To celebrate the coming out of the Blu-ray “JORAN Vol.1 -Ai to Kanashimi no Sangahen-” on 23rd June, we interviewed 2 production staffs, Mr.Susumu Kudo as Director and Mr.Yutaka Omatsu as Producer!

♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪

〈Question〉

1). Could you tell us about your favorite scene in "Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen" and what you would like people to focus on?

2). Could you tell us about the challenges and difficulties you faced in the production of "Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen".

3). Could you tell us what you focused on for the OP/ED animation to match the music sung by RAS.

4). Finally, could you give a message to the fans who read this interview!

♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪=====♪

Director. Susumu Kudo

1). Could you tell us about your favorite scene in "Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen" and what you would like people to focus on?

After all, it's a special scene with sudden colour changes and effect of brush strokes.

In addition, I'm challenging myself to see how far I can go in terms of expressions that would be rejected in a normal TV series, so please check that out.

2). Could you tell us about the challenges and difficulties you faced in the production of "Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen".

Since this is an original work, all the characters in it are new, so I took special care in their first appearance scenes.

I'm embarrassed to say that episode 3 was the first to be storyboarded, and episode 1 came much later, so I had some parts of episode 1 fit into the later episodes.

3). Could you tell us what you focused on for the OP/ED animation to match the music sung by RAS.

Mr.Ken Ogiwara alone did the storyboarding, directing, and filming.

So I only asked to change the spoilerific cuts, I left the work to him.

I like the meaningful use of the red and blue colors and the way he describe some of the brush strokes, just like in the main story.

I thought I'd make up the freez-frame picture basicaly, but it took a surprisingly large number of pictures.

The fact that the design is quite different from the characters in the main story also gives it a special feeling.

I ordered him that the background, especially the ocean near the end of the animation, was corrected many times to match my image.

4). Finally, could you give a message to the fans who read this interview!

The story of "JORAN" all begins with "Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen".

I hope you enjoy this story, including its overall structure, so that you can fully experience the lives of the characters in preparation for the final episode.

Producer. Yutaka Omatsu

1). Could you tell us about your favorite scene in "Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen" and what you would like people to focus on?

I wanted to make the first four episodes like a single movie, so please pay attention to the speed of the story.

As for the characters, this is the only chapter in which Yuki(snow), Tsuki(moon), and Hana(flowers) exchange light words, so I hope you will enjoy their bantering with each other.

My favorite scene is the scene at the brothel in the first episode, where you can enjoy the interaction between the voice actors, the drawings, the colors, the art, and the cinematography.

2). Could you tell us about the challenges and difficulties you faced in the production of "Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen".

The episode 4 have a lot of action scenes and a lot of brush strokes, so it was physically difficult, but I'm very happy that many action animators participated and we were able to create a climax worthy of the first part.

Episode 3 was actually the first episode we produced.

I remember that the first episode I made would determine the style of the work, so we had to move each cut carefully.

Thanks to the excellent work of Mr. Fujisaki, the cheaf animation director, the number of episodes was enough to show the direction of this series, and I felt that I had crossed one major hurdle.

3). Could you tell us what you focused on for the OP/ED animation to match the music sung by RAS.

As for the OP, after discussing the major direction, I left it to Mr. Ogiwara, who was in charge of the direction.

He is originally a director of photography, so I was hoping that he would apply his skills to the production of the OP, and he lived up to my expectations.

I think that the combination of the cinematography and the quality of the drawings made it a suitable OP to decorate the beginning of the work "Joran".

This was also left up to the director in charge, Mr. Kudo.

I thought that Kudo-san would create it in the direction that he liked, but I was surprised to find that it turned out to be more of his characteristic animation than I expected.

It must have been difficult to create this ED because it is more of a stylized ED than an animated one, but the two young animators worked very hard under Mr. Kudo's direction.

I think this is a wonderful ED that shows the director's love for Sawa and Asahi.

4). Finally, could you give a message to the fans who read this interview!

Thank you for watching "JORAN The Princess of Snow and Blood: Ai to Kanashimi no Sanga Hen".

This film has a lot of bloody scenes, but for me, I tried to portray people who live hard no matter how harsh their fate or how difficult their situation.

As a creater, I would be more than happy if you could feel something when you watch them.

I hope you will watch through to the final episode, thank you.

■□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━・・・・・‥‥‥………

Episode 1~4　Chapter 1 “Aito Kanasimi no Sanga Hen”