he could bring some empathy for Seiya’s position, I still requested him to play for us. His performance was beyond my wildest expectations. I’m very glad I requested him.

– Speaking of casting, I was surprised when I heard that Moffle, Macaron, and Tirami’s seiyuu were women. As I read the novel, my inner image of them had old geezer voices…..

There were a lot of reasons why we cast them as women, but the top reason is that I wanted to show everyone that there are infinite possibilities for seiyuu. They are skillful presenters who act in every way from the way they breath to their voices itself. I’d say there were probably a lot of people who read the novel and imagined “the mascots sound like old men, so they’ve got a male voice.” But while we were casting the male voices, it ended with me thinking “this is too normal.” There’s many people who imagine Macaron’s seiyuu, (Ryouko) Shiraishi-san, as a young boy, Moffle’s seiyuu, (Ayako) Kawasumi-san, as a princess and Tirami’s seiyuu, (Ai) Nonoka-san, as a cute heroine, but I also wanted to see them act as old men. Those three are veterans, so while I thought they would be able to act well, they performed superbly. I wanted to bring notice to all the fans to have a new sense of surprise, but I also wondered if there would be any uncomfortable feelings for everyone.

Nakayama P’s favorite character is episode 3’s Macaron. Fake Seiya in episode 8 had delicate expressions and superb comical acting from Uchiyama.

– What other points did you put a lot of power into besides casting?

Not just for Amaburi, but I always put a lot of power into music. Music is something that brings up memories of the work in people even when the show isn’t being broadcast. For that reason, it’s a very important element for anime. I requested an opening song with an unforgettable catchy running beat that won’t leave you once you hear it from Flying Dog, the company in charge of music. In contrast, for the ED song I requested they make a song that was serene so people would be able to calm down after watching the episode.

– I see. Did you have some intention in mind when you were casting Brilliant 4, who would sing the ending theme song?

Since I thought they would sing it at a real event, I chose them based on the ability to since and dance. However, it was more important that they be balanced and work as a team. Since the girls are very friendly with each other in the show, it was important for me to choose girls who would bring out that harmonious feeling and be close in age with each other.

Aiming to create episodes that are “representative of anime.”

– Next, please tell us who your favorite character is.

I personally love all the characters. If I have to pinpoint something, I’m very fond of the scene where Macaron comes running and screaming “Stop it roooon!” when Moffle scares the customers by attacking one. (Tatsuya) Ishihara-san’s direction shows that cute layer to him.

– Then what is your favorite episode?

Episode 8. It’s the one where Moffle and the others go to school in place of Seiya, who fell ill. That was so entertaining. It’s a unique story, Uchiyama-san’s performance was amazing, and I’ve heard it was a popular episode among the staff. I’m glad that it wasn’t just gags; there’s a nice story that ends by the end of the episode.

-You had to prepare a lot of original episodes. What was your intention when inserting original elements in the show?

I’m always thinking about elements that are representative of anime when we’re making an adaptation of something. Even if you completely adapt the original source exactly, that doesn’t mean it’ll become an entertaining anime work. Of course, it’s important to respect the original source, but though it’s difficult, I think weaving in some originality is the best way to adapt something. In the case of Amaburi, though we were fundamentally following the story of the first volume, we could insert some new episodes and bring in some characters who appear in later volumes in order to bring out that originality.

– What were your impressions on episode 12, the real final episode?

Wasn’t it fitting as a final episode for Amaburi? I mentioned earlier that I wanted episode 12 to be the final episode when creating the series composition, so the entire staff made it such an emotional finale. TV anime have various restraints in expressions and lengths, but I think everyone on the staff are pros for being able to work within those restraints to create such a work to move the audience. I’m incredibly grateful for all the staff to work as professionals.

– Episode 14 included on the “special volume” was very comical.

That’s right. It’s an episode that moves so quickly you can’t even think “why do the kindergartners have an underground pro wrestling ring?” That episode is full of punch lines. I was a bit worried that all those punch lines would work out, but when I asked Gatou-san, who wrote the script for that episode, “will these punch lines be okay?” he replied with such confidence “It’s alright!” As a result, it’s very Gatouesque with its peculiar and funny jokes. I’d definitely check them out if I were you.

A scene from episode 14. Why is there an underground wrestling ring and why are the kindergartners so wild over wrestling? Was it intended to feel this surreal when you calmly watch it?!

– What problems did you run into while producing this show?

Of course there were little problems here and there, but there’s nothing “troubling” that I can think of. Thanks to director Takemoto’s wonderful leadership being shown, the production side had a wonderful atmosphere. He was also able to skillfully include all the portions I requested as a producer as well. Above all, since all the cast and staff were able to convey the fun they had while making this show, I was able to have fun while producing it.

– Looking back on it, what kind of work did the anime Amaburi become?

For me, I’d say that it’s a work I challenged by saying “since this is a work that Gatou-san and Kyoto Animation are producing, there’s no way they can’t produce anything that isn’t a great work.” It was also very enjoyable being able to challenge myself by tying in various collaborations outside of anime media. Due to that, it was a very profound work for me.

– Finally, please give a message to all the fans who supported the Amaburi anime.

We aimed to produce Amaburi for all the viewers to be entertained. How did we do? The novels are still ongoing, and we also plan to continue selling some related products in the future, so please continue to support Amaburi. Thank you all for watching.

This is the last of the three staff interviews featured in the guidebook for Amagi Brilliant Park. Let’s finish with the author of the light novels: Shouji Gatou!

Amaburi Staff Interviews

Creator/Series Supervisor: Shoji Gatou
Well-known author who has published various titles such as Full Metal Panic! (from the Fantasy Bunko label) He has also served as an anime scriptwriter for various shows and was the series composer for Hyouka alongside director Yasuhiro Takemoto.

The creator of Amagi Brilliant Park influenced the anime production from the role of “series supervisor.” Here we speak with Shoji Gatou about the birth of the franchise, the secret tales of how the characters were born, and shed light on the backstage events of the anime production!

Adding some slack spices up a work!

– Please tell us how you set out to write the original Amaburi novels.
For a long time, my Full Metal Panic! shorts were serialized in Dragon Magazine (published by Kadokawa Fujimi Shobo). While it was full of gags instead of the seriousness the main series had, it was quite popular with the readers and I also enjoyed writing them. That’s why I wanted to write something light with gags and comedy in it. I’m in my forties now. I think it would be difficult to write something light when you’re in your fifties, so I felt that if I didn’t write something like that now, I’d never get a chance to write it. (laughs)

– What was the reason behind choosing an amusement park?
It started when I went to an amusement park with a friend and we saw a mascot energetically playing around with the kids. I thought “wouldn’t it be funny if that mascot actually hated kids?” If I could depict the real world worries and problems that an amusement park mascot had in a light manner, then wouldn’t that be something new for me? Also, if it was at an amusement park, then I thought that the reader would be able to enjoy the scenery and the spectacle of the setting.

– How did you construct the story as a whole?
My first inclination was to make a straightforward rags-to-riches story so that it’d be easier for the readers to emphasize with the characters. I felt they could easily sympathize with the re-building of an amusement park that was near ruin. And then, because this wouldn’t be a type of story where you have that “person inside” a mascot, there’d inevitably have to be a detail  where ‘the mascots came from a magical land.” Now you have the general setting completed. However, despite that I usually think about the setting for my works to be incredibly detailed, I never settled  on how the magical world “Maple Land” would exist in Amaburi. There would be points that I’d decide upon as I was writing too. I’d write the directions to Maple Land being “head on the JR Nambu Line until you get to Yokohama. From there, just take the limited express.” (laughs) Sometimes the readers get upset at you if you’re too lax, but that slack is the flavor of Amaburi to me.

– Next, please tell us how the characters were created. First, what was the reason behind the protagonist, Seiya, being a high school student who acts as the general manager?
I wrote Seiya as a high school student so that more people would accept him as a character. In Japan, almost everyone has lived that high school lifestyle, so it’s easy for anyone to sympathize with a someone going through that. But Seiya becomes the key man in restoring the failing amusement park, so he’s not just an ordinary high school student; his character needed an element to know about the adult world as well. That’s why I added the part where he was a former child actor. It fit him to look on from up high and say various things to improve the park’s entertainment due to knowing about the entertainment industry.

– And with that, Seiya became a very talented character.
There was one more reason: I’m not great at moving around a character without any weak spots, so I took it upon myself to make him this super incredible person as my own challenge. But it was hard to continue writing like that, so when he spoke to Isuzu about his past traumas, he became a character who showed some weaknesses as well. In the end, you could say “he became a character with a weak spot like all of Gatou-san’s works.”

– Seiya is a high school student, yet this story takes place in the amusement park and doesn’t really depict school life at all. What was the reason for that?
Because I don’t think that everyone in the world lives a fully satisfying high school life. I think that if there’s people who have fun during high school, then there has to be others who continually spend it by themselves. Possibly those people would find entertaining things outside of school. For Seiya, Amaburi is that place and I wanted to portray that “school isn’t everything” sense. Although, episode 8 in the anime, the school one, was very popular, so perhaps I might insert some stories like that at times.

– Next, please tell us how you created the heroine, Isuzu.
Isuzu came into my head when I was talking with my editor about “what if Sousuke (Full Metal Panic!’s protagonist Sousuke Sagara) was a girl?” Fundamentally, she’s quite talented, but she has that inflexible and constant fruitless effort part in common with Sousuke. Also, since she’s the type of character who’s very capable as a secretary, but poor as a leader, I attached “low self-esteem” to her personality. With her being a girl with a fair amount of issues, she’s suitable to be a heroine.

-Then how about the other heroine, Latifa?
I straightforwardly tried to keep her as my image of a “princess.” Since I wanted to create a story where everyone tries their best for this young girl, I endeavored to keep her as a pure, pitiful heroine without a hint of that “actually, I’m bad to the bone” personality. I created that “reset of a year’s memories” aspect so that she’d be that “heroine who needs saving.” I kept thinking about how to add more and more to her to the point where I looked back at my past self and said “Who would think about creating such a horrible situation for her?!” (laughs)

– We’d like to hear about the mascot characters next. Moffle looks like Bonta-kun from Full Metal Panic!. It’s quite impactful.
Bonta-kun was one of my favorite characters, so I asked the illustrator for Full Metal Panic!, Shiki Douji-sensei, if I could use her design. Personality-wise, he’s been through many different roles, so he’s the kind of person who takes a long-term view on things. My editor said “Hey, Gatou-san, this can pretty much stay as it is.” (laughs) He may be the character I’m most attached to in the series.

– What about Macaron and Tirami?
Macaron came to me when I was thinking “it’d be entertaining if there was a mascot who was separated from his wife and children and talked with his lawyer about paying child-raising expenses.” After that, I added various danger elements like being a former delinquent. For Tirami, when I referenced all the violent girls around them, Tirami became a woman lover. Since there’s no real depth for Tirami, I talked with (Yasuhiro) Takemoto-san about “what if Tirami loves women, but has no experience with them?” The truth is that it’s unknown. (laughs) I like Moffle the best of those three, but if the chance comes, I’d like to write an episode of those three at the bar.

– How about the four Elementario girls?
I created them with the thought about including more pretty girls besides Isuzu and Latifia in the series. But, as there wasn’t any background on them at the time they appeared in the novel, I had to think about a detailed backstory for them for the anime. For example, Sylphy is a bit of an airhead now, but at first she was the older-sister type character. How Salama likes Muse also came from the anime. Thanks to the charming depiction of their images, all four of them were able to stand out.

While the other three girls were doing something, Sylphy would be frolicking by herself saying meaningless things. In episode 13, she was the only one throwing paper airplanes.

– There are a lot of other characters who appear. Did you think of all of them by yourself?
I didn’t come up with everyone by myself; some were jokes the editor threw out while we were drinking. Anyways, the stock increases every time we drink, so there’s still a lot of characters who haven’t appeared yet. Although I don’t know if there’s a chance I could show a useless character like someone who’s only trait is “a mascot who went to jail on false molestation charges.” (laughs)

My favorite characters are the three kindergartners!

– This time you were credited with “series supervisor” for the anime. In what way did you influence production?
When I first heard that it was going to be animated, I thought I could compose the series entirely by myself, but as I was also writing the novels at the same time, I was caught without enough time to do both. Due to that, I put my faith in the veteran scriptwriter (Fumihiko) Shimo-san to do the main work and I would work as a supervisor. Also as the person in charge of saying dumb things. Takemoto-san is relatively serious and wouldn’t include things like pointless sexy scenes. Me on the other hand would encourage everyone to “include more sexy!” I worked together with Takemoto-san on Hyouka before this, and he flat out rejected me while I was fighting as the sole soldier of erotic justice. (laughs)

– You were in charge of the scripts for episodes 4, 9, and 12. What was the reason you chose those four episodes?
These were episodes that had parts that weren’t in the novels, so I thought “I’ll do these for them myself.” Especially episode 9. I was finalizing the background for the Elementario while writing the script, so I had to write that one. Episode 12 was the real finale, and I felt the novel’s “we made our goal with the attendance for the soccer match” was a bit too weak of a punch line for the anime, so I wanted to insert some original elements. When talking with Takemoto-san and Shimo-san, we agreed that mobilizing all the characters surrounding our staff members would be a suitable conclusion.

-I laughed at the fact that the three kindergarteners were the final three guests.
I wrote that punch line thinking “if those three were the last guests, it’d be quite the surprise.” They first appear in episode 4, which I wrote the script for, so as I wrote them eagerly saying strange lines like “give us food and water!” they became weird characters. Because of that, I became instantly attracted to them and wanted them to appear whenever was a good point for them to show up.

Every scene with the three kindergartners had quite an impact. Their ferociousness and the impressive sight of their attacks on Isuzu was quite an attraction.

-What impressions of the visuals still remain with you?
The scene near the end of episode 12 when Latifa and Seiya are talking in Maple Castle; I thought “Yep, this is a KyoAni work” when I saw the beautiful images. The way the flowers on the trees were sparkling still remains with me. Takemoto-san’s thoughts on that scene was that we should “dig deeper into Latifia’s feelings about her memory resetting,” so I thought more about it as I wrote its script. As a result, it became a very touching scene when we included her being saved. Some people may think it’s “too easy” for that to have happened, so even though I thought it felt perfect to end the anime with, it wasn’t the final shot.

– You also wrote the script for episode 14, which is included on the BD/DVDs. It’s completely a gag episode.
Seriousness is important, but you have to have gag episodes too. I wanted to include an incredibly slapstick episode, but with only 12 episodes, there wasn’t enough space to fit one in. Thankfully, I could do whatever I wanted in the remaining 2 episodes, so episode 14 got the brunt of me doing everything I wanted to do. My favorite three kindergarteners appear as well and they are both in and around gags too.

A surprising development in the relationships between Seiya, Isuzu, and Latifa?!

– What event remains with you regarding the anime?
Since I was fundamentally at every recording session, I thought about adlibbing Sylphy’s meaningless one-liners there. Though the basic script had been completed at that point, while we were recording, sound director (Youta) Tsuruoka-san would come to me and ask “This adlib’s a bit too long, I’d like one a bit shorter,” and so I’d quickly think of a new one. When I’m working on a manuscript at my desk, I don’t give a damn about what anyone thinks, but I felt like I’d die of embarrassment trying to think of one in front of everyone else. (laughs) This was the most embarrassed I’d felt since I was asked “please come up with some magic incantation” while we were recording “The Tower of Druga,” which I wrote the scripts for. I was stuck reading aloud how to pronounce each spell in front of everyone.

– After the anime, were there any characters you wanted to delve into more?
Actually, I’m writing a story for the novels that delves into the four Elementarios. I want to write more and more about those girls and the three part-timers, but since sentences aren’t as flashy as visuals, perhaps they’d look better in the anime. I wouldn’t mind writing about Tricen or the sober and present Jaws, but I don’t know if there’s any demand for that. (laughs)

– Having watched the anime, I’m curious about the relationship between Seiya, Isuzu, and Latifia. What will happen later for those three?
Though it doesn’t appear I deliberately wrote it as such in the novel, it does seem like they’ve eventually become a love triangle. By the way, at this point it may feel better to go with Latifia more or less in the novel. But will Isuzu make a comeback victory? Please stay tuned to find out what’s coming next! (laughs)

– Finally please give a message to all those who watched the anime.
Thank you very much to everyone who stayed and watched the Amaburi anime until the very end. It would make me very happy if you all enjoyed it. Afterwards, I think you’d like reading the various publications as well. If you desire something where “I want to see this kind of episode!” please contact the Kadokawa Fantasy Bunko editing department in your spare time. If it’s a good idea, I might consider writing about it if I feel like it. (laughs)

Director x Series Composer Dialogue

Director Naoko Yamada:
Director/Animator at Kyoto Animation. Notable works include directing Tamako Market/Love Story, series director of Sound! Euphonium, and episode director/storyboards/key animation for Clannad, Clannad After Story, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and other shows.

Series Composer Reiko Yoshida:
Freelance scriptwriter. Notable works include series composer for Bakuman, Girls und Panzer, Tamako Market, and Yowamushi Pedal among other series.

Director Yamada and Yoshida-san created K-On!! with love surpassing the usual for these roles. What thoughts and memories do they continue to hold as they look back at the final episode and the three years that have passed since the first four entered high school until their graduation.

K-On!!, by introducing points of view outside the light music club, opens the world of the show.

– When did production start on the second season?
Yamada: We finished all of production on the first season in May of last year (2009), so I remember starting work on the second season about 3-4 months later.
Yoshida: I remember being surprised when I heard we were doing a second season. I was surprised again when I heard that it was going to be 26 episodes in 2 cours. My first thoughts were “What do we do in season 2? I never thought about doing one!” (laughs)
Yamada: I also recall feeling like “What do I do for this? And it’s 2 cours too!” (laughs)

– What topics did you two discuss concerning this surprising second season?
Yamada: I remember talking about how it should be fine if we keep the world the same in it.
Yoshida: Right. Rather, it should feel like nothing changed at all.
Yamada: We also talked about what kind of episodes we’d like to see and what original episodes we’d like to insert, what kinds of twists and turns to put in, and where should we start with the first episode. We talked about various opinions on where we should start. Should we start in April with the opening ceremonies in their third year or should we pick up where season 1 left off? Eventually, we settled on starting the first episode with their opening ceremonies. The reason we chose that was because it was set to begin broadcasting in April. I felt that the psychology of having sakura petals blooming and falling would still feel fresh as the season began to change.
Yoshida: The main four becoming third years would feel fresh too.
Yamada: I felt that the viewers for season 2 wouldn’t include just the people who knew about season 1, but people who were watching the series for the first time. I felt that a temporary reset was necessary so that both people who had seen the first season and those who hadn’t would feel the same way watching episode 1. That’s why we started it with a new year in the opening ceremonies.
Yoshida: We had decided that the second season would be the story of the third year up until the girls’ graduation. We set up the structure of the season going backwards from that because we felt it would be best to have it tie together as one story itself.

– Were there any points between seasons that felt completely different between them?
Yoshida: There were a lot of things that we wanted to do but couldn’t insert in the 13 episodes for the first season. Particularly in that we weren’t able to depict their classmates at all. We really regretted not being able to do that for their first two years. But with this season spanning 2 cours and only one year, we could slowly proceed through this at a quarter of the pace that we did for the first season. Thanks to that slow pace, we could depict the normal class life of the girls and how the other classmates view the light music club. Being able to depict a different point of view that we hadn’t shown before would be the biggest change in my opinion.
Yamada: Since the first season had episodes that mostly focused on the girls in the clubroom, it was the entirety of the world in the K-On! universe. But with season 2, we could take another step out of that world or we could occasionally see the girls somewhere that hadn’t been seen before. Up until now, the girls had been doing normal girls’ school things like passing notes back and forth during lessons or eating lunch with friends, but now we could finally show these little everyday scenes that the audience hadn’t seen before. That has to be the biggest difference. Now you can feel that the girls are more like real girls, can’t you?
Yoshida: I think it was nice that we were able to convey that feeling of the girls stepping outside of the clubroom and going out a bit into the wide world.

– Did anything change in your depiction of the characters?
Yamada: Picture-wise, the girls have grown a bit. If you compare the first episodes of season 1 and season 2 together, you’ll understand when you see it, but the girls have a bit of a third year expression. At first, it was to be just at the start of the season for a fresh feeling and then they would revert back to how they looked in the first season, but as the storyboards and frames were drawn, we would spontaneously, innocently make them feel just a bit older. Also, Horiguchi-san has already started steadily drawing the girls with third year expressions. Spontaneously, that type of atmosphere had already come out, so next we decided it was best to move towards that direction.
Yoshida: It wasn’t just their images as well; their discussions with Azusa also began to take on more of an “upperclassman” feeling.

The second season’s first episode starts in April as the season changes. Since the season was set to begin broadcast in April as well, it was important for director Yamada to match the season in the show with the blooming sakura trees.The second season’s first episode starts in April as the season changes. Since the season was set to begin broadcast in April as well, it was important for director Yamada to match the season in the show with the blooming sakura trees.

– There’s a lot of “older sister” type characters with Yui, Ritsu, and Nodoka. How do you differentiate between them in your portrayal?
Yamada: Whenever we think about those girls, they become just as they are naturally!
Yoshida: Also it’s important if Ui is present for Yui. If Ui is present, I write some good older sister lines for Yui and similarly some good upperclassman lines for Azusa as well.
Yamada: ….I love that older sister breeze from Yui, but it’s alright if she doesn’t feel like one either.
Yoshida: She’s not a little sister character at all, isn’t she?
Yamada: I’ve always thought there’s been some good points where people could see Yui as an older sister. When people see Ricchan, they can imagine her as an older sister, but one of Yui’s charming points is that she doesn’t really seem like one. She’s a girl you can rely on, won’t betray you, and can be confident in. Being an older sister is such a charming point of hers.

– Ritsu is in the same year as her, but she’s seen as being an older sister at more points.
Yamada: That’s right. She’s a girl who shows portions of herself that make you think “she’s definitely an older sister.” She’s the club president among her various burdens.
Yoshida: You don’t easily think about Yui being an older sister, but Ritsu definitely has that feeling due to her slight attentiveness.
Yamada: Since Ricchan is also a girl who panics easily, I’m relieved that she’ll forget to differ from everyone else and act like idiots with Yui.

– Additionally, the atmosphere feels like Tsumugi was the one who came around well before the others.
Yamada: There were a lot of things in the scenario oriented around Tsumugi. Once we understood how to handle her, we could enjoy it more and more. We could plan like “we want to do this here” “we want to do that here.” (laughs)
Yoshida: She was a character who we felt we were scrambling around trying to create actions for her to do in season 1, but it feels like we’ve become used to her as a member of the light music club.
Yamada: Since she was a girl who wouldn’t say “no” from season 1, she started to become a character who would gradually start to agree to various kinds of things. Furthermore, she’s become a girl who wants to do things and would distinctly say “let’s do it!” so I wonder if that isn’t huge for her. That’s how the light music club affected her.

In season 2, Tsumugi has become more proactive than before. Frankly, there’s a lot of energetic expressions with her eyebrows in that warm and soft image of hers.

– The comebacks for Mio towards Ritsu also changed; there’s a greater variation of them in season 2.
Yamada: In the scenario, Mio pops Ritsu faithfully to the manga, but somehow I don’t see Mio as being the kind of girl who only pops someone. (laughs) That might be the case, but we wanted to try new patterns to the comebacks like pinching cheeks and reducing the pops to balance it all out.

– How did you decide to structure the entire story?
Yoshida: I wanted to insert balance in the amount of music stories. The first season has that “The light music club has begun!” sense to it where the ability to enjoy music together gradually rose as the episodes moved forward. The second season revolves around life through music as it affects various things when you play. And then we tackled the challenge of how we would depict the girls’ adolescence. It was big to center the season around the sole graduation event.
Yamada: But while they did graduate, I thought the girls shouldn’t “seem” to be realizing they should think about their futures. Real 3^rd year high school girls, of course according to people, have a surprising image of being indifferent about their futures. Due to that, I thought it was important to carry a cheerful mood until the very end.

Episodes 8-10’s flow hint at the girls’ futures

– The amount of anime original stories in the second season increased.
Yoshida: Episode 3 was to be a music episode, so it became an episode where we re-introduced the instruments that everyone plays. It’s a review of the first season. Episode 5 is a story about the 2^nd years who don’t appear in the field trip episodes, so in contrast to episode 4, I wanted to talk about the kouhai, Azusa’s, daily life and class relationships. This was something else that wasn’t touched upon in season 1, so I definitely wanted to do it and not leave it behind again.
Yamada: I said in my orders to Yoshida-san “Please make it an episode like kittens playing around.” And then scriptwriter Jukki Hanada-san wrote episode 5’s script feeling like “come here kitties.” It became an awfully cute episode that cuddled together.

– It was a close-up of Azusa’s relationship with her friends Jun and Ui.
Yoshida: Since Jun in particular didn’t talk in season 1, we talked about many ideas what to do for her.
Yamada: The information we received about her from the mangaka Kakifly-sensei said “she’s an utmost modern-ish girl” so we packed in a lot of modern girl elements to her. She’s a frivolous girl unlike Yui or Ritsu. I think her complex about her frizzy hair is cute.
Yoshida: She wonderfully spits out nastiness in the manga. (laughs) I wanted her background to be charming so you don’t feel annoyed by her.

Jun becomes a regular character in season 2. She goes about life at her own pace in contrast to the serious Azusa and Ui. She’s also seems like a girl who’s modern and goes along with each new fad.

– Ui’s position along the 2^nd years didn’t change, did it?
Yamada: She’s unshaken.
Yoshida: She’s got that image of taking care of anyone wherever she goes.
Yamada: She’s a highly consistent character who doesn’t change with the scriptwriter or the director. I guess everyone has a common inclination when it comes to their individual image of Ui. Particularly in how she won’t be swayed from “really loving my big sister!” (laughs)

– Episode 9 introduces a new character in the neighborhood old lady.
Yoshida: I’ll say that director Yamada was enthusiastic in her appeal to have an old lady appear.
Yamada: I could feel the amazingly sweet relationship somehow between Yui and the old lady. Yui has that lively sense to her, so I thought surely a story where an elderly person like an old lady affectionately raising her would be very entertaining. There was nothing special about that old lady, but as my own desires to see Yui being that charming girl that would get a neighborhood woman saying “Good morning Yui-chan” and “Yui-chan’s come to visit me” worsened, I asked “please make this” and so we made an original episode about it.

– The “YuiAzu” combo at the performance festival was very entertaining. Whose idea was that?
Yamada: Please ask Yoshida-san about making this.
Yoshida: I don’t recall how we decided it, but somehow it felt more appropriate for the combo to appear than the light music club at the festival. (laughs)
Yamada: Azusa exploded in cuteness many times that episode; I was honestly grinning the entire time.
Yoshida: “Fude Pen ~ Ball Pen!”’s folk song version was also entertaining. It’s a fantastic arrangement.
Yamada: You’d never think you’d hear a kokiriko in an anime. More than including fad songs that felt “K-On!”ish, we also wanted to include various other elements like nursery rhymes in the second season. Of course it’s a bit risky to include something so childish, but I felt that it’d be OK if Yui did it. (laughs) I definitely thought it’d be nice if it influenced children. We also inserted older verbs that she’d remember that would carry the same feeling. It’d be great if K-On! were a handy anime that would give you a great grade on a test after watching it. (laughs)

– Was this joy of older characters something you picked up during your school years, director Yamada?
Yamada: Yes. I presented a version of the “Carp Banner” song where I changed the verbs at the scenario meeting for the “Hello Mr. Turtle” song. I thought “maybe if Yui learned this, she’d get a good grade on her test.” (laughs)

– And then episode 10 is an episode about Sawako-sensei’s past.
Yamada: We decided that episode 10 would be a Sawako-sensei special. (laughs) Due to that, we asked Hanada-san to please give it his all and think about Sawako-sensei coming out at a wedding ceremony. Occasionally we don’t use very important themes in K-On! that aren’t limited to the people watching it, but this episode is a very deep episode where various generations of people would experience different meanings in it. Among those, I was shocked with Yui’s “I wonder if I’ll be like that when I become an adult” line.

– Does it feel to you that episodes 8-10 feel connected in how they flow together?
Yoshida: It’s a pragmatic tale about a “career path” that pops up in the relatively fluffy light music club. That path is a different factor than anything that’s been shown before now, so it can’t be anything other than a bit dangerous to the frivolous characters in the story. To show that the girls still want to play music in their everyday lives, I wanted to show them gradually picturing playing at Natsu Fest on their own will in episode 12.
Yamada: That too is a point that you see a bit at a time, a bit at a time. Isn’t that sense that you’re changing one step at a time very important to have?
Yoshida: Instead of “I’d be happy if I was in here” it’s more “I want more happiness like I had before.” It’s a light music episode, but I thought about gradually showing the girls realizing that this happiness doesn’t have to end once they graduate.

Episode 23 is an important episode that could be said to be representative of K-On!

– Continuing on a few episodes later, episode 16 feels fresh with Azusa meeting each of her senpai individually in the club room.
Yamada: Since Azusa had settled her issue of “everyone’s always so scatter-brained, but when they play together, they make good music” in the first season, it was entertaining for her to a sense of danger that she’s become too accustomed to that mentality. (laughs)
Yoshida: It’s still really entertaining.

– Additionally, episode 17 where their club room isn’t usable and they have to rent a studio was memorable.
Yamada: Though only the location may have changed, it still felt like they were continually performing a short.
Yoshida: I had investigated a girls band a while ago and they also rented a studio, so I was able to use that atmosphere here. I even included slack portions like how, even though food and drink are prohibited in the studio, there was a bun left on top of an instrument.

