Is "rich experience" the key to successful movie adaptation? Round-table discussion of anime critics looking back on 2021 [Part 2]

"Theatrical Version Magical Round 0" (c) 2021 "Theatrical Version Magical Round 0" Production Committee (c) Gege Akutami / Shueisha

In order to look back on the anime world in 2021, a roundtable discussion was held with Ryota Fujitsu, a film critic, Hotaka Sugimoto, a critic, and Daisuke Watanabe, a full-time lecturer at Atomi University's Faculty of Letters, from the regular writing team. Held. [Image] Beauty and the Beast drawn by director Mamoru Hosoda of "Dragon and Belle Princess" In the second part, the prosperity of jump works symbolized by the globality of domestic animation works and the hit of "Jujutsu Kaisen" following "Kimetsu no Yaiba". We talked about it and asked them to pick up the featured works of 2022. (Editor) ■ Mamoru Hosoda's "Princess of Dragons and Belle" with an emphasis on "internationality" Hotaka Sugimoto (hereinafter Sugimoto): Mamoru Hosoda's latest work "Princess of Belle and Belle" is also a box office of 6.5 billion yen With income, we set a new record for box office revenue in Hosoda's works so far. It was well received at the Cannes International Film Festival, and although he missed an Academy Award nomination, he was ranked 6th in the first week of North American history. Ryota Fujitsu (Fujitsu): I position it as a work that firmly fulfills the role that Director Hosoda originally expected. I didn't really understand "The Boy and the Beast" in many places. That work was also a hit, and it's highly entertaining, but I wonder if the goodness of director Hosoda is being utilized. Rather, I liked "Mirai of the Future" better, but I think the theme is a niche, so I understand that it didn't hit. In that sense, I think that this time, I succeeded in creating something that I have never seen with the skill of Director Hosoda, without leaking various elements. Moreover, it is also modern. Daisuke Watanabe (Watanabe): Director Hosoda has been expected to be a hit for the post Miyazaki Hayao family since "Wolf Children's Rain and Snow", but he is actually an independent niche theme. I had a feeling that it had an affinity for. This work is active at Disney while having a personal motive that Director Hosoda was impressed by "Beauty and the Beast" that he saw when he started animation in Toei Animation and his own taste that he likes animals. I thought it was a very well-organized work that met expectations by inviting designers who have been working on it and packing a lot of hooks that could appeal to a wide range of people. I talked to Mr. Sugimoto in the first part of the video series, but after all, "Your Name." It's an animated movie. I think many people have pointed out this, but "Your name is. After that, just as Makoto Shinkai teamed up with RADWIMPS to collaborate on video and music, this time Hosoda teamed up with millennium parade to create a work using director Shinkai's music flip-like productions and motifs. death. Yasuhiro Yoshiura's new film "Sing a Bit of Harvest" has something in common in that sense. Sugimoto: As I also use 3DCG entirely, I felt that Director Hosoda was trying to do something new. Fujitsu: CG was pretty good, wasn't it? Especially at the end, the heroine appeared as a CG character in the 3DCG space, but when the CG feeling became a two-match, it was ruined, so it was refreshing to have a touch with a hand-drawn feeling. Actually, it's also a work that contains all the elements that don't seem to come together. While paying attention to the theme, entertainment, visuals, and internationality, he said that the audience enjoyed the theme that Mr. Hosoda repeatedly drew, "a child who may not have been loved by his parents." I think it's amazing to leave the theater. Sugimoto: Director Hosoda has been disappointing in Japan since he started writing not only the director but also the script, but he said that he was able to write a script that would not break down by packing so many elements. Fujitsu: However, although the scriptwriter has been credited so far, I think there are some parts where I don't know how much Hosoda's ideas remained. Sugimoto: I see. Also, I think that "internationality" was an element that Director Hosoda seemed to emphasize. I think this is an important point of Japanese animation in the future. In 2020, the sales ratio of Japanese animation exceeded that of Japan in overseas, but I would like to talk about whether this will change or not change Japanese animation, or whether it should be changed. Fujitsu: I don't think it will be affected that much in terms of creativity. For example, although it's not surprisingly known, there are places where the type of animation in which therianthrops appear is made because it is popular in North America. There has always been such a big demand overseas and inquiries about distribution in North America. Sugimoto: For example, while black anime fans are enjoying Japanese anime, I think there is a part where they feel uncomfortable about the lack of black characters. I think it will be necessary to listen to such overseas voices in the future. For example, Jordan Bentley, who designed the collaboration goods for "YASUKE", says that. * 1 Fujitsu: Rather than listening, for example, when it comes to drawing a world view in which the genres are science fiction and races are evenly mixed, I think it will become more common to draw various races. .. In 1979, when director Yoshiyuki Tomino said that he wanted to set the character Ryu Jose of "Mobile Suit Gundam" to African descent, there was an episode that the station refused, but that is not the case now. right. When I try to express the world "naturally", I think that "nature" is based on the rules and ideals of modern society. In response to that, the social customs depicted in the anime will change. For example, the current character does not smoke. That's not because of the opinion that cigarettes are not good for your health, but because the number of people who smoke cigarettes has decreased. Then, on the contrary, there is no good reason to smoke-for example, it seems that there is no need to smoke unless you are a character who has been smoking for 50 years like Lupine. I think that's what it means. Therefore, it doesn't really matter whether you should take in the voice or not, and I think one point is "whether it reflects society naturally". Sugimoto: Personally, for example, there are no days when I'm walking in Tokyo and don't see foreigners. I think it would be more interesting to incorporate such changes in domestic society not only in anime but also in TV dramas and movies. Fujitsu: I understand that. Sugimoto: For example, the character of the reincarnated person in another world may be black, and it will be more widespread as a work, so I would like you to try various things. Fujitsu: That's right. For example, in the American Netflix anime series "Big Mouse," there are girls born to non-black and black parents, but in the middle of the season I met my paternal black cousin and said, "You have a black identity. There is a scene where you are asked to say "nigger" when you are told "No". Moreover, it was pointed out that the black people did not speak the voice of the black character in the background, and the cast changed. In that sense, it's a very tough idea. In Japan, there is a balance with live-action, and the direction has changed to want people to feel the character closer. The closer you get to reality, the harder it is to draw things like friendliness. I think one point to note is how to overcome it in the future.