A Close Look at the Secrets of the TV Animation "Kagewani - KAGEWANI Interview with Director Tomoya Takashima

KAGEWANI" is a new suspense anime that suddenly started in the omnibus slot "Ultra Super Anime Time" in October 2015. It shocked many viewers with its relentless story of people being attacked by a UMA called a strange beast, the mystery surrounding Sosuke Banba, a biologist investigating the strange beast, and the one-of-a-kind "picture-story animation" images.

Directed by Tomoya Takashima, who also directed "Yami Shibai" (first season) in 2013. We will now look into the secret of "Kagewani," which has captivated fans with its UMA-like charm.

Encounter between "Kagewani" and "wooser

───First of all, please tell us about the origin of the "KAGEWANI" project.

Takashima: I made a proposal once in 2011 when I was freelance. It didn't come to fruition at that time, but in 2014, I started a production company called "Tomovies" and restarted the project as the first original work.

─ Was it decided from the beginning that the subject would be a monster panic?

Takashima Yes. I have loved movies since I was 3 years old, and my parents used to show me movies like "Jaws" and "The Twilight Zone/Experiencing the Extra Dimension. By the time I came to my senses, I had grown up to be the kind of kid who draws pictures of fishermen being eaten by sharks (laughs). (laughs) I also remember reading a manga series called "Himitsu Series" by Gakken Manga called "Is there a shark? Not there? I still remember the traumatic experience of reading a children's book that introduced UMAs called "The Secret of UMAs" in the Gakken manga series. I kept thinking that one day I wanted to make a video with monsters in it, and I filled "Kagewani" with what I wanted to do.

─ ─ How did you decide to air the film on "Ultra Super Anime Time" (USAT)?

Takashima I had a chance to talk with Mr. Usa (Yoshihiro) of "wooser's that day life" at the launch of the movie. Although the airing time on USAT is different, "Kagewani" and "wooser" are connected behind the scenes.

───That's why you are the associate producer, isn't it?

Takashima I thought it was a very interesting experiment. Even the fan base is completely different. But the colors are so different that I was nervous inside, wondering if it would be OK ......, even after the film started airing (laughs).

Storyboards are Post-It notes

─ You call your work "picture-story animation," don't you?

Takashima: I created it as a combination of flash animation and 3DCG effects in order to preserve the analog elements. This is also a story from my childhood, but because my parents showed me puppet shows such as "Thunderbirds" and Tsuburaya Productions' "Dinosaur Explorers: Born Free," which combined special effects and animation, I was rooted in the idea that so-called cel animation was not the only type of animation.

─ ─ Do you draw storyboards like you do for regular animation?

Takashima: Yes, but we use Post-It notes as our storyboard paper. I drew one cut at a time on a small notepad-sized paper and pasted it on my desk as I went along. There are about 70 cuts per episode of "Shadow Crocodile," but at the beginning, the number of cuts inevitably ballooned to about 120. From there, I kept chipping away at it to make it fit the 7 minutes and 50 seconds. With Post-It, it was easy to replace cuts by simply peeling them off and discarding the missing ones, which was very efficient. The content of the storyboard can be flexibly changed when creating the animation or during the editing stage. The producer was surprised when he saw us working on it, perhaps because it is a method that is not commonly used in the industry.

Once the storyboards were completed, I and the production staff would take pictures to match the cut. Then we would send the photos to the illustrator and ask him to replace the faces and hands with those of the characters. The animators would then put together the material and add movement.

─ Does this mean that Banba's body is a staff member?

Takashima That's right. The illustrations had not yet been created when we started moving the characters, so we moved them with the faces of the staff (laughs). (Laughs.) In "Yami Shiba," I drew the character's entire body, but I thought, "I can do that more efficiently. And by increasing the amount of information, I wanted to make it more like a live-action animation and use it in the direction. Kagewani" was a big challenge, but I am satisfied that I was able to create an interesting picture that could not be seen in other works.