{"id":605465,"date":"2024-01-20T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/bones-masahiko-minami-on-the-studios-latest-anime-project\/"},"modified":"2024-01-20T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T15:00:00","slug":"bones-masahiko-minami-on-the-studios-latest-anime-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bones-masahiko-minami-on-the-studios-latest-anime-project\/","title":{"rendered":"#BONES&#8217; Masahiko Minami on the Studio&#8217;s Latest Anime Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/anime-manga\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"6\" title=\"Anime || Manga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anime<\/a> NYC 2023, Studio BONES President <\/span><b>Masahiko Minami<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> announced the anime adaptation of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies (MahoAku)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which was created by the late <\/span><b>Cocoa Fujiwara<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Anime Trending had the exclusive opportunity to interview Minami. During the interview, he reminisces about meeting Cocoa-sensei and what it means for <\/span><b>Studio BONES<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to honor her legacy.\u00a0<br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\" jetpack-lazy-image\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/FOR-APPROVAL-Masahiko-Minami-Anime-NYC.jpg?resize=450%2C450&amp;is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1\" srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\"\/><noscript><img data-lazy-fallback=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/FOR-APPROVAL-Masahiko-Minami-Anime-NYC.jpg?resize=450%2C450&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Masahiko Minami \u2013 AnimeNYC 2023<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<hr\/>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><b>Thank you again for your time Minami-san. Could you please talk about the newly announced anime, <\/b><b><i>The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies<\/i><\/b><b>? How did the <\/b><b><i>MahoAku <\/i><\/b><b>project come to be?<\/b><b><br \/><\/b><b><br \/><\/b><b>Masahiko Minami:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> So actually this started long ago. I was at an anime convention in Germany called AnimagiC \u2014 which is very similar to Anime NYC \u2014 where I met with an editor from Square Enix who I\u2019d known from before, and it just so h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ened that Cocoa Fujiwara-sensei was also at this event.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fujiwara-sensei and I just sat down and had a chat, but she mentioned to me how she had watched some of BONES\u2019s works at the time and how she was a fan of it, and she\u2019s very interested in possible collaboration in the future. That was right when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inu x Boku SS<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had been adopted into anime as well. So I actually had heard of both her and her work because I\u2019d watched it myself and had enjoyed it quite a bit, and it also had been very popular in Japan. She mentioned to me that she was working on her next title, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MahoAku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I returned to Japan, I had the opportunity to read the manga. It\u2019s not a lengthy story and it\u2019s not quite a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">four-koma<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but it\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> and a collection of short vignettes. I found it to be very cute, especially the relationship and the interrelationship between the two of them. It felt very new at the time, something that we hadn\u2019t really seen before because you have these two who are antagonists, yet they share many things in common like the idiosyncrasies and how they see\u00a0 life. How they played off of each other when they would interact really sparked my interest. I thought to myself, \u201cIf this were ever to become an anime, I\u2019d love to have BONES being involved in its production.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you attended yesterday\u2019s panel, you would think that BONES is pretty much all about action series and sci-fi series. However, we\u2019ve done quite a few shoujo works like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ouran High School Host Club<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Snow White with the Red Hair<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In fact, I personally also enjoy shoujo manga, so we approached Square Enix and proposed the project.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><b>How was the creative staff gathered for <\/b><b><i>MahoAku<\/i><\/b><b>? How were you able to get each key member involved with the project?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I answered in the first question, this story about turning <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MahoAku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into an anime first came up eight years ago, and that\u2019s when the initial negotiations happened. Unfortunately, Fujiwara-sensei passed away, so it was actually put on the shelf for a while and went on hiatus. So as you can imagine, back then we already had an idea of who we wanted to work with. Now that it\u2019s eight years later, the staff that we hired is completely different from the staff that we originally envisioned to have worked on the project.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actually, what I did when we decided to move ahead again with this project is I actually reread the manga and used my impressions from the rereading to decide who might work best in the different roles for the project. In terms of director <\/span><b>Akiyo Ohashi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in particular, she may not be a very seasoned <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> director or supervising director, but I felt that he was well matched to work on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MahoAku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because she\u2019s very good at capturing and depicting emotions, like characters\u2019 emotions, and had previously worked on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Stranger by the Shore<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of the character designer, <\/span><b>Haruko Iizuka<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had already done the character designs when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inu x Boku SS<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was adapted into anime, so she was not only familiar with Cocoa-sensei\u2019s work but most importantly, she [truly understood Cocoa-sensei and knew of the emotional aspects.] Iizuka had also worked on a previous BONES work, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Josee, the Tiger and the Fish<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, so we were familiar with her from that as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of <\/span><b>Yuniko Ayana<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 who did the series composition and script \u2014 and <\/span><b>MAYUKO<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who worked on the music, their names actually came up from Director Ohashi. She had said, \u201cI\u2019d really love to work with these two on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MahoAku,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d and so we extended the offer and they accepted. We kind of fell into a main staff that was entirely composed of women.