The anime “Made in Abyss: Golden Land of the Rising Sun” is currently being broadcast to great acclaim. The second season of the series, whose first season aired in 2017, with a two-part compilation film in 2019 and a completely new film, Made in Abyss: The Dawn of the Deep Soul, in 2020, is now on air in full force.
In this film, Rico, a curious and dynamic girl, and Reg, a robot who has lost his memory, explore the mysterious large hole Abyss. Veteran director Masayuki Kojima has directed the entire series. We would like to present an interview in which he talks about his thoughts on the original work and his pride in creating the film.
citation seiyumen
The basic line is to be faithful to the original work.
A chance encounter between Belaf, who looks like a white dragon, and Rico and his friends.
-After the first season, the first and second theatrical compilation, and the new theatrical version were released, and the second season is currently being broadcast. First of all, what did you think when you were asked about this project?
I was very happy because I think the fact that the second season is going to continue is the result of people appreciating what we had created until then. The decision was made around two years ago, when the previous film version was finished. At that time, there were a lot of things about the “Golden Township” section that had not yet been depicted in the original work, so Akihito Tsukushi had a fixed image of it in some parts and not in others. So we proceeded with the composition of the story while hearing from the teacher.
-What kind of discussions did you have with the original author, Tsukushi Sensei?
At that time, various problems had occurred up to the eighth volume of the original work, so we listened to various stories about how to close that story in turn. For me, it was the first time to start an animation adaptation without the original work up to the end of the second season, and as a result, I felt a lot of apologies to the teacher for starting the animation adaptation while the original work was still missing. I think we also put a lot of pressure on Hideyuki Kurata, who composed the series and wrote the script.
-But Mr Kurata and other staff from past series have been reunited.
This is not limited to “Abyss”, but I think that if one person from any section had been missing, it would have been a different work. I think the fact that the staff from the first season took over the work is the driving force behind this second season.
-Are there any difficulties in the production?
In the first season, there were only a few characters and it was a simple story. But as the story progressed, the number of characters and actions increased in Abyss. (Laugh). So in that sense, I think there is more than double the amount of heat involved this time than in the first season. At the beginning, we had to think about how to distribute that heat, and that was our production proposition. At the same time, we put our heart and soul into how to keep the basic line of making the film faithful to the original work.
-What was important to you in creating the fantasy world of The Abyss?
First of all, I don’t see this work as a fantasy. The Abyss is not a pictorial story and the world it depicts is not a fantasy. That’s why our attitude is that what is depicted has to be realistic. We thought about it, including the screen design, with an emphasis on reality.
Without a backbone, the tragedies of episodes 7 and 8 don’t stand out.
Rico copes with the newly arrived, decaying village.
-In terms of screen design, you also storyboarded more than half of the episodes in the first season, didn’t you?
I storyboarded 10 out of the 12 episodes this time as well. I like to storyboard all the episodes of every film I work on if possible. In the case of Abyss, I wanted to show how all the scenes would turn out with storyboards. For example, it’s more efficient to decide at the beginning how the light will hit the faces and how the background will look. The staff also look at the storyboards, so they have a common understanding of what they want to create and can look in the same direction.
-So it’s also a rational way of doing things. What were you conscious of when drawing the three main characters, Rico, Reg and Nanachi, for the second season of the show?
In the second season, they all start acting alone in the middle of the story. I placed importance on how each of them reacts to the events when they arrive in the deserted village. I think the characters are more clearly defined there than in the first season. Rico acts in a way that is typical for her in the deserted village, and Reg has a story from the past in Reg. Nanachi shows how big Mity’s presence is in her life, and while the three of them would be an ensemble in their own right, I think that in this story we will be able to feel a deeper part of their hearts through their independent actions.
-How do you see Rico’s development in the story?
It’s true that Rico is growing up in his own way. But at her core, she is a child who hasn’t changed. I’d rather depict the unchanged part of Rico’s dynamic. Of course, her energy has been there since the first season, but I recognise that it has been refined.
