Creating Realism in a Sports-Romance Anime: An Interview with Blue Box Director Yuichiro Yano and Series Composition Writer Yuko Kakihara
by Richard Eisenbeis,
Yūichirō Yano is a veteran among veterans with 42 years in the industry under his belt. His inspiration for making anime, like many, came from watching a Hayao Miyazaki movie when he was young—though not one of the Ghibli films like you might expect. “I decided to enter [the anime industry] because I saw the LUPIN THE 3rd movie, The Castle of Cagliostro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and thought it was fun,” Yano began. “I first joined [TMS Entertainment] as an animator, then I became an episode director, and now I'm a director.” Decades after his career began, he was even able to follow in Miyazaki's footsteps in what has become his most well-known work. “I was the director for [LUPIN THE 3rd] PART 4 and PART 5. I think that's [what I am most famous for].”
On the other side of things, with a sizable 20 years of scenario writing under her belt, Yūko Kakihara wasn't specifically aiming to work on anime. “It all started because I wanted to be a scriptwriter. I was always studying screenplays—like game scripts and things like that—and someone asked me if I wanted to try my hand at it because they were looking for an anime scriptwriter. I ended up working on that script team for my debut work, and then, bit by bit, I got to where I am now,” Kakihara told me.
Since then, she has written for dozens upon dozens of anime. “In terms of my popular works, if we're talking recently, I think Cells at Work! is the one most viewed by people,” she said of her writing career. “But in terms of original scenarios I wrote myself [rather than adaptations], I did an original love story called Tsuki ga Kirei a while ago—and I think that is the closest to a masterpiece in terms of something I've created myself.”
When the two began working together, it was clear from the start that they shared a bit of a problem when it came to making an anime where sports are central to the plot: neither of them played sports in high school. “As I'm not a person who has played sports, it's difficult to portray them,” Yano confessed. Beyond knowing the most basic rules from playing them in gym class when he was a kid, he was largely ignorant of both badminton and basketball. Kakihara, likewise, had no sports team experience but did at least understand the high school club experience: “I was in the drama club, so I didn't play sports. But I know what the club atmosphere is like—even though I wasn't in a sports club.”
By knowing from the start what they were lacking, the pair were able to rise to the challenge. “Whenever someone with [basketball or badminton] experience was around me, I would ask him or her what would happen in some given situations.” Yano laughed. “I would ask them about every single thing I could.” Yano and his team then supplemented this knowledge with information from numerous online sources. However, they decided not to reach out to experts or professional players for advice. “We [originally] wanted to have sports experts, but since it is a story about high school students, we felt it might be better to not make them seem too professional. We had it in mind that it might be better to make the anime based on the experiences that normal people had in high school and add a little extra to that.”
Kakihara also filled the gaps in her knowledge by talking with others and doing research. “During scenario writing meetings, people with real-world sports experience would come up and talk to me,” she explained. “There were things I didn't understand, like how these sports are talked about online or how to count points or what certain terms mean. I would look those up myself, but I also asked the experienced people among us during readthroughs, and we would discuss things like, 'I wonder what's being said here?' and 'Is this what kids these days are saying?'”
Kakihara also utilized one other source that helped her not only with some of the sports aspects but the deeper nuances of the characters as well: the original creator of Blue Box, Kōji Miura. “She was very cooperative, though it wasn't like frequent consultations. About small lines of dialogue in the manga, I'd ask things like, 'What does this mean?' she would respond. Also, there are characters who don't really say what they really think, so I would check with her and ask her what they actually thought when they said that line.” As for if they managed to hit their mark by making a believable high school sports club, Kakihara was able to go right to the source: “I have a niece who is a member of her junior high school's girls' basketball team, and she seems to love Blue Box. So, I think the anime's portrayal of basketball is alright since a member of a basketball team is saying so.”
Of course, sports is only part of the Blue Box equation. As a writer, Kakihara was also conscious of the interplay between romance and sports in both the story and the characters. “[Taiki and Chinatsu] are both people devoting so much to sports—and that's why they like each other,” Kakihara explained. “Basically, I feel that because they are kids giving their all, love is in the air. Being serious about sports is the foundation their romance is built upon.”
For Yano, the most important aspect of the anime is its tone: “I think [what makes Blue Box stand out] is probably that it's a story that's true to life. It's connected to reality—and I feel that it is a story that people can really empathize with. I try to keep that in mind when making it.” Kakihara is of a similar mind about the importance of realism—especially when it comes to the characters themselves. “I think that Miura-san's characters feel like they are real kids. The characters are so close to reality,” she said. “They're not too character-like—and I mean that in a good way. I think they have just the right balance of anime and realism—which makes them easy to empathize with.”
When adapting the manga to anime, the two were careful when it came to deciding what to add or cut. “The story of Blue Box was really well-crafted, so we just had to show it on the screen as it was—although since we had to make each episode 30 minutes long, we had to be careful not to interrupt the flow or the rhythm of the story.” Yano continued, “Our feeling is that we should stick to [the manga's] framework, but in places where we think that viewers might not be satisfied with just that, we've tried to add in additional sports aspects and emotional elements.”
“Sometimes I'd add a little scene or a line of dialogue to connect scenes,” Kakihara added. “But when I'd do that, I'd be very careful to make sure that the characters weren't changed because of it.”
Both Yano and Kakihara are pleased with how the change in medium has elevated the story. “A lot of scenes are different with sound and music playing—and the color design, backgrounds, and camera work are all done by specialists,” Yano commented. “I think it really brings out the sense of realism.”
For Kakihara, it was the sound design that really stood out. “People who have been to a gymnasium remember things like the [shoe] ‘squeak’ sound really well—and just hearing that memorable ‘squeak’ during a real badminton game makes you feel like you're there in a gymnasium. It's just so real—and that's really the best part of a film or animated work.” Kakihara continued, “Sound is really effective—it reminds people who have experienced it and even makes people who don't know it feel like they're there.”
In the end, Yano and Kakihara hope that anime fans across the world will give their anime a chance. “I sometimes hear [non-Japanese] people say that Japanese clubs are unique or that they don't really exist in their own countries,” Kakihara told me. “But the activities seen in Blue Box are very common. Even if you weren't special enough to go to an inter-high tournament, there are some things that just happen at every middle or high school. Blue Box is a work that delves into feelings that everyone can understand.”
“I'm not sure what kind of reaction Blue Box is getting [abroad],” Yano said. “But I think the emotions that flow through it are probably felt the same all over the world, so I want people to feel a little excited about it and how the characters live their lives. I feel like my heart is a little purer [after making it]. I hope you enjoy the story.”
Blue Box is currently streaming on Netflix.
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