Interview with Yoshiaki Kyogoku, director of "YuruCan△"──After repeated location scouting, we packed everything that was appealing about the camp, from the atmosphere to the food and hot springs!

The TV anime "Yuru Can △" (original story: Afro / Houbunsha, Manga Time Kirara Forward) began airing on AT-X, TOKYO MX, Sun TV, KBS Kyoto, and BS11 on January 4, 2018 (Thursday). Set in Yamanashi Prefecture, the anime loosely depicts high school girls camping and going about their daily lives, and is full of appealing elements such as the atmosphere created by the characters, detailed descriptions of camping, and beautiful scenery. It will be interesting to see how this is expressed in the animation.

This time, we interviewed director Yoshiaki Kyogoku, for whom this is his first work as a director. We asked him about the appeal of this work and the points he focused on when adapting it into an anime.

Location scouting in the same season and the same place as the original work

--Please tell us about the works that you have been involved in so far.

Kyogoku: I originally started my career at Production I.G. as an animator. I became interested in directing and worked on a variety of productions, the one I worked on the most was "Kuroko no Basket. After that, I went freelance and worked on "Seraph of the End" and "Stamu," which was produced by the same C-Station as this film.

--And this is your first film as a director. How did you come to direct this film?

Kyogoku: When Shunsuke Tada, the director of "Kuroko no Basketball" and "Stamus," was directing "Stamus" at C-Station, the president Maru-san introduced me to the producer of this film. C-Station is a very good company, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to direct there. I should have read the original story before giving my answer, but I said "I'll do it! (laughs). Looking back on it now, I think it was a very thoughtless thing to do.

--How did you feel when you read the original work?

Kyogoku: Well, it was great. It was just so interesting, and I am so glad that my first film as a director was this one. There is no great drama, but all the characters are charming and cute. The characters that Mr. Afuro draws are very natural and don't feel contrived. （As symbolized by the relationship between Nadeshiko (Kakamigahara) and Lynn (Shima), the appropriate distance between them, not too close and not too far, felt very natural and real.

I don't know if it is really realistic, though, since I don't have the opportunity to interact with high school girls on a regular basis (laughs).

--I thought that the two of them would meet and join the same club, but surprisingly, each camp is portrayed, isn't it?

Kyogoku: In a typical work, it would be "Lynn, who is camping alone, meets Nadeshiko, the members get together, and finally they all camp together and reach the goal," but that's not the case. Sometimes we camp as a group, and sometimes we camp solo. I think it's great that both are acceptable. I also thought it was new that they are loosely connected through Nadeshiko.

--What did you focus on in making an animated version of such a fascinating work?

Kyogoku: Another appealing aspect of this work is the camping. Reading the original story made me want to go camping and eat the camp food that Nadeshiko and her friends eat. I thought that in order to bring that feeling to the anime, I would have to actually do it, so we decided to go on a location hunt. The main staff and I visited all the campgrounds that were used as models for the film.

--So you started production after getting a good feel for the atmosphere.

Kyogoku: Mr. Afuro depicts the actual places he visited, so if you go there, you can always see the same scenery. So we ended up staying on location about 10 times while looking at the original work and saying, "This is where that scene takes place. We wanted to match the seasons, so we did location scouting mainly in the fall and winter of last year, but it was very cold and hard work. It was very cold, and even though it was "YuruCan△," it wasn't at all relaxing (laughs).

Laughs] But that's another interesting thing about this work. Lynn likes quiet camping, so we dared to do it in the fall and winter. I had always thought of camping as something to do in the summer with a group of people, so it was refreshing to see a quiet, empty campsite. I didn't understand this feeling until I went there.

--Kyogoku: Did you actually cook the camp meals?

Kyogoku: I made everything. Mr. Afuro's choices were great, and whatever he cooked was really delicious. Eating outside doubles the deliciousness.

--Kyogoku: What was the most delicious of all?

Kyogoku: I would have to say the tanzaku gyoza nabe. There is nothing like the taste of soup in the cold.

--I hope to see more depictions of food in the anime as well.

Kyogoku: We do our best. But it's a real challenge to depict food in animation (laughs). I did it when I was an animator, but I couldn't draw it very well. ...... I hope the food looks delicious.

--Did you have any requests from Mr. Afro in advance?

Kyogoku: Almost none. He came to the reading sessions (script meetings) every week, but he never asked us not to do anything. In fact, the participants in the reading sessions were all fans of the original work, so it was like a gathering of fans around the professor (laughs). (Laughs) Sometimes we fantasized about parts of the story that had not yet been drawn, and they adopted our fantasies. We were very grateful that he was so cooperative.