– The mood of the 3^rd years after the school festival in episode 20 carried a different impression.
Yamada: We prepared the last four episodes going towards the final episode as preparation tales to become aware that graduation is near. Since the episodes up to episode 20 were as entertaining as they usually are, I consider it a huge success for the atmosphere of the show to completely change after this episode. I felt the air of the festival ending along with realizing that graduation is near was a realistic situation. I’m incredibly happy that we were able to safely bring that feeling out in the episode.
Yoshida: Furthermore, Yamada-san told me “I want to tell about the day before graduation,” so I put it in the episode gap between episode 22 when they take their exams and graduation. That direction towards the climax of the series was quite successful.
Yamada: That is a very important episode. I put it in the very first composition we made. I absolutely did not want to remove that story since, though it’s the same everyday activities they always do, the mood is changed from usual because it’s the day before a very important day making it special.
Yoshida: I think that episode is a frank representation of the light music club. It’s their usual habits that they do everyday, but with the sense that something’s absent. I thought about what we absolutely wanted to have and needed in that special mood right before graduation.
Yamada: Yoshida-san was like a goddess with how she prepared this marvelous story with writing the scripts for episodes 21, 23 and then the final episode.
Yoshida: K-On! is a work that depicts this kind of atmospheric feeling more than its story. That doesn’t mean that some special amazing things don’t happen, but if it doesn’t involve these girls, then it doesn’t happen in the show and furthermore it’s not felt. That’s something I’ve realized here with this work that hasn’t been present in the works I’ve depicted before this.
Yamada: We decided from the very beginning “they’ll act like normal up until the real final episode” but we were constantly thinking about how we’d structure everything towards graduation. Due to that, we broke off after episode 20 and Yoshida-san brought us from episode 21 to the climax with her own hands. I was happy being able to see the developments I wanted to see. I wanted people to experience that nonchalant, yet mysterious atmosphere of a girls’ high school until the very last day.

Episode 23, occurring right before graduation, depicts a tale of the 3rd years spending a different day doing the things they always do. It’s a symbolic episode of how K-On! depicts the atmosphere more than the story.

– At graduation, Azusa, who didn’t cry at the school festival, cries and yet the 4 graduates remain relatively stoic. That difference in the two paths being taken is quite impressive.
Yoshida: I think when everyone was crying in episode 20, the third years felt it as “this is the light music club’s graduation” after the school festival ended. That’s why they didn’t cry at graduation. But Azusa, at the point where everyone is graduating, finally faces opposite them. I had decided at the time we composed it that it was here that Azusa would cry as she sees them off. Also, those emotional points matched the notes we received from Kakifly-sensei for how to handle the finale.
Yamada: I drew the storyboards myself for the final episode, but I had personally intended to draw the last episode for the sale of the third years. Their star, Azusa, is crying while her own stars, her senpai, aren’t.

– And about the third years not crying?
Yamada: I absolutely didn’t want them to cry. They’ve walked the same path together, so what meaning would there be in having them cry in front of Azusa? They were able to walk together to start off, so I felt it would be ruined if they cried later. I thought the biggest act of kindness they could do that would also suit them would be to not cry as they faced Azusa. That’s why I never considered having them cry in that final scene.
Yoshida: For the first time, Azusa brings her emotions to her forefront and acts like a spoiled child in front of her senpai. And then for a moment they actually become senpais. (laughs)
Yamada: Yui looks so cool at such an important time. I thought “wouldn’t it be nice to show everyone Yui’s cool figure as she gently watches over Azusa?” here too.

– And then you shifted back time a bit after the final episode for the two extra episodes.
Yoshida: You could say I was a bit worried after we had composed the rest of the series as to where to put these difficult extra episodes in the order. Furthermore, we didn’t know if they would broadcast these two extra episodes, so I was quite concerned over the content since there was no decision on if they’d air.
Yamada: It felt like “where should we go with these?” (laughs)

– Whose suggestion was it to show the jokes about the cover arts for the first season’s Blu-ray/DVD cover arts in these bonus episodes?
Yamada: Actually, I decided on creating a little short that tells the situation when composing these cover arts. It felt like they’d be wasted if they were shelved away, so I forcibly asked Hanada-san to please include them upon circumstances. Incidentally, the start of the second extra episode occurs right after Azsua joins the light music club.
Yoshida: Furthermore, why was she holding a baby doll? That was what puzzled me when I saw the cover art. (laughs)
Yamada: As I was thinking about what kind of picture these girls would take, that kind of thing popped up. (laughs)
Yoshida: Some kind of fake family photo. (laughs)
Yamada: Azusa was carefree at that time too; at least more than she is now. She was like that until she did that frolickly post for the cover art of the 7^th volume. (laughs) It’s quite touching.

– And we understand the reason why Mio’s the one out of place.
Yamada: She doesn’t like being deceived, or more like because she didn’t think Ritsu had faith she’d be able to do it (laughs) Though it was shown as her being able to do it, in the end she looked the worst.

– There were a lot of slips for Mio in the second season, wasn’t there?
Yamada: Mio’s a bit of an airhead. Her leg is sticking out of the cup in the second volume’s cover art too. She’s serious and self-conscious, so she’d go to the sea of Japan like in the first season’s extra episode.

– That was an episode where Yoshida-san wrote the scenario too.
Yamada: Mio’s become a steadier person since that time in the anime, but there are some strong points where she slips.

Mio looks steady and reliable, but there’s also points where she slips. Her spontaneous side is shown more in the second season as she’s involved in many gags.

– Mio also has a joke where she’s in a lyric writing slump by writing about animals in episode 17.
Yamada: That was also Yoshida-san’s doing. (laughs)
Yoshida: It’s not necessarily that she likes fluffy things, but I find that gap for Mio to write somewhat fluffy lyrics to be adorably cute.
Yamada: Mio is depicted as more proper and cool in the manga, but thanks to it, she likely became a deeper character in the second season of the anime. I’m grateful we were able to make a turn around to have her appear cuter than her seriousness.

K-On!! is a work brought up by the love it received from the staff

– What do you think about all 26 episodes now that you’ve seen them all? Were there any portions that differed from your original plans?
Yamada: I personally was constructing how the visuals would look to me in my head while we were working on the scenario, so there is little difference from that. Conversely, I’m very curious what Yoshida-san thinks.
Yoshida: It spread out in various directions from what I thought about, but when I saw the ending, it truly felt like it was the light music club. Where ever they go, no matter what they do, the light music club is the light music club.
Yamada: The light music club members have an image associated with the club room. Due to that, when we would move them away from the room, it was important to me to endeavor to keep that sense of light music club. You have to add and subtract various things while working in the scenario meetings or in the storyboards, especially for episode 4’s school trip since you have to have a school trip episode. When season 2 started, I heard “is it alright for the girls to leave the clubroom like this?” It was a huge event in episode 1 to get the girls to go outside, but season 2 only needed smaller things so they could poke their heads in various places. At first you’d think “is this alright?” but since the light music club is the light music club regardless of where they are, you’d get the impression “well, that’s fine” despite being surprised.

K-On!! depicts the final year for the 3rd years at Sakura High. With their graduation, this isn’t farewell; it’s the first step towards their brilliant future.

– Now that season 2 has ended, what do you think about each other’s impressions or literary styles?
Yoshida: Season 2 has more points where you can feel Yamada-san’s individuality. It feels like they’ve stretched and affected more. I think it’s wonderful that everyone could experience those “Yamada-isms” Her expressions and sense are her own personal style that’s cute and yet magnificent.

– One “Yamada-ism” would be the spontaneous attention to detail or tasks when creating images. I thought it was entertaining how the skirts in the first season would always fall between their legs when sitting down spontaneously.
Yamada: I don’t know what a “Yamada-ism” is, but I really love observing girls. When Yoshida-san was writing the scenario, I’d comment how “wouldn’t it look like its stuck to the girl?” “It would look that way!” and then that gentle humid-like topic between fellow girls would appear from the scenario. But if you look there, you can’t see anything. Since there’s been a fantastic reception to my direction style, I’m also able to not show things like that. It’s that feeling of overwhelming sensation.

– It felt like you’d spontaneously looked a few times before you’d realize “what’s that?”Were you aware of that when writing Yoshida-san?
Yoshida: Perhaps it’s psychologically there as I wasn’t aware of anything in particular.
Yamada: It truly feels unconscious. It’s one characteristic of Yoshida-san’s style.

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

Yamada: I’m personally super lucky to have been connected with the K-On! work. I mentioned it to the character designer, Yukiko Horiguchi-san, but I can’t think of a better experience than to continually show the vivacious life of high schoolers from enrollment until graduation. It’s a great work. I think K-On! is a work that grew thanks to the love it received from so many people and now it’s graduated.
Yoshida: I think it’s a work that you want to watch over and over again. I think the adviser Tatsuya Ishihara-san said it, but it’s important for different generations to feel something in a work, so one of the themes of K-On! is how you can watch it as a high schooler and then after graduating and feel completely different towards it. If you wait a little while from when you first watch it, grow a bit older and become an adult, and then watch it once you’ve grown up, you’ll be able to experience it differently due to a different sense from how you’ve grown. Since it’s such a lovely work, it’d be nice if it would suddenly pop in your mind and you can reflect on it. Always keep K-On! in your heart!
Yamada: “Always keep K-On! in your heart!” is such a great phrase. (laughs) I also wanted to make something so I could show the girls when they’re 20 “you were these kinds of girls.” Everyone else too should re-watch this show again after various things happen to them. I think this is the kind of work that touches memories each time you snuggle closer with it again after things happen in your life.

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. That adaptation was very popular and as such Nakayama went back to a Key visual novel for another adaptation, which ran from October 2006 to March 2007. As with most TV series in 2007, it was only released on DVD at the time, despite airing in HD. In late 2009, TBS and Pony Canyon released the highly anticipated Blu-ray Box set. This is a review of that Blu-ray Box for the series Kanon. (Box images courtesy of TMSIDR)

I’ve recently commented on the series itself, so I’ll link that post here for my thoughts on the series and devote this to a review of the Blu-ray Box itself. Kanon was another of TBS’s first Blu-ray releases, and so they chose to package it in a 5 disc stack case on a newly illustrated digipak inserted into a carrier box. With Kanon obviously focusing on snow and summer, the producers went with a yellow days theme for the outer case and the main heroine Ayuu in snow for the newly drawn illustration from anime character designer Kazumi Ikeda on the digipak. The inside has new illustrations for each of the 5 main heroines on the discs and digipak. The cases holding the disc are sized to the digipak and feel studier than the one for AIR. There’s not much creaking with opening the case, but I can predict it’ll get as bad as AIR‘s was pending proper storage.

There are 5 discs for this box with discs 1-4 containing 5 episodes each while disc 5 has 4 and the bonus features. TBS also included a bonus booklet listing the staff for each episode from the translations from ADV.

The image quality is one of the first things that would be noticed. Compared to the prior DVD releases, Kanon finally looks “right” with this BD set. The colors give proper saturation and the effects aren’t blurry anymore. Evidently the masters looked good as well as I hardly noticed any banding outside of a couple of scenes. It’s evident this series was made in 720 as the line art is blurred, but it still looks worlds better than any upscaled production around this time. Filters look properly applied for snowy/flashback scenes and the snow effects look good for the time. The 3D CG can stand out in some scenes, but it’s not terrible.

TBS hired staff to re-master the audio into 5.1 surround sound, which was provided in both lossless Linear PCM and DTS-HD 5.1 as well as Linear PCM stereo. It’s not used to huge effect, though the opening and ending sound nice.

The final disc contains three bonus features. The first is an illustration gallery of promotional art in magazines and key visuals for the show. Unlike the galleries on AIR,  illustrations for the DVD covers and disc art were included, likely due to the time between releases. The second bonus feature are the textless opening and ending animations for the show. Finally, the promotional videos used for event promotions/store promotions were included as well. The audio commentary tracks, “making of” clips, and the staff interview are not kept from the DVDs. It’s quite bare. Japanese and English subtitles are provided for everything though. TBS used the subtitles ADV created for their releases in 2008.

And so that is the Kanon BD-Box. It’s evidence of the progress made between 2006 and 2009 in video encoding and the progress between April and October for animation production at Kyoto Animation. The show itself is didn’t entertain me, but I enjoy the technical aspects of the production. TBS’s Key policy of not including extras really bugs me as I’d love to have seen the “making of” clips in the resolution they were shot in to document how things were made in 2006. If you enjoy the series, it’s worth picking up a used copy for ~$125 USD at the current exchange rate since it’s unlikely to see a BD release internationally in English.

In 2012, the producers at Kyoto Animation decided to make one of the honorable mentions in 2011’s Kyoto Animation Awards into an animated TV series. To helm it, they chose Taiichi Ishidate to direct a production for the first time. The Kyoukai no Kanata TV series ran from October 2013-December 2013 for 12 broadcast episodes, 5 joke shorts, and 1 unaired prequel to the series. It was decently received, though the series suffered from being overly ambitious with the setting and providing little emphasis on why the viewer should like the main two characters over the side characters. With the final Japanese Blu-ray in July 2014 came an announcement that it would get a movie adaptation. Later on, that adaptation was clarified: there would be a recap film called the “Past” and a new piece called “Future.” “Past” was originally sold only at the theatres playing the films in March 2015, but got a limited release through KyoAni and Pony Canyon’s online store. “Future” got a wider distributed release to most retailers in October 2015. Since the two are part of the same work, this review will cover both Blu-ray editions of the films.

Let’s start with “Past” as it’s easier to review. “Past” comes in a standard opaque G1 DVD-size case with a small booklet providing basic information about the story and the character relationships. The staff of the film are printed on the reverse of the cover art. The disc itself has standard (for the series) artwork depicting broken barrier shards flowing away.

On the disc itself is the film with 2 audio tracks: a Dolby True HD 5.1 mix and a Linear PCM stereo mix. Additionally, Japanese subtitles are included. The bonus features include a full version of the “Yakusoku no Kizuna” promotional video adapted from episode 6 of the TV series, theatrical announcement commercial, and the “news flash” announcing that it will be two films.

Though the release is bare extras-wise, the content itself is really good. The video encode is decent, with only a small amount of banding near areas of color difference like with the backgrounds for Akihito/Mirai in Kyoukai no Kanata itself. Audio-wise, the mix is just as good. The 5.1 sound is used to its full potential and the new soundtrack is full of great pieces. The original opening and ending songs are used effectively as well. I simply can’t recommend this release enough if you can get a hold of it. There’s good reason why fans were annoyed that the wider retail release lacked this version.

And now to “Future.”

“Future comes in a digipak housed inside a thick newly drawn slipcover case. Also included in the case are a postcard book and replica recording script from director Ishidate with his notes included. Inside the digipak is a special booklet that gives character information, sample images Ishidate used to visualize the story/poster art/cover art, messages from the staff, and key frames.

On the disc itself is audio commentary from Ishidate, Risa Taneda (Mirai’s seiyuu), and Yuri Yamaoka (Ai’s seiyuu), digests of the stage greetings for “Past” and “Future,” and the two trailers for the film series. Again, Japanese subtitles are included.

Visually, this work surpasses most productions I’ve seen. The animation, artwork, color usage, 3D CG, etc, are combined with good photography and use of filters to make a visual spectacle. The encoding again is really good, but some spots have some banding issues with subtle color changes (likely an issue with IMAGICA’s mastering as Tamako Love Story had similar problems). It’s a good example disc to show the variety of color usage for your system with how Ishidate alters their usage to reflect the differing tones of the situations Akihito/Mirai find themselves in.

Audibly, this disc is another treat. In addition to the Linear PCM 5.1, stereo, and audio commentary tracks, KyoAni and Pony utilized DTS’s Headphone X technology to provide a third track for people watching on portable players. This allows for the 5.1 channels to be synthetically replicated through 2. I can’t examine this mix personally, but the other two tracks were fantastic.

Finally, since I ordered the “Future” film from the KyoAni Shop, I also got a bonus book from the store. This book contains storyboards for the main emotional moment in the film, a symposium with the main staff at KyoAni, a second dialogue with Ishidate/Ogawa, and key frame artwork/BG art.

By itself, “Future” is a decent film, but when combined with “Past,” I feel both pieces tell a good story that has some meandering parts which degrade the whole from being a truly fantastic work. I enjoyed watching both and would easily re-watch it soon if I didn’t have other obligations to fulfill. I’d recommend getting both on BD as they are a visual feast.

This is the first in a batch of interviews from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya guidebook that I’ll be posting. Some of these were previously posted in 2011/2012 and I’ve gone back and edited them. This short interview is the first of two newly translated pieces to warm up to the series. Please enjoy hearing about the voice cast’s director in the booth, Youta Tsuruoka!

Sound Director:
Youta Tsuruoka

Youta Tsuruoka. Born on April 28. Lives in the Tokyo Metropolis. Has served as sound director for many works including Sgt. Frog, Bakemonogatari, and Lucky Star. He has served as sound director for all of the Haruhi series.

All of Haruhi’s works have been a challenge

– How does Disappearance rank amongst the other Haruhi works in production?

Up until this point, Haruhi’s episodes were filled with variety in each episode; it had achieved a wealth of diversity in each episode. In order to firmly divide this work into the before and after the world changed, we had to construct the world so that there would be a return back to the root of everything once a path back to Haruhi was found.

– What points did you fixate on?

Making Kyon firmly focused. Generally for movies we record out of order of how the story develops like “gather everyone together to record for scenes all the characters are together first and then record the leftover scenes individually” and that is very efficient. However, to better place importance on Kyon’s changing emotions, we recorded everything in order this time. And as usual, Sugita-san performed much to my liking (laughs). The links between Kyon’s changing emotions was clearly shown.

– What would be your favorite scene?

Nagato’s “thank you” at the end. I felt like I was bogged down with wavering views on how to perform that line, but Chihara-san instantly decided how to properly say it. I think the entire film build up to that one scene.

– What kind of work is Haruhi to you, Tsuruoka-san?

It’s a work with various challenges. Because the TV series had so many difficult episodes, I was incredibly nervous and then would get a huge relief once each episode was done. Haruhi-chan was fun work where I could relax and Chuyuya-san had a good feeling like “It’s fine if we keep saying ‘Nyoron’.” It was a new experience.

– Finally, what kind of challenge was this film?

A challenge of length and resources. For a film focused around action, you can use energetic sounds, but for Disappearance, the sounds and music have to be played smoothly or else the direction will not feel straightforward. If it was made in the past, I probably would’ve lost all my energy making it. (laughs) But thanks to today’s technology, I was able to pack it full of sound until the very last scene like it was the final bit of paste going into a taiyaki snack.

This is the second in a batch of interviews from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya guidebook that I’ll be posting. Some of these were previously posted in 2011/2012 and I’ve gone back and edited them. This dialogue is the second of two newly translated pieces to provide more behind the scenes information regarding the animation process. Please enjoy hearing from the two major chief animation directors of the film, Shoko Ikeda and Futoshi Nishiya!

Animation Director Dialogue
Super Chief Animation Director x Chief Animation Director
Shoko Ikeda x Futoshi Nishiya

Shoko Ikeda. Born on June 18. Served as character designer and chief animation director for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Drew key frames and served as animation director for many Kyoto Animation works like Lucky Star, Clannad, and K-On!.

Futoshi Nishiya. Born on October 26. Served as character designer for the spinoff The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya/Nyoron Churuya-san shorts. Served as chief animation director for the new episodes in the 2009 “re-airing” of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Smiles, sorrow, Joy. A character’s “movements depict their wealth of emotions. We press these two animation directors on how they drew 9,773 seconds of animation.

Conveying the characters’ emotions through expressions and gestures

-For this film, Ikeda-san was listed as “super chief animation director” and Nishiya-san was listed as “chief animation director.” How did your workflow go?

Nishiya: All in all, we had 6 parts. Each part had its own animation director that would check the work, then the director would check after them and then all the cuts would come to me before finally arriving in a form for Ikeda-san to see.

Ikeda: Though we both fundamentally checked over the layouts, I was only in charge of part of the key animation.

– What part did you take the utmost care with while working as animation directors?

Nishiya: The posing and gestures, but definitely the facial expressions.

Ikeda: My work was after Nishiya-san, so I focused only on ensuring the characters matched with their appearances. At the beginning, I gathered the animation directors and explained once again the details of the characters. It would be there that I would say how, though we should bring out that gallant atmosphere of Haruhi, we shouldn’t over-do it on the cuteness overall.

Nishiya: With Ikeda-san giving us an explanation of the character designs, we were able to response and create good expressions for each character in their respective scenes.

Ikeda: Also, in order to not make the characters too realistic, we would do things like not attach shadows or make their face muscles limper. I advised everyone to insert a bit of flexibility in expressions or body postures in order to show focus on the emotional drama foremost.

– How did you progress with your work?

Nishiya: At first we began from the A-part and worked continually from that point. Of course there were points that needed more energy put into them, so they turned out well due to the storyboards our three directors drew (Ishihara, Takemoto, Takao). Takao-san’s storyboards were especially keen in how she drew the characters. There was a ton of fighting spirit put in to respond to her storyboards.

Ikeda: There were some scenes that were lively to vary and build up a large amount of emotion like Kyon’s running scene.

Firmly depicting the range of flickering emotions

– What points were you conscious of while creating the image layouts for a movie?

Ikeda: While there is a certain state for how to draw an image that’s unique to movies, the layout image itself also changes. To say it simply, the screen itself spreads out where you cannot do a close-up. In order to make our layouts dense, we used many real techniques like 3DCG and photography when constructing them.

– Which characters were tough to work on as animation director?

Ikeda: For me it was Nagato after the world changed. I was tremblingly nervous while working, but I wouldn’t say my face was sheer white though.

Nishiya: For me it was Kyon. He’s drawn to appear in nearly every single cut this time around. (laughs) I especially paid attention to reliably pull out his inside. Kyon’s in charge of this story; his emotions change as he goes through various things. Tasting despair, surprised by Asakura….. and then above all, that elation when he finds Nagato’s message she left for him. I wanted to depict all of that range of emotion without leaving anything behind.
– How would you say Kyon’s appearance feels like?

Nishiya: Maybe like someone garnishing a sword….. or perhaps just trying to show off. (laughs)

Ikeda: Like he’s rolling up his sleeves. (laughs) From a while ago, Kyon never had that unfashionable feeling to him. It was like he would check two fashion magazines for his clothes. He may just be trying to show off, but I don’t think he’s showing off the new looks; he’s just like that. I don’t think it has any appeal to him at all. When I was creating his clothing for the TV series, I supposed Kyon would be the kind of person to wear good clothing. He’s not the kind to have some weird opposition to looking nice.

– What expression points did you have for the changed Nagato?

Nishiya: It felt like we were bringing out a lot of gestures for her. We worked while trying to keep a lot more delicacy in her emotions than the usual Nagato.

Ikeda: Her movements showed her being unreliable. There were a lot of frightened expressions as well. Besides her face, she would ball up more too. I think it was important to show her returning to normal in that last scene. Inside the girl that Kyon gave the cold shoulder to is a girl who wants to change.

– You put that inside the Nagato we’ve always seen before. It must have been hard to put something in an image that you could so easily say.

Ikeda: At the point where Kyon gives her his coat, I thought the screen setting itself was a fantastic use of the accessory items by general manager Ishihara.

Nishiya: I paid a lot of attention to her expressing emotion in the scene where Kyon restrains her since she fundamentally keeps her emotions restrained.

Ikeda: It made me nervous to put some feeling in a girl who doesn’t have a large breadth of emotions and reflect that. Depicting that desiring feeling. Perhaps it may have been easier for the audience to see that birth of expression because it’s easier to see more details on a movie’s larger screen and so they were able to empathize with her more.

Wanting to relish Kyon’s growth

– What is this film’s biggest moment?

Nishiya: The sheer elation that Kyon has when he finds the bookmark that Nagato left behind after not having any trail to the original world. It’s a moment where a light shines in his constant wariness. I also thought about how we would depict the scene where Kyon asks and answers his own questions while I was reading the novel. In that way, director Takemoto brought two Kyons to the scene and amazingly showed that inner conflict of his to showcase his growth after making his decision.

Ikeda: I’d say the same. It was the most entertaining to relish in that excitement of Kyon with him after being so worried about his situation.

– Lastly, please give a message to the fans.

Nishiya: This became a work with a lot of volume behind it. It’s a work that thoroughly stuffs in all the charm of the original Disappearance novel. Please enjoy it thoroughly to the deepest corners to see the numerous highlights and the actions of the characters.

Ikeda: The TV series was entertaining as well, but I think the fans will be able to enjoy relishing in the violent changes of emotion in this story depicted through the large screen.

This is the third in a batch of interviews from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya guidebook that I’ll be posting. Some of these were previously posted in 2011/2012 and I’ve gone back and edited them. This short interview is the first of three previously translated pieces with some edits for readability. Please enjoy hearing from the original designer of the Haruhi characters, Noizi Ito!

Original Character Designer
Noizi Itou

Noizi Itou, illustrator. Birthday: August 9^th. She’s known for her work on the Haruhi Suzumiya and Shakugan no Shana seriess. She’s a member of the PC game brand UnisonSoft and was the original designer and artist for the game Natsuiro★Drops among others.

She uses a vivid brush to bring life into Haruhi Suzumiya and the SOS Brigade.
What did the original illustrator think when she saw Disappearance?

The animation you longed for

―Firstly, would you please tell us your impressions of the movie now that you’ve seen it?

Itou: It was so good! You can’t say anything other than that. I’ve been associated with this franchise for a long time, but I’m truly blessed to be able to see such a lovely movie. The actresses’ performance in the altered world was amazing. Especially Haruhi’s low and disinterested voice. Nagato was so timid, it was like she was another person! Once all five of them had gathered after the world changed, my eyes became passionate. Kyon had gone through so much until then. Even after Mikuru glanced at him like he was a pest (laughs). Like Kyon, once everyone was gathered together, I felt as though our SOS Brigade had returned.

―Kyon certainly was handsome wasn’t he?

Itou: He really was! In the original work, I didn’t draw him that way at all. I wanted to portray him like a comedian instead (laughs). But Kyon was very handsome this time. I think it was really on display in this movie in scenes like his own question-and-answer monologue.

―In the rooftop scene, Nagato is in the same pose as illustrated in Editor in Chief ★ Straight Ahead! It wasn’t just in Disappearance; Itou-san’s illustration has been used many times now.

Itou: I was really happy to see it. I was moved when I saw it used in the television series, but it really made me happy to see the scene this time. I’m sure the readers were moved as well. It may only be a small part that was animated, but perhaps more will come.

Illustrating freely moving characters

―What were your impressions when you read Haruhi for the first time?

Itou: I’m not familiar with sci-fi, but this story was really interesting! I think it’s because the characters were really charming. When I first sent my request for illustrating, something like “Please let me illustrate this story,” I immediately started drawing after getting the response. Tanigawa-sensei has such good taste. For example, Haruhi goes “You have to have a maid moe character!” I think that gives a little of himself away there. While I think something like that is decent in a story, it can overwhelm it sometimes. I think he handled that very problem very well.

―How do you illustrate the images in the novels? The Nagato biting scene is a little erotic, don’t you think?

Itou: That scene is bizzarely beautiful isn’t it? (laughs) I’m instructed what scenes to draw, but usually, I’ll draw other scenes in case plans change. I usually draw how they’re written and so they turn out pretty good.

―Ryouko Asakura’s reappearance was really impressive, wasn’t it?

Itou: Instead of just being a beautiful girl, she has the “class leader” motif, doesn’t she? She reminds me of an actress from some time ago who didn’t take care of herself, but worried about her eyebrows. Since she’s cute, she gave me that impression. She’s a little different from the beautiful Haruhi and cute Mikuru; it’s like the difference between models, swimsuit models, and actresses. (laughs) I drew Mikuru cute, but somehow every character became that way. My characters aren’t finished until I see they fit their world and I’m satisfied with it. I’m very happy when the readers see them and are able to go into their world.

―In this story, we can understand why Haruhi’s hair is still long, but Nagato is strangely the same (with the glasses). Did you illustrate them differently?

Itou: She has very different facial expressions. With her eyebrows angled differently, she looks a little more frail; and so that’s the difference between her and the usual mechanical expression she has. I talked with Super Chief Animation Director (Shoko) Ikeda-san about this and she was able to portray the nervous feeling so well. When I first illustrated The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it was my first time illustrating in a light novel and in monochrome. I was inexperienced then and it’s a bit embarrassing to look back on them.

―Would you say you were still searching for your style around that time?

Itou: Yes. I’d also say I was still trying to be able to get a grasp of the characters too. Now I feel that I understand them better and that influences me when I draw things like posters. It was my plan when illustrating the Nagato poster in the January 2010 issue of Newtype to take revenge on my earlier drawing. I’ve don’t think I’ve improved on the horrible Koizumi from then though. (laughs)

― I’m sure fans will be delighted when it comes. (laughs) What do you take into consideration when you illustrate poses and such?

Itou: Koizumi’s poses just come to me. (laughs) Actually, everyone is such a good character so their poses and patterns just pop into my head. I just illustrate what I feel.

Uniting boys’ and girls’ styles

―The front cover of the booklet for the movie version of Disappearance is Nagato. What image did you have in mind when illustrating it?

Itou: I depicted the image of her reflection from a window in her apartment. I was free to draw anything as long as it was Nagato. Initially my impression of Nagato’s illustrations was that she was a doll, but I wanted to depict her differently here. The coloring looks somewhat like a picture book. I used colors I don’t usually use, and yet it still looks like Nagato.

―And in the glass is a new different Nagato, right?

Itou: She’s in her apartment, looking at herself in the window, looking outside… I imagine she’s a little embarrassed at doing something girly. (laughs)

―And in the window she’s looking in is another Nagato. How did this girlish image come to mind?

Itou: It just came to me. Perhaps I was influenced by the girl manga Ribbon when drawing it. (laughs) There was a time when I would read my younger brother’s Shounen Jump manga, and even though I don’t read it anymore, I’m sure it’s influenced me. I’ve somehow combined the different styles. But there’s still points where I’m very worried even after I’ve become familiar with the characters.

―And when would you say that was?

Itou: About 2009. Until then, even though I drew Haruhi, I felt like I didn’t really know Haruhi. I re-read the novels, watched the anime, and remembered the time when I really liked her and suddenly my senses returned. I don’t know any other way to illustrate than to just depict my feelings. They’re not just ordinary illustrations, they’re Haruhi somehow. That pressure is a big component inside me. My style has been constant, but at times it hasn’t been fun. Before I would draw what I felt without constructing a new Haruhi. Every time I drew something, their faces would be different. It might be wrong, but that’s how I draw. My characters’ facial expressions have always changed. I’m just thankful that’s the only part that I’ve allowed to be changed.

―When drawing, would you say drawing characters is fun?

Itou: It depends on the story and how much I’m attached to it. Even though I’ve been drawing her for a while, Haruhi is particularly difficult. For Mikuru and Nagato, though I’ve gotten their faces down pat, their sides are difficult to depict. But I don’t have a good grasp on Haruhi at all. So when you see a Haruhi I’ve drawn, it’s easy to say it’s her, but it’s difficult to draw her cutely. Whether it’s a determined or malicious spirit, I put my best effort into her facial expression. I shouldn’t draw her angered face, but you can’t draw her without a strong spirit. I just try to depict the character that’s I’ve set inside me.

