How "Drifters" spun the impression of the "original work as it was" - Craftsmanship beyond the norm for TV animation

To what extent should works that have an original story be "faithfully" animated? This is an issue that creators have been exploring for many years. In recent years, the degree to which this has been done has been on the rise, and "Drifters" has achieved this at an extremely high level, earning the applause of enthusiastic fans. The interest of the original work and the ease of visualization do not necessarily go hand in hand. In order to give the impression of "the original work" at first glance, the staff overcame various challenges in drawing, composition, etc. in the making of this work. We interviewed director Kenichi Suzuki and producer Koyuki Ueda about the process.

Kota Hirano's "chivalrous" attitude as an original author

───First of all, could you tell us how you came up with the idea for this film?

Producer Koyuki Ueda (Ueda): The first "Drifters" anime adaptation started when I added an extra story at the end of the last (10th) volume of the OVA "HELLSING" that I thought would be interesting if it was connected to Murasaki's room. However, after talking with Yoshiyuki Fudeya, the editor in charge of the original work, we decided to wait until we had collected about three volumes of the comics before we could proceed with a full-fledged anime adaptation (the original "Drifters" work was in its second volume when "HELLSING" volume 10 was released). To be honest, it would have been better to wait until I had a better picture of the work before animating it, but with all the otherworldly works coming out these days, I thought it would not be good for the work if I left the project too long in the planning stage.

───The boom in otherworldly works has been continuing for the past few years, but I heard that you had been working on the original idea for "Drifters" for quite some time.

Ueda That's right. I didn't think that Kota Hirano's style of fun would compete with other works, and I was confident that we wouldn't lose out, but after so many of them came out, I thought it was time to show the world that "We are the original creators! (laughs). So, we started the project even before we had accumulated enough material for 12 TV anime. Director Suzuki was working on another project, so I asked him to go ahead with the script meetings and character design.


───Director Suzuki has been directing "HELLSING" since the 9th volume, is this the same process?

Director Kenichi Suzuki (Suzuki) Yes, I will be directing volume 10, but I also negotiated with him to let me direct "Drifters" as well (laughs). That's how much I really wanted to do this work.

─ ─ What do you find attractive about Mr. Hirano's works, including "HELLSING"?

Suzuki: I always want to do works that are unique. Today, there are no works as intense as "Drifters," so I am attracted to that. Also, Hirano-sensei's unique way of speaking is really cool. When I read the manga, I had a lot of fantasies about how I wanted to visualize it, so I was very eager to do it.

───How did you decide on the structure for the 12 episodes?

Ueda: It was decided by Director Suzuki, Hideyuki Kurata (series composition), Yosuke Kuroda (screenplay), myself, and Mr. Utsutani. We did not consult the original author even a single word (laughs).

─ Was this based on a relationship of trust?

Ueda: Mr. Hirano's way of thinking is that "I will do my best to draw an interesting manga. As for the animated cartoons, I hope they make people happy. But if it's something weird, as a viewer I will say, "It's boring as shit" (laughs). In a sense, he is a chivalrous person.
So, I don't think he would upset the plan by checking with the original author, but I'm not sure if it's really to his liking.　I am not so worried about it (laughs).

Suzuki: It's a big responsibility, isn't it? Every time I see him, he says, "I don't mind if it's a bit of a textbook" (laughs).

Ueda: I think he thinks that manga is for manga and video is for video, or he leaves it to the experts. If I really wanted to check something, I would check directly with him or ask him for his opinion via Mr. Fushitani. ...... It is the producer's job to convey the necessary information to the director for the video. So even if I say "," there were not that many of them.

─ ─ Recently, the author of the original work is deeply committed to the production of the anime and even writes the script, so I was wondering if Mr. Hirano is also deeply involved since the anime is so closely based on the original work.

Ueda I think the consensus of the anime production side is that if they have time to do that, they should draw a continuation of the manga (laughs).

Suzuki And I think there is also a relationship of trust with the "HELLSING" staff. However, "HELLSING" was created in the manner of an OVA, so I talked with Ryoji Nakamori, the character designer (and chief animation director), about how to develop it into a TV series.


─ ─ Was that mainly in terms of the effort you put into the drawings?

Ueda Yes, that's right. I would love to see all the cuts made by Mr. Nakamori, the chief animation director, but if I did that, I would have to make one film every few months, as is the case with OVAs. For "Drifters," I wanted to make an animated version that would take advantage of the tempo of the original work. And since the work has a wider fan base, I thought it should be a TV series, even if it meant balancing the quality. Therefore, from the very beginning of the project, we had a longer time schedule and had the layout work started early.

Suzuki: I am very grateful that we were able to take this much time for the production.