Animation Industry Watching Vol. 13: Production started with the support of fans' enthusiasm!　Interview with Sunao Katabuchi, Director of "In a Corner of the World

Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, 1945. The manga "In a Corner of the World" (Fumiyo Kono, Futabasha), which depicts the lives and loves of people who lived as they should have during the war, will be adapted into an anime film.
The director, who has gained enthusiastic support from fans with "Black Lagoon" (2006) and "Mai Mai Shinko to Sennen no Mahou" (2009), has recently produced music videos such as "Hana ha Saku" (2013), a song for reconstruction assistance, and "Kore wa Saku" (2015), a song for music videos such as "How Many Times Will I Be with You? (2015) and other music videos.

His anime adaptation of "In a Corner of the World" set a new record by raising 36.22 million yen on the crowdfunding website "Makuake" (Macauake). We spoke with director Sunao Katabuchi at the production studio MAPPA, where he is currently working on the film, which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2016.

The Real Pleasure of Animating Manga

--When I look at the special trailer for "In a Corner of the World," the images are very three-dimensional.

Katabuchi: If we are talking about three-dimensionality, Katsuhiro Otomo intentionally used a lot of frontal faces in order to depict the low-nosed faces that are typical of Japanese people. Osamu Tezuka drew a side view with a high nose, and basically drew the face at a 7:3 angle. Fumiyo Konno's manga uses the traditional 7:3 angle, which is so rare among manga artists today, and there are few frontal faces. There are also many overhead compositions, and her drawing style is naturally different from that of my previous work, "Mai Mai Shinko and the Magic of a Thousand Years. It was fun to discover Kono-san's manga drawing style, and then I would incorporate the elements I discovered into the layout of the animation.

--When you say that "In a Corner of the World" is being animated by the director of "Black Lagoon," some people seem to be puzzled by the difference in style.

Katabuchi: For "Black Lagoon," I did my best to bring out the essence of the original manga by Reihei Hiroe. In "In a Corner of the World", I extracted the best parts of Fumiyo Kono's original work, and what I am doing is no different. Kono-san's manga is a radical expression, and Hiroe-san, surprisingly, has a taste for literature. However, the original story of "Black Lagoon" is cinematic in nature. It is a manga that wants to be an action movie, and a Western movie at that. In contrast, "In This Corner of the World" has expressions that are possible only in a manga, and I had to replace those parts with techniques that are unique to animation. For this reason, we have devised a variety of techniques.

　For "Black Lagoon," I was told what kind of music Mr. Hiroe was listening to when he was drawing the manuscript, and I listened to that while creating the animation. I knew that he was listening to rock, heavy metal, and war movie music, so I brought that same style into the animation. For "In a Corner of the World," Kono-san told me about the music he used when he was drawing the manga, and it is surprisingly emotional. I thought it would be a smooth, easygoing song, but it was not. The fun part of visualizing manga is realizing, through the music, "Oh, this is how I was feeling when I drew it.

--You mentioned music, and one of Director Katabuchi's recent works is a music video called "How Many Times From Now On With You? The character design was done by Toshinao Aoki. The character design was done by Toshinao Aoki.

Katabuchi: The individuality of Aoki-san's drawings is not obvious at a quick glance. If you look closely, you will see that the head is right below the head. So the character looks like a cockerel. Also, I draw a girl with a slender figure, but I don't make her legs long. I use her torso to give the impression of smartness. When I am searching for "how can I make it look like her drawing," it opens the way for me. I am currently working on "In a Corner of the World," and in Kono-san's character design, the neck is attached to the back of the head. This makes the character hunchbacked. This naturally leads to a different theatricality. Therefore, each artist has a different policy for character design. I try to extract these policies as accurately as possible in my visualizations.