Interview: Yōhei Kameyama on His Breakout Hit, Milky☆Subway
by Richard Eisenbeis,
“I was a normal student in elementary, middle, and high school. I was the type who liked movies—mainly Hollywood movies. After graduating from high school, because I was quite interested in Hollywood culture, I studied abroad in California for two and a half years,” Kameyama began. “I took classes in art history for two years at a community college, and then I was supposed to transfer to the animation department at San Jose State University—which is quite famous for its animation program. However, the tuition was a bit high. Luckily, I found 3D animation surprisingly easy once I tried it. I thought that maybe I could study it in Japan as well as in America, so I ended up switching to a vocational school in Japan.”
“I made Milky☆Highway as my vocational school graduation project. Since I would be getting a regular company job after graduating, I thought I probably wouldn't get another chance to create my own original anime. I wanted to create a piece that incorporated all the ideas I'd always wanted to include. That was the starting point—the beginning,” Kameyama told me.
But what was the big inspiration for what would become his first viral hit? Disney's Steamboat Willie. “I once read in a book that the fusion of music and animation in that cartoon was incredibly innovative—and that's what made it so popular. I've always wanted to create a work where music and visuals are linked in that way,” Kameyama explained. “For Milky☆Highway, I created the visuals all by myself. For the music, I had two people help out—or rather, there were two people in charge of the music. There were also several voice actors.”
To get from that concept to the final short film, Kameyama focused on the look of the anime. “Because this was an animated work, I thought that ordinary, everyday scenery would look too plain. As for the two main female characters, rather than being ordinary humans, I wanted people to be intrigued by their unusual appearance at a glance—so I designed them to have that slightly unconventional look,” Kameyama continued. “In other words, instead of thinking too deeply about the setting, I focused on creating a striking first impression—that's how I created that world and character design.”
The biggest challenge facing Kameyama was one of inexperience. “Milky☆Highway was truly the first project I ever properly created, so everything was new to me. I was starting from scratch, feeling my way through it all. So, asking voice actors to provide voices and then creating animation to match them was also a first for me. Therefore, the biggest risk was that everything was new and unpredictable,” Kameyama went on to say. “What I really wanted to do was to fuse music and animation. So, I think the most challenging part was coordinating the composers and the animation side to match the visuals with the music.”
And as for how it turned out? “I was surprised. I'd drawn pictures here and there and uploaded them to the internet before, but I never got any kind of big reaction. So I thought with Milky☆Highway, a moderate amount of people would see it and then be done with it. But when you look at the results, it was quite a hit—or at least it received a lot of praise,” Kameyama told me. “Before I created Milky☆Highway, I didn't really have anything to brag about. It was really only after it that I felt like I became someone who was recognized by the world.”
However, his biggest takeaway was that his project had fans beyond the Japanese corner of the net. “It made me realize that works that fuse music and animation can be enjoyed by people from any country—regardless of language. Milky☆Highway gave me the opportunity to reaffirm the power of that kind of directorial style.”
After graduating and working at a company for a while, Kameyama decided to quit his day job and strike out on his own. “I received an offer directly from Shin-Ei Animation asking if I'd like to create a project for them. Since the two main characters, Chiharu and Makina, were quite popular thanks to Milky☆Highway, I thought it would be nice to make a sequel to their story. Thus Milky☆Subway was born as an anime continuation of Milky☆Highway.”
Of course, the most obvious difference between Milky☆Highway and Milky☆Subway is their length—with the latter being a twelve-episode short-form series instead of a single short episode. Despite this, Kameyama handled the vast majority of the new anime alone, just as he had done for Milky☆Highway. “When it comes to the characters, I did everything. I also did 100% of the animation myself. […] I was completely responsible for the dialogue, screenplay, and directing.”
However, that's not to say he was overworked. “Rather than having to let go of or give up anything, from the planning stage on, I had a pretty good idea of what I could do on my own,” Kameyama said. “Since I was able to decide everything myself—including having control over the total amount of work—I didn't really have to give up any power. However, there were some things, like modeling small props and lighting, that I had to ask other people to do. […] I entrusted the parts that could be left to others to others—and there weren't really any difficult decisions to make.”
Or to put it another way, scheduling and communications were key. “Having a clear schedule helps determine how much attention to detail is needed on the current task, and when to stop. I think that meetings and scheduling are as crucial as animation and how entertaining the anime is.”
