Interview with Naoko Yamada about "Liz and the Blue Bird", Part 1 (Translation)

This is a translation of the first part out of two of an interview with Naoko Yamada about "Liz and the Blue Bird", conducted by Daisuke Muramoto for excite.co.jp. The article was originally published in Japanese on April 24th 2018 here: https://www.excite.co.jp/News/reviewmov/20180424/E1524500752902.html

It should be noted that my native language is neither English nor Japanese, so if the language in the text feels a bit stiff or unnatural at times, you have your explanation there. I am sorry if that is the case, but always feel free to leave constructive comments so I can better myself.

The translation is as follows:

The oboe player Mizore Yoroizuka (VA: Atsumi Tanezaki) and the flute player Nozomi Kasaki (VA: Nao Tōyama), currently playing at the Kitauji High School Wind Music Club, have been classmates since junior high school. Mizore, who had always been bad dealing with her surroundings and until that point always been alone, was invited into the wind music club by the popular Nozomi. Since that time, Nozomi became Mizore’s everything.

Having become senior students, the two of them gets entrusted with playing the oboe-flute solo in the free song “Liz and the Blue Bird” of their final high school competition. However, the performance of the two friends who really should be at the technical top level in the club, does not seem to click for some reason...

This is the anime adaptation of Ayano Takeda’s book Hibike! Euphonium Kitauji Kōkō Suisōgaku-bu, Haran no Dainigakushō (No English title seem to available) that gives the spotlight to the third-year students Mizore and Nozomi: Liz and the Blue Bird.

Key visual of Liz and the Blue Bird. Behind the performing Mizore and Nozomi, Liz and the blue bird girl are depicted. ©Ayano Takeda, Takarajimasha / Sound! Euphonium production commitee.

The studio is Kyoto Animation, that successively have produced masterpieces such as Tamako Love Story and A Silent Voice. In this work too, the staff have carefully put together delicate and subtle visuals and acoustic images, forming a feature length film about the minds of the two puzzling girls and their relationship. The movie opened only as late as April 21^st but is already garnering high praise.

The director is Naoko Yamada, who also directed Tamako Love Story and A Silent Voice at Kyoto Animation. The popular interviews that we conducted during the screenings of mentioned movies gets a follow-up this time as well.

In this first part of the interview, we get the full story of the creation of the film, as well as spoiler free talk about the themes.

Profile of director Naoko Yamada: Born in Kyoto and attached to Kyoto Animation. She debuted as director for K-On! The photograph is from the premiere preview screening of the film. From right we see director Naoko Yamada, Miyu Honda, Atsumi Tanezaki, Nao Tōyama.

I felt that I really wanted to depict the presence of Mizore and Nozomi as well

— In Liz and the Blue Bird, the minor characters Mizore and Nozomi from Sound! Euphonium becomes the main characters, and the movie is established as an independent story. The two characters first appeared in the second volume of the original book series: Sound! Euphonium 2: The Hottest Summer of Kitauji High School's Wind Ensemble Club. What kind of impression did you have of the two?

Yamada: Oh, I thought they were very interesting! I was moved by the focus Takeda (the author of the original books) placed on developing new characters in that section of the story, and remember becoming captivated with the relationship of Mizore and Nozomi. At the same time, I thought it was a terribly sinful story. And yet so very transparent and rash... At any rate, I thought it was fascinating. I can definitively not come up with this kind of perspective by myself. Since I liked it so much, the two have since been on my mind.

Mizore and Nozomi joined Kitauji High School’s wind music club together. However Nozomi, who opposed their upperclassmen when in first grade, leaves the club. Through this, she also comes to neglect Mizore. However, later the misunderstanding gets resolved, and Nozomi returns to the club.

— So, how did you come up with the idea to make a stand-alone movie about the two? How did it all start?

Yamada: Well first of all, we had plans of making a movie out of the Sound! Euphonium-franchise. At that scenario meeting, since Takeda was writing this new work (Hibike! Euphonium Kitauji Kōkō Suisōgaku-bu, Haran no Dainigakushō) I got the chance to read the plot. Although it is a story about Kumiko (Kumiko Oumae, the main character), the presence of Mizore and Nozomi is so immense, it gave me some kind of urge. It was a story so fascinating that I could not pretend to have unseen it, so I really wanted to depict it. Ishihara (Tatsuya Ishihara, director of the TV-series) had decided to adapt Kumiko’s story, but it would be a bit too much to depict both Kumiko’s story as well as Mizore and Nozomi’s story in the same work. So, we thought that since their stories respectively stand on their own so well, it might as well be possible to split them into separate works. So, we came up with the proposal to, if possible, split it up.

— As a director, did your impression of Mizore and Nozomi change while portraying their story?

