Gundam 00 Director Seiji Mizushima Talks About His New Hula Dancing Anime

As a veteran director of shows like Fullmetal Alchemist and Gundam 00, Seiji Mizushima's newest work, Hula dancing anime Hula Fulla Dance, is quite different from most of the anime he has worked on. At this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, I was able to sit down with him and learn all about this new film and what attracted him to the project.

How did this film project begin? Can you give me a timeline?

Three years ago, Bandai Namco Pictures approached me and told me that they, together with Fuji TV, would like to make a film about a girl doing Hula set in Fukushima. You see, Fuji TV has been doing a project called “Zutto Ouen” to support that area. This film was set to be one part of the greater project. So I got that offer three years ago and, soon after, I went to Fukushima and visited Iwaki City and all the famous places in the area.

As we were doing location scouting, I thought about what kind of story and what kind of characters I should depict to develop the premise. I wanted to make a film that would support Fukushima and the greater Tohoku area. I wanted to convey a message that was very positive, so I thought that maybe the characters should be trying hard—making an effort—to achieve something. Like not something larger than life but something that could be done by the girl next door—a character that you can relate to. So that was the basic framework that I thought of while I was location hunting. I suggested this to the production committee and the scriptwriter and I got to building the story.

You're most well known for your more action-oriented anime. What drew you to this project?

Well actually, when it comes to genre, I like slice-of-life films about everyday working life. But I made my directorial debut with an action anime. So within the industry, I am thought of as an action filmmaker and don't often get offers to do this kind of story—but I actually want to do them. So when I got this offer, it was like a dream come true—finally, I'd get to make [a slice-of-life] film.

You've directed many anime series throughout your career. Which anime you've directed is most similar to Hula Fulla Dance in either tone or story?

One is called Natsu-iro Kiseki: it's about a high school girl and has some fantastical elements in this story of her summer. The other is called Hanamaru Yōchien. These are the only two [of the anime I directed] where characters don't die. So maybe these two are a bit similar to Hula Fulla Dance. If you liked those two anime you'll probably like this one.

Oh, and while I didn't direct Aikatsu!, I was a supervisor for it—which is why some people in the industry know I can do slice-of-life anime. It's probably one of the reasons I was given this project.

The film features a mix of 3D and 2D animation (3D for the dances, 2D for everything else). How do you feel about mixing 2D and 3D elements in anime? And what problems arise from doing so?

Well, I have directed full 3D anime before so I know the benefits and drawbacks of both 2D and 3D. I designed the workflow of this film so that there wouldn't be too much confusion between the two. The thing that is most affected by the switch between 2D and 3D is the characters, so I wanted the 3D models to be as close as possible to the 2D animation—so there wouldn't be much of a visual difference. That's how we designed things. However, the workflow I set up didn't work that well so in the end we had to do more 3D than originally planned—which was way more of a workload and caused a bit of panic. Mixing 2D and 3D wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

What experience did you have with Hula Dancing before working on this film?

Well, I knew of the existence of Spa Resort Hawaiian in Fukushima [the setting of the film] and I knew that they had professional Hawaiian Hula dancers but that's it. I wasn't really interested in Hula dancing myself and had never experienced it until I got involved with this project.

By “experienced it" do you mean “having done it” or “having watched it?”

Done it. As part of location scouting, I visited Spa Resort Hawaiians many times. I also interviewed the dancers—and in doing so came up with the plot of the film. The more I visited them, the more I confident I became that this story [I was coming up with] would work.

But as for actual dancing experience, that's something I got in Tokyo. As part of researching for the film, I went to a Hula dance class. And as I was observing it, the teacher told me to join them and experience it firsthand. So I did. It was surprisingly difficult and I realized just how hard it was to do Hula dancing. I have projected this knowledge—my personal experience—into the film as well.

Since the story came about naturally, does that also mean the characters in the film are based largely on the people you met at Hawaiians?

Yes, the story came about quite naturally and the characters are based on the people I talked with. For example, some of the motivations about why the characters wanted to become Hula dancers or what they are thinking and feeling while they're dancing came from the interviews I did.

Spa Resort Hawaiians—as well as their predecessor the Joban Hawaiian Centre (which is the setting of the live-action movie Hula Girls)—is really a landmark of that area. The local people work there, often with their family members, so there is very much a family feel to the whole thing—more so than in other companies. I thought that this family-esque setting would make for a story different from other work-centered stories since I could depict more human relationships. When I thought of things that way, the story came quite naturally.

There are five very unique characters making up the main cast. What techniques do you use to make characters different from one another?

