Mononoke, Kurayukaba, My Oni Girl Directors Discuss Favorite Scenes From Each Other's Movies

AnimeJapan is already known for its fun stage events featuring the cast of upcoming and some classic anime series. However, AnimeJapan 2024 added a brand new stage area: the Creation Stage. Unlike the three main stages at AnimeJapan, the Creation Stage is for the people behind the anime to discuss their creative process. We're talking about directors, producers, and animators, among others. It's a vastly different experience from the stage events featuring the voice cast and gives fans a unique look into an anime series or movie production process.

The last show on the Creation Stage at AnimeJapan 2024 showcased a trio of directors — Kenji Nakamura, Tomotaka Shibayama, and Shigeyoshi Tsukahara — from the anime production studio Twin Engine to discuss their upcoming films.

As the show opened, fans were treated to a little introduction to each of the directors and a preview of their upcoming works: Kurayukaba and Kuramerukagari from Tsukahara, Gekijōban Mononoke: Karakasa from Nakamura, and My Oni Girl from Shibayama. While Nakamura and Shibayama are well-established in the anime industry, the two movies by Tsukahara are some of his first forays into the anime film world. And seeing the previews for both Kurayukaba and Kuramerukagari, we saw his unique vision and style — a sort of late Taishō to early Shōwa era aesthetic — throughout.

After the introductions, the show's host asked the directors their favorite parts of their respective films, beginning with Tsukahara. As there were two movies by Tsukahara, he began with a shot from Kurayukaba. We saw an underground city in it, and Tsukahara explained how the cut symbolizes the movie. After briefly explaining, Tsukahara moved on to a shot from Kuramerukagari featuring two sticks of yakitori grilled chicken. It was a delectable shot, to say the least, and Tsukahara noted where Kurayukaba he put a little thought into, for Kurmerukagari he went with one of his hobbies, yakitori. He even recommended a yakitori store in Uguisudani, Tokyo, called Sasa no Ya.

After talking about his favorite scenes, it was revealed to Tsukahara that Shibayama had also seen Tsukahara's choices and had some opinions on the matter. Shibayama noted how, in both scenes, we could see the unique setting, Tsukahara's personality, and the connection with his staff shines through. At Shibayama's kind words, Tsukahara responded by explaining that there was no physical office for the staff to meet and everything was done on Discord. For Tsukahara, this allowed him to see all the chit-chat between the staff, which likely helped create those connections.

Following Tsukahara's favorite scenes was Shibayama and his new movie My Oni Girl. However, before going into his favorite scene, Shibayama noted two things: he thinks Tsumugi, the movie's heroine, is cute and that the movie itself is a bittersweet boy meets girl story, making it a relatively straightforward love story. And so his favorite scene would depict this, right? In a certain sense, yes. But, the scene he selected featured the series protagonist, Hiragi, and Tsumugi hitchhiking. After showing the scene, Shibayama noted that hitchhiking defined the first half of the movie as a road trip, as the two main characters developed their relationship.

Unfortunately, Nakamura and Tsukahara did not comment on Shibayama's favorite scene. This would have been nice, especially considering it would have given fans more insight into Shibayama's mindset when creating My Oni Girl.

Finally, Nakamura had a chance to speak on his new Mononoke movie. For his favorite scene, Nakamura selected a hand that lingered over a box. It may seem odd to many fans, but when developing the scene, Nakamura wanted to make it erotically cool. To Nakamura's surprise, three directors related to the art made the scene even more erotically cool than he expected. When shown the scene for the first time, Nakamura expressed that he was almost at a loss for words and praised the directors.

Tsukahara had also seen the video clip beforehand, and when asked about it, he talked about how it was overwhelming. But not in a way that would leave one stupefied, but rather full of powerful imagery. Listening intently to Tsukahara's comments, Nakamura noted how Mononoke is a work with more restrictions than requests. Where other anime will allow certain performances or artistic techniques, Nakamura and his team had some restrictions placed on them. However, even with those restrictions levied on Nakamura's team, we see, at least in the clip, the work they put into the movie is impeccable. It also gives credence to the idea that creativity is born through the restrictions placed on the creator.

It's exciting to hear directors talk about their favorite moments in their works. Where we as fans may like a particular action scene or interpersonal character moment, Nakamura, Shibayama, and Tsukahara focus on aspects of production, aesthetics, and hobbies. Hearing the comments from their fellow directors about their favorite moments offers insight into how they view their contemporary's works. To be honest, I was not interested in the movies before attending the stage show. But hearing the directors talk about their works passionately has me anticipating each movie's release. Of the four movies, My Oni Girl will be available on Netflix globally, and Kurayukaba and Kuramerukagari will be available on Crunchyroll. Here's hoping we learn more about Mononoke in the coming months.