This is the fourth in a batch of interviews from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya guidebook that I’ll be posting. Some of these were previously posted in 2011/2012 and I’ve gone back and edited them. This roundtable is the first of two previously translated group pieces to provide details on how the visuals of the film were imagined. Please enjoy reading (again) about how directors Tatsuya Ishihara (General Manager), Yasuhiro Takemoto (Director), and Noriko Takao (Unit Director) came to conceive how to depict the original novel in animated form!

Director Roundtable

General Manager Tatsuya Ishihara x
Director Yasuhiro Takemoto x
Unit Director Noriko Takao

Director Yasuhiro Takemoto. Birthday: April 5th. Works for Kyoto Animation as a supervisor, director, and animator. Haruhi Suzumiya Assistant Brigade Chief and Supervisor. Directed Full Metal Panic?・Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, and Lucky Star.

Director Noriko Takao. Birthday May 5th. Works for Kyoto Animation as a director and animator. Directed and storyboarded episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya. Has directed and storyboarded episodes of Lucky Star, Clannad, and K-On!

Director Tatsuya Ishihara. Birthday July 31st. Works for Kyoto Animation as a supervisor, director, and animator. Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade Chief Representative and General Manager. Directed AIR, Kanon, and Clannad.

They’ve worked politely, earnestly, and diligently to depict Kyon’s facial expressions, the change in Nagato, and another meeting with Haruhi in Disappearance. What stories will the three people who created the storyboards tell?

Sights that were inspired by the world created in the original novel

―Since everyone has read the novel the movie is based from, would you each tell your impressions of it?

Ishihara: Before I began work on the Haruhi Suzumiya television series, Producer Atsushi Itou asked me “Who is your favorite character?” Only having read the first novel, I answered “Mikuru Asahina.” He then told me, “When you finish the fourth novel, Disappearance, you’ll love Yuki Nagato.” And true enough…I became a Nagato fan after reading the novel.

Takemoto: Outside of Disappearance, Haruhi is always the troublemaker in the series. But in Disappearance, it’s Nagato who becomes the troublemaker. When I read the original work, I was surprised to read a story that differed from the rest of the series until that point. Our protagonist Kyon was thrown into a world all by himself. Up until then Kyon had ignored the part of him that thought everything was interesting, but now he wanted to return to it. I had a hunch the readers were like “Ah, he’s finally got it now.”

Takao: When I read Disappearance, the first thing that popped into my head was a winter scene. I had been able to sense the colors until then, but now I could sense the scenery. There was an awfully good atmospheric feeling I got. It linked Nagato’s loneliness and sense of helplessness to winter. I thought it would be a lovely image.

―When did you decide to make Disappearance into a movie?

Takemoto: When we were organizing the “re-airing” of the television series, we began talks on making Disappearance into a movie.

Ishihara: Thus we started work on the scenario very early on. We were finished with it before The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan was being animated.

―In the television series you’ve used the titles “Brigade Chief Representative” and “Assistant Brigade Chief”, but you used “General Manager” and “Director” this time. Why did you change that?

Ishihara: This time Haruhi has disappeared, so without a Brigade Chief I can’t be a “Super General Manager.” I get the feeling that Haruhi would go “I’m the Brigade Chief, so you’ll be the Assistant Brigade Chief.” (laughs) This time, I overlooked Haruhi’s orders.

Drawing a love story and resolution and return

―When you decided to make Disappearance into a long movie, what kind of work did you think it would be?

Takemoto: Not revealing anything else, I worked on bringing all of the story from the original work into animation.

Ishihara: This was Producer Itou’s idea. As a result, it came to be nearly 170 minutes long.

Takemoto: In order to properly animate the original work, about that much time is necessary.

―When you were animating this work, what concept did you decide on?

Ishihara: A “love story.”

Takemoto: Before we put that into effect, we gathered ourselves, the Chief Animation Director Nishiya, Super Chief Animation Director Ikeda, and the important animation staff and talked about the direction of this work. At that time my proposal was “A story of Kyon’s resolution and return.”

―So a “love story” and “resolution and return?”

Takemoto: What I mean by “resolution” is referring to the time when Kyon is alone and gives up. Up until that time he had “resolution” by pretending not to look at the truth. “Return” is Kyon’s inner actions to return to the SOS Brigade. It’s those wishes and desires that drive his “return.” I proposed designing the movie around these two points to everyone. I get the sense that not only did we design the movie around “resolution and return,” we also designed it around Ishihara-san’s “love story” as well.

Ishihara: I disagree. My impression is that “love story” and “Kyon’s change” were woven together. This might be a different approach.

Takemoto: My thinking is that the love portion of Disappearance is quite thin. (laughs) Even though I said “resolution and return,” I’ve been thinking there’s a simpler way to say it. Disappearance is “the story of Kyon seeing things in a new light.”

Ishihara: That’s very interesting.

Takemoto: After all, it’s the story where Kyon puts everything back to “the way [he] thinks it should be.”

Ishihara: That’s something we could say about all of the Haruhi Suzumiya works. We and Kyon realize that this isn’t a different world when he meets Haruhi again.

Takemoto: That’s similar to what Koizumi said in the film.

Takemoto’s Explanation: Kyon’s waking up scene. The eye is shut with heavy eyelids. The story begins from Kyon’s point of view. “Haruhi Suzumiya is a story from Kyon’s perspective, so Disappearance opens when Kyon wakes up. Afterwards the world has changed in many ways. The act is repeated many times to serve as a symbol of the story. We wanted to challenge ourselves in animating him looking around the room.”

―Was there anything you thought about when drawing frames this time?

Ishihara: We were aware that this was going to be a movie, but we thought about linking it to the Haruhi series.

Takemoto: Of course it’s not a television series, but it’s still a Haruhi Suzumiya work.

Takao: I became aware of this when working on images for the “re-airing.” I made sure to show the feeling of the atmosphere in the work by not moving the camera, showing the surroundings, and other techniques for the viewer become aware of what was going on inside Kyon. After the world changed, he’s very lonely. Nagato, Koizumi, and Asakura too were very lonely. Mikuru… I’m not sure about if she was lonely or not. (laughs) Everyone on the staff conveyed “loneliness” in images as well as techniques.

Takemoto: From the start of drawing, we decided that we weren’t going to move the camera much, especially not carelessly. In those cases, it helped make the atmosphere a very important feature.

―What gave Takao the chance to participate in making the storyboards?

Takemoto: Actually, she was the one who came to us. When Ishihara-san and I began work on the storyboards, our schedule was very tight and so we said “Well, would you please assist us?”

Takao: When I was reading the novel, I could clearly see the images of an animation in my head. They were so concrete I could feel the colors. Certainly I wanted to participate in making the storyboards, so I went separately to Ishihara-san and Takemoto-san and asked to join.

Takemoto: In addition to our trust in Takao-san, we had a lot of unit directors. But I think this work is distinct of Takao-san.

Ishihara: She was also on the staff creating storyboards for the “re-airing” television series, but she said “I feel I left things undone.”

Takao: That’s true. I’m a little shy to talk about it, but when I was directing the “re-airing”, I regret depicting the girls in my own style.

―Are there any feelings about Takao-san being a female director?

Takemoto: That’s a difficult thing to talk about, but I feel that you can produce a work without having the genders interact. That’s because there’s a definitive difference between men and women. As a result, the finished product would be different as well.

Ishihara: I’m very interested in a woman’s point of view and also from a mental point of view when producing the work itself. I’ve done what I could with a man’s point of view, but it’s very interesting to have a woman’s point of view for Haruhi Suzumiya. I can say that Takao-san was very helpful.

Takemoto: I have the same opinion. I used her opinions as a reference many times.

Takao: We all gave each other our opinions. It was a lot of give and take. I was able to experience the difference in men and women’s points of view during our discussions. Especially about Nagato. There are other women directors at Kyoto Animation beside myself and when I talk to them, there’s a different view of Nagato from the men. She is a humanoid interface, but I see her as a “woman.”

Ishihara: Ah, you spoke about that.

Takao: The producer asked me about it at the end.

Takao’s Explanation: After the world changed, Kyon and Nagato are alone in the Literature Club’s room. Nagato turns away when she feels Kyon is looking at her. “Ah, he’s looking at me. What should I do? It’s so stressful. I ain’t got a clue for this!” would be Nagato’s inner thoughts in a Kansai dialect. The right image is Kyon returning from Nagato’s apartment. “The best scene. When I read the novel, I could feel the night’s atmosphere. When he said ‘I want to meet Haruhi’ I thought ‘Ah, he’s admitting it!'”

Ryouko Asakura and Koizumi. The two people who weren’t chosen.

―The storyboards for this work were split into 6 parts: A-F. Who worked on each one?

Takemoto: Ishihara-san and I split the beginning and end. The C and D parts were done by Takao-san.

Takao: I was in charge of the C and D parts, but we all talked about how to illustrate the story.

Takemoto: We had a lot of discussions. I can’t say how many hours we spent talking about things. And the number one topic that we discussed was…

All: (Ryouko) Asakura.

―Was she the reason why you’d spend something like 8 hours of discussion one day?

Ishihara: Well, to that extent, she’s quite the interesting character.

Takao: She’s genuine. I don’t mean to say she’s a simple murderer though. If you have a program that removes her opposition, then she’ll be in a position to follow orders because she can’t escape that. It’s just how eventually we as humans can’t escape our “fate.” I think she sees everything other than Nagato as suffocating.

Ishihara: She is somewhat of a sad character, isn’t she?

Takao: But in the end she was erased from the world. What kind of feeling would she have when that was done? We talked over issues like that one-by-one.

Takemoto: Things like how she herself recognized her own fate.

Takao: You have to put such details into the backgrounds and storyboards when you do a drama.

―Were there any other characters you talked about?

Takemoto: We discussed (Itsuki) Koizumi a few times as well.

Ishihara: He has a confession, and at first I had no emotional attachment to Koizumi, but the female staff had quite the strong attachment to him. I was surprised at Takao-san’s psychological depiction of him.

Takao: I had a strong sense that Asakura and Koizumi both were “people not chosen.” In the story, Nagato, Asakura, and Koizumi all fit in that category. “People not chosen” is a very important aspect in the Disappearance world.

Takemoto: After the world changed, Koizumi became a sad clown type of character. The other character’s emotions and states were overwritten, but his remained the same. I felt so sad for him. At the voice studio I asked his seijyu, Daisuke Ono, “I’d like you to express the sadness of a sad clown.”

Ishihara: Such a pitiful position to be in. But the one who illustrated that “people not chosen” aspect was Takao-san.

Takao: I hadn’t noticed it before, but I might have become a Koizumi fan. (laughs)

Mikuru who knew everything and Haruhi’s worthiness as the story’s symbol

―Then how about Mikuru Asahina? She’s another complex character hidden in the background.

Takemoto: This time the depiction of her older self was very important. Due to that, her younger self absorbed the lack of screen time. I don’t want to cause a misunderstanding; this time the older Mikuru knew the entire story as if she was a bystander. Conveying that feeling was very important.

Ishihara: Surely the older Mikuru knows how everything ends as well. She’d know that Kyon got stabbed and the rest would be a mystery for the future. Thinking about that and guessing how she feels inside, I feel a bit sad for her.

Takao: Truly. She does say “I know that you’ll look back on these high school days nostalgically.” I was impressed by that line. Looking over the timeline, and with Nagato and Haruhi, she’s only one little point. She knows what she should do, but she also knows what’s inevitable. I feel sad for her.

Takemoto: That sadness is a bit overwhelming isn’t it? I too would do something like she did. Whenever I was troubled while working on something, I would look up at the starry sky and wonder how long it took for all those lights to reach here. The fact that we live for such a short time is somewhat saddening.

Ishihara: It’s short, very short. (laughs)

―How did you depict Haruhi Suzumiya this time?

Ishihara: This time Haruhi’s only in a few scenes. Thus we wanted to ensure the viewer got a “sparkling feeling” when she appeared.

Takemoto: True. At the time when Kyon is surprisingly reunited with Haruhi, she has that “sparking feeling” around her. The staff was saying “To Kyon, Haruhi is the sun.” If she’s gone, so is that “sunlight.”

Takao: When I think of Haruhi’s depiction, I’m reminded of the beginning of the television series in Melancholy I. From the beginning Kyon thinks “Aliens, time travelers, and espers?! What’s that nonsense?” due to his previous monologue. But Haruhi is different. “It’s fun to believe in strange things!” is what Haruhi is about. Haruhi is the symbol of the “It’s alright to be somewhat idiotic as a student” values.

―And so for that reason, the reunion with Haruhi is quite dramatic for Kyon.

Takemoto: Kyon’s quite nervous when he meets Haruhi. (laughs)

Ishihara: But wouldn’t you feel nervous seeing the woman you like in a different world on close terms with another man? (laughs) That’s something that Disappearance really brings out: the fact that Kyon does like Haruhi in that way. He heads to her immediately and when he sees her again, it’s almost like he falls in love again at first sight. (laughs) When they first entered North High and Kyon began talking to her, he didn’t have that same reaction. In fact, it was more of a refusal then. But, I like that “tsundere” aspect of him.

―Is Kyon a tsundere?

Ishihara: The biggest tsundere in “Haruhi Suzumiya” isn’t Haruhi; it’s Kyon.

Ishihara Explanation: After the world is reverted back, Kyon wakes up in a hospital bed and discovers Haruhi in a sleeping bag beside him. That just warms your heart…. “It’s the wholehearted scene where Kyon wakes up and touches Haruhi’s face. It’s a sweet scene that appears at the end of a drama. Kyon keeps going until he touches her lips. Koizumi’s quite the pest in this case. Maybe Kyon would go “Kiss” if he wasn’t there. (laughs)”

Kyon’s weakness, being human, and Nagato as a pitiful woman

―And so what is everyone’s thoughts regarding Kyon?

Takemoto: In the television series, the directors and the rest of the staff wanted to convey Kyon as being somewhat sarcastic and a bit of nihilist. He’d hate the strange things that were occurring before him, but he didn’t find it dull. If he got mad, he’d find a roundabout way of talking about it, speak sarcastically, and generally ridicule it like any first year student. He’s not the type to speak in one word sentences. You could say he’s the opposite of shy.

Ishihara: He’s probably your average high school student. He’d build up little theories to protect himself from being harmed and to make himself look better, but when he saw the Kouyouen Academy Haruhi, he became incredibly nervous. That’s the frail side of Kyon.

Takao: For the parts of the film that I was in charge of, there were a lot of fragile Kyon scenes that I felt were worthwhile. No matter what character you have, showing their weak side makes them look more human. Thus, I illustrated the thoughts that approached Kyon’s inner self.

Takemoto: Perfect people are so boring. I’ve been where Kyon is and so I felt a little sympathetic for him.

―If I’m remembering correctly, it was Takemoto who was in charge of the scene where Kyon addresses himself.

Takemoto: It’s a bit difficult for me to talk about that scene but… when I read the novel, I thought, this sounds like two Kyons talking to each other, doesn’t it?

Ishihara: That scene is amazing. For just Kyon’s seijyu (Tomokazu) Sugita-san to play two roles at the same time for nearly 7 minutes was amazing.

―And finally, what are your thoughts about Nagato?

Takemoto: This is just my opinion, but I’ve got a hunch that the rest of the SOS Brigade members are normal people that will progress to have a full life while that’s not true for Nagato. While she’s contending for the top ability in the SOS Brigade, she doesn’t have a big existence. When she disappears, it’s not strange. Thinking about that ambiance, it makes my chest pound.

―Takao-san, you said a little while ago that you viewed Nagato as a “woman”, correct?

Takao: Perhaps after the world changed Kyon does too, or certainly she’s a character we’re attracted to. She’s moved up from being an observer. She has such incredible abilities, yet she’s willing to throw it all away for the sake of a man. That’s the type of girl she is. The director in charge of the D-part, Hiroko Utsumi-san, said “Nagato sure is crafty.(laughs)”

Ishihara: At the time she changed the world, you realize that Nagato designed a world that was quite convenient for her. It was designed well to change Kyon’s mind. It was very Haruhi-like for her to do that. However, she didn’t change Kyon. She thought “I want Kyon to choose.” That’s the sweet side of Nagato.

―So that’s why she chose to become an ordinary girl.

Ishihara: This story is one where a new Nagato is born. Nagato grows a little bit like we all do as we get older. Perhaps, since the Integrated Data Thought Entity is stuck at a cul-de-sac when it comes to evolving, they might choose to become humans instead. That’s not from the author Nagaru Tanigawa-san, that’s just my own guess.

Takao: Speaking of Tanigawa-san, he was persistent that Nagato was a humanoid interface of the Integrated Data Thought Entity. But that’s why it’s significant that she breaks out of that cycle and becomes an ordinary girl. It appears as though her old self died.

Ishihara: Such a strong thing to say.

Takao: It’s like snow. It’s the crystallization of water, yet it has such a short existence until it melts.

Takemoto: That’s exemplified in the short story Nagato writes in the novel story Editor in Chief★Straight Ahead!. That’s where she got her name “Yuki” from.

Ishihara: This is just a thought that I have, but what would have happened if Nagato wasn’t able to get her hands on Kyon before Asakura killed him? It’s not something I’ve thought about before.

Takao: Then wouldn’t she be her shadow, Asakura? I don’t think such a story could happen. As I said before, Nagato is a “woman.” After seeing the parts of her that aren’t beautiful, you feel sorry for her.

Ishihara: I’ve got a male point of view, but I know what the yearning a woman feels is like.

Takemoto: I asked Nagato’s seijyu, Minori Chihara, to act “as though you dislike the usual part of yourself.” Depending on the situation, it didn’t matter if she acted somewhat flirty.

Takao: Thus you were able to feel that Nagato was a “woman” after the world changed. You saw just how isolated she was.

―Were there any conflicts from the staff on the final scene on the rooftop?

Ishihara: There were. Various parts of the staff reacted to that final scene between Nagato and Kyon. I head “How cruel Kyon” a few times. (laughs) But I didn’t understand where they were coming from.

Takao: I too was a bit bothered by that scene. It was Kyon’s actions that worried me. He squatted in front of Nagato where she looked down at him and took her hand. He then didn’t blame her for what happened. By doing that, Kyon lowered his defenses the best he could.

Ishihara: Ah, so it could be that.

Takemoto: It’s good to hear different opinions on something people saw together. Isn’t it funny how everyone can come up with a different explanation?

―The epilogue after the credits feels a bit symbolic, doesn’t it?

Ishihara: That was the author Tanigawa-san’s idea. He wanted the final bit to be “Nagato hiding her mouth with a book.”

―The book she holds is The Starry Rift. A famous Sci-Fi book.

Ishihara: The book was selected by Tanigawa-san. It’s a good way to convey that desire to be individualistic.

―Finally, would you tell us your final thoughts of this work?

Takemoto: We made it with the best we could. We worked to fill in every nook we could see. It was fun, and unfortunately, I’m at a loss for words other than that.

Takao: Thank you. This was a work that we worked hard to complete for many months. We would raise our spirits by wanting to live up to everyone’s expectations.

Ishihara: This is probably the longest or second longest animated work, isn’t it? I’m glad we used that time to carefully convey the moods Kyon was in throughout the film.

This is the last in a batch of interviews from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya guidebook that I’ll be posting. Some of these were previously posted in 2011/2012 and I’ve gone back and edited them. This long interview is the final piece, and one that was previously translated. Credit goes to Yumeka for translating parts of the middle of this piece along with comments on the rest Please enjoy hearing about the first impressions from the three people who played the most important roles in the movie’s creative process!

Original Author – General Manager – Scriptwriter Roundtable discussion

Nagaru Tanigawa (Original Author) x

Tatsuya Ishihara (General Manager) x

Fumihiko Shimo (Scriptwriter)

 Nagaru Tanigawa. Born on December 19^th. Author. His Haruhi Suzumiya series (Kadokawa Shoten) won the 8^th annual Sneaker Awards’ Grand Prize. His other works include the Let’s Leave the School series and The Guardian of my World series.

Fumihiko Shimo. Born on April 28^th. Animation Scriptwriter. He has served as the series composer for the Full Metal Panic! series, the Gravion series, and the Idaten Jump series. He wrote the scripts for the AIR, Kanon, and Clannad series as well.

Tatsuya Ishihara’s biography appears in the Directors’ Roundtable.

A 162 minute ultra-epic is formed from the famous lines and scenes of the original novel. This work began three years ago, but now at 21:00 on January 26th, 2010, having just finished watching the freshly made preview showing of the movie, these three people talk about their excitement for the film.

Since they have such confidence in this work, watching the preview screening was tense for them.

-While the excitement from seeing the film still fresh in your minds, first please tell us your impressions.

Tanigawa: Before watching it, my heart was beating rapidly. Even after watching it, my heart’s still beating rapidly.

Ishihara: How was it you ask? I think it’s the perfect time to ask that to Tanigawa-san, though it’s still a bit nerve-wracking for me.

Tanigawa: You’ve made such a thorough anime adaptation; I’m so lucky to be the author. Thank you so much.

Shimo: I was in charge of writing the screenplay, as in deciding whether or not to change the expressions or increase the word count. At the beginning, I was reconsidering some decisions I made, but as I watched the film, it rapidly won me over. I thought of how happy I was to simply see Haruhi and the others once again. Near the end, I was seeing it from a fan’s point of view.

Tanigawa: Since I wasn’t considering the intonations of the dialogue and each character’s emotions while writing the novel, the voice actors’ emotions flavored the performance, making it feel fresh as I watched it. It felt like the novel was being recited in my ear. (laughs)

Shimo: In the original novel, Kyon’s monologue had a unique taste to it, so we couldn’t make any careless changes when writing the script. Every time we met, Tanigawa-san’s presence would help us along.

Tanigawa: When it comes to things I can do, the text is my job. I certainly can’t draw pictures like that.

Ishihara: This time we weren’t able to do post dubbing.

Tanigawa: Every time there was dubbing, we were only able to take a quick peek. But I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a bad thing. This time Tomokazu Sugita-san, Kyon’s seijyu, gave an earth-shattering performance. I thank him very much for doing so (laugh).

-General Manager Ishihara, what were your thoughts about the film?

Ishihara: The words, music, the dubbing of the audio… really, all of the film together created such a calming display. The whole feature couldn’t be pictured until these credits had finished rolling. Therefore, we had to free our minds and watch it without any preconceptions during our checks. I was really worried about how I wouldn’t be able to go to the bathroom or how I would feel the length of the film. But despite that, I watched it uninterrupted until the end and thought with confidence, “This is good, isn’t it?”

-It’s a work of self-confidence.

Ishihara: For that reason, I was more nervous before than I am now. I find it amusing, but others may think it’s shocking rather than amusing, because my nervousness was due to watching it with Tanigawa-san.

Tanigawa: I am grateful to you for what you have done with my inexperienced work, as usual. It may be awkward to say now but I haven’t yet said it this time.

Ishihara: Thank you very for your compliments!

Disappearance was first conceived as a TV series

-We want to hear about the scenario planning for the movie. When did it take place?

Shimo: That’s already a tale from long ago. (laughs) June 2007 was when we first started. At that time we had plans to make Disappearance part of a TV season.

Ishihara: During the planning for the “re-airing”, we had discussions about making a new season. At that time we had thought of making the new episodes go up to Disappearance.

Tanigawa: We talked about whether we should make it a TV series or a movie. For me, I wanted to see it both ways. In terms of our actual work, we let Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, Endless Eight, Sigh, and Disappearance all progress at the same time.

Shimo: I was in charge of the screenplay for Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. At that point I wrote it so it would link with Disappearance.

Tanigawa: At first we thought, why not split Disappearance into seven episodes?

Shimo: I wrote a script for Disappearance in several parts so that each part could be the script for one episode.

Ishihara: We decided on doing the whole plot from the beginning. After that, while the manuscripts for Part A piled up, we would check the proofs for Part B. They progressed forward together.

Shimo: And with that, Part A (after the world changed) had already piled up to seven manuscripts.

–About how long of a running time did you intend for the movie?

Shimo: We divided it up and progressed without deciding on the full running time. We felt like giving ample time to all the necessary scenes.

Ishihara: As the storyboards of the script advanced, we were able to get an idea of a running time. We had many discussions about making it shorter, but eventually it became the size that it is. As one would expect, the running time is a problem when turning a work into animation. It’s painful cutting down our favorite scenes, so with Disappearance, I’m glad we were able to leave in so many scenes.

Shimo: That’s why the length is about eight episodes, right?

Ishihara: And while we’re speaking of wants, I actually wanted it to be a bit longer. There were more scenes I wanted to include in this work. We made Melancholy six episodes but we still had to cut down the original work considerably.

Shimo: Melancholy was five episodes at first, but we were dissatisfied with that and that’s how it became six episodes (laughs). But even for Disappearance, it’s not like we could include everything from the original work.

Tanigawa: It’s a long story (laughs).

Disappearance – the story that must be written

–Did you have discussions about each of the characters?

Ishihara: Yes, especially when we were doing work on the storyboards. I spoke with directors Yasuhiro Takemoto and Noriko Takao about things like “Does the dialogue sound like the true feelings of Haruhi and the other characters?” As we discussed what they thought about the production, we would be able to depict the expressions of the characters.

Tanigawa: That’s because not every expression from every character is described in the novel. For novels, only the parts that have meaning are written.

Ishihara: Several parts of Tanigawa-san’s original work have an impressive writing style. For example, your line “With eyes that looked like they were drawn up from the waters of a deep sea.”

Tanigawa: And also, “she silently titled her head about 2 millimeters.” It’s not a writing style made for images.

–Even for the storyboards, instructions like “It’s written that ‘she titled her head about 2 millimeters'” were put in.

Ishihara: They certainly were. We made the anime while being conscious of the feelings in the original work.

–Did you pay attention to that while writing the script, Shimo-san?

Shimo: Since the original work is a story that’s elaborately drawn out, we had no choice but to break it down. By changing some scenes, the meaning would be totally different. In order to bring out the maximum charm of the characters, we had to increase scenes of Haruhi and everyone doing activities. I wrote the script while trying to pay attention to that aspect of the story. For me, it wasn’t just that I liked the Haruhi Suzumiya series. Disappearance itself is also a story I love, so I was really lucky to have been able to write the screenplay. I feel like I wrote it with very festive feelings.

Tanigawa: Thank you very much.

Shimo: No need to thank me. I noticed something while I was writing. In Disappearance, Kyon is interposed between Nagato’s world and Haruhi’s world, making it seem like there’s some form of mutual resentment. You might call it a love triangle… The scenes that Haruhi appears in are from morning until after school while the scenes that Nagato appears in are from after school until night. The scenes where Haruhi and Nagato appear together are only in the SOS Brigade clubroom. I think it’s a beautiful composition, but were you aware of it, Tanigawa-san?

Tanigawa: I didn’t really notice that… (laughs)

Shimo: Haruhi is in the bright time periods and Nagato is in the dark ones. Kyon goes back and forth between them. I think that makes it a very reflective world. When you were writing the original novel, you said you wrote it with quite a lot of vigor, didn’t you?

Tanigawa: I had to write Disappearance even though it was a novel that stole any will to work that I already don’t usually have. (laughs) In a way, I felt like I had a duty to write it. First I thought of the goals I had and how everything would flow, then I took my pen and said “Okay, let’s write this!,” and then I finished it in about three weeks.

Ishihara: That was fast.

Tanigawa: For me, I felt that I thought up a very honest story. Until this story, Kyon’s identity was always wavering, but now there’s a story that fortifies it. I felt it was a story the Haruhi Suzumiya series needed but I didn’t know if it would be interesting or not. Even now I don’t know for sure.

Ishihara: And now it’s a popular work and one you finished in just one spurt. Although I have a lot of experience, whenever quality storyboards come in my head, I also try to sketch it right away. Even when I look at storyboards that I wracked my brains over and confirmed as good, I get anxious that I might find one more thing to add to the final result.

Shimo: It’s a way of saying something bad is going to come falling down on you, right?

Tanigawa: Even if that’s the case, writing without worry is better than writing while worrying.

Ishihara: On the surface Disappearance seems like a story for Nagato to stand out, but it’s actually tightly focused on Kyon and Haruhi. When I was writing the storyboards I thought to myself that this time Kyon is going to actively move about.

Tanigawa: I made the decision for Kyon to finally become the protagonist in Disappearance.

–Did you have any questions for Tanigawa-san concerning the script?

Shimo: I received his opinions while we read the script together so I don’t have any question in particular to ask him. Since things like the books Nagato read and the lineup of books in the Literary Club bookshelves are part of the visuals, we should ask Tanigawa-san about them.

Ishihara: At the last moment I asked Tanigawa-san about the addresses in Kyon’s cell phone. It was good that we put the name of a girl he was friendly with in middle school among the numbers listed.

–Kyon checks his phone’s listings two times; once before the world changes and once after the world changes.

Ishihara: We don’t know how long Kyon has had a cell phone but we figured he’d at least have the name of the girl he was friends with in middle school listed.

Tanigawa: Haruhi Suzumiya would be listed in the “Sa” column, right? No one knows the true identity of the name of the girl shown on the phone’s screen…it could be someone else with that same name (laughs).

–Did the work from script to storyboards progress smoothly?

Ishihara: Actually, there were scenes that were cut at the script stage.

Shimo: Yes there were indeed. We imagined a scene before Kyon wakes up in the hospital where he has a vision-like dream. It’s a scene at the cafe by the train station in the changed world where Kyon is laughing with long-haired Haruhi, Koizumi, Mikuru, and Nagato. It means that even after Kyon corrects the world, in a parallel world Haruhi and the other SOS Brigade members from the changed world are doing club activities.

Ishihara: Then when Kyon wakes up he would have said “I feel like I had an interesting dream,” but the meaning of that line changed.

Shimo: When I saw the completed movie without that scene, I was also sort of relieved. In terms of the story, it’s not a parallel world but a single world that had changed.

Classmates not written in the original work or scenario

Shimo: There were quite a lot of scenes that were drew, wasn’t there?

Ishihara: Actually, I was shocked at the amount of key frames completed. One day I was at my desk when I picked up a cardboard box and said “What’s this?” It was some more scenes.

