You have worked on several series and are credited as the director as well as storyboard artist. Does drawing storyboards make you happy? Do you love to draw or is it just a perk of your profession?

I am inspired by art. It is my passion to create all those storyboard sections. I always enjoy working on the storyboards for the first episode of each series. I create storyboards that focus on the facial expressions or movement of the characters and how the camera is positioned, is it moving, is it a close-up or is it a long shot because all those elements are visible by looking at the storyboard. should . I do 70 percent of the storyboarding and leave the rest to the assistant directors and keyframe artists to play with their adlibs that they can bring to the table.

You have directed over 300 episodes of Fairytale. How do you stay inspired and make interesting shows when you work on something for such a long time?

The protagonist in Reincarnated as a Sword isn’t your typical hero. How did you go about translating the written word into the animated action of a typically inanimate object, the sword?

I think in terms of facial expressions it’s the eyes and that’s about it in addition to emotional marks like sweat drops and anger marks. When the sword is swinging around it bounces or spins and they add emotion, but it is the voice actor’s job to breathe life into the character.

So, what kind of impact can a voice actor make on a role?

We auditioned voice actors and if the voice actor had limited expression, the character’s depth would be shallow. However, the voice actor we cast, Miki Shinichiro, who is a phenomenal voice actor in Japan, was able to make the character infinitely deeper.

Lots of fans have an anime that made them fall in love with the medium, do you?

Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of Hayao. I saw that movie when I was in fifth grade and I was shocked. I had never seen anything like this. I found for a long time that I was trying to be like Miyazaki-san and that was the beginning.

Is there any genre of anime you want to take on that you haven’t tackled like magical girl or sports anime?

I’ve actually done a magical girl-themed thing with a Korean company as a collaborative production. I think it would be difficult to do a sports anime with a singing idol girls group or a large cast. I also find it hard to copy the correct forms for games and because games have specific forms and rules it doesn’t give you much room to be creative. I also know that it takes a lot of hard work to make shows like this and that makes me feel bad for the animators. I want to do the kind of work that makes animators excited and work with passion like explosions or kawaii elements. I like giving the animators more room to express themselves.

What are the qualities you should have to be a good director?

Listen to people, speak up when needed, never impose your opinion on others, and make sure the working environment for animators is pleasant and not too intense. So, let’s say we’re in a production meeting, I role-play funny so people laugh, and it creates a warm atmosphere. I think a less stressful environment leads to better ideas from the animators. The most important thing is to give them confidence so that when I do find something good, I make sure to complement them and thank them for their time. I think it works for me and other people may have different way of working.