The main character is not the heroic type. She's not a pioneer who gets up and does things. For the theme, we needed a character that you can relate to—as a kind of extension of everyday life. She's someone the audience can root for. So she was a character that was easy to come up with. She's the most [emotionally] unstable and her reason for becoming a Hula Dancer is just because her sister was one. It's not that strong of a motivation but Hawaiians itself is okay with that, they are not very strict about things like that.

So, from there, we needed some other characters around her [to play off of]—four characters to be exact. Each has a different reason for being a dancer—along with different backgrounds and different personal issues. One girl is from Hawaii and wanted to be a dancer there but is too short—and her mother told her she might be able to still be a pro in Japan. So she came here. Their backgrounds and motivations are not that weighty but they cause the girls to come together.

So I was creating them character by character, thinking of the balance between the five girls. I wanted them to feel real-to be people that could be next to you right now. That's how I came up with those characters—by thinking about the group harmony and balance.

So all the motivations for the main characters were based on those of the real people you interviewed at Hawaiians?

Yes, most of these came from my interviews with the dancers. They really have many different reasons for becoming Hula dancers. A lot of them told me they just wanted to get a job in the local area. But some of them are from outside of the Tohoku region and wanted to become a pro Hula dancer because they were influenced by the Hula Girls live-action film.

Ohana [the Hawaiian girl], she's the only one I created completely. None of the dancers I interviewed were from Hawaii. Though I did speak to a girl from Tokyo who said it was hard for her to get used to the local culture. Moreover, there weren't really any dancers who had super strong motivations like the character Kana in the film. Everyone was far more relaxed. However, I needed a balance in characters so I made her personality a bit stronger. So while there was some fiction mixed in, a lot was based on the dancers I interviewed.

On the topic of Ohana, she is an American girl in Japan. How do you go about portraying foreign characters in film? Are there any things you worry about or are careful of when doing so?

Well, in the very beginning, the character of Ohana was very similar to Kana. She was very professional but couldn't become a pro dancer in Hawaii so she decided to try and make it in Japan. But the scriptwriter, Yoshida-san, made her into a more mild character. Rather than being an intense, driven character, she's more like “I can do the Hula because I'm Hawaiian but since I couldn't make it as a pro there I just came to the place where I could.” She became much more cheerful and lighthearted. And to be honest, this version of her is better when you think about the balance of the five characters. So I decided to go along with Yoshida-san and make her that way in the final film.

The issue that Ohana has is that she is homesick. Originally, I didn't consider that, but Yoshida-san has a very kind and gentile point of view. By making her homesick, we can then tie into the theme of family—which is a key point in Kana's issues as well. He was very good at making sure the five girls were distinct and I was very impressed with him.

So while there are five different main characters with five sets of problems to tackle, what would you say is the main theme of the film? What message are you trying to get across?

The bond—the connection between the five girls—is the central aspect of the film. It's not a story about one person trying hard to make it [as a dancer], it's about people supporting each other. Rather than one strong person leading everything, they form a community where they motivate each other and work toward a common goal. It's about the power of the group rather than the individual. It's about the bonds and connections we see in everyday life. I wanted to tell a story around those themes.

Overall, the film is very grounded in reality. However, there are some supernatural elements in the film. Why was it necessary to include these and why wouldn't the film have worked without them?

Well, this is an animated film and I wanted it to be seen by a lot of different groups of people from across generations. I think people who are used to watching anime tend to be familiar with the concept of “mascot characters” and I thought that including one would appeal to a wider audience—and we got a request from the production committee to do just that. I also thought it would be better to have some kind of fantastical element in the film but I struggled with figuring out how to include one.

Then when we went to Spa Resort Hawaiians we found that they already had a mascot character: Coco Nee-san. I thought, “Oh, I can use that!” It was also requested that I not portray the actual 2011 Tohoku earthquake very much. It wouldn't work with the film to have too many earthquake-related scenes, but the earthquake was part of the whole underlying setting of the film. So I decided that the main character's older sister was a casualty of the earthquake who ended up taking the form of Coco Nee-san to watch over her little sister. It makes for an acceptable level of supernatural elements in the film and would make the film appeal to a wider audience.

On the subject of the earthquake in Fukushima, how did your personal experience affect the making of the film? Did you put your own personal experience into the film?

I was in Tokyo when the Earthquake happened and I felt that the life we had before was broken by it. I struggled with figuring out how to face the concept of entertainment—the industry I was a part of—going forward. At the time, I was working with Fuji TV on an anime about a civil war in Japan and through that anime I was able to face my own complex feelings about the earthquake.

Likewise, Hula Fulla Dance is set in Fukushima and the people there are still living with the scars of the earthquake—and I had to face that while making this film as well. So I decided we didn't need any long depiction of the earthquake itself but I wanted to, in some small amount of time, convey that it happened—to keep a sort of balance. I had to be very careful with that.