-I felt that in the scene where Rico pulls out the tentacles around Vueco even though she is in the middle of speaking (laugh). On the other hand, apart from the story of Rico and the others, you also tell the story of Vueco and the other members of the Death Squad “Ganja”, who descended to the Abyss in the past in order to reach the Golden Land.
Episodes 7 and 8 are about the past and the process of creating the desert village. Rico and the other three are the main characters in this work, but in the second season alone, I think Vueco, a member of the ganja squad, and Fapta, the princess of the desert, are also main characters. Vueco’s background is told in episode 1, but I thought that the tragedy of episodes 7 and 8 would not stand out unless her feelings for Ilmuy and her backbone were properly depicted.
-Like those two, the character of Wazcan is also fascinating.
I still don’t really understand the character of Wazcan myself, to be honest (laugh). There’s a sense that there’s something immense about him.
The desert village is a large but small closed world
Maaa with a lovely mouth.
-What image did you have in mind when creating the main setting of the second phase, the ‘desert village’?
I think the hole in The Abyss gives the impression of being endlessly wide. The desert village feels like a huge tower, and it’s a completely closed world. I think this closed world resonates with the theme of the film. That’s why I thought about how the space should be presented. I was particularly careful about how to depict the background of the ‘desert village’. I drew it in such a way that there is always something that looks like a wall set up at the back. The layout shows that it is a large but narrow world, but at the same time it is a closed world without a sense of entrapment.
-You created that much stage design in great detail.
For example, the angle of view of the figures in the foreground gives a sense of spatial scale and distance. I also consulted with Yoshinori Hishinuma, the art set designer, on the finer details of how to capture distant objects in the picture.
More than 190 deformed creatures were created.
-The designs of the deformed beings that inhabit the village are both lovable and eerie, and they are wonderful.
We made more than 190 of these in the setting. We had to take a lot of time and effort to create the settings from scratch, but to be honest, I didn’t think there would be that many (laugh). Creating the settings means creating the colouring and the way the characters move to match their bodies, and that is what we did.
You have to move the characters carefully.
Ilmuyi sadly embraces what was born from himself in his changed form
-In the second half of the film, the secret of the desert village is revealed. Are there any episodes that are particularly memorable for the director?
I would have to say episodes 7 and 8. What is depicted is shocking, but more than that, I was conscious of the passage of time. I wanted to show the natural flow of time and the changes in the past of the Ganja team. It was extremely difficult to show this in a smooth and proper animation. Episodes 7 and 8 are depicted from Vueco’s first-person perspective, and if we didn’t keep that rhythm in mind, we would have ended up wondering from whose point of view the story was being told. If I didn’t keep that rhythm, there was a risk that the story would end up from the point of view of who was telling it.
-What did you pay attention to in episodes 7 and 8, which were a series of truly shocking scenes?
Episodes 7 and 8 don’t have action scenes, so you have to move the characters carefully. If we don’t delicately draw subtle changes in the characters so that the viewer can smoothly get into the story, the viewer will lose interest in it. I think the animators did that, which is why the shocking scenes had such a big impact. This is a simple task, but it was a very important part of the work.
The director also says that he “still doesn’t really understand it to be honest”, wazcan.
-The scene in which Vueco is horrified when she sees the knife in Wazcan’s hand was a scene so horrific that we, the viewers, fell to our knees just like she did….
It’s true that Wazcan’s behaviour, including the sound effects, is an outrageous scene (laugh). I’d be happy if you could imagine all kinds of things with that knife. But in those two episodes, I wasn’t aiming for something overtly sensational. The act is extremely tragic, but I felt again that you have to always have the line of how the scene should be shown. The depiction can be cruel as much as you want, but I think it’s important for the filmmaker to decide on that line, and I think that’s where the ethics of the work come into play.
Thank you for watching. See you soon.
Made in Abyss (World’s largest number of translations)
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