What the staff chose to meet and exceed fan expectations──"Zombieland Saga: Revenge" commemorates its completion! Interview with Director Munehisa Sakai, Manabu Otsuka (MAPPA) and Nobuhiro Takenaka (Cygames)!

The revenge of the zombie idols came to an end with great success.

The TV anime "Zombieland Saga Revenge," which aired from April to June 2021, was a spectacular continuation of the previous "Zombieland Saga," which aired from October to December 2018 and created a huge buzz.

Girls who lived in various eras come back to life as zombies in the present day and become idols to save the declining Saga Prefecture. ...... While the setting is outlandish, the emotional style, full of laughter and tears, has brought Saga to the attention of the whole of Japan. The second season, "Zombieland Saga: Revenge," also drew a great deal of attention for its content, which far exceeded, and sometimes exceeded, expectations prior to its broadcast.

It has already been a month since the last episode aired, which was both moving and upsetting. We gathered three of the central figures in the "Zombieland Saga" team, Director Munehisa Sakai, Manabu Otsuka (Representative Director of MAPPA), and Nobuhiro Takenaka (Anime Division of Cygames), to take a look back at "Zombieland Saga Revenge".

The most important thing we kept in mind when making the film was not to say it was impossible.

Q: How do you feel now that "Zombieland Saga Revenge" has finished airing?

Takenaka I am exhausted. ...... (laughs). I feel like I've done all I can do. I have a lot of things to think about, but I feel like I've put it all out there.

Otsuka: I have a similar feeling, but it was tough (laughs).

(laughs). Sakai: To be honest, I was relieved. I certainly have a sense of accomplishment, but I also feel a sense of fulfillment because I was able to carefully work out all the details from the scenario stage and create a solid 12 films.

Q: Did you see the reaction of the fans when the film was broadcast?

Takenaka: I saw it at key points, but to be honest, I didn't see as much as I did in the first season. The one episode that I was most interested in was the first episode. Once I got past this point, I wasn't worried until about episode 8 or 9, "Saga Incident.

Otsuka: The first episode of the second season of an original anime is very difficult. But everyone persevered until the very end, and the production staff and advertisers fought until the very end, so I am relieved to know that we received good reviews. But it was totally harder than the first season. ......

Q: That must be the difficulty of the second season of an original work, isn't it?

Otsuka: The first term of this work started out like I had nothing to lose.

Takenaka: We started from a place where there were no expectations.

Otsuka: That's why it was difficult to meet or exceed expectations, and in order to create something that exceeded expectations, we had to be careful not to choose our own "safe way of thinking. But that made us uneasy, didn't it? But that would have made me uneasy.

Takenaka I wondered if this would be accepted. I wondered.

Otsuka: What comes out of my imagination is only within the scope of my imagination, so even if I did my best, I don't think it would be appreciated that much.

Q: In the first episode of the first season, Sakura was suddenly hit by a truck and turned into a zombie.

Otsuka: That kind of beginning would never be possible in the second season.

Q: Personally, when I watched the first episode, I thought that you had overcome the pressure of the second season of the original work.

Takenaka: We were still under a lot of pressure after the first episode aired, though (laughs).

Otsuka The creation of the episodes is something that is thought through throughout the 12 films and then worked backwards from there.

Takenaka In the end, the first episode of "Revenge" was created based on the 10th episode. So I had a feeling that there would be more than a few people who didn't understand what was going on in the first episode.

Otsuka: But in the latter half of the episode, when we saw the various numbers increase, we were glad we trusted our own senses.

Q: From the 10th episode, there was a great surge of excitement. Various mysteries were revealed, and in episode 12, Franchouche's live concert was a great success. But then there was a big twist with the mysterious flying object.

Takenaka: It was in the script-writing stage, but I was debating whether to do it or not until the very last minute (laughs).

Otsuka: And no one had an answer (laughs). I don't get it.

Takenaka: When we did the dubbing (the final stage of combining the video with sound data, accompaniment, and sound effects), I thought it was a good idea to include it, but I wasn't even sure about it.

Otsuka: I wasn't sure even after the broadcast (laughs). (Laughs.) I wondered whether it was better to end it neatly or to end it in a way that made me feel like the next one was coming .......

