Is the story spun by "LOST SONG" a royal road or a ......! Morita and director Junpei talk about the appeal of their work, their commitment to it, and future developments!

The TV anime "LOST SONG" is being distributed and broadcast on Netflix, TOKYO MX, and other popular TV stations. This work, a completely original work, is a fantasy opera starring Konomi Suzuki and Yukari Tamura, and is woven by two divas.

There are many questions to be answered, such as how the story will unfold and what is the power of song. We asked them about the appeal of the work, points of interest, and even the mysterious future development of the film.

An epic fantasy work incorporating songs

--Morita and the director are directing an animated film for the first time.

Morita and I have always been live-action people. I originally worked in the film industry as an assistant director, and I also wrote and directed my own scripts for television. I have been involved in all kinds of TV productions, including dramas, documentaries, and variety shows. For example, I worked on NTV's "Another Sky" for several years from its inception, which is still being broadcast today.

-I wrote the original story, directed, and wrote the entire script for this film. Could you tell us how you came up with the production?

I was involved in "Nobunaga Kyousogoto" before, and after joining MAGES. I was in charge of series composition for "Occultic;Nine. And for "Lost Song," I was roughly told by our producer that he wanted to do a broad and large work, not one that aimed at a niche, and that he wanted me to incorporate songs. That's about how loose we started (laughs).

(laughs) -- When you thought about what kind of story you wanted to tell, did you immediately settle on the current form?

Morita and I thought that a grand fantasy, rather than a work in which idols sing, would fit well with those two themes. I thought biographies and fantasies would be interesting because it would be easy to include the songs themselves in the story.

--So it is a work of royal fantasy, as it claims to be an epic fantasy (fantasy opera)?

Morita: Yes, it is. It is set in a fictional world, and if I may say so, it is like "Dragon Quest. It is not a "sword and sorcery" story, but a "sword and song" story, or broadly speaking, it falls into that category.

--In such a worldview, the story revolves around two divas, played by Konomi Suzuki and Yukari Tamura.

Morita and I don't mean to be rude, but ...... I started out in the live-action field, so I wasn't very familiar with voice actors or anime songs. But as I met and talked with the girls, I felt that we could create something great.

--Since you are a diva, is there a lot of synchronization between you and the characters?

Morita: Very much so. Lynn, played by Ms. Suzuki, is a girl who loves singing and wants to have singing in her daily life and enjoy singing at all times. You are also a very pure girl with that kind of vibe, and I can really feel how much you love singing. I thought that was quite synchronized as I was working on the song.

--How about you, Tamura-san?

Morita and Tamura-san have a more emo or shadowy atmosphere. I felt that Tamura-san's singing was not just a matter of vocal ability, but also had a tremendous expressive power added to it. I thought she was a perfect match for Finis. People often say to me, "You're writing the character of Finis, aren't you? But I didn't do that at all. As I mentioned earlier, I was not that familiar with the character, so I realized afterwards that we were in sync.

(*Assumed writing: writing a script after deciding in advance who will play the role)

--So it just so happens that Feenis is 17 years old?　At the recent event, Tamura-san said that the similarity with the character was that he was 17 years old.

Morita: It just happened (laughs). Everyone chuckled, so I thought, "What is it?" I thought, "What is it?

Songs in the play express the story as it is

--Let me ask you about more specific details. How does the story revolving around Lynn and Finis unfold?

Morita and Lynn and Finis are two really contrasting people. Lynn lives in a very rural area and is involved in a terrible tragedy. Lynn's story is about her journey to find the meaning of her life, how to climb out of her grief.

As for Finis, she is in the glittering royal city. There she meets the handsome Leobold and is frightened that Prince Rude is a dangerous man, and she gradually becomes involved in the war. When will the two men with the "power of song" meet? When they meet, I'm sure they'll sing a good song (laughs).

--I'm sure they will sing a good song when they meet (laughs). So we can expect more songs in the future?

