Anime "Kizuna no Ariru", an interview with the staff who can talk about it now! Kenichiro Komaya (Director) x Takatoshi Chino (Animation Producer) x Keita Yoshinobu (Animation Producer) x Naoto Nakajima (Producer) [PR].

In the second season, in addition to the unit "PathTLive", whose story up to its formation was depicted in the first season, new members "BRT5", "VICONIC", and "3DM8" were introduced. Along with the story of how the Virtual Grid Awards and the ADEN Seed main competition will turn out in the unit battles, each unit's music, music video-like live performances, and cross-unit collaboration songs also drew attention. The final episode, episode 24, combined with the power of the visuals, probably drew many people in.

In addition to the anime, the Alleles Project (hereinafter referred to as "Alleles"), in which 15 virtual artists from different backgrounds and personalities live in the virtual world and engage in various activities, is also noteworthy. The Alleles Project (hereinafter referred to as "Alleles"), which has uploaded many videos on YouTube, is also a notable project.

Akiba Research Institute has interviewed the cast of each unit in commemoration of the Arills XR Live (https://kizunanoallele.com/?post_type=news&p=1141) scheduled for March 8, 2024. Finally, we would like to present an interview with the staff who created the anime.

We asked Kenichiro Komaya (director), Takatoshi Chino (animation producer), Keita Yoshinobu (animation producer), and Naoto Nakajima (producer) about various topics, including some behind-the-scenes stories that can only be told now.

⇒Please enjoy this interview as well!

Ariru the Bond" Unit Interview Part 1: "BRT5" Yuri Matsuoka (Niska), Ranfei (Jessie), Yuka Yoshiki (Ellie), Hina Natsume (Sara), and Hinaki Yano (Hal) Special Talk [PR] (Japanese only)
The 2nd interview with the unit of the anime "Kizuna no Ariru"! VICONIC" Nozomi Nagumo (Jua) x Tsukino (Cea) special interview! PR】・Anime "Kizuna no Ariru" Unit Interview Part 2!
The 3rd unit interview of the anime "Kizuna no Ariru"! 3DM8" Ruri Arai (Himena) x Nawa Furuhata (Zoe) x Yuna Kitahara (Sophia) Special Talk [PR
The 4th unit interview of the anime "Kizuna no Ariru"! PathTLive" Ayumi Hihara (Miraku) x Rina Kawaguchi (Quon) x Yuzuka Nukui (Noel) x Hikari Kodama (Chris) x Arisaki Hanawa (Liz) special interview [PR

What I cherished was the last of each season

--Thank you for your hard work in completing the two seasons. First of all, please tell us frankly how you feel now that you have seen the viewers' reactions.

Komaya: I did not check every single viewer's reaction, but I was relieved to see that it was generally well received by those who watched it. I thought it would be difficult if there were no good opinions at all and the video had been bashed around (laughs).

Yoshinobu: For the time being, I am also relieved. There were a lot of difficulties as an original work, but we were able to broadcast the two-cour version, and after the last episode, some people asked us to make a sequel. I feel relieved now that we were able to include those aspects in the production.

Chino: To be honest, in the beginning, we were still trying to figure things out, but I think the staff did a really good job. While we were making the film, the director and Yoshinobu and I talked a lot about how we wanted to present the first season and the second season.

Komaya: That's right. In the end, I think the project ended up in a good shape, but at the beginning, I was a bit confused and didn't fully grasp what was expected of me. I had heard that Ai-chan (Kizuna Ai) was not the main character, but I thought she would appear more. However, I think that by making Miraku and the others the main characters, the result turned out to be good.

--How about more specifically, looking back on what you were conscious of and what were the difficulties in the production process?

Komaya: I know that some viewers commented that the story progressed slowly in the first season, but we were most conscious of how the first season would end and what kind of ending we would have in the second season, and we put a lot of effort into it. Of course, there were many details to be worked out, but that was the main point.

Chino: As we discussed with Yoshinobu, the sense of tempo was very important. However, the second season had more characters and units, so we had to change gears from the first season. I remember worrying about what the audience would think of that.

Yoshinobu: Indeed, we were talking about the tempo of the story. Other than that, for example, when it came to character creation, we had a rough character list of "energetic" and "positive" characters, but that was all the information we had at the beginning. Deko Akao, the series director, and the writers discussed and created the characters during the reading sessions (scenario meetings). That was a difficult part of the process for both seasons.

Nakajima: That was one of the difficulties we faced because it was an original work.

