Pursuit of Reality, Original Experience About the BandーIs this the first time for you to do an anime about a music band?KERORIRA: Yes, it is.
ーIn order to create scenes for the band, other than observing school festivals, did you do anything else, for example watching documentaries or reading books?KERORIRA: There was a lot of knowledge I didn't know. I couldn't play the guitar, so I bought a guitar and practiced on it, but when I actually bought it and touched it, I thought it was heavy, and I thought, "Wow, Bocchi-chan, you are doing this?! For the live performance scene, we use motion capture to capture the REAL musicians playing in 3D. We had a meeting about how the real musicians were going to play, rehearsed, then recorded the performance at the motion capture site. Through this process, I gradually began to understand the atmosphere of the band's performance. I couldn't really get a sense of what it was like to work with a band during the scriptwriting and character design stages, but through this process, I gradually came to understand.
Also, the high school I went to was famous for having a rock band club, and there were a lot of kids around me who were in bands, so I went to live houses to see my friends' performances. Through the process of creating this series, it reminds me of the vivid moment of the scenes of the live performance from the perspective of the customer of course. In the second episode, there is a scene where Bocchi-chan is working part-time at a live house and hands out drinks, and I remember the atmosphere in the audience before the show started. Since I can't play, I had to ask advice from various people about the performance aspect, but the concept of a live house itself was relatively close to me, while I was working on the series. It was not a world that I was completely unfamiliar with, and it was good to have a connection with it as an everyday part of the world that was close by.
ーThe performance scenes are the same, but The music in this series itself is realistic. It has the feel of real human band members being there.KERORIRA: I think that the original animator, Ms. HAMAJI AKI, Aniplex, and Houbunsha Publisher helped me a lot with the details of the music. They were all experienced creators, so they taught me how to do things in a more "typical" way, down to the smallest detail. For example, when the characters play instruments, I put a shield on a strap. Various people told me about these details, and I reflected them in my creation, so I think the realism of the music scenes were enhanced. The amps and guitars are drawn in great detail in this animation, and they were all checked as well.
From "Bocchi the Rock!"(©Aki Hamaji/Houbunsha/Aniplex)ーBy the way, KERORIRA, do you usually listen to music bands?KERORIRA: I was a huge fan of ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION when I was in high school, and I started listening to their music again. I had a friend from high school who played guitar and passed on to me many CDs back in the day. Oh, I remember some of my classmates playing guitar in the corner of the classroom. It looked like -chan having lunch at the edge of her classroom. I started listening to Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers because of my friends, and I’ve started enjoying music bands since then.
ーIf you spent your school days in such an environment, did the festival scene make you very emotional?KERORIRA: Oh, yeah. Everybody was performing in the gymnasium. We didn’t have that big gymnasium like in this animation, but we lined up the desks and watched everyone in the music bands. I was on the side of waving glow sticks in the last episode. Although I was on the spectator's side, I had experienced the festival and knew the atmosphere, so I was really able to relate to the scene.
ーThe contrast between the beautiful background of Shimokitazawa and the cute characters is also very nice. What did you discuss with the art director? KERORIRA: The art department at CloverWorks is good at creating art with realistic textures and density. I thought from the beginning that it would be great if we could ask them to draw realistic backgrounds since we work in the same company. The director felt the same way, and as a result, we were able to ask art director Moriyasu (Yasunao Moriyasu) to do the work. Moriyasu-san was also in charge of backgrounds for "THE iDOL M@STER." The art for "iM@S" is realistic, but the characters themselves are very deformed. The live houses and rooms were designed in 3D, and the spaces were well designed and beautiful backgrounds were created, so it was okay to have wide characters in the backgrounds. The characters are deformed, but the original layout is clearly defined at the beginning, so we can ensure the reality of the characters. The output character itself is a 3D picture, but the design of the space is very strict. I think this is the reason why the realistic backgrounds also match the characters.
From "Bocchi the Rock!"(©Aki Hamaji/Houbunsha/Aniplex)ーThat’s quite interesting.KERORIRA CloverWorks liaisons with a company called Boundary, which produces 3DCG animation, and I have the impression that they are good at thinking out the details of setting up the characters, positions and movements. This is one of the strengths of CloverWorks. There are other 3DCG creating companies as well, but I have the impression that Boundary and the art department of CloverWorks work very well together.
ーEveryone worked together as one team to create it, didn't they!KERORIRA: Yes, it was. I think it was the result of people in each department doing their best work. I think everyone had the feeling that it was going to be good while we were making it. I feel like that people from various departments spontaneously suggested ways to make it better. Of course, I’m the one who made the initial request for detail, but in the process, everyone tried to make it better. I think this is reflected in the details on the screen.