Morita: Yes, that's right. The two main characters sing a lot. Songs in the play are different from the opening and ending songs, in that they are more like "the story as it is expressed in song. It is not just "Oh, that's a great song," but it is connected to the story and expresses the feelings of the girls. The same goes for the other characters' songs, which are really important to the work, and we are grateful to Aki Hata and Yusuke Shirato for their excellent songs.

--What kind of requests did the director make regarding the songs in the play?

Morita and I had been working on the song from the plotting stage, so in a sense, I felt that the lyrics were just dialogues. So I told Mr. Hata, who wrote the lyrics, "This is the kind of story I want to tell," and placed the order. I also told Mr. Shirato, who was in charge of all the accompaniment, a rough idea at first, and we worked together on the details of the instruments and other details as we created the music. If it had been any other composer, I might have thought, "Shut up about it all. I'll leave the rest to you." (laugh) But Mr. Shirato said, "I've never done it this way before, so it's fun.

--I guess you were particular about the instruments in order to create the world view.

Morita: Yes, I was particular about the instruments. I was particular about the instruments, and I requested to use old instruments. I searched for instruments that could only be found here in this country and played them, and then decided to use this sound. I hope you will enjoy listening to them in good sound.

--When you say "ancient instruments," do you mean, for example, the instruments owned by Pony Good Light?

Morita: Yes, that's right. Pony's portatif organ is one example, and we also used old horns and other instruments. Also, the scene of the performance was done with motion capture, but since the instruments have a shape that does not exist today, we made them out of cardboard and wood for the motion (laughs).

--You said that "the lyrics are like lines", but the lyricist, Mr. Hata, is a genius, isn't he? How did you feel when you actually worked with him?

Morita: I already had a worldview and what I wanted to express in my mind, so when I asked him to write the lyrics, it was just a matter of "I hope I can express (that worldview) ....... But when Mr. Hata suddenly sent me something that was about two dimensions higher, I was surprised and turned the whole thing upside down. I was so surprised that I was turned upside down. He really is a genius.

--He is really a genius. And yet you are usually so friendly.

Morita and I love him because he is smiling and super cute (laughs). But what is amazing is that the things he sends me are so perfectly suited to the work that they overwhelmingly exceed my imagination.

Emphasizing "action" in character drawing

--I heard that you were particular about not only the songs but also the background art and other visuals.

Morita: Background art is very important for both animation and live-action, and this time I asked Dehogiarari-san to do it. This is a background art studio known for the movie "Mary and the Witch's Flower. The art director was Kinichi Okubo. Mr. Okubo is a very flexible person who has worked on fantasy, warmth, "TIGER & BUNNY" and 3D works. When he sees the finished product, he says, "This is it! This is it! The colors and touches were exactly as I described, so it was easy to decide on the direction to take.

--What exactly did you mean by that?

Morita and I wanted to create a picture that was a little more fluffy, not so much with a lot of glare and contrast. Some people think that it is justifiable to draw in details, but for this work, I went ahead with the image. So, you may get the impression that the drawings are fluffier than in a normal anime, but I think they are very convincing when seen in the context of the story.

--What do you think about the visual aspect of the characters?

I asked Tomonori Fukuda, who worked on "ROBOTICS;NOTES" and other works, to draft the characters . I simply loved Fukuda-san's drawings (laughs). (laughs). When it came time to make the animation, I asked Shizue Kaneko to do the main character design and put her own spin on it. I was very particular about how I made the characters from the original draft into anime characters. I let each character decide how they wanted it done.

--It certainly gives a different impression from anime with a lot of girls.

Morita and I think that people who like that kind of anime might think the pictures are a bit sleepy (laughs). But I didn't want to make the characters stand out in that way. They are "children who live in the story," so I wanted their actions to stand out.

--I wanted to make the characters stand out, but not have them walk alone in terms of appearance.

Morita and I try to create pictures that are interesting not because of the character's appearance, but because of the character's actions.

--The characters around them are also very important because they live in the story, aren't they?

