Linked with "Monstro! Commemorating the release of the anime "The Mischievous Witch and the City that Never Sleeps," Director Daisuke Komatsuda ✕ Megumi Ban Special Interview

XFLAG original anime "Mischievous Witch and Sleepless Town" will be released on YouTube on December 1, 2017. It blends realistic depictions with fantasy elements and leaves viewers with a warm and fuzzy feeling after watching it. It is a wonderful work that is perfect for the Christmas season. We asked director Daizo Komatsuda, who worked on the film, and Megumi Ban, who plays the main character Akari Kido, to talk about the film's charms.

--How did director Komatsuda come to be involved in this film?

Komatsuda: I was approached when the script was somewhat finalized. I received an offer from Hiroaki Matsuura, the representative of the animation production company Sanzigen, and since I have often worked with Sanzigen staff in the past, I said, "Of course, I'll do it. Since I didn't know how the project was launched, I started by thinking about how to draw them to my side, what to emphasize, and delving into the characters.

--Komatsuda: In that sense, I would say that I thought about what I was good at and how I could bring out my strengths.

Komatsuda: In that sense, I would say it was about creating action in the visual sense. That is something I am good at. But I was more concerned about the content. I was told that the target audience for this film was high school and college students. My nephews are in junior high and high school, and they enjoy playing the "MonSt" game and watching the anime. I was thinking that if I wanted to motivate older college students to watch anime, I needed to add one more element, and I thought it would be a good idea to use it as a preparation for people who are going to enter the workforce.

--I thought it would be a good idea to have people who are about to enter the workforce learn about it as an occupational piece.

Komatsuda: I wanted to add details in that area, so I had the NYPD (New York City Police Department) researched by a setting designer, and if there was a training program in collaboration with the Japanese Metropolitan Police Department, what kind of things would be possible, whether they could carry guns, and so on, and after researching these details, I created the lies in the anime. I lied to them in the "anime". I couldn't actually lend them guns, but I gave priority to the world of the anime.

--Did you already know that the story would be set in the police department?

Komatsuda: That was also decided.

--We wanted to make the police profession more realistic, so the story became more of an occupational story. The location, New York, is also perfect for the target audience, who are at the age when they begin to take an interest in foreign countries.

Komatsuda: Fortunately, I had never been to New York myself. So I thought it would be great if I could capture the longing for New York that I had in my heart when I saw "Ghostbusters" (1984) when I was a child. I wanted to depict that kind of "longing for New York," so I gave priority to the fun for the viewer by lying in the visuals, such as "This place and this place aren't really close, but ......".

Megumi Ban's performance was truly "overwhelming.

--What was your impression of "MonSt," the game that is linked to this production?

Ban: I had been playing the game for some time. Teenagers close to me had been playing it for a while, and I started to get interested in it when I heard "What's that? That's it." That's when I became interested in the game. It's interesting in the way it's operated, pulling and all.

I started watching the MonSt animation after I heard about it, and it's a short animation, so it's easy to watch. And because it is available on YouTube, anyone can watch it whenever they want, so I watched it more and more.

--I watched it more and more. - With the medium of animation, you become more emotionally involved, don't you think?

Pan Yes. It also changed the way I enjoy the game. I became more attached to the monsters, so I would say to myself, "Who should I use? I can't just ignore them. (Laughs.) I don't really think of them as monsters at the moment.

--What was your impression when you read the script?

Pan: In terms of the job-related story I mentioned earlier, the character I played, Akari Kido, is a girl of about 25 years old, and the story begins with her going to New York.

I read the character image before reading the script, and she is active and cheerful. I read the character image before reading the script, and it said she was active and cheerful, strong-willed but also cute, which was equal to her appearance. But when I read the script, there were many positive elements. First of all, the script begins with a conversation with a stuffed animal named Apple (......), who tells me, "She has something on her mind! That's where I said, "This kid is holding something!" Like that (laughs).

-you noticed it at the beginning, didn't you?

Pan My line was from Apple. And before that, it started with a flash-forward (*interrupting a future scene in the play), so I thought, "I heard it was cheerful, but what she's holding is big. That's where my first impression changed a lot.

Komatsuda: When we start talking about Akari, her father's absence and other shadowy aspects come out, but in the anime, I dared to keep it at the point where we don't talk about it. Akari is a straightforward girl, but there is a little bit of weakness in her, and it pulls her down from time to time, but it is precisely because she is weak that she is able to get others involved and reach her own goals. I wanted to portray that part of Akari well.

Pan I feel that there is room for imagination. If everything is explained to the viewers, they tend to see things in that image. But by leaving room for imagination, we can put ourselves in the shoes of various people and think from their perspective, which I thought was wonderful. That's what anime is all about, isn't it? I thought.

--When you watch it while imagining that maybe this kind of thing happened in the past, even in an ordinary scene, don't you find yourself unexpectedly moved to tears?

Pan: It's very moving!　I think it changes the meaning of the final scene, so the 40 minutes is quite profound!

Komatsuda: As a creator, there is a route in Akari's past that I have already decided on as A, but it can also be interpreted as B, and I don't tell the answer from my side. I don't tell you the answer, but I hope that you will imagine it and make up your own mind. The good thing about the free format of the broadcast is that you can watch it over and over again, and I think the range of interpretation will widen and change between the first and second viewings.

--By the way, were you conscious of Akari's shadowy side in your performance?

Ban: The first voice was Apple, so I was reading it while thinking about what on earth she was carrying, but I may not have been very conscious of it. I was thinking about what she was holding on to, but I may not have been very conscious of it. It was something that came naturally to me, so I didn't think too much about it.

--I was not thinking too much about it.

Pan That's right. I saw the word (Akari) at the end of Apple's line, so I wondered if it was going to be me. So I checked the list of the fragrance board. When Apple becomes a monster, it is played by Ai Nonaka, and I thought that the bright part of Akari is the monster Apple. I thought that the bright side of Akari is the monster Apple, and Liberty is the symmetry of the monster Apple.

Komatsuda: When I start talking about these things with the cast, the play gets complicated. But they understood everything and were committed to Akari's yang part. What good intuition!　I was thinking, "Thank you" (laughs).

Ban: I'm so embarrassed.

Komatsuda: I've been lucky enough to work with Mr. Ban since his previous work ("Bubuki Blanki"), and I trust him a lot in terms of acting ability. However, from Mr. Ban's past works, he may not have the drawer of a newcomer to the working world. I wondered what kind of drawers he would really open for me at ......, but there were so many things packed in there that I thought, "That's overwhelming! I thought (laughs).

Pan I am getting embarrassed ....... But I have often played roles with guts and a strong competitive spirit, so when I heard that the character was cheerful, I thought I understood why I had been offered the role. But when I opened the door, I found that the character was very human and complex. People are not only cheerful, and they have their reasons for being cheerful. In that sense, maybe I didn't really see him as an anime character. Usually, when you watch anime, you don't see characters like Emma, do you?　It's more like a foreign painting.