Yamada: In the TV-series I participated as series director, but I myself did not get the opportunity to be involved with the two. Besides that, I had an increasing interest in them, so I somehow wanted to shape their story. Now that I really got to face them, I got to see that while both are delicate, there are also stubborn and impudent parts of them. There are a lot of sides to their characters, and I had a lot of fun with them.

Designs that doesn’t fail to catch one and every strand of hair or eyelash

— What kind of direction did you give Futoshi Nishiya, the character designer?

Yamada: I don’t remember what I said specifically, but since it was going to be a work where even the pettiest little movement of the girls would be ladled out, we did talk about not trying not to fail catching one and every strand of hair or eyelash. The answer that Nishiya came up with was these designs.

Not only Mizore and Nozomi, but all the characters get the design treatment of this film, towards a more adult-like impression. The ribbon of Yuuko Yoshikawa, whom gets called “Big Ribbon Senpai” by fans, has also decreased in size somewhat.

— Was it a smooth process to decide on the designs?

Yamada: It seems like Nishiya from the very beginning thought “Isn’t this fine?” about the initial designs. In order to judge the suitability of those I got him to also draw designs that went in a completely different direction, but then I also thought that those first designs were better. After that we almost only did some fine tuning, like the roundness and sharpness of the faces, the length of their legs and so on. But with these designs, you end up with quite a different impression even if just one part of a line is wrong on the eye sizes!

— Did you also think that Nishiya’s initial designs were good from the beginning?

Yamada: Yes. It’s just that, this time, the designs seem fairly adult-like, right? As for me, If I had to say, I’m leaning more towards lolicon... Now what on earth am I sitting here saying... (laugh)

— Do you mean that you like more cutesy characters?

Yamada: Oh, yes yes! That! I didn’t know how to say it, so I just said it straight out (laugh). I thought that “They look a bit more young lady-like than I imagined” for just a moment, but the pictures of the first designs also had such an immense energy so... Well I thought that I can’t choose based on my own fetishes, and I immediately changed my train of thoughts.

— Within Mizore and Nozomi’s story there is a play within a play as to say, with the fairy tale Liz and the Blue Bird also being portrayed. The characters in that fairy tale, Liz and the blue bird girl, are both played by Miyu Honda, who apart from being an actress also is a figure skater. Could you tell us about the aim of this casting and so on?

Yamada: This time around, I had decided in my mind that I wanted the same person to play both the role of Liz and the blue bird girl. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out who I wanted to do it, so I thought about it for a long time. Honda’s voice is so characteristic that you know it’s her by just listening a bit to it, and I have really liked her since way before, but to actually ask her to do it didn’t even occur to me. However, when talking about the casting with the producer, it suddenly just came with a pop to me. “Maybe Honda?”, “Yeah that’s right!”, was the feeling I got then! I thought that the cleanness and purity of her voice fit perfectly.

The fairy tale Liz and the Blue Bird is about the lonely girl Liz and the little blue bird she always feeds bread to. The bird takes the form of a young girl and starts living together with Liz, but Liz who knew about her true form...

I had wanted to challenge myself by making a work structured just on weaving two characters together

— When portraying such a subtle story, was there anything in particular you were careful of?

Yamada: I had a very hard time depicting the intricacies of the relation between Mizore and Nozomi. It seemed like one would get a completely different impression by just the way they ended their words in every bit of their conversations. I absolutely wanted to be faithful to the feelings of the two. It was a very risky speech style we went for, however we did not intend to make something where the people we show it to simple-mindedly sees them as very close friends. In order to protect their dignity, so that there was not any falsehood (in the drawings), I was constantly careful not to make it showy.

— Was it hard to communicate those subtle emotions and how they should be realized on paper to the animators in charge?

Yamada: I think we have a lot of animators at Kyoto Animation that are good at understanding and depicting these kinds of emotions. Therefore, while this at first glance might look like a work that was hard helming, we finished without the staff having to say, “What do you mean?”, while making puzzled faces that much (laughs).

Industry leading animation studio Kyoto Animation satisfyingly demonstrates their capacity in this work. The finely drawn eyelashes, the complex colours and light expressed in the eyes and so on, the delicate drawings come together and create the girl's emotions.

— In the works we have talked about before, Tamako Love Story and A Silent Voice, I sensed the intention to, while shining the spotlight on the main characters, also depict the characters around them as much as possible. However, in Liz and the Blue Bird, I get the impression that you focused on Mizore and Nozomi.

Yamada: Yes. I completely focused on those two. I had wanted to challenge myself for some time with making a work structured on weaving just two characters together. With this film I got the chance to take on that challenge, and I’m very happy about it. And one more thing, a personal theme for me with this work was to cram everything into these girls. I wanted to try to put all my energy into things like the blinking of their eyes and the ins and outs of their breathing. It might be unbearable in the 30 minutes you get in a TV-series. Doing that (not moving the plot forward that much) and then showing “continuing next week”, I would get a little worried if they would want to watch the coming week or not. But if it’s a movie, I thought that the audience might also get invested and watch to the end (laughs). I have also been very obsessive about the sound and music, and it is a film that flexes its muscles the most in the theatre, so I would really like people to watch it in the cinema.

