Interview with director Takana Shirai of the original animated film 'Child of Kamiari Month', how did the young commander of the film become the director?

The moon called 'Kannazuki' in various parts of Japan is called 'Kamiarizuki', a road movie depicting a girl running to the mythical land where eight million gods gather . 'Children ' was released on October 8, 2021 (Friday). We asked Mr. Takana Shirai, the director who was involved from the planning stage, whether he was forming an original animated film that did not have a novel or manga original.

Child of Kamiari Month
https://kamiari-kodomo.jp/

GIGAZINE (G):
Many videos of this work have been released on the official website. One of them was an interview with Director Shirai, who finished drawing the storyboard in April 2020. I was careful. ' What is the 'habit of chasing after you'?

2020/4 Uzuki, Week 2 ｜ 'Finishing the storyboard' Staffing Interview ｜ Animation Director Takana Shirai Drawing --YouTube


Director Takana Shirai (hereinafter Shirai):
I like character animation, and because I was an animator myself, I had a habit of pointing the camera at Kanna. When I saw it as a video, I wasn't very good at not only following the person who was moving at that time, but also communicating it with the surrounding scenery and scenes, and giving ideas and ideas as a picture in the production. is. At the pre-production stage, Mr. Sakamoto, a creation director who has a lot of experience, pointed out his habit in a contest check. If you're not careful in yourself, there are places where you can get into the character rather than the goodness of the image.

G:
In the same interview, he said, 'I really want to make what I want to see.' What kind of scene is the director's 'thing I want to see' in this work?

Shirai:
For me, I wanted to make the scene centered on the realization that I want to cherish my liking, so I wanted to cherish the one scene that appears in the second half. I think that was possible when the video came to my mind when I read the script and said, 'I want to do this.'

G:
Oh, I see.

Shirai:
I'm still not sure if this will be received by the viewers, but I think I was able to draw something that I was satisfied with. However, the interview was about the time when the storyboard was completed, and after that, at the stage of making it into a video, I realized that I had to go one step further to convey it to others.

G:
What was the improvement or change to make it better communicated to others?

Shirai:
I thought it worked, but there was a part that was complemented by my imagination. There was a lot of supplementary information such as 'This is the color here', and even if you think that it worked well at the time of the contest, we will proceed concretely with what the pictorial production will be like. Inside, I realized that it wasn't being conveyed as I expected.

G:
You can watch the self-produced animation 'Trip Trap Map' directed by the director when he was a student on YouTube. It's been 10 years since you were a director of an anime movie. What made you feel that you changed as a director between those days and now?

Independent animation 'Trip Trap Map' --YouTube


Shirai:
When it was a student work, everyone was working in parallel and complementing each other, so I am the director as a system, but I have the consciousness that we all managed to make it. This time, there was a situation from the beginning where people with more career, experience, and skills than me lifted me up and supported me as a command tower, and I have to be more solidified in myself than when I was a student. There were many parts that had to be solid. Also, the scale of the project is large, the number of people participating is overwhelming, and I feel that I have done the same thing in terms of creativity, but in this work I always had to feel sick. ..

G:
What do you have in common that was and is still the same?

Shirai:
Is it a place where people around me can't do anything without being inside me? I think it was the same that I had to show in vision and words so that even the staff with excellent skills could convey what the color was and what the shape was.

G:
Director Shirai's animation production experience is '2009 Kyoto City Youth Association's' LIVE KIDS 'event opening movie' in the spring of the second year who was enrolled in the animation course of the Faculty of Manga, Kyoto Seika University. Looking back on your feelings when you were involved in making anime for the first time, what was it like?

LiveKids Event Opening 2009 --YouTube


Shirai:
Before I did it, I didn't know how difficult it was, so I had unfounded confidence and had a strong feeling of 'I'll do it!' (Laughs)

G:
(smile)

Shirai:
'I'll do my best if you leave it to me!' I'm a sophomore in college, so I'm 20 years old. It was a time when I had never made a single work, but for no reason I was confident and thought, 'I think I can do it.' So I actually tried it and said, 'I can't do this kind of thing' (laughs)

G:
I understand (laughs)

Shirai:
It is a work that made me understand that 'If you do not try to make it, you will not know how difficult it is to make it.' I am very grateful that I had such an opportunity in the first half of my college students.

G:
When he was in the third year of university, he was involved in the production of an environmental commercial for Biwako Broadcasting in a seminar, and Director Shirai participated as a drawing man.

Biwako Broadcasting Environment CM 2009 (Biwako-chan) BBC TV CM --YouTube


G:
In the making movie, you can see the unreasonable pretense that 'I will do all the color director and Chikyu-chan of the original picture'.

Biwako Broadcasting Environment CM 2nd! 'Biwako-chan' Announcement MOVIE_1 --YouTube


Shirai:
The man on the left who appears in the making is the director, but he is a very creative person and has a lot of ideas, and he was a very good person to 'tell what he thought'. I'm proud that 'Biwako-chan' was a good student, but I think this is because I had the power and vision to tell the director, so I want to be that way too.

