2019: A Sea Odyssey: An Interview with the Makers of “Children of the Sea”

2019: A Sea Odyssey: An Interview with the Makers of “Children of the Sea”

October 31st, 2019

W.R. Miller

As a young girl, Ruka Azumi had an amazing encounter with the sea life in her father’s aquarium, as they gathered and looked at her through the sea window. Years later, as a 14-year-old junior high student, she crosses paths with two boys, brothers, who are able to breathe and talk underwater, both raised by dugongs. As their relationship progresses, she also acquires the ability to breathe underwater. Mysteriously, a mysterious phenonemon is drawing schools of sea creatures toward Japan. What’s going on? Ruka’s attempts to find out lead her into a bizarre and colorful sea odyssey—sort of an underwater version of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s the story of Children of the Sea, in which its director, Ayumu Watanabe, admits to “subconscious” inspiration to 2001.

The film is a condensed adaptation of the five-volume manga by Daisuke Igarashi. It is produced by Studio 4°C (Tekkonkinkreet, Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight). The music comes from Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite composer, Joe Hisaishi.

Watanabe and the film’s CG director, Kenichiro Akimoto, promoted Children of the Sea during its North American premiere at the Animation is Film Festival in Los Angeles on October 19th. I had the pleasure of speaking with both.

Bob Miller: Same question for both of you. How did you become involved in animation?

Kenichiro Akimoto: I actually come from a videogame background. But I’ve always really liked animation and I just couldn’t give that up. So I left the videogame world behind and went into animating.

Ayumu Watanabe: I was a huge fan of manga. And so Doraemon is something I grew up with. At first I wanted to be a manga artist. When I was 15 I saw the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind animation and that’s when I was like, “I want to be an animator.”

Bob Miller: So Miyazaki is one of your inspirations, right? For both of you?

Junko Godo (translator): So, Miyazaki, yes, he [Kenichiro Akimoto] was then. But Akimoto-san here, he actually grew up watching director Watanabe’s Doraemon.

Akimoto: Yeah. So, that’s what inspiration comes. So I would have been truly grateful, when his Doraemon were out.

Bob Miller: Fantastic. So, Mr. Watanabe would be sensei?

Akimoto: Yeah.

Watanabe: (flattered) Noooo.

Junko Godo: No, he’s the senior. (We all laugh)

Bob Miller: Okay. What was your inspiration for this film, for Children of the Sea?

Watanabe: Of course, the original manga, which is by Daisuke Igarashi. That is the basis of the entire film and the story. But, for myself, as far as the art goes, I pull from this artist named Eiko Tanaka in Japan. And so I drew inspiration from that artist, as well as the original to develop the look.

So, for me, the scene that were in the original where the life and the universe. Those were the themes that inspire me the most. Where does life come from? Where is life going? How is it evolving?

Bob Miller: Okay. So what was your [Kenichiro Akimoto] role in the making of this film?

Akimoto: My role was the 3D and the CG and the compositing of all that. As far as the key visuals go, I myself and couple others, the staff members, were the key visualization and just overseeing all of them. (laughs)

Bob Miller: What software did you use?

Akimoto: 3D Maya and After Effects. And Photoshop.

Bob Miller: How were you able to blend it so well with the hand-drawn look?

Akimoto: There wasn’t any exactly a technical bar. The folks on the CG side would send over whatever they had was just to the hand-drawn side, and vice versa. So it would kind of go back and forth. So the hand-drawn side would add more information to the CG and then the CG hopefully would add their information. And they were vice versa.

Bob Miller: So what innovations does Children of the Sea have over your previous films? What advancement of technique or technology was there?

Watanabe: For us, I think, because there’s such a huge hand-drawn component, was actually going away from the tech and going towards the old-school. The original hand-drawn.

So, for example, our references for weight, our 2D references, actually go back to Pinocchio, like those days. And also, in Japan, there was The Legend Of The White Snake (1958). That’s an older film in Japan, as well. Everything from those hand-drawn days. So I think in that way, yeah, we actually had to go back in time in order to achieve what we did.

Bob Miller: I see. Well, what research have you done to make this film?

Akimoto: So we would go to aquariums, go on location. There was actually a university group (Tsubaka University) that specializes in movement of marine life. So we work with them very closely.

Junko Godo: And, as the director mentioned, we also did look in Pinocchio but also Miyazaki’s, how they depicted water and fish and also Director Otsuka, as well. So just to research what has been done when it comes to water and fish.

Bob Miller: So the water was hand-drawn or CG?

Akimoto: Both.

Bob Miller: Okay. Weathering With You, they had the same approach?

Akimoto: Most of them do composition. The single mixture was better composition I think. I actually want to ask Director Shinkai what was their process and mixture of hand-drawn and the CG, as well. But, yeah, could be similar. But different approach. So that’s the background.

Bob Miller: So are all the characters keyframed? No cel shading or motion capture?

Akimoto: All keyframed, no mo cap.

Bob Miller: Wow. That’s great. Can I ask what the budget was?

Akimoto: I don’t know. (laughs)

Watanabe: Yeah. I think we went over budget compared to any other animation. So we don’t have any numbers, but according to our producer Eiko Tanaka, she had to really put a lot effort to it.