Q: As a fan, I'm excited to see what's waiting for us next.

Otsuka: I'm glad that there were people who were happy about it and were thinking "what's next?

Q: Director Sakai, what position do you take among these members?

Sakai: At the beginning of the project, I gave ideas for the overall setting and worldview, but I left the steering of the scenario meetings to the two producers around the middle of the first period. I would give my opinion if there was something too difficult to visualize or develop, but other than that, I was always thinking about "how to visualize this idea" while listening to the meeting.

Even if it would be something that would normally require a tremendous amount of calories, I would not tell them that it was impossible. That was the most important thing to keep in mind when creating this work. First of all, I thought about how to make it happen. For example, in the first episode of "Revenge," I thought it would be impossible to create a live performance in the midst of a brawl among the audience, but at the end of the first season, when the stage of Alpino collapsed, I was able to get up and perform a live performance.

Takenaka: "I thought that because they were zombies, they could do things like people, and if I could portray that well, it would be interesting."

Now that you mentioned that, I would like to look back at the first episode. I heard that there was a possibility that the first episode would be the one in which a new member suddenly joins the group?

Takenaka: I thought the audience would expect something like the first episode of the first season. In other words, how to present an interesting story that would be surprising and unexpected. As I thought about this over and over again, there was talk of starting with a new member, but when we started to formulate the structure, I thought, "No, that's not right.

Otsuka: It was more important that we came up with the word "eki-sta" and the theme of "revenge. The new member joining was more like the 13th episode of "Zombieland Saga" when we were first thinking of a two-cour structure. After the first season ended with the 12th episode, and we had settled down to think about the second season, we talked about how we had to decide on the first episode after considering the landing point of the story.

Takenaka: So we had already decided on a landing point, and we were like, "Let's fill in the eki-sta at the end! We were like, "Let's fill up Eki-sta at the end! We were just trying to figure out what kind of story we should tell to get to that point.

Otsuka: I don't think the audience would be happy if we did the same thing as the first Alpino Live, so we had to think a lot about how to update the story.

ーーCertainly, if the stadium that was initially a rickety place fills up, it will help recover the title of "Zombieland Saga: Revenge.

Takenaka: It's a pattern where you think you've won the championship, but then it becomes a sequel and you fall behind (laughs). (Laughs.) After all, I believe that Franchouche itself is a group that shines only in adversity.

Otsuka: I also thought a lot about what it means to be an idol. In the final match against the U.S.A., Honoki Sawa scored a goal to tie the score and win the tournament after a penalty shootout. We were talking about whether such an existence could also be called an idol. That discussion led us to this key visual.

Takenaka: The order was to create the image of a goal scored at the stadium.

Otsuka: We gathered the employees, took reference photos of them scoring a goal and surrounding themselves, and sent them to Ms. Kanumi Fukagawa (character designer). I received feedback saying, "That looks fun" (laughs).

I thought it was a cool key visual, but it was Sawa (laughs). I didn't realize that the "idol" was meant to give hope to everyone. ......

Takenaka: It's like they bring us bright news when we are in a gloomy time.

Otsuka: I hope I can depict that kind of existence in my creations.

Frans Chouche became such an existence in the end. And what about Franschoux's part-time job?

Takenaka: We had talked about how interesting it would be to have a zombie take a part-time job in order to get revenge. Then we thought it would be a good idea to have them work part-time at Kojima Foods Industries Co. The reason we started with a company song was influenced by a movie starring Hikari Mitsushima.

Otsuka: I thought it was interesting to start with a company song.

Takenaka: I also thought it was interesting that Ai goes to school on a motorized bicycle.

Q: The opening of the film, where the scene becomes more and more drawn out, was like the start of a movie, wasn't it?

Otsuka: It had the feel of a Japanese film (laughs).

Q: The second episode, "Radio SAGA," was a radio story. Personally, I also enjoyed the scene where the white dragon appeared.

Otsuka: That was a scene that Mr. Ishida, the director, was very particular about. Why did the radio come out?

Takenaka: When we decided that we needed to send out something to spread the word in order to get revenge, and when we thought about what kind of media to use, we thought that radio was very franchette-like. That's when the word "leader of the saga" came up.

Radio will live on later on. Also, Saki's confession to White Dragon was an unexpected development.

