It has been announced that a project will be held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the popular anime series My-HiME, which began airing on TV in 2004. To celebrate the 20th anniversary, character designer Hirokazu Hisayuki has released new visuals and illustrations. The 20th anniversary logo was also unveiled, and Director Masakazu Obara sent in a congratulatory message.
Two 20th anniversary promotional videos have also been released on YouTube. The videos use the opening theme "Shining☆Days" and the ending theme "You Were in the Sky." The opening version recalls the exploits of the HiME characters, while the ending version gives a sense of the climax of the story. An official My-HiME Twitter account has also been opened. It was also announced that sweets designed with the characters will be released to commemorate the 20th anniversary.
My-HiME is a battle action anime featuring beautiful girls, billed as "Sunrise's first moe anime." The TV anime series My-HiME aired from September 2004 to March 2005, and the second series, My-Otome, aired from October 2005 to March 2006. The original video animations My-Otome Zwei and My-Otome 0~S.ifr~ were subsequently produced.
◇Staff (titles omitted)
Planning: Sunrise▽Original work: Yatate Hajime▽Series composition: Yoshino Hiroyuki▽Character design and animation director: Hisayuki Hirokazu▽Creature design: Miyatake Kazutaka (Studio Nue), Akutsu Junichi▽Set design: Aoki Tomoyuki▽Guest mecha design: Taiga Hiroyuki▽Uniform design original: Inomata Mutsumi▽Element gun design: Hirai Hisashi▽Media writer: Kimura Nobu▽Creative producer: Taniguchi Goro▽Art director: Takasuka Shinji▽Color design: Yokoyama Sayoko▽Director of photography: Suehiro Takafumi▽Editor: Seki Kazuhiko▽Sound Director: Mima Masafumi▽Music Producer: Inoue Shunji, Ito Yoshiyuki▽Music: Kajiura Yuki▽Director: Obara Masakazu▽Producer: Furusato Naotake, Kunizaki Hisanori
◇Cast (titles omitted)
Tokiha Mai: Nakahara Mai▽Kuga Natsuki: Chiba Saeko▽Mibukuro Mikoto: Shimizu Ai▽Munakata Shiho: Nogawa Sakura▽Fujino Shizuru: Shindo Naomi▽Sushujo Haruka: Yuzuki Suzuka▽Kikugawa Yukiyuki: Noto Mamiko▽Sugiura Aoi: Tamura Yukari▽Yuki Nao: Nanri Yuuka▽Harada Chie: Saiga Mitsuki▽Senou Aoi: Shintani Yoshiko
◇Comment from Director Obara Masakazu
Well, first of all, congratulations on the 20th anniversary of My-HiME. Yes, thank you. You're welcome. This is Director Obara.
うう、是非楽しみに待っていてくださいね！ 英語: Sorry to start off with this, but what do you think about suddenly remembering and bringing out an old work and celebrating its XX anniversary or something? It would be one thing if it was something as popular as Macross or Sword, but this is My-HiME. I hate to say it myself, but isn't it pretty outdated? Is it OK? Won't it be a flop? The aspect ratio is 4:3, you know? It would be terrible if the events were deserted.
Sorry, I can't keep talking like that so I'll try to share some memories that are relevant to that. Well, one thing I can remember is, I don't know when it was, but I think it was around the time My-HiME was about to go on air.
Producer Furusato suddenly took me to a family restaurant quite far from the studio, and just as I sat down Furusato got a call on his mobile and he quickly left, and I ended up waiting for nearly an hour and 40 minutes with just a cup of tea. By the way, this is a common thing that happens to Furusato. Cell phones back then didn't have time-killing features like today's smartphones, so I waited, my eyes glued to the menu on the table, when he finally returned and said, "Me, Hisayuki, Yoshino and I are going to launch a spectacular creators' unit. You have nothing to do with it, so do what you want," and then he got in his car and drove off somewhere.
I don't know if it was the aftermath of the Evangelion craze at the time, but anime magazines were really into promoting creators, and I thought, "Oh, I see, Furusato-san wants to get on that bandwagon," as I walked back to the studio by myself.
But you know, why did he go to a family restaurant just to talk about something so trivial? Wouldn't the studio's conference room or even the production room have been fine? I wondered, but I guess he was talking about the family restaurant at the time. It's still a mystery to me now.
Well, I took what he said to mean, "No matter how much you mess up in the work, I'll take full responsibility, so just do your best and think of it as being on a big ship," so from then on, I worked under Producer Furusato for a few years, and then on to My-Otome and Space Girl, and I really did think of it as being on a big ship, and I had a really enjoyable life as a director.
I thought I could end it with a nice story like this, saying, "The old days were better, and compared to that, what's the industry like today!", but hmm, that's impossible. I don't really think that at all.
In the first place, if the comment is of that level, then surely an AI would be fine? That's right, everyone, isn't this what living, human writing is like? Even with typos and subtle parts where the phrasing isn't quite right, this is what humanity is all about.
That's right, the theme of My-HiME is, "What is humanity?" Isn't that right? You're saying it's not? After all, aren't there a lot of My-HiME characters that are uncool? But never mind.
And now that I've finished on a good note, I'd like to say once again congratulations on My-HiME's 20th anniversary. That's all for my congratulatory comments. See you all, fans.
