Anime, Live, YouTuber, and V Tuber......With its current media development, the winter 2021 anime "Idols! Interview with director Shota Nakano!

The popular winter 2021 anime "Idols! is a motion-capture animation about an unsuccessful idol group, "Idols! is a motion-capture animation in which the unsuccessful idol group "Idols!

In addition to its surrealistic worldview and gags, this work has been secretly attracting attention for its very "modern" approach, such as the main cast's video distribution on YouTube Live and Nico Nico Live Broadcasting on the Web, and distribution as virtual YouTubers.

In this issue, we will introduce Sho Nakano, the director of the unusual and controversial "Idols! a film that has been mainly produced in the live-action field!

This is the first animation film for Nakano, who has worked mainly in the live-action field. What kind of difficulties and challenges did he face in this unknown field? ......

--When I first heard the offer to direct "Idols! Please tell us how you felt when you first heard about the offer to direct "Idols!

Nakano: To be honest,...... I was going to refuse at first.

--Why was that?

Nakano There were many reasons, but the most important was that it was a job in a genre I had never done before. When I first heard about the project, I was a bit confused, thinking, "What, an idol animation? I was a bit puzzled.

--What do you think of the current reputation of the work?

Nakano: There are a lot of elements, such as the main cast members being VTubers, and even the creators have doubts about whether this work can be called an "idol anime" in the first place (laughs). (Laughs) From the very beginning, we wanted to create a work that was not bound by preconceived notions, so in that sense, the response to our work may have been as expected.

Shinichiro Kamio, who played the role of an ornament, immediately understood his part, which was reassuring.

--Nakano: How did you come up with the storyline of "idols trying to sell tickets by any means necessary in order to fill the live houses?

Nakano: I created the story based on the scenario created by Takeshi Miyamoto, who wrote the screenplay, but in fact, it started out as a "proper idol story" about the growth of the four idols. But I thought that would have made it less meaningful for me to create it. So I made a number of suggestions, and together with Takeshi Miyamoto, we created a surrealistic storyline.

--Nakano: Did the 10-minute animation format have any impact on the storytelling?

Nakano: In the case of a feature film, we can take the slow method of making ......, in which the story and characters are revealed little by little, but in the case of a "10 minutes x 1 course (3 months)," in which the main story is actually 5 minutes long, it is easy to understand the characters' personalities right away, because we have to make them understand the story. However, in the case of "10 minutes x 1 course (3 months)" and the main story is actually 5 minutes long, we had to make the characters' personalities understandable immediately, so we made the characters easy to understand and made the story strange.

--The cast members who played the four main characters said, "The story of 'Idols! is when listeners comment on the show on "Nico Live" and other broadcasts.

Nakano: Everyone watches the show while typing their comments. I felt an affinity with sites like "NicoLive," where viewers can send messages in real time.

--Nakano: Was the development of ......, where tickets are sold little by little every week, in the beginning?

Nakano: We came up with this setting at the same time as the direction of the project was finalized and the "ornament" was to be introduced, because we decided to make the 10 episodes 10 days long.

--Nakano: So the "ornament" was not planned to appear in the beginning?

Nakano That's right. At first, it was a simple story about four idols trying their best to become successful, but when we were restructuring the story, we wanted to create a mysterious presence that would serve as a suggestion for the girls, so we made it appear.

--The presence of the "figurine" also adds a nice spice to the story, doesn't it?

Nakano: Shinichiro Kamio (who plays "Okimono") has done a lot of work outside of anime, and it was reassuring that he knew what role "Okimono" would play. Sometimes Mr. Kamio would take the lead in ad-libbing, and the girls would follow his lead .......

--Nakano: There was also a mysterious character named "Salvatore Tamai.

Nakano This is a character created by Mr. Miyamoto. This is totally unrelated, but my handle on the SNS I used to use when I was a student was "Guardrail Kashiwada. It was this sense of style that made me feel sympathy for Mr. Miyamoto (laughs). Another interesting thing unique to this film is that in the live-action commercials I usually make, there are restrictions such as not mentioning the name of the competing manufacturer, but this time I was able to draw the commercial rather freely. Normally, I would not have been able to create a scene in which Aina smokes an "air (air) cigarette.