All: Laughs.

Ishihara: For example, let’s talk about the day following Haruhi’s disappearance. Before Kyon arrives in the classroom and Asakura asks him “Have you woken up?” the camera pans up from the floor and over to behind her head. While the classroom is animated in 3D, the classmates in the room are all hand-drawn. I wanted the audience to focus on both the scenery and the classmates at the same time; it took about 6-7 original images to achieve this. Even while animating the classroom in 3D, we had it move around to add another dimension to the area. As a result, we were able to detail the classmates nicely.

Shimo: The classmates are interesting, aren’t they?

Ishihara: It might be hard to tell, but each classmate has their own story. For example, glasses-kun is a boy with an unrequited love…

Shimo: We also had to prepare the background chatter in the script as well.

Ishihara: Normally for background chatter, we have a lot of seijyu talk in a suitable role, but this time we asked Sound Director Yota Tsuruoka-san to write the lines.

-But didn’t Shimo-san write those lines?

Shimo: I just wrote the direction for those parts.

Ishihara: The background chatter isn’t included in the storyboards, so each part’s direction had to be settled afterwards.

Shimo: Each classmate was dressed properly too.

Ishihara: I didn’t think they’d allow individuals to break the dress code by wearing sport pants under the skirt though! (laughs) But each classmate had a different coat, didn’t they? Since its winter, they’d hang it on their seat, obviously. We put a lot of effort into things like that to raise the atmosphere. Isn’t KyoAni airheaded sometimes?

– Kyoto Animation’s somewhat airheaded?

Ishihara: Probably. We do things like that when creating the characters after all. (laughs)

Shimo: If you were a beautiful girl, you’d be called Ditzy-chan.

Ishihara: Don’t you think there’s points where KyoAni is a bit clumsy? I think we could do things a bit more stylishly…

Tanigawa: But there’s no way that I could write all of the lines for the classmates. I surrender! (laughs)

An original conclusion not present in the novel

-When was it decided to move the climax to the rooftop and to have an epilogue in the library?

Shimo: The rooftop was my suggestion. I threw it out to General Manager Ishihara and Tanigawa-san.

Ishihara: I felt having the climax in the hospital room was a bit suffocating.

Shimo: Plus you have Yuki in a sentimental spot as snow falls down.

Ishihara: Snow falling down was an original design.

Tanigawa: There’s no way that snow would fall down at that exact time! (laughs)

-Maybe it was someone who was using Haruhi’s power to change the weather for that miracle.

Ishihara: We wanted to put the individual motif into that scene from Nagato’s story in the novels’ short Editor in Chief ★Straight Ahead! We imagined that Nagato would be thinking about that time when she was writing her story. Once that came to mind, Tanigawa-san gave us his approval and permission to do this.

Tanigawa: Well, it’s really good, isn’t it? I would certainly think Nagato would be reminded of this scene when she was writing her story.

This image was inspired by an illustration included in the story Editor in Chief ★Straight Ahead! (found in the novel The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya). The same image was also used in the opening for the 2006 broadcast of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

-On the rooftop Kyon states “Why would the Information Data Thought Entity make her some lonely, melancholic girl?” Was that Tanigawa-san himself pondering that?

Tanigawa: Criticizing myself, huh? (laughs) Thinking about it now, perhaps her template was the antithesis of a character. She’s kind of the antithesis of Kyon in a sense. I put the “straight man” personality into a beautiful girl character template.

-After the credits, there’s an epilogue of Nagato’s memories in the library.

Shimo: The epilogue was all Tanigawa-san’s idea.

Tanigawa: The idea for the epilogue came from the changed Nagato’s “Memories of the Library.” Unfortunately, there weren’t any moments that we could show Nagato in the library again during an scene, so now you’re able to see a new scene of Nagato in the library.

Ishihara: Would you say that the epilogue takes place after the events of Disappearance?

Tanigawa: It’s a scene that Nagato just happened to see.

Shimo: Tanigawa-san wished for us to “hide her mouth with a book.” Was she smiling? Was she emotionless? Nobody knows.

-Tanigawa-san, you also wrote the original draft for the lyrics to the theme song Yasashii Bokuyaku, right?

Tanigawa: I wanted to write lyrics that felt Nagato-ish. Something like an “eclectic poem” that Nagato had written. To what extent my own writing is left in there, I cannot say.

Shimo: Who chose to use the A cappella version?

Ishihara: I too would like to know that.

Staff: From the beginning, Producer Atsushi Itou had said “make it A cappella.”

-Now that you’ve seen the first viewing, do you feel that today you’ve finished the first stage of this work?

Ishihara: I don’t have the feeling that we’re done. We can’t be finished until we’ve heard the opinions of the fans and customers. Perhaps those who have read the original novel will have different interpretations of scenes, but they may still approve of this edition.

Shimo: I sense that at last the end has come. Disappearance is structured like a classic adventure story; going around various world, but, coming home in the end. That describes the trip Kyon went on, doesn’t it?

Tanigawa: I believe those who’ve read the novel as well as seen the movie will accept this work. If they feel the movie’s no good, then I’m sure they’ll say the original novel was horrible as well. (laughs)

Ishihara: Well, the novel is quite popular. If the movie’s seen as bad, then it’s the general manger’s responsibility.

Shimo: No no, the animation is produced by KyoAni. Since they’ve given it their all, then the script itself would be the bad part.

All together : No no! (laughing)

Ishihara: ….Well, please go to the theatre many times and enjoy yourselves.

Director x Series Composer Dialogue

Naoko Yamada x Reiko Yoshida

Naoko Yamada:
Animator/Director at Kyoto Animation. Made her debut as director with K-On!. Previously worked as storyboarder/episode director on Clannad and Clannad After Story.

Reiko Yoshida:
Freelance scriptwriter. Notable works include series composer for Bakuman, Girls und Panzer, Tamako Market, and Yowamushi Pedal among other series.

A conversation with the two who are most acquainted with the K-On! anime. How was K-On! created? These two carefully chat about their production and their fixations about the characters.

“Adolescence” is the theme the new director wanted to energetically tell?!

– To start, would you please tell us what your impressions of each other were when you met for the first time?

Yamada: I was so nervous and my heart was beating rapidly when we first met. I remember doing everything I could to explain how “I want to try depicting K-On! as an adolescent drama with girls.”
Yoshida: That’s right. You were so firey talking about “This work’s theme is adolescence!”
Yamada: I was frantically talking away since I thought if I didn’t say anything, then I couldn’t convey how I felt. (laughs)

– How was working together as a pair?

Yoshida:  With a director who was so amazingly full of ideas, I was also quite stirred. Also, her ability to sense feminine characteristics was so amazing; it felt incredibly fresh for me. She was fixated on how to show girls being entertaining and cute characters from beginning until end.  When you’re able to gather that into such a great work, you’ll see fans support your efforts.
Yamada: I couldn’t help being excited from when we first met and I saw the plot develop. Also, I was overjoyed when I read the scenario for episode 1. I was finally able to experience feeling the word that’s now used throughout the world, “moe.”
Yoshida: (laughs)
Yamada: The scenario I had the pleasure of reading was very feminine. The emotional descriptions and psychological depictions were so marvelous and sensitive.  Even more, it was awash with good meaning with the types of situations that male writers tend to avoid writing about. She was able to properly and cutely write those ingredients.  And best of all, you could feel the love! It was so fun to read; I looked it over many times.

– By the way, what were your thoughts on the manga when you read it?

Yoshida:  The designs were cute and the way that the characters easily felt comfortable and close was immensely entertaining. It’s a work that feels stylish and will make you laugh without trying to be hip.
Yamada: It’s about ordinary stories in life and the characters too are ordinary. While that style doesn’t feel like it’s trying to win you over, it’s very easy to empathize with.  As a woman, my impression was that it was a fun read.

– What did you meet and talk about when deciding how to create the manga’s story into animated form?

Yoshida:  K-On! mostly only has female characters appear in it. And yet, the director’s thoughts were not about making it focused on “moe” but instead making its theme about “adolescence” to feel a kind of freshness that hadn’t been felt before.  For me, I wanted them to appear more than just being cute; I wanted them to feel “alive.” Also, I wanted to impart that feeling of “they’re living in no other point than at this moment.”
Yamada: I considered ways to show these girls who were living in this time period limited to their school days and limited to their school. After all, the manga also steadily moves the story forward each month without pausing. When you become a second year, you can’t return back to being a first year. That period of school life where “you only are in this very moment now’ was immensely important to me, but the girls themselves don’t realize it at all. I thought being able to see that aspect, but having that radiance of not having a moment to say it was something that would be great to include in this work.

Looking at all the episodes together, you’re able to understand how the light music club that spends every day leisurely is able to radiate the adolescent laughter and crying in their music by spending their fun days with each other.

– What discussions did you have when creating the structure of the story?

Yoshida: We also met with the mangaka, Kakifly-sensei, at the very first meeting and decided on a very general form that the story would take. With the manga being published monthly and the story changing along with the seasons, we were able to rather easily decide how far to go with the story and what to include.
Yamada: I was personally concerned with Azusa. Should she appear or should she not? Does she come into the picture or does she not? I constantly worried over it.  Well, I wasn’t 100% on board with her not appearing. (laughs) But there was a feeling that the story would be better if she didn’t appear so it’d be the main four from start until the end.

Character designs full of obsessions and challenges

– Director Yamada, please tell us what you were fixated on with regards to the character designs.

Yamada: I saw the character profiles that we received from Kakifly-sensei, but I was obsessed with making their heights and weights incredibly realistic. (laughs) They should feel near what normal high school girls would be.  There are a lot of really nice balanced proportions at this time where girls tend to be very obsessed with putting on weight. Since I was focused on pursuing that, it took quite a lot of time to complete it.  I even worried after deciding their heights. I’d decide “this should be about right…” and then that night I’d think “that’s so not right at all!” and frantically send a text to character designer (Yukiko) Horiguchi-san, and we’d re-do it again the next day.

One characteristic of K-On!’s characters is that their legs are plump and aren’t as thin as normal anime girls. They truly take the form of real life high school girls.

– That sounds quite troublesome.

Yamada: I thought of various things until seeing them on the screen too. Generally, Japanese girls should be around 5.5 heads tall. Every time we decided something, Horiguchi-san and I would say “Yes!” once we had obtained the proportions we were looking for.

– What other portions of character designs were you fixated on?

Yamada: I wanted the designs to expand to fit their ideal life. Tsumugi has a bit of a gifted education feeling to her, so her design should exude that elegance. Mio might worry about her height being too tall, so should she stoop over a bit? But in the end, Mio would be the kind to stand straightforwardly.
Yoshida: That’s right.
Yamada: Furthermore, Horiguchi-san had the idea to draw their hair without highlights and I approved of that. It felt like the sparklingness of highlights would take away from that simplistic feeling of K-On!.  In the end, we included some highlights in the dark haired Mio and Azusa, but that experimenting was entertaining.

Cute, not beautiful, and bedhair going everywhere. Director Yamada lovingly expressed Yui’s expression right after waking up in the morning.

A scenario with real life and no fantasy

– What kind of tricks was used to portray that real life feeling of high school girls in the scenario?

Yoshida: I was always trying to think about how to write to match with the director always saying that it shouldn’t be fantasy-oriented.  I wrote the scenario while I thought about never moving the characters with that feeling of necessity to have them move somewhere.

– There were some original scenes and episodes in the first episode that weren’t in the manga.

Yoshida: The director said she wanted to include that running scene at the beginning. If we included it there, then there would be the impression that Yui is the kind of person who doesn’t run straightforward with her little diversions and such on the way to school.  After seeing this, the viewer would be able to feel that whatever Yui sees would take priority over where she’s supposed to be, even if it was scheduled for her to be somewhere.
Yamada: Well, that’s such a Yui thing for her to do. (laughs)
Yoshida: And then I was most pleased with the performance of “Tsubasa wo Kudasai!” in the first episode. Despite being performed in the music room, the camera would cut all around the school campus. I was quite pleased with how it greatly felt like it was at school from that scene.

Despite being late, Yui takes the time to stop many times. Even though it’s only 20 seconds long, this clip shows Yui’s idiotic, childish nature.

– The scene where Yui reminisces about playing the castanets was also really cute.

Yoshida: The castanet story was mentioned in the manga, so I wanted to expand on that in an episode, so I got my chance when Yui saw the poster to join the light music club. There definitively has to have some kind of motive for someone without any experience playing instruments to join the club.   And in Yui’s life, she had fun playing music and she was complimented playing those castanets, so that would give her the reason to be pushed towards joining the band.

– There was also the tale of the part-time job in order to buy her instrument.

Yoshida: The first hurdle of someone starting to play music would have to be money, right? I was a member of the brass band when I was in high school, so buying an instrument was certainly a bother. I’d go to the store and see everything nice be really expensive, but I didn’t want to buy the cheap ones. (laughs) And so I’m the kind of person who worries about money, so I thought it’s be funny if a high school girl would carry around that kind of cash.
Yamada: Anime itself has that kind of fantasy world where it’d be simple for someone to buy an instrument once they become inclined to play it. I’m grateful that Yoshida-san wrote a scenario that was grounded with Yui’s feet on the Earth.

– What was the reason for the girls to take such a weird part time job like traffic surveying?

Yoshida: We discussed the various jobs that a high schooler could take for a short period of time to earn money and so once the opinion came out for “traffic surveying?” it became a good choice.
Yamada: It feels like that would be so uninteresting and amazingly boring, doesn’t it? I also participated in traffic surveying when I was in high school, so I know that boredom feeling quite well. (laughs)

Wanting to delve into the characters in original episodes 11 and 13

– Episode 11 is a nearly all-original story; was it Yoshida-san’s suggestion to make it original?

Yoshida: That would be right. There had to be a story about what to do right before the last episode. So then, what about digging into the characters and showing the emotions that high school girls feel?
Yamada: We could bring attention to the two childhood friends Mio and Ritsu there.
Yoshida: Of the five in the light music club, Mio and Ritsu have the longest relationship, right? We could also have our prized Ric-chan feature episode as well.
Yamada: I asked her to lovingly depict the long ups and downs that childhood friends go through. Things like Ritsu knowing Mio was there by the sound of her footsteps were somewhat mesmerizing. With both of them depending on the other’s presence, it feels like Mio would also be useless if Ritsu wasn’t there.
Yoshida: I wanted to depict the realization of the childhood friendship setting in for Mio.

– The extra episode 13 was also original.

Yoshida: This extra episode came because there wasn’t was a story where each of the 5 girls, who were constantly together, would have their own spotlight.
Yamada: I thought a winter episode that felt a bit nostalgic would be nice, so I requested one. Then it was also decided that it would be a “though it’s cold outside, it’s warm in here” story.

– Ritsu’s excitement over her mistakenly thinking the lyrics Mio put in her mailbox was a love letter was also nice. Who proposed to depict that side of her?

Yoshida: I was the one who proposed it, but the director wanted a part about Ritsu.
Yamada: I constantly wanted to insert a moment where Ritsu let her hair down. So to prepare for this episode, Ritsu always had her hair tied back, even when she was going to bed or going in the bath.

– Speaking of Ritsu, that scene with her breathing was also talked about. Was it also true that Satomi-san practiced saying things while doing a forward roll?

Yamada: What! Is that true?! (laughs)
Yoshida: This is the first I’ve heard of it. (laughs)  We had an enjoyable conversation about how she would enter the room, but we were only thinking of things that’d be fun to say when being passive. (laughs)
Yamada: That final “All right.” was perfect.

Episode 12’s crayfish fishing reminiscence scene is an episode that has no direct meaning itself, but the impact of seeing a bathtub full of crayfish was so impactful and entertaining that it was used.

– What about Yui’s sumo talk in episode 6?

Yamada: At first that was supposed to be an alien voice. Something like “Take us to your leader!” (laughs) When the director for that episode, Ishihara-san, was drawing the storyboards, he pointed out “a gravelly voice isn’t like an alien” and I realized “now that you point it out, I see that.” And so what I thought to replace it was a sumo wrestler. But thinking about it later, a sumo wrestler doesn’t sound gravelly either! (laughs)

Yui’s movements were described with imitative words?! Balancing Ritsu was difficult!

– Yui’s gestures and movements were always amazingly described in the storyboards.

Yoshida: That has to be love, right? (laughs)
Yamada: Yui’s the kind of girl who’s hard to put into words.  I remember not being able to find the right words to describe what Yui was doing, so I would write sounds like “mocchari mocchari” to describe her gesture. I also wrote in bits like “should her idiotic expression fit here?” (laughs)
Yoshida: Since Yui’s the protagonist, those descriptions are very fitting….

– Apart from that, there’s a hint that she’d gradually turn into a bad girl.

Yamada: I’m sorry. (laughs) I asked Yoshida-san to write her as a bit tomboyish, but also as a girl who has her cute moments as well. But because I wanted Yui to be a girl who was loved by everyone, some kind of explanation was needed.  Although I’ll say I want her to be a girl who has her feet firmly grounded, so that while it may appear that she’s crumbling, you can tell that she’s still safe on the inside. By the way, don’t you really like Ui, Yoshida-san?
Yoshida: That’s right. She’s so honest in loving her older sister and furthermore can’t deny her at all. How can you not find that cute? (laughs)

This scene’s storyboards has “should her idiotic expression fit here?” written. In addition to this, there were other entertaining scribbles like “her perversion appears and disappears” and “(Yui’s) piggy bank should be a pig thanks.”

– What about Ritsu?

Yamada: She’s amazingly easy to write. How was she at the scenario stage?
Yoshida: Finding balance for Ritsu was difficult. That’s not to say that I didn’t think when writing Yui, but Ritsu is part club president and she’s a childhood friend of Mio. With her also having a younger brother, she’s a character who has the most burdens on her. And despite all of that, it doesn’t make her a punctual person at all. (laughs) Balancing that reliableness and the “it’ll take care of itself” feeling was challenging.

Mio is a hidden romantic girl and Tsumugi  is a girl who hides a strong force in her heart.

– And Mio is?

Yoshida: I received some advice from the director to not go overboard in making her too moe-ish of a character.
Yamada: She’s a normal girl acting normally and yet within that is the hallmark of a beautiful girl. Even during the drawing stages, your eyes would stop to look at her.
Yoshida: I definitely wanted to keep that image of her choosing to play the base because she didn’t like vocals as much as I could. I wanted to protect that position of hers whenever I could.
Yamada: But then why did she travel to the Sea of Japan in episode 13 then?
Yoshida: She didn’t want to travel to see a stormy sea. (laughs) But she did want to write some dramatic lyrics.
Yamada: It’s not like she couldn’t write anything but enka songs!
Yoshida: Mio is a girl who hides her romantic side. Since she writes such cute songs, your imagination of what she hides can be intense. She just never brings it to the surface.
Yamada: I understand. (laughs)

– What about Tsumugi?

Yamada: I personally didn’t want her to just be a bystander. I wanted her to be a character that would strongly push at those points where she would watch. One of those would be how she pushed and pushed for Yui to stay and join the club when she came to resign from it in episode 1. I think her charm is being able to do that and not seem like an overly pushy character.
Yoshida: She also had a scene like that at the music shop with her “Once again!” line.
Yamada: As I was reading the materials we received from Kakifly-sensei, I was immensely pleased with the line for her saying “she’s attracted to normal life.” Wouldn’t you think a wealthy miss wanting to be a commoner is quite interesting? Furthermore she gets excited about the various things that appeal to her. As I started to think about those things for her, my image of Tsumugi started to inflate.

Tsumugi was the character next to Yui in the count of scribbles in the storyboards. The director had a lot of fixations like making her the kind of character who innocently pushed things along strongly.

Azusa looks at things with a normal eye
Sawako-sensei’s performance was moving

– It felt like the club went through a delicate chance once the underclassman, Azusa, joined it.

Yamada: With Azusa joining the club, we were able to insert a third-person point of view to the club. She would be able to provide an objective look in contrast to the girls who had become accustomed to the club. I think that she bought a new feeling and a different appeal to the club would come out once she joined.
Yoshida: I think Azusa became accustomed to the club during the second training camp trip. Her impressions of her seniors changed during that episode.
Yamada: Since Azusa’s a twintailed younger sister-type of character, I thought it might be a bit of a waste for her once her image started to solidify. I felt there may be points that would dilute that image of her as we made her a bit normal instead of that good girl the image deserves, so I added a bit of a normal eye to her as well.

– Sawako-sensei’s impact was quite strong, especially in episode 5.

Yamada: Was that so? (laughs) In addition to being a flashback episode to when Sawako-sensei played in her band, it was also an episode that had Tsumugi draw inspiration from seeing Sawako-sensei and Mio write the lyrics to “Fuwa Fuwa Time.” Sanada-san’s performances were so amazing, she somehow made it into a habit.
Yoshida: No, she was definitely really talented in that role.
Yamada: Her singing “Jingle Bells” in episode 7 was moving. She asked me “how should I sing it?” I said “please sing it like how Doronjo-sama would sing it,” and I could see the question mark fly above her head when she entered the booth. And then that performance came as a result of that recording. (laughs) Though that desperation singing was a bit enjoyable too.

– Nodoka is Yui’s childhood friend, but they’re different than Mio and Ritsu.

Yoshida: Like Mio and Ritsu, Nodoka and Yui have some history behind them, so I prepared a few episodes from when they were children to feel like Nodoka has always watched over Yui until they entered high school. They’re childhood friends, but since they’re going down different paths, that relationship may not be as similar as before.

The flashback scenes inserted here and there not only show Yui and Nodoka’s relationship, but they also reflect how Yui became the character she is now from when she was a child.

The vivaciousness of K-On! was created from all the staff

– Finally please give us your impressions after all 13 episodes.

Yoshida: It feels like it’s taken on this vivacious atmosphere that you hear about when people watch good works now. K-On! itself is supposed to be a story just about high school girls playing music with their friends and yet it’s also a work that’s awash in this pure feeling. That’s what I like most about it.
Yamada: It’s nice to have that adolescent time feeling though.
Yoshida: All of the staff, starting with the director, have worked their hardest to create this show, and so as a result, the world of K-On! has that vivaciousness that you can feel. I’m immensely happy that I could have helped a bit in creating it.
Yamada: K-On! to me is a very important event. It was a great experience taking an entertaining scenario that moved me, with a manga holding its own power, and making it into that kind of work while my heart flickered until the very end. I’ve created so many memories together with the staff and the light music club; even now it feels like I haven’t calmed down. It was very enjoyable. Thank you very much.

Producer
Yoshihisa Nakayama

TBS Television Contents Business/Video Business Center Section Chief. Produced works include AIR, Clannad, and Clannad After Story among others.

As a TBS producer, Nakayama-san has brought Kyoto Animation works such as AIR and Clannad into the world thus far. We speak with him asking how he envisioned K-On! taking off and what kind of anime did he consider making with it.

NakayamaP is also a former light music club member!

– To start, please tell us what was the occasion for K-On! to be animated.

There are a few motives, but K-On! is a work that has characters that stand on their own and it would be a new genre for TBS anime. When it comes to serious music productions, you can’t beat live-action, but perhaps there could be a way to do one that’s more characteristic of anime. Also, I was a member of a light music club in the past, so I have an affinity for it.

– What was your first impression when you read the manga?

It’s ordinary, yet it was extremely entertaining. Anyways, there were hardly any boys that appeared in it. Usually, this type of “moe” works have a lot of patterns where either boys appear in a harem-type structure or they are living together with girls, but it was unusual for everyone to see the leisurely lifestyle of girls. I questioned if it could be exceedingly entertaining enough for us to animate it.

– There’s other anime productions that handled music and bands, but there’s not many that focus on a “girls band.”

There really aren’t. Also, when I was younger, I was in a band, so I questioned if it could be fun. When I was a student, we played a bit of rock, but we weren’t very good at it. We were told we’d be better off studying than playing.  If we were to have something completely different from that, and a pure feeling towards music with girls, perhaps it would feel fresh to veteran musicians and people in that same age group as the characters could find a new emotion when watching it.

Though there have been some works that depicted band life in anime previously, there had been hardly none that focused about depicting a girls band. In that way, K-On! would be a new anime.

– About when did the planning to turn K-On! into an anime start?

The plan to put out K-On! into a TBS anime from our group was right after the first volume of the manga came out, so around May 2008. It was an interesting topic among our anime group.

– You paid attention to it at quite an early stage of development, didn’t you?

The way that Kakifly-sensei was able to get his characters to stand up in K-On! was definitely full of talent. Thus we wanted to make it into an anime at an extremely early stage of publication, but we were worried at times that creating such a leisurely anime would be difficult to do. As a producer, I thought “can we make this into an anime” until I read the second volume. If it was just the first volume, we’d question if we should decide to do it or not. Its contents were considerably leisurely, you know. There was a lot of concern whether that would be able to make something entertaining as an anime.

– If you make it poorly, then everyday occurrences just seem so everyday, right?

That’s it. It’s all about the atmosphere. However, when I saw the first volume, I thought this could be an extremely new title for TBS to do. Knowing the world of light music clubs, there’s nothing like it that we’ve done before. That’s why I thought it would be alright. Depicting music in anime is very difficult. It really is. It would have been easier to do it with live-action, but everyone has already done that before. That’s why I thought the best thing to do would be the aspects of music that aren’t taken seriously. If we depicted the normal everyday life, the characters could stand on their own and be moe and we would be able to create a fresh new production.

In order to depict the reality of high school girls, the main staff were women

-After deciding to make it into an anime, what kind of objectives did you have for K-On!?

Personally, I wanted more than just anime fans to see it; I wanted children as well as real high school girls now to want to watch it.

– There’s a lot of women on the main staff. Were you aware of that?

I can’t say it was by chance. I was probably a little aware of it. It would be difficult to depict the realities of high school girl life, so I tried to insert women as much as possible since they had experienced that timeframe.

– Were there any differences in the points of view towards this production between the male staff and female staff?

Of course there were. If there were only female staff, then the taste of the work would be oriented towards women, so there’s only part of that now. I wanted the viewing audience to be mixed, so we put men with their point of view and women with their point of view together and had various discussions about the show. I think that kind of balance between viewpoints is good.

– Were there points of view and ideas from the male staff reflected in parts of the work?

The male staff were quite active in the portions where men would feel moe, weren’t they? While the main staff were mostly women, there were men on the directorial staff, so I thought the balance between them was quite nice.

On one side, there were a lot of women collected on the main staff to depict the normal life of real high school girls. Through the use of Tatsuya Ishihara as an adviser among other things, there were tricks to have a male point of view as well on the work.

-Some producers have different effects on works; some wait under the cherry tree for it to be done and others act like another director. What is your stance, Nakayama-san?

It’s not possible for me to leave things alone and just handle the business side. I’ll also interrupt a bit in regards to the content.  However, it’s up to the creators to make the structure of the work itself. If the final images have some slippages, it’ll be troublesome for me, so I’ll be sure to watch the big portions, but I won’t say anything regarding the detailed parts. The scriptwriters and directorial staff are pros, so as long as you make their motivation extremely high, there shouldn’t be any problems arising.

– From your producer standpoint, what were the impressions you had when watching the completed first episode?

I was extremely satisfied with the first episode as a TV station producer. Watching it, I think there were a lot of audience members who decided they would watch the next episodes to see what happens later. In K-On!’s  situation, there were a lot of elements incorporated in the first episode, so it was a pleasure to be able to see them. I know the staff were troubled trying to incorporate the manga’s plentiful events in the first episode and trying to find a way to structure them to win over the audience. Perhaps director Yamada may have had an immense amount of pressure on her.

Intention to truly play music though the attitude to music wasn’t serious

– What did you pay attention to during the production of K-On!?

What I was most concerned with even prior to starting the first episode was matching the treatment the manga gave music. The light music club doesn’t approach music with the teeth-gritting seriousness that a sports club would approach their sport with. That’s why they wouldn’t play music with a certain kind of seriousness. (laughs) With Kyoto Animation producing the animation, there may have been an expectation for some earth-shattering music scenes to be animated, but since that would be a misconception, we publicized this show as this leisurely anime from the very beginning.  Thanks to that, I think the manga fans, of course, and the viewers coming into the anime would understand the show’s aims better. One other concern I had was an inclination to take music seriously. The mangaka, Kakifly-sensei, is someone experienced with music, so he never lost his concentration when depicting the music portion. Though there aren’t many performance scenes that appear, if people who hadn’t played music were making this show, then there wouldn’t be a real inclination towards performances. That’s why we weren’t going to insert music in the show if we weren’t going to include the real thing. Of course, Kyoto Animation also properly used real instruments as references when drawing them.

Since K-On! is an anime that doesn’t devote itself entirely to music, there wasn’t as much force put into the performance portions, but in exchange, there was an exceedingly amount of energy devoted to the music itself.

– Inside all 13 episodes, what were some particularly impressive episodes for you?

There were a few episodes that I would say were impressive or rather I was pleased with their production. Among those, the one I was most pleased with was episode 8. I was truly concerned over Azusa’s appearance. I knew she would appear from the script stage, but there were a lot of portions where I would have to rely on the storyboards and finally the way the episode director framed the images. When I saw the final visuals and how she was received on her appearance, I was quite pleased.

– When you say the way she was received, you mean by the light music club members? Or did you mean the viewing audience?

The viewing audience and the way she appeared to them. Azusa appearing is a different development in the leisurely world that the other four had been in thus far. Surely there would be people that like her, but there would also be people who liked the atmosphere up until that point, so I was concerned if everyone would be able to accept her appearance.

When the serious Azusa joins the light music club, the leisurely atmosphere changes. Nakayama-san was immensely concerned over how the viewers would react as a result.

– The atmosphere definitely changed between episodes 7 and 8. It felt like Azusa’s entrance was a bit of a sting to the leisurely atmosphere of the light music club.

When a girl with a bit of an objective point of view joins, she becomes a bit of a stimulant.  And then how will the other four receive her and how will the audience receive that? The fans for the manga were able to receive her well and it became that kind of form, but since anime has much more detailed portions than manga, I was a bit concerned about that portion.

– When we spoke to director Yamada and Yoshida-san, they said there were plans for her not to appear too.

There was a plan like that at the beginning. It’s only 1 cour, so it would be usual for her not to appear.

– Would it be possible to cover a single year in just one cour?

I think it would be possible. People who read up to the second volume would understand why Azusa wouldn’t appear.  There’s probably a lot of people who liked her, so in the end, her appearing was a success to me.

