Takayuki Hirao's Real Reason for Wanting to Adapt "Eiga Daisuki Pompo-san" into an Anime [Watching the Animation Industry No.67

A theatrical animation of the manga "Eiga Daisuki Pompo-san" by Shogo Sugitani [Human Plastic Model] (hereafter, Shogo Sugitani) is currently in production. It is a fantastical work set in a fictional movie world about Pompo-san, a talented movie producer in the form of a cute little girl, and Jean, who works as her assistant.
The film is directed by Takayuki Hirao, known for the TV series "GOD EATER" (2015) and the animated feature "The Witch Sisters' Yoyo and Nene" (2013). However, he says that the production of "GOD EATER" did not proceed as expected due to his persistence, resulting in an irregular form of broadcasting. Overcoming this setback, Hirao began working on the animation version of "Pompo-san" at his own initiative. I wonder what kind of thoughts Director Hirao has in his mind as he works on the film?　We visited the studio of CLAP, which is in charge of production.

A project initiated by a volunteer, not by a production committee

───Please tell us how you came to direct "Eiga Daisuki Ponpo-san".

Hirao: It's a long story, but the production company and investors were decided first, and it did not come to me as a job from there. I had caused a lot of trouble with the production of the TV animation "GOD EATER," and although I had become a freelancer, I was afraid that I would never get any decent work in the animation industry again. So I asked myself, "Why did I want to make animation? What kind of work do I want to make in the future? I thought to myself, "This is probably what I will do for the rest of my life. Then one theme emerged: "This is probably what I want to spend the rest of my life drawing. I tried to talk about this theme with everyone I met after going freelance. I would be happy to work on an original project to depict this theme, but I would also be perfectly happy to work on an original work. I told the people around me that I wanted to make an animation with this kind of direction (......).
At the time, I was helping with "Shinkage no Kyojin" (second season, 2017), and several production companies offered me the opportunity to direct. I was very grateful, but when I compared those offers with the theme I wanted to work on, it didn't seem like it would work out. At that time, someone approached me and said, "There is a manga called 'Eiga Daisuki Ponpo-san' (Mr. Ponpo Loves Movies) that I would like you to read, and that you should animate it. I think it was just two days after "Ponpo-san" was first published on pixiv. Up until then, most of the projects that came my way were hard violent ones, but "Pompo-san" was completely different from those, with a cute design, so at that point I thought, "Wow! When I read it, I found it very interesting. I thought, "I can put the theme I want to do in this project. I responded to the person who introduced the story to me, saying, "If this is the case, I would like to animate it myself. Then he said he was going to meet the original author (Mr. Shogo Sugitani). The person who introduced me was a producer for a certain company, but he introduced "Mr. Pompo" to me as an individual. So I went to Mr. Sugitani with just my enthusiasm (laughs). I didn't have a proposal, nor did I have a plan to make it into an animated film. It was not until I met Mr. Sugitani that I learned that he was an employee of Production Good Book. At that point, I had already received offers from more than 10 editorial departments to publish "Ponpo-san" as a book, and I was still trying to decide where to publish it. I asked him, "Which publisher would be the best if we were going to make it into an animated film?" I was asked for advice.
At that time, I was working on a novel to be published by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko titled "The Monster Prince and the Bakemono Princess," so I asked him if he would be interested in attending the meeting. I asked the person who introduced me, "Would you like to attend the meeting? It so happened that the editor in charge of the novel had also edited manga before, and we discussed the possibility of publishing "Ponpo-san" from KADOKAWA on the spot. From there, preparations began to make "Pompo-san" into an anime with KADOKAWA as the managing company. Around the same time, I heard that Matsuo (Ryoichiro) had established a new production company called CLAP, and I asked him, "We have an original manga like this, and we haven't started a production committee or anything yet, so why don't we make it together? I asked him if he would like to work with me. So, one of the volunteers started telling me that I should make an animation of "Ponpo-san" since I had become a freelancer and was out of work, and then I was writing a novel, Matsuo-kun was starting a company, and various other coincidences came together to start the project. ...... Sorry for the long story (laughs).