One important aspect of why both Milky☆Highway and Milky☆Subway have seen such success is in their writing—especially their far from usual dialogue. “I watch a lot of Hollywood movies. When I watch them dubbed in Japanese, I think the way the characters speak sounds a bit overly theatrical, but when I watch them in English, the way they speak is quite natural, or rather, it feels like they're not trying too hard.” Kameyama explained. “And when I watch Spielberg's movies, there are quite a few moments where the dialogue overlaps. When I see that, I feel like it creates a realism where it's not just written lines, but rather people who are actually living and thinking about what to say in that moment—speaking in the context of their lives. So, I consciously try to create dialogue that feels natural, so that viewers would feel that the characters they are watching are not just fictional characters, but living people.”
The other aspect of Milky☆Highway and Milky☆Subway that stands out is the character design. “In the case of hand-drawn animation, the character designs shine precisely because they are hand-drawn. But in my work, I use 3D characters. Therefore, I think things like the texture, such as the feel of skin, come out more realistically when compared to hand-drawn animation. So, if I were to draw an ordinary human [for a 3D work], it would be a bit of a waste,” Kameyama told me.
“Incorporating non-human elements, such as an alien-like appearance or robotic elements, is one way to make 3D character designs look unique,” he continued. “This is especially true with robots. The textures of metal and plastic can be shown much more clearly in 3D, so I consciously design characters that clearly highlight the differences in texture. That's why Makina's face looks like a CRT TV.”
The other side of the character design equation comes from the fact that the character's clothes are far more than just set dressing. “Regarding the clothing, there's the element of making it visually striking, but also the element of expressing the character's personality. I try to be mindful of that balance when deciding on the outfits,” Kameyama said to me. “In other anime, if the world is a fantasy or a school setting, everyone wears uniforms—which can make it difficult to express the characters' personalities [through clothing]. In my case, I didn't have those kinds of constraints. In my setting, everyone wears what they like. So I was able to freely design their outfits while keeping their personalities in mind.”
One thing that sets Milky☆Subway apart from many short-form anime is that it was adapted into a feature film as well. “Shin-Ei Animation, the production company, had previously worked on several projects that transitioned from television broadcast to theatrical release. So I was told that Milky Subway might follow a similar pattern—though it was only a possibility,” Kameyama told me of the film's genesis. “It wasn't decided from the beginning—the decision to produce a theatrical film came after the 12 episodes were completed.”
The big issue Kameyama faced in adapting was pacing—especially since many episodes end with jokes, allowing time to laugh while the credits roll. “Since the story was originally divided into 12 episodes, combining them into a single story and completing it as a one-film was extremely challenging,” Kameyama explained. “One approach [to fixing the pacing] was to first create several additional clips, adding new scenes of police officers Ryoko and the new character, Asami, and then inserting those clips as transitions. We also tried inserting landscape shots, or any other method to gloss over the gaps [where the credits should have been].”
All that said, Kameyama has mixed feelings about the final product. “The film far exceeded the production team's original target figures, so I think it's fair to call it a success. However, as a director, there are many things I'm not satisfied with, and many areas where I want to improve next time.”
Looking to the future, Kameyama hopes this is not the last we'll see of the Milky☆Subway heroes. “I'm not sure if it'll continue, but I do want it to,” he earnestly told me. “I have a lot of ideas I really want to do. I have ideas for a continuation of Chiharu and Makina's story, and on the other hand, I also have a lot of ideas for spin-offs focusing on supporting characters like Akane. However, my current mentality is that I've gotten to where I feel it's getting too difficult to do it all by myself. I'm currently in a situation where I need to start by setting up a proper production environment.”
To close things out, Kameyama gave his thoughts on short-form anime and what type of anime he's likely to make going forward: “There have been more than a few comments saying that [Milky☆Subway] was easy to watch because it was short. And it's been said that nowadays, only short videos on TikTok and similar platforms can keep people's attention span. I think three-and-a-half minutes is just the right length to capitalize on that.”
“I found the format of telling a complete story over several three-and-a-half-minute episodes to be quite interesting when I tried it. I'd like to continue using this format a few more times in the future,” Kameyama concluded. “On the other hand, there are many things I'm not happy with about the theatrical version we made this time, so I'd like to make a properly structured film sometime as well.”
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