– Finally, please give a message to the readers.

Somewhat reading over the messages on the official site’s bulletin board, it makes me immensely happy to see people saying that watching K-On! has changed their life or that they’ve found something they want to do after watching it. I always say it, but if there’s just one person who changes after saying “I’ll do it tomorrow” then it was worthwhile to make that work. There’s a lot of things we don’t care for in this world, but if we can make someone who didn’t want to go to work the next day revert to just a bit more eager after watching some TV, then I’m happy. It doesn’t mean that it has to be a hit either; it’s a plus when people watch something you make, even if it’s just 4 people, and you have fun with making it. That’s another role for TV in my opinion.

Producer
Yoshihisa Nakayama

TBS Television Contents Business/Video Business Center Section Chief. Produced works include AIR, Clannad, and Clannad After Story among others.

As a producer, Nakayama-san creates productions from a different position than the production staff. This time we ask him about creating a favorable environment around the show and secret tales about how the second season was created, reserving the broadcast slots, tie-ins, and merchandise creation.

One trouble was the announcement of the 2^nd season with just a brief guarantee of broadcast time

– When did you decide to produce a second season?

I believe it was around August 2009. The first season ended in June, so it was almost right after that. We announced it at the live events in December and January wanting to begin broadcasting it in April 2010, but we were still adjusting the broadcast slots.

– The second season is 2-cour long and it was coming quickly, so wasn’t it quite troublesome to be adjusting the broadcast slots?

Generally, it’s TBS policy to determine the broadcast slots ahead of time so that there is a guarantee that programs will continue to run in those slots after one finishes. It’s quite difficult to open up a new slot after they’re filled. Therefore when we announced the second season, we didn’t know if we had a definite slot for broadcasting it. We wouldn’t know until February of this year. If it wasn’t decided then, we may not have been able to begin broadcasting it in April or perhaps we wouldn’t be able to broadcast it over-the-air and only have to broadcast it via satellite. When production started, we immediately went into writing the scripts, so we decided the first episode of season 2 would begin in April prior to that slot being decided.

– The second season was announced extremely quickly. It was thought that perhaps it was determined during production of the first season.

No, we never assumed we would make a second season while making the first. We started thinking about it after receiving a lot of letters from fans after the broadcast finished. We made this season in response to their desires. If we had decided to make a second season from the start, then Azusa would have been introduced in that second season. But we only planned for one season, and a one-cour season at that. But if Azusa didn’t appear, then Afterschool Tea Time wouldn’t be made, so she appeared mid-way through the first season.

– The number of over-the-air stations increased for season 2. Was this in response to the big reaction for the first season?

That’s part of it, but the first season ran in a lot of TBS late night slots as well. It ran on 8 over-the-air TBS stations at first, and for us, those 8 stations cover nearly all of Japan. For the areas they don’t cover, it was broadcast on the satellite BS-TBS station. In summary, from when we planned the slots for S1, we at TBS were pinning our hopes on the show. With a lot of people watching the first season, and the amount of support we received, we enlargened our broadcast stations wanting it to be easier for the fans who watched the first season to be able to access it.

Creating the second season’s music wanting to surpass the songs from the first season

– Since the first season was immensely popular, what preparations did you make for the second season as a producer?

I previously talked about coordinating timeslots, but other than that, I entered into selections for a game company to make the PSP K-On! After School Live! Game. It takes about a year to make a game, which is a long time, so I proceeded with that prior to setting the broadcast slot.

– Can you tell us how the game came to be created?

We received a lot of requests from fans saying “I’d love for a game to come out.” When we first started the first season, I never considered that K-On! could be made into a game. However, since each of the characters was able to differentiate herself and we had received many requests for a game, I decided to make one. However, I strongly wanted it to be entertaining or else it wouldn’t be made. As I was thinking about the various ways it could become a game, it hit me that K-On!’s game would have to be a rhythm game. I then thought that I’d like for Sega, who had created a lot of the vocaloid rhythm games lately, to make our game. On their part, Sega was very willing to consent and thought making a game would be good for them. By the way, I think the difficulty of the game should be slightly difficult. If it’s too easy to clear, then the player won’t be satisfied with finishing it, but if it’s difficult, then that’s okay. When I played it myself, I thought “this is definitely difficult.” (laughs)

– How did you go about producing the music for this season?

That was the biggest pressure for me. Each person has a certain type of music they like, so it’s difficult to find a common tune for everyone to enjoy. On top of that, the music from the first season was such a hit that the fans would be eagerly anticipating to see what would come in the second season. Thus we thought about ways to make some songs that would surpass what we did in the first season so people who heard it wouldn’t reject it saying “the first season’s was better.” Everyone had a lot of discussion over the ideas coming from the music production team.

– What kind of concrete thoughts did you have during the discussions?

For example, Yui sang the opening and Mio sang the ending for season 1. There was an idea to reverse that in season two for Mio to sing the opening and Yui to sing the ending. Yui is the protagonist in my mind, so I wanted her to sing the opening. That’s why the Yui concept for the opening would absolutely not change. Even if we temporarily had Mio sing the opening, there would probably be fans who would say “the first season’s opening was better.” However, if we made it an internal rule that Yui sings the openings, it would be hard to top the first season. I thought to make it a challenge, so I requested to Pony Canyon’s producer Isoyama-san “please ignore all the connections from the first season and pick the best song from a competition.” Isoyama-san was thinking the same thing, “The first season’s music was such a success, I can’t request the same composer to work on the next song.” This season’s opening songs were both by Tom-H@ck. Out of the numerous songs in our competition, we chose his songs. In short, they were marvelous songs.

K-On!’s music had a reputation starting with its opening and ending themes. In order to live up to the expectations of the fans, there was a lot of power put into the second season’s music.

– What were your impressions when you heard the finished song?

Honestly, when I first heard “Go! Go! Maniac,” my personal opinion was “is this okay?” I thought it’d be a song people would like more as they heard it more. I think the fans were also surprised, but once they heard it more and understood the composition and not just the fast tempo, they began to like it. The CD sales surpassed the first season’s, so I think a lot of people grew to like that song. If they didn’t see the opening broadcast and didn’t grow to like the song, then they wouldn’t have bought the CD.

The number 1 argument in scenario meetings was Yui’s lines.

– Which episode in season 2 was most responsive from the fans?

Episode 4’s school trip, episode 12’s Natsu Fest, the school festival from episode 18-20, and the final episode’s graduation. Episode 12’s production was a lot of work. I thought K-On! fans would not be satisfied with seeing simplistic music scenes. While the realistic atmosphere of the event and the music scenes were there, what they’d want to see most would be what the girls did. Natsu Fest is a location far from their school’s music room, so they’re not limited to how they’d act in the clubroom. We also needed to set up what types of music would play, how the weather would be and the location of Natsu Fest. Though we put a lot of explanation in there, this was a turning point for how to depict the girls and so we put a lot of effort into it.

While the staff detailed a lot about Natsu Fest to bring out the realism of the event, episode 12 was a turning point in how to depict the girls’ actions.

– The obstinate episode 3 and the school festival episodes were turning points too.

That’s right. Usually, I try to avoid abruptly inserting big events like that due to the timing, but since we had already begin inserting depictions of Yui’s classmates, then having the class perform “Romeo and Juliet” at the school festival together wouldn’t feel so abrupt. Also, the girls are now third years, so they’ve been through two school festival concerts already. How they would perform while carrying those memories of successes and failures was a point people wanted to see.

– The second extra episode where the story about how the photographs for the first season’s Blu-ray/DVD cover arts was also quite popular.

I’m happy that people were able to feel that way about it. Honestly, I was skeptical about doing that kind of episode at first. I mean, fundamentally, it’s just a joke for people who bought the Blu-ray/DVDs, right? If everyone who watched the episode had bought the discs, then it would be fine, but would people who didn’t buy them understand that joke that didn’t apply to them? Also I thought people may not like having the story behind those cover arts told. But if the audience enjoyed those portions, then it appears I worried far too much. Similarly, I too laughed during the scene when Mio failed to jump on time. (laughs)

– What is your favorite scene in K-On!!?

I really like the scene in episode 17 when the girls are in their rented studio and the light starts blinking to tell them their time is up and Yui, not knowing what it means, asks “do we dance?” No matter how many times I see it, I laugh since that line is just so unexpected. Another one is in episode 20 when Yui says “Afterschool Tea Time will always be, always be, afterschool!” At first glance, it seems meaningless, but it’s got depth to it. Yui’s saying that they’ll always be the same and won’t ever change.

Nakayama-san’s beloved Yui’s “do we dance?” scene from episode 17. Her unforeseen line was very entertaining.

– It seems Yui’s lines have left an impression on you.

Tsumugi also had a lot of entertaining lines too. At the scenario meeting, everyone kept arguing over their own impression of what Yui, as the protagonist, would say. We talked a lot over what lines seemed “Yui-ish” as everyone had their own image of her. The lines she would say tended to be cool, not very feminine, something that sounded like a high schooler would say, and foremost represented Yui herself. All of those were stressed.

The staff are eagerly accepting the challenge and making it into a movie!

– Though it’s already after the TV broadcast has ended, the tie-in goods still remain popular.

We had tie-in merchandise during the first season as well, but we increased the variations for the second season. When other anime stop broadcasting, the plans for tie-ins also stop coming. But we continued to receive a lot of various plans for merchandising once the first season stopped airing. There’s also some from the second season that haven’t been announced yet too. (laughs) I’m truly thankful for all of their help. Incidentally, my most memorable has been “Mugi-chan’s eyebrows.” The joke with her eyebrows in the manga was so entertaining, Hokkaido Tsukemono sent a request to us for merchandising. Usually, their customers tend to be older, but they thought they could spread their customer base by making that so younger people would buy tsukemonos. I thought it was a good plan. However, it’s a bit depressing since the stores couldn’t stock them. Also, speaking of not enough stock, I still haven’t been able to buy any of Lawson’s K-On! Yakisoba Sandwiches. They’re always sold out! (laughs)

– With the movie on everyone’s minds, please tell us why you decided to make a movie?

There wasn’t an assumption we’d make a movie once the second season started. Personally, I thought that the cost of making a TV anime into a movie wouldn’t be that simple, so it wouldn’t get approved. But the production side said “we want to make one” and I thought the fans would enjoy seeing one since both the manga and TV series have ended, so we decided to have a movie with everyone wanting the challenge.

– Finally please give a message to all the fans.

The world of K-On! still continues! The movie will open next year, so please bring a friend with you to see it. Also, the Blu-ray and DVDs are still coming out until March, so I think you’ll enjoy watching those too.

The “Adolescent Anime” Tackled Head-on

Interview with Tatsuya Ishihara (Director) and Naoko Yamada (Series Director)
Reporters: Yuichirou Oguro, Itsuki Shouta; Text editing: Itsuki Shouta; Interview date: August 13, 2015; Interview location: Kyoto Animation Tokyo Office

Tatsuya Ishihara
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. Following his directorial debut with AIR, he has helmed several works at the studio including The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon, Clannad, Nichijou, and Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions. His most recent work is Sound! Euphonium.

Naoko Yamada
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. After working as episode director in Clannad, she was appointed to direct K-On!. Since then, she has directed K-On!!, K-On! The Movie!, Tamako Market, and Tamako Love Story. She served as series director for Sound! Euphonium.

(This is the first of a two part interview translation from Animestyle 007. Due to its length, I decided to break it into two parts for easier reading. Here is the second part. Enjoy the first part!)

Oguro: First, I’d like to hear about how this project started. What were your thoughts when you read the novel for the first time?
Ishihara: At first I thought “Whoa, this is a lot of work.” It was a great story, but I thought the actual drawing work would be a lot of trouble. Especially the SunFest marching scene. I thought “How could we convert this to video?” as I read that part.
Oguro: So were you instated as the director and Yamada-san was series director from the start?
Ishihara: How was it? I’ve got a feeling that’s not how it went.
Yamada: More or less, we had simultaneously been asked to lead it.
Oguro: Ah, so it was simultaneously.
Ishihara: Right, right. But why was it simultaneously? Well, that tends to be one of those complex internal situations…
Yamada: What do you think happened? (laughs)
Oguro: So at first you were double-directors?
Yamada: No. We asked each other “Which of us should be the director?”
Ishihara: Ah, that’s it. I remember now. When we were asked, I thought “this would be a lot of work for one person to do.” Forgive my phrasing, but I thought a helper or someone to support would be nice. I’m sure Yamada was thinking the same thing.
Yamada: Right.
Ishihara: Did you think it’d take a lot of energy?
Yamada: Yes. The concert band theme would be a bit difficult to work with. There’s a lot of people, and each person has their own complex mental make-up, so if I didn’t run in this three-legged race with Ishihara-san, we might not be able to bear it. (laughs)
Ishihara: Right, but if we were to do this show together, we’d have to plan a bit first. (laughs)
Yamada: There was also the question of “which one of us should be director?” For me personally, I wanted to be in a position where I would be able to concentrate and put my whole effort into making the story. As a director, you have to be concerned about everything in a production and there’s a lot of jobs outside the work itself, so it would be difficult for me to dig into the nooks and crannies of the story while doing all of that.
Ishihara: Yes, but you’re also thinking “what would other directors do in this situation?” as well. Surprisingly, there’s only a few things that a TV anime director does. You work up to the storyboard check, and well, you do say “show me this cut” when each cut is completed, but that’s the limit of what you do. With that in mind, this show appeared to be one that you had to keep an eye on it to the farthest nook….wouldn’t you say?
Yamada: That’d be right. This work would have a lot of parts that you wouldn’t be able to help with if you were just a director.
Ishihara: You wouldn’t be able to go into details as much either.
Yamada: Right. So I talked to Ishihara-san and the producers and was given the role of series director for the show.
Oguro: Fundamentally, how did you divide the work?
Ishihara: Yamada would look at the various detailed points.
Yamada: As I looked over the entire series progression as a whole, I’d work on the subtleties of each character’s emotions and made sure that progressed logically so to speak. While I was working on that, I gradually understood the role of series director.
Oguro: Did you two participate in the scenario meetings?
Yamada: Yes.
Ishihara: We did. But Yamada would check the storyboards before I did. I’d look at them after she did. It was that kind of split. Also, we first said that I would go to the voice recording and Yamada would stay at Kyoto and check the layouts and such. (laughs)
Yamada: (laughs)
Ishihara: Eventually she came to the recordings too.
Yamada: That’s right.
Ishihara: In the end, we said that the series director also needed to check the recording and dubbing in detail as well.
Yamada: It was a happy mistake. (laughs) Also, I made sure that I didn’t go into too much detail.
Oguro: Go into too much detail?
Yamada: So that the bigger points weren’t lost kinda thing.
Ishihara: It’s important to take a bigger look at things too. (laughs)
Yamada: Surprisingly, I could really see that. (laughs)
Ishihara: No, no. (laughs) You could already do that.
Yamada: Right. (laughs) As I would check over the details, I made sure to keep the big story in mind. If you look at the division, Ishihara-san would be the conductor waving the baton around.
Ishihara: I’m instructing “do it like this.”
Yamada: Yep.
Ishihara: And if things go bad, I throw a tantrum. (laughs)
Yamada: (laughs)

Kumiko at the beginning of the first episode and Hazuki in the classroom in that same episode. Though the latter seems like a nonchalant cut, the background has a bokeh inserted.

Oguro: Were there lots of parts that you left up to each episode’s director as well?
Ishihara: Yes. KyoAni’s line, or rather it should be our company’s stance on that is like that. For our works, the director decides big things like “we’ll do it this kind of way” or “we’ll use these types of colors” and then the rest is left to each episode director. And then we thoroughly check as well to make sure nothing goes way off track.
Yamada: That also goes for our photography techniques too. Of course sometimes there’s times where the storyboarder wants to do a scene differently too. For example, if I want to add “lens like this” during storyboard checking, and if that technique doesn’t agree with the person who drew the storyboards, then essentially we made a sword that won’t cut.
Oguro: So if, while you’re checking the storyboards, you add a photography technique that doesn’t match what the episode director drew, it becomes something flamboyant instead, right?
Yamada: That’s right. That’s why we don’t add something that would disrupt the meaning of what the storyboards were to convey. Each episode director has through about how best to attach meaning to each scene while they were working on the storyboards. That’s why we have episodes that don’t have many effects as well. Perhaps it might be better to say that each director has their own way of showing things.
Oguro: I understand. Then, do you take for granted that the imagery would be inflexible?
Ishihara: We decided that for Sound! Euphonium.
Yamada: Right. We talked with the director of photography about what kind of image to make. Our director of photography is great at making pseudo-lenses, so this production had a high synchro rate.
Ishihara: Yep, (Kazuya) Takao-kun’s senses are awfully good.
Yamada: I think so. He added more ways to express than we’ve used before.

Lenses and “a world with shallow depth of field”

Ogura: Sound! Euphonium has quite the unique imagery. While the foundation is “making screens that are aware of the lens” you could furthermore say it’s “a world with a shallow depth of field.” There’s a lot of cuts that probably wouldn’t have a more modern camera; instead there’s a dense, rich flavor like older cameras have. I thought “Ah, so TV anime could go this far now…” when looking at the through processing. Why did you decide to go with that kind of imagery?
Ishihara: It’s true. Well, more or less all of our previous works have had these to an extent. To begin with, the digital cameras and the video that’s shown on TV are too pretty. At least I think it’s too pretty; I wonder if perhaps it’s actually “not real” at all. The resolution has become so high that you’re looking at a world that’s clearer than what we live everyday.
Oguro: In short, it’s too clear?
Ishihara: Right. I think it’s too clear. So instead, I wanted to limit the screen so that you get the impression of people that we see or the scenery we remember. In order to do that, we added bokeh to the surroundings, and used older lenses in photography to get that screen. I think that’s more realistic. For example, while younger people have adapted to the digital cameras or toy cameras, a few years ago film cameras like the Russian LOMO were popular. I thought using bokeh like those pictures had would add a realistic and cool feeling.
In particular with this work, I wanted to go in a realistic direction. Since I wanted it to be a real high school drama, I felt that we should create imagery that thoroughly felt that same kind of realism.
Oguro: So was that planned from the very early stages of development?
Ishihara: It was planned from the beginning. “We want to do this (in Euphonium).” In our past works, we’ve instructed “BG should be bokeh”, but for this time, we said “use a dirty bokeh.” Recent digital cameras and reflexive cameras can produce a bokeh, so lenses have become better used. We can even use those different types of bokeh, like the newer ones similar to the “two line bokeh” that you couldn’t use in older cameras, in our photography. I requested to use those types of lenses. Also I’m sure we somewhat degraded the intensity of the surrounding areas too.
Yamada: That’s right. When we degraded the intensity, we also inserted chromatic aberrations.
Now that I think about it, Ishihara-san and I have similar lens awareness… or, sorry to sound so grandiose, but our desires when creating imagery aren’t that far apart. But recently, I’ve noticed that our way of using screens is different.
Ishihara: Oh? How so? (laughs)
Yamada: Ishihara-san wants to make something visually stylish.
Ishihara: Stylish? Me?
Yamada: Yep, it feels like you want to use things stylishly.
Ishihara: No, I don’t think they’re stylish at all.
Yamada: They’re really cool.

Aoi Saitou in episode 2. The revival of the two line bokeh may have appeared from the very beginning of this work.

Ishihara: Doesn’t it feel like I’m more “boheh” in my use of cameras?
Yamada: That might be so, but I understand it as a way of showing things in a more “cool” way. From the viewer standpoint, it’s awfully cool.
Ishihara: Is that so?
Yamada: Yes. And for me, I don’t try to attach that coolness. Instead, I find a more roundness like an afternoon nap type of feeling to be better…perhaps I don’t know how to say it. (laughs) That’s the feeling that it produces.
Ishihara: Ah. This may be a simple way that I understood it, but it’s like how I like wide-angle lenses and you like telephoto lenses?
Yamada: I love telephoto lenses.
Ishihara: Well, I guess there are some kinds of differences like that.
Yamada: Also, I really love lenses like the kind of bottom of a milk jug.
Ishihara: But I don’t dislike those?
Yamada: That’s right…. Well, even though our likes are similar, our directorial approaches are different.
Oguro: Fundamentally how?
Yamada: Well….. Ishihara-san is kinda…. Cool.
Ishihara: In what way? (laughs)
Yamada: (laughs)
Oguro: (laughs) The story’s come full circle!
Ishihara: I don’t think my own style is very cool. I use a lot of wide angles and place my cameras a bit carelessly.
Yamada: But those wide angles are definitely cool.
Ishihara: Is that so? Maybe they become cool at a distance.
Yamada: Looking at a distance is cool!
All: (laughs)
Yamada: But either way, it becomes something that subconsciously entertains the viewer.
Oguro: By “subconsciously entertains” you mean something the viewer can feel that they can’t put into words?
Yamada: That’s right…. perhaps it may be something to express the amount of energy that the scenario has. Words, visuals, and sound….when a viewer experiences the amount of information that all of them combined has, their feelings may sway. How should I say it? It’s like “if you trigger a small wave here, it’ll become a big wave!”
Ishihara: I have no idea what you mean. (laughs)
Yamada: What?! (laughs) Sorry, I can’t put it into words. (laughs)
Oguro: No, no, we understand. In episode 1, after the girls finish inspecting the concert band and they’re on their way home, the photography stiffens and stiffens. In the storyboards, there’s instructions to “shrink the depth of field.”
Yamada: That’s right. The scene by the sakura trees on the morning of the entrance ceremony was like that too. A bit printish, and furthermore a filthy lens was attached to make that visual.
Oguro: It looks like a feminine camera, doesn’t it?
Yamada: A feminine camera?
Ishihara: Ah, you mean the camera that girls use now.
Yamada: I get it.
Ishihara: I used that as reference too. When I say “make it like this” and show a reference. It’s like an image from a toy camera or one of the more recent stylish cameras.
Yamada: Ishihara-san has a lot of reference books.
Ishihara: Ah, well I do. I don’t dislike photography.
Yamada: Also, relating to visuals, Shuuji Terayama was interesting like with his “Experimental Image (World)” and “Death in the Country.”
Oguro: Don’t they feel radical?
Yamada: Yes. Those were the films of the 1970s. Also, I was charmed by the miraculous world view of the Russian film “The Colour of Pomegranates.”
Ishihara: In comparison, I like American films of the 1970s, so perhaps I may use that imagery.
Oguro: So to say it, you to pattern your imagery from live action films of the past?
Ishihara: Yes.
Yamada: Yes.
Oguro: I wonder if that specifically comes out strongly in Euphonium.
Ishihara: Well, it’s that kind of thing right? I don’t have that kind of sense though. Well, perhaps that’s the difference between a director and series director.

Before/After of Sound! Euphonium’s photography: The top are the raw materials before the photography effects are added. The bottom is the complete image with them added. Light is added, the background becomes blurred, and it reflects the twilight atmosphere. A sense of realism is added and the characters’ emotions are more strongly brought out.

The significance of hand-tracing a 3D model

Ishihara: For this work, the “female point of view” from our women directors was immensely strong.
Oguro: Was that in the visual aspect? Or perhaps in the dramatic aspect?
Ishihara: The visual aspect. There’s lots of things that we call “manly” or “feminine” that women dislike, but women are better at character relationships and how to treat characters’ mental states. At least the impression that they’re more fixated on it exists. Men would put more effort into cool camera work but I get the feeling that women would treat the character connections and relationships as more important. So it’s there that we could rely on them.
Oguro: So in dedicating how to frame the characters and how to compose the image as a whole, right?
Ishihara: Those kinds of things. And also we relied on them when it came to rotating around dialogue too. Our sound director also relied on Yamada too. During our recording sessions, Yamada would read the script and be asked “does this sound adolescent to you?” She would change the dialogue at those parts that didn’t sound like something a high school girl would say. Our sound director was fixated on “high school girl reality” this time, but well, to make it short, “I’m not sure high school girls would sound that logical.” (laughs) At the scenario stage, we wrote lines that would go in logical order, but high school girls wouldn’t have the entire conversation be that thoughtout, would they? There’d be some parts where a logical connection wouldn’t exist in the entire conversation. And so we consulted Yamada for the “does this part feel that way?” portions.
The easiest example I can give would be episode 9. Hazuki, who had just been rejected, is talking with Kumiko on the train and their conversation has logically progressing dialogue, but there’s some strange portions when it’s written down. I also thought “Huh? Is this alright?” when I read it; like in the part where Hazuki goes “Sorry for inviting Shuichi”, “You don’t have to say that” “I do.” I thought it was really odd, but it probably ties together the whole conversation.
Oguro: So Yamada-san would be the judge for those kinds of exchanges?
Yamada: I wouldn’t put it as cool as that…. But that reminds me, she mildly rebuked Hazuki there. (laughs)
Oguro: Please tell me how she rebuked her.
Yamada: (laughs) Ishihara-san has talked with me about “nonsensical conversations” since K-On!. But I had some worries over how the kind of nonsensical, wandering conversations that high school girls have would be received by the audience, so I thought to have some mild rebukes in there. (laughs)
Oguro: I see.
Yamada: Even if the information that you want to put in is present, that doesn’t mean that you can create a conversation that doesn’t go according to reason. I made sure to make these conversations have a certain reasoning to them even if they didn’t proceed logically….
Ishihara: Right, right, that kind of thing.
Yamada: Hey! (laughs)
Ishihara: I didn’t think they fit properly.
Yamada: Oh… So my planning was like accessories for them. (laughs)

The instrument designs that Hiroyuki Takahashi designed for Kumiko’s euphonium and Reina’s trumpet. Kumiko puts a quarter-folded towel between the euphonium and her leg.

Oguro: Yamada-san, you mentioned earlier about “depictions that were better than you’ve done before.” Could you give an example of that?
Yamada: It’s those kinds of technical portions like “use a dirty bokeh” or “use something telephoto-ish” that were better depicted than before.
Ishihara: Camera shaking is useless unless you research it more though.
Yamada: I’ve gotten better at that!
Ishihara: Ah, is that so?
Oguro: Camera shaking, it’s like when someone is physically shaking the camera, right?
Ishihara: Right. It’s surprisingly difficult.
Yamada: I’ve used it before, but I think it turned out much better this time.
Oguro: What plans did you have to present something with camera shaking?
Yamada: It was linking the viewer with the emotional shakes the characters were showing……
Oguro: Ah, so it was showing their emotional state moving?
Ishihara: For me, rather than show emotional movement or a sense or realism, I wanted to have the viewer feel like their ability to see that person was really being shaken.
Yamada: That’s right. There’s a lot of layers that are added onto one depiction, so it’s really difficult to summarize it into one description.
Oguro: It wasn’t just camera shaking; there were other techniques that you used and other lenses added that made it clearly feel like “this is a camera that someone’s recording video on.” In short, it’s not that “the viewer is being sucked into the world of the anime”, it’s “there’s a cameraman filming inside the anime world.” Wasn’t there a sense of danger that the viewers wouldn’t be able to emphasize with the characters if you strengthened that objective point of view?
Ishihara: Well, I could see that. Well, we instruct that it should be entertaining. There’s a lot of times where I used camera shaking to reflect Kumiko’s point of view.
Yamada: I got a feeling maybe it was to improve her presence or maybe to feel more realistic. I wanted to use these pseudo-lenses to create a “Ah, this girl could really live here” feeling.
Ishihara: I mentioned it a bit ago, but I love imagery where it looks like people could really live there, so inserting camera shaking is a link to that. But of course people don’t look at the scenery around them with a variety of lenses, so there’s not a lot of need to use filters. In short, though we’re wanting to simulate that with cameras and lenses when making imagery, it’s possible to say that we’re separating it from how people see it. That’s why I think I might change my way of thinking henceforth. But I couldn’t help thinking about that when making imagery for this work.
Also, I love photography and cameras, so of course I’ve been influenced by films. I’ve referenced camera work in films when playing around with depths of field..

The instrument designs that Hiroyuki Takahashi designed for Hazuki’s tuba and Sapphire’s contrabass. Sapphire’s contrabass designs also have details for the bow and how it’s held.

Yamada: We were immensely pleased with the types of lens flavors and such, but there may be people who didn’t like that way of expressing the story. Perhaps it’s a problem if we suddenly blur the screen…. There may be a possibility that we had a photography mistake when we were re-doing portions as well.
Oguro: That would be during production?
Yamada: Right. We were re-doing a lot during our rush checks. (laughs)
Oguro: So you think there might be people who would say “why’d you blur the background so much? Please show it clearly!”?
Yamada: Yep. I think there are people like that.
Ishihara: There’s some around here too. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t mean it’s not alright as is. (bitter laugh)
I’ve asked about this before, but recently I’ve started getting a lot of mess in my eye lenses as I’ve gotten older, so I thought that perhaps it’d be interesting if I reproduced them in photography. (laughs)
Yamada: Ooooh…. (laughs)
Ishihara: Maybe it’ll be interesting if those kinds of scenes were done from a geezer’s point of view.
Yamada: A geezer’s point of view!!!! I feel emotionally moved. (laughs)
Oguro: Ah, so even though children and adults see the same thing, their way of seeing it may be different, right?
Ishihara: They’re likely seeing it differently.
Yamada: Definitely.
Ishihara: Also, as the lens of the eye gets muddy as you get older, the color saturation of things you see may change slightly.
Yamada: I’ve heard about people seeing completely different blacks and such.
Ishihara: That’s why there’s rumors about why people who’re old start wearing such flashy clothing.
Yamada: Oh, that’s why.
Oguro: Returning back to the depth of field topic, the expressed things when you pan the focus when the depth of field is very small from the inside outward helps to differentiate them. I feel like this kind of imagery is oriented towards a “making adolescent objects feel real” manner.
Yamada: That’s right. Adolescence is very short sighted. It feels like their pupils have little room.
Ishihara: It’s that “this feels like something you can only see now” sensation. When our subjects need to be highlighted, we’ll reduce the depth of field so that only they are in focus. But since we have a lot of characters in this show, there’s times where we can’t fit them in one frame and thus have to inevitably use a pan-focus. Generally, these are performance scenes in the music room.
Yamada: There’s a certain mood inside images with pan focus too. You move from this side to the other side through the entire piece where you can’t see everything at once.
Ishihara: For scenes in the music room, we certainly wanted to show the entirety of the room, so it was necessary for us to mimic knocking out a wall and placing a camera there and using a wide-angle lens. We’ve recently designed 3D models of classrooms in our works, so that was very helpful. We were able to simulate things like “if we use a lens here, we’ll be able to show everything like this.”

