✳

Fukunishi & Bandoh

on Kaiju

No. 8

Kaiju No. 8 Season 2 key visual. Credit: ©JAKDF 3rd Division ©Naoya Matsumoto/SHUEISHA

Interview: Kafka’s Voice Masaya Fukunishi & Composer Yuta Bandoh on Kaiju No. 8

By Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat®

Published on October 5, 2026

The Voice of KafkaMasaya Fukunishi★

ComposerYuta Bandoh★

AnimationProduction I.G★

From the manga byNaoya Matsumoto★

DirectorsShigeyuki Miya & Tomomi Kamiya★

Kaiju designMahiro Maeda · Studio Khara★

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV)

To Masaya Fukunishi: Which Kafka scene has required the most vocal energy?

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

This one is decided by a mile. Episode 10, the punch scene.

It’s the symbolic scene where he casts off every thought and worry and clearly unleashes the highest firepower in the entire work.

To produce a voice worthy of that, I felt I would probably have to go past my own limit. I worked very hard at it. I wrung out everything I had.

Last year, at AX 2025, I actually did a live dub of this scene. We did the same scene in my Japanese version and in the English version by Nazeeh [Tarsha], Nazeeh first and then me. I have the memory of dubbing that same scene.

At first it was Nazeeh, and you can tell just from watching the show, he is enormously skilled and a person of real passion. And because that was put in front of me first, before my turn, I completely lost it. (laughs) And I did that live dub too, with truly several times more power than I thought I had in me.

Afterward the two of us embraced. It’s a hot memory. A symbolic scene at every turn.

Sorry for making you translate things like “buchi-gire.”

02

2.5 Million Yen of Synthesizers

aggressive and noisythe finest excusechasing Ushio’s rig

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

To Yuta Bandoh: What sound or instrument best represents Kaiju No. 8?

YUTA BANDOH

Let me think. Rather than an instrument, I think it’s texture.

In terms of texture, probably something very aggressive and noisy. But with a little compression on it. And yet with an organic feel to it. I think maybe that’s what it is.

When I was making Kaiju, there’s something I haven’t talked about anywhere at all, which is that I bought a whole lot of synthesizers.

The image people have of me is that I use nothing but organic orchestral writing. But I really wanted to get my hands on synths. I bought about 2.5 million yen worth. (laughs)

We know each other well, so it’s fine to say. I have an acquaintance called Ushio, who has done a lot of Jump titles, and he owns an unbelievable number of synths. I saw it and wanted it. There’s no point competing with him. He has about five times what I have.

MODERATOR

I see. That’s a good excuse. (laughs)

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

The finest excuse for spending there is.

The orchestral writing is what makes such an impression. I was a fan of his from the start. I had that impression too. But when you open it up, the richness of the digital sound, I felt that too.

That he had gone and bought all that new gear is something I’m hearing for the first time too.

YUTA BANDOH

Film composers often show off their own studios. Hans Zimmer, for example, or Ludwig Göransson, they have tons of synths. Ludwig Göransson especially, with The Odyssey and so on, has a crazy amount of these.

So I really have to work hard at it.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

Where are you working hard?

YUTA BANDOH

That was a behind-the-scenes story.

03

Small Animals Huddling Together

we met on the waypraising each otherbrothers, grown

ANIME CORNER (LUKE SO)

My first one’s for Fukunishi-san. So Hibino Kafka and Ichikawa Reno, they’re like brothers, but they haven’t seen each other since the season one finale. Do you have any memorable moments, like fun times with Wataru Kato-san?

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

Kafka and Reno haven’t seen each other in a while, but the truth is I ran into Wataru-kun, the voice actor, just now, right over there. We happened to meet on the way, by chance, so I felt a bit of destiny about it. That’s a story between me and Wataru, though, so let’s set it aside.

Around the time of season one, neither I nor Wataru-kun had many signature roles. We were both shallow in experience. So every time a recording session ended, we would actually praise each other, pointing out what was good in each other’s performance, and in doing that we eased each other’s anxiety.

Looking at it now, I think we were like small animals huddling together against the cold.

But time passed, season two has ended too, and we have become full-fledged voice actors, enough to meet again on foreign soil like this. I am enormously moved by that right now.

I think the ones who grow the most in the story are Kafka and Reno, and I feel that is, in a way, true of me and Wataru-kun as voice actors too.

04

Never Too Late, Kafka Says

the fear of aging, reducedfar from stable employmenta middle-aged protagonist

TEMPLE OF GEEK (JEFF)

So one of the themes of Kaiju No. 8 is that it’s never too late to chase your dreams. Has working on this series changed the way that either of you think about perspective or second chances in your own lives?

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

For me, I feel the negative feelings I had about aging clearly decreased through Kafka.

Doing this job as a voice actor, you really compete head on. Auditions where you have to win one single role, and that fight goes on forever. I think that is a life very far removed from stable employment.

Put the other way, no matter how hard you push yourself, I think it is not a profession that reaches ultimate stability, so I think there will absolutely come a time when you are at a low point.

Even so, like Kafka working at the Monster Sweeper company, you don’t cut corners even when you have ended up far from the self you dreamed of being. The hope was born in me that I could probably do that no matter where I ended up. I feel like playing him taught me that.

YUTA BANDOH

Rather than trying again, making the music for Kaiju No. 8 had a lot of firsts in it, so a lot of things were fresh for me. That’s where the “trying again” part sits, I suppose. As for perseverance, writing the whole score from scratch was genuinely hard, so it was a challenge too, and I would say I saw it through with tenacity.

And Matsumoto-sensei, of course, with second chances and so on. In the first season, it starts from that kind of place of defiance. And Kafka himself, for a Shonen Jump manga, is a middle-aged man, which is a fairly rare setup. That’s a big part of the appeal, and he’s close to my own age, so I feel a lot of sympathy for him.

At my age, I don’t really understand how a fifteen-year-old feels anymore.

05

A First Lead, Later Than Most

my first lead rolethe normal path, reversedconfidence in the technique

PRESS (NADIA)

Like you mentioned before, anime protagonists tend to be younger than Kafka. What was it like to voice an older character?

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

As I said before, this was my first lead role to begin with. Generally, actors and voice actors basically build a career gradually, starting from young roles, and shift to older roles. That’s the normal path.

So this was a valuable experience other voice actors don’t get. I thought it might be a one and only experience, and I was tremendously excited about it.

Generally, most people who play a lead for the first time do it within about the first five years of a career. It took me longer than that. Which is to say I played him having stacked up a career, the same way Kafka himself had, so I could go in with real confidence in my technique, and I was very happy about that.

It’s a work I love and a big title, so there was that kind of nerves and unease. But I had no unease about the technique.

06

The Runtime Changes Every Week

the music’s time is fixedpraying it wouldn’t changea different gear

ANIME CORNER (LUKE SO)

This is for Bandoh-san. You mentioned the challenge of not wanting to silence the dialogue while blending the sound effects, dialogue and music for every scene. What was the most challenging soundtrack throughout the anime, and why?

YUTA BANDOH

Same as Fukunishi-san just said, I wasn’t anxious about the technique.

But this is a very technical thing to say. Quite honestly, the hardest part was that the runtime actually changes enormously, and having to adjust to that every single time was very hard.

Japanese animation has a really interesting quality, which is that multiple animators are drawing different scenes at the same time. And in the end, in editing, the parts that came out well get held longer. Naturally, when a good piece of animation comes in, they show plenty of it.

But with composing, the music’s time is already fixed. You’re building the rhythm toward landing an impact on this cut. And that’s Kafka, played by Fukunishi-san, and Reno, played by Kato-san, all the characters. Then on top of that it’s a combined technique with the sound effects.

So every time, especially with pieces played live where the tempo gradually shifts, and there were quite a lot of those, where the tempo rises along with the emotional voltage, I would wait for the final edit every week, really praying that it wouldn’t change.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

It’s collaborative work, after all. The parts outside your own control, all you can really do is pray.

YUTA BANDOH

But when it goes well, the voltage and the comfort of the picture lock in perfectly. Everyone works hard for that. We pushed it to a level you can’t reach on a weekly anime, or rather, I think maybe we got there.

ANIME CORNER (LUKE SO)

Back then when you used to do live shows, I can’t imagine how much different the process or similar it could be.

YUTA BANDOH

Completely different. But lately, after Kaiju, I’ve done a lot of live action, and there too the sense of tempo and the feel of the air are completely different. So it’s not a question of which is better. It’s that the gear I’m using inside myself is different.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

I think that’s talk even Japanese press interviews rarely draw out, so I think it’s a wonderful question.

PRESS

I learned something.

07

Still Walking the Dream Road

the number one dreampride as a professionala composer who talks

TEMPLE OF GEEK (JEFF)

With Kaiju No. 8 approaching its finale, what has this journey personally meant for each of you?

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

It’s embarrassing to put it so dramatically, but I feel like I’m on a road where I’ve been having my dreams granted, continuously. Still walking the dream road.

(laughs) Of all the protagonists I read in the source material and wanted, from the bottom of my heart, to play, Kafka is overwhelmingly the number one. I do all kinds of work, but most of it is work I end up being allowed to do. But a character I wanted to play before the audition even came up, before any of it, that’s Kafka more than anyone.

Jeff, imagine it from your own position. To be able to hold the position you truly want, the position you most want in this world. It really makes you feel like you’re inside a dream for life.

Let me ask you back. If you could hold any job position in the world, what would you want to do?

TEMPLE OF GEEK (JEFF)

I already, I mean, I already live my dream.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

It’s really the equal of being able to be any teacher, at any educational institution. So I’m in a dream state constantly.

My pride as a professional. My number one dream came true, so I don’t think I will lose my pride as a professional for the rest of my life.

And that reaching its final phase means the last stage of building a treasure that symbolizes my own life, completing one of the meanings of my being alive. That leaves me lonely. But there’s also the expectation that once I finish it I’ll be able to carry more confidence in myself. That’s where I am.

It’s that outrageous. I think of it with real feeling, that in my own eyes I’ve been doing something outrageous this whole time.

They’ve written it quite poetically. What did the journey mean to each of you?

YUTA BANDOH

This is a personal thing, but I hadn’t been invited into anime much. So it really had been a long time, and that made me happy. That’s one thing.

The other thing is, I think in Japan I’m the type nobody would ever expect to be scoring a Shonen Jump anime at all. That made me happy, because I’ve been reading it forever. That made me very happy.

In Japan I’m probably called the overly highbrow type.

What it turns out to have meant for me may be something I only work out from here. But I was allowed to take on all kinds of challenges, and being brought to New York like this, to be seen worldwide, is, I think, genuinely a happy thing. It was worth the challenge, and I’m glad of it.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

A new mission has been born in me, which is that I have to do more to tell the anime industry that Bandoh-san is a hugely entertaining person.

He’s been talking this whole New York trip.

A composer who talks more than the voice actor. He’s a really fun person.

08

Alone in Small Rooms

countries I will never visitno assistantsit happens in a chain

PRESS

You mentioned fans around the world, but do you have anything to say to the fans who overall really enjoy your work?

YUTA BANDOH

So many people have watched it. And with the music, when I look at Spotify, people in all kinds of countries are listening. People in countries I will almost certainly never visit are listening to it, and I think that’s a really happy thing. When you’re making it, you’re alone, and I don’t really have assistants. I’m in a small room facing it by myself.

For that to reach so many different people is, I think, a happy thing. But I think that’s probably true of a lot of the people involved in this anime. It isn’t a stage. Each person faces it in their own small space and turns it into a result.

I think that’s probably true for Matsumoto-sensei on the original too. It’s a strange feeling, and it’s interesting, and it’s an honor.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

Seriously, when you’re on stage all over the world, it happens in a chain. Oh, this country has this many fans too, this country has this many fans too, you’re watching this too, it’s you! I understand it completely.

09

Keren-mi, and Every Key on the Keyboard

not afraid to driftHiroaki Sato’s mixthe word that won’t translate

PRESS

This is for both Fukunishi-san and Bandoh-san. So as both the voice actor and the composer that work together to represent all the characters, but specifically this time Hibino Kafka, you started his journey off as keep a secret, afraid to lose humanity, now final battle. What’s the process like? Do you have any fun moments when you’re just filming all this together?

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

So from the angle of sound, you want to hear from the two of us.