Mysterious retake: "Add a little more Niska!

--You drew the five members of PathTLive in the first season. If you had to pick one character who turned out to be interesting or particularly memorable, who would it be?

Komaya I like all the characters, but personally I was quite particular about Noel. I have talked about Noel in an official interview*, so if I had to talk about any other character, it would be Liz. I thought a lot about how to make her blend in with her surroundings, as if she had been a member of the group from the beginning, and how to bring out her charm and friendliness. However, there was actually a backstory that had not been told, and I would have liked to have done more scenes that would have given the audience a sense of it.

*Reference article: Official website, 3rd interview with Kizuna no Ariru creators, "Plot and setting" (Japanese only)

Yoshinobu: I was impressed by Marumaru. The creators and directors used Marumaru in a good way, and some of the interesting moves and the relationship with Miraku were created on site. He is a bit cool inside because he is Quon, but depending on the episode, there are also scenes in which he is played around with, so the gap between the two characters works out well.

--What do you think of the second season, in which other units besides PathTLive appeared?

Chino: What I found interesting was Niska. As we were working on it, there were retakes that I didn't really understand, like "add a little more Niska language" (laughs). (Laughs.) What is the Niska language? I thought. I thought it sounded like a roundabout way of saying things, or a little bit sticky, and I thought it was an interesting character. When I was shown the design, I was told not to think of her as a boy or a girl, so at first I wondered how to turn it around. But I was impressed by the interesting way he phrased those words and so on.

Komaya: On the other hand, there were some characters for whom I felt a little sorry. Hal appeared a little bit, so it's still OK, but Ellie is a very good character, but I couldn't draw her story as a stand-alone ....... If I have a chance, I would like to draw more of these two somewhere.

Chino: Yes, that's right. It is inevitable in a limited space, but when there are 15 of us, each of us has to be on duty at least once.

Yoshinobu: In terms of the number of people, the number of characters increased tremendously, so it was very difficult to have several people on the screen in one scene. In the first season, there were at most 5 PathTLive characters or 4 characters plus a whole scene, but in the second season, there were sometimes 15 characters in a single cut. There were times when I thought, "Give me a break, ......" (laughs).

Chino: We had to make sure that the colors didn't overlap, and I felt that there were a lot of difficulties. It was a good thing, though, because it was fresh and new.

--The 3DCG is also one of the features of this work, as the heads of the characters are different from the 2D ones. Both are attractive, but did you try to fill in the differences between the two, or did you do it without being conscious of it?

Chino: Rather than filling in the differences, I was aware of them as such projects, as was the case with the Alleles Project (mainly active on YouTube). 3D also has a music video specification and an in-animation delivery specification, and I was aware of the "intentional distinction" during the book reading stage. Yoshinobu: In the first place, we were told that we did not need to make up the difference between the two.

Yoshinobu: In the first place, it is not possible to draw the 3D models as they are (laughs).

Chino: That's right. (laughs). It was not easy to be asked to make drawings from the 3D model, and vice versa. However, in the beginning, we were trying to figure out how to reach a compromise.

Nakajima That's right. Kizuna no Ariru" is a work with a mixture of three types of pictures: 2D drawings, 3D music video specifications, and delivery specifications. Because so many things were happening at the same time, it was both good and bad, but I think we were able to draw and express the best of each.

Yoshinobu: Each section was created independently, and it was really difficult to combine them. Even at the cutting stage, when we were deciding the length of the music video, there were times when we did not know what kind of music video we would get. The low movie of the delivery was also blank in our minds as we were creating the animation before and after, so there was always a sense of uncertainty.

Chino: When animations are made using 3DCG, the 2D animation tends to be delayed, but for this work, the 3D animation came later, so there were times when we were surprised in a good way when we saw it afterwards.

Yoshinobu: I was surprised that something this amazing could be included! I thought.

We were right up to the last minute with the "mirAI wave!

--I think that with so many characters, you must have had a hard time deciding on the last part of the film. How did you think about this part of the film?

Yoshinobu: It all came down to making sure that the story landed on a good note. How can we make the viewers feel good about the final episode? We discussed this with everyone, and as is probably standard practice in the animation industry, we thought it would be exciting if the opening from the first season were to be played.

Chino: I think it worked out well because everyone thought about bringing something passionate to the show rather than going off on a tangent. Also, the power of the music was a big factor. The opening song is one of them, but every song is wonderful to listen to.

