Animestyle 007 Sound! Euphonium Interview: Director Tatsuya Ishihara & Series Director Naoko Yamada Part 2

The “Adolescent Anime” Tackled Head-on

Interview with Tatsuya Ishihara (Director) and Naoko Yamada (Series Director)
Reporters: Yuichirou Oguro, Itsuki Shouta; Text editing: Itsuki Shouta; Interview date: August 13, 2015; Interview location: Kyoto Animation Tokyo Office

Tatsuya Ishihara
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. Following his directorial debut with AIR, he has helmed several works at the studio including The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon, Clannad, Nichijou, and Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions. His most recent work is Sound! Euphonium.

Naoko Yamada
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. After working as episode director in Clannad, she was appointed to direct K-On!. Since then, she has directed K-On!!, K-On! The Movie!, Tamako Market, and Tamako Love Story. She served as series director for Sound! Euphonium.

(This is the second of a two part interview translation from Animestyle 007. Due to its length, I decided to break it into two parts for easier reading. Here is the first part. This one is about twice as long as the first, but I couldn’t break up this first section and end on a cliffhanger. Enjoy the rest!)

Animestyle 007 Sound! Euphonium Interview: Director Tatsuya Ishihara & Series Director Naoko Yamada Part 1

The “Adolescent Anime” Tackled Head-on

Interview with Tatsuya Ishihara (Director) and Naoko Yamada (Series Director)
Reporters: Yuichirou Oguro, Itsuki Shouta; Text editing: Itsuki Shouta; Interview date: August 13, 2015; Interview location: Kyoto Animation Tokyo Office

Tatsuya Ishihara
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. Following his directorial debut with AIR, he has helmed several works at the studio including The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon, Clannad, Nichijou, and Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions. His most recent work is Sound! Euphonium.

Naoko Yamada
Kyoto native who works at Kyoto Animation. After working as episode director in Clannad, she was appointed to direct K-On!. Since then, she has directed K-On!!, K-On! The Movie!, Tamako Market, and Tamako Love Story. She served as series director for Sound! Euphonium.

(This is the first of a two part interview translation from Animestyle 007. Due to its length, I decided to break it into two parts for easier reading. Here is the second part. Enjoy the first part!)

K-On! staff interviews pt 1: Director Naoko Yamada & Series Composer Reiko Yoshida Dialogue

Director x Series Composer Dialogue

Naoko Yamada x Reiko Yoshida

Naoko Yamada:
Animator/Director at Kyoto Animation. Made her debut as director with K-On!. Previously worked as storyboarder/episode director on Clannad and Clannad After Story.

Reiko Yoshida:
Freelance scriptwriter. Notable works include series composer for Bakuman, Girls und Panzer, Tamako Market, and Yowamushi Pedal among other series.

A conversation with the two who are most acquainted with the K-On! anime. How was K-On! created? These two carefully chat about their production and their fixations about the characters.

K-On!! (S2) staff interviews pt 1: Director Naoko Yamada & Series Composer Reiko Yoshida Dialogue

Director x Series Composer Dialogue

Director Naoko Yamada:
Director/Animator at Kyoto Animation. Notable works include directing Tamako Market/Love Story, series director of Sound! Euphonium, and episode director/storyboards/key animation for Clannad, Clannad After Story, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and other shows.

Series Composer Reiko Yoshida:
Freelance scriptwriter. Notable works include series composer for Bakuman, Girls und Panzer, Tamako Market, and Yowamushi Pedal among other series.

Director Yamada and Yoshida-san created K-On!! with love surpassing the usual for these roles. What thoughts and memories do they continue to hold as they look back at the final episode and the three years that have passed since the first four entered high school until their graduation.

K-On! Movie interview: Director Naoko Yamada and Scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida

HTT Airlines, Flight JL401:

Boarding seat 1-2:

Director Naoko Yamada and Scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida

K-On! The Movie opened on December 3rd, 2011 and grew to be seen by over 1 million viewers in theatres. However, all Director Yamada had planned when she first heard it was being made into a movie were fragments of ideas. How was the movie created from stage zero?

K-On! Movie interview: Director Naoko Yamada

HTT Airlines, Flight JL401:

Boarding seat 1:

Director Naoko Yamada

Though the atmosphere is the same as the TV series, K-On! The Movie’s coloring, photography, angels, and other various components were upgraded. What did director Naoko Yamada have in mind for the visuals? Here we talk with her regarding what she had in mind for K-On!

Tamako Love Story: Yamada Excite Interview

Tamako Kitashirakawa: the daughter of the “Tamaya” mochi shopkeeper.
Mochizou Ooji: the son of the “Ricecake Oh! Zee” mochi shopkeeper.
The movie Tamako Love Story depicts the love between these two teenagers who grew up across from each other in the overly warm Bunny Mountain Shopping District.

The film, a sequel to the TV series Tamako Market which aired from January to March 2013, has had a long run in theatres due to the support of both Tamako fans and anime fans. Even over a month following its opening weekend, the film is still increasing the amount of theatres its screening at.

Thus we’ve come to interview the director of the film, Naoko Yamada, in order to thoroughly investigate Kyoto Animation’s newest masterpiece from when it was first planned until the ending.

(UMX warning: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FILM!)

Tamako Love Story: Yamada TAN Interview

In order to hype the upcoming release of Tamako Love Story on Blu-ray/DVD this week in Japan, I’ve taken the liberty to translate a couple of interviews with the director, Naoko Yamada. Here’s the first of them!

Tamako Kitashirakawa is the daughter of a mochi shopkeeper in the Bunny Mountain Shopping District. Tamako Market, the TV series which aired in 2013, begins when Tamako meets a talking bird from a southern island. The heartful comedy depicts people’s connections and love between Tamako’s friends as well as the shopkeepers in the shopping district. Coupled with the thorough work Kyoto Animation is known for with a warm story, the series was valued quite highly.

And so the sequel work, Tamako Love Story opened on April 26th. The orthodox adolescent love story is a new tale that shows a slightly different mood than the TV series. In order to find the highlights of the film as well as discuss production secrets, we went to speak with the director, Naoko Yamada.

Tamako Love Story Director Yamada Newtype March ’14 Interview translated

This month’s edition of the magazine Newtype had an interview with the director of the upcoming film Tamako Love Story, Naoko Yamada, this month. This is a translation of said article. Thanks to violaxcore for editing assistance.

Tamako Love Story Special: Director Yamada Interview translated

The Tamako Love Story official website posted the first part of an interview with the director of the film, Naoko Yamada, on 2014/03/07. This is a translation of that part. I’ll add the second part to this post whenever it is posted on the website. Thanks to violaxcore for editing assistance.