In playing Kafka there was one element I treated as enormously important, which was not being afraid of drifting away from the character. High voice, low voice, loud voice, small voice, using them widely and differently depending on the scene. I held that as very important.

If you physically mapped the sounds Kafka makes onto a keyboard, I think you would see them spread across very wide octaves. Generally, and especially in playing an animation character, restricting your pitch is a very important thing. Generally speaking.

I deliberately broke that, and went at the dubbing that way.

I mentioned earlier having confidence in my technique. One step off and, when you’re switching between all those voices, there’s the danger that it stops sounding like the character. I thought I might be able to clear that, so I built it that way and really went for it.

But everything I’ve described up to now could not have been achieved by my own strength alone. As for whose strength counted most, there is someone Bandoh-san is also very deeply involved with, who has really looked after me. There’s a process called seion, conditioning the sound, and the person who does it is Sato-san, Hiroaki Sato-san. In the end I think his contribution was the largest of anyone’s.

YUTA BANDOH

This goes off topic slightly, but Kaiju has a very unusual process. The music mixing and the voice MA, sound mixer in English, the same person handles the whole thing and takes an enormous amount of time over it.

That person does the sound conditioning for every voice actor, Fukunishi-san included, in super fine detail, far beyond the usual. It’s done differently from regular anime, with the same technique you’d use on the vocals in a music mix.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

However delicate the vocal expression is, he picks up all of it and turns it into sound you hear as dynamic, so the depth I was expressing is fully realized. That is not something you can achieve on every production.

I’m grateful to everyone who managed the sound side as a whole, starting with Sato-san. The recording staff too.

YUTA BANDOH

Ah, re-recording mixer. The post-production re-recording mixer, or sound mixer.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

Sorry. I dragged Bandoh-san into that and went on too long.

YUTA BANDOH

Unlike Fukunishi-san, I’m writing Kafka of course, but I think the composer’s position is one where you have to think about the whole story, not Kafka alone. Of course, Kafka is an important protagonist, so I think that matters.

The appeal of Kaiju No. 8, in Japanese, is what you’d call keren-mi. There’s no keren-mi in English, is there? Keren-mi is hard, sorry. The nuance is difficult.

Keren-mi is really difficult. Kabuki has keren-mi in it too. In a sense, it might be a term the whole country shares.

It has to be made to look cool. I think a lot of Shonen Jump works have keren-mi in them. For example, in Japanese manga, you draw the story carefully and then at the very end there’s the spread, that coolness, and I think that’s one form of manga’s keren-mi.

Anime adapts that to the full as well, or rather, I think it’s there too, so I think it’s something you have to take seriously.

Because I grew up in Japan as a boy with plenty of Jump, I have some sense of what I found exciting when I was reading it. I hold on to that.

It’s like connecting that sensibility to my own technique.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

I felt that very strongly just now. The dubbing, on the stage we just did, we did a live dub just now. When I’m acting, the music of course comes afterward, so I never even thought about it. This time the order was reversed and the music was already there.

And I thought, you put the music where it feels damn good, don’t you?

What you’re saying now is, in short, keren-mi in direction. It’s hard to translate, but maybe one way to put keren-mi in art is that it feels damn good. Direction that feels incredibly good, the kind that gives you goosebumps. Hearing him talk about it, I felt that he has splendidly sublimated shonen manga’s direction into music.

Kafka’s feelings too, I think there are so many pieces of music that really express them.

YUTA BANDOH

It might be difficult, but I think keren-mi really is an important part of Japanese anime, especially Shonen Jump. I’d like somebody to research it.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

Making a scene that leaves an impression on the viewer, and finishing it so it really is impressive, I think that’s really important.

It’s hard. Me too, I tried to translate it, and it doesn’t sit right.

YUTA BANDOH

This may be a more traditional way to put it, but kabuki has the mie. Like stop motion. Space and time change in that one place. Maybe that’s close to what we were talking about. But I don’t know where it came from. I’m not a researcher.

It may not be that the manga artists are conscious of doing it. It’s like an aesthetic sense they follow unconsciously.

10

The Rival

close to obsessionit pissed me the hell offacross countries and languages

PRESS (NADIA)

Has the love of Kafka in your portrayal of him surprised you at all?

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

I said this earlier, but it’s the position I have craved most in my life. My attachment to it is enough to frighten me. I don’t want to hand him to anybody. It’s a little close to obsession.

So the English version I mentioned before, performed ahead of me, was wonderful, and it pissed me the hell off. That’s the thing that surprised me.

It’s something that should be praised, and as someone who loves the same character, the same work, there could be nothing better. And yet at the time I was annoyed enough to think I would definitely surpass him. That is how fine a performance it was.

But the other surprise was that Nazeeh, career-wise, was in a similar place to me. It was his first time playing a lead as well. But after that he took off. He’s in this, and this, and this. He really took off. He got found. That surprised me.

I think he’ll go on being my rival.

YUTA BANDOH

That’s great. A rival across countries and languages.

MASAYA FUKUNISHI

It’s kind of rare. It feels rare enough that it might never come again.

✳

a whole lot

of

synthesizers

Bandoh bought about 2.5 million yen of synths for this score, against his public image as an orchestral composer. The recorder hit its one-hour limit in the middle of the sentence; the second file picks it up without losing a word.

Watch the official trailer

“The image people have of me is that I use nothing but organic orchestral writing. But I really wanted to get my hands on synths.”

Yuta Bandoh · Composer

©JAKDF 3rd Division ©Naoya Matsumoto/SHUEISHA

The Season in 30 Frames

All stills provided for press by the production. ©JAKDF 3rd Division ©Naoya Matsumoto/SHUEISHA

The Makers

×

The Voice of Kafka

Masaya Fukunishi

his first lead role in a seriesthe Episode 10 live dub at AX 2025calls the English Kafka his rival

Composer

Yuta Bandoh

scored Belle, Japan Academy Prize for Best Musicleads the orchestra Ensemble FOVEwrote the whole Kaiju score from scratch

Voice Cast

Masaya Fukunishi as KafkaWataru Kato as Reno

Music · Yuta BandohKaiju design · Mahiro Maeda

Kaiju No. 8

Kafka Hibino: Masaya Fukunishi / Nazeeh Tarsha (English dub)
Reno Ichikawa: Wataru Kato
Mina Ashiro: Asami Seto
Kikoru Shinomiya: Fairouz Ai
Soshiro Hoshina: Kengo Kawanishi

Japanese cast, with the English dub lead. Simulcast worldwide.

KAIJU NO. 8

Adapted from Naoya Matsumoto’s manga, serialized on Shonen Jump+ (Shueisha). Directed by Shigeyuki Miya and Tomomi Kamiya at Production I.G, with character design by Tetsuya Nishio, kaiju design by Mahiro Maeda and Studio Khara, and music by Yuta Bandoh.

Season one aired in 2024 with series composition by Ichiro Okouchi; season two followed in 2025 with composition by Yuichiro Kido. Fukunishi’s Kafka is his first lead role in a series, and Bandoh scored the show entirely to picture.

The Voice of Kafka

Masaya Fukunishi (his first lead role in a series)

Music

Yuta Bandoh, scored entirely to picture

Animation

Production I.G

Directors

Shigeyuki Miya and Tomomi Kamiya

Series composition

Ichiro Okouchi (season one) · Yuichiro Kido (season two)

Based on

The manga by Naoya Matsumoto, serialized on Shonen Jump+ (Shueisha)

Kaiju design

Mahiro Maeda and Studio Khara

Streaming

Simulcast worldwide on X · streaming on Crunchyroll

The Key Art

Key Visual

Season 2

Key Visual

Season 1

Teaser Visual

Season 1

Teaser Visual

Season 2

Anime NYC 2026

The Stage

All stills and key art provided for press by the production. ©JAKDF 3rd Division ©Naoya Matsumoto/SHUEISHA. Anime NYC 2026 stage photo courtesy of TOHO.

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Article Copyright

All content on The Natural Aristocrat® is Copyright © 2016-2026 TheNaturalAristocrat.com. All rights reserved. This includes (but not limited to) ALL text in this article. All Kaiju No. 8 stills, key art, and posters are Copyright ©JAKDF 3rd Division ©Naoya Matsumoto/SHUEISHA, and remain the property of their owners.

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The post Kaiju No. 8 Interview: Kafka’s Voice Masaya Fukunishi & Composer Yuta Bandoh appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

✳

Enokido & Sakazume

on Fate / strange

Fake

Fate/strange Fake. Credit: ©Ryohgo Narita TYPE-MOON / KADOKAWA / FSFPC

Interview: Co-Directors Shun Enokido & Takahito Sakazume on Fate/strange Fake

By Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat®

Published on October 4, 2026

Co-DirectorShun Enokido★

Co-DirectorTakahito Sakazume★

AnimationA-1 Pictures★

From the light novels byRyohgo Narita★

Series compositionDaisuke Ōhigashi★

MusicHiroyuki Sawano★

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV)

To Both Directors: How do you reward experienced Fate fans without punishing newcomers?

Takahito Sakazume

Keep it easy to follow, hold them with the sheer force of the animation, and lay the rails so they walk into the work that way.

I think that alone made it appeal to the audience we were after.

Also, coloring that’s different from the existing Fate, a different feel in the photography, making people think “this Fate is different.” Looking back now, I think that was one way to do it.

Shun Enokido

Also, characters who appear in other Fate works turn up in this one too, and I think that also ties in a big way into what is distinctive about Narita’s writing.

So we intend to be careful in the direction, so that, as far as possible, even someone who knows none of that still comes away feeling how formidable and appealing these characters are.

02

Nothing Surrendered

I haven’t concededa bit sourmaybe you were right

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

To Both Directors: What did each director have to surrender to create one consistent work?

Shun Enokido

I don’t really have a sense of having given anything up.

If anything, what mattered more was how to bring in as much as the two of us can do. Giving it a sense of unity was something the two of us pretty much already had in common.

So maybe that’s why, yes, we didn’t give anything up.

Takahito Sakazume

I haven’t conceded anything.

If anything, there were times I’d say I absolutely want this one in, and Enokido would say no, you don’t need that, and I’d get a bit sour about it.

Then the next day, calmed down, I’d think, maybe you were right. [laughs]

03

The Tempo Was Right

the tempoit’s the bestnot really

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

To Both Directors: Which scene required you to slow down more than your instincts preferred?

Shun Enokido

Hmm, I wonder. At least as far as the tempo of the Fate anime that’s out now goes…

Takahito Sakazume

It’s the best.

Shun Enokido

Right. There isn’t anything where I thought I wish I’d done more of this, so not really.

04

The Disagreement That Made It Better

a scene I wanted to drawit held up without itthe police station

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

To Both Directors: What creative disagreement made the series better?

Takahito Sakazume

Like I said earlier, there was a scene I really wanted to draw, and Enokido told me, “You don’t need that.”

So I tried cutting it as a test, and it held up without it. If anything, I thought it felt cleaner.

In episode 2, in the storyboard, I’d drawn a scene where the Assassin destroys the police station’s power supply. He said it works without it, and I thought it did work.

Shun Enokido

I don’t really have any memory of us disagreeing, I guess.

Takahito Sakazume

We don’t really argue all that much.

Shun Enokido

That’s right.

Takahito Sakazume

We start from already knowing what the other one wants to say.

05

Directing as a Unit

basically no splitscript and colorrenewed trust

ANIME HERALD

As co-directors, how do you split the responsibilities of directing the series?

Shun Enokido

Basically, we don’t divide it up.

Takahito Sakazume

Do we split up the episodes, or anything like that?

Shun Enokido

Things like the script and the color, the things that bear on the direction of the work in a large way, we basically decide those as a pair.

ANIME TRENDING (ISABELLE LEE)

The two of you have been working together for a long time, but this anime was your first time directing a series. Have you learned anything new about each other or specific lessons you’ve learned in general from producing Fate/strange fake?

Takahito Sakazume

How hard it is to make a TV anime, I’d say.

Shun Enokido

We had done mostly short-form work, so I think there was a lot for us to learn about the scheduling that a long-form work demands, the production calories, and how to get our own hands around the cost.

As for each other, I already knew this, but Sakazume is the one who pours in the kind of power that ought to go into the visuals.

So if anything, I feel I came away trusting that in him all over again.

