Written by Mari Okada

When writing a script, the director acts as a compass. You search for what the director is looking for, get their input, and make more drafts. Though there are struggles, the feeling you get when someone outside your perspective tells you “oh, this is great!” can only be found in the collaborative process. Sometimes, directors tell me, “just write whatever you like.” Truthfully, that is nerve-wracking no matter the director. There’s pressure because they put so much trust in me so I can’t just put in a half-hearted effort. But I can go forward knowing that if I turn in my best script, they will make wonderful animation… and the person that does that best is director Shinohara.

During interviews, I was often asked, “Why did you want to direct?” I have many reasons, but the person who encouraged me the most was Shinohara. He told me, “why not try directing?” and “if you direct I’ll help out”, so that gave me lots of courage to jump right in. But he meant not just as a supervisor, but as total director… I had misinterpreted again. How troublesome. But even though he was surprised and said “really!?”, he still joined the project.

As assistant director, Shinohara helped me a lot on this film as I had no experience as a director. Just like when I write a script and he tells me “make it however you like”, he came up with many methods that would make it easy for me to make decisions. He told me how to hold meetings for each section, how to make a storyboard, how to think as a director. His words made me see things and feel relieved many times. And in terms of animating. This movie has a lot of difficult cuts, and it was hard to figure out how to animate them as a director, but he helped me and handled many difficult cuts, even the storyboard scenes that he did not write.

I asked Shinohara not just to storyboard particular parts, but “every moment of Maquia and Ariel’s happiness”. There are many ways to interpret happiness, but Shinohara is a person who takes great care to build things up. In anime, you have to take care to build up things, which usually do not exist in the real world, as if they were there. That brings breadth and depth to the world in which characters live and gives temperature and breathing to the visuals. Refined, high-quality, and warm. I love the world that Shinohara creates.

When the project started, and Shinohara first called me “director”, I feel like I had made up my mind. Shinohara is the “father” of this film. So I hope I have imparted even a little bit of filial piety.