I\u2019m thrilled to tell you that we recently interviewed Shunsuke Tada, the director of <\/span>Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These<\/i>.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n He revealed to us how the anime came to exist, the difference between directing sci-fi anime and sports anime such as <\/span>Kuroko\u2019s Basketball<\/i><\/strong> or <\/span>Prince of Tennis<\/span><\/i>. Also, he talked about why they decided to use 3D\/CG instead of hand-drawn animation, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Also, if you want to win a novel signed by him, keep reading until the end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: I would say it\u2019s probably how even though the story is set in the distant future, it\u2019s influenced by Tanaka-sensei\u2019s\u00a0 [the author of the novels] extensive understanding of history. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: Humans do not act strictly according to logic or principles; we also act on our emotions, and sometimes just do things for money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: In a sense, although the era is different, that\u2019s more or less how civilization works. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: Tanaka-sensei set out to write a story viewed through a historical lens, capturing the idea that however, peoples\u2019 lifestyles differ or what legacies they leave behind, the same ideas and events repeat, even in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: Therefore, I\u2019ve been very careful not to omit that aspect and reduce LoGH to mindless entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: We want to express that even in the future, humanity is essentially the same as ever, and that\u2019s what we have to show in DNT. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: In order to properly convey that, however, we have to adapt the entire original story!<\/strong> (laughs)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: So from the beginning, the staff all said \u201cWe\u2019re gonna have to cover the entire story, aren\u2019t we?\u201d<\/strong> (laughs)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: To be perfectly honest, I don\u2019t really know much about how the project was conceived (laughs). <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: I was chosen as director after Production I.G, the company producing the anime, gave it the green light.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: There\u2019s several different ways an anime might be greenlit. Take for example, <\/span>Kuroko\u2019s Basketball<\/span><\/i>, which I directed. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: The producer told me before the decision was made: \u201cTada-kun, we\u2019re pitching this project with you as director, so I look forward to working with you if it gets approved!\u201d (laughs)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: Sometimes I become involved like that before it\u2019s approved. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: In that case, I was offered the job before the series got greenlit, and once it did, they said \u201cWe got approval, so can you do it?\u201d But as for LoGH, the order was reversed, so I don\u2019t really know how the project came to be.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: I\u2019d say the main difference is having visual material to reference<\/strong>. In the case of <\/span>Prince of Tennis<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Kuroko\u2019s Basketball<\/span><\/i>, you\u2019ve got the original comics to work with. That\u2019s not to say the work is \u201ceasier,\u201d however, but it helps.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: For DNT, we deliberately <\/span>did<\/span><\/i> not <\/span><\/i>reference the Ishiguro OVAs. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: What we\u2019re doing is going back to the original novels that were published 40 years ago and re-interpreting them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Note:<\/b> In Japan, the original LoGH anime adaptation is often referred to as the \u201cIshiguro version,\u201d after the name of its director, Noboru Ishiguro.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: There aren\u2019t any visuals to work with, so we\u2019re re-imagining all the visuals, setting and worldview, which takes an incredible amount of effort. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: So that\u2019s the biggest difference between DNT and my previous projects. We have source material to work with, but no visuals; we\u2019re creating all that from scratch, which is quite difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: So there\u2019s already the Ishiguro version\u2014the complete animated adaptation. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:With that in mind, one thing we have to be careful about is not to make \u201cbeing different\u201d the entire point of our work.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:No good will come of just changing things for the sake of being different. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: So it becomes a question of how\u00a0 we pay homage to the Ishiguro version while also saying \u201cThis is DNT, and this is what makes it unique.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: For the main characters, I was present at the auditions. I can\u2019t tell you the names of the people who we didn\u2019t choose, but what we often did was have them audition in pairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:For example, Reinhard and Kircheis are dear friends, so we\u2019d try different pairings of voice actors auditioning together in order to see who could best express that. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:For example, we\u2019d try Mr. A + Mr. B, then Mr. A + Mr. D, and if we really liked Mr. D, we\u2019d try him with Mr. C, and so on, trying different combinations when we held auditions for the main characters.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Mipon: <\/b>Is that a common practice when holding auditions?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: No, we rarely go to such lengths. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:I think the reason we did so was because of the responsibility we felt towards LoGH. There have been people who, while we were deciding whether to cast them, received offers to voice lead characters on other shows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: Yet, despite that, for them to accept our offer to voice characters like Reinhard or Yang really demonstrates how the prestige of working with LoGH is on an entirely different level.