Takahito Sakazume

With Enokido, I’d thought he could push himself harder, that he’s tougher than that.

On a TV series that turned out to fit perfectly, the scheduling, the way resources get divided across episode counts. I feel it fit the way the thing was made.

ANIME HERALD

What have each of you learned from each other?

Shun Enokido

I’ll put it as things I thought were great, though. [laughs] The one who took the lead in setting the mood on the floor was Sakazume.

I don’t know how he feels about it himself, but I think it was one big part of the mood that let the staff who joined Strange Fake approach the work more positively.

Takahito Sakazume

What I learned from him. What I think he’s better at than me is that speed of decisiveness, and the willpower to absolutely do the thing he wants to do. [laughs]

Thinking about the surrounding sections, there are times it’s a little hard to say.

But I think Enokido tends to always, first, say out loud, “This is what I want to do.”

Shun Enokido

I’m asking them, though.

06

Pacing Against the Rules

the script stagethe chronologyno hopping back and forth

DOCTOR ANIME

For both of you. You are celebrated for creating some of the most kinetic, breathtaking action sequences in the entire Fate franchise. However, Strange Fake features incredibly dense, complex magical theory and dialogue. How do you maintain the high-octane pacing you’re known for, while ensuring the audience still understands the deep, intricate rules of this False Holy Grail War?

Shun Enokido

It’s difficult. Getting the audience to understand the rules.

That difficulty is something we try to clear at the script stage.

As for having the script convey the original’s complicated rules without making them complicated, there’s a writer, Ōhigashi-san, and I think the first thing was that we had that person reorder the chronology from the original novel even further.

DOCTOR ANIME

The summoning of irregulars is also very different in this series, and irregular beings appear. In visual terms, they are irregular beings who break Snowfield’s existing rules. To set them clearly apart from the traditional Holy Grail War, did the two of you give them a specific color design and animation treatment?

Shun Enokido

That’s very specific. Well, I do think that intention is certainly one of the things folded into our direction.

But when we think about color and direction, if anything, we put the weight on how to show the world and the characters within the scene.

Takahito Sakazume

I think animation technique advances every day, and of course you use it.

But I think what we placed the most weight on was the question of which form of expression suits this particular work best.

07

A Chainsaw in the Storyboard

episode two as wellsomeone else’s handsHansa

ANIME TRENDING (ISABELLE LEE), to Sakazume

You storyboarded Episode 3, which features the battle between Hansa and Jester. What was the thought process behind the storyboards for their clash, and how did the previous depiction of the battle in the light novels’ trailer influence your approach this time?

Takahito Sakazume

Before episode three I did the storyboards for episode two as well.

On that one I could, to a fair extent, take responsibility for the screen and manage the materials myself.

On episode three it was storyboard only, so I think I was conscious of making something that would still look good once it was in someone else’s hands.

At the same time, even when you hand it off, as long as the storyboard is drawn this way, it turns out interesting no matter who takes the episode.

Things like Hansa suddenly pulling out a chainsaw. I tried folding in a few ideas from the original like that.

With the earlier promotional video, I was conscious of making it connect structurally, so that the PV we put out back then really had been a trailer for the main story.

And as for the influence, it was made a good few years ago, so my aim was to draw the continuation more intense than back then.

ANIME TRENDING (ISABELLE LEE)

The two of you have worked on a lot of short-form projects. Enokido-san, for instance, storyboarded and directed the recent “FBKINGDOM STORY” trailer for hololive’s Shirakami Fubuki and the “Yumeiro Wonder” music video for Hololive Dreams. Personally, what do you see as the unique appeal and strength of this side of the anime industry?

Shun Enokido

I feel the biggest thing, really, is that because the running time is short, you can develop experimental techniques and visuals.

Lately, people making short work individually tend to make it as independent film.

It has become the testing ground for how commercial animation like TV anime can absorb that kind of experimental technique.

Takahito Sakazume

This may get a bit technical, but I think the greatest strength you can learn from making short work is knowing how much information can be conveyed.

Cram too much in and no one can tell what you were trying to say.

In a short running time, roughly this kind of movement per cut lets you land the force of it clearly. I think it’s that kind of control over the volume of information. That’s the strength.

08

Narita, and Morii-san’s Detail

the reading might wavera new designfinest detail

ANIME CORNER (JAY GIBBS)

During the production of the project, did you have any opportunities to speak with the original author of Fate/strange Fake, Mr. Ryohgo Narita, or Morii-san, who was responsible for the character designs and the manga adaptation?

Shun Enokido

We got to talk with each of them, Narita and Morii-san.

With Narita, there were places where the reading might waver depending on interpretation, and places about a character’s inner state where I wanted to ask outright what he was thinking.

The work covers an enormous amount of setting, so on checking that sort of thing he has cooperated with us pretty much across the board.

The giant skeleton that appears in episode 13, we had Morii-san draw a new design image for us, and built it so that it fed into the animation.

I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, but at the script stage, the person who supervises the characters’ dialogue in the finest detail is Morii-san.

Morii-san’s resolution on the characters, putting the characters first. That love, that way of seeing them, I think, is reflected in this anime version in a big way too.

Takahito Sakazume

On the character illustration and the visuals as well, we asked Morii-san’s opinion.

We want to put the character as Morii-san pictures them straight into the animation, so we’d hand the character over and get a check on the coloring.

09

Snowfield, and New York

stone buildingsout of that city fastsomewhere we’d never notice

ANIME CORNER (JAY GIBBS)

You did location scouting in the US and in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Having spent some time in New York City, how do you imagine an NYC version of Snowfield would be?

Shun Enokido

If Narita had made New York the model for Snowfield, I wonder how that would have gone.

We’ve only really gone for a walk so far. The impression from walking is the very old stone buildings.

Those struck me, so I have a feeling they would be used in a more symbolic, concentrated way.

Takahito Sakazume

This was our first time coming to New York, and that experience may feed into the sequel in some way.

ANIME HERALD

Do you think you would enjoy living in Snowfield?

Shun Enokido

It’d be fun, I think, since we’re genuinely enjoying being in America.

It’d be fun, but I’d want to get out of that city as fast as possible.

Takahito Sakazume

I’d want them fighting somewhere we’d never even notice.

ANIME HERALD

New York is my city. Welcome to New York. Any fun stories from the trip?

Shun Enokido

We’ve only just arrived.

Takahito Sakazume

I believe something interesting is still ahead.

Shun Enokido

It’s already interesting. Just walking the streets is interesting.

Right now it looks like an incredibly appealing city to me.

ANIME HERALD

Do you have anything fun planned for the trip?

Shun Enokido

We’ll go to a museum.

Takahito Sakazume

And climb the Empire State Building, that kind of thing.

10

All Gas, No Brakes

pour everything inno delaya slice of life

ANIME TRENDING (ISABELLE LEE)

Assuming that you’re still directing the announced continuation for Fate/strange fake, is there something you would like to achieve that you were unable to during the first cour’s production?

Takahito Sakazume

Enokido-san, please don’t hit the brakes.

Shun Enokido

Well, so it’s fine if the work never gets finished.

Something I’d like to take on, huh. Me, I’m the opposite. Yes, I’d want to take it on in a way where we pour everything in and the release still isn’t delayed.

Takahito Sakazume

I’d like to do something like an everyday, slice-of-life anime with the quartet, the kind that isn’t drawn in the main story at all.

Shun Enokido

Yes, I’d want to do that.

✳

Hansa suddenly

pulling out

a chainsaw

Sakazume boarded episode three knowing someone else would animate it, so he wrote in the moments that would survive the hand-off. The chainsaw was one of them.

Key visual

“Even when you hand it off, as long as the storyboard is drawn this way, it turns out interesting no matter who takes the episode.”

Takahito Sakazume · Co-Director

© Ryohgo Narita TYPE-MOON / KADOKAWA / FSFPC

The Makers

×

Co-Director

Shun Enokido

co-directed with Sakazumestoryboarded episodes two and threeshort-form and music video work

Co-Director

Takahito Sakazume

co-directed with Enokidodecides the script and color as a pair

Voice Cast

Kana Hanazawa as Ayaka SajōYūki Ono as Saber

Anjali Kunapaneni as Ayaka SajōBen Balmaceda as Saber

Fate/strange Fake

Ayaka Sajō: Kana Hanazawa / Anjali Kunapaneni
Saber (Richard I): Yūki Ono / Ben Balmaceda
Sigma: Gakuto Kajiwara / Paul Castro Jr.
Flat Escardos: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka / Khoi Dao
Orlando Reeve: Wataru Hatano / Christopher Wehkamp
Jester Karture: Tatsumaru Tachibana / Clifford Chapin
Hansa Cervantes: Katsuyuki Konishi / Kevin Andrew Rivera
Gilgamesh: Tomokazu Seki / David Vincent
Faldeus Dioland: Junya Enoki / Micah Solusod
Francesca Prelati: Maaya Uchida / Deneen Melody
Tsubaki Kuruoka: Aoi Koga / Kimberley Anne Campbell
Lord El-Melloi II: Daisuke Namikawa / Lucien Dodge

Japanese cast / English dub cast.

FATE/STRANGE FAKE

Adapted from Ryohgo Narita’s Fate/strange Fake light novel series, with character designs by Morii-san. Directed by Shun Enokido and Takahito Sakazume at A-1 Pictures, written by Daisuke Ōhigashi, with music by Hiroyuki Sawano.

The series is Enokido and Sakazume’s first as series directors. Both had worked mainly in short-form and music video before it, and they storyboarded episodes two and three themselves.

Co-Directors

Shun Enokido and Takahito Sakazume

Animation

A-1 Pictures

Series composition

Daisuke Ōhigashi

Music

Hiroyuki Sawano

Based on

The light novel series Fate/strange Fake by Ryohgo Narita

Character design

Morii-san

Starring

Kana Hanazawa and Yūki Ono

Licensed by

Aniplex of America

The Key Art

Key Visual

Fate/strange Fake

Key Visual

Snowfield

Teaser Visual

The False Holy Grail War

Character Visual

Fate/strange Fake

All stills and key art provided for press by the production. ©Ryohgo Narita, TYPE-MOON / KADOKAWA / FSFPC

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Article Copyright

All content on The Natural Aristocrat® is Copyright © 2016-2026 TheNaturalAristocrat.com. All rights reserved. This includes (but not limited to) ALL text in this article. All Fate/strange Fake stills, key art, and posters are Copyright ©Ryohgo Narita, TYPE-MOON / KADOKAWA / FSFPC, and remain the property of their owners.

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The post Interview: ‘Fate/strange Fake’ Directors at Anime NYC 2026 appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

Eugene Musinski of SEGA with Tomori Kusunoki and Rui Tanabe at the Javits Center. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

Javits Center, New York

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV): To Tomori and Rui – What can your character express through singing that she cannot say directly?

TOMORI KUSUNOKI, on Kanade: In the story as well, rather than singing her own pain, Kanade is a character whose wish to stay close to someone, to cheer someone on, is the stronger thing.

So I always record hoping I can deliver the feeling to whoever is listening, too, that you are not alone, that we are all in this together, that it is going to be all right.

Rui Tanabe. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

RUI TANABE, on Mafuyu: For Mafuyu, I think song is the place where she can let out her pain. In her everyday life she feels nothing, but in song she can let out suffering, loneliness, wanting to disappear. I think it is the only world where she can let those feelings out.

EUGENE MUSINSKI: To give a little more context from my side. Specifically for that character, she is putting on a mask in her daily life. The only time she can actually be herself is when she sings. So through that singing, Tanabe-san also tries to show those darker emotions, because inside, Mafuyu is not the perfect girl she tries to be outside.

She is really depressed, sad, in a very bad place emotionally, and that is one of the main parts of the story. How do you manage those expectations, from parents, from the outside world, while also feeling that pressure as a child? I think those kinds of emotions are what Tanabe-san tries to put into the music she records.

Rui Tanabe, full length. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV): To Tomori and Rui – What do you admire the most about each other’s performance?

Tomori Kusunoki and Rui Tanabe, who play Kanade and Mafuyu. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

TOMORI KUSUNOKI: I really love her voice, and I think there is a kind of shadow inside the model-student quality, very much there in the sound of her voice to begin with. But of course there’s also the switching in her acting, and it isn’t only the bright side and the dark side. When the emotion rises really high, the way she produces her voice has real force to it.

