The TV anime "Kowloon Generic Romance," based on the manga by Mayuzuki Jun currently being serialized in "Weekly Young Jump" (Shueisha), began airing on TV Tokyo and other networks on April 5th. In October last year, it was announced that a live-action film would be made at the same time as the TV anime, which also became a hot topic. It is not uncommon for a work to be made into both an anime and a live-action film. However, the anime and live-action dramas are often not linked, with different broadcasting stations and different broadcast and screening times. The anime and live-action film of "Kowloon Generic Romance" were produced by the same team, and visuals and a Teaser trailer linking the two works have been released. What is the aim of this unique double media mix? We spoke to Arisawa Ryoya, producer at Bandai Namco Filmworks, who is working on both the anime and the live-action film.
◇Is it possible to link anime and live action?
"Kowloon Generic Romance" is a manga by Mayuzuki, who is also known for "Love is Like After the Rain," which was adapted into a TV anime and a live-action movie. It has been serialized in "Weekly Young Jump" since November 2019. Reiko Kujirai, who works at a real estate agency in the nostalgic city of Kowloon Walled City, has a slight crush on her senior at work, Hajime Kudo. When she finds a photo, she learns that Kudo had a fiance who looked just like her in the past. As memories that can't be found, the true identity of another self, and a huge secret hidden in the city of Kowloon, the past, present, and future intertwine, love will unravel the secret. The anime will be released this summer with Haruka Shiraishi playing Reiko Kujirai and Tomokazu Sugita playing Hajime Kudo, and a live-action movie starring Riho Yoshioka and Koshi Mizukami in double roles.
Bandai Namco Filmworks has worked on both anime and live-action films, but according to producer Arisawa, this is the first time they have produced a linked film like "Kowloon Generic Romance." They had planned the film with the premise that it would be linked.
"Our company has been working on Japanese films for a long time, and although I mainly work on anime, I am also in charge of special effects productions, and through that connection I have produced a late-night drama with director Koichi Sakamoto. Recently, there has been an increase in successful works that are both live-action films and anime, but the reality is that there are few that properly link the two. Why is that? It has left me feeling unsettled as a viewer. I have been thinking about whether it is possible to produce a work that successfully links the two."
However, not all works can be made into anime or live-action films. There are surely some works that can be made into anime but would be difficult to make into live-action films.
"When adapting manga for film, I don't think there are many things that can't be expressed in anime, but there are only a few that don't look out of place when made into live-action. Conversely, there are works that are suitable for live-action but are difficult to make commercially viable as anime. I was struggling with this when I came across ' Kowloon Generic Romance.' Mayuzuki-sensei's 'Love is Like After the Rain' has also been adapted into both anime and live-action, and both are wonderful works that have been successful. Taking 'Love is Like After the Rain' into account, I began to think that I might be able to do both while still expressing the appeal of the original work. The appeal of the original work is a given, but I wanted to make this a project that hadn't been done before, so I started working with the same producing team as a plan to develop both the anime and live-action versions together. I wanted to try something that not many other people have done."
"Kowloon Generic Romance" is a work filled with various charms, including mystery and love romance.
"Mystery and romance coexist beautifully, and I felt that the greatest appeal was that it left you wanting to know what would happen next. It's important for a TV anime series to make you want to watch the next episode. Conversely, a live-action movie would be able to keep you hooked for about two hours straight to the end with the mystery. The visuals are also fantastic. The visuals stand out on film, and the emotions depicted are so raw that I'm sure it would feel natural when made into a live-action film."
◇ Making the most of the unique characteristics of both TV anime and live-action films
Anime and live-action films have different methods of expression. The viewing methods are also different for weekly TV anime and live-action films seen at the cinema. I tried to visualize it while taking advantage of the characteristics of each.
"The first big difference is the structure. For the TV anime series, we decided from the beginning that we would make the plot interesting, like a foreign drama. We worked closely with Director Iwasaki (Yoshiaki) and screenwriter Tanaka Jin to create a structure that would leave you wondering what would happen next at the end of each episode, centered around the mystery and suspense parts of the original work. The live-action film is centered around a love romance. The original work has many elements, so we organized them and made sure to make sure there would be no sense of incongruity no matter which way you watched it. We made the core of the story clear, but when we tried to do it, it was actually quite difficult."
I tried to fully express the charm of the characters.
"It's important to express the feel of the original work in the anime. For the anime, we were able to ask Shibata Yuka, who also worked on 'After the Rain,' to handle the character designs. For the live-action version, it's important that the cast's aura matches the characters and that they look like natural people, not cosplayers. In that respect, this time we were able to find a fantastic cast who couldn't have been a better match. We had a long period of location shooting in Taiwan, and both Yoshioka and Mizukami said they'd love to do it, so I was grateful. Everyone in the cast, both anime and live-action, loves the original work, and was able to participate with a high level of quality. I think the passion of the cast makes the work even more amazing."
The recreation of Kowloon Walled City, where the story takes place, is also likely to be a key part of the work.
"The live-action movie was shot in Taiwan, and CG was used only for parts that could not be fully expressed on location. Since art is important for anime, that was the first challenge. We ended up having Yuji Kaneko participate as art director. Once we were confident that the art aspect could be secured, we were able to move forward with the animation."
It will also be interesting to see how the TV anime and live-action film will be linked in the future. "It's hard to show one work from a different angle, and there are still some things we don't know how it will be received by the viewers, but we are planning to continue to build links between the live-action and anime in the future," he said, so further developments are sure to be of interest.
