The TV anime "SANDA," based on the manga by Itagaki Paru, known for "BEASTARS," is currently airing on MBS, TBS, and other networks in the late-night anime slot "Animeism." The show is a unique "Santa Claus" hero action story set in a near-future Japan where children are overly protected in an era of extremely low birth rates. The show has attracted attention for its innovative expression by Science SARU, known for "Dandadan" and "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!", its dynamic visuals that make Itagaki's powerful drawings seem to move, and the acting by its all-star cast. How is anime produced? We spoke to Kobe Shuta of Science SARU, who serves as animation producer.
◇ Attention to detail in staff recruitment: Allowing staff to demonstrate their passion
"SANDA" is a manga serialized in "Weekly Shonen Champion" (Akita Shoten) from July 2021 to July 2024. Set in a near-future Japan facing an era of extremely low birth rates, children, the nation's treasure, are cared for and protected by adults in boarding schools. Santa Claus, who gives children hope and dreams, is seen as a dangerous person and is targeted for elimination. When middle school student Mita Kazue's classmate Fuyumura Shiori tries to assassinate him, he discovers that he is a descendant of Santa Claus. He decides to become Santa Claus and fight against adults to protect children.
"After reading the original work, I felt a unique charm in Itagaki-sensei's incredibly powerful illustrations. Every character is impulsive and outrageous, and the story progresses at a brisk pace like a roller coaster, with detailed developments. Science SARU is a studio whose strength lies in bringing out the charm of characters and anime through movement, so in that sense, I felt it would be a good fit for animation."
The thing that Producer Kobe placed the most importance on during production was "creating a production environment where all the staff could do what they wanted to do."
"Rather than being the type of producer who gives creative advice to the director, I'm the type who wants to improve quality by working hard to manage the production site, so I was conscious of making use of that strength."
During the planning stage of the anime adaptation, it was decided that Tomohisa Shimoyama, known for works such as "Yurei Deco" and "SUPER SHIRO," would serve as director, and Masanobu Ishiyama, who also participated in "Yurei Deco," would serve as character designer and chief animation director. In terms of staffing, "we started by solidifying the staff who had a high level of trust with Director Shimoyama."
"I've worked with Ishiyama on Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! and he's been producing great key animation ever since. He's also a skilled artist at putting together anime. Given his past work and my relationship with Shimoyama, I thought it would work well, so I hired him."
Kimiko Ueno, who is in charge of series composition and scriptwriting, has also participated in "Yurei Deco" and "SUPER SHIRO." Music producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, who also works under the name FPM, was hired to provide the music. This is Tanaka's first time working on an anime soundtrack, and it was a new endeavor, as he said, "Since Science SARU places great importance on music, we asked Tanaka to take on the challenge."
"We wanted to create an open workplace and give motivated staff members a chance, so we held a competition both inside and outside the company to select some of the storyboard staff. While we used young people in this way, we also had experienced directors such as Akitoshi Yokoyama and Tomohisa Taguchi participate, to strike a balance."
Regarding staffing, Producer Kobe's experience working on "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" and the "Crayon Shin-chan" series is said to have had an influence.
"When I saw the original drawings by Izumi Murakami of ' Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!' and Shizuka Hayashi of ' Crayon Shin-chan,' I felt that it wasn't just that the animation was cute or the action was cool; it was that they breathed life into it, and that the animators were actually present as performers. I think it's the animators who can create characters through acting in this way that make anime the best. For 'SANDA,' we had special animators such as Masumi Yoshida, who was in charge of the opening scene for the first episode, as well as Tetta Sannomiya and Masashi Yamada, who participated throughout the series."
◇ Expressing the quality of the original in the anime "Ace" plays an active role in each episode
When producing the anime, the goal was to "express the beauty of the original artwork as faithfully as possible in the anime."
"We tried a variety of new technologies and took on new challenges, and to be honest, not everything went smoothly. However, I think we were able to achieve a good balance in terms of character design and animation. Character designer Ishiyama and cinematographer Hikari Ito also worked on Scott Pilgrim: Takes Off, and I feel that they were able to use that experience to express Itagaki-sensei's powerful and rough line strokes in SANDA."
In "SANDA," each episode has its highlights, such as action scenes and scenes in which the characters' emotions change dramatically.
"For each episode, there was an 'ace' among the staff, and there were times when they just relied on their strength to do their best, so I'm really grateful for that. When I delegated tasks to each staff member, I wasn't forcing them on them, but was always very conscious of communication, always letting them know that that was the best thing to do this time. On the production site, sometimes it's best to push through with manpower, and sometimes it's best to make use of teamwork. As the best way to do things changed with each episode, I felt that I was able to choose a strategy, get everyone to agree, and work as efficiently as possible."
◇A fortuitous casting: "An incredibly good team"
One of the charms of "SANDA" is the vivid performances of the voice actors, including Ayumu Murase as the main character Mita and Tochi Hiroki as Santa Claus. The cast includes a wide variety of voice actors, including Seki Toshihiko, Hirata Masako Nozawa, Nozawa Masako, Shoji Umeka, Yuki Shin Anna, Misato Matsuoka. Regarding the casting, "a large part was decided by chance."
"The final decision was made after discussions between the director and producers, led by sound director Miyoshi Keiichiro, but the balance of Mita and Santa Claus' voices was given great consideration, and even during the auditions, the pairing of the two was a difficult one until the very end. Miyoshi was conscious of the balance of voices not only for Mita and Santa Claus, but also for the other female cast members, and the cast was decided by chance. However, what was important was what happened after the casting. Miyoshi broke down the director's intentions, communicated them to the actors in an easy-to-understand way, and directed and created the film. I thought it was a good idea from the start, but I felt that it really clicked together with his direction."
Regarding the appearance of Hirata as Yagyuuda Saburo and Nozawa as Tetsudome Juyo, producer Kobe himself said he felt "lucky."
"Regarding Yagyuuda, Itagaki-sensei told me that he had Johnny Depp in mind when creating the character. Hirata-san is the voice actor for Johnny Depp, so I think that was also a deciding factor in the casting. Regarding Tetsudome, I had hoped that it would be interesting if Nozawa-san played the role, and that came to fruition, and I thought, 'Was it really decided the way I wanted it?' The pieces all fell into place perfectly, and I think I was very lucky."
The recording progressed in a good atmosphere, and the voice actors got along well, to the point that they would go out for drinks after each recording. "I feel like we had an incredibly good team balance, and I think that quality shows on screen," he said.
"SANDA" is an anime produced with the staff and cast exerting their maximum efforts.
"This time, I was in the position of animation producer and production desk, but there were absolutely no difficulties. It's rare for things to go this smoothly on the anime production floor, so it was actually a bit bewildering. It was truly amazing, and I have nothing but gratitude to the staff who worked so hard."
We asked about the highlights leading up to the climax.
"The team of Mita and Principal Oshibu will battle at an event called the 'Coming of Age Ceremony'. We've put a lot of effort into the animation, especially in the scenes where they fight with their emotions on full display and clash with each other's ideas. It's an animation that will impress even those who have watched the anime up until now. The voice actors' acting is becoming more and more realistic and intense, so I hope you'll look forward to it."