She gives performances with an almost frightening intensity. I think the way she brilliantly commands a character with such a wide emotional swing, makes it her own, is genuinely remarkable. And since we don’t record the game together, I’d even like to see how she records it.

EUGENE MUSINSKI: In the recording booth, right? Because they don’t see each other when they record.

ANIME CORNER: But in the movie, you did, right?

EUGENE MUSINSKI, to the actresses, in Japanese: In the movie, you recorded together, right?

TOMORI KUSUNOKI: We were together.

EUGENE MUSINSKI: That’s right.

Eugene Musinski, who answered alongside the actresses throughout. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

RUI TANABE: I think it’s the fragility and the inner strength of Kanade that only Tomori can bring out. She writes songs herself, she has a real creative streak, and because that side of her is close to Kanade, she can bring out Kanade’s fragility, her strength, and I think it’s a performance where you feel the heat on the inside. I think it’s full of a charm nobody else could imitate.

EUGENE MUSINSKI: And there’s nobody who could do the Kanade part as well as her, because she’s a performer, she’s a musical artist, and she makes those songs. That’s a wonderful thing and it’s really unique. Her voice is unique and it matches the character perfectly.

Tomori Kusunoki and Rui Tanabe, full length. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

THE INTERPRETER, to Rui Tanabe: Is it music for Mafuyu, or your own music?

RUI TANABE: I listened to Hatsune Miku’s songs from the time I was small, so being able to sing Miku’s songs as a voice actor, as Mafuyu, makes me very happy.

Rui Tanabe at the Javits Center. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

ANIME TRENDING: Project Sekai is such a unique game that not only do you have Miku and the other Vocaloids, but you also have unique characters singing alongside them. Why do you think Project Sekai and 25-ji are so popular, not only in Japan, but with overseas fans as well?

TOMORI KUSUNOKI: To begin with, I think part of it is that Hatsune Miku as a Vocaloid was enormously popular and had a lot of fans. On top of that, the characters have stories, and because there are so many different characters, there are a lot of points each person can relate to.

Different readings of the lyrics come out of the songs as well, and that gave it depth. I think that may be one reason.

Eugene Musinski, Tomori Kusunoki and Rui Tanabe at the end of the press conference. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

EUGENE MUSINSKI: Just to expand on that, she mentioned there are a number of different types of songs. There are a number of different groups and units in the game, and each has a theme. There’s a band, there’s an idol group, there’s the dark depression girls, there’s a rap group, or street singers.

Each has a different genre, which means we can bring in fans from a lot of different kinds of music. It’s not just idol music. Our demographic is much wider than doing Vocaloid by itself. Also, having wonderful talent like them on the team. The reason they’re here is these original characters. If we had gone with Vocaloid alone we would be quite limited in what we could bring to the audience.

Now we have all these talented voice actors who are also genuinely good singers, so we can bring a lot of their emotion and personality into the game.

RUI TANABE: Ichika and the others meet Miku, and their world starts to change. That process overlaps with your own, so I think the audience, too, relates to it and comes to love it.

I was saved by Miku myself, and that’s how I became who I am now. Because there are characters like that to relate to, I think a lot of people see themselves in them and come to love the work even more.

ANIME CORNER: What advice would you have for fans who might be facing situations like those in Nightcord, or Niigo, whether it’s hiding yourself, high expectations, or blaming yourself? And this is for everyone, too.

Rui Tanabe, who voices Mafuyu. “Song is the place where she can let out her pain,” she said of the character. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

EUGENE MUSINSKI: I’ll start. It’s difficult to give specific advice, do this and this and this, because every person is different and we have such a wide range of fans playing daily. But specifically for people who are, let’s say, similar to Mafuyu, who hide themselves.

This is from Eugene the person, not the person running Colorful Stage. I think it’s really important to just be yourself in these situations. There are so many people in the world, whether in your school or outside it, so many different communities that feel similar to how some of our fans feel.

There is always a community for someone. You just need to find it, and to find it you need to get out there, show yourself, be true to yourself, and be happy with who you are.

Once you find that happiness, once you begin to accept yourself, the people around you follow, and you’ll find your group, you’ll find your niche. That’s also a point in [Nightcord], isn’t it? They start online.

They found their little safe corner, but they all still have similar interests and they still have fun together. I think the same thing can be found in real life.

Through the game we try to show that a lot of different people with a lot of different personalities go through difficult moments, but through perseverance, or through finding common interests, or through finding their own little niche, they find happiness, and they move forward through hard work as well.

So looking at things like that would probably be my advice. But it’s a personal thing rather than from the game side. Hopefully the story also helps our fans find themselves and connect with other Colorful Stage fans who might be in a similar situation, through our Discord or on social, and create this little community, maybe even at Anime NYC.

EUGENE MUSINSKI, summarizing his own answer in Japanese: To put it lightly: I went quite deep there, but if you live as yourself, people like you will probably gather around you. Put simply, it’s something like that. If you don’t act like yourself, it goes wrong instead, the way it does for Mafuyu. If you spend all your time feeling like you aren’t yourself, there are going to be times you’re a little sad, too.

There are all kinds of personalities in the world, so if you live as yourself, your friends, people like you, are definitely out there somewhere.

Once you take that step out, other people gather too, and you make a group of friends, like the various Project Sekai characters, friends coming together and doing their best in all kinds of situations, and enjoying that. So what I said was that life has a lot of fun in it. Something like that.

The three of them after the session. Photograph © 2026 Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat^®

TOMORI KUSUNOKI: I strongly agree with Eugene, and I think what matters is finding an ally. That isn’t limited to people, to family or friends. It includes the music I mentioned earlier, and the things you love. Anything that can become the reason you come to like yourself is, I think, an ally.

So I’d be happy if Project Sekai, too, could be one of somebody’s allies. And I think we as actors probably perform hoping to convey that kind of thing, so I’d be glad if people keep enjoying Project Sekai in that spirit.

EUGENE MUSINSKI: So it doesn’t have to be people. Music, hobbies, movies, games. And within that, if Project Sekai is one of those things that helps you, we’re really happy.

RUI TANABE: I want everyone to play a lot of Project Sekai. Listen to the songs you like, watch the stories you like, and keep adding to the things you love. Then you get brighter and brighter, and I think you end up in an environment where there are a lot of friends around you, too.

YAHOO! JAPAN: My prepared question overlaps a little with what you said earlier. What do you have in common with the characters you play? Is there anything you would add?

RUI TANABE: I end up being the good kid too, so Mafuyu and I are actually very similar. On the inside I think about a lot of things, I agonize, I have painful thoughts, and I think that part of me resembles Mafuyu. I’ve been saved a great deal, so I want Mafuyu, too, to have more and more of those experiences from here on.

TOMORI KUSUNOKI: Kanade really doesn’t treat herself as important. She’s a girl who can spend her feelings and her strength for someone else’s sake. I’m the same type, in that, if anything, I end up wanting to do my best for someone else rather than for myself.

But that personality has also brought me all sorts of failures and regrets. So while I think it’s a good thing, I now feel I want to take better care of my own feelings too, just like Kanade.

DEAD RHETORIC: Being an actor requires a deep understanding of your character beyond what’s provided in the source material. What’s one habit your character has that isn’t in the script but you’ve always imagined?

TOMORI KUSUNOKI: For Kanade, even the materials I was given at the start were enough. They described her individuality, her personality, extremely well, so of course there was plenty I could relate to from the beginning.

And with Project Sekai there are a great many scenarios, and the characters get dug into a lot, so every time I play her I understand more. So I didn’t really struggle with playing her.

RUI TANABE: She’s similar to me, so I never struggle at all with the acting. I may not look it, though. The only place it gets difficult, technically, is that Mafuyu has her bright tone when she’s being the model student, and her dark tone when she’s with everyone in 25-ji [Nightcord].

It isn’t recorded by stopping at that point and going again. Mafuyu is recorded straight through, so there’s none of the stopping you usually get in voice work while I’m speaking as Mafuyu. Like everyday life, it flows from the bright tone into the dark tone and from the dark tone back into the bright tone.

So switching and performing in one flow, without stopping the recording, is the part that’s quite demanding.

Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! press asset. © SEGA · © Colorful Palette Inc. · © Crypton Future Media, INC.

The post Colorful Stage Interview: Tomori Kusunoki and Rui Tanabe at Anime NYC 2026 appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

02

Data vs. the Crowd

How the set list actually gets made

The Natural Aristocrat (Nir Regev): As an artist, do you decide your set list more based on Spotify listens, the numbers, or more on the live fan reaction that you see in the crowd?

yama: Play counts do of course differ by country, so of course I look at that, as data. But while putting plenty of songs everyone probably wants to hear into the set, I also want to show my current self. So I mix in new songs, and I think about it in all sorts of ways so people can enjoy the mixed old-and-new me as I am now.

03

The Australia Tour

Melbourne and Sydney in October, a first time performing live in Australia

The Natural Aristocrat (Nir Regev): What are you most looking forward to for your October tour dates in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, October 16th and 17th?

yama: Of course it’s my first time performing live in Australia and I’m very much looking forward to it. I’m still at the stage of agonizing over what kind of set to do. But apart from the show, if I’m going all the way to Australia, I want to hold a koala.

Anime Herald (Seth): I need to warn you about that. Koalas, because of what they eat, are kind of always a little buzzed or inebriated. So you can’t really trust a koala very much.

yama: They’re apparently quite ferocious. (laughs)

04

The Semicolon Letter

A fan’s tattoo, and an album as a gift

Animation for Adults (Antonio): Your recent music, like the album Semicolon, explores themes of mental health, self-acceptance, and moving on to new chapters. How has writing these raw personal struggles changed your relationship with your fans?

yama: Yes, Semicolon. Apparently there’s a meaning to getting a tattoo overseas. By putting in a mark called a semicolon, you declare an end to the self that was mentally weak, and are reborn from there. There’s a tattoo culture of putting in a semicolon with that meaning, and a fan taught me that. In a letter, and I remembered it the whole time.

I too was still full of conflict, wondering what on earth I even am, making music while thinking about all of that. So I think making the album Semicolon had a great deal of meaning for me.

It’s also an album I made in order to tell my fans that I had become someone who could think that way, that I had climbed to the next stage. I put into it the image of a gift from me. So I think the distance between me and the fans got a little closer.

05

First Night on the East Coast

San Diego last year, New York tonight, and “a.m.3:21”

Yahoo! JAPAN (Kasumi): There’s a concert today. I hear it’s your first concert on the East Coast. If there’s any difference between the reactions of fans at the concerts you’ve done in Japan and the reactions of overseas fans, please tell us, and please tell us what you’re looking forward to at today’s concert.

yama: Last year I performed live in America for the first time, in San Diego, and New York is a first. It really is completely different from Japan. How can I put it, it’s powerful, I feel passion. That energy comes across at the show.

I get a lot of energy from it myself, every time. The heat of every single song always comes across from the audience, so this time too I’m hoping we can have that kind of comfortable communication.

Scarlet Rhapsody (Lisa): Out of all of the music you’ve released, which song is your favourite song you’ve ever made, and why?

yama: That’s hard. But the one that’s still fun for me even now when I do it live is “a.m.3:21,” a song I released in my indie days. Compared to the arrangement back then, we do it live now with all sorts of different bands, band arrangements. Even with all of it brushed up in various ways, I sing it feeling that it’s tremendously fresh and enjoyable.

06

Oz. and Sharing the Loneliness

The Ousama Ranking ending, from a tangled time

Dead Rhetoric (Katerina): Which anime opening or closing has meant the most to you, either personally or in how it’s impacted your career?

yama: With every anime song, there’s a shared sense between me and that particular work, and I sing by expanding out from where those overlap, with that sensitivity, putting my own feeling into it.

If I had to pick, there’s an anime called Ousama Ranking, and I got to do its ending theme [“Oz.”]. At the time I was making music in a completely tangled state. I didn’t know left from right, but it was a period when I was just doing whatever was in front of me with everything I had.

In the lyrics there’s someone getting by somehow on their own, but who somewhere is looking for companions. I had the feeling of wanting to share that loneliness with someone. It overlapped exactly, so there are a lot of memories in it.

