When the Stop-Motion series “My Melody & Kuromi” was launched on Netflix At the end of last month it rose rapidly through Streamer’s charts until it topped on No. 2 all over the world – surprising for a series of lead kawaii juggernaut Sanrio’s best -loved duo.
But to attribute the success of the series fully to its adorable IP is to omit the infectious kinetic anarchy that director Tomoki Misato and his recently founded Toruku studio (a Stop-Motion shift by Anime Powerhouse Wit Studio) has performed procedures. A week after the publication IndieWire sat down with Misato to discuss the studio impressive achievement in STOP-MOTION ANIMATION.
Best known for Chibi Guinea-Pig Stop-Motion series “Pui Pui Molcar”, Mistato is a young animator with a preference for snap, Often worrying stories. “As a child I really loved dolls and filled animals.” Misato told IndieWire. “The thing with stop motion is its tactility-you can hold it in your hands, there are sensations for it. It always fascinated me.”
Misato’s interest in stop-motion was crystallized when he met Laika’s “Coraline”. “There is a depth for the inner world of the character and the kind of stories like its presentation,” Misato said. “It’s something I strive for in the work I produce.”
When it was time to do his university exam-cryptic short film “Look at me only”-he was compelling against stop motion (“I thought it would give me an advantage,” he explained). The short one was a success, and the domino effect of the choice of film festival and the award drove the director to the degree school, where he joined Shin-Ei animation, which gave him his first TV Director role, at ‘”Pui Pui Molcar,” and Wit Studio and Netflix, with which he now covers “My Melody & Kuromi.”
While “Pui Pui Molcar” episodes were appropriately bit size and standalone, Misato depicted “My Melody & Kuromi” with the scope and style of a feature film, despite its episodic edition. “The standard style for STOP motion is to have a camera stand and film with a fixed camera, but I’m fond of the Hollywood camera,” Misato said. “I try to integrate it into my work – not necessarily more chaotic, but more active.”
The busy is clear from the series’ first introduction to the pastel-colored world of Mariland, where an abundance of creatures and Critter’s animated makes his daily life in the background of the A-plot adventure.
“I’m always aware of not enduring my audience, and I’m trying to remember how I can keep their attention and intrigue,” Misato said. Maintaining someone’s attention at this age is extremely difficult. It is said that the attention area of a human focus is actually three seconds. As a child, I loved Pixar and Cartoon Network, and I brought up a rule from their work that I integrated into my own: that no animation remains static for more than three seconds and something moves the story forward every six seconds.
Working with so many moving parts at the same time on a stop-motion set requires a lot of pre-planning and thought. “I create maps that include where each character is placed in that set,” Misato explained. “When created, we go in and operate things within the set to see where we can put the camera and how we can angle it. It is about working with the space to determine how we should replicate what we have imagined in the concept art.”
The concept art in question is action-tung, which indicates the type of piece more common in a CG blockbuster. “STOP motion is a limited form of animation,” Misato said. “When it came to creating storyboards, we asked Storyboard artists to disregard the fact that we must create stop movement of them. That flexibility separates us from other productions.”
The results are spectacular – boasts with car chases and flight measures that seem to be impossible to achieve in the series’ chosen medium. “To enable this type of cameras, we created a new equipment,” Misato explained. “In essence, it is a stabilizer for the camera that allows us to constantly adjust the angles and placement of the characters on the horizontal or vertical plane and constantly adjust the height of the camera itself.”
The new stand proved to be revolutionary for Misato and the team. “I achieved such angles in more provisional ways in my degree project and” Pui Pui Molcar, “said Misato.” I would stack DVD boxes and other random things to change the height and angle. Now that this stabilizer has been made, it has given me an excess of alternatives to achieve dynamic angles in STOP motion and opened a whole new world. “
A small piece of CG was used to perfect some of the most in addition to Stunts-, for example, flight flip, was achieved with the help of Shirogumi Inc., an effect house that had previously worked with Tohos “Godzilla minus one”-but Toruku-Studio was passionate to maintain the feeling and authenticity of the hand.
They were equally anxious to keep faith in the character’s spirit in the middle of the action. “I wanted to make sure it was convincing to the audience who loves these characters. So there was some pressure,” the director said. Animal characters have been at the center of his interest from the beginning of his career. “If you look at social media, so many popular videos circle around animals,” he said. “We don’t know exactly what is happening in their heads, which enables imaginative play. That in turn inspires a child’s wonder.”
Simply developing Kawaii is not enough for Misato. “If we created an animation where sweet characters do sweet things and that’s it, there is nothing unexpected to the audience,” he said. “I think it is engaging to put these characters in situations that overwhelm them, where it seems that there is no way out. When they find a solution, that feeling of relief is interesting to look at.”
The team of up to 20 animators produced an average of four seconds of animation a day. For scenes where many characters were in motion at one time, they would produce one second a day. Misato cannot reveal how long the production process lasted, but it is obvious that he has spent a lot of time with this world.
“One of the things that excited me most about working with these characters is their attitude: Mariland,” he said. The designs are quite simple, and the challenge is to pull out their internal trips from that simplicity. Characters like the bear and the elephant whose mouths are not depicted – how do you depict the internal dialogue and feelings of these characters to the audience? I think there is a sweetness in looking at characters that are difficult to read in this way struggle and strive to achieve their goals. ”
The Toruku studio thought outside the box to bridge the audience with these animals. “It is often so we films that suggest the changes in expression – faces do not necessarily change,” Misato said. “Using the tools that surround the character to achieve it is quite analogous, but it is an aspect of STOP motion that I think is joy in.”
Working with a larger studio has been a major change for the rising animator. “We did” Pui Pui Molcar “with a handful of people in a small room. Now we have switched to working in a much larger space with a team of about a hundred people, including external partners,” he said. “One thing that I have removed from this experience is that, while stopping motion is boring work with a slow flow to that-that makes that effort will eventually create something that is other worldly, which separates us from other stop-motion productions.”
Toruku Studio shares its name with the title character “My Little Goat” – and with Misato’s own childhood plush toy, a dog character – but the team looks forward in their efforts, not backwards. “We are already working on our next project,” Misato said. “The stop-motion world in Japan is quite small, and I want to work to introduce more stop-motion to Japan and the wider world. To achieve it, we have to do some projects that may be more commercial-but I do not want to do projects that are released and then it is.
Thanks to Juna Shai for the interpretation.
“My Melody & Kurami” is now flowing on Netflix.