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: Usually about two to three weeks. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: We\u2019re not usually holding auditions every single day, but we can\u2019t do everything in one day either, so we\u2019ll follow up on a later day and try different pairings with people who made it through the last round of auditions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: After a day of auditions, we\u2019d have a meeting with myself, Gunji-san the [series] Producer and producers from Shochiku, the film company. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:We\u2019d decide which voice actors to keep and maybe schedule them to audition again with different pairings, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: For the character designs, we had planned from the beginning to aim for a traditional animation look, as opposed to a 3D\/CG design like you\u2019d find in a Disney or Pixar film.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: That\u2019s something from the Ishiguro version that we didn\u2019t want to change. However, we did decide to use 3D\/CG instead of hand-drawing\u00a0 the battleships and action sequences. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: So one of the first things we discussed was how the action and battleships should look in 3D\/CG.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: My request was for the staff to make something that fit squarely between a live-action, <\/span>Star Wars<\/span><\/i> type of look and a cel-animation look. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: That process of deciding how things should be designed took over a year. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: That happens a lot in the production process\u2014when the staff doesn\u2019t know exactly what to aim for, it becomes a lengthy, laborious process of trial-and-error, and I\u2019d get a lot of complaints.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: Some people even told me \u201cTada-san, this is too much work. Let\u2019s just go with the cel-animation look instead.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: They wanted to stick with the cel-animation style, in which they could hand-draw the battleships and color them more easily. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:\u00a0 But I was very stubborn about it and asked them to tough it out. Because of that, the process took more than a year.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: It\u2019s actually a more efficient process than hand-drawing.<\/strong> The bar that\u2019s set for quality, and the standards we have to meet, are just so high nowadays that hand-drawing isn\u2019t feasible in terms of time or budget. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada: While 3D\/CG takes a lot of time in the pre-production stage<\/strong>, the process is ultimately faster.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:\u00a0 A 3D\/CG cut will cost quite a bit of money<\/strong>. But here\u2019s the thing\u2014you can reuse them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:\u00a0 Like I said before, we\u2019re planning to cover all of the main story, like the 110-episode Ishiguro version. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:The upfront costs are enormous, but being able to reuse the cuts ultimately works out cheaper than having to pay X-amount of yen every time. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tada:Still, there\u2019s no denying that the initial pre-production process of DNT is very time and resource-intensive.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Note: <\/b>Watch <\/span>Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These<\/span><\/i> here:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02161455\/IMG_1285-1024x698.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat is the \u201cessence\u201d of LoGH (what makes LoGH special)?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153636\/galactic-heroes_02_C106-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLoGH is a very popular work, and the scope of the story is also quite expansive. When you began work on the animation process for DNT, what kind of story did you plan to create?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153552\/galactic-heroes_19_Check_0729-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow did DNT come to exist in the first place? Who\u2019s idea was it to create a new anime?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153537\/galactic-heroes_20_C118_-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the main difference between directing sports series like <\/b>Prince of Tennis<\/i><\/b> or <\/b>Kuroko\u2019s Basketball<\/i><\/b>, or mecha series and sci-fi series like DNT?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153321\/Gineiden_16_Check_0716-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat is the brainstorming process like when you\u2019re starting from scratch?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153405\/galactic-heroes_28_C197_-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDNT has an entirely new voice cast. How were you involved in the casting\/audition process?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153437\/galactic-heroes_27_C170-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153607\/galactic-heroes_16_C59_-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow long does the audition process normally take?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153504\/galactic-heroes_25_C060_-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow about other design-related aspects of the series?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153453\/galactic-heroes_25_C162_2_-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02161440\/IMG_1283-1024x737.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWas there a particular reason why you wanted to use 3D\/CG?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153650\/galactic-heroes_01_C250-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe fourth season of DNT (\u201cIntrigue\u201d) is now showing in theaters in Japan as well as overseas streaming services. What would you like viewers to pay special attention to?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153419\/galactic-heroes_28_C195_2_-1024x576.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02153522\/galactic-heroes_21_C218-1024x576.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.mipon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/02161512\/galactic-heroes_key-visual2-1024x720.jpeg\")