Morita: Yes, they are very important. Yukari Tamura told me, "Normally, I wouldn't give such a role to a character who doesn't even have a name (laughs). We don't think of them as mobs or sub-characters. Each character has his or her own role, and I really want to create a sense that everyone is living together.

More amazing songs will be coming out in the future!

--What did you think of the performances of the cast members who brought the characters to life?

Morita: They are the best!　Almost all of them were chosen through auditions, but I was forced to say that I didn't want to be bound by convention. （I didn't even look at (the auditioners') faces. I just listened to their lines with my eyes closed and gave them an "X," "D," or "Y" for their lines. I was told that I did not need to say "thank you" or "I look forward to working with you" this time. In the audition studio, there was a camera in the booth so we could see what was going on, but if we saw it, we might be pulled into the image of the person, so we chose not to see that at all. Thanks to that, the character turned out exactly as I had envisioned.

--Among all these people, is there anyone in particular you thought was amazing?

Morita and Everyone is great, but I would dare to say ...... one person is Ai Chino. （The way she plays both roles (Mel and Korte) is amazing. I told her directly that Mel, Lynn's sister, was a very important character, and when I handed her the script she said, "No, she died in the first episode! (laughs). (Laughs.) But Mel is also the reason for Lynn's actions, so a half-hearted performance was not enough. I wanted to ask someone whose performance I could absolutely trust.

Mr. Chino gave a superb performance in the first episode. When she said, "I love ...... Lynn's song," I felt that she really loved it, and even her casual words were very convincing. She is really great.

--What is one more person you would like to mention?

Morita and Misaki Hisano, who plays Al, is totally different from the voice of Al I had in mind. I chose someone who really fit the image of the other characters, but Ms. Hisano is the complete opposite of what I had in mind. I wanted to choose someone with a more cool boy's voice, or someone who could lead Lynn. But when I heard Kuno's voice at the end of the audition, I thought, "What? A little girl is here! (laughs).

(Laughs) -- When we think of Ms. Kuno, we first think of her distinctive, cute voice.

Morita and I were a little confused by her voice, but when we listened to it, we found it very interesting. I thought, "What's this? I thought, "What's this Al?" and laughed out loud (laughs). (Laughs.) But it was totally different from my image, so I gave it a "Dismiss" instead of a "△". I gave it a disregard, but ...... made such a strong impression on me that I couldn't forget it. I thought it would be very interesting if Al and Konomi Suzuki's Lynn worked together, so I decided to take a gamble and changed the Disco to a Hanamaru (flower circle).

--Was that a good bet?

Morita: It was a great decision. I want to praise myself for this wise decision (laughs). Kuno-san's alu is really very good!

--I heard that you modified the script a little to suit Mr. Kuno's Al.

Morita and I changed the nuance and scale of the lines a bit. We revised the script to match Ms. Kuno's relaxed and cute way of speaking, saying things like, "This line takes up a lot of space," or "It won't fit if we don't cut it down.

--I think you must have been both excited and anxious, as this was almost your first attempt at voice acting, but how was it, including in terms of growth?

Morita: She started taking acting lessons after she was cast as a voice actor, but at first she didn't know how to express herself in a way different from singing, and I think there were times when she didn't enjoy it. I felt that she was not fully expressing herself, so I told her that she could expose herself more. I told him that it was a matter of feeling rather than acting technique. I told him that just trying to do it well was not enough to get the message across. I asked him, "Which makes you happier, being told, 'You sing well,' or being told, 'I got the message of your singing? And finally, he really got Lynn.

--I am looking forward to many more aspects of the project. Finally, please tell us about future developments and highlights.

Morita and I first called it a "royal fantasy," but ...... actually isn't like that at all (laughs).

(Laughs.) There may be people who are thinking, "Oh, it's suddenly going to be singing," or "It's a fantasy with magic and dragons, right?" But it doesn't (laughs).

The story is full of crazy twists and turns, and there are even some changes that would draw complaints if they weren't part of the royal road. However, we have made it without losing the reality of living in this world. Above all, the songs are so amazing that it would be a loss if you don't listen to them, so please look forward to them until the very end.