CATDOLL: The inspiration was Chihayafuru? Interview with the director of Overlord

I believe that many anime fans have started to pay attention to the work called "OVERLORD" in July this year. This animation adapted from the light novel of the same name is also the latest work of animation director Naoki Ito. Recently, a media interviewed him and the director personally talked about the charm of the work.

Q: Director Ito has participated in the production of many animations before. Is there any one that has a great influence on your production of "OVERLORD"?

Ito: Surprisingly, I chose Chihayafuru.

Q: Oh, this is really surprising. After all, Chihayafuru is a work for girls with the theme of karuta competition, which is very different in nature.

Ito: Yes. As for what has an impact specifically, I think it should be the "story style". I have always felt that as long as the story is exciting, then you can make an interesting animation.

Q: Indeed, there are some animations that have great graphics and actions, but the plot is not interesting.

Ito: I was originally an artist, so I also like animations with interesting actions. However, after all, "great animation" does not equate to the quality of the work. I have been thinking about this... I should say that as long as the plot is well implemented, it will naturally become interesting and can become a great animation. However, when people around me talk about the plot, they often have uncontrollable troubles. Just when I was worried about this problem, the people from MADHOUSE talked to me about the production of "Chihayafuru", and the original work of this work is very interesting. Every time I read the original work, I cry... (laughs)

Q: (Laughs).

Ito: Because I have to make an animation, I have to watch it several times. So I always have to cry (laughs). In this regard, I think the plot method of "Chihayafuru" is a mode that wants people to be moved. Later, I produced the theatrical version of "Tokimeki! Pretty Cure Ai is getting married? ! The wedding dress of hope that connects to the future" for Toei. At that time, I was the director, so I could comment on the plot, so I used the experience gained from "Chihayafuru" while making the plot with my heart. So everyone's reaction should be that it was quite interesting. So I felt that I had mastered the key to making animation.

Q: That "Pretty Cure" movie was really tear-jerking...

Ito: Oh, you've seen it already? It's pretty good, right? (laughs)

Q: I don’t think anyone can watch this without crying… In other words, you got inspiration from Chihayafuru to create this movie?

Ito: Yes. The same is true for Chihayafuru. Even the same line has different meanings in the first half and the second half. This is also a technique.

Q: Because it involves spoilers, we will stop here, but it is true that I experienced what you said in "Tokimeki! Pretty Cure Love Getting Married?! Wedding Dress of Hope Connecting to the Future". So in this "OVERLORD", you also attach great importance to the weight of the plot?

Ito: Yes. The original work is interesting anyway, and I think it would be good to just take out this interestingness and make it. And just like in "Pretty Cure", the lines said in the beginning will have different effects in the later part, and I tried my best to do this this time.

Q: Specifically, in the fourth episode, Momonga said, "Stop struggling in vain."

Ito: Yes. This sentence was originally said by Negan, but Momonga returned it to him intact afterwards. Also, in episode 8, there is a sentence "If I want to blame you for this, it's really a bit willful", which is great with the bluffing in episode 9, "I forgot to say, I am very willful." (laughs). I think this is the key to making this work.

Q: You just mentioned some interesting issues in the original work. So what was your first impression when you read this work?

Ito: I started reading the online version, and I felt that the amount of text was incredible. I wondered how long it would take to finish it (laughs). Since the Internet doesn't have the same number of pages as a physical book, I couldn't figure out where the end should be. When I thought, "Huh, it's over. Let's read the next chapter," I suddenly realized that the next chapter was "a completely different story." This happens all the time.

Q: After changing a chapter, the story starts from other people's perspectives.

Ito: Yeah. If you read on like this, you'll slowly understand the plot. It's a nostalgic feeling. This deliberately unfriendly production method reminds me of when I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion. When we were thinking about where the plot would end, we found that it had already reached the end. As far as novels are concerned, this method has been around for a long time, so I thought, "Ah, if I use this method, I can make the story interesting." Of course, I don't know how long the audience will stick with it if they are confused. This is also something you have to pay attention to... Most of the animations I produced for Toei are for children. So I give priority to the method of "even if the plot is a series of memories by a third party, the protagonist must appear." This time, the production company is different, so if I don't lay some foreshadowing, the logic of the work will not be established. For example, if a character gives people a sense of disharmony, then even if the animation cannot fully show the reason for this disharmony, the audience must realize that "the disharmony is not without reason." Otherwise, the audience will just think that the character setting is strange.

Q: I see. For viewers who haven't read the original work, even if they don't quite understand what's going on, they'll definitely be aware of it. So there won't be any sense of disobedience in terms of logic.

Ito: That’s what we did.

Q: Regarding production, since it is an animation, the medium of the work must be changed. Where do you start?