Takenaka: I was the one who said that I wanted idols to have something like a romantic relationship. After giving it serious thought, we decided that Saki might be able to make it work. I wanted to challenge myself because I thought it would be interesting if I could do something that people take for granted because they are zombies and portray it well. Of course, there were people who said that because she is an idol, there was no need for a romantic element, but I thought it would be good because it is a love that will never come true, so I dared to try it.

Otsuka: In the second season, I wanted to start depicting the reactions of zombies from the outside rather than the inside, and I thought it would be good if I could bring tears to the audience.

Takenaka: In addition, the female team on the staff pushed for this scene to be included, and it remained until the very end. As a result, I think we were able to show it in a good way.

The cast cried whenever we talked about Saki's tearful scene. Also, it was an interesting device that the opening lines of Saki's song came from the words of the white dragon.

Otsuka: It was a huge afterthought, though (laughs).

Takenaka: Shigeru Murakoshi, who wrote the screenplay, added the lyrics to make it more convincing. Also, the White Dragon's "Don't You Hate a Windy Day?" was also written as a new song, and it was simply a very convincing song by White Dragon.

It was a great song. I heard that Mr. Hakuryu readily accepted your offer.

Takenaka: At first, White Dragon had a different name, but when he appeared in the kick-off movie, I asked him if he would be in it. I asked him if he would be interested in appearing in the kick-off movie, and he said, "I'm totally willing to do the animation. (Laughs) After that, I brought the script to him and asked him to appear in the film.

SakaiI was wondering if I could really make the offer and if they would accept it when I was working on the scenario (laughs), but I wanted to make the character strong, so I am glad they accepted. What I found difficult was how to portray a character who is outlandish, a bit of a joke, but whose soul is passionate. I hoped that by throwing Saki into the mix, I could make it seem as if her soul was being passed down from generation to generation.

SAKAI: It was cute when Tae Yamada was imitating Ryu-san.

Sakaï That was something that Takashi Ishida, the director, inserted even if it was not in the scenario. It's in places like that that the characters really come out.

I had high hopes that Mr. Tanaka would be able to overcome the scat as well.

The third and fourth episodes were about Junko and Ai.

Otsuka: I thought about the episodes while thinking about whether the audience would be pleased with them. Kiyoko Yoshimura-san (*The correct spelling of "Yoshi" is "Kuchi" under "Do") joined us as a scriptwriter for "Revenge," and we worked together to come up with a story that turned out to be more athletic than I had expected (laughs).

Takenaka: Mr. Yoshimura joined us in the middle of the story, but he understood the characters very well, and he was able to fit the lines and actions perfectly, which was very good.

Otsuka: We discussed a lot about how to depict growth, didn't we?

Takenaka Yes, we did. What is the growth of Junko and Ai when each character has to grow toward revenge? Like.

Ai was ahead of Junko, and Junko was struggling to keep up with her.

Otsuka: But in the end, Junko is great, too.

Junko is also amazing. Junko just lacks one more push, but she is amazing to begin with.

Otsuka: That's why the two of them didn't "grow up" either. They have already achieved great success. I also wanted to play Tae's drums (laughs).

Takenaka And I wanted to destroy the electric guitar.

Junko smashed Kotaro's precious guitar, and it was hilarious, including the last part when she was trying to repair it with a bond.

Otsuka: Takeshi Sato, the director, did a great job on that part.

Q: Did Kotaro get mad at you for that?

Otsuka: Or maybe he saw Kotaro getting depressed and thought, "Did I make a mistake?" Maybe he thought, "Did I make a mistake?

Takenaka: In the preface, Kotaro said too much, "Destroy it! I was watching the show thinking that he would indeed reveal what he was going to do later on.

Otsuka: But even in that situation, we were trying to find the right balance. We seriously discussed the need to strike a balance so that Junko, who broke a guitar that holds precious memories for people, would not appear negative.

Takenaka: As a result, we decided to say that Kotaro had said that (laughs).

Otsuka: We tried to keep it within a line that would make it look like we were genuinely doing what Kotaro said. He said, "Destroy it! and then really destroy it. I was very conscious of making it so that the audience would be able to happily make a "tsukkomi" (a kind of "I don't mean it like that!").