07

The Crowd That Danced

“Nisegao” in rehearsal, and goals for 2027

Yahoo! JAPAN (Kasumi): Regarding fan reactions overseas, you mentioned San Diego earlier as a visitor. Has there been anything especially memorable, an unforgettable or surprising reaction? Please tell us.

yama: Songs I wasn’t expecting do get a big reaction. Of course the anime songs get a big reaction, understandably so.

But among my own songs that aren’t anime, that have no tie-in, there’s “Nisegao,” and it must be the beat, I don’t know. The moment they heard the beat, when we were doing that song in rehearsal, customers who were far away came over, and they were dancing, really properly dancing.

Having customers who dance like that is fresh to me, and it’s tremendously enjoyable to watch, and it makes me happy and puts me in a good mood. Feeling the wave of the sound, the beat, and enjoying it that way. I did think that might be stronger precisely because it’s overseas.

Yahoo! JAPAN (Kasumi): The people who did that, roughly what age group were they?

yama: How old were they? Young people. They were young. Young, young, young people came over.

The interpreter: Was that during the rehearsal?

yama: During the rehearsal, and they were clearly visible.

Scarlet Rhapsody (Lisa): What are your music goals for 2027?

yama: I’d like you to look forward to it. How to say it, I want to keep taking on new challenges one after another. I actually think I’ve been changing continuously all along, and I think human beings are things that change. But for 2027 especially, so that I can really take flight.

I hope I can take on all sorts of things.

08

Vaundy’s Push

“Kubittake,” and writing your own songs

Dead Rhetoric (Katerina): As your career has progressed you’ve done more of the songwriting, you’ve been putting more of your own stamp on the lyrics. What gave you the confidence to get more involved with the music you’re creating?

yama: The big trigger was a collaboration with Vaundy, about four years ago I think. I collaborated with Vaundy on the song “Kubittake,” and at that time he said to me that a person who can sing as a vocalist can also make songs, so he absolutely wanted me to know the enjoyment of songwriting.

He gave me an extremely passionate recommendation at the time. For my own part I hadn’t yet found much meaning in making songs myself. I wondered whether I really ought to be the one making them. But in practice, to convey a feeling, to convey a message, writing it yourself, even clumsily, even awkwardly, has an importance and a beauty to it. That conversation with Vaundy is the reason I started writing both words and music myself.

09

Seh-no, and the Mask

A shout before the chorus, and six years of gratitude

Anime Herald (Seth): You’ve performed internationally in multiple different countries. Any interesting or fun touring stories you’d care to share?

yama: There have been all sorts. All sorts of happenings.

The funny one was when we toured Asia. I’ve forgotten where exactly. During a real ballad, a quiet, slightly chill ballad, right before the chorus the crowd shouted “seh-no” at me in a huge voice. That startled me. Enormously. At such an important moment, I never expected that to come in, and I was astonished.

Animation for Adults (Antonio): You’ve talked before about how wearing your signature mask could feel restrictive, but now you describe it as part of you. Do you feel like being behind the mask allows you to be more honest or vulnerable than you might be without it?

yama: When I first came out, yes. When I stood in front of people I’d get something like panic symptoms, and my vision would pretty much white out. I had that when I was small. Because of it I used to say I didn’t want to go out in front of people. But I wanted to seize the chance somewhere.

I work with a mask on now. But over these six years of activity, I’ve gradually become able to accept my weakness, and in the true sense to accept myself, and I think my heart has been opening up more and more. There’s a version of me that has been protected by the mask, and thanks to it I’ve changed a great deal and am slowly becoming able to love myself. I have nothing but gratitude.

Incidentally, this mask has changed in design compared to the early days. At first it was tight enough that if I blinked my contact would come out. Now it’s made fairly functionally.

10

What Humans Make

AI in one to ten seconds, and people’s stories

Yahoo! JAPAN (Kasumi): We’ve reached an era where anyone in the world, with no knowledge at all, can make a song instantly with AI. As yama, what kind of music do you want to share with people around the world from here on?

yama: That’s genuinely a theme I’ve been thinking about lately. AI, of course, can write melodies better than a human, if anything, and songs with interesting development, and I think it’s become an era where it can make them instantly, in about one to ten seconds.

Talking with my team recently, I do think humans are somehow drawn to works that humans make. Works AI makes are of course interesting too, but that’s a functional aspect. For example as illustrations in a book, or background music, background music for video, I think it’s very usable. But in the end, what we want from work that a human draws, that a human creates, I think it’s that person’s story.

The value of music going forward, of music that humans make, is that if the things that person has experienced, the way that person lives, their way of living, is projected into the music, value is born there. So I want to convey it that way myself. Being human, humanness, I didn’t talk about that at all in the early days. But from this era on, what everyone wants is people’s stories.

So that I can put out my own humanness. So that I can project that properly into the music too. That’s what I think I’ll do from here.

11

A Company Employee Who Sang

YouTube uploads, a Sony producer, and “Haru wo Tsugeru”

Anime Herald (Seth): What is your origin story? How did you decide you wanted to become a musician?

yama: From childhood I loved music and I loved singing. Honestly, the time I actually wanted to be a singer was only when I was very young. In between I never thought about making music my job. There was a period where I was working normally, as a company employee.

So the feeling that I really wanted to try music, that I wanted to try singing, got stronger. From there I happened to be uploading videos of myself singing to YouTube, and that’s where I met the producer who became my current partner, a producer at Sony. And the first original song I put out was “Haru wo Tsugeru.”

A great many people heard it, and that became the reason I could go on living by this.

12

Shikisai, Written by Kujira

The mangaka’s request, total freedom, and not spoiling a story

Anime Herald (Seth): What was the process for creating “Shikisai” for Spy × Family? Did you have a lot of creative freedom, or did they tell you specifically what they were looking for?

yama: Incidentally, with this Spy × Family song, it was the original creator, the original creator of the manga, who requested it. There’s a songwriter called Kujira, and they asked for the two of us as a pair, yama in collaboration with Kujira. So as far as the song goes, Kujira wrote both the words and the music, and I was the vocalist.

Because we had genuinely been named for it, I was allowed to do it completely freely, with no restrictions of any kind on the song.

Animation for Adults (Antonio): You have mentioned that when you watch anime you focus deeply on the internal psychological empathy of characters. When you write an anime theme song, how do you capture a character’s inner life without spoiling the plot?

yama: I actually think that’s simple.

When I’m reading the work and I find that each of them resembles me in some way, or that I like this character.

Then naturally I hold it up against my own inner self, and if I write and sing while picturing it very abstractly, only the important core part seeps out into the work. So unexpectedly it doesn’t become a spoiler, and yet I think the power the work is carrying can go into the music just as it is.

That part is simple, I think.

13

Encore: Anya in the Front Row

A fresh start, two ways into a song, and MJ on Broadway

Dead Rhetoric (Katerina): Your last album, Semicolon, was centred on the idea of a fresh start. How do you feel that album embodies that idea from a musical standpoint?

yama: With Semicolon it was still a turning point, my old self and my current self overlapping. Both were present at once, and I took that as a good thing. There was the me of the early days who had been covering Vocaloid songs. And going back further, before Vocaloid, liking city pop, going back to the roots of what I listened to in elementary school. Mixing those together, and for instance there was 2000s two-step music in there as well.

And then making songs that felt like Vocaloid, like 2010, the very earliest Vocaloid era. I think Semicolon was me groping around in all sorts of directions.

CUNY: If one anime character could attend your concert and sit in the front row, who would you want it to be?

yama: That would be really hard to do. (laughs) I’d get distracted. (laughs) Who would it be, who would it be. I don’t know, but Spy × Family’s Anya would be tremendously cute, wouldn’t she. She looks like she’d be thrilled. I thought she’d enjoy any song at all.

Comics Crusaders: You are so vocally talented. How would you explain your creative process when it comes to creating a new song?

yama: There are all sorts of patterns. There are songs where the theme is something with a very strong message, something introspective. And conversely there are songs that start from the musicality, from curiosity, thinking I’ll try putting in a bit of the essence of this culture or genre of music from this era. Roughly two patterns, I think.

Anime Herald (Seth): Welcome to New York. Any fun stories from the trip, or fun plans for the trip?

yama: I’m going to see MJ on Broadway, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Dead Rhetoric (Katerina): What do you enjoy about being able to sing both the anime tie-in songs and your own creative material?

yama: Both are interesting. Writing only about myself is honestly hard. When there’s no theme, making a song from nothing by myself takes more time, and I end up lost, wandering in a maze.

But when one theme or rule, some color, is already decided, it becomes a matter of throwing what I like and my own color at it. I find that collaboration interesting, and I like it quite a lot. Both are enjoyable.

The post yama Interview: Australia Tour & Koalas, C.U.T EP, NYC Concert appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

®

The Natural Aristocrat

Issue 01 | K-1 World MAX

By Nir Regev

Mona Kimura

5-0

Undefeated

TWO OF THEM BY KNOCKOUT

FIVE FIGHTS, NO DEFEATS

EXTENSION ROUND

THREE JUDGES,

THREE CARDS

THEMIDASKICK

BOUT 05 WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT TOKYO 2026 Extension decision, three cards to none, against Marine Nicol

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Photograph ©︎K-1

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Issue 01 – 2026

Photograph ©︎K-1

The Midas KICK

In her toughest challenge yet, Mona Kimura’s leg rose like a scythe to survive the claustrophobic close-range pressure of Marine Nicol. Kimura unleashed a series of high kicks, front kicks, side kicks and even an oblique kick to slow down Nicol’s advancing brigade of fists.

As K-1 commentator Michael Schiavello put it on the English call, “Marine Nicol is built,” her musculature a piece of engineered architecture opposite Kimura, a figure of delicate precision. Yet, despite taking a probable hematoma late in the third round, Kimura’s gameplan didn’t stop to catch its breath.

Bruce Lee famously once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” And despite Schiavello’s commentary about Kimura ‘not having a spinning back kick’ in her armory, Kimura’s kicks land with the cold finality of a closing vault door. There is no wasted motion, only the clean, devastating impact of form perfected.

THE MIDAS KICK

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

03

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Issue 01 – 2026

Winning
favors the
methodical

Photographs ©︎K-1

Her recoil minimal, Kimura’s movement is economical, precision honed through relentless repetition, stripped of all but its essential purpose. A deliberate footfall on the opponent’s psyche.

Marine Nicol closed in early with a barrage of fists, holding Kimura in tight corners and the occasional clinch and grab.

However, Kimura battled through her opponent’s suffocating shadow. Her spotlight in women’s kickboxing would not be snuffed, the flame would go on.

A hard-earned decision in the extra round. Marine Nicol’s heavy strikes on the leg Kimura uses to maintain her balance were surprisingly not as effective as theorized pre-fight online.

Kimura’s quite comfortable hopping on one foot as her base, and the threat of her strong boxing seemed to release the pressure valve.

Nir Regev

The Extra Round

All three judges scored the extra round 10–9 and the decision came back 3–0 in favor of Kimura. Marine Nicol, the 2021 savate boxe française world champion, goes to 25–7. Kimura now owns a 5-0 record, two of them by way of knockout.

THE MIDAS KICK

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

04

Issue 01 – 2026

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

In this issue

Mona Kimura’s fifth win, page by page. Every line below is a link to its page, and the numbers are the page numbers.

03

The Midas KICKThe editor, in his own words.

04

Winning is more than the kickThree judges, three different fights.

06

Tale of the tapeRed corner against blue corner.

07

Warrior mentalityThe real-life Chun-Li…

08

Photos: Fight NightTwelve frames from Yoyogi, whole and uncropped.

09

The round they addedThe official card, and the fourth round.

10

One more roundTen points to the winner, three times.

11

The two cornersShort bios for Kimura and Nicol, side by side.

12

By the numbersThe fight in figures.

Photographs ©︎K-1 · K-1 World MAX 2026, Yoyogi National Gymnasium II

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

THE MIDAS KICK

05

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Issue 01 – 2026

Tale of the tape

Red corner against blue corner, the way the sport writes it down. Every figure is from K-1’s own fighter pages and the weigh-in.

