"Garden of Remembrance", an original short anime by director Yamada Naoko, known for films such as "A Silent Voice", "Liz and the Blue Bird", and "The Color of You", is being distributed on Anime Times, Abema, Hulu, Lemino and others. The anime is themed around anemone flowers and depicts the fluctuating emotions and "goodbyes" of three people - "you", "me" and a "childhood friend". The original character designs were created by Mizusawa Etsuko, the manga artist responsible for the illustrations of the manga "Flower Lazy Meals", and it was produced by Science SARU. The anime has no dialogue, and the music by singer-songwriter Lovely Summer-chan beautifully expresses delicate emotions. We asked Director Yamada and Lovely Summer-chan about the behind-the-scenes of the production.
◇Drunk on first meeting!?
-How did Lovely Summer-chan end up participating?
It seems that Director Yamada nominated Lovely Summer-chan. It's an honor.
Director Yamada: The producer asked me if I was interested in making a short film like a music video, and it all started with music and animation. It seemed like I could do what I loved! I thought I could do a project like this! It was a wonderful idea, and I said I wanted to work with Lovely Summer-chan! I wanted to portray her worldview. Please take this as a compliment, but the song has a very girly, selfish feel to it, which I thought was cool, and I wanted to create an anime with a girly world that smells great, so I proposed it to her.
Director Yamada: No way! Right? I was in the light music club in high school, so I'm right in the "K-ON!" generation, and I love "Tamako Market" so much that I can sing all the songs, so I thought, "No way!" That was my biggest reaction. I had overheard that Director Yamada was a big music fan, so I was honored to be chosen by him.
--What was your impression when you first met?
Lovely Summer: It was fun. I got really drunk. I confessed my mysterious love story.
Director Yamada: At the dinner after the meeting, a jar of shochu was prepared for us. Lovely Summer is a rock star, I was really impressed. When we talked, she was very clever and knowledgeable, and while she had a core of what she had learned, she also looked at things with her sensibilities. I felt she was a really interesting person.
Lovely Summer: Those are words I didn't want to give. I was nervous. She's a friendly person, and it would have been nice if she'd been like, "I'm Yamada Naoko," but that wasn't the case at all, so I felt relieved.
Director Yamada: I didn't think she was that stiff. It was a big deal that Lovely Summer opened up and started talking to me on the first day.
Lovely Summer-chan: I think it's because Director Yamada shared his thoughts with me. Director Yamada is a very open person.
Director Yamada: I'm glad to hear you say that. I guess we got along well.
◇Leaving space on purpose
How did you decide on the concept?
Director Yamada: Lovely Summer-chan and I brought together keywords, I made a poem out of it, wrote the storyboard based on that, and Lovely Summer-chan wrote the music. It was the first time we'd ever done that. We got a lot of ideas, which was fun. At first, we just bounced ideas off each other, and some of them came out of that.
Lovely Summer-chan: It wasn't an order to make a certain kind of work or write a certain kind of song, but we started from the outline. It wasn't specifically verbalized, but we were given suggestions of historical sites and illustrations from fairy tales, and we brainstormed and came up with the poem that would become the core. I left some room for it, and the production proceeded without being too specific.
Director Yamada: If I make a specific proposal, it will become rigid and boring. I like to think, so I wanted to work with someone who likes to think, and I left some room for it. I remember actually talking to him and getting the impression that he likes to think, so I left some room for it and said something like, "Why don't we try making one thing that we want to do?" That's so cool. Sorry!
Lovely Summer-chan: It was my first time communicating with him through images, rather than deciding on something specific with words, and it was interesting.
Director Yamada: I don't know how music is made, but I thought it was better to have a lot of room for it. I thought it was made with a way of thinking that can't be explained by the meaning of words alone. I think we were both suffering.
Lovely Summer-chan: I was given a few keywords, but I think it's a story about "facing loss." There are other elements as well. I mentioned that I scattered my grandfather's ashes, and that image was very strong in my mind. As I was creating the piece, I was confronted with the fact that my grandfather was no longer with us. Putting it into words and making it into music was difficult, painful, and tough.
Continued in interview (2).