That's a very hard thing to understand (laughs). But this live scene was really cool.

Otsuka: The music composer, Koji Sato of SCOOP MUSIC, is from the same generation as me, so we came up with the idea through conversations about how we used to like this kind of band.

Q: Episode 5 was Lily's turn, and it was an episode that showed what a genius she is.

Takenaka: The only thing I had in mind at the beginning was that I wanted to do a scat.

Otsuka: The first thing I had to do was to figure out how to give Lily a sense of genius. We decided early on to have her appear on TV, and one of the ideas we had for what to do was scat. But the script was difficult to write because we had not even done the preliminary work for the scat.

Takenaka: That's right. I think there was a situation where something had to be changed, and we went for scat, but in terms of how quickly it developed, I think there was a "why?" I think there was a "Why?

Q: The way you performed scatting, which is not something you can do immediately even if you were asked to do it, really showed your genius, didn't it?

Takenaka: Mimi Tanaka, who plays Lily, worked really hard on that part. We told her to do more and more. We wanted her to have a sense of genius, but we also wanted her to show something that no human could do.

Otsuka: We were aware of Ms. Tanaka's character, and we had high expectations that she would be able to overcome the scatting.

Takenaka: He really lived up to my expectations.

Otsuka I thought he was a genius! I thought he was a genius.

I heard that Mr. Tanaka was aware that Lily was a genius and that he had to do his best.

Takenaka: What I had imagined was a bit more of a jokey scat, but when I actually saw it, it was so amazing that I stopped laughing and started saying, "Wow! (laughs).

Border It was more difficult than I had imagined, and they gave me a good lesson. At first, I thought it was going to be more of a gag, but I was impressed.

I personally thought it was a great idea when Lily encourages Light in the men's restroom after he admits his defeat as an artist and expresses his frustration.

Otsuka: I wonder if that was done by the scriptwriter, Mr. Yoshimura. But I wondered if he washed his hands before doing the goofing around. I was wondering about that.

Mr. Wright was just cooped up, so it's all right (laughs).

Takenaka But in the beginning, you were peeking from the top of the toilet, weren't you (laughs)?

Otsuka: Ha-ha-ha (laughs). (laughs) That's right.

Takenaka: I would look out from the next private room and say, "Cheer up! But we decided that was a bad idea.

A: Episode 6 was the first episode in the series with Tae Yamada.

Takenaka: After episode 7, there was no place to solve the debt problem, so I felt that I had to solve it here.

Otsuka But the start was to do an everyday episode.

Takenaka The idea of following Tae's daily life was in the plan when we were planning the 24 episodes.

Otsuka: Tae's Otsukai story was the only idea that we had originally.

Takenaka: We tried to tie that in with the resolution of the debt problem in episode 6.

Otsuka I think that by adding the objective viewpoint of Shinta Okoba (CV: Toru Nara), the story that had been scattered around became cohesive.

Takenaka There were many elements, such as the dance battle.

Otsuka: Also, Takenaka-san said (while demonstrating), "I want to do this kind of dance move," but I told him to send me a video of it because words cannot convey the idea, but he didn't send it to me. Ai Yoshimura, who drew the storyboards, saw that and drew Tae waving her hands around, and I decided that this was interesting enough (laughs).

That's the scene of Tae Yamada when she is heading to the stage where Cococo-kun is (laughs). That's why .......

Takenaka Sorry, I didn't get it across. ...... (laughs).

Sakai At some point, the Karatsu boat race came up, didn't it?

Takenaka The only way to pay off the debt would be to gamble! I thought.

Saka That's how the title became "Walking Bet SAGA. The rest was all-star times, wasn't it?

Takenaka That's right. There was a part of me that said, "Let's make the other characters play an active role.

Q: By having the characters from the first season in this episode, episode 12 becomes more alive, doesn't it?

Otsuka: That's right. That's why I knew I had to bring out Kokko-kun (laughs).

Personally, I was relieved to see that thanks to Saki, Maria (CV. Aoi Koga) had been rehabilitated. You are influencing her, aren't you?

Otsuka: We had talked about how it would be nice if we could depict Franchou's influence somewhere. I am glad that we were able to depict it in such a way. The same goes for the next character, YUZURIHA Maiyo (CV. HANAZAWA Kana).