G:
At the talk session at the Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair, there was a talk that 'the slow speed of drawing was a problem when I was enrolled at STUDIO 4 ℃.' 'I wish I had been conscious of drawing early when I was a student,' he continued. Did he have a different policy when he was a student?

Shirai:
There is a premise that the current policy may be different again, but when I was enrolled, I said that it was an 'animation department in the university' and different from an animation vocational school. I'm not an animator. ' Therefore, it was not a 'department for learning the power to move', but a style of learning the power of thinking and the power of thinking about what I wanted to do. I was taught how to realize what I want to do, rather than saying, 'It is better to do this more technically.' To the last, I feel that it was not 'cultivating people who will be ready to work.'

G:
So that's it.

Shirai:
As an animator, I realized that I had to balance both quality and speed. Until then, I was drawing what I liked, so I could draw whatever I wanted, and since I was young, even if I had a strange consciousness, 'That's fine, I will pursue this!' I was conscious of that. There were people around me trying to learn a lot, but I wasn't that type, so I had a hard time.

G:
You said that you were involved in this work even before you decided who you would like to be the director, but what kind of relationship did you have?

Shirai:
I participated in the stage of 'I'm thinking of doing this kind of project with cretica universal ', and I didn't know who was the director or where to make it. First of all, there were many undecided places to 'discuss'. It feels like I participated not because I could be a director, but because I was involved in the project from the beginning.

G:
Did you find it very attractive to be involved in the project from the beginning?

Shirai:
While working on multiple works when I was a student, I enjoyed the part of 'participating in what I think from the beginning', so as a vague future dream, I want to be able to do that in the industry. I've been thinking about it since I entered. However, when I was an animator at STUDIO 4 ℃, I thought, 'There is still a long way to go.'

G:
method.

Shirai:
At STUDIO4 ℃, I saw top Japanese creators doing things close to me, but for that reason, I had the feeling that I had to do it with a biting enthusiasm. I was asked 'Is it possible to do it?' And asked me what I was thinking 'what should I do?' There was an attraction that 'it can be done'.

G:
Is there anything that you thought 'this may be anxiety' in the production this time, but it went well with unnecessary worries?

Shirai:
Hmm ... At least, I didn't think I was anxious about it (laughs).

G:
(smile)

Shirai:
Since I had no experience in directing, I thought that there would be a lot of inconvenience due to lack of knowledge, but the producers of Liden Films have been concerned about that since I formed a group. Then, I had them devise from the beginning, 'Let's make it a way that can still be done', and after accepting it, I participated, so I feel that I was able to work as a director with help.

G:
In this work, all the making timelines so far are released as 're-experience' in the video. It was very easy to understand when I learned about the movie, and I wanted other works to be released in the same way, but in an interview, the director said, 'I'm a little reluctant to plan a re-experience. There was. I think the finished product is everything. ' In addition, there was also a type that 'I do not want to know information in advance until I see the work', but as a director himself, how much information should I know in advance before seeing the work? Do you think it's good?

Shirai:
This completely says my taste, but I'm the type who goes to the cinema without watching the trailer.

G:
Oh, I see.

Shirai:
There are some works that I meet in the trailer, but basically I often go to see it because 'this director wants to go see it', and I want to go see it without reading the synopsis ... I realize that I am extreme There is (laughs)

G:
(smile)

Shirai:
So, I thought that if something like the hardships behind the making came out first, it would be a noise for everyone who sees it ... However, from the planning stage, I heard from the beginning that I wanted to make this work a work that everyone waits for completion by communicating with the process of making the work, so I felt like I switched to doing my best including that. is.

G:
I think the director has been involved in this work for a long time. Please tell us what you think 'it went well here' when you completed the work.

Shirai:
This story is a road movie of Kanna's growth, and I was conscious from the beginning to keep it simple. I thought that the viewers should not feel uncomfortable with Kanna's emotions, and that they could embrace their emotions. So, I think that the fact that Kanna in the last scene was convinced when I was seen to the end was a success.

G:
So that's it. Thank you for today.

The movie 'Child of Kamiari Month' is being released with great acclaim.

On Saturday, October 16th, a stage greeting was given at Abeno Apollo Cinema in Osaka, with director Takana Shirai, Riko Nagase as Miki, Toshinari Shinohe, the original and communication director, and Tetsuhei Mishima, the producer and location director. increase. It will be held after the screening from 12:00 and before the screening from 14:35, and the fee is OK with the normal fee at the time of viewing.

In addition, a staff talk show will be held at Aeon Cinema Itabashi on October 18th (Monday). The speakers will be directed by Takana Shirai, the original and communication director Toshinari Shinohe, the scriptwriter Ryuta Miyake, and the music Jun Ichikawa. The ticket price is 2000 yen for general students and 1300 yen for seniors and high school students and younger.

Movie 'Child of Kamiari Month' This preview movie 120 seconds Ver. --YouTube