Anime "Baki", 3 Fans Tried Postrecording! Official comments from director Hirano and Nobunaga Shimazaki, who plays Baki, have also arrived!

(From left to right) Three crowdfunding supporters and Director Hirano

While the production of the second season of the TV anime "Baki" was in progress, three ardent "Baki" fans (Masahiro Asakawa, Tetsuya Yamada, and Tomonobu Tsuda), who were recruited through a crowdfunding campaign to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first issue of Weekly Shonen Champion, attended the post recording session with the cast members. After the post-recording, an official interview was held with director Toshitaka Hirano, and a Q&A session was held between the director and supporters! Comments were also received from Nobunaga Shimazaki, who plays Hanma Baki.

The original "Baki" series, serialized in Akita Shoten's "Weekly Shonen Champion", is centered on the epic battle to the death between the youngest underground fighting champion, Baki Hanma, and his father, Yujiro Hanma, who is called "the strongest creature on earth". The popular fighting manga depicts the struggles of various fighters.

The TV anime is directed by Toshitaka Hirano, director of "Magic Knight Rayearth" and "Devil Man Lady," with series composition by Tatsuhiko Urahata of "High Score Girl II" and animation production by TMS Entertainment.

⇒ TV anime "Baki", "Digest PV of the meat feast in retrospect" is now on view! Kendo Kobayashi is in charge of narration.

Here are the official comments and interviews.

（Here are the official comments and interviews.)

Official comment by Nobunaga Shimazaki as Baki
-How do you feel about the crowdfunding supporters observing the postrecording?
I was a little worried about whether the supporters would enjoy it since it was their first experience, but I am glad to hear that they seemed to enjoy it very much. I was also impressed by the fact that he was so skillful and confident in his voice. I knew that "Baki" fans have a different set of nerves!

-Please give a message to the "Baki" fans who are looking forward to the second season.
The big grudge match is about to begin! I'm sure that fans of the original manga are looking forward to that character and that scene. The anime is also going to be a great success, so you can look forward to it with anticipation. And now...! What will happen to the poisoned Blade Fang! Please look forward to it!"

■Director Toshitaka Hirano's official interview
-Looking back on the first season, what did you focus on in the production?
Director Hirano (Hirano): "I was very conscious of making it easy to understand for fans of the original work as well as for new viewers.

-Director Hirano: "What do you think is the appeal of Baki?
Hirano: "The more you bite into it, the more interesting it is, and we had to make sure we didn't lose any of that charm, so it was a lot of work, but it was fun.

-This time, the crowdfunding members observed the recording session. Have you ever had such an experience before?
Hirano: "No, I don't (laughs). Crowdfunding is interesting. If we can raise money, we can do a lot of things. It's not so good if it's every week (laughs), but once in a while would be good."

-Please tell us about the recording sessions for the second season.
Hirano: "It's very fun. There are a lot of veterans, and it's not easy to do the kind of casting for "Baki" in other anime, so to be honest, I look forward to it every time."

-Please give a message to those who are looking forward to the broadcast.
Hirano: "The quality is even higher than the first season. We will definitely be able to show you something that is even more powerful, so please look forward to it."

Q&A session with crowdfunding supporters (Masahiro Asakawa, Tetsuya Yamada, Tomonobu Tsuda)
Hirano: "How did you like the first season?"

Masahiro Asakawa (Asakawa) "I was impressed when the digest of the biggest tournament was shown at the opening."

Hirano: "I made it with great speed and number of pictures to show what happened for the first-time viewers. I'm glad to hear that."

Tetsuya Yamada (Yamada) "Why did you arrange the mob at the ending?"

Hirano: "I listened to that song about 100 times, and the idea of lining up the mobs came out of that. To match the music, we could have used SD characters to make it look like that, but that would not fit the worldview of "Baki" and there are so many memorable mob characters in the work, so we decided to use them and ended up with that ending.

Asakawa "What did you pay attention to when you made the film?"

Hirano "At first, we were told to follow the original story, so there was no script for the first episode. I also wanted to experiment with the flow of the panels of the manga and see if it could be made into a film. I wanted to experiment and see if I could follow the flow of the comic panels and make it into a movie, so I storyboarded the first and second episodes myself.
I couldn't cut all the storyboards myself due to time constraints, so sometimes I had to have someone else do it, but since the storyboards were assembled from visuals, they came out different from the original. I compare the original work with the animation, wondering if it is necessary to go to the trouble of making it different from the original work, but the original work is inevitably interesting, so in that sense, I also work to fix it exactly as the original work was."

Tomoyoshi Tsuda (Tsuda): "Do you have a favorite character or favorite line of dialogue, director?"

Hirano: "I like all the characters, but I especially like Jack. In the script, there was a part where you talk about Jack's background all the time. I didn't have it at first, but I thought that in order to show Jack's charm, I had to include such a scene so that people watching the show for the first time would understand. I brought in episodes from the grappler and thought about how I could convey Jack's charm, so there is a lot of love for Jack in the film (laughs)."

Asakawa: "I was more impressed than asking questions (laugh), but I was very impressed with the first specs of the first season of "The Deadliest Prisoner of Death". I was impressed by the first specs in the first season. I thought there was a very tough enemy out there. When I saw the action scene of the battle with Hanayama, I thought, "This is what happens when he moves! I thought, "This is what happens when you move!

Hirano: "That episode number is close to the best of the first half. In that sense, it is a matter of how many animators who are good at this kind of work we can gather. And I like Baki (laughs). The character design for the anime is a middle ground between the original work and the current teacher's drawings, but there were people who went out of their way to draw the characters the same way as in the original work (laughs)."

-How did you feel when you participated in the crowdfunding?
Asakawa "As a fan, I was happy that they did the crowdfunding for "Baki" and I was very happy that they created a place where I could express my love for Baki.

Tsuda: "I really love "Baki", so I am very happy to be able to be involved in this way.

Yamada: "At first I was so nervous during the postrecording that my vocal cords were tight (laughs) and I couldn't speak, but gradually my voice started to come out. When I was observing the postrecording, I thought the voice actors were great, but when I entered the studio, I was intimidated and felt like I was in the wrong place (laughs). I learned a lot about the effort that goes into the voice work, and it was a great experience for me.

Outline of the work

Anime "Baki
The second season of the anime will be produced and distributed exclusively on NETFLIX in 2020.

＜STAFF>
Original story: Keisuke Itagaki (serialized in Akita Shoten's "Weekly Shonen Champion")
Director: Toshitaka Hirano
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata
Character Design: Fujio Suzuki, Shingo Ishikawa
Color Designer: Hiromi Miyawaki
Art Director: Masaki Nishiyama
Director of Photography: Tatsuo Noguchi
Editing: Yuriko Sano
Music: Takeshi Fujisawa (Team-MAX)
Sound Director: Yasuyuki Uragami, Keiko Uragami
Animation Production: TMS Entertainment
Production: Bakkitto Production Committee

＜CAST
Hanma Baki: Nobunaga Shimazaki and others

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