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><b>You mentioned that you re-read the series. What were some of your impressions from re-reading <\/b><b><i>MahoAku<\/i><\/b><b>? What elements are you hoping to emphasize from the manga into the anime adaptation?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actually, what\u2019s really surprising is the fact that when I read it, my overall impression hadn\u2019t changed at all. In terms of the original work, it\u2019s in the fantasy genre to a certain extent, but when you have the two main characters Miller and Byakuya, they each come from very different places and they start out with very different views. As they interact, they come to realize [more about each other] and evolve from there, so that they start taking care of each other. I feel that that\u2019s something that\u2019s important in our world now too. Overall, my biggest impression is, \u201cOh my god, this work is so cute!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><b>You mentioned during the panel that <\/b><b><i>MahoAku<\/i><\/b><b> is a different series by not being an action series. From a creative side, what are the challenges or changes needed within BONES to focus on a non-action series for <\/b><b><i>MahoAku<\/i><\/b><b>?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">We haven\u2019t encountered too many challenges yet, mainly because we didn\u2019t choose the staff or experts who are used to making action anime. We specifically went out and found staff \u2014\u00a0 including people we\u2019ve never worked with before \u2014 who are more used to non-action genre anime production, staff that are very good at depicting emotions, for example. We\u2019re actually using the D-studio portion of the company to make this. There\u2019s a director who is very good at depicting the beauty of style and form. So in that sense, we haven\u2019t encountered necessarily too many challenges from a production standpoint yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><b>The <\/b><b><i>MahoAku<\/i><\/b><b> series has been around for quite a while, and fans might not be familiar with the manga series\u2019s upcoming anime adaptation. How would you describe this series?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">That\u2019s your job! All joking aside, I think part of your job is to explain what the series is and who Cocoa-sensei was. Inversely, I feel that if you could tell the fans and make them think, \u201cOh, this isn\u2019t action, why is BONES adapting a work that\u2019s not action?\u201d it would be great too. Through our anime adaptation, I want new fans to encounter Cocoa-sensei\u2019s vision and world, and then read the original work and her other works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, the fact that we\u2019re now adapting this today, it\u2019s possible to stream the series globally, whether with a subscription or not. It can reach not just a small audience, but a worldwide audience. Especially in terms of the story where you\u2019ve got the emotions of each individual character and how they interact, it really pulls at your heartstrings and really sinks in, so I think that this phenomenon of global streaming will allow us to show <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MahoAku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the world in a very quick fashion.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><b>Do you have any final words for fans and AnimeNYC?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So in terms of<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> MahoAku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, like I said, it\u2019s a very cute series, and I think because it\u2019s cute and because the original work is more of a shoujo, I think it\u2019s something that female fans would find very easy to watch, get into, and access. But for me, personally, I feel that this will end up being something that attracts a diverse audience. I want people of any gender, any situation, any age to watch this because in the end, it\u2019s not just cute. It really tugs at your heart strings.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even for a middle-aged worker who is facing trouble at work and comes home to their family sleeping, they can plunk themselves onto the sofa, turn on the TV to see <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mahoaku<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> running, and think \u201cOh, this is cute!\u201d Maybe there\u2019s even a little tear appearing at the corner of their eye! That\u2019s the kind of series I feel that this series will become and I hope that anyone anywhere can watch it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">I\u2019m afraid we aren\u2019t able to announce yet where it will be streaming or broadcast or when [it will be], but that\u2019s the vision I have. Fans, please keep your ears and eyes open! In the end, just to put it succinctly, it\u2019s when you\u2019re feeling your own loneliness, you can just turn it on and forget your own troubles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<figure style=\"width: 707px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"984\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/MahoAku-Twitter-KV.jpg?resize=696%2C984&amp;is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1\" srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" class=\" jetpack-lazy-image\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazy-fallback=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/MahoAku-Twitter-KV.jpg?resize=696%2C984&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"984\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a9\u85e4\u539f\u3053\u3053\u3042\uff0fSQUARE ENIX\u30fb\u307e\u307b\u3042\u304f\u88fd\u4f5c\u59d4\u54e1\u4f1a<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n                (function(d, s, id) {\n          var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n          if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n          js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n          js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.9&appId=269442613521839\";\n          fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n        }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n        <\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more anime-manga articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/anime-manga\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">anime-manga category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/2024\/01\/20\/mahoaku-masahiko-minami-interview\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=mahoaku-masahiko-minami-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At Anime NYC 2023, Studio BONES President Masahiko Minami announced the anime adaptation of The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies (MahoAku), which was created by the late Cocoa Fujiwara. Anime Trending had the exclusive opportunity to interview Minami. During the interview, he reminisces about meeting Cocoa-sensei and what it means&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":605466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/MahoAku-Key-Visual-cropped-16-9.jpg?fit=1396,785&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anime-manga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}