NEEDY ANIME Episode 2: “Just the Two of Us”

NEEDY ANIME Episode 1: “She’s a Killer Queen” - HazeDenki.net

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↑ Episode 1 is over here.

　Episodes 1 and 2 of this anime were made very much by feel. Even though the trial and error on the creators’ side was probably visible to the audience too, we chose not to smooth that out and just kept going. With episode 2, the idea was, “Let’s try making the new characters cute—let’s try something that feels almost like a little girls’ anime.” But of course, this is still NEEDY, so it overflows with bizarre little touches. And instead of flattening those out, we pushed forward with them intact.

　Back then, there wasn’t even really a concept like “kaiju pro wrestling” yet, so when you look back at the first time Godzilla fought Anguirus, there’s something great about how rough and blood-hot it feels precisely because it isn’t pro wrestling yet. That’s the sense in which I love episode 2.

　I have especially strong feelings about episode 3, and I think it only became what it is because all of us were able to explore the tone and manner of the series through episodes 1 and 2. So if you stay with this anime all the way through, I hope you’ll look back on episode 2 from that angle too.

　To be more specific about what I struggled with: it was how to establish the presence of the new characters. In order to make the Karamazov cast work at high speed—to make people remember their personalities—we kept experimenting, and I really wrestled with whether that speed, almost like a weekly manga serialization, was fitting cleanly together with the overall flow of the story. While the director was also 고민ing over how to move forward, the Mondrian-like colors of the background art landed perfectly, and the visual image on that side became much clearer.

Escaping the Algorithm — Accidental Total Art - HazeDenki.net

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　Personally, I really love the movement of color that comes from putting those Mondrian-style backgrounds on the screen.

　It feels good to keep following this composition where, through Kache’s point of view, you’re surrounded by all these distinctive members inside a bizarre house.

　For example, if this were a weekly manga, you’d probably have to establish the characters even faster, and I remember thinking how hard serialization must be. The speed, the structure—you have to make people go home remembering at least the characters’ individuality, no matter how painfully exaggerated it might feel. I still have a lot to learn.

　At this point, I almost want people to watch it as if it were basically an original anime, and while I do think we managed to express things like the existence of the relationship between Karamazov and KAngel, I also have a lot of personal regrets about how I could have done more with the dialogue and the way things were presented.

　At the same time, once the girls started bustling around, there was something strange about the episode where even my own effort to make them move in a cute, properly “animated” way started to feel kind of cute in itself.

　I hoped Karamazov would give off the sense of a deliberately artificial, “little girls’ anime”-like presence intruding into a late-night anime. And the slightly awkward, scrappy feeling of the whole episode actually makes it feel properly like a late-night anime from that era. The kind you’d casually end up watching if you happened to turn on the TV. And from the next episode on, the tone shifts a little again too—that’s part of what makes it such a free work.

　Ame-chan…

　She really is cute when she’s happy being together with P.

　I hope Just the Two of Us managed to express all kinds of different versions of “just the two of us.”

　It’s such a cool English phrase, isn’t it? It’s a great song too, of course, but more than anything I love the title itself: Just the Two of Us. The C-part, with its sense of claustrophobia, is my favorite.

　Thank you, Kitani—and Moaang (for the visuals), too.

　I remember producer Inagaki being absolutely delighted, proudly showing off this ending sequence.

　I want to go eat pizza again too.

　Though it seems the Saizeriya in Shin-Nakano is going to close…

　So cool.

　Cute.

　With episode 2, I was doing my best above all to make Lollipop stand out in a cute way, and I’m glad her character’s chaotic energy really came through properly. More than anything, I sincerely hope you’ll watch episode 3, which we poured our souls into.

　Please look forward to episode 3: “INTERNET OVERDOSE.”