Just before the final episode of "Manalia Friends! How were the beautiful characters and art created? Interview with Hideki Okamoto (Director), Minami Yoshida (Character Designer), and Ayumi Kawamoto (Art Director)
This weekend's broadcast of "Manalia Friends" will mark the final episode.
This is an anime work featuring two popular characters, Anne and Grea, who were born from the "Manaria Magic Academy" event in "Rage of Bahamut," developed and operated by Cygames. It is a fantasy work that is also impressive in terms of art, including the beautifully and profoundly drawn Manaria Magic Academy.
Akiba Research Institute has interviewed Minami Yoshida (character designer) and Ayumi Kawamoto (art director), who supported "Manaria Friends" from the visual side, as well as Okamoto, who was in charge of the entire production. We also asked director Hideki Okamoto, who oversaw the entire production, about how the visuals for this film were created.
The Institute's art setting, taking into account even the brightness of the lighting
--First of all, please give us a brief self-introduction.
Director Hideki Okamoto (Okamoto ) My name is Hideki Okamoto, and I am the director of the film. Manaria Friends" is the story of Gurea and Anne, popular characters from the games "Rage of Bahamut," "Shadowverse" and "Granblue Fantasy," and is not a completely original anime. Therefore, we took over what had been built up at Cygames, the company that produces the game, and began by asking ourselves how we could create a work that would satisfy the game staff and fans of the game, and then worked to put it together as a final film.
Character Designer Minami Yoshida (Yoshida ) I am Yoshida, character designer and chief animation director. Since Gurea and Anne originally existed as characters in the game, I was in charge of creating the characters for the animation. As the Chief Animation Director, I am responsible for making the final corrections to the images that were actually drawn by the animators.
Art Director, Ayumi Kawamoto ("Kawamoto") My name is Kawamoto, and I was the art director. The art setting is
I was mainly in charge of adding color to the artwork, since Mr. Maki Hashimoto and Mr. Osamu Saemada of CygamesPictures were in charge of the art setting. My work involved the actual work on the backgrounds, coloring the art boards, and deciding on the overall image.
--I have the impression that the work "Manaria Friends" is a very rich work of art. Today, I would like to talk to the three of you about the artwork. As Director Okamoto just mentioned, "Manaria Friends" features Anne and Greer, popular characters from "Rage of Bahamut" and other Cygames games. First of all, could you tell us about the difficulties and innovations you faced in creating an anime derived from the characters in the game works?
Okamoto: In games such as "Rage of Bahamut" and "Granblue Fantasy," there is already a huge amount of scenarios, and the story develops along with many illustrations. So I think fans have a huge amount of information about the two main characters even before the anime adaptation. Therefore, our first concern was how much information we could incorporate into the anime without conflicting with the information in the game.
When it came down to it, we needed to grasp the overall structure of Manaria Academy of Magic, the school to which Anne and Greer belong and where the main stage of the film takes place. But at the time of production, that art setting did not exist. Of course, there were pictures and settings of the classrooms, but there was no overall picture of the building as a whole, such as where this classroom was and where the library was located (......). However, since this was an important part that would serve as a starting point for the animation production, we decided to first create an overall image of Manaria Academy of Magic, while keeping in mind that it should be consistent with the original work and easy to watch as an animation.
We began our work with a strong awareness of the need to expand the overall framework and create the characters, art, accessories, and other aspects of the story.
After all, when writing a scenario, without a stage setting, it is difficult to write the scenario because you don't know where you are going and what you are doing. Therefore, from the very early stages, Mr. Hashimoto, who was in charge of art setting, was involved in creating a setting that the production staff could understand.
After the "Manaria Academy of Magic" setting was completed, I asked Mr. Kawamoto, "Since you have created such a school, could you make this stage as if it existed in reality as art?
--(Laughs) - "Manaria Academy of Magic" was created as an art setting, and the role of the art director was to create reality. What did you keep in mind while working on the film?
Kawamoto: "Manaria Friends" is a cute film with two girls, Gurea and Anne, so at first I was thinking of using beautiful and bright colors.
