The TV anime "Mahoaku" based on the romantic comedy manga by the late Fujiwara Cocoa, known for the TV anime "Inu x Boku SS (Inu x Boku Secret Service)", will air its final episode on September 24th on TOKYO MX and other stations. The video, which reproduces Fujiwara's delicate and beautiful drawings, and the story structure that shows her love for the original work have captivated many fans. In animating Fujiwara's "unfinished masterpiece", which became her last work due to her sudden death in 2015, the production team had the desire to "please the fans" and "not to make them feel sad that the story ends halfway through". We asked director Ohashi Akiyo, who worked on the anime, about the behind-the-scenes production.
◇An anime that fans will enjoy
"Mahoaku" is a romantic comedy manga that was serialized in "Gangan Comics JOKER" (Square Enix) from 2013 to 2015. Mira, an evil strategist who seeks to destroy the world, falls in love at first sight with Mikumori Byakuya, a magical girl who fights to protect the world. The story depicts the days of these two enemies as they "kill and love each other" in a humorous way. Three volumes of the manga have been released so far.
Director Ohashi felt that the original work contained a sense of "fun" and "sadness" that flowed through the work.
"The characters are really cute, but they're not just cute, they're all a little strange, and it's really interesting to see how these characters interact with each other, but there are also scenes scattered throughout that make your heart ache, and I felt that this was at the core of the work. I also felt the loneliness of the fans who said, 'I can't read any more,' and I felt that this linked in a broad sense to the slightly sad parts of the story, and I got the impression that it was 'kind of sad, but fun.'"
The original story is basically a four-panel comic that progresses in a comical way, but there are also scenes in the normal frame layout that are not four panels, that make your heart ache with Byakuya and Mira.
"Kokoa-sensei's 'this is what makes me happy' and 'look here' are very easy to understand. The four-panel comics are not cut up into small pieces, but are all drawn to be continuous, so when we drew it for the TV anime, we didn't want to cut it up into chunks, but to make it immersive and follow the story, and we wanted to present it as a continuous story."
The most important thing for Director Ohashi and the production team in adapting "Mahoaku" into an anime was "to create something that fans would be happy with." Each episode of the TV anime is 15 minutes long, and the reason for adopting this format was the policy of "not adding anything unnecessary." Voice actors such as Yuki Ono as Mira and Mai Nakahara as Byakuya are also continuing from the drama CD released in 2015.
"The drama CD was supervised entirely by Kokoa-sensei, the script was written by her, and she was even present at the dubbing. It's very reassuring to have a voice actor who has worked with Kokoa-sensei join in, so I really wanted them to do it as is, and I'm sure the fans would want that too."
◇A special scene that makes your heart ache, like witnessing an embarrassed couple nearby
The anime beautifully depicts special scenes, such as the heart-throbbing scene between Byakuya and Mira. Director Ohashi wanted to highlight the "heart-throbbing scenes" from the original work in the anime as well.
"The four-panel parts of the original are fun and hectic, and I used manpu (manpu), image backgrounds, and even chibi characters, so I wanted to keep the atmosphere of the original intact, but I also felt that Cocoa herself wanted to draw the parts in normal frames that aren't four-panel, and that she wanted the readers to really get into them, so I wondered if I could balance that well. I wanted to keep the manga-like parts, properly incorporate lighting, and add a cut that would change the atmosphere a little, so that people would hold their breath and stare at it."
In these special scenes, I also paid special attention to the lighting, lines, and colors.
"On set, we called it 'special solid lines,' but for special scenes, we tried to use a different solid line from the other cuts. As expected, the number of lines and colors increased for those cuts, so I think it took a lot of work. I think we were able to create a scene that left a lasting impression on everyone, due to the contrast with the comedy scenes."
Furthermore, for the special scenes, the soundtrack was deliberately kept to a minimum, in order to give the viewer the feeling of "witnessing Byakuya and Mira's embarrassing exchanges from up close."
"In the ninth episode, in which Byakuya and Mira spend Christmas night together, there is a scene where they call each other "Mira-san" and "Byakuya-san." By not including the background music, the viewer is forced to feel like they are there, witnessing the embarrassing exchange between the two of them, and I wanted them to feel like, "I can't stand it, when is this going to end?" During the meetings and cutting of that episode, a group of grown-ups gathered together and said, "It's embarrassing...!" and "Do it somewhere else!" (laughs). I asked them to cut down the background music so that viewers could watch something embarrassing as it was." ◇Attention to detail in transformation scenes - When is the final episode? The anime "Mahoaku," which was produced with respect for the original work, features scenes unique to the anime, such as the transformation scenes of the magical girls Byakuya and Kagari Hibana. In the original work, there are few illustrations depicting the transformation scene, so the transformation scene was created from just a few hints. "There was only one picture of the transformation scene drawn by Kokoa-sensei, so I had to imagine it from there, but her editor at the time gave me some advice that she had said about the transformation scene, 'Rather than a sexy one like Cutie Honey, it should be cute like Sailor Moon.' I and the other staff are from the Sailor Moon generation, so we've been ingrained in that transformation scene, so we got some of Sailor Moon-senpai's blood and flesh to create it."
They also paid attention to the production so that even children would be excited to see it.
"I think that in most transformation scenes, there is a transformation bank and then it changes into an image background, but in Mahoaku, I wanted to make it feel like Byakuya exists in reality, and then she transforms in a continuous way. First, a staircase of light appears in the real world, and when she climbs it and jumps into the sea of stars, it becomes the transformation space. I thought it would be good to draw it as a continuous scene from reality so that even small children would be excited to see it."
Mahoaku is an anime that makes the most of the charm of the unfinished original work left by Fujiwara Kokoa. Finally, we asked about the highlights of the final episode.
"From the beginning of the production of the anime, I thought about ending it in a way that would show that the anime would end with the final episode, but that the story would continue. I thought that the fans would be happy when the anime started, but when it ended, they would feel lonely again. I felt very bad about making the fans go through the same feelings they had when the original manga ended halfway through, with the anime. I think the final episode is a fitting ending for Byakuya-chan and Mira, and I would be happy if you could see how Byakuya-chan, who has grown since the first episode, looks at the end."