Ito: What I was most worried about was "Does Momonga really want to return to the human world?" In the end, since there were many things that could not be covered in this season of the anime, I decided to "not consider returning" after discussing with the original author. In the novel, Momonga's hesitation can be shown, but if it is shown in the anime, it will make the audience feel that the plot is stagnant, so it cannot be added. After all, from a priority perspective, there are still many things that should be done.

Q: The original work is still being serialized, so I don’t know whether Momonga really wants to return to the real world.

Ito: Yes. This aspect is also a very important part in the original work, but the original work did not explain it accurately, so I don’t think it is necessary to give it too much attention in the animation.

Q: How about the other side's drawing? So-bin, who was in charge of the original illustrations, has very delicate brushstrokes, which seems difficult to express in the form of animation.

Ito: So-bin's drawings are very attractive, but to be honest, I felt very tired when adapting the animation (laughs). Of course, before I participated in the production, Mr. Yoshimatsu Takahiro was asked to take charge of the characters, and once the style was determined, there would be no changes.

Q: Speaking of Mr. Yoshimatsu, he has previously participated in the production of MADHOUSE's representative works including "Gun God" and "Hunter x Hunter", and played a leading role in them.

Ito: Yes. After I asked him to take charge of the characters, I thought about what kind of pictures would be shown according to his style? As a result, when I got the finished product, I found that it was different from the original work with a strong Western style, and it also included elements of excellent Japanese animation. In this way, in order to reshape the world of the work, we have to make full use of "characters" to express it. For this reason, when the picture is shown, it is not a group of characters standing there, but only individual characters are shown in the camera, allowing the character to exude a sense of presence here... Anyway, I think it is advanced in a way that makes the audience think that the characters are interesting.

Q: Indeed, if we directly follow the character in the original work, it will be very difficult to shape it.

Ito: Yes. If it is Mr. Yoshimatsu's character design, then after placing the character in the camera, the charm of the lines can be fully displayed.

Q: Have you had any communication with so-bin?

Ito: So-bin gave me the character design I envisioned. Although I can't reflect the original design 100% in the work, I still try to follow So-bin's style as much as possible. Especially for those characters who are presented in text but not in the illustrations, So-bin has set them one by one. Of course, there are also some original characters designed by Mr. Yoshimatsu, but I still adjust the direction while looking at So-bin's design drawings. For example, Albedo's armor also comes from So-bin's original design. Of course, because it is So-bin's original design, there is a lot of information (bitter smile).

Q: That’s only natural.

Ito: This aspect was handed over to Mr. Yoshimatsu, but there are still many lines to sort out. Mr. Yoshimatsu quickly came up with the animation character design, which is really amazing... But there is no one of his level among the animation staff.

Q: Nowadays, there are not many characters with such rich lines. You must feel that this is very difficult, right?

Ito: Yeah. When I started drawing the first episode, I was thinking that the way Momonga-sama was drawn was totally different... Originally, he had red light flashing in his black eye sockets, but I didn't know what the final draft would look like. Therefore, if I couldn't clearly depict the eye sockets, it wouldn't leave an impression.

Q: So it means that the lines will not be painted black during the line drawing stage.

Ito: That's right. And the size of the red "eyeball" would also change people's impression of the character, so it was hard to figure it out without trying to shoot it, so it was a tough battle. So, from a conceptual point of view, I decided to keep Momonga's expression basically unchanged. Since the animation lines make the character's expression appear softer, the setting of the skeleton creates a contrast. We tried not to change his expression as much as possible and drew it with the same expression.

Q: Even so, you still want to work on the skeletons?

Ito: Actually, no matter how hard we try, there won't be much change in the shot. But So-bin once wrote in his notebook, "A cool skeleton." Indeed, the skeleton drawn by So-bin is very cool. I hope to keep this style in the animation as much as possible.

Q: Just now you mentioned that you basically use the same facial expressions, but after watching the animation, I always feel that depending on the plot, sometimes the expressions can seem very oppressive, and sometimes they look like they are smiling.

Ito: It's amazing how different people feel depending on the environment. Of course, we also did some processing on the shadows... The other thing is probably the acting.

Q: Ah! Mr. Hino's acting skills. When the expression does not change, acting skills are very important...

Ito: Before the voice actors for the anime version were decided, I listened to the radio drama CD first, and to be honest, I was thinking, "I should just use the voice actors for the radio drama" (laughs). In fact, after it was confirmed that Hino-san would play the role, I thought, "This should work," and I was relieved. When we were drawing, we also considered that Hino-san would voice Momonga-sama first, and then decided on the visual expression method.

Q: Then what you just said about fixing Momonga's expression...

Ito: Yes. We made this decision because we believed in Hino-san's acting skills. Since he can express emotions through voice acting, there is no need to deliberately make his expression look surprised or angry. His mouth will not be open all the time, but will only move slightly, and will basically be closed. On the contrary, we left some room for Hino-san to show his acting skills. In the end, this approach won a good result.