The year 2023 is a special year for director Yuzuru Tachikawa, because the coincidence of the calendar caused two major animated films he directed to be released in Japan and France in the same year. The 26th opus of Detective Conan which broke license records and passed the 10 billion yen revenue mark, but also the event film Blue Giant, adaptation of the eponymous manga.
Yuzuru Tachikawa is a director whose popularity exploded following the projects Mob Psycho 100 And Decadence, and since then the biggest studios have been snapping up his services. In 2018, he supervised the production of the 22nd animated film of Detective Conan: Zero no Shikkounin. A license to which he returns in 2023 for the 26th opus of the saga: Detective Conan the Black Submarine.
Very busy schedule for the director emeritus, because he also signs the adaptation in animated film of the manga of Jazz Blue Giant (the release of the latter has been postponed due to covid-19). In France, the two films will be distributed in theaters in 2023 by Eurozoom.
Present at the Annecy festival, the latter returns for the Internet user to these double outings.
Linternaute.com: what made you fall into animation? Where does this passion come from?
Yuzuru Tachikawa: My encounter with the world of animation resulted from love at first sight. Since as long as I can remember, I wanted to become a director. And, at the university where I was studying cinema, with a view to becoming a director of live action films, between two amateur film projects I had a course on animation. It was a meeting that marked me deeply, I immediately liked the absolute freedoms offered by this medium. And today, many accomplishments later, here I am in front of you presenting films at a world-renowned festival (laughs).
What are your references in terms of production?
My desire to make films was born at the time of high school, so I have a lot of references from this period. Terminator 2, Back to the future, Matrix… You can see a certain appeal to science fiction.
The film Detective Conan: The Black Submarine broke all licensing records at the Box Office. Why do you think?
Most of the Conan films have been productions that took into account the course of the manga’s narrative. That is to say, non-canon releases, each feature film being autonomous and not impacting the history of the manga. With this film, we made a radically different decision, the story of the film and the manga resonate with each other. We put major elements of the series in this film, it allows to create much more tension and a stronger engagement of the spectators.
How did you feel following this incredible success?
When you work with characters who are already “stars”, there is a phenomenon of acceleration of popularity. We see with this very choral film that we attracted fans of all the characters and also that we had quite a few fans who came to see the film several times.
I was very careful not to fall into the classic trap of an ensemble film, namely to use these characters as cameos, as mere tools. Each has an important role and fits logically into the story. It is a respect that we owe to the characters of Master Aoyama, but also to the spectators. There too, it helps to reinforce the dramatic tension.
Aoyama-sensei is very involved in the project, he even makes cuts which are sent by courier. How do you oversee his cuts as a director?
There is a particular process on these plans. These are not shots that he drew entirely, there is basic work by the animators, which I check and correct. It is then that Master Aoyama comes to do the finalization. He applies all the modifications he wishes to these cuts. As author for all the plans, I discuss with him on Line, very directly and very quickly. He is incredibly involved.
Between those who work in digital and those who work in analogue, how are the files shared? And guarantees the homogeneity of the rendering?
We have a team of animators who have been working on the Conan license for a very long time. Our animation directors (Head Sakuga) are very senior and they all work in analog. They take care of analog corrections. The whole is verified by the general director of animation in paper format.
For digital, it is the deputy directors who supervise the files and apply the corrections. They exchange constantly and are very close. The homogeneity comes from this work in synergy.
The film Blue Giant is one of the projects selected to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Shogakukan publishing house. Did that put any particular pressure on you?
When I was offered the project, I didn’t have this notion of a centenary in mind. Fortunately, I was able to work without any particular pressure (laughs).
Mr. Shinichi Ishizuka took up the challenge of making a manga on music, without the support of sound. One of the keys to his adaptation is the use of ley lines (features) during the scenes where Dai plays. We feel the power, we feel the energy of the music. But in a film adaptation, there is no constraint “no sound”. How did that affect you in the adaptation?
Indeed, it would have been very difficult to include all these lines of force. Even beyond the representation of sound, for example during the chara design phase of the protagonists, we have simplified the appearance of the characters to facilitate animation. But as we wanted to respect this “nervous” side of Master Ishizuka’s line, we put these lines on the shadows. This allowed us not to overload the work of the animators and to shift the addition of these lines during the digital shooting. The downside is that if we proceed with a simple flat tint, it gives a very “flat” effect, very 2D, to have a shadow, to keep a volume so we reworked these lines by hand in some cases . The idea was not to include us in a simple mimicry but to restore the momentum of the protagonists, the power they release when they play music.
