Image courtesy of HIDIVE ©Yuu Tanaka, LLO/MICRO MAGAZINE/Reincarnated as a Sword Project
Reincarnated as a Sword
Just a few short years after he took a detour intoand omegaverse territory,finds's owngoing back to his fantasy roots. With a delicate balance of high-stakes action and wacky comedy, this new season ofhas Ishihara doing what he does best. It also finds the feline warrior Fran and her sensei of a sword, Shisou, teaming up to explore the world, level up, and hack, slash, and kick plenty of undead butt!
This year's Anime NYC found Ishihara and producer Yōsuke Shimada in their element with the premiere of the first episode of Reincarnated as a Sword 's second season. With the anime world on the cusp of an all-new set of adventures from Fran and Shisou, ANN was privileged to sit down with Ishihara and Shimada to discuss what drew them into this yarn of swords, sorcery, and catgirls.
You've worked on many fantasy stories in the past. What makes Reincarnated as a Sword so different?
Shinji Ishihara : I worked on a lot of fantasy, of course, something like Fairy Tail , where you battle with magic. And I've done works where the main character is transported into the game world and uses its rules to fight. In the reincarnated genre, usually the main character has this amazing cheat skill.
In this anime, the sword is the main character, and it needs to be used by someone. Meaning that he is a presence that cannot fight on his own. When he encounters Fran, Shisou's objective then turns into protecting Fran and making sure she grows. So in a way, it's still the style of fantasy I've been working on for twenty years, especially with narou style. But Reincarnated as a Sword is the first of its kind that I worked on, if that makes sense.
You've gone on record saying that you really like talking swords. What do you think about the talking sword Shisou, and what was it like to bring him to life in the anime?
Ishihara: A sword is an inanimate object, so you cannot use that lip sync because it doesn't have a mouth. To create any emotional expression out of a sword, we use maybe an expression in the eyes, and maybe we can get some motion out of that to mimic regular facial gestures. What we heavily rely on is the voice actor , Miki-san's performance, and that's how we make sure that Shisou as a sword can be as lively as he can be.
I noticed even though it's not romantic, there's still that boy-meets-girl scenario between Shisou and Fran here. Do you see a similarity between fantasy and romance series, and does that come into play here?
Ishihara: I don't really see this as a boy-meets-girl situation as much as I see it as a father-gets-a-new-daughter type of situation. And it's really about the teacher and the student, and in the beginning, the teacher helps the student grow. Fran matures and grows on her own as well, and coming into season two, their relationship starts to shift toward more of a friendship instead. There's nothing really romantic in this series.
Other than talking swords, do you have any other favorite swords in anime, manga, video games, literature, movies, history, or literally anywhere else? I remember in an interview you did with Anime Herald, you said you really liked the sword from Space Adventure Cobra .
Ishihara: The impression that the sword from Space Adventure Cobra left me was so big that I'm sure there are other talking sword characters, but it's such a memorable character that nothing else comes to mind. What's amazing about the talking sword from Space Adventure Cobra is its ability to transform the visual information it gets into sound, so the soundscape becomes the way he understands the world, which is very fascinating.
You famously did a detour into BL with Super Lovers , Sasaki and Miyano , and Welcome Home. Did your experience in BL anime influence or change the way you direct anime in general now? Did it affect the way you approached Reincarnated as a Sword ?
Ishihara: I try to change my gear as a director, because the target demographics of BL and other series are completely different. I don't think that anything is affecting the other, but on a subconscious level, there might be some influence. Like, for example, I'm aware that if we do something like this, then maybe women will like that. It's that kind of subconscious choice.
Welcome Home is an omegaverse work, and that genre is a very odd, controversial one. What are your thoughts on the genre as a whole, and what made you want to tackle it with Welcome Home?
Ishihara: I didn't know about the omegaverse at all as a genre, but the studio that I was working on Sasaki and Miyano with approached me and asked if I'd like to do Welcome Home next. That's when I found out about the genre. But the thing is, the sound director Shōji Hata was very familiar with the genre for some reason. So he explained to me how this all works, and that's what got me excited about it. After I heard the explanation of what it was about, I understood why it can be so controversial. Thinking from a science fiction perspective, I thought it was such a fascinating subject.
Do you see yourself directing any more BL in your future?
Ishihara: Actually, I'm working on one right now! But it's top secret right now, so I can't say much.
You can take the man out of Fairy Tail , but you can't take Fairy Tail out of the man! I watched Farmagia , and obviously the Fairy Tail influence is everywhere in that. And you did Edens Zero , of course. So what about Hiro Mashima 's work is it that keeps you coming back into the fold?
Ishihara: When Farmagia started as a project, Mashima did the character designs for the game first. When they decided to turn that into a series, they requested that the Fairy Tail team work on it. And then we thought, what if Mashima-san drew a manga for Farmagia ? What would that story look like? And that's how we kind of launched this.
But because of all the rights issues and other reasons, we didn't get to do what we wanted to do, unfortunately. It was going to be so much more interesting, but we had limitations to work with.
You've done comedic fantasies with Tsukimichi and Guardian Hearts . And of course, Fairy Tail is filled with jokes and bits as well. Do you see a particular intersection between comedy and fantasy?
Ishihara: Fairy Tail was the first anime series based on a manga, and it went on for such a long time. There are serious moments in Fairy Tail , but there are lots of comedic moments fitted in between. Because I've worked with Mashima-sensei and his style for so long, I noticed he has a certain rhythm to that style of narrative, and that became sort of my rhythm as well.
This is your twentieth year in show business. If you could in one sentence, how would you describe the journey from where you started to where you are now?
Ishihara: I don't comprehend it myself. *laughs* I'm not sure why I still get to do this after twenty years. I'm just enjoying myself and having a good time.
Shimada-san, what drew you into this project?
Yōsuke Shimada : The initiative to launch this project was brought to our studio C2C by Universal, and that's when I started reading the original manga. I thought it was an interesting story, so we decided to take up the offer.
Shimada-san, this isn't your first time working with Ishihara-san, since you have worked together on Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy- , Shangri-La Frontier , and Shachibato! President. What has it been like working together, and does that dynamic present itself in Reincarnated as a Sword ?
Shimada: We've been working together, and as you know, Ishihara-san has a good sense of tempo and narrative rhythm, and he understands comedy. We have script meetings where we talk about the basic idea of the script. Working off of that, if we talk about, for example, if the contrast between darkness and light is the appeal of the project, then I come in to disseminate the appeal of that for the people in the studio.
You worked in TV and film before working on anime. What is a project that you worked on that taught you the most about working in the entertainment business?
Shimada: Not so much the real-life project before getting into anime; it's more like my college experience and learning about live-action film. My teachers at college were really from a sort of older Japanese film era, so lots of very artsy, edgy stuff. That's my educational background.
If you could turn any famous movie into an anime, what would it be?
Shimada: I'm a huge fan of suspense films. I'm not sure if it's a famous movie, but there's The Ghost Writer with Ewan McGregor. That'd be an interesting title to work on.
Ishihara-san, do you have a movie you'd like to turn into an anime?
Ishihara: John Carpenter's The Thing.
Imada-san, this is a fan question, but I noticed that you worked on Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu . I did like that anime, and you seem proud of working on it enough to have it listed on your ANYC profile this year. What was it like to work on that anime, and what did it teach you about anime production?
Imada: Hitori Bocchi is kind of a major work in my career as a producer. The scene has changed a little bit, but back in those days of anime production, it was especially tough work. You don't get paid a lot, and the work hours are very long. It's very rare that the same team gets to work on the same project until the very end, and this was one of the first instances where I got to do that, so that's why it was very important to me.