However, in discussions with the director, we were told that the light source (in the academy) was candles due to the historical setting, so we wanted to express the dark parts in a realistic manner by darkening the colors. So, although the story is not dark in content, I tried to express it without losing the sense of gravity.
Okamoto: "Manaria Friends" is a fantasy world where magic exists. We discussed the overall image of "Manaria Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry" and how the atmosphere of England from the 18th to the early 19th century would be suitable to express the atmosphere of the period.
Therefore, I mentioned the "Harry Potter" series as a reference. In such a world, there would be no fluorescent lights or plastic products, so I wanted to eliminate things that are not present in that world. ...... Also, the "Manaria Academy of Magic" is a castle that was built 100 to 200 years ago, so the walls are covered in moss and dust. I told them that I wanted them to incorporate those textures into the artwork so that the viewer can feel the sense of the times.
Kawamoto: When I heard that, I took another look at "Harry Potter" and collected materials from that period.
The difficulty of designing a popular character who appears in various games
--You were very particular about the artwork, weren't you? On the other hand, the games "Rage of Bahamut" and "Granblue Fantasy" are famous for their beautiful character illustrations. For Mr. Yoshida, the character designer, was it difficult to incorporate the characters into the anime design?
Yoshida: In "Rage of Bahamut" and "Shadowverse," each character is drawn by a different illustrator, so the designs are different. So, the Anne drawn by "Ponzu" in "Rage of Bahamut" looks cute and young, but the Anne in "Granblue Fantasy" is taller and more mature.
So, when fans of either of them see the characters in "Manalia Friends," it was very difficult to put them in a place where they would not have a different impression of them! It was very difficult to make it so that fans of both "Manaria Friends" would not see the characters differently. I felt like I was trying to find a design that would look like Anne to "Rage of Bahamut" fans and like Anne to "Granblue Fantasy" fans.
--The background is drawn in the atmosphere of medieval England, as the director and Mr. Kawamoto mentioned earlier. Were you conscious of this aspect of art when designing the characters?
Yoshida: I made sure that the characters would fit naturally in the backgrounds, and I took a number of design steps to keep up with the amount of information in the artwork.
However, I was more conscious of the story when designing the characters. Unlike the original game, "Manaria Friends" does not feature many battle scenes, but rather a story about life at the "Manaria Magic Academy. Therefore, the character designs reflect a certain softness to depict the friendship and drama among the girls, rather than designing characters to fight.
--The more information the characters have, the more difficult it becomes to draw them as animated characters. Did Director Okamoto and Mr. Yoshida have any discussions about the drawing process?
Yoshida: In "Manalia Friends," there are many daily acts such as walking and leaning. However, such ordinary gestures are sometimes more difficult to depict in anime than in action scenes. So, we had to retake a lot of the daily gestures (laughs). (Laughs) There were a lot of original drawings.
Okamoto: As well as the acting, we talked about how the characters should stand, how they should look at each other, their facial expressions, and how much the corners of their mouths should be up to indicate that they are smiling (......). First, we decided on the subtle details.
Without a fixed picture, it is impossible to have the characters act. How much time and at what timing should be spent to make the best use of a certain facial expression? I remember that we had a lot of discussions about such acting and expressions as we worked on the film.
Yoshida: The main focus of "Manalia Friends" is to express the emotions of the characters, so it was very difficult to draw their facial expressions and daily acts.
--By the way, were there any retakes in the character design stage?
Yoshida: When I first made the character list, I drew Gurea with a soft expression. But in the first episode, Gurea and Anne had not become very close, so I remember the director told me to give Gurea a more crisp expression.
Okamoto: The character of Grea is a princess and a hard-eyed dragon, and she is a bit of a wallflower and a scary person to those around her. Anne, on the other hand, is diplomatic and friendly, but there is a part of her that is somewhat inaccessible. In order to express the sense of loneliness that these two share, I thought that at the beginning Gurea had to be a hard girl.
As they get to know each other through the story, the two of them change more and more. So, in the character list at the stage of producing the first episode, I asked Gurea several times to give her a hard feeling.
Yoshida: That's why Gurea's expression in the character list is a bit dark (laughs). (laughs) From there, as the main story progressed, Gurea's and Anne's expressions started to change.
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