"Super Kaguyahime!", an original feature-length anime produced by Studio Colorido (such as "Penguin Highway") and Studio Chromat (led by director Seigo Yamashita), has been streaming worldwide exclusively on Netflix since January 22nd. This "music anime" is based on the classic "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter," and is garnering attention for its music, featuring a stellar lineup of Vocaloid producers, including ryo from the creative group "supercell," known for their hit song "Melt," kz from "livetune," 40mP, HoneyWorks, Aqu3ra, and yuigot. Director Yamashita, who is currently working on the series, is a rising star who gained attention for his work on the opening video for the first season of the TV anime "Jujutsu Kaisen" and the original anime "Twilight Wings" for "Pokemon Sword and Shield." This is his first attempt at a feature-length anime. We spoke to Director Yamashita about the story behind the creation of "Super Kaguyahime!"
◇ "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" x Virtual Space: A combination that could only happen now
"Super Kaguyahime!" is a story about the bond between girls connected by "song." One day, Sakayori Ayaha, a 17-year-old high school student attending a prestigious school in Tokyo, leads an incredibly busy life juggling part-time work and studies, and meets a baby named Kaguya who emerges from a gaming utility pole shining with rainbow lights. As Kaguya grows older, she expresses her desire to become a live streamer on Tsukuyomi, an online virtual space managed by Tsukimi Yachiyo, a hugely popular live streamer whom Ayaha admires, and Ayaha ends up helping her with her activities. With Ayaha creating music as a producer and Kaguya singing as a live streamer, the two gradually become closer.
The planning for "Super Kaguyahime!" began when Twin Engine producer Koji Yamamoto approached director Yamashita, who had attracted attention with "Twilight Wings," about producing an original anime.
Director Yamashita, who had been aiming to create an original work, saying, "I want to create a story, I want to create characters," was happy that "I might finally be able to do what I've always wanted to do," but for about a year after that, he continued to submit various proposals without any approval.
"After we decided to completely change the plan and create something wild and easy to sell, the plan still didn't get approved, so one of our employees, Fujiyama Ruri, came up with the rough draft of 'Super Kaguyahime!' and it was approved with flying colors. I have a close relationship with Fujiyama and we're always talking about what I want to do, so he was able to pick up on that and package it in a way that would be easy to sell, so I thought it was really amazing. So I started thinking about how we could successfully convey this idea and started creating it."
How did this innovative project come about, linking "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter," said to be Japan's oldest story, with virtual space?
"In the early stages of planning, we had talked about wanting to do something with characters. I'm not interested in complex story structures or intricate science fiction, and I wanted to make a work that focused mainly on the emotional growth of the characters and the lines of their relationships. At the same time, I'm good at action, so I said that I definitely wanted to include elements that would look good in anime, such as fight scenes. On top of that, the easiest thing that came to mind was a demon-exorcising story like the shonen manga "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kimetsu no Yaiba," which would satisfy both criteria, but it would be difficult to do in the length of a single movie, even if it was a series. So, in the end, we came up with the idea of a game."
Regarding the virtual worldview of games, such as the Metaverse, he explains, "If you say you're going to play a game in a virtual space, you can do it now without explaining why you have to compete there." So, he decided to combine streamers who fulfill the "character" element with the Metaverse. He also says that linking it to Princess Kaguya was "a great invention."
"There's Kaguyahime as a classic, and there's also Takahata Isao's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, so there's no need for explanation. That was a great advantage in being able to shorten the length. What's more, there's a sense of foreboding about what's to come in the story, a sense that there will probably be a separation, so it can be seen and created in a meta way. I think it's a rationally calculated plan. What's more, Super Kaguyahime! is set in the near future, in a world where VR can be viewed through contact lenses, but even though fantasy already exists, it has made the forbidden move of combining another fantasy in which Kaguyahime comes from space and a baby is born from a telephone pole."
Combining different fantasies usually ends up being too complicated and doesn't work well, but he says that in this work, "it all came together."
"The project combined anime-style meta with VR and Hatsune Miku's 'non-living will from afar,' so it worked out with a miraculous balance. To be honest, there was a time before I made it that I thought it might not work, so it was quite a balancing act."
◇Reason for hiring such a great Vocaloid producer
Another important element in addition to "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" and virtual space is Vocaloid producers. When a video of Tsukimi Yachiyo singing a new remix version of "World is Mine," a classic song by "Supercell," was released as an in-game song, it caused quite a stir. The vocaloid producers employed range from popular vocaloid producers of recent years to big names. However, it was not decided from the beginning of the project that a vocaloid producer would be used.
"It was a combination of the Metaverse, diva, idol, and streamer, so there was definitely an element of song. So when we discussed who we should get to create it, I wanted a certain sense of genre, a sense of necessity for asking this person. Tsukimi Yachiyo, the administrator and popular live streamer of the virtual world Tsukuyomi, is a mysterious 8,000-year-old AI who can sing, dance, and create clones. I felt that the composition of a being without a physical body who watches over people from afar and creates a Metaverse space and becomes a diva had some overlap with Hatsune Miku. Yachiyo's design, with her pigtails and cyan and black outfit, is similar to Hatsune Miku, but in fact the design was made before there was even a hint of a plan to hire a Vocaloid producer. So it has nothing to do with Miku at all, but I think I was probably aware of the similarities between them. So we started talking about getting together Vocaloid producers and doing a live show using songs like 'World is Mine' and 'Melt.'"
During the production of "Super Kaguyahime!", "ONE PIECE FILM RED," featuring a diva, and "NEEDY GIRL OVERDOSE," featuring the strongest streamer, were garnering attention, and the idea of using a Vocaloid producer came after careful consideration of matching the story, and it also coincided with marketing needs.
"Normally, with a plan like this, the producers would come up with the idea of 'Let's make an anime with a Vocaloid producer at the center!' and then the director would accept it. But that would likely result in the project losing substance. With 'Super Kaguyahime!,' we had a story we wanted to create, and we've added a variety of marketing elements to it, so we feel like, 'Everyone, you can look forward to it, it's fine.' I'm sure there are people out there who think this is a silly project. But it's the other way around, and we really want to surprise the viewers."
Director Yamashita calls "ray" by BUMP OF CHICKEN (feat. HATSUNE MIKU), the ending theme, the "final piece." The classic song was released in 2014 as a collaboration between BUMP OF CHICKEN and Hatsune Miku, and is covered by Kaguya and Yachiyo in "Super Kaguyahime!" Director Yamashita is such a big fan of BUMP OF CHICKEN that "when I was going through really tough times in middle school, I would listen to BUMP with headphones at a volume so loud I thought my ears might get damaged."
"I love BUMP so much that I had no desire to use their song on my own work, but when the production team suggested 'ray' and I listened to it again, I thought it really suited the work. The messages they contain are similar. That's because I'm a fan of BUMP and I made the song, so it was inevitable, but 'Super Kaguyahime!' and 'ray' both have the Hatsune Miku factor. I thought it was a miracle that they came together. I'm quite surprised myself, and when I actually got the chance to use it as a cover, I thought it was a really flawless project. Personally, I think the pieces just fell into place in the end."
A new era of "music anime" called "Super Princess Kaguya!" You'll be amazed by The Tale of the Princess Kaguya that no one has seen before. (Shiroinu/MANTANWEB)