Mona Kimura

Red corner

Marine Nicol

Blue corner

5-0, 2 KORecord25–6

25Age29

166 cmHeight157 cm

51.8 kgWeighed in51.1 kg

SouthpawStanceOrthodox

Mizuho, GifuFromAix-en-Provence, France

JapanFights forSwitzerland

K-1 Gym Meguro, Team TigerGymNo Limit Squad

No pro title yetTitlesSavate world champion 2021

Photographs ©︎K-1 · Left, Mona Kimura; right, Marine Nicol

THE MIDAS KICK

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

06

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Issue 01 – 2026

Warrior
mentality

She fights in pink with a bow in her hair, echoing the silhouette of Chun-Li from Street Fighter.

what’s next for the

undefeated fighter?

Photograph ©︎K-1

THE MIDAS KICK

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

07

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Issue 01 – 2026

Photos: Fight Night

Twelve frames from Yoyogi.

Photographs ©︎K-1 · K-1 World MAX 2026, Yoyogi National Gymnasium II, Tokyo

THE MIDAS KICK

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

08

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Issue 01 – 2026

The round
they added

Three rounds, three judges, three different answers. K-1 adds a fourth round only when a fight is drawn, and in Tokyo it had to.

Photograph ©︎K-1

Result

Extension decision, 3–0

Opponent

Marine Nicol, 25–6

Division

Women’s flyweight, 52 kg

Photographs ©︎K-1 · Yoyogi National Gymnasium II, Tokyo

Photograph ©︎K-1 · K-1 World MAX 2026

	Judge 1	Judge 2	Judge 3
Regulation	30–28	30–30	29–30
Extension	10–9	10–9	10–9
Decision	Kimura	Kimura	Kimura

The official card

Three judges, three answers

K-1 gives a flyweight bout three rounds, and a fourth only when the judges cannot separate the fighters. Here they could not: 30–28 Kimura, 30–30 level, 29–30 Nicol. A split draw, and the extension was called.

All three scored that round 10–9 the same way. Nicol, the 2021 savate world champion, leaves at 25–7.

THE MIDAS KICK

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

Photographs ©︎K-1 · Article © Nir Regev, The Natural Aristocrat®

09

Issue 01 – 2026

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Photograph ©︎K-1 · The decision after the extension round

One more round

Ten points to the winner, three times

Regulation: 30–28 Kimura. 30–30. 29–30 Nicol.

Extension: 10–9, 10–9, 10–9.

Decision: Kimura, three cards to none.

The fourth round exists only as a remedy, and it is scored like any other. All three cards said the same thing for the first time all night in favor of Kimura. Who’s next? Is a title fight on the way for Kimura?

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

THE MIDAS KICK

10

Issue 01 – 2026

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Photograph ©︎K-1

Red corner. Mona Kimura, Gifu, 166 cm, unbeaten in five.

Mona Kimura

Red corner, 5-0

Born 12 April 2001 in Mizuho, Gifu. Fights out of K-1 Gym Meguro, Team Tiger. Five professional fights, five wins, two by knockout, the last of them an extension-round decision over a savate world champion.

Photograph ©︎K-1

Blue corner. Marine Nicol, Switzerland, 25–6 coming in.

Marine Nicol

Blue corner, 25–6

Savate boxe française world champion in 2021. Swiss WAKO Pro champion in 2025, and the K-1 WMAC Elite and Open tournaments the same year. She came to Tokyo as the more experienced fighter by twenty-seven fights.

She is 29, born in Aix-en-Provence and fighting out of No Limit Squad for Switzerland, 157 cm to Kimura’s 166, and an orthodox fighter against a southpaw. She weighed in at 51.1 kg.

THENATURALARISTOCRAT.COM

THE MIDAS KICK

11

Contact

Nir Regev, Editor-in-Chief

nir.regev@thenaturalaristocrat.com

Photographs: ©︎K-1

Read more

Kaiju No. 8 Interview: Kafka’s Voice Masaya Fukunishi & Composer Yuta BandohAnime NYC ·5 Oct 2026Interview: ‘Fate/strange Fake’ Directors at Anime NYC 2026Anime Interviews ·4 Oct 2026Colorful Stage Interview: Tomori Kusunoki and Rui Tanabe at Anime NYC 2026Gaming Interviews ·4 Oct 2026yama Interview: Australia Tour & Koalas, C.U.T EP, NYC ConcertMusic Interviews ·2 Oct 2026Sparks of Tomorrow Interview: Art director Mao Takayama & musician Ginger RootAnime NYC ·1 Sep 2026

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

The post Mona Kimura vs. Marine Nicol: The Midas Kick | K-1 WORLD MAX 2026 Fight Report appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

✳

Takayama & Ginger Root

on Sparks

of Tomorrow

Sparks of Tomorrow key visual. Credit: ©Hiro Yuki, Kyoto Animation/Sparks of Tomorrow Production Committee

Interview: Art Director Mao Takayama & Ginger Root on Sparks of Tomorrow

By Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat®

Published on September 1, 2026

DirectorMinoru Ota★

Art DirectorMao Takayama★

AnimationKyoto Animation★

From the novel byHiro Yuki★

Ending theme“Soarin’” · Ginger Root★

Opening“Eureka Evrika” · Luna Goami★

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV)

In your view, which scene best represents the visual style of the series? What part of the world required the most research visually?

MAO TAKAYAMA

I’ll take that one. The scene that most expresses the work is a scene in among the streets of Kyoto, I think. That is what most expresses the world of the series.

Pipes strung all through the old streets of Kyoto, the ground churned to mud, a world that is permanently overcast. That is what we are depicting, so I think that is the part that expresses this work best, visually as well.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

For Takayama: What’s the biggest change for you moving from background artist on 2020’s Violet Evergarden: The Movie to Art Director on Sparks of Tomorrow?

MAO TAKAYAMA

That would be the Violet Evergarden period. Back then I was still in about my second year, a genuine newcomer, so my seniors taught me a great deal and corrected my work for me.

Now the positions have reversed, you could say. Building on what they taught me then, now I am the one teaching the juniors under me, or making the corrections at my end. The position has flipped completely, I think.

ADULT SWIM CENTRAL (AVRAHAM IZZAT)

The background art is incredibly unusual for an anime. Could you talk about how you and the team created the show’s art style?

MAO TAKAYAMA

This is a very distinctive work, so what we were aiming for was image-making that looks like an oil painting. In building it we made brushes, brushes that would produce that look.

It is not something one person makes; it is made as a team, so we kept communicating. When a piece of art came back we would say, this one is fine, this part would be better handled this way, and we built it up gradually that way.

YATTA-TACHI (ADAM WESCOTT)

Sparks of Tomorrow brings together a highly distinct visual identity and a very unique musical soundscape. When constructing the ending sequence and the overall atmosphere of the anime, in what ways did the art and music complement or connect with each other?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

I wrote the song without seeing any visuals of the ending animation. I was just given a painting done by the director, as well as a piece of writing about what he wanted.

I also met with him online and saw what he wanted and all that, but I didn’t have any real actual visuals to go off of, except for that one piece that he gave me, and obviously some directions from him.

And I purposely wrote things in the song that could complement opportunities for the animation to do something special. Like the breaks, or like the drums, or the interludes and the choruses and all that. So I was very excited to see the finished result, and I think it matches very well. I wish there was animation for the whole song, but it was still in the works, and they actually animated to what I wrote, which is very special to me. So that’s my side of the story.

MAO TAKAYAMA

On the ending, almost all of it was 3D and the photography team’s work. On the background side it was only three cuts.

But we were let hear the ending song, and whether it was the make-up of that world, something like a pipe organ, I am not sure what was used, but that kind of unusual music, music using really unique sounds, we were let hear it, and I thought it matched the art of the work extremely well.

IN ASIAN SPACES (SHANNON)

The background art for Sparks of Tomorrow captures the atmospheric transition of 1906 Kyoto beautifully, particularly the contrast between traditional wood-structure townhouses and the emerging glow of electrical innovation. How did the production team approach balancing historical Meiji era accuracy with a distinct visual style?

MAO TAKAYAMA

On this work we used a way of drawing that leaves the touch of the brush visible, and an Impressionist-painting sort of treatment that blurs the outlines a little. But the traditional buildings and so on, this is a world none of you know, so we had to explain it properly. The parts that needed that explanation, and the parts where the characters sit, we drew very precisely.

Everything else, the edges of the frame, or scenes with movement, we made those the places to leave big brush strokes. And that balance, we worked it out cut by cut.

ANIME CORNER (J.J. GIBSON)

A somewhat related question for Takayama. To what extent did you make use of historical reference material when creating the physical world of the series? What are some real-life elements you wanted kept in, and where are the places where you intentionally deviated from the real world?

MAO TAKAYAMA

What I heard from the director was that, fundamentally, he did not want to tell any lie that wasn’t necessary. So the traditional Kyoto buildings, the streets, the locations, those we reproduce faithfully as they are.

The part we change is the steampunk, because that is the fantasy part, so we string the pipes around and make the world overcast. Then there is the distinctive fabric. We hang bolts of cloth under the pipes that are strung overhead. That sort of thing did exist in the Meiji era, but it was originally a sun-shading measure, hung so as to block the sun.

Here we use it to hide the pipes, and because it is a world where you cannot really see the sky, the patterns on the cloth stand in for the sky and give it a colourful impression.

ANIME TRENDING

A question for Takayama-san. Many animation studios don’t have an in-house background art department like this one and have to rely on external specialist studios. From your experience so far, how does the in-house background team contribute to the studio’s culture and expertise?

MAO TAKAYAMA

The single biggest benefit is that communication is easy. For the parts you cannot explain in words, we can have someone come and look at what is actually being drawn, and we can answer a question on the spot, and that is enormously strong.

Beyond the background section, we can stay in very close contact with photography, with key animation and finishing, with the other sections, so we can put a proposal like “how should we handle this one” straight to them.

I thought that was very big. And this time the art was quite unusual, so all the more, I find myself thinking it could not have been done anywhere but our own company.

YATTA-TACHI (ADAM WESCOTT)

This is a question for Ginger Root. On your past work you found creative ways to make music, like performing using an old rotary phone as a microphone and filming on tape recorders. What unconventional instrument did you make use of on recording “Soarin’”?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

When I made “Soarin’” I did it completely in a bedroom. I didn’t run any studio time for it, so it does have that kind of lo-fi sheen that a lot of my other songs have. I used a little bit of the same telephone that you talked about, recording some of the vocals on there.

And the thing with writing for TV and anime is my anxiousness of having to change things all the time. So when I did stuff, for example, with NHK earlier this year, I used that as a learning experience to not actually record a lot of real sounds, instead using soft synthesizers and VSTs and all of that. So it was a good exercise.

With a lot of my other songs, recording things with actual microphones, instead of like this. For this song in particular, recording things directly that were easily editable in case I had to make changes.

Especially because there’s two versions, there’s the short version and this long version I made. The short version got the okay, and then I had to figure out how to recreate the sounds I made for the short version to duplicate them for the long version. But thankfully I didn’t have to change anything after the first draft, so I worried for nothing. But that was probably kind of how the song was recorded, in that way.

ADULT SWIM CENTRAL (AVRAHAM IZZAT)

This time my question is for Ginger Root. What conversations or discussions led to this song becoming the ending theme?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

I got a proposal to do it. I thought it was fake. I was really excited. I’m a big anime fan, and so I took it.

One story I will tell is, I had one meeting with the whole team, including the director, Minoru Ota, and we bonded over the fact that he really likes Lady Gaga. I don’t know why, but weirdly I think that subconsciously influenced how I wrote the song. Not like I’m saying “Soarin’” sounds like any Lady Gaga song to begin with, but the back and forth that he had was, like I said earlier, that he gave me that painting and he gave me that piece of writing.

He also said something differentiating from the opening theme, where he didn’t want any eastern-sounding instruments, because the opening is acting like, here’s the Meiji era, here is stuck in time, very traditional, a sense of adventure. But then with an ending theme, he wanted it to actually sound electronic. What would the future that all the characters, what the Electricity Catalog is, what those ideas may offer.

So that was a big thing that we went back and forth on. He gave me those notes, I made something that I thought would probably fit well, and it sat with the team very well. And that’s kind of the back and forth that we had.

ADULT SWIM CENTRAL (AVRAHAM IZZAT)

This question is for both of you, and you kind of hinted a little bit at it already. But the ending of an anime is crucial, because it dictates the emotional aftertaste the audience is left with for an entire week. What is the exact feeling or lingering thought you want the viewers to walk away with?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

That’s a good question. For me, on the music side, I know specifically they gave me a reference to City Hunter, where the theme song would start while the ending scene is going, there’s a little bit of dialogue left, and then the beat drops. “Get Wild.” I think that song is the one.