(Daisuke Muramoto)

Translated by Joel Fredriksson

I will also translate part 2, which goes more into spoiler territory. Stay tuned for that!

You can find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReReDead

Yoshiji Kigami, animator at Kyoto Animation, gives his impressions of "Liz and the Blue Bird"

This is a translation of a blogpost that Yoshiji Kigami, animator at Kyoto animation, wrote about his thoughts on the latest Naoko Yamada (K-On!, A Silent Voice) movie, Liz and the Blue Bird. It was originally published on the japanese Kyoto Animation site on April 13, 2018: http://www.kyotoanimation.co.jp/staff/anibaka/blog/?p=2489

I personally saw the movie in the theatre some days ago, and I decided to translate this mostly as an excercise, but thought I might as well share it in case someone else might find it interesting.

It should be noted that my native language is neither English nor Japanese, so if the language in the text feels a bit stiff or unnatural at times, you have your explanation there. I am sorry if that is the case, but always be free to leave constructive comments so I can better myself.

The translation is as follows:

Yoshiji’s status report.

These days I feel envious of all the sparkling dazzling newcomers, and I tend to fall into a downcast mood for some reason. My work currently consist entirely of drawing nothing but people swimming day after day. (Free! Season 3) Swimming scenes burns a lot of calories, so I am having a very hard time completing every cut. But nonetheless I am enjoying myself. Just gotta keep at it!

Well, this time I shall to notify you about, or perhaps I should say give my personal impressions of a certain movie and give it some publicity. At long last opening next week on April 21^st, it is “Liz and the Blue Bird”! I watched it as soon as possible at the first preview screening!

Just as the director herself said somewhere, it is a story drawn from the perspective of a bystander, and the finished work truly was an overflow of charm and glamour.

During the opening and middle acts, the movie is controlled by an indescribable tense feeling. Then when finished watching, the modest growth of Mizore and Nozomi made me have sigh of relief from the bottom of my heart that gently melted away that stiffened tension. I was deeply moved... But at any rate, it was a curious film.

Whilst watching I felt an illusional sensation of realism, as if the movie actually was live action. But it was somehow different from that kind of feeling you get from regular Japanese live action movies. Is it a work truly as real as live action? By no means, but nonetheless one feels the breath of the characters as if they were right by you... What comes to mind is after all the director Yamada’s words.

A movie from the perspective of a bystander.

As a rule, in order to not let the viewer lose interest, people who make movies are racking their brains trying to fine-tune the pacing of the movie while conjuring moments that snatch away your heart. In other words, they try to interweave subjectivity and objectivity along with evoking the sense of vibrancy through the direction, while also adding a bit of attractiveness to the shots. I have also been directing, and I have a lot of troubles with this kind of thing... (since I am really afraid of the viewer losing interest)

However, it kind of feels like... somehow this movie is not like that?

It really is a movie where you assume the role of a bystander and quietly just peek into the lives of the two main characters... The indifferent flow of time silently passes by the audience. A far too mundane everyday life passes by for it to be called drama. And yet, the uneasiness builds up this sense of tension that gradually makes your chest burst into an uproar. And a short time later, you come to see that uneasiness fade away. The bystanders that the director speak of are, rather than watching a movie, experiencing something more akin to a play. The distance between the actors and the audience in this movie is infinitively close.

That excessively close sense of distance establishes a lively sense of tension surpassing even that of live action. The sound of footsteps in the corridors reverberate into your very skin, and the air sways of their breathing. When in the space Mizore and Nozomi are, you participate in and share their actions, and it feels so real that I authentically get a vicarious experience of the defencelessly exposed, frail sensitivity you have as a teenager. That feels very bitter and painful...

It’s just the thing that, surprisingly, it felt pleasant.

I learned what you can express through film and the broadness of the medium anew. This was a film that sang the praises of embracing change in everyday life. It is not a film about the dramatic moments, but rather one that has turned its glance toward the hidden, still fleetingness of the interludes between said moments...

The task of Mr Futoshi Nishiya, the character designer as well as chief animation director, was certainly to like an actual magician breathe life into Mizore and Nozomi, and then the musical composition of Mr Kensuke Ushio accompanies everything with a miraculous palette that gently embrace the viewer. Not to mention fans of Sound! Euphonium, I really want people who have an interest in Naoko Yamada to no matter what watch this movie. I want you to go to the cinema, and together with Mizore and Nozomi experience the winds blowing at Kitauji High School.

By all means.