Anime Industry Watching No.40: Art Director Kentaro Akiyama Talks about the Secrets of "Haikara-san Goes by" Art, and the Interest of Hand-drawn Backgrounds

Kazunori Yamato's manga "Hai Kara San Passing," published in 1975, has been visualized in the past as an animated TV series, a live-action movie, and a TV drama. However, perhaps the most impressive of all was the TV animation series that was broadcast on the TV Asahi network from 1978.　This time, Nippon Animation, which produced the TV animation series, has re-animated "Haikara-san ga Yoru" as a theater version that depicts the original story up to the last part in two parts, the first and second parts. In the recently completed "Part 1: Benio, Hana no 17-Year-Old," art director Kentaro Akiyama depicted Tokyo in the Taisho era.
After working for Kobayashi Productions, Mr. Akiyama established "studio Pablo," a company specializing in background art, and has participated in numerous anime productions.

How to draw backgrounds that "make the characters stand out

───How did you come to participate in "Mr. Hai Kara-san Comes Through"?

Akiyama: I was first approached by a producer at Nippon Animation. I had worked with him before on another job, and through that connection, he asked me to join the project. I think it was about three years ago.
I was working with Chieko Nakamura as the art director for "Riruru Pingu Drum" (2011), and I had a business relationship with Terumi Nishii, the character designer for "Pingu Drum," after that. It was also through her introduction that I became the art director for "Curse of the Curse" (2013). I had always wanted to work with him again, so when I heard that Nishii-san might be doing character design for "Hai Karasan," I thought, "If that's the case, I'd like to participate," and I accepted the offer.

─ ─ Were you aware of the background of the original work and the TV anime version?

Akiyama: I have loved the original manga since I was a child and read the book many times. I also remember repeatedly watching the reruns of the TV anime version in the evenings. During the preparation period for this job, I read the original manga and watched part of the anime version again. Before I watched the anime version again, my memory was that the background art of the anime version looked soft and the colors were light. In fact, this was not the case. Rather, the colors were restrained and the overall impression was one of austerity. In contrast, the color pages of the original work were painted in light colors and looked gorgeous, so I wasn't sure which direction I should swing for the theater version.
I think that austere tones are possible for a work that seeks realism, and simply reducing the tone has the advantage of making it easier to create an old-fashioned atmosphere. However, I felt that the original work this time was based on the royal road of shoujo manga, in the style of a prince appearing on a white horse and falling in love. Also, since the story and the main character, Benio, have a bright image, I decided to follow the impression of the color pages of the original work and use light colors.


─ Did you do any location scouting?

Akiyama: The main staff went to Mansuiso in Matsuyama, the Asakusa-Ueno area, and Kawagoe as a model for the Ensign's mansion. In addition, since Benio's house is said to be located in the Koishikawa area in the story's setting, I personally walked around the Koishikawa and Shinagawa areas, looking at maps of the time. I thought it would be helpful to get a feel for the ups and downs of the Koishikawa area. However, the storyboards did not show that many ups and downs and slopes, and I did not think that such realism was required, so in the end I followed the storyboards.

─ How faithful are the buildings from the Taisho period to historical facts?

Akiyama: Nippon Animation provided us with an abundance of reference books from that period, but the resolution was low and blurry in some details. So, I went to a used bookstore in Jimbocho to look for postcards from that period and used them as references for the interior accessories and the atmosphere of the town.
However, this is not a work that pursues the exactness of "this building must have been next to this building," so I painted by atmosphere. Also, if I drew the details of the photo as they are, the amount of information would be too much, and the viewer would not be able to see the characters. Therefore, I tried to increase the impression value by making the areas close to the characters brighter and more open. In any case, I took care to make the characters stand out in the background.