So they wanted me to kind of create that same essence of, and here’s the ending. So with that involved, the adventure isn’t solved. There are a lot of things, the Electricity Catalog, there are so many mysteries in there. So in essence a cloudiness, just like the town is shrouded in steam and smoke, similarly having that feeling of uncertainty.

But there’s a lyric in the song, it’s like, but together we can go past the stars, we can get out of that steam together. And so that’s something that I wanted to portray, and kind of also with the animation team, give them an example. Like I said in my previous answer, so the characters could actually fly off the screen and give them a sense of soaring into the sky.

MAO TAKAYAMA

What Ginger said just now, I feel very much the same way about it.

And then, it depends on the episode, but I would like them to deepen their reading of the episode, and to predict what comes next. That sort of, how should I put it, it is very hard to express, but something that becomes that kind of time. Letting your thoughts wander. Yes. Thank you.

IN ASIAN SPACES (SHANNON)

This is for Ginger, and you kind of answered this a little bit. But your music frequently draws inspiration from Japanese city pop, Showa era television aesthetics, and vintage textures. In composing “Soarin’” for Sparks of Tomorrow, how did you approach matching your signature retro soundscape to the show’s 1900s Meiji era setting, and the sense of flight and wonder surrounding Kihachi and Inako?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

Sure. I do like vintage Japanese culture, but not that vintage, I would say. But it was a great opportunity to kind of stretch my palate and deviate from the things that I normally do.

When talking to the team, I asked, do you want me to write an anime song, I think, would sound like an anime song? Or did you want like a Ginger song? And they said, well, while we would like a Ginger song 110 percent, we probably can’t. So in my own head I decided, okay, let’s do a 70 percent Ginger song and a 30 percent anime song, and what would that sound like?

And it was a great exercise. It was a fun exercise to put on a new hat, trying a new set of clothes. I think they fit really well.

And ultimately, taking Ota’s writing and his painting, and also all the key artwork that I was able to see, all the character designs and stuff like that, they said that essentially Sparks of Tomorrow is a boy-meets-girl story, and that you can’t do it alone.

And so how the song starts off with a single instrument is, like, you start off alone, and then as you try to achieve something you want to do, you need help along the way to support that. And that’s why the song gets bigger and bigger, and in the chorus there’s a whole choir that sings the chorus. So it kind of heaves in towards that point. It was a really good challenge. It was really fun and I’d like to do it again.

ANIME CORNER (J.J. GIBSON)

This question is for Ginger Root. You mentioned the creation of the ending theme, and said that you were thinking about themes and emotions from the early parts of the series. Which characters in specific were top of mind for you, and what themes in the series struck you as best belonging to a song?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

I think in terms of themes specifically, I think it was a sense of wonder that this book has. It’s something so familiar, but something that hasn’t been delved into a lot. And I feel like in the song, choosing certain chords that evoke a sort of, we’re not at home yet, we’re not done yet, this series isn’t done yet, this song isn’t done yet.

In terms of the characters, I feel each character, and this I guess translates into more of a theme as well, everybody wants something. Whether it is to avenge their brother, whether it is to aspire like their mother, whether it is to just get what they want.

What I’m talking about is, I feel like that feeling is something that I wanted to bring a main focus of. Like, we all want something in life, we can’t do it alone. Some people will try to do it alone and fail. Some people try to do it together and succeed. And I feel like that was the core essence of what I took from the theme, the characters, the scripts, all the stuff that the team told me to implement into the ending theme.

PRESS

This question is for Takayama-san. What’s the best piece of advice, or the best lesson regarding creating background art, that you’ve acquired on the show or otherwise?

MAO TAKAYAMA

What my seniors taught me was, above all, to draw while thinking, at all times. It is background art, background for animation, so it has to be background that sets the characters off properly, and you think about guiding the viewer’s line of sight, there is an enormous amount to think about. And to keep the colours from going muddy. I think all of that connects to where I am now, so I think that is what matters.

YATTA-TACHI (ADAM WESCOTT)

This is for Takayama. How and when did you first start drawing, and what other artists would you say influenced you in your creative element?

MAO TAKAYAMA

I have liked drawing since I was small, really from about five years old. But what made me want to work on anime backgrounds properly was, at around fourteen, a gentleman named Yamamoto who works as an art director in anime.

On works like Princess Mononoke, or Laputa, I believe he was the art director. When I saw that person’s exhibition, it became the reason I wanted to do this job, so I think I am very much under his influence.

PRESS

I think this already got answered, but, Takayama-san, how does it feel being art director on an anime for the first time?

MAO TAKAYAMA

It was extremely difficult. Was it though [laughs]. Because you are not alone, after all. It is a work that a great many people are involved in.

And because it is animation, you have to mass-produce the artwork, so I felt the difficulty very much in that area. And not just drawing something, but communication skills, and leadership, and, yes, I felt that those things beyond drawing were necessary.

PRESS

Takayama-san, colour palettes are incredibly important for setting the psychological tone of the series. For Sparks of Tomorrow, did you establish a specific set of colour rules or lighting techniques to separate the moments of intense drama from the quieter, more intimate scenes of everyday life?

MAO TAKAYAMA

The question is whether we vary it between the intense scenes and the quiet ones. As for colour, both the intense scenes and the quiet ones are a clouded world either way, so what they have in common is that we built the colour of that world as a grey made out of many colours mixed together, colourful. What we did vary is the brush stroke. On the intense scenes we make it a little stronger, and on the calmer scenes we make it careful and precise.

IN ASIAN SPACES (SHANNON)

For Takayama. Some inventive scenes, the atmospheric smoke and electric lanterns within the city, the series features many memorable visual beats. Is there a specific scene or detail from the first three opening episodes that the staff found particularly rewarding or challenging to bring to life?

MAO TAKAYAMA

Not so much the one that stayed with me, more the one that was hard. There is a scene where Kihachi imagines the future, and the figures there, there are people moving with very realistic movement, and all of that had to be handled on the background side.

Drawing every moving part separately, and so on. It was an unbelievable amount of work, and it was hard.

ANIME CORNER (J.J. GIBSON)

This question is for Ginger. To what extent did the fact that you were working on a song for Sparks of Tomorrow affect your usual choices around instrumentation, structure, and the overall creative process for your music?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

I think, as I said in a previous answer, the director wanted specifically to have more electronics, bass sounds and stuff. And I think finding that medium between what I would personally put in as a synth sound that I would like, versus something that I think would fit the story, that was a fun challenge to incorporate.

And in terms of, like I said before, having the conscious decision of, I had to make the 82-second version first, because they needed that to animate, and then go back and kind of extend the song from there. That was a really interesting thing that I’ve never done before, because usually when I’m writing songs specifically just for Ginger, I write from the first beat to the last beat. But on this one I had to basically hit a checkpoint, and then get it approved, and then go on.

And like I said in another answer, having to replicate, I didn’t save the guitar sound, so I had to match by ear how much distortion I had on the first half, and stuff like that. So that was a really interesting challenge, that I would try to figure out a way how to not do that again.

PRESS

My question is also to both. Your creative elements, such as music video and visuals, and the story of Sparks of Tomorrow, explore themes of creative passion and perseverance. Have you ever felt burnt out, or had a creative block, and how do you keep up your motivation and maintain momentum juggling different roles?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

Yeah, I was burnt out last year, definitely. In the midst of getting burnt out, I had to remember, and I’m still trying to remember, why I started doing music in the first place. And it was for fun, and because I enjoyed doing it. And I never thought I’d get this far doing music. I never thought I’d be sitting in a room at an anime convention talking about my song credits.

And I’m very excited that I have the opportunity to do that. So I’m trying to learn to be more mindful of taking a step back and really being thankful for what I’m able to do with all these music opportunities.

In terms of creative block, man, just going for a walk does wonders. And also, I used to have the thing where, if I can’t do it in one go, or I can’t finish a song in one night, then it’s a bad song. And I’ve started to be a little more lenient and be like, it’s okay to take a step back, take a day, take two days, don’t even think about them, come back with a fresh perspective.

Because there’ll be a bunch of times where I’ll make something and I think it sounds like garbage, and I’ll wake up next morning with a fresh mind and I’m like, this is not bad. So I think, take it easy on yourself. If you have a creative block, motivation comes and goes. But creative burnout, it’s hard. But if you remember why you started doing something in the first place, it’ll come back when it’s ready.

PRESS

A question for Ginger. What does your past experience with Kyoto Animation’s works look like, and do you have specific feelings about being able to collaborate with a studio like this?

CAMERON LEW (GINGER ROOT)

I love Kyoto Animation. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say all the other shows that I like or whatever, but K-On! and Clannad and Violet Evergarden. I watched Violet Evergarden like, mom, she cried. It’s great.

One thing I will say, and I said this at LA Anime Expo, is that I was learning Japanese during Covid, and the first book that I was able to read in Japanese was Hibike! Euphonium, or Sound! Euphonium. And so I read that book, realized that Kyoto Animation made that, and I watched that. And that’s like a super crazy connected story. Well, now I’m working with the same studio that made that work.

So it’s really special. I’d love to do something again. Maybe an opening theme one time would be awesome. And yeah, I don’t know, just as a fan, awesome. It’s really cool. And I’m really happy that I had this opportunity and hope to do more in the future.

And who knows, if I get better at drawing, or maybe take a lesson from Takayama, I could maybe draw better and maybe make my own anime one day. But that’s like, maybe, I don’t know, 15 years from now.

✳

The cloth

stands in

for the sky

Takayama’s Kyoto hangs bolts of cloth beneath the pipes — a Meiji-era sun shade, repurposed. The patterns give a skyless world its colour.

Watch the official trailer

“Because it is a world where you cannot really see the sky, the patterns on the cloth stand in for the sky.”

Mao Takayama · Art Director

© Hiro Yuki, Kyoto Animation/Sparks of Tomorrow Production Committee

The PV in 30 Frames

All frames from the third promotional video, provided for press by the production. ©Hiro Yuki, Kyoto Animation/Sparks of Tomorrow Production Committee

The Makers

×

Art Director

Mao Takayama

her first series as art directorbackground artist on Violet Evergarden: The Moviepainted the overcast Kyoto

Ending Theme

Ginger Root

Cameron Lew wrote “Soarin’” alonerecorded it in a bedroomhis first anime theme

Voice Cast

Yuma Uchida as KihachiSora Amamiya as Inako

MusicEnding Theme “Soarin’” · Ginger RootOpening Theme “Eureka Evrika” · Luna Goami

Sparks of Tomorrow

Kihachi Sakamoto: Yuma Uchida
Inako Momokawa: Sora Amamiya

Japanese cast. Streaming worldwide on Netflix, 13 episodes.

Art & Guests

Key Visual

Sparks of Tomorrow

Key Visual 2

Chasing an Unseen Light

Teaser Visual

1906 Kyoto

The Guest’s Avatar

Mao Takayama

The Guest

Ginger Root

All stills and key art provided by the production. ©Hiro Yuki, Kyoto Animation/Sparks of Tomorrow Production Committee

Read Next

More from The Natural Aristocrat– Fantasia 2026: ‘Wind Breaker’ Movie ReviewRead it ★More from The Natural Aristocrat– Fantasia 2026 Interview: Director Atsushi Nishigori on GrotesqqqueRead it ★More from The Natural Aristocrat– Interview: Yukimitsu Ina & Hitomi Tateno on Cocoon – One Summer of GirlhoodRead it ★

The post Sparks of Tomorrow Interview: Art director Mao Takayama & musician Ginger Root appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

✳

Ina & Tateno

on Cocoon — one

summer of girlhood

Cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood. Credit: ©Machiko Kyo (Akita Shoten) / NHK, NEP

Interview: Director Yukimitsu Ina & Animation Producer Hitomi Tateno on Cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood

By Nir Regev · The Natural Aristocrat®

Published on August 25, 2026 · Cocoon opens in U.S. theaters September 4

DirectorYukimitsu Ina★

Animation ProducerHitomi Tateno★

AnimationStudio Sasayuri★

From the manga byMachiko Kyo★

In theatersSeptember 4 · GKIDS★

HITOMI TATENO

It’s the gore, really. I had a strong desire to soften it. But what could we do? Putting a blur over it would have felt flavorless. We wanted to make this for young people in their teens, and it was going to be broadcast on television first, so we needed a softer expression, something children could watch without averting their eyes.