Komaya That's right. As I mentioned earlier, I had some regrets, but the ending of the final 24 episodes went very nicely. I think it was great that the opening theme from the first season, "mirAI wave!

--What was the most impressive song or your favorite song?

Yoshinobu: I would have to say the opening theme for the second season, "Perfect World! the opening theme of the second season. I know it sounds abstract, but I thought it was a song that was very similar to the second season (laughs). The first season's "mirAI wave!" has the feel of a first single, or the momentum of a debut song, while "Perfect World! has a more "casual" feel, or the atmosphere of children who have grown up a bit. It reminds me of the old anime where the opening song of the first season was very energetic, but the second season was very quiet. It reminded me of that kind of thing.

Chino: I would say "mirAI wave! In fact, the first song I heard before this one was a VICONIC song. After I heard it, I had no idea what line I was going to take (laughs). (Laughs.) And then came the BRT5 song, and both VICONIC and BRT5 were really cool, and when I saw the finished product, I was happy with this song, but when I heard "mirAI wave! This, this, this! I was confused when I heard "mirAI wave! I like it for that reason as well.

Nakajima "mirAI wave! The music staff and I were working on it note by note. There was a scary moment when we found out afterwards that we had secretly made some changes.

Chino: You didn't change the length or anything, did you? It's good that you're doing your best, but it's no use if the scale has changed! (laughs).

Nakajima: In the end, it turned out OK, but it was scary. (laughs). With such memories, "mirAI wave!

(laughs). If there is an opportunity, I would like to continue the animation and depict what was not fully expressed.

--I would like to continue the anime if I have the chance, or draw something that was not fully expressed.

Chino: In terms of the characters, we had originally decided on various things at the beginning, such as "this girl sticks out her tongue" or "she winks a lot. But I think Liz was the only one who stuck to them until the end (laughs).

Yoshinobu That's true (laughs). (Laughs.) It was good that we made them, but in the end they were often not used much.

I was particular about the last cut of the last episode. I used "CACANi," an automatic mid-cut software, and moved it so slowly that you would have thought it was CG. This is the craftsmanship of the animation team, including the motion picture inspector. It is a very simple point, and I don't think the audience cares that much about it, but everyone worked hard to make the last part of the video beautiful, with the sole intention of making it even better.

Nakajima: Some things, such as the final PathTLive costumes, were decided by the creators. Mr. Sasaki (CG director/CG supervisor Ryo Sasaki) said, "Mr. Nakajima, there is one thing I want to play with. I want to change the impression in the last scene, so could you let me change the costume design? I was told. He said it was something he wanted to do as a creator, so I said I would do it. ...... Oh⁉I've never seen this design before. I said, "I've never seen this design before" (laughs).

Chino: "What? (laughs).

Yoshinobu I was surprised. I was surprised to see Miraku and the others in costumes I did not know on the server, and I thought, "What is this? Are the designs going to change in the final episode? (laughs).

Chino: There were not only white costumes but also black ones. From our point of view, we were hoping that they wouldn't change it now (laughs). But everyone did their best.

Nakajima: We laugh about it now, but it was not funny at the time. It was really thanks to the hard work of everyone on site. The same can be said for Kizuna Ai's "LINX" production, where hearts fly around in the music video to indicate "Like". She started her career on YouTube, so she wanted to express that she was getting likes and high ratings, and she also wanted to express that she is loved by everyone in the world and the universe when the heart appears in the space scene at the end of the video. I think that kind of attention to detail went into the CG in many ways.

--I hope you will watch it again in detail through distribution and Blu-ray. Lastly, I know that there are people who are looking forward to new animations and projects, so please tell us about your hopes and aspirations for the future.

Komaya: I originally wanted to draw a story about "Singularity," but due to the number of episodes and the length of the story, I was not able to go that far, so I would be happy if there is a place to express it in some form, even if it is not a sequel.

Chino: Of course I would like to continue the anime. I would be happy to do my best if I am invited again.

Yoshinobu: Although the animation has come to a close, the activities of Arills will continue, so I hope that you will expand the scope of your activities so that people will watch the animation again (through distribution, etc.) and that more people will support the project as a whole.

Nakajima: This work has themes such as "becoming who you want to be" and "how to express yourself," and I think we were able to express them in a variety of extravagant ways, including the expression of Arills and 3D in the animation. However, as the director said, there are still many things we would like to do, and we would like to do our best so that we can make animation again with this team. I hope you will continue to support us in the future.

(Interview and text by Kenichi Chiba)