Created directly by anime fans! Interview with Seiji Mizushima, director of the full 3DCG anime "Rakuen Ougaku

Amidst the excitement of anime fans' expectations for 3DCG, " Expelled from Paradise," an original anime directed by Seiji Mizushima and scenario by Gen Urobuchi, will be screened in theaters from November 15, 2012. This work is based on the story of a beautiful girl character.

The film features cute expressions of beautiful girl characters, futuristic cyber battles, sci-fi robot action, and a philosophical approach to the question, "What is humanity? and a philosophical approach to the question of "What is human nature? We interviewed director Seiji Mizushima about this animation technology and storytelling, which has already received favorable reviews at previews and attracted attention with its PV. We interviewed him about this animation technique and storytelling.

Animation film created by a director on the cutting edge of 3DCG

--How did director Mizushima receive the offer?

In 2011, I received an invitation from Producer Noguchi of Toei Animation to work with them on an all-3DCG film, where I was shown test movies made with several CG production companies. Even at that point, the quality was rewriting the expression of 3DCG in my mind. I was happy to be able to create a 3DCG work with this quality ahead of others.

--I have the impression that Director Mizushima has actively adopted 3DCG in his works such as " Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa," " Mobile Suit Gundam 00," and " Hanamaru Kindergarten " (all of which he directed).

Sanzigen was in charge of 3DCG for all of these works. There was a movement in the industry as a whole to use 3DCG for works that would require too much work with drawings, but Sanzigen had a clear intention to actively use 3DCG to express even those parts of the work for which drawings were used. Since I had such a relationship with them, I probably had more opportunities to experience 3DCG than other directors.


--Do you feel that the technology improved in line with the vision that the director wanted to express?

Yes, I do. I feel that it is more interesting to go through trial and error in the process of making a film. I think I myself have a love of new things, so I try to incorporate them into my work as early as possible. There are two ways of thinking about it. One is to work on it early and develop the technique in my own work even if it doesn't work out the way I want, and the other is to be patient and adopt it until I am ready to compete.

I work with the former approach, so I think this work was a good fit in that sense as well. From the time they submitted the demo reel, Graphinica, the company in charge of this project, had not only created the basic elements of the game, such as the way the main character Angela's motion and hair moves, but also had a certain atmosphere and sense of style in their drawings. I felt that if we were to work with them properly, we would be able to achieve the results we were looking for.

Creating a refined scenario by building up details

--What was your impression of the scenario written by Gen Ufuchi?

The first thing I read was the plot. I was interested to see how he would expand the plot, and I already had an idea of what he wanted to say in this work. As we worked out the details, I think we came up with a scenario that was very typical of the work of Mr. Urobuchi.

--What do you mean by "unique to Mr. Urobuchi"?

He comes from the game field, so I think he is a text person. He is good at structuring, and in a sense, he is a cry for a director because the branches and leaves until you get to the essential dialogue are so important that it is hard to cut the book (laughs). (Laughs.) However, I think long conversations are an art form, and I want to make the most of it. I thought it was great that you had a clear theme that you wanted to talk about, and that you skillfully pushed the audience toward that theme with your conversations and situations. It was very challenging.



--Was there a lot of text?

It was about two and a half hours long when we produced the first draft. That was because of the length of the conversations. It might not have been a problem in the story if I had left it out, but it was written in such a way that it would deepen our understanding of the world and make it easier to understand what the characters were thinking. However, if we put priority on the length of the film and just put a bunch of conversations in a row, it would be a film that only explains the dialogues. I wanted to expand the world and make it a conversation.

--How did you solve this problem?

Toei Animation suggested that we make a double feature, but since the theme that Mr. Kyubuchi wanted to talk about was a very basic story, he suggested that it would be better to make it as one film. So, for the first time, I proposed the tempo of the conversations, the progression of the story, and the overall structure of the film in order to make a 90-minute film.

I proposed my own golden ratio of how many minutes should be spent up to this point in the film, such as "this conversation is important, but let's reduce the amount of dialogue and explain it later in a different flow. After that, I storyboarded the dialogue, made adjustments in cutting, replaced scenes, and took in the opinions of various people, and after repeated verification, we arrived at the current length of the film.