I’m sure we weren’t the first ones to ever express it this way, but with flowers… girls tend to love flowers. Well, there may occasionally be one who doesn’t! By expressing those moments through flowers, I think we managed to create a kind of symbol of escape from the painful part of the scene.

✳

A war you can

receive as

your own

Ina kept the film deliberately unplaceable: the buildings blend countries, the vegetation blends regions, and even the soldiers are a collage of period equipment, so no single nation owns the story.

The trailer · plays right here

“Whether you’re in America, or Europe, or anywhere else in the world, it’s a war you can receive as your own.”

Yukimitsu Ina · Director

© Machiko Kyo (Akita Shoten) / NHK, NEP

The Stills

Art, Chapter 01

Flowers Instead of Blood

Art, The Wreath

San & Classmates

Art, Chapter 02

Hand in Hand

Art, Chapter 03

The Birthday Bookmark

All stills © Machiko Kyo (Akita Shoten) / NHK, NEP

Read Next

More from The Natural Aristocrat– Fantasia 2026: ‘Wind Breaker’ Movie ReviewRead it ★More from The Natural Aristocrat– Fantasia 2026 Interview: Director Atsushi Nishigori on GrotesqqqueRead it ★

The post Cocoon Anime Interview: Yukimitsu Ina & Hitomi Tateno appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

Warning: This review contains spoilers. Suzuki=Bakudan was screened for review at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Suzuki=Bakudan is a multi-layered movie, rich in its analysis of human nature. Picture unreliable homeless vagabond Tagosaku Suzuki played brilliantly by actor Jiro Sato, stumbling into a police station, saying he has premonitions of bombings before they happen.

Police department heads dismissive of evacuation, lest they take responsibility for delayed commutes. Preschool perimeters secured while homeless encampments are fully ignored and vulnerable… Proving Suzuki’s thesis of the public not valuing “freeloaders”.

Jiro Sato as Tagosaku Suzuki on the Suzuki=Bakudan character poster. ©Katsuhiro Go/KODANSHA Ltd. ©2025 BAKUDAN Film Partners.

Perhaps, most engrossing is Suzuki promising to show older detective Yuko Hasebe (Masaya Kato) the shape of his heart. When Hasebe fails to figure out Suzuki’s next target, he breaks Suzuki’s finger, leading Suzuki to laugh and show his mangled finger as the shape of Hasebe’s heart.

But no scene is stronger than police being unable to locate Suzuki’s promise on the subway platforms, calling it a bluff out of commuter pressure more than an in-depth sweep.

Yuki Yamada as Detective Ruike on the Suzuki=Bakudan character poster. ©Katsuhiro Go/KODANSHA Ltd. ©2025 BAKUDAN Film Partners.

As a result, helpless commuters press the vending machine button to meet their ends. It’s a scene that will stay with you forever. Authority figures shepherding thousands of victims to total unrealized danger under the veneer of full security.

The only flaw of this film is it’s too realistic in its execution. From the opening tragedy in Akihabara all the way to the subway platform chaos… Some ideas make incredible films but introduce dangerous concepts that might be best locked away from society for its own good. You’ll think twice the next time you click a vending machine button for a soda, that’s for sure. But as a film, it’s a must watch.

The Suzuki=Bakudan theatrical poster. ©Katsuhiro Go/KODANSHA Ltd. ©2025 BAKUDAN Film Partners.

More Fantasia 2026 Coverage:

Be sure to check out

– Fantasia 2026: Wind Breaker Live-Action Movie Review

– Fantasia 2026 Interview: Director Atsushi Nishigori on Grotesqqque

– Fantasia Festival 2026: Our 5 Most Anticipated Films

Visit the Fantasia International Film Festival section for more reviews, interviews, and preview from 2026 and many years past!

Article Copyright:

– All content on The Natural Aristocrat® is Copyright © 2016-2026 TheNaturalAristocrat.com. All rights reserved. This includes (but not limited to) ALL text in this article.

The post Suzuki=Bakudan is our pick for best film of Fantasia 2026 appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

Wind Breaker’s ultimate message in this live-action adaptation is that a solo hero cannot beat volume with sheer brute force. Frequently in this film, we see rebel Haruka Sakura try to take on the world to a high degree of success at first impression… Only to lose. Despite being a powerful fighter, Sakura can only punch his way through so many adversaries before succumbing to numbers.

It’s a lesson we rarely see in western style superhero films where one Superman is enough to take on the universe. Instead in Wind Breaker we see having ‘determination’ and ‘will’ helps but it cannot stop a swarm. The tide of numbers hits and without backup, even the greatest of fighters drowns in a measured volume attack. 

Quite analogous to sports, Sakura believes as a star fighter he can take on the entirety of ‘team’ Shishitoren alone, he doesn’t need the rest of his ‘team’ Bofurin. And much like in basketball, this approach fails repeatedly. Except with high school street ‘gangs’ in this case. When Sakura takes on low level fighters, he powers through with ease but when facing an equivalent foe in Jo Togame, suddenly backup counts. Ambushes are meaningful and effective.

On the opposite side, his would-be sidekick Akihiko believes that by joining Bofurin, he can now be individually courageous and we see him beat up throughout Wind Breaker. Which all builds up to Wind Breaker’s main theme as a film. A unifying cause vs Darwinian hierarchies, which we’ll cover in Chapter 2.

Unifying Cause vs Darwinian Hierarchies

Collectivism triumphing over the individual is the not so subtle allegory of this film. The Darwinian Shishitoren believe in power and dominance, they evict the weak. Defeats are met by beatings and the Shishitoren member jacket. 

Meanwhile,  Hajime Umemiya’s Bofurin assist the elderly town people. The Bofurin help the weak and the bullied back to their feet. They even take bullied youth like Akihiko and put them on the front lines as equals. Choji Tomiyama, the leader of the Shishitoren, believes in punishing the weak. Umemiya uplifts them. 

Choji’s power is his own ability to fight, Umemiya’s true power is a unifying message. The message will outlive Umemiya and Choji’s own time at the top. Which is why Umemiya in the film can never truly be toppled, he’s a figure representing a deeper message than being at the top at one point in time.  

Lone wolf  Sakura or ‘Othello’ as rival Jo Togame nicknames him for his split hair color, is initially intrigued by the powerful Shishitoren until he sees them preying on the weak. A potential new recruit lost by the message not fighting ability. 

The Best Fight Scene

Wind Breaker is action-packed all throughout but one scene stands above the fold. An ambush fight between Sakura and Togame where Akihiko’s lack of fighting strength brings down Sakura when he meets an equal opponent. Till this moment, Sakura truly believed drive and determination and his innate talents were enough to overcome any obstacle. Then Sakura faces Togame who he’d previously called ‘boring’. Togame wipes the floor with Sakura, handing him a seriously humiliating beating. Sakura is unable to either rescue Akihiko or escape.

Not having backup, not trusting others, bites in the long run. And it bites hard when one least expects it. Sakura would later receive a similar lesson when trying to rescue the town from Shishitoren’s wrath on his own but there it’s a viable, honorable defeat. 

Here Togame literally steps on a helpless Sakura’s arm and the only one who can put an end to the pain is Togame himself. Who tells Sakura coldly to take a bloodied Akihiko to the hospital. 

A counterweight to a unifying message, the idea that ‘might makes right’. A unifying message is only as strong as those defending it. The difference is the Bofurin’s ability to recruit does not discriminate in the film.

If you’re an anime, Wind Breaker, or martial arts fan, you’ll have a good time watching the brawls and choreography. Entertaining fight scenes are in abundance in this film, it’s practically a naturally occurring phenomenon. 

– Check out our Fantasia 2026 Interview with Director Atsushi Nishigori on Grotesqqque

The post Fantasia 2026: ‘Wind Breaker’ Movie Review appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI × The Natural Aristocrat®

Interview

GROTESQQQUE. Credit: ©Atsushi Nishigori, CloverWorks/Project GTQ© Credit: ©Atsushi Nishigori, CloverWorks/Project GTQ

Fantasia 2026 Interview: Director Atsushi Nishigori on Grotesqqque

By Nir Regev

Published on July 31, 2026

Three Works × One Film

01 — A(E)LIENS

02 — YOROSHIKU★Girl

03 — NOCTURNE: NUIT GROTESQUE

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

What part of the film was the most challenging to animate?

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

In the second work, YOROSHIKU Girl, there was a lot of action. It’s a really action-packed part of the movie, so how were we going to manage that? That was one of the difficulties I experienced.

However, in the third work, Nocturne, towards the end there was a very important scene where they were showing the sky.

One of the things I really wanted to figure out was how I’m going to create a scene with the scenery of a sky that was going to leave a strong impression on everyone watching it. That was definitely one of the challenges I had in the third one.

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THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Can you describe your day to day approach to writing and directing?Can you describe your day to day approach to writing and directing?

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

As an animator, I always had to think about how I’m going to put up the drawing I have in front of me. Obviously, the text helps me get proper context, or give a bit more structure to the character.

However, it’s always my part of the work to think, okay, how am I going to put this into a drawing? How am I going to give it a proper rhythm in the animation?

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

How long have you wanted to make this film?

NOCTURNE: NUIT GROTESQUE. Credit: ©Atsushi Nishigori, CloverWorks/Project GTQ

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

I looked it up — I started this project in 2020, after I finished Evangelion.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

How do you make unusual characters feel human?

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

One of the things I do is put in a bit more of an anime personality, and then on top of that, I include some more human-like emotions.

Having that proper balance, or that switch between the more anime-like and the more human-like, I feel is one of the fun parts of making anime and creating these kinds of characters.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Was there anything you removed from the final film?

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

In terms of what we cut, in the second part of the movie, as I said a bit earlier, it’s a very action-packed part of the movie. We felt that if we put in too much, that part was going to be a bit too tiring, too heavy to digest.

However, one of the things about this project is that I had a lot of freedom in terms of how long the movie could be. So whatever I wanted to put in, I could put in. But one thing I had to pay attention to was that I didn’t want to have it too long and drag it out, so that the audience would get bored of too much of the same thing. I really wanted to try and adjust according to how much the audience would like it.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

What detail should viewers watch for in GROTESQQQUE?

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

I would say this is a bit of a secret. If there is any kind of special Easter egg, I’m not going to say it. I have to be careful here, because I don’t want to say this is how you should interpret the character, or, if there’s a special Easter egg, oh, this is a reference to that.

I really want the audience to discover and interpret it the way they want, because if I give out a certain thought process of how I wanted to do it, I don’t want the audience to be forced to think in a certain way. I really want the audience to be free to think and interpret the movie the way they want.

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THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

Do fan reactions change the way you write or create in any way?

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

I didn’t have that kind of experience in the past. However, by attending this festival and watching the movie with the audience, I could see how the audience reacted to each specific scene, and that gave me immediate feedback.

It did influence me in a way. I might include that, or think about it, when I work on future projects, thinking about how I could make certain scenes make the audience laugh in a certain way. I feel this is one of the pleasures of being an anime creator: thinking about how to make the audience laugh and how to make the audience enjoy it.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT

What does it mean to you to be part of the Fantasia Film Festival?

ATSUSHI NISHIGORI

This was my first time attending or experiencing a movie at a film festival with the audience, so this was definitely a new experience for me. In the festival experience, I felt right at home. I found the audience very charming, very welcoming.

It was almost like an event, it was a festival, and it kind of reminded me of the days when I loved and enjoyed anime. It also gave me an important experience of how audiences outside of Japan experience anime.

I really feel like, when I’m working in the future, I will have to think about how audiences in Japan experience anime and how audiences outside of Japan experience anime, and maybe I’ll have to think about how I should adapt my future works.

Stills

GROTESQQQUE Movie Stills. Credit: ©Atsushi Nishigori, CloverWorks/Project GTQ© Credit: ©Atsushi Nishigori, CloverWorks/Project GTQ

The post Fantasia 2026 Interview: Director Atsushi Nishigori on Grotesqqque appeared first on The Natural Aristocrat.