The TV anime "Vigilante - My Hero Academia ILLEGALS -" is an official spin-off of Kohei Horikoshi's popular manga "My Hero Academia (Hiroaka)" and is written by Furuhashi Hideyuki and illustrated by Bete Arata. It is currently being broadcast on TOKYO MX, Yomiuri TV and other stations. Set in Japan several years before the events of the "Hiroaka" series, the drama depicts the vigilantes, illegal heroes who cannot help but save people even if they are not recognized by anyone, behind the scenes of the heroes who are recognized and active by the people. We spoke to Kenichi Suzuki, the director of the anime, about the behind-the-scenes production and the attention to detail in depicting "illegal heroes".
◇The weedy spirit of an illegal hero
"Vigilante" is also said to be "the story of Deku who never met All Might" and "the story of Deku who couldn't get into U.A. High School," and the three main characters are ordinary college student Koichi Haimai, self-proclaimed free idol Pop☆Step, and the trash "cleaner" Knuckleduster. Director Suzuki read the original work and said he felt that "the hard work of people who don't get the spotlight is very appealing."
"Each of the three have their own will, and I really like how they act as vigilantes; I think it's great. It has the same worldview as 'My Hero Academia' and can be seen in various ways, with 'Vigilante' being one in which at first glance, they are just any college student and grow through their vigilante activities. In 'My Hero Academia', the characters end up getting into U.A., but in 'Vigilante' they feel like they are working in a completely different place, which makes them feel even more like ordinary people. In other words, it's like 'it's closer to us.' To put it in perspective, there are people who ended up becoming singers, and people who aimed to be singers, but didn't end up becoming singers, but are always performing live. I like that feeling of weed spirit."
What Director Suzuki kept in mind when adapting "Vigilante" into an anime was "to preserve the positive image of the original work that everyone has read, and to make it even more exciting with the power of the voice actors, music, and animators."
"When it comes to anime, you have to draw frames that aren't in the original work, things between the lines. The impression you get from reading the manga is different from the impression you get from watching it in animation, so I think you have to make the intense things intense, the happy things happy, and give them a boost, so I try not to get between the lines as much as possible."
◇American comics arranged in a Japanese style to make the night beautiful
Director Suzuki said that he was aware of both the fact that the story is set in the same world as "HeroAca" and the differences between the two, and that he was focusing on "arranging American comics in a Japanese style" in regards to the American comic feel that is common to both "Vigilante" and "HeroAca."
"What if you look at American comics with a Japanese taste? I'm doing it with the impression that it's like arranging American comics in a Japanese style, and the foundation is Japan, but what if you put on the skin of American comics? For example, America is a world where there are no vending machines in the city, but by consciously drawing vending machines in the city, when foreigners see it, they see it as 'It's a Japanese background.'"
Director Suzuki himself says that "Kamen Rider is the Japanese hero," and adds, "I think it will be interesting to see what kind of things we can create when children who have watched Kamen Rider grow up and combine it with an American hero."
On the other hand, one thing that is unique to "Vigilante" is that there are many night scenes, since Koichi and the other vigilantes are mainly active at night.
"The depiction of the night is not simply dark, but because there are 'people doing the right thing,' I thought it would be better to have the spotlight shine on them in the dark, or for the night to look beautiful. It's the same worldview as 'My Hero Academia,' but I wanted to create something with a taste unique to 'Vigilante,' and that's how I landed on the depiction of the night."
He also paid particular attention to the depiction of "light" at night.
"I want to make the moonlight, the lights in the city, and the neon signs look beautiful. In my previous works, I have always tried to focus on lighting, and I am going to do my best in that regard this time as well. I want to focus on the beauty of the city and the lens effect, such as the bokeh of the light. I am aiming for an image that is more like impressionism rather than academic, or more like a realistic illustration, with little information in the picture but with a realistic look of light."
◇The realism that only "Vigilante" can provide. Finding the back alleys is difficult!
With "Vigilante," it was also important to make sure the images were not too refreshing.
"After all, 'My Hero Academia' is centered around the students of U.A. High School, so it's refreshing. 'Villante' is about illegal heroes, so I'm always trying to differentiate it, and in places where the story is inevitably pulling at refreshing images, I'm conscious of not making them too refreshing. I put a lot of texture into the backgrounds, so they don't look too clean. I try to create a refreshing and clean feel in the drama, but I don't want the colors of the images and the textures of the objects to be too flashy. 'My Hero Academia' is the one that is in the spotlight, so I'm careful with the direction so that it doesn't clash with that."
The background is realistic, and the sound was also well thought out. "For the scene where I walk through the back alleys, I asked them to make the sound of crunching sand, so that there is a difference between walking in the city and walking through the back alleys," he said. Indeed, there are a lot of back alley scenes in "Vigilante." In fact, the back alleys were one of the most difficult parts.
"The model for 'Vigilante' is Tokyo, but there aren't any suitable back alleys in Japan. Especially not in Tokyo. It's narrower and prettier, and there's nothing like the back alleys I had in mind. I had a lot of trouble finding back alleys, and in the end I made this one."
It was produced with meticulous attention to detail in order to bring out the best in the original work. When asked about the appeal of the anime, he said, "I think it's the pop songs."
"There's a lot of singing and dancing in 'Vigilante.' It's a lot of work, but it's coming out pretty well, so I hope everyone will look forward to it. The animation team has worked hard on the animation, so there's a lot to see. Also, for the action scenes, we've kept the fantasy feel to a minimum so as not to destroy the worldview of 'My Hero Academia.' We've made sure to create a realistic, down-to-earth hero feel."
Illegal heroes have a different charm from the heroes in "My Hero Academia." I want to experience what kind of brilliance they have through the anime.