When will Reina become the girl we see in the ending? There’s a cut in the ending where Reina is seen smiling. It’s an soft expression not seen in the show. For the answer to that question, stay tuned in the interview! The opening was directed/storyboarded by director Ishihara and the ending was done by Naoko Yamada.

Oguro: How much did you use 3D layouts this time around?
Ishihara: We used them frequently. We constructed the music room, the classroom, and the room they use to practice all in 3D.
Yamada: And the hall too. We also used it during the re-audition in episode 11.
Ishihara: Ah, we made the hall too. That was somewhat photographed against our wishes.
Oguro: Were the desks in the classroom 3D as well?
Ishihara: They were 3D, yes.
Oguro: So that doesn’t mean that you traced the 3D model desks from above, right?
Ishihara: They were traced. We would make a general rule of doing that, am I right?
Yamada:….. Actually, we did it both ways.
Ishihara: Ah, is that so?
Oguro: During the scenes when the band is practicing, you have some shots from behind the conductor where everyone is in frame. For those kinds of cuts, did you use 3D for the characters too?
Yamada: Yes. For that reason, we made 3D models of all the band members too. And their music stands too.
Oguro: The cuts where the stands are standing is immensely dense. I looked on with admiration of them. I imagine they’d be impossible to do hand-drawn.
Yamada: But they were hand-drawn in episode 1.
Oguro: Is that so?!
Yamada: It is. (laughs) At first, we were going to draw them like usual, but gradually everyone started to have so many questions. “Um, is it bad if I draw it like this? The layered portions are very, very difficult.” (laughs) It felt like “of course they would ask about that.”
All: (laughs)
Yamada: When you ask “is there meaning to it being drawn this way,” there is a certain meaning. While I say that, it became too immense for our resources so it became something we made with 3D.
Ishihara: So though we made all the stands, we also had some points where there were variations in the stands as well. Each one had different parts. Some would stand straight and level, some would be slightly to the right.
Oguro: Was that done so each person would have their own one?
Yamada: It was.
Ishihara: It’d be too complex if we said “this one here this time and this one here that time,” so we decided “this person will have this one here.” Also each person had their own water bottles too. (laughs)
Oguro: Water bottles?
Ishihara: You have to keep your mouth moist during performances, so each person would keep a bottle underneath them while playing. So we made each person’s bottles individually. Ah, also the towels. Where would we put the towels?
Yamada: Right, like some would put them around their shoulders.
Ishihara: When you blow on an instrument, you have saliva, or steam, regardless, water gets onto the instrument, so everyone has a towel nearby. There’s variants like some put them in their laps and the percussion group wears them around their necks.
Oguro: So once you decide those kinds of things, they stood the same for each character throughout the series? For example, would a character wear their towel around their neck the entire time?
Ishihara: It doesn’t matter if there’s some differences inside a cut, but we decided “fundamentally, they would wear it like this” for each.
Oguro: That’s an incredibly detailed design process.
Ishihara: It’s huge or rather…..
Yamada: More or less drawn once.
Ishihara: During the images when they’re in their ensemble, there’s various objects there filled in like “This person has this bottle.”
Oguro: Ah, I get it, I get it.
Yamada: Those were created by the setting managers.

The members in the first row and Taki were hand-drawn. The members from the second row back were 3DCG.

As mentioned above, this is the first of a two part interview translation. The concluding part is here.

The “Adolescent Anime” Tackled Head-on

Interview with Tatsuya Ishihara (Director) and Naoko Yamada (Series Director)
Reporters: Yuichirou Oguro, Itsuki Shouta; Text editing: Itsuki Shouta; Interview date: August 13, 2015; Interview location: Kyoto Animation Tokyo Office

Tatsuya Ishihara
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. Following his directorial debut with AIR, he has helmed several works at the studio including The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon, Clannad, Nichijou, and Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions. His most recent work is Sound! Euphonium.

Naoko Yamada
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. After working as episode director in Clannad, she was appointed to direct K-On!. Since then, she has directed K-On!!, K-On! The Movie!, Tamako Market, and Tamako Love Story. She served as series director for Sound! Euphonium.

(This is the second of a two part interview translation from Animestyle 007. Due to its length, I decided to break it into two parts for easier reading. Here is the first part. This one is about twice as long as the first, but I couldn’t break up this first section and end on a cliffhanger. Enjoy the rest!)

Kumiko and Reina’s Overflowed Emotions

Oguro: How about the scene in episode 12 where Kumiko is running and saying “I want to improve!”? I thought the finished product was spectacular, but not just the way it was put together; I was surprised that a scene with that much energy put into it was made right before the final episode.
Ishihara: Honestly, I overlooked it when I was checking the storyboards.
Yamada: What?!
Oguro: Ha ha ha. (laughs)
Ishihara: I didn’t notice that there was “CG backgrounds” written on them, so when I saw it for the first time at the photography stage, I was surprised. “Whoa, the background is moving!”
Yamada: The photographers also have fun adding a little show-off portion while working, but it felt like they were really enjoying working on that one.
Oguro: I knew that the final episode would have a lot of difficult parts, so I thought there must be a lot of endurance at the studio. Perhaps the schedule had been planned to allow for some surplus here from the beginning. (laughs)
Yamada: No, that was just Ichirou Miyoshi-san running alone by himself. (laughs)
Oguro: That doesn’t mean it wasn’t planned beforehand. Were Ichirou Miyoshi-san’s storyboards saying “the background should move?”
Yamada: They were. Miyoshi-san said “there’s no other choice but to run here.” I was drawing the storyboards for the finale at that time, but I thought and wanted the finale to be flavored with the most spectacular cool feeling. And yet here were these amazingly finished storyboards….. I thought Miyoshi-senpai wanted to use his entire strength to crush his juniors.
All: (laughs)
Ishihara: Perhaps Miyoshi-san just thought “well, only this cut will have moving backgrounds.” But besides that scene, his control of light in episode 12 was amazing.
Yamada: It was amazing like when the summer light is reflecting when Kumiko is practicing or off the top of the bridge when she’s running. Even the ones in the shadows are also amazing. He’s able to make you easily empathize with the work.
Ishihara: For anime directors, this kind of work is the easiest to understand.
Oguro: Because you’re depicting points with that “straightforward” sensation?
Yamada: Right. That kind of “It’s okay to not be bashful, it’s fine to do it straightforwardly” mood is very pleasant to work with.
Oguro: When you mention the reflecting summer light, you mean the scene when Reina appears as Kumiko is practicing?
Yamada: Right, that amazing guy. I was startled when I saw the retake of that scene. I felt uneasy for a moment as I thought if, by some chance, this work became a movie, we’d have to go above that quality of work.
Ishihara: If it does, then we’d have to exceed that quality. (laughs)
Oguro: Then, the density of episode 12 would be due to the power of its director, Miyoshi-san.
Yamada: Right. I feel like Miyoshi-san still keeps a secret hidden jewel somewhere.
Ishihara: He never weakens. His strength is still there.
Oguro: Speaking of episode 12, the cut where Yuuko chases after Natsuki is a cool cut. It became popular among the fans too. The number of gags feels like they decreased abruptly in the series.
Ishihara: Ah, that lovely girl.
Yamada: Actually, I wanted to have more of an octopus leg feeling for that cut.
Ishihara: Right, in the storyboards at the cut where Natsuki goes around Yuuko, we added more legs to where she felt like a monster. Of course people said “please stop it.” But it was okay as it related to the work.
Oguro: So with Euphonium, it felt like there was a line that you crossed to make it feel like an older gag manga with the expressions.
Ishihara: Right. This show didn’t have the signs and emotive symbols though.
Oguro: There were gag expressions occasionally at the start, but gradually they were reduced.
Ishihara: The first half was made slightly easier for the late night anime audience to watch it. Of course, the subject matter gradually became more realistic, so we wanted the imagery to go that way too.
Yamada: The scenario also flowed that way. Once we crossed episode 8, we needed some weaponry. We had no choice but to depict it straightforwardly, but furthermore, that was the best way to make it entertaining. Up until now, we thought that everyone could enjoy the musical introduction portion, but it felt like the concert ensemble formation part’s hurdle could feel a bit too high. It did have a somewhat sweet feeling to it, but the latter part was separated to be a bit more bloodthirsty. (laughs)
Oguro: Bloodthirsty. (laughs)
Yamada: Perhaps it’s more passionate.
Oguro: From episode 8 onwards?
Ishihara: Maybe from the middle of episode 7. Episode 7 is a bit of a heavy episode…..
Yamada: Episode 8 is a bit of a lethal weapon.
Oguro: You could call the story that.
Yamada: Yep, I think so.
Oguro: I thought that a different anime had just started.
Yamada: (laughs)
Ishihara: Was that the only episode without a performance? Ah, was there one?
Yamada: There was!
Ishihara: Well, but the B-part was just about the mountain climbing and the festival, right?
Yamada: No, no, no, no, there was a performance. Just because you don’t mention it doesn’t mean there wasn’t one. (laughs)

Oguro: I’ll ask something basic. Why did episode 8 have so many scene cuts such that the usual ending was pushed out of the episode?
Yamada:……. Because it was flooded with the girls’ emotions.
Oguro: And so Yamada-san’s emotions for the girls also became flooded. (laughs)
Ishihara: Yes, the length was extended, but the outline was just as you would imagine.
Oguro: I have a feeling I’d understand.
Ishihara: Lots of episodes have necessary cuts, but episode 8 in particular had a lot of them in it. Kumiko and Reina’s mountain climb couldn’t go forward if we snip-snipped the cuts; it’d be worthless if we abridged it too much. Essentially, we don’t like to cut off the endings in our works, but for that episode alone we requested to do so to the producers.
Yamada: For that episode, we had to depict Kumiko and Reina’s feelings as very important, but Hazuki’s broken heart needed depicting as well. We had to properly show both portions; it’d be useless to just have a digest of what happened. If we over-did Hazuki’s story, then Kumiko and Reina’s tale may be seen as something careless. In short, if we screwed up, the viewer would think “this girl just got her heart broken. What are those two girls doing?” It was a dangerous episode, so we had to continually stack each emotion as important. By all means, the length continues to swell up. There were an awful lot of cuts compared to episodes too.
Ishihara: The length was an issue more than the amount of cuts.
Yamada: Right, but episode 8 finished so quickly that we said “I didn’t get why (the length) was an issue.”
Oguro: I thought generally you just check the length of the story when checking the storyboards, but you can also insert things to length it too.
Ishihara: I checked them after Yamada checked them, so I felt the length extended a lot. So I’ll say it’s all Yamada’s fault. (laughs)
Yamada: (laughs)
Ishihara: However, episode 8 finished nicely, so that’s thanks to Yamada.
Yamada: It’s thanks to Mt. Daikichi….. Our storyboard checks would go like this: I’d check them and then Ishihara-san would check after me. Since I wanted episode 8 to be such an important episode, I forcibly pushed episode 9, done at the same time, to him first. (laughs)
Oguro: (laughs)
Ishihara: I was anxious over the length of episode 8. I kept thinking “what will we do if we need to remove something?” all the way to the cutting stage.
Yamada: I frequently asked how the producers’ faces looked about that. (laughs)
Oguro: Reina’s finger touching Kumiko’s lips had a lot of impact too. Whose idea was that?
Ishihara: (silently points towards Yamada-san)
Yamada: Sorry for bringing out that seductive atmosphere between Kumiko and Reina. (laughs)
Oguro: Ha ha ha ha ha! (laughs)
Yamada: That kind of late night sensation came during work on the storyboards. I very much enjoyed that “writing a love letter” feeling it had. Kumiko gradually appeared to look like a young boy during the mountain scenes. I thought “giving the feeling of a young boy falling in love one summer” would be nice. It’d be a “first” for Kumiko.
Oguro: Like a first kiss?
Yamada: I don’t know how to say it. Like a first experience.
Oguro: I see. (laughs)
Ishihara: But here is another difference between men and women. Do you think a man could have drawn that storyboard?
Oguro: No, it’d be impossible.
Ishihara: Right? (laughs) I feel like if a man drew it, it’d be more lewd.
Oguro: Right, right. Somehow, it felt like I was seeing a real yuri work for the first time.
Ishihara: It does look like that. Well, from our point of view. (laughs)
Yamada: I get it. But I think it shows how there’s no uncomfortable feeling between Reina’s emotions and Kumko’s emotions in their relationship.
Ishihara: There is none.
Oguro: Right, no uncomfortableness at all.
Yamada: (laughs)
Oguro: When I saw episode 8, I thought “So this is what a yuri work would be.” It’s a different yuri than what men fantasize.
Ishihara: Yes, yes, that’s right.
Oguro: I’m not that familiar with yuri manga as well, but this wasn’t the soft fluff that they feel like; this was a work staged in the real world much like a manga for older women. That temperature also felt realistic.
Ishihara: That’s right. But it’s an example of how Yamada can go overboard occasionally.
Yamada: What?! (laughs)
Ishihara: I thought so in Tamako Market. It was awfully realistic.
Oguro: What, is that true?
Ishihara: She’s awfully serious when it comes to depicting yuri.
Oguro: But you don’t think of it as yuri, Yamada-san?
Yamada: That’s right.
Oguro: I thought there was also some yuri in Tamako Market.
Yamada: Ah, that’s right. Surely you mean about Midori.
Oguro: That’s right.
Ishihara: I agree. That’s somewhat serious too. (laughs)
Yamada: Is it?
Ishihara: Well, that doesn’t go to where men want yuri to be.
Oguro: (interrupting Ishihara) No, no, if Yamada-san doesn’t think it’s yuri, then it’s not!
Ishihara: (continuing on) What men want is a bit more giggly chuckly…..
Yamada: (interrupting both Ishihara/Oguro) Calm yourselves down! (laughs)
Oguro: Sorry. I got a bit excited.
All: (laughs)
Yamada: Okay. So I’ll say it clearly: I don’t think that’s depicted as yuri. I wanted to depict adolescence.
Oguro: For which case?
Yamada: Probably for all of them. For Tamako, for Reina, for all of it. I wanted to depict adolescence!
Oguro: Did you want to depict the feelings during that time.
Yamada: Yes, I wanted to depict those feelings. I have an interest in those points of view.
Oguro: Continuing on episode 8, when Reina sits down on top of the mountain, her skirt gets lifted, doesn’t it? That was also magnificent.
Yamada: It was, wasn’t it? The storyboards had “her skirt won’t stay still until the very end” written, but it felt like it became “ba ba ba booosh.” I was surprised. “Amazing! It’s expressed like this too!” It was more of a “swoosh” feeling than I imagined.
Oguro: The skirt was so long that it became groundbreaking. It was the first time I saw something like that in anime.

Yamada: It was nice……. So while Kumiko was entranced with Reina, Hazuki had felt some bitterness.
Oguro: I understand. So you balanced it out. After that mountain event, Kumiko gets somewhat pulled too much near Reina doesn’t she? Or should she be pulled too much to her?
Yamada: It was nice that she was pulled too much, right! (laughs)
Ishihara: Right, that was our plan.
Yamada: Right. Experiencing something like that dream…. It’s an experience that makes you think “I’d be alright with dying today.” It’s something that stays in your heart. Kumiko is that kind of susceptible girl too.
Oguro: So after that, though the story between Kumiko and Reina is the core of the story, there wasn’t a depiction where Kumiko is only thinking about Reina.
Yamada: But, perhaps Kumiko is only thinking about Reina. To begin with, Kumiko is traumatized by the event where Reina is crying in middle school, so she’s always kept Reina’s presence in her heart. And then that Reina abruptly came close to her….. Yeah, it’s amazing. So amazing. So much that I can’t express it. (laughs)
Oguro: I’d like to ask something relating to the setting. They went to the festival by chance, but it seems like Reina was also thinking about Kumiko up to that point.
Yamada: Yep, she was thinking about her.
Ishihara: That she was.
Oguro: So Kumiko wasn’t aware of how Reina felt?
Yamada: Kumiko…..is a bit awkward, so that’s how it went.
Oguro: That’s true.
Yamada: Kumiko thinks that Reina dislikes her. So she wants to keep her distances, but she’s awfully curious about her. That’s how it goes. Kumiko isn’t the type to suddenly make a move herself, so she waits for the other person to do something. Conversely, Reina is very, very aware of Kumiko.
Ishihara: Yes, she is. Though that depiction wasn’t inserted much, it was more or less from the novel. We added a few scenes like the walking-home scene in episode 5.
Oguro: I see. With that timing, I’ll ask something unrelated. Is the image of Reina in the ending after the final episode?
Yamada: Ah! That! It would seem so…. Yep, I think so. (laughs)
All: (laughs)
Ishihara: I think so. But that ending supposes that those two get closer.
Yamada: Yep, it does. Therefore, strictly speaking……..it became something to note after episode 8.
Oguro: After episode 8 huh? It’s not yuri, but they’re tied together with a red string so…
Yamada: So they’re tied. (laughs)
Oguro: When you drew them, you felt they’d understand as the story progressed.
Yamada: Of course. Since it’s something you don’t see in the first half, it might appear to be something suggestive in the ending with no real meaning.
Oguro: Did you possibly think that it could be seen as yuri and playing to the viewers with no relationship to the main story?
Yamada: I thought it might, but I felt “Well, that’s okay. They’ll understand later.” (laughs)
Oguro: I see. So you felt that understanding “she smiles like this after episode 8” would be right?
Yamada: I thought it was fine. (laughs) Reina’s smile is cute. She’s just an ordinary girl.
Ishihara: No, I think she’s an amazing girl who’s greater than ordinary.
Yamada: It’s a bit different to me. She’s like Kyouko Fukada.
Oguro: What?! Kyouko Fukada?! (laughs)
Yamada: Yes, Reina has that “Kyouko Fukada” sense.
Oguro: Is that your image too, director Ishihara?
Ishihara: No, I didn’t think of her like that. (laughs)
Yamada: When I talked with (Shouko) Ikeda-san about her character, I said “I think she’s Kyouko Fukada.”
Ishihara: Was that meant to be similar to a role she played? Or possibly….
Yamada: She’s a character who holds the personality Kyouko Fukada has.
Ishihara: Is that so?
Yamada: She’s devilish or rather…. She holds people near to her captive….. I’ve not met her myself, so I might be completely wrong.
Oguro: What?!
All: (laughs)
Oguro: So is that Reina’s story? (laughs)
Yamada: That’s Reina’s story. (laughs) Reina is very artistic; she lives very honestly. It’s truly charming. She’s not very logical; she happens upon a lot of things by chance.
Oguro: Yes.
Yamada: That’s why she says things abruptly like “I like Taki-sensei.” It’s very illogical, but her feelings are very strong. Thus she’s charming. She’s the number one person who you moved around.
Oguro: Who did you want most to move Yamada-san?
Yamada: Kumiko! (laughs)
All: (laughs)
Yamada: Reina is devlish or rather, she’s so cool in that she lives honestly with her feelings. If she likes you, it’s a bit rough, right?
Ishihara: It is a bit rough, but it’s very unsuited.
Yamada: Right. It feels like it’ll always be unrequited.
Ishihara: It probably would be as bad if it wasn’t Taki-sensei. I think she ought to go after someone her own age.
Oguro/Yamada: Ah~.
Ishihara: I think it’s bad if you don’t hold on strongly.

Oguro: What color most strongly does the character of Asuka-senpai reflect for you two?
Ishihara: Hmm, what do you mean?
Oguro: I thought your sense of coloring was very strong, Ishihara-san.
Ishihara: Ah, somewhat. When making something, I more or less project the character how I think they themselves are. Now that I say that, I think Asuka may be like that.
Yamada: I understand what you mean. I see Asuka as being a very interesting person. I thought things like “So there’s this kind of person too…”
Ishihara: Right. She’s the type that you can’t project and can’t depict….. hmm, I say that, but that’s not quite how I meant. She’s a “is there and will save you character.” She’s the character who wants to say things, so she will to make the story advance. If I have to choose, that’s Asuka.
Yamada: That’s right. I paid attention to her since, as Ishihara-san said, he couldn’t see her. (laughs) Asuka is as Asuka will be.
Ishihara: Yeah. Well, Of course it’s not as simple as “Asuka=herself.” However, I think the best person you could say about that would be Asuka to me.
Yamada: Asuka appeared in some points as a “honest pervert.” So she’s someone with a communication impairment…..
Ishihara: Asuka? Ah, well I can see how that meaning could apply to hr. You mean the points where she’s making fun of things and joking around as not being able to communicate?
Yamada: That’s what I meant.
Oguro: It certainly feels like she’s keeping others at a distance. Like when everyone shouts “Kita High, Fight!” “Yeah!” she’s the only person who doesn’t participate.
Ishihara: Yes, she surprisingly keeps a distance. That’s due to complications with her family life though. Well, that’s just background information.
Yamada: At first I thought she might be the kind of girl who has a broad mindset like a girl who returned from overseas and is able to see more than just two cultures. But actually, she’s the opposite: a childish-acting girl.
Ishihara: This might be background information, but well, it’s written in the novel, so those who haven’t read may not know about it. I think she has a fixation about her father.
Yamada: I can see that.
Ishihara: I find her psychologically wanting to oppose her father is very interesting but Asuka is the stereotypical father-complex girl. Granted, saying “typical” may be an exaggeration.

Asuka Tanaka is the concert band’s vice president. She’s also the leader of the bass section.

Nonchalant cuts were troubling

Oguro: Let’s return back to the camera bokeh topic. Weren’t there a lot of cuts where you’d have like two characters conversing with one in the foreground and one in the background and you start off with the character in the foreground talking and they’re in-focus, but then you switch focus to the other character when they talk, and then switch focus again to the foreground character when they talk? I feel like there were a lot of focus swaps as the series progressed. In that example, would that type of swap be dependent on the episode director?
Ishihara: Ah, that would be right. There were many times where the storyboards would have “focus swap” written on them.
Yamada: There were. We didn’t ask for direction much. Like “how should this cut look?”
Oguro: You were able to show the format of how to make the imagery with the first and second episodes. Was there anything like a direction presentation manual that you created?
Yamada: There wasn’t anything like a manual.
Ishihara: I don’t think there’s anything special about swapping focus in a scene. Other productions do that.
Oguro: But still, I think the continual swapping of focus between a foreground and background character is quite unusual.
Ishihara: Is it really?
Yamada: We’ve always paid attention to the point of view of the characters. While we maintained awareness of it in the layouts and character point of view for each individual cut, I don’t think we were aware of focusing in the entire series point of view and direction.

Ishihara: Also, and this is a boring topic, but recently our works have tended to increase the amount of cuts in the storyboards. There’s a lot of people in our director camp who love fixed positions, so even when there’s points with lots of characters where a pan would be nice, they’ll want to separate the cuts and maintain the fixed camera. When they don’t use a pan, that’s one cut where we could include the swapping focus between characters in the foreground and background.
Oguro: When you use a swapping focus, you can fit 2 cuts in 1.
Ishihara: That’s true. That’s why you have to fix the camera position when you do a cut like that. As you swap the focus between each of the two characters for people to be aware of them, you have to place them in the foreground and background.
Yamada: And also it feels like you have to attach a certain meaning to that camera angle.
Oguro: When those are written in the storyboards, you can check over them as director/series director, but are there points that aren’t written down by the episode director that you want to do?
Yamada: But really, everyone properly writes down their plans.
Oguro: Ah, I see.
Ishihara: For me, when it comes times to distinguish between cuts, I may fix that by writing “insert a pan around here.” As a director, you can’t ignore the number of cuts or the ability to control the cuts. This might be said about other places too, but I question if the modern anime tempo isn’t too fast. For some reason, the number of cuts has increased to about 350 per episode. In the past, we’d cut it off at around 200 cuts.
Yamada: Surely 200 cuts was nice for CLANNAD. There were many in the first half that had 300 or so. I think the mood of increasing the number of cuts started around there……
Ishihara: I still think the ratio has gone a bit too high. But if the cuts don’t accumulate, then the tempo doesn’t rise and you get a tedious episode. You’re anxious about both of those when making the storyboards.
A while ago, I read a movie instruction book by a movie director and he wrote “reduce the number of cuts at any cost.” (laughs) I think you can do that and not bore your audience, but it’s not as simple as that, as you’d expect. There’s also the problem with anime where you can’t increase the number of cuts or else you run out of time.
Oguro: I expected to see a full frontal attack of a performance in the final episode, but I wonder if the plan was to not run away from that from the start.
Ishihara: That it was. We had no choice but to show the performances in episode 5’s marching contest and in the final episode. Conversely, I’ll say that the number of episodes we had performances was more of a surprise than we imagined beforehand. (laughs)
Yamada: I agree. For example, episode 12 had more cuts where instruments appeared than the final episode.
Ishihara: The nonchalant cuts were difficult. The performance scenes were still okay because we had studied how to hold the instruments. There’s a lot of things you have to know or else you can’t draw them in the anime like how to hold an instrument or where to place it. There’s a certain position for the tuning slide on a trumpet to be in for example. Those types of minute details were difficult. There were more things than we could have imagined before starting work. After all, we didn’t know the first thing about how to hold a euphonium. (laughs)
Oguro: Was there a period where you studied how to hold the instruments?
Ishihara: Well, yes. Our company bought a euphonium and we started with “how do we hold this?” (laughs) I also bought a reference book about euphoniums.
Oguro: But I’ve heard that there were a lot of members of the staff who had experience playing in concert bands.
Ishihara: That’s true. Like Yamada’s older sister.
Yamada: She immediately became an authority, didn’t she? (laughs)
Ishihara: I don’t know how many were there, but there were animators who had history in the concert band, so there were scenes where that experience influenced their drawings. For example, in the opening where Yuuko plays her trumpet, the animator for that cut inserted motion for her hand to press the third button up and down for some notes of the song. They came to me with the proposal “would this be alright?” and I said “please do that.”
Yamada: That was so cool.
Ishihara: Having experienced people around saved us in situations like that.
Oguro: Now that you mention it, did (Hiroyuki) Takahashi-san, the instrument animation director, have a lot of experience with instruments?
Ishihara: No, to be honest, he wasn’t very familiar with instruments. If I had to say something, I’d say he’s a person whose specialty is drawing mechanical things. He’s able to imagine 3-D shapes in his head like the various revolving pipes of an instrument. For that, I think he’s a genius. He corrected many different things as an animation director. It was certainly a very painful job.
Oguro: Did you use 3D CG for the instruments?
Ishihara: We created rough models, but they were used as references for the layouts. Once the instrument was on the layouts, we could draw the key frames.
Yamada: To add another point, Takahashi-san drew a 3-dimensional diagram of the instruments before they made the 3D models. The 3D members matched that diagram with their models. Takahashi was able to have them “use those diagrams if possible for the drawings” and he could check them. Even still, Takahashi-san had many instances where he had to insert or erase lines like for ones that were abbreviated or to supplement them at the animation director level. That was something like a code that only Takahashi-san could decipher.
Oguro: A code?
Yamada: Something that you couldn’t understand unless you were Takahashi-san.
Ishihara: Also he attached the use of light to them as well. Shadows had to be drawn in the key frames, but sometimes you had simple replications of the 3D output.
Oguro: So you hand-drew shadows and highlights on the instruments?
Ishihara: More or less.
Yamada: If they were hand-drawn, they’d definitely appear cooler.
Oguro: Were there cuts made in 3D from start to end?
Yamada: We used 3D for backgrounds and for the tiny people at the very back.
Ishihara: It was not something we used for big objects. Fundamentally, everything was hand-drawn cels.
Oguro: So were they hand-drawn because hand-drawn animation was easier to see?
Ishihara: Because there would be no uncomfortable feeling viewing it. 3D animation is very slick and smooth, so if you use it in the place of drawn anime, then perhaps you attach an unnatural portion to that animation. Also, if you decide to use 3D modeling as-is, then you have the question of “how do you link it with cels?” The characters aren’t just holding something; they’re constant interacting with things, so it becomes a huge mess when you combine them.
Yamada: It was already a huge task already. (laughs)
Ishihara: For me, I thought using 3D instruments would be impossible from the beginning.
Yamada: I thought drawing them would be fine too.
Ishihara: You’ve had a lot of experience with that in previous works too.
Yamada: Haven’t I? Also, this time we had Takahashi-san revolving around the instruments, so I certainly wanted them to be drawn.
Oguro: Were the reflections on the instruments themselves hand-drawn?
Ishihara: The characters were projected in them, and we thought about varying the degree of light, but then wouldn’t you have difficulties seeing the characters?
Oguro: There wouldn’t appear to be anything there. So you drew some vague highlights in there as well.

Yamada: That’s also one of Takahashi-san’s cool points. I heard him say “How can I draw this image that I have in my head?”
Oguro: So, when it comes to instruments, Takahashi-san’s hands were considerably involved?
Yamada: You could say he was involved in almost all of it.
Oguro: All of it?!”
Ishihara: He did a lot of research on these. Our company had an eupho and trumpet, so he studied them as if his life depended on it.
Yamada: He continued to draw nothing else but instruments.
Oguro: Was he the one who drew the cassette tapes in K-On!?
Yamada: Ah, yes he was! (laughs) Once he started drawing them, he wouldn’t stop. He was completely obsessed with them.
Oguro: He’d draw cassette tape-like cassette tapes?
Yamada: Right. (laughs) He loves 80s culture, so he’d get excited about episodes like that.
Oguro: So if he was around, the cassette tape cut would be drawn with a lot of energy, right?
Yamada: Ah, I think it’d be amazing. When I was an episode director, I had many episodes where I worked together with him as my animation director. Due to that, I’d say “well, I’m working with Takahashi-san” so I’d stuff in some cool things like cars or other mechanical things in my cuts….
Ishihara: You’re evil! (laughs)
All: (laughs)
Yamada: They were such amazing imagery.
Ishihara: But wasn’t it an immense pain for Takahashi-kun? (laughs)
Yamada: Was it……. Certainly they were things he’d find enjoyable…..
Ishihara: What would he say? (laughs) He just sits at his desk without saying a single word. He’s scary; he won’t even raise his voice when he reaches the best part or something.
Yamada: He’s meditating. (laughs) Ah, but we did reduce the amount of scenes where instruments appeared in Euphonium as best as we could.
Ishihara: Ah, that we did. We controlled that well at the scenario stage.
Yamada: There were a lot of points in the scenario where we cut out instruments saying “is it alright if they’re not holding their instruments here?” before we started the storyboards.