The editing process for the opening and ending was really hard. ......

--Nakano: What were the difficulties in supervising the motion capture?

Nakano: Everything (laughs). (Laughs.) Just like on stage, we did not cut into the play, but filmed one cut. We rehearsed the play many times to get the actors to learn the play, and then we went in for the shoot. Also, voice actors usually don't act out movements, so it was very difficult to start from scratch. The unique difficulties of motion capture were that we had to position the camera 360°, but when people overlapped, the data could not be recorded, and when people sat down, the data of their feet would be lost and not reflected in the animation. Overall, it was heavy work (laughs).

--(laughs) - I heard that the editing process was also difficult.

Nakano: To make the most of Mr. Miyamoto's script, we went through a lot of trial and error, some parts were left as they were and some parts were changed a lot. As you can see in the film, we put a lot of value on "pauses," and we wanted to make the most of them even in the 10-minute animation, so we dared to take some time out.

--What else did you feel during the filming?

Nakano: If you rewatch all the episodes, you will see that as we progressed from the first episode, both the staff and cast became more familiar with the "Idols! world, you can see that the atmosphere of the world is becoming more and more familiar. The cast also began to improvise in accordance with the characters they were playing.

From around the third episode, you can gradually get a sense that the "Idols! world starts to develop in earnest from the third episode onward, and I hope you can feel it. So I hope that you will not "cut the first episode" (laughs).

--Nakano: Do you have any memories of the opening and ending images?

Nakano: This was really hard work. If I had my way, it might have been more difficult than the main story (laugh). The dance choreography was supervised by Ms. Hisako Aragaki. She decided on the choreography first, and then I edited the camera work to match the choreography. I decide the camera work. Normally, I would draw a storyboard and shoot according to the storyboard, but this time, I edited it afterwards, so it took me a lot of time. But thanks to that, I was able to create a satisfactory camera work.

--What you are doing is now "overall direction.

Nakano That's right. As we were working on it, we kept coming up with things we wanted to do a little more like this, and as a result, it took a tremendous amount of time. ...... The recording of the film itself has been completed, but we are still working on it to great acclaim (laughs). *The interview was conducted before Day 9 aired.

--Nakano: Actually, the 10th episode was the first episode to be broadcasted, and the last episode made me cry.

Nakano: Actually, we made a major structural change from the script for episode 10, making it a moving episode. The storyline was different from when we were filming, so perhaps the four members of the Idols had a hard time! may have been deeply moved as they recalled how hard it was for them (laughs). I think that in the end, they thought, "This is a Shin-Ei Animation production after all" (laughs).

--By the way, if you were to work on an animated film again, what would you do?

Nakano: I think we can make use of the know-how we gained this time and produce it a little more efficiently than this time. I think we were able to build a "teacher-student" relationship with the cast, and I think we can make the most of it next time.

--Nakano: Lastly, do you have a message for our readers?

Nakano Well, once again, please visit ....... Thank you for watching. Life is not always going well, and there are many hard and sad times. Everything is not going well. But when that happens, please watch "Idols! will probably not help you at all. It probably won't help you (laughs). Or maybe you could have done something else in those 10 minutes (actually 8 minutes). But one thing I can say is that the four new voice actors also hit a big wall. The essence of this "Idols! is not about idols or gags, but about chasing a "dream. (*1)
I would like to thank the wonderful voice actors and other talented staff for making this work. Please continue to support "Idols! We hope you will continue to support "Idols!

(*1) "Idols! is a gag anime (laugh).

Shota Nakano

(Interview, writing, and photography by Atsushi Saeki)


[Profile

Shota Nakano

CM/ music video director

Joined Ray Inc. in 2013. Currently belongs to CRAZY (Cray Inc.).

He specializes in emotional, film-like tones and surrealistic direction.

He is involved in a wide range of genres such asTV commercials, websites, 6-second bumpers , and music videos.

His motto is "to capture a person's charm in a realistic way."

Ray Inc.: https: //www.ray.co.jp

CRAY Inc.: #crazy

CRAZY: #crazy/