"Super Kaguyahime!", an original feature-length anime created by Studio Colorido, known for the anime "Penguin Highway," and Studio Chromat, led by director Seigo Yamashita, is being released worldwide exclusively as a Netflix film. The "music anime" tells a story inspired by the classic "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter," and features music from a stellar cast of Vocaloid producers, including ryo from the creative group "Supercell," known for hits like "Melt." The plot twist towards the climax has also been a hot topic. Director Yamashita, who is working on the film, 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," and this is his first attempt at a feature-length anime. We spoke to Director Yamashita about his thoughts on the project. (Note: This interview contains spoilers for the main story.)
◇No shortcuts in song or action, and the characters' emotional movements are depicted honestly
"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.
Director Yamashita specializes in powerful action scenes that make use of 3D camerawork, and one of the highlights of "Super Kaguyahime!" is the battle that takes place in a virtual space.
"I wanted to make the most of my appeal as an action character, so the first thing I imagined was the last live performance. It's a scene where I fight while singing, and traditionally there's a work called 'Macross' that does this, and I imagined it as a scene that would liven up the drama and play to my strengths. To do both singing and fighting, you need a lot of action technicians. In the world of anime, you can get by with motion capture for singing scenes, but there are some things that just don't work with action scenes. I'm someone who can do action, so I definitely wanted to make the most of that."
To create the sense that fighting would be the final concert, the team apparently wrote a battle scene in advance. The battle scene lasts for about 14 minutes and has over 300 cuts.
"I thought that battles would be necessary to depict the growth of the important protagonist. Everything is 3D BG, which means that instead of using normal drawn BG (backgrounds), we use BG developed in 3D, which has the advantage of being able to move the camera around as much as you want. You can go beyond the constraints of traditional animation, so it was so much fun making it that we ended up with this many cuts (laughs). I didn't want to cut corners on either the singing or the action."
The film is packed with elements such as "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter," virtual space, idols, and music, but it leaves an impression of being able to be watched to the end without any stress. Director Yamashita said, "To be honest, there are some parts that I think don't go very well," but added, "Maybe it looks cohesive because I made it along the lines of the characters, and the emotions of what the characters thought." The project originally began with Director Yamashita's desire to "make a character-based film."
"The stage settings include science fiction, VR, and battles, but those are merely stage settings. The central focus is the relationship between Kaguya and Iyaha. I tried to stick to that. Or rather, I think it might have been because I wouldn't have been able to watch it otherwise, and it would have been boring if it had gone elsewhere."
Director Yamashita tried to portray the characters' emotional movements "in a very careful and straightforward manner."
"In recent anime, you might think, 'They probably skipped over this scene,' but we did it carefully. In particular, the part leading up to the announcement of the participation in the Yachiyo Cup may seem a little slow if you watch it first without knowing the whole story, but we would rather have that part spread by word of mouth, so I think it's a bit unique for a Netflix production. It's made in a way similar to an old-fashioned novel game. We made it with that in mind."
◇What is born when you feel the "space" of Yachiyo: The influence of novel games
Director Yamashita said, "What I really wanted to do with this film was to show the changes in the characters and their relationships. The story unfolds in a way that reveals Yachiyo's past."
"Without this flow, the film would end up being just as moving as a two-hour movie. But because it has this, you can watch it again. If you watch it again from that perspective, it gives you a totally different impression, so you can enjoy 240 minutes of it. In this way, it goes beyond the emotional limits of a 120-minute film. That's the only way to get the maximum effect in a short amount of time. I thought that by imagining Yachiyo's blank spaces, the emotional impact would spread among the viewer."
It goes beyond the satisfaction and excitement you get from watching a single movie. Director Yamashita emphasizes that "without that, there's no point in making an original work." Director Yamashita also says that the source of his ideas is novel games.
"That's the core of it. I'm someone who has worked extensively on novel games. However, novel games have always been a bit of a shadowy genre, not something that really comes to the forefront. But when I saw Makoto Shinkai's Your Name., I saw a work that rewrote a novel game feel for the masses for the first time, and I had the feeling that 'this is what's going to be popular.' The same goes for Gen Urobuchi's Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I now feel that this feeling is quite useful, and I'm actively working to unearth it."
◇Everything was a challenge in "Super Kaguyahime!"
Director Yamashita, who tried to carefully portray the changes in the characters in "Super Kaguyahime!", said that the most important thing when producing anime is "to make sure that the characters do not get lost in the storyline."
"The times that make me the most angry when watching a work are when a character succumbs to the situation and changes. There are moments when a character's personality is twisted by the development of the story, and it doesn't simply mean that I'm broken, but that it's been twisted for the author's convenience. I want to avoid that. However, I do want to create a work that metaphorically deals with the sadness you feel when a character you really like succumbs to the story and takes on a different personality. It's very painful when someone is changed. I think this is a feeling that has the potential to be universally accepted, so it may become a theme for me as a writer."
Looking back on the production of "Super Kaguyahime!", Director Yamashita said that he felt that "this project was quite a tough one for someone in the anime industry to come up with."
"The motif is the well-known 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,' and Takahata Isao made ' The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,' and Hosoda Mamoru made ' Summer Wars,' so both of those things come to mind. If I'd thought, 'It's already been done,' it would have been mentally difficult to come up with this project. Perhaps it was precisely because I was able to overcome that psychological barrier and combine elements of Princess Kaguya and the Metaverse that I was able to create such an exciting worldview. For me, everything was a challenge, and from a technical or manufacturing perspective, there was nothing I had ever done before. I don't think I did a good job, but I think I was able to portray the characters, so you can forget about the visuals (laughs), but I hope you can remember the characters in your mind."
When asked what he wanted to convey with "Super Kaguyahime!", he replied, "Maybe I didn't make it with that intention. I'm someone who likes to hide things, and I'm not very good at showing my deepest side on the surface," and added, "Isn't it emotional when a dark person pretends to be cheerful? Maybe that's what it all comes down to." (Shiroinu/MANTANWEB)