An unique protagonist and meeting the final episode

Oguro: Let’s gradually go back to the episodes; what kind of requests did you want to come out in the composition and scenario?
Ishihara: At the beginning, I requested things like “a good tempo and to insert a bit of comedic elements.”
Oguro: That’s completely different than how it looks now.
Ishihara: Yes, we eventually went in a different direction. Episode 2 likely has the most of that in it since I handled that one. Weren’t there a lot of comedic scenes?
Oguro; Yes.
Ishihara: Looking at it now, it feels a bit out of place. (laughs)
Oguro: As we reached the final episode, I looked back at the first episode and thought “Huh? It was this kind of anime?” (laughs)
Ishihara: That’s right. As we went into the latter half, it became more serious… Did I have any other requests? Also I had my usual request. I wanted things like an exciting bit as much as possible in each episode. Well, those are things that (Jukki) Hanada-san thinks about as a writer. It’s natural for him to structure everything while thinking about them.
Yamada: Ah, like if Reina loses her love for Taki-sensei.
Ishihara: Well, that would be a problem. At the beginning there was a plan like that. It’s a bit awful for Reina to enter high school having her hopes set on Taki-sensei, right? But I like that part of Reina, so I didn’t want it to be removed.
Yamada: That’s why Hanada-san tested the timing of Reina saying love quite a lot.
Ishihara: Right. We wanted to show everyone pointed towards the same goal of “we want our high school to win gold.” Including Taki-sensei. To do that, we had various tricks.
Oguro: While I was watching episode 12 on-air, I felt “Yes! Kumiko’s become the protagonist!” when she was saying “I want to improve!” and then “What?! Next week’s the final episode?!” (laughs)
Ishihara: Yep, yep. (laughs)
Oguro: I wanted to see another cour after that. (laughs)
Yamada: Ah, I agree. Kumiko is the engine that wouldn’t start until then. But that’s very like her.
Ishihara: Well, up until then, my mind was thinking “Well, Kumiko is supposedly the protagonist.” (laughs)
Yamada: She’s an unique protagonist.
Ishihara: She was a very mellow person at the beginning; would someone like that actually have the motivation to join a club? I thought “Should this character be here?”
Yamada: I thought that’s why an episode 12 like that would be cathartic for her character. You see Kumiko start to add a little flavor, bit-by-bit, and then you get to see her bloom. I thought it would be great.
Ishihara: We talked about that. In short, in the novel, Kumiko is this person who doesn’t get entangled in performances; instead she’s able to provide an objective view on other characters like Reina and Aoi. But that’s what Hanada-san worried about: he thought it’d be awful if you didn’t see Kumiko herself grow. So since it would be horrible if Kumiko herself never tasted that anguish that Reina felt at their middle school concert, it became the story you saw.
Yamada: There was a point in the performance where Kumiko was absent.
Ishihara: Yes, wasn’t it the scene where Taki-sensei says “Just Tanaka-san please”? That was the intention of inserting that scene.
Yamada: It feels like that was necessary to do in order to make a girl who lived with the flow turn into a leading role.
When I saw the storyboards for episode 12, I changed the opening part of the final episode after seeing Kumiko’s running scene. I changed it to not have the episode itself oriented towards Kumiko’s story. Originally it was supposed to detail about her, but that was without her experiences in episode 12….
Ishihara: What was she like at first?
Yamada: Her stance was a little different; she was still the bored Kumiko we had seen. She would quickly turn off her alarm clock too.
Ishihara: I see. In the first scenario, she would usually stretch out her arm to stop the alarm clock as soon as it rang.
Yamada: At first it felt like “Get up already” but after I changed it, she had a firey attitude where she couldn’t rest. My explanation was that Kumiko was on a concert band high. But with that change, the final episode became suddenly easier to depict.

The most important thing was realism

Oguro: I believe the power that everyone who made Euphonium expressed in the work showed how happy they were to work on it. Please tell me about any strong inclinations you wanted to express like “I wanted to convey this type of expression.”
Ishihara: That would be like episode 11’s re-audition for example?
Oguro: That would be one or the performance in the final episode would be another one. Usually, you’d place the camera in the audience so the viewers would be moved by the visuals for example. Doing that, you not only show the performance, but the sequence of nervousness and excitement is completed. For that, you could say I believed in the power of expressing that feeling.
Ishihara: Originally, I also had the thought of having this done with a documentary touch. If we did that for some reason, we’d cover them practicing and then immediately cut to the performances and concert. And then, this is something Yamada said, just seeing their performance would be enough to move the audience.
Yamada: Right. That’s why I thought it’d be fine if the camera would point to the audience when we were cutting the storyboards for the final episode. They’d pick up on the importance of the drama these girls went through, so when the camera was dedicated to these unknown people, they’d have this “I can’t believe how good this is” feeling.
Oguro: Usually, the audience is saying things like “Amazing! How could there be something as great as this?!”
Yamada: Yes. But that was really out of place; having strangers become overwhelmed felt a bit different from what we had shown up to that point. We thought they’d want to see the emotions that they had built up from their history. That would encourage them to dig into these girls. After all, that was the emotion that we felt while covering the concert band kids we did.
Ishihara: That’s why we wanted to depict points like the girls waking up and getting to school early and the sending the truck to the concert hall with their instruments with a documentary touch.
Oguro: And for that reason you ended with the end of the concert?
Ishihara: Yes. There were various ideas with that too. We thought at the beginning that the worst would be not to show the performance. In the novel, the story ends right before the performance begins and the epilogue soars through the results announcement. That’s why, even though that wasn’t written, we felt the viewers would definitely want to see that performance. (laughs)
Yamada: Yep, they’d want to see it. (laughs) Ending as the stage light comes on or as the advisor’s hand goes up would feel a bit wasteful.
Oguro: I feel like I’ve seen an anime do that a few times. (laughs)
Ishihara: Well, I don’t dislike doing that kind of thing.
Yamada: Speaking of that, concert band performances have a set time and place, so they don’t play or dance around unless it’s at a concert or such. That’s why having the tension level instantly rise while you’re watching it is immensely difficult.
Oguro: It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to give an amazing performance.
Yamada: Right, right. (laughs) That’s why trying to think what kind of response we’d get until that was broadcast would be unfathomable.
Ishihara: That’s right. If it were something like a soccer match or a basketball game, you’d be able to predict it. (laughs)
Yamada: You’d insert things like “GOOOOOOOOOAL!” (laughs) Honestly, it’s a challenge to work on something where you’re quietly, quietly building up drama. You worry that the people watching would lose interest in it.
Ishihara: Yep. You may have no choice but to just do it in that case. I feel like this is a work that certainly feels like a showdown with a frontal assault. If you have one, then it becomes a pain for us. (laughs) It’d be incredibly hard for the people who were drawing it. There’d be meaning in the “give it your all” that you received.
Oguro: When you do something difficult, it feels like you do it thoroughly.
Ishihara: Well, your customers aren’t the ones saying “It’s difficult, it’s difficult. You only do those things for those watching it. Well, it’s only difficult for those working on it. (laughs) But you give it your all drawing instruments until it isn’t fun anymore. Drawing those instruments has to feel important.
Yamada: That’s right. That too is one of our essences.
Oguro: You say that, but this is an enjoyable work that expresses a lot of things throughout the series. Like the expression of water or the cloudy day in episode 7 for example.
Ishihara: Our staff enjoys working on those parts. Probably everyone thinks that way, but from a drawing point, those portions can be unpleasant.
Yamada: What can I say about the cloudy sky in episode 7? I really love how the rainy season doesn’t feel that heavy, the white sky is bright, and you feel the ultraviolet rays from the sun in the rain. If you don’t show it as gray, then it’d be expressed as white.

Oguro: Also the control of light and shadow throughout the series is impressive. The scenes with Kumiko and Reina in particular are finished extremely beautifully.
Yamada: Like in episode 11?
Oguro: That’s one and in episodes 5 and 8.
Ishihara: The coming home scene in episode 5, huh? Where the car’s light shine after Reina combs her hair back? That part was directed by the episode director. Episode 11’s was separated at the storyboard level to an extent though.
However, I think it might be possible to overdo light and shadow as a director.
Yamada: When you use that, you should be a little embarrassed or have a little bit of hesitation. But if you decide to use it, make sure you decide to use it well.
Ishihara: Certainly use it differently than in “The Last Supper” by Da Vinci like having the betrayer, Judas, a bit covered in darkness.
Yamada: Ah, I see. Older religious paintings were painted with points like that like symbols and various meanings in the colors. Directors also have to take into consideration what many others like similar to that.
Ishihara: It’s probably more spontaneous.
Oguro: From our point of view, that kind of technical portion is this work’s fundamental tone, but that doesn’t have to be the case right?
Ishihara: Right.
Yamada: Fundamentally, this work’s tone was “straightforward.”
Oguro: So the imagery direction was straightforward?
Yamada: Yes. It was important for us to “depict living things as living” in order to be “adolescent.” If you do that, you don’t have to worry about unnatural things like light and shadow direction not appearing unnatural.
Ishihara: If a viewer is able to somehow feel “Ah, this is pretty” or “Ah, this was done so this character could advance before” then that’s fine. We don’t want them to be aware “Ah, you directed it this way so you could do this.” (laughs)
Oguro: But that doesn’t mean it’s a thoroughly real work. It’s natural to have typical direction and framing that you use in anime works.
Ishihara: That’s right. We put in a lot of effort to make it appear real, but we also used anime devices and schemes like usual.
Yamada: The most important part was the presence or reality of this show. If it feels real, we could thoroughly depict adolescence. We were aware of things like how long the girls were holding their breath in the screen or how the viewer would concentrate on the girls. If that made them feel like the girls really existed, then that makes me happy.

As Sound! Euphonium is one of my favorite shows to watch, it became one of my favorite shows to translate about. I previously translated an interview with director Tatsuya Ishihara and series director Naoko Yamada in the periodical Animestyle, but there was another interview in that issue. This post is the first of two parts where Oguro interviews the series composer/scriptwriter for Sound! Euphonium, Jukki Hanada. Enjoy.

When I finished writing, I thought “This is really good.”

Jukki Hanada (Series Composer/Scriptwriter) Interview

Reporters: Yuichirou Oguro, Itsuki Shouta; Text editing: Yuichirou Oguro; Interview date: September 3, 2015; Interview location: Kyoto Animation Tokyo Office

Jukki Hanada:

Born October 26, 1969 in Miyagi. Works at SARZ. First series composed was Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful. Presently he has worked on countless titles as series composer/scriptwriter. For Kyoto Animation works, he’s composed Nichijou, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, and Kyoukai no Kanata. He served as series composer and wrote all the scripts for Sound! Euphonium.

Oguro: Sound! Euphonium was very entertaining. It’s been a long time since I watched a series and wondered how it would go the next week.
Hanada: Thank you for your kind words.
Oguro: Would you please tell us how you became involved in this work?
Hanada: Usually I receive an inquiry asking if I could compose a series around a particular work or not.
Oguro: So at that time, it was already planned to be a 1-cour late night anime series?
Hanada: It was a 1-cour late night anime at that time.
Oguro: Was the director already determined?
Hanada: I think they had decided on one.
Oguro: At that “request stage” did you receive any orders like “we want it to be visualized like this” from the producers or from director Ishihara saying “how about this direction?”
Hanada: There weren’t any “this type of image” requests at that stage. Since there was only one novel published at that time, I felt I should just read that and then we’d progress while discussing the story.
Oguro: What did you think of the novel after you read it?
Hanada: “Animating a wind ensemble is going to be tough isn’t it?” As I read the novel, I felt the story reached its climax around the confrontation between Reina and Kaori, so I thought to write the composition centered around that competition. Would only that be enough….. And then a lot of characters appear in the tale despite it only being one novel, so that could also become a problem.
Oguro: I watched the animated version first, so I thought that about half of the characters who appeared were anime original, but no, there’s a lot of characters in the novels as well.
Hanada: There are really a lot of them. That’s why I felt thankful it was only one novel instead of feeling like there wasn’t enough material. If there had been more, trying to condense it down into 1-cour would be quite challenging.
Oguro: I think there could be various ways to make this novel into an anime. Did you decide on which path to take, such as a more comedic version or devoting itself purely seriously, when you were in your meetings?
Hanada: Yes. We did decide that during our meetings. Speaking a bit more about that, the direction might have been decided while I was writing the scenarios as well.
Oguro: Did you receive any specific orders from either the director or producers about the scripts?
Hanada: When I received the story from the producers, they said “while this is mostly a scripted drama, we want you to think of a work where these four girls stand out.” After that, Naoko Yamada-san felt strongly to “bring out the good points of the novel as much as possible.” And then it was made as we discussed things like “well then what are the good points of the novel” “they’d be the points where the characters act like this.”
Oguro: The animated version definitely had a strong “character story” feeling to it as well. For example, while Asuka is a deep character in the novel, she becomes a character who stands out even further in the anime. Was that something that you thought about while working on the scenarios?
Hanada: I thought about things like that while I was writing, but there were other portions that were extended in the storyboards. Ishihara-san said “I loved Asuka since when I first read the novel” so I predicted that all the directors would increase her screen time in the storyboards. I inserted a bit more playfulness in her character at the beginning, but when it becomes serious in the latter half, her real character starts to come out.
Oguro: She doesn’t say things like “Join us” or “Amigo” from the middle onwards.
Hanada: She definitely wouldn’t pull a magic trick as well. (laughs)
Both: (laughs)

Oguro: Perhaps I should have said that she’d only pull that trick to surprise someone in the first episode. Instead, since she’s such an impressive person, you wonder what is she thinking, so depicting things like where she’s particular about Kaori playing the solo or not is important. Were there other portions that expanded as you were writing the scenarios?
Hanada: Rather than expand, I’d say it was the result of a lot of trial and error. As the scenario I wrote moved onto the storyboard stage, everyone would come together for a common consensus “is it right for the story to proceed from here?”
Oguro: So once episode 1’s scenario was finished, you’d then start on episode 2’s?
Hanada: All the way until it was finished.
Oguro: Did you begin each episode’s scenario from a cleanly tied together series composition?
Hanada: I wouldn’t say they were tied together cleanly. We’d decide a rough “this episode would go to this page of the novel” and then I’d decide something should go into another episode while I was writing. There were things like that which occurred as I was writing.
Oguro: So were things like the climax being Reina’s and Kaori’s competition and the final episode being the concert decided in advance?
Hanada: Those were determined at a very early stage. Ishihara-san’s first order to me was ”I want to have the final episode’s B-part be the ensemble performance.”
Oguro: Since it’s a scripted drama, there are a lot of nuances prior to the final episodes, but the final episode is clearly like a documentary. Was that also something that came from Ishihara-san?
Hanada: That was from him.
Oguro: Did he specifically say “documentary”?
Hanada: I don’t recall if he specifically used that word, but the intention to cover that day of the performance like one was decided from the beginning. For me, I thought if we intended to have the final episode feel like a documentary, then it’d be bad if all the character drama hadn’t finished prior to it.
Oguro: You can’t proceed forward with something like a documentary if all the drama prior to it hasn’t been resolved. In 13 episodes, the confrontation between Reina and Kaori occurs and clears up in episode 11 and in episode 12, Kumiko struggles and then grows. In short, that’s the episode where she becomes the protagonist.
Hanada: That was also determined at an early stage. When I was first asked to read the novel, I was told that more volumes would come out afterwards. I thought that perhaps Kumiko’s drama would be settled in those volumes. But the anime may end with just this series. That’s why I thought there may be people who would think “why was Kumiko the protagonist” if the final drama point was settled between Reina and Kaori. I proposed that we make episode 12 into an original episode but I didn’t want to do it if we didn’t properly make her into the protagonist and not some half-cooked heroine. It went through many changes until it reached the version that aired. All we decided was that it would be an episode that would solve Kumiko’s problems.
Oguro: I understand. In the first episode, Reina cries over getting dud gold at the middle school concert. It feels like you’d decide that Kumiko should know how Reina felt at that moment in episode 12 while you were working on the episodes, right?
Hanada: Yes, I decided she should feel that way while I was working on them. Since this was around the time when Reina and Kaori faced off, it became a story about Kumiko and Reina. As we did that, I wrote episode 12 right before that scene so I’d know how Kumiko would grow.
Oguro: This is a bit out of order, but in the novel, everyone except Kumiko speaks kansaiben. Why did everyone switch to standard Japanese in the anime?
Hanada: Didn’t you hear about that from the director? (laughs)
Oguro: I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to discuss that when I was interviewing director Ishihara and Yamada-san.
Hanada: Making it standard Japanese was an order from the producers so we wouldn’t over-constrict ourselves while casting.
Oguro: So that’s why. While the production staff speaks the Kyoto dialect, there’d be a high probability the voice cast wouldn’t. I thought the likelihood they’d use some phony kansaiben would be high.
Hanada: I thought “people in Kanto won’t care about some phony kansaiben” but people in Kansai may really get annoyed by it. (laughs) There was also something else that was unnerving that they mentioned. Some people may watch the show and get the impression it would be something like the other anime that properly depicted kansaiben, the comedy Jarinko Chie.
Oguro: If it were in kansaiben, and there would be a need for actors who could properly play a high school girl in a drama, that would further restrict the casting pool.
Hanada: Right, the amount of people would also be a problem. I thought it would be alright if only part of the characters spoke kansaiben.
Oguro: But the novel has nearly everyone speaking it. When converting the novel’s lines in kansaiben to standard Japanese for the anime, there may be some nuances changed.
Hanada: They were changed.
Oguro: When Reina says to Kumiko “it’s a confession of love,” the novel has “this sure is a confession of love,” and the scenario has “that’s why it’s a confession of love.” They’re quite different.

Excerpt 1: The line was further changed in the storyboards to drop the “that’s why” part and only leave “it’s a confession of love.”

Hanada: That’s right. I stumbled at the beginning, so I thought “Wow, this is hard.” As episode 1 went alongside the novel, as I changed it to standard Japanese, it became “something really different.”
It’s different than just changing words into standard Japanese. Having said that, I remember changing the level of phrasing so that I didn’t lose what was in the novel as well as also over-changing things when making it into standard Japanese. Perhaps the nuance between calling someone an idiot in Kanto and calling someone stupid in Kansai would say it all.
Oguro: Kanto’s “you’re an idiot” is harsh. Saying someone’s “stupid” in kansaiben is a bit softer.
Hanada: Changing their vocabulary to standard Japanese makes them a bit less interesting, especially for Sapphire in particular. I had to re-evaluate her character and decide which was better; should that side of her come out?
Oguro: Ah, so then Sapphire’s character changed a bit. I thought her tone in the novel was cute, but her conduct was normal. Or perhaps the anime took it to be more dreamy.
Hanada: That’s right. She became more of a so-called anime character.
Oguro: You raised her symbolism?
Hanada: Right. In the novel, she was much more positive and straightforward than Kumiko. I left that alone but I thought about reducing her appearances in the latter half to prevent that positivity from seeping out.

Sapphire’s symbolism rose more in the anime than in the novel. Incidentally, she prefers to be called Midori instead of Sapphire.

Oguro: Reina was also shifted towards that “anime beauty” character that isn’t seen in reality with her nobility and isolation. But that’s not just a question of dialogue.
Hanada: I also intended for that. I wondered if director Ishihara and Yamada-san were also aware of that, but then I saw the storyboards.
Oguro: Reading the scenarios, I was surprised that episode 8 was the one point where Kumiko and Reina were talking about love and dislikes.
Hanada: They did, they did. I wanted fans to be asking “why has Reina been so curt with Kumiko up until now?”
Oguro: In the completed version, there wasn’t a conversation about likes and dislikes and special people. They were increasingly becoming detached from reality. (laughs)
Hanada: That resolution is amazing. I think that fumbling around is characteristic of Yamada-san.
Oguro: Why did Reina become such a noble character?
Hanada: My awareness of that comes from Euphonium being a scripted drama, but it’s easy just to see it as an anime. For that reason, I wanted to strengthen the protagonist’s point of view more than the novel so her view would be important by adding narrations from Kumiko. For Reina, how Kumiko sees her comes out and so you see her that way.
Oguro: I understand. In short, the reason Reina became so noble is…
Hanada: Because Kumiko thinks of her as being noble. I feel those kinds of things piled up. It’s not just in episode 8 is it?
Oguro: Please talk about Reina and Kumiko and Taki-sensei. Reina likes Taki-sensei, but she says a “declaration of love” to Kumiko. While it’s not in the novel, Kumiko returns a declaration of love to Reina in the anime. It’s a point where fans watching would wonder which of the two she actually likes. What do you think Hanada-san?
Hanada: That’s true. For me, I think that there’s nothing uncomfortable about her saying those kinds of things to both of them. Isn’t that strange? (laughs)
Oguro: It’s not just that she admires Taki-sensei; she wants to become his lover, so that meaning is love. Kumiko is more becoming a good friend from someone you’re intrigued by. Doesn’t it feel like that?
Hanada: I think it’s like that. But not just simply a friend, I feel like she wants to be at a point a step further than that where they’re likeminded partners. That’s why Kumiko would return her words to her in episode 11. I wrote it thinking “in this scene she’ll mean ‘I’m here for you’ when she returns that declaration of love.”
Oguro: In my head, the feelings Reina has for Kumiko wasn’t love, but while I had thought they were liking someone, the presentation was so dense that I wondered “is this really just liking someone?” That exchange in episode 11 with “If I betray you, feel free to kill me,” “I’ll really kill you” was incredibly violent.
Hanada: It certainly feels violent. I remember something from the scenario meeting. I said “Isn’t this the kind of immature thing that haughty high schoolers would say? If we just used something simple like “I’ll kill you” then that wouldn’t come out as something immature or high school-ish.” I remember Ishihara-san saying “right” and Yamada-san having something like an “all okay” feeling.
Oguro: Was Ishihara-san thinking “is this alright?”
Hanada: I believe he was thinking how it would be visualized. I remember there not being any clear resistance.
Oguro: Looking through the scenarios, Reina becomes softer at an earlier stage.
Hanada: She does. During episode 5 in the train car if I remember right.
Oguro: No, rather in episode 4. In the scenario, Kumiko talks about being uplifted by Dvořák’s piece and Reina overly says in response “that makes me happy.”

Excerpt 2: Quote from episode 4’s scenario
Kumiko: “You know, I feel a bit uplifted hearing that. I was getting fed up with the people in the club without any motivation but….. after hearing that I feel like I can give it my all……”
Reina blushes and her eyes grow bigger in embarrassment after hearing that.
Reina: “……”
Kumiko is a bit surprised at her expression.
Kumiko: “Huh? What’s wrong?”
Reina:”…..Nothing.”
Flustered, Reina looks away.
Kumiko: “That’s why I wanted to say….. thanks.”
Kumiko bows her head. Reina looks towards her.
Reina: “…………That makes me happy.”
Kumiko:”……Really?!”
Reina looks at Kumko and says:
Reina: “………How could I be sure?”
Kumko is at a loss for words.
Kumiko: “Ah, Sorry……”

Oguro: While Kumiko doesn’t know why Reina is happy, it’s set up so that the viewers would know. Regardless that depiction was completely lost on film. Kumiko starts running away and since the camera follows her, we’re not able to see what expression Reina has after she says those words. As that depiction is lost, her softer side comes out suddenly in episode 8.
Hanada: It certainly does. I think director Ishihara thought it would be fine to proceed without it. I personally like for those kinds of details to pile up on one another in an orthodox fashion, but since Ishihara-san and Yamada-san felt that Kumiko viewed Reina so highly, it may not feel as charming when that’s put onto film. That’s why they waited to make episode 8 such a huge event. However, I honestly thought “isn’t this too fast” when I saw episode 8’s storyboards. I wanted to convey that, but both of them thought “we’ll go with this.” They thought it would succeed. I was worried that the viewers who’d see it would reject it thinking like I did.
Oguro: Instead there was an uproar from the fans as if it was a festival.
Hanada: Thinking about it like that, their judgment was the right decision.
Oguro: That doesn’t mean that episode 8’s scenario wasn’t different from the novel or from the finished visual product either. However, those little differences have an effect.
Hanada: They really do.
Oguro: “It hurts, but I don’t dislike that” is a line in the novel.
Hanada: It is. And so is the comeback “freak” if I recall.
Oguro: “Freak” is in the finished version.
Hanada: So that’s how it shifted. I know it wasn’t in the scenario.

Excerpt 3:
Novel:
“But I don’t dislike this here pain.”
“Wow, the way you said that sounds hot.”
“……Are ya stupid?”

Scenario:
Reina: “…..They hurt. But I don’t dislike pain.”
Kumiko: “….That’s somewhat hot…..”
Reina: “What?”

Storyboards:
Reina: “…..They hurt. But I don’t dislike pain.”
Kumiko: “ What? That’s kind of hot.”
Reina: “Freak.”

Excerpt 4:
Before that part, the storyboards changed another line a bit to be more effective.
Scenario:
Kumiko: “(bitter smile)…… Seeing you carry my eupho in that dress makes me nervous I’m doing something wrong.”

Storyboards:
Kumiko: “Seeing you in your dress holding my euphonium seems so wrong.”

Perhaps there would have been a confrontation between Asuka and Kumiko

Oguro: What kind of person would you explain Taki-sensei as being?
Hanada: I couldn’t visualize him at first. It would be good if I wrote him as being charismatic. If this were a show oriented for women, then I’d think about how cool to make him, but that wasn’t the case for this show. If I depicted him as being someone without any flaws, then he’d trend towards a fantasy and feel out of place in the realism around him. Thinking about those kinds of things made it surprisingly worrisome as I wrote him. At first, I went along with how he was in the novel, but I vaguely remembered things director Ishihara said and things Yamada-san said, and so I added bits where he was slightly unsettled and worrying. Those became frequent in the latter half. Going along with that, you can somewhat understand that he’s someone with a bit of uneasiness within him.
Oguro: That doesn’t mean he’s also bursting with confidence either.
Hanada: He’s not.
Oguro: One scene that I clearly understood that in was in episode 10 where he scolds the students for taking down the blankets that were put up across the clubroom so that the sound wouldn’t resound. Up until that point, he knew how the students would react and they’d behaved as planned, but around that time, there were many things that didn’t go over well with the auditions and so that irritableness came out.
Hanada: That was surely the intention. In the novel, the rumor that went around the students that he and Reina were old acquaintances never reached his ears and so the story continued. But wouldn’t he obviously hear about it if someone asked him about it during club activities? I used that event from the novel in order to show a different side of Taki. I could include a lot of things to make it turn out successful while writing that.
Oguro: In episode 1 when he’s showing his knowledge of good luck charms, he’s also shown listening to Kumiko and Reina’s middle school performance. I’d like to ask how he would know that Reina would be attending the school he’d be serving as advisor.

Hanada: That was not just limited to their school; he listened to all the middle school performances.
Oguro: Ah, I see now!
Hanada: At least I wrote it with that intention. He listened to those various performances not because he wanted to torture himself, but because there would be the potential that some of those students would go to the school he would be moving to.
Oguro: Just checking, but more or less Taki-sensei was originally not going to show that type of personality; he would consciously just be the kind of person that would speak in theory, correct?
Hanada: That’s right. Probably he would have that personality as a base, but as this would be the first time he moved to a new position, and there would be too many schools to listen to, he thought he would at least listen to a few schools’ performances. I researched the advisors at a few high school concert bands and they more or less built their character up. Also they need a certain charisma to hold the students. If you’re going to be a veteran advisor, then you absolutely have to be able to do a lot.
Oguro: You have to perform as a necessary character.
Hanada: I think Taki could excel as that type of advisor, but he’s somewhat very young and there are moments where his defects show. I wondered if those points making him more human would be the right course for his character.
Oguro: You mentioned how when you were composing the series, only one volume of the novels had been published. Did the second volume release when you started writing the scenarios?
Hanada: When I started writing the scenarios, the second novel’s plot was sent to me. Afterward the text was also sent.
Oguro: Did you get a chance to talk to the original author about things?
Hanada: I did once.
Oguro: Did you inquire about the growth of the characters?
Hanada: I didn’t ask about all of them, but I did ask about a few of them.
Oguro: Did you ask about the situation with Asuka’s parents?
Hanada: The details had changed from the novel stage. At the time she told me about the completed background, I had completed work on the scenarios. Actually, I had thought about having a confrontation with Asuka and Kumiko to conclude episode 12. I had written it up to the plot point where Asuka would get in the way of Kumiko, who would be worrying about not being able to play a portion. However, since Asuka has such a vague backbone, making her do that was difficult. And so that confrontation was lost and episode 12 became a story about Kumiko’s internal thoughts.
Oguro: You depict how amazing of a person Asuka is, but how do you postpone showing why she’s so great?
Hanada: Thinking about it from Kumiko’s point of view, she’s just really good at everything. When we finished composing the anime, Asuka’s story not being resolved was the thing that was most disgusting, but as I started to write, I began to see how we could go without telling her story. If we left it as a mystery, then the character could be shown in greater amounts.
I received the plot of the third novel as I was writing the scenario for the final episode. Before that I had received the plot of the second novel and predicted what would be written in the third volume. As I read it, I knew that it would be appropriate to have an Asuka story in that volume. I couldn’t go through with a confrontation between Kumiko and Asuka without establishing a backstory, but since the novel would have presented one regardless, I didn’t want to arbitrarily attach one to her character and differ from what the novel would show.
Oguro: Speaking of original episodes, there’s one that features Hazuki. How did you think of that one?
Hanada: That’s episode 6. Rather than feature Hazuki, I wanted to make an episode that showed a beginner’s point of view. All the other characters, including Kumiko, have a history of playing their instruments. That’s why I thought it would be nice to have one episode that would depict her point of view to make it easier and nicer for the viewers who had no knowledge of wind music. The producers sent an order that they wanted me to make episodes centered around the four girls, so the easiest one to make a story like that would be Hazuki. It was those two reasons.
Oguro: The school setting is quite strong in that one. The upperclassmen are acting properly as they take care of their underclassmen.
Hanada: I intended for that episode to be more comical. However, as it was the episode that felt most out of place in the series in the first scenario path, I eventually toned it down. There were more moments of laughter like the scene with Kumiko wearing the costume.
Oguro: Is that so?
Hanada: I had gags like Hazuki saying “Maybe I should quit the band….” and everyone looking shocked, but those funny portions got edited for this work. I feel like, generally, the character reactions should be more anime character-ish.
Oguro: If that were to happen Euphonium would be the highest anime-related topic.
Hanada: It would be.
Oguro: I wanted to ask director Ishihara about this too, but the scene at the beginning of episode 5 when Kumiko is moping about her chest size had its jokes changed quite a bit from the scenario and the version that was broadcast. Why was that?