In Blue Giant, you used a very original approach to representing sound. Is it a legacy of your love of SF?
Representing sound with image is an interesting challenge. In Master Ishizuka’s manga there is no sound, so he breaks that wall with incredible visual tricks of palpable intensity. But in animation we have sound and movement. Another solution had to be found to do justice to his work. What I ask of cinema is to go beyond reality. I want the viewer to come out of the room with complete satiety, to have seen things they’ve never seen. This is why I work each time to find new grammars of realization. It is perhaps this innovative side is a legacy of my affection for SF.
You put a lot of lighting effects on the musical phases, how did you come up with this idea?
One of the characteristics of this film is the large number of “live” musical performances. When you compose a film of this nature, with repetitions of themes, you are afraid of being redundant. If you have several concerts, you have to make sure you have variety for the spectator.
We set up an ensemble charter, to illustrate the ascending progression of the trio, of their capacity for musical expression. The more we progress in the second half of the film, the more obvious it is.
How many tries did you do before you said “that’s it, we found the right solution to visualize the sound”
There are times when we realized along the way that it wasn’t working as well as we hoped, when the intention wasn’t strong enough. In these cases, we have modified and reacted over time. By modifying the charter or by going beyond. In a flexible way, like the solo sequences of music, we improvised. Difficult to give you a precise moment, because we have not stopped evolving in our technique and in our appreciation.
And the part where you distort the visuals? When you go to penciling so dynamic. How did you get this idea?
By dint of listening to this solo by Dai, repeatedly, I had in mind images related to space, weightlessness, the fact of rising, this is what led me to want visualize these deformations for both Dai and the instrument. Give a cosmic dimension to this representation.
Without divulging, the major scene with Yukinori is masterful, how did you come up with the idea of cutting the sound at that moment?
Hmm, it’s complicated without going into details and spoiling the story. Generally speaking, we have a lot of scenes that I call “no background”. In the majority of these scenes, the emotion is supported by the music. It seemed important to me for this particular scene to suspend time, and therefore to remove the sound.
From Your Name and the hyper-realistic adaptation of the sets, the Seichi Junrei (Editor’s note: content tourism) explodes. Are you aware that you are going to boost tourism in Shinjuku sanchome?
(Laughs) The Blue Note is an amazing place. I went there for the first time in my life during the location scouting for this film. I can tell you that for me, the “So blue” club of the film corresponds to the Blue Note in Tokyo. It is a major site in the history of Jazz in Japan, and I hope that the spectators of the film will want to discover it. We also organized an event screening of the film there, and it was very well received.
Dai is a veritable whirlwind whose overflowing energy pulls everyone along. Did his energy also impact you?
Dai’s character is great. You’re right, it’s catchy.
But what I wanted to express above all was that this force, this enthusiasm was too powerful. We can’t stay by Dai’s side too long, she’s an all-consuming force, she has no restraint. He is like a shooting star. By the way, if you look at the movie poster, Yukinori and Tamada are lit with a red light, Dai is under a blue light.
I didn’t feel like I was consumed by Dai’s strength, but he pulled us along on his journey nonetheless, pushing us to surpass ourselves in our day-to-day work. I envy her absolute freedom.
But in fact, Detective Conanit’s what ?
The series chronicles the adventures of Shinichi Kudo, a 16-year-old high school student with a passion for investigation who sees his body rejuvenate and return to the appearance it had 10 years earlier. This accident happens following the ingestion of an experimental drug administered by mysterious men in black. The young hero finds himself lodged with his childhood friend Ran, whose father Kogoro Mori is a low profile private detective. The young man will then seek to unravel the mystery of this evil organization and find his adolescent body. The story advances in the form of a saga with more or less long criminal investigations which allow conclusions to be drawn in regular ways while the main plot advances more slowly.
And what is this film worth?
This 26th film in the saga is the most accomplished both from a technical point of view and from a scriptwriting point of view. Finally a film that can be considered canon in the universe of the young detective. More than ever the license tends to reach the widest possible audience, offering a story rich in action and emotion. A film that will appeal to fans of the license as well as novices.
Detective Conan: The Black Submarine is in cinemas in France from Wednesday August 2, 2023.
Blue Giant, scheduled for release in France on March 6, 2024