Our creator is very happy with the situation. Because, a lot of times, most are consensus. Even if you’re not satisfied with different tests, if I’m just going, “Oh, we have to see our schedule. Or just not enough money.” And you’re just going to reach out to the world. That’s the thing. But in our situation, we were able to keep good tests and developing what we envisioned until we’re satisfied with it.

Bob Miller: Okay. Mr. Watanabe, did you storyboard the whole film yourself? Or did you have a team of storyboard artists?

Watanabe: Yeah. I did all the storyboards.

Bob Miller: How long did it take you?

Watanabe: I would say a long time. Maybe just shy of two years. There were even time when they’ll prep me in a room like this. And I couldn’t leave until I was finished. I had to be in a room.

Bob Miller: That’s a lot of attention to detail, I would think.

Watanabe: Yeah. Because I was having my crew in mind. They are the first people to see the storyboard. They added in color as much as possible, as well. So, that helped with storyboard.

Bob Miller: Okay. I was speaking with Mamoru Hosoda from last year, Mirai. He said that the anime industry is shifting more towards 3D CG. Do you prefer to stay with the hybrid hand-drawn look? Or are you going to go eventually into 3D CG?

Akimoto: I really don’t much prefer 3D. I think as far as just your numbers of animation out there that are 100% 3D, it’ll probably grow.

Bob Miller: Okay. What makes Children of the Sea so special? Why should, in your opinion, audiences come to see it?

Watanabe: So I think this is special because we’re portraying the everyday. And for people to realize that there’s beauty in the everyday, whether you’re just like walking around the streets. And to just gain a new perspective about your everyday, about what goes, sort of enriched about what may seem very humdrum. There’s actually more to see than you realize.

Bob Miller: For both of you, what do you know now that you wish that you had known when you began your careers?

Akimoto: I had this bad habit in the past of when there was something challenging, I would just kind of not do anything. I would kind of be frozen, in a frozen state. But the key–I’ve realized later on being older–is that you just need to keep doing something, move something, make mistakes, learn from it. You need to do that process of stay firm so you can learn to get through it. So that would be my advice.

Watanabe: I started as an animator. So I would say, to have been able to tell myself that the world doesn’t revolve around drawing. There’s the movies. There’s theater. There’s so many faces of expression.

Yeah. You can express a lot from drawing one line. But if you’re drawing on the paper, you need to find out what your own philosophy is about life and the bigger world. And learn English. (We all laugh)

Kenichiro Akimoto and Ayumu Watanabe

Bob Miller: What challenges did you have in the making of this film that you overcome? And how did you overcome them?

Akimoto: So from the CG direction point of view was the difficult point was to get things hands on softer. [user-friendly] But that’s not something you can replicate through a computer. We overcame that.

Kenichi Konishi was the character designer. So with his help we just went back and forth researching what makes the movement when you’re doing CG, what makes it more natural or just softer to bring it to that 2D feel.

Watanabe: What was the challenging thing for me was to [adapt] many volumes. So bringing the many volumes of the original manga and condensing it to a feature film. So we to have to make it a compact story, covering all five volumes.

Bob Miller: How was the collaboration between you and the author/illustrator of the manga?

Watanabe: So, the story was self-created and then the storyboard were discussed amongst us. And there was a lullaby song that’s in the movie, he actually wrote that himself.

Bob Miller: I bet he was very happy with the end result, right?

Watanabe: After, I never talked to him in person or anything. I’m only a little bit frightened. Indirectly. (laughs) But I did hear he was very proud that we had finished.

Bob Miller: Oh, okay. (we all laugh) Is there anything else that people should know about the film?

Watanabe: So the story, is not a someone getting in trouble or it’s a mystery that has to be solved and you know who the criminal is. It’s not a very linear story like that. But we’re hoping by watching the film that the people are just exposed to, “Oh, this is a person struggling.” And then their relationship then with the ocean, which then connects to the space and the kind of universe. So being able to walk out with a feel of connectedness in the flow of the entire movie.

I’m hoping that the film will be instantly perceived differently from person to person. That’s how the film will end. So it will have multiple interpretations from person to person. That’s kind of the license we’re doing.

Bob Miller: Okay. What is your goal? And what is your next project?

Watanabe: We’re starting to work on something else right now.

Bob Miller: And it is what?

Watanabe: (laughs) I can’t talk about it. But I can say that it is something that does celebrate life and that theme.

Bob Miller: Okay. So it’s a fantasy? Or a romance?

Watanabe: A little bit of fantasy romance in it.

Bob Miller: Okay. Very good. Well, thank you very much.

During its theatrical run in Japan, Children of the Sea earned US $2,221,161. For America, GKIDS has acquired distribution rights and will be releasing the film sometime “soon.”

Special thanks to Junko Goda, translator; Hilda Somarriba and Melanie Márquez, Prism Media Group.

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W.R. Miller

W.R. Miller - known informally as “Bob” – has written for Starlog, Comics Scene, Animation Magazine and Animation World Magazine. Bob has been involved in animation for two decades, as a writer, character animator, special effects animator, and storyboard artist - For more information about Bob, check his website: http://wrmilleronline.com/.

He has just completed Batman: The Animated Interviews, a five-volume work featuring the executives, producers, directors, writers, actors, designers, storyboard artists and composers involved with the making of Batman: The Animated Series and its spinoffs. BearManor Media is the publisher.