Excerpt 5: Episode 5’s physical exam opening. In both the finished work and the scenario, Kumiko’s chest hasn’t grown. However, in the scenario, Sapphire is even more worried than Kumiko about her chest size. Afterwards, Hazuki, thinking Kumiko is upset that she’s gained weight, tries to cheer her up and more old-geezer style gags occur when they see Azusa’s chest.

Hanada: That was the consensus that we had reached at the scenario meeting, but afterwards Ishihara-san said ‘we made them all flat-chested in the storyboards.”
Both: (laughs)
Hanada: I think Ishihara-san may have thought of something.
Oguro: Did he think of something or did the person drawing the storyboards think of it?
Hanada: Probably Ishihara-san. At the time the scenario was being written, they were still designing the characters, so we took for granted what their chest sizes would be.
Oguro: I understand.
Hanada: Yamada-san was also thinking that Midori would be someone who would feel like she disliked her chest, so that may have also influenced it. If we made her chest too large, it would be very anime character-ish, wouldn’t it?
Oguro: Small in height, big in chest?
Hanada: Yes, yes. That desire to have a girl with small height and large breasts would be something we’d more or less consider “anime-ish.” However, if we did that, it feels like it wouldn’t fit the core of this show, so we restricted ourselves from doing that.
Oguro: It doesn’t mean that the staff themselves necessarily likes small breasts too.
Hanada: What about Ishihara-san though? I remember Yamada-san recommending to “make the three girls flat-chested.”
Oguro: So though those ideas came out in the scenario meetings, but in the end there were girls with both big chest and small chests.
Hanada: I said “how about making three of the four girls flat-chested?” (laughs)

Oguro: So in the scenes where Reina is not around, the three main girls would all have small breasts?
Hanada: That’s right.
Oguro: Speaking of episode 5, that’s nearly mid-way through the series. Were the character designs still not finished at the time that episode’s scenario was being written?
Hanada: That’s right. There’s many times where the scenario for Kyoto Animation’s works takes priority.
Oguro: So the designs fit into the solidified story?
Hanada: That’s how it’s done. That’s why there’s times where the scenario more or less has to be re-built as the story progresses.
Oguro: I understand. So as work hasn’t been started on the storyboards, it’s possible you can go backwards and fine-tune the previous episode’s scenario. As I only received one version of the scenarios this time, I wasn’t able to see the previous versions stack up.
Hanada: That happened. There were about 4-5 drafts. At first I didn’t have any orders from either Yamada-san or Ishihara-san. There wasn’t anything like “I want this to happen in this episode, so write it like this” or “I want this kind of scene in this episode, so please write it here.” Instead, I’d actually say that there were many cases where they asked me to “please write what you think it should be” to start. Then as they saw that scenario, they would point out what they wanted to re-do.
Oguro: So you would write the scenario to start and then they would provide their opinions.
Hanada: They would say things like “I think this would be a better thing to do in the scenario” and “this feels a bit off, so let’s re-think the entire thing through.” It wasn’t just limited to Euphonium, it’s happened for nearly all the works that I’ve worked on with Ishihara-san and Yamada-san.
Oguro: So when they say “I want to do this kind of scene,” it doesn’t mean that they have an image in mind of what they want to depict?
Hanada: That’s right. You think that usually they would have that picture in mind at first, but most of the time they don’t. Yamada-san would say something impressive like “It’s alright if we toss something away somewhere since we’ll receive all of your writing.” (laughs) That’s about as close as one can get.
Oguro: In short, both of them have this “director’s brain.” They’re not the writer type who could form whatever they want; they’re the director type who think about how to assemble the raw materials they’re given.
Hanada: Yep. That’s exactly what they are.
Oguro: Was there anything impressive that happened at the scenario readings?
Hanada: Besides what I’ve said before, the people around me would say things like “you pay too much attention” since I would write down what they said. (laughs) They told me “That’s not what you want to write is it, Hanada-san?”
Oguro: So they wanted you to write something you enjoyed.
Hanada: Right. They told me “If you don’t do that, it’ll be troubling.” They would tell me that and I’d still wonder if something’s good when writing.
Oguro: Were there any parts of Euphonium that you thought “I wanted to write this, so I wrote it?”
Hanada: There were some. For example, I was really happy with the monologue where Kumiko said she felt like she was being taken by a snow woman. It was easy to relate to. Ishihara-san said he was opposed to that kind of reference, but Yamada-san said it was fine as it was. I remember us eventually going with Yamada-san’s opinion. I may not remember it properly, but I thought little nuances like that are nice when writing.
There are a few points like that when I write something and think “This is pretty nice isn’t it?” To give an example that everyone knows about, the line when Asuka holds a cold plastic bottle to the back of Kumiko’s thighs and asks the surprised girl if she “wet herself?” I really liked that when I wrote it and at the scenario meeting Yamada-san said “’Wet yourself?’ is really really good.” (laughs)
Both: (laughs)
Oguro: As long as Yamada-san is laughing, it’s all okay. (laughs)
Hanada: I also love that over-done or somewhat sticking feeling. Ishihara-san would ask if it’s really over-done or not.
Oguro; When I first saw that line on the broadcast, I thought it was over-done. (laughs)
Hanada: Yamada-san will surprising bring up those gulping points too. The balanced feeling from what those two create is amazing. (points to a corner of the long table used for interview) There sits Ishihara-san, Yamada-san, and myself for the triangle we create during these meetings. It’s the usual triangle.

The second part of this interview is linked here.

As Sound! Euphonium is one of my favorite shows to watch, it became one of my favorite shows to translate about. I previously translated an interview with director Tatsuya Ishihara and series director Naoko Yamada in the periodical Animestyle, but there was another interview in that issue. This post is the second of two parts where Oguro interviews the series composer/scriptwriter for Sound! Euphonium, Jukki Hanada. Here is the first part of this interview.

When I finished writing, I thought “This is really good.”

Jukki Hanada (Series Composer/Scriptwriter) Interview

Reporters: Yuichirou Oguro, Itsuki Shouta; Text editing: Yuichirou Oguro; Interview date: September 3, 2015; Interview location: Kyoto Animation Tokyo Office

Jukki Hanada:

Born October 26, 1969 in Miyagi. Works at SARZ. First series composed was Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful. Presently he has worked on countless titles as series composer/scriptwriter. For Kyoto Animation works, he’s composed Nichijou, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, and Kyoukai no Kanata. He served as series composer and wrote all the scripts for Sound! Euphonium.

A different kind of “girlish” besides “anime girl”

Oguro: How did Kumiko’s character solidify from when you started?
Hanada: When I first read the novel, I thought that Kumiko is the type of character that anime fans don’t like. However, when I wrote her, she was amazingly easy to write. It was so easy; I thought “woah, I could easily write forever with this character.” Ishihara-san may have also been worried that anime fans may not like her, but once he saw what I wrote, he truly believed “we can proceed with this character.” On my side, my first request was if we were to go with Kumiko’s character, I wanted to insert some monologues.
Oguro: How did you phrase Kumiko’s character and personality?
Hanada: Phrase?
Oguro: She’s cheerful and frank isn’t she?
Hanada: She is cheerful and frank. In my head, she’s always an indecisive girl. And then she’s also a girl who says too much. She gets wrapped up in extraneous things. However she’s not sour nor rebellious; I think Kumiko’s pleasant and sweet.
And I think she’s the kind of girl who’s one step back, looking at things objectively and soberly. I feel like Kumiko is a different kind of “girlish” than “anime girl.” That might be the reason why she’s so easy to write. It’s something different than what I usually write. I feel like that freshness makes my hands move easier.
Oguro: It doesn’t mean she’s very lively; rather she moves how she wants to?
Hanada: I feel like she does move how she herself wants to. And since there’s no romantic entangling, I don’t have to worry about the differences between boys and girls when writing. That is why I had no difficulties melding together Kumiko’s character for myself. She’s just like the audience.
Since Kumiko is like that, I could write her frankly speaking like someone usually would. It was pleasant to have someone saying something that a usual anime character wouldn’t say as you usually think it’d be like pouring cold water on someone.
Oguro: And it’s fine if you don’t have to worry about making her seem feminine.
Hanada: There was no need to keep her perfect. Also, Kumiko is an easy character to move around to start the story from a protagonist’s point of view. That’s why I thought more about the usual give and take regarding Shuichi’s feelings for her. (laughs) The scenario had more of a romantic situation, but when it was made into visuals, it was a further one or two steps back from where the scenario was.
Oguro: I see. So that doesn’t mean that those depictions weren’t there in the scenario; they became a bit paler when expressed?
Hanada: That’s right. The conversation with Shuichi in episode 1 changed a lot.
Oguro: Was it more of a lovers’ quarrel?
Hanada: Right.
Oguro: If I have to say, it felt like the Kumiko in the visuals had no awareness of Shuichi as a romantic interest. But in the scenario she thought of him a bit more as a boy.

Hanada: Right. It was more nuanced like in episode 8. She wouldn’t necessarily have her heart beating rapidly when he invites her to go to the festival with her, but her eyes would go wide as if it was possible she was surprised.
Oguro: It feels like though she saw him as a boy, she never thought of him as one.
Hanada: However, after he invited her to the festival, she did objectively write out the love triangle in her notebook. “I’m here. Shuichi likes me. Hazuki likes Shuichi.” At that point where she calmly writes all that down, she has no conscious love inside her.
Oguro: Right.
Hanada: When I was writing that episode, I also got to see episode 1’s storyboards so I understood “ah, this show isn’t going that direction.” In the scenario, I feel like Kumiko understood that direction when she was writing that love triangle in her notebook. (laughs)
Oguro: Shuichi appears at many good times, doesn’t he? The scene where Kumiko is practicing on the riverbank and he’s practicing on the other side and they’re holding a concert with the river interposed is quite a nice scene. It wouldn’t be strange to see some type of relationship develop from that trick, but it doesn’t.
Hanada: It doesn’t. There are a lot of tricks that make you think it’s not weird for that to happen, but in the end, that depiction of childhood friends/partners is too strong. Honestly, though I didn’t intend for them to share the common musician interest of wanting to get better, there’s points where I can see that applied well like at the point in the final episode when they fist pump. I think that sense of “these two know each other better than lovers” is conveyed throughout the entire series. Was that in the novel?
Oguro: It was.
Hanada: In the anime, they’re not lovers, so the nuance of them sharing thoughts as musicians is very strong. It carries that feeling of “settle down, do what you plan to, and everything will go well for you.”
Oguro: Leave that “everything will go well for you” feeling for Shuichi-kun himself. (laughs)
Hanada: I’ll leave it for him. (laughs) There were various discussions about him. Should we have drama with him or not? “Shuichi’s a normal boy, so he wouldn’t have a reply to this line” or “If this is said after all this hope, his heart will be broken.” As a male point of view, my thoughts were to be positive with him.
Oguro: So that opinion came out at the scenario meetings?
Hanada: Yes. We trimmed the points where he greedily went after things and changed his expression. And then there were no obvious love flags set.
Oguro: Since none were set, there weren’t any heart breaking moments either.
Hanada: I thought if there were any moments like that, he’d be too pitiful.
Oguro: Depicting that isn’t this work’s objective is it?
Hanada: It’s not. If we were to depict that and make a good anime, we’d have to set it up like his childhood friend doesn’t recognize his feelings and that would make Kumiko into a thickheaded girl. While that may be good for comedy, it’s not good for Euphonium. Also, if we were to do that, it would approach a shojo manga-type setting. We wanted both genders to be able to watch this show, so it was determined not to push that much of a shojo manga romance setting.
Oguro: I thought putting taro as the Madonna, Kaori Nakaseko’s, favorite food was a nice arrangement. Whose idea was that?
Hanada: It was my idea for her to hold taro and drink milk. The line “She’s a Madonna, so she likes taro” like it’s the 90s definitely came from Yamada-san. “She’s a Madonna, so she likes taro” sounds like a trendy drama, doesn’t it? (laughs)
Both: (laughs)
Hanada: So for the scene with those two in Haruka’s room, we went like it’s a trendy drama. (laughs) Also for their route afterwards as well.
Oguro: Afterwards?
Hanada: I kept that in mind during their rooftop scene in episode 9. I thought “surely this will go in this direction.” That was the feeling for most in the meeting. I would put out jokes like “since it’s this scene, let’s do it like that” to inflate that feeling during the exchange.
Oguro: Who decided the names of the concert band members?
Hanada: Yamada-san did. Any characters without a name had one attached by Yamada-san. She said “Hanada-san, please write them in the scenario.”
Oguro: There’s a Lala Hitomi in the club, but that doesn’t mean she’s a foreigner.
Hanada: Definitely a trendy baby name. She probably has similar parents to Sapphire.
Oguro: She appeared a lot as I read the scenario for some reason.
Hanada: I think that would be because she would speak in the third person like “Lala will…” That would make her character stand out.
Oguro: So was it you that made her character talk in the third person?
Hanada: Yes, I made her speak like that. After all, she’s saying “Lala.” When I looked at an image with all the characters together, I thought “the girl who speaks in the third person is definitely Lala.” (laughs) I remembered writing a character who spoke like that in K-On!! named Ichigo, so there’s a potential I may like characters like that. I also love Knuckle-senpai (Narai Tanabe).
Oguro: Every time I see it, Knuckle as a name always leaves an impression. “Don’t come in here Knuckle!” Or “how about Knuckle-senpai?”
Hanada: I thought the way they called him “Knuckle-senpai” was great.
Oguro: Did you create personality designs for all the characters?
Hanada: When Shoko Ikeda was designing the characters, she passed me the memos she wrote. “These girls are a pair.” “These three are a trio.” Those are what she wrote down. I would use those for reference like “so this girl has this personality.”

All the members of the Kita Uji Concert Band had names. The second girl from the left is the much discussed Lala Hitomi.

I would take those memos from the design state and convey them in the scenario. For example if I had a horn player feel like playing hooky, I’d say “so these two players have that hooky feeling” and refine their characters.
Oguro: All of the members are present when they’re in the eyecatches.
Hanada: They’re all there. It’s quite a task. (laughs) That kind of display has to be Ishihara-san. How they got to acting how they were feels like secret background information though.

The final episode’s scenario was nearly half reference material

Oguro: Did you have any experience with wind music before and after working on Euphonium?
Hanada: I didn’t, but I was able to speak from the point of a layman at the scenario meetings because I had none. I could point out “that wouldn’t make sense to anyone who doesn’t know about music” or “That’s something you could insert for people who are unfamiliar with music to find entertaining.”
Oguro: I infer that there’s a lot of staff who worked on Euphonium who have experience with wind music. So you were the one who participated as a person who didn’t know a lot about the subject. However, there were a lot of details for wind music in the scenarios. Did you study to be able to write those details?
Hanada: I studied for about half of them and then there were some that I was taught at our scenario meetings. What helped me the most was going on our scouting trips. After hearing their voices, I understood much more. “Ah, I see, so the mentor would say something like that.” “This is where the students would talk about that.” I would record every line and jot down notes.
Oguro: Where did you scout?
Hanada: I went to the reference school and to the concert performance. The biggest influence I had though was the practice sessions to record “Crescent Moon Dance.”
Oguro: So you went to observe practice for the song written just for Euphonium?
Hanada: I was able to attend the practice for the first performance for this show. I was able to use things like when the mentor would say some piece of advice or what they would say at different times and so that influenced the scenario.
Oguro: In the scenario, there are portions where you have a * at the start of a line. Were those for portions where you wouldn’t know exactly what to write?
Hanada: Yes. That was my “correct this” mark. (laughs)
Oguro: “If there’s something better to say here, please correct this in the storyboards.”
Hanada: “It’s fine if you change it, but perhaps I may have written something that’s illogical for wind music.”

Excerpt 6:
Below is a selection from episode 6’s scenario. The * lines are “correct this” lines.
* Taki: “Please be more aware of the crescendo. The ’da da da da’ should be strong.”
Horn: “Yes.”
* Taki: “Trombone, from the same point.”
Kumiko N: “The Agata Festival had ended and we had become accustomed to seeing the white pages in front of us. The nervousness in the air grew as the auditions came near.”
Performance ends.
Taki: “Keep in mind those points I mentioned and please head to your part practices.”
All: “Yes!”
* Hirone: “But Sensei, what about the Clar part (blank)?”
Taki: “Yes, please come see me afterwards.”
* Kotomi: “The flute too please.”

Oguro: The * marks increased a lot during the second half of the show.
Hanada: I could find portions to use lines from the novel in the first half, but the second half had an original piece that was made for the anime. There were many points where I didn’t know if the instructions I wrote in the scenario were right or not when that piece was featured.
And so while there were similar lines in the novel, I didn’t know if they fit this piece or if they would be applicable to the way the instruments performed it. I had no way of knowing if they matched the scene for that piece, so it needed to be checked after the scenario had been written. What was troubling was during the scenes when they’re performing from some measure to some measure. Those were points that we couldn’t mess up what instructions would be given. When I see that, I think how difficult it was.
Oguro: So the piece they perform at the concert was already determined.
Hanada: It had been determined. Midway through the scenario, the set piece and the free piece had been decided.

Excerpt 7:
The set piece the Kita Uji Wind Music Ensemble performs at the concert in the final episode is “Wind of Provence” and the free piece is “Crescent Moon Dance.” Actually, “Wind of Provence” was the set piece the All Japan Wind Music Federation decided for 2015. As “Crescent Moon Dance” was a fictional piece introduced in the novel, it was composed for the anime. Furthermore, it was the set piece in the novel.

Hanada: The scenario had already gone quite far at that time. I heard “Crescent Moon Dance” last autumn, and recording took place around February or March of this year. By then, that was after the scenario.
Oguro: So by the time you were able to see the performance, there was nothing else you could write.
Hanada: Right. I wrote the scenario around when the pieces were chosen that they would perform at the concert.
Oguro: It’s the final episode, but about half of the episode itself is a performance. All you could write were stage directions during the performance. How did you handle that?
Hanada: Well, I remember being told “All you have to do is write the A-part and the last scene. Leave the rest to us!” at the scenario meetings. However, when I was writing it, I didn’t know how long the performance would last, so I wrote the A-part a bit longer, thinking that they could trim it down to match the length of the performance in the storyboards.

Oguro: Ah, I see.
Hanada: I applied the experience I had at the concert from morning until evening and the lines I heard or conditions there to the characters, so rather than assembling a story, it felt more like it was piling together sketches. Also I thought the storyboards would be created like a documentary, so the final scenario was nearly half reference material.
Oguro: Speaking of pages, other episodes’ scenarios were around 75 pages, but the final episode’s was around 50 pages.
Hanada: I might be exaggerating it, but I think there may not have been one line left over from the scenario in the storyboards. (laughs) As a result, I’m glad it went almost as close to the scenario as possible.
Oguro: In that episode, the B group made mascots and there was a scene where they presented them to the members performing at the concert. Was that something from a real concert?
Hanada: It likely was. When I saw the concert, I saw everyone wearing the same thing and thought those were probably made by someone. You’re limited to only your front line, so surely some alternates would come. Since the top schools would definitely have some alternates, I thought those kids would be doing various things like that.
Oguro: And they would write things like “Do your best!” on the music sheets?
Hanada: They’d probably do that too. When I scouted around, I saw something like “you’ll never find this” written.
Oguro: Was that written by someone who wasn’t performing?
Hanada: A really close friend or someone who’s also performing probably wrote that.

When I finished writing, I thought “This is really good.”

Oguro: There are many portions of the finished show that were completed like a movie. Was there a desire to make scenes feel like a movie at the scenario meetings or were there possibly no request to make those scenes?
Hanada: I think there were many situations where we received inspiration from the novel and wanted to depict certain scenes or movie-equse portrayals because it’s a novel. That’s why my own order to myself was to not shave off any of the novel from the first line until the end and there was dialogue I absolutely wanted to include. I thought it’d be great to pile those scenes I mentioned in a way where they would be impressive. That’s about how it went.
Oguro: Piling those scenes to make them impressive; is that the order of scenes?
Hanada: Assembling things so those scenes would stand out like “I want this to be the climax” or “I’d like to use this here if length isn’t an issue.”
Oguro: So people would notice those scenes much more?
Hanada: I mentioned some scenes that I thought weren’t as interesting, but since they weren’t, I thought that I could place them around other, more interesting scenes. I believe that they could make those scenes I wanted to do a lot better. So I went back and structured them towards that as the turning point.
Oguro: Euphonium begins in spring, goes through the rainy season, and goes through summer. There’s scenes present showing the changing seasons. Did someone ask you to make it like that?
Hanada: That idea came out at our scenario meetings. And then this is my own thoughts, but since Kyoto Animation’s finished visuals are so beautiful, or as their representation of the atmosphere’s sensation is so superb, I thought they wanted to bring that out as much as possible when it came time to depict this show.
Oguro: So you thought about how the story would be structured for situations where the atmospheric feeling would come out in the visuals
Hanada: It’s like, where in the scene when Aoi quits the band, it definitely feels like it’s in the rainy season.
Oguro: Ah, I see your point.
Hanada: I felt like I linked up from that thought. We start in spring and then we go to summer through the rainy season. “It’s summer, so I’ll insert a blue sky here.” Or “Autumn has pampas grass.”
Oguro: So you would be happy as a scriptwriter to write stage directions like “looks at the sky” and that become such a cool image.
Hanada: I was happy. (laughs)
Oguro: (laughs)

Hanada: I thought “It’s just like it read.” That’s one of the fun parts of being able to work with Kyoto Animation. Images come to mind when you’re location scouting. Thinking “It’s Kyoto Animation, so they’ll take this beautiful scenery and make it into a visual” while you’re walking around the streets and bridges of Uji and talking with the director was as fun part of the job.
Oguro: But director Ishihara says things like “I want to make this kind of image, so I’ll make this scene” does he?
Hanada: He doesn’t.
Oguro: Really!
Hanada: It was impressive to see the raw materials where I added or changed part of the novel when completing the scenario become linked with the storyboards.
Oguro: Returning to the “director’s brain” conversation, it’s not that director Ishihara or Yamada-san express something they want to, but that from the materials…..
Hanada: From the materials, I think they select and construct points they want to focus on instead. If it’s like that, then they understand the style they want to do when reading the first draft I write. Those portions are very flat and then it feels like they expand outwards.
Oguro: I see. Perhaps Yamada-san will inherit Ishihara-san’s stance. What scenes in Euphonium brought out a deep emotion for you when you saw them?
Hanada: I think episode 1 and episode 12 brought out much more. Episode 12 mostly went along the lines of the scenario, but there were some original points inserted and those left such an impression on me. Its director, (Ichirou) Miyoshi-san wrote the very last line Taki-sensei says, “I haven’t forgotten that you said you could do it.” In the scenario, it was the same as the novel, “I truly believe this group will go to Nationals.” That one change of lines made this episode have an impression on me due to how different it was. I also thought that line was great.
Oguro: And the points in episode 1 that impressed you?
Hanada: I talked about this earlier; it was the conversation between Kumiko and Shuichi. When I saw it, I thought “Ah, this is definitely what Yamada-san wanted. I should’ve known.” I also wrote a script for her for Tamako Market, so the way that played out was very Tamakoish.
Oguro: The way the guy’s feelings couldn’t be conveyed was very Tamakoish.
Hanada: Yes. Therefore, Ishihara-san and Yamada-san take the written scenario, without any “I want to do this” portions in it, and make it into film by putting each of their stamps on the finished product. I think they both have the confidence to take the motif and skeleton of a story and make it their own thing. I have fun writing for those kinds of people. It makes me happy to see what I write go so well above what I could predict.
Oguro: Were there any other impressionable moments besides the line in episode 12?
Hanada: Definitely the passion inserted in the scene of Kumiko running. At the time I wrote that scene in the scenario, I knew that there would have to be some passion inserted into that scene, but there was more passion in it than I ever expected.
Oguro: Now that you mention it, how did you write all the scenarios for each episode?
Hanada: As I said before, if I have to choose a side, I’m the kind who writes from the beginning. There’s situations where I write a first draft, it’s not received well, and so the second draft’s direction is changed. I’m not able to trust other people to write that scenario (laughs)
Oguro: If there are other scriptwriters, then as a series composer, if there’s no decision on how the entire story will flow, then you can’t give them the directions they would need in order to write like “this series has this kind of taste.”
Hanada: At times where there are many writers, since two or three episodes are progressing simultaneously, if I suddenly change something completely around, then the others have to change in order to match mine. It’s not just Kyoto Animation’s works; I’ve had many times where I’ve made someone else’s work useless and said “I’m very sorry, but please write this from the beginning again.” I really want to receive things from various people, but receiving them becomes such a pain, so really….
Oguro: The uniformity of telling the story in Euphonium was quite nice. It starts nice and easy, then the tension rises, and though there’s a gap in how it rises, it’s told the same way. I thought the way that only one person wrote that style was nice.
Hanada: As I wrote all the episodes, it was important and fun for me to tie together the taste and tension for each episode.
Oguro: Euphonium eventually became an adolescent work. Did you think it would become that when you started?
Hanada: I thought it would. I’ve worked in the past together with Ishihara-san on shows like Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shirai!. Since we shared similar opinions that “adolescent works are nice” or “I’d like to portray the naivety of adolescence” I think all three of us shared common thoughts when reading the novel and nothing else needed to be said.
Oguro: And then it was your idea to end each episode with the narration of “And so the next piece begins.”
Hanada: I wanted the same line that ended every episode to change at the very end and be something great that wouldn’t get tiresome, but in the end it because something very orthodox. (laughs)
Oguro: Wasn’t that line based on the last line in chapter 4 of the first novel? “The music filled with the dreams of Kita Uji High School, had only now just begun.”
Hanada: Ah! Now that you’ve said it, it might be. I wasn’t aware of anything in particular while writing, but perhaps I had kept that in mind when I read it. I keep a few things in mind so if I use the most orthodox thing temporarily, I’ll have something if Ishihara-san says “Is this alright?” (laughs)
Oguro: When I saw the scenario, it wasn’t just “and so the next piece began,”; there were small differences included. “….. the next piece began” or “And yet again, the next piece began.” But excluding the final episode, each episode’s broadcast ended with “and so the next piece began.”
Both: (laughs)
Hanada: Ishihara-san liked that it was the same each time. Only the final episode should be different.

Oguro: Its was “And so our piece continues.”
Hanada: That it was. The opening each time where we include flashbacks from the previous episode was something Ishihara-san said he wanted to do. If we open like that, then we could tie every episode together by ending with the same line.
Oguro: Opening with a flashback and ending with the same line makes Euphonium feel like a real TV program. The opening was decided very early in production, wasn’t it?
Hanada: It was.
Oguro: What was your response after the show finished broadcasting?
Hanada: When I finished writing, I thought “This is entertaining.” Out of all the works I’ve written in my career, this is a work that lives up to the height of that response. I enjoyed the broadcast and was content with each episode. Even now, I really love it.
Oguro: Around the time this book gets release, the contents of the bonus episode included in the 7^th BD/DVD volume, Start Running Monaka, should be announced. Did you also write that episode?
Hanada: I did write it as well. It depicts the B group starting with Natsuki-san. There are many Hazuki moments as well. If you’ve played music, the story will be something irresistible to you. To put it in normal words, it’d please me if you watch it.

In 2008, TBS producer Yoshihisa Nakayama took on a risk when deciding to make a TV anime series adaptation of a manga right after the first volume was published! In the end, his risk paid off immensely for TBS as K-On! became one of the big hit shows of 2009 (really only behind Bakemonogatari in popularity). The series was the first Kyoto Animation production to be released on Blu-ray (back in 2009), so it took 5 years (and a necessity of additional revenue to shore up the fiscal year) for TBS to greenlight a BD-Box in March 2014. This is a review of that box set.

TBS paid for 14 episodes of K-On! to be made, planning to broadcast at least the first 12 of them and maybe having a “bonus” episode air with another episode to encourage people to buy at least the 7th BD/DVD volume (conveniently packaged with a storage box for all 7, encouraging people to buy the other 6 to fill it up!). This box was planned similarly. TBS decided for 5 discs to have each of the main 5 girls on their own disc and not to leave anyone out. That necessitated the main 12 episodes to be split into 4 episode portions on discs 1-3 and the bonus episodes + bonus features on the 4th disc. (the 5th would be a CD). And so that’s how this 5 disc set was designed.

TBS also made a decision to have it be an “album” type package with a cut-open front cover and various images to be highlighted. There’s the center of the newly drawn digipak (showing the opposite side from volume 7’s cover art), the back of the box (also newly drawn), and postcards featuring the key visuals and cover art from the singles. The digipak itself has a nice continuous image that fits the mood of the first season.

Pony Canyon used the same video masters from the singles, just encoded onto a new disc with new menus (that are still images with BGM played over). Additionally, the same audio masters are used, including the main feature audio, audio commentary from the cast, and audio commentary from the staff for each episode. Newly recorded commentary was performed for the episodes on disc 3 with Yamada and the main cast members. The “Ura-On!” shorts, textless OPs/ED, commercials and Toyosaki Aki interview are all on disc 4. All episodes and bonus content (except OP/ED/CMs) have both Japanese and English subtitles.

Since this was at the beginning of BD encoding/mastering, Pony’s masters have some banding issues at times. It’s not the worst video I’ve ever seen, nor is it as good as later releases. It’s serviceable for this show while continuing to highlight the impressive visual cuts. Similarly, the audio is a good stereo mix and the commentaries range from okay (mostly cast) to enjoyable (staff).

Also included (and another possible album cover) is a book containing the information from the cards included in the singles as well as design materials such as Yui’s room and her path to school, anniversary messages from the cast/staff, and a summary of the credits shown for each episode (minus each episode’s animators, painters, & photographers).  Finally, included in the package is a flip calendar that can be used for many years to come.

Overall, it’s a great set if you’re interested in K-On! and/or want the “Ura-On!” shorts with subtitles. As usual, TBS doesn’t include any English dubs, so those looking for one will have to go domestic. I’d argue this one is almost better than the original (if you don’t want doll cutouts, sheet music, or picks). I’m certainly glad it’s in my collection.