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How the Record of Ragnarok Director and Series Composition Writer Created a Faithful Adaptation

by Kate Sánchez & Kim Morrissy,

The Record of Ragnarok anime is an incredibly faithful adaptation of artist Azychika, original creator Shinya Umemura, and narrative composer Takumi Fukui's manga. The series has intense fight sequences, but that's not all; it also gives audiences retellings of myths and legends.

“We tried to be faithful to the source material in that regard. It's the same with the action. Each character has an emotional backbone that greatly influences their fight. This is linked to the appeal of the story, which has an emotional side that exists beyond the clash of blows,” said director Masao Ōkubo.

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When the first season aired on Netflix, the manga wasn't available in English. Now that the manga is available in English-speaking markets, Okubo said that the team feels no particular pressure when adapting the source material.

“Generally speaking, we hope that people unfamiliar with the source material will be able to experience Record of Ragnarok for the first time through the anime. We're also conscientious about ensuring that the overall impression of the story doesn't change even if you have already read the manga.”

“It was possible to add things through the visual presentation, but we purposely avoided even doing that. That said, we did have to cut a certain portion of material from the second season because the manga used more pages relative to the first season. But I don't think that the overall impression should change.”

The anime does make a slight change to how the stands are depicted. “We decided from the first season that the humans would sit to the left of the VIP seats (where Zeus and the others are positioned), and the gods would sit to the right. In the manga, it looks like there is no regular pattern to that, so we decided to avoid confusion by allocating specific areas for them. We didn't particularly intend on changing the design.”

The visual style evolves in the second season, especially with more unique takes on gods and humans, like Buddha and Raiden Tameemon. In response to that observation, Okubo commented, “I didn't particularly intend on changing the style, but because most of the animation staff from season 1 carried on to the second season, I wonder if they got used to the unique characters.”

Meanwhile, the script team has its own way of handling the manga's unique pacing and narrative style.

“First, I think about where would be a good place to end the episode. After we decide that, it's time to put the manga's script to paper,” remarked series composition writer Yuka Yamada. “However, there are a lot of cases where there is too much dialogue to fit in properly, so it can be tricky figuring out how to compress it for anime length. We cut down the parts you can grasp by looking at the visuals, and we sometimes extend lines to make them easier to understand aurally. At the meetings, we reviewed the writers' scripts and brushed them up.”

Because the team aimed to adapt the original work faithfully from the start, Yamada said that they never worried about running out of material to cover. “We didn't think, 'Let's fit this many battles into each season.' Instead, we thought, 'Let's depict the manga's events in order within the span of a season.'”

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While working on faithfully adapting the manga story, the project was an excellent opportunity to build her knowledge of myths and legends. When asked if the team did original research on those topics or looked solely to the manga for inspiration instead, Yamada responded, “The gods and humans in this series are all famous figures. I was already familiar with some of their stories and others not so much, so I did look into what legends were passed down. Also, one of the scriptwriters, Takamitsu Kouno, was a fan of Greek myths, so I listened to his stories whenever we were at the script meetings. It was fun exchanging opinions with everyone.”

The staff enjoyed rooting for different characters throughout the production. “Although there are parts that differ from historical fact or legend, the original work gave birth to such wonderful characters,” Yamada remarked. “I could easily accept how the characters developed their personalities because of their pasts. It goes without saying that the way the battles are depicted is a big appeal, but the story of each of the characters' lives is also very charming. When I learn about a character's past, I come to like them more and more, and then I start having the impossible wish of wanting both contestants to win.”

Narratively, Record of Ragnarok II doesn't use humanity's finest as its champions. In fact, the gods seem to have more honorable champions. This is particularly true for the first battle of the season, Hercules versus Jack the Ripper. Okubo said he casually asked the staff who they rooted for in the matches.

“Apparently, almost everyone subconsciously roots for the human side as they're reading. Even when there's a god character they like, they still end up leaning toward the humans before they know it, they say. I wonder if it's because the human warriors are flawed in a lot of different ways that you just end up rooting for them.”

“Even within that group of sorry misfits, Jack is an outlier, but I think there are elements in his backstory that are easy to relate to.”

Among the characters in season 2, Okubo said that he was most fond of Hercules. “At first, I thought he was only capable of saying the same thing over and over, but he stood fast by his sense of justice throughout his human life—even to the verge of his death. I found it very moving.”

As for what kind of hypothetical god vs. human matchups the director would like to see, he said, “I've never even thought about it. I think that the manga is so wildly creative and unique in its setup that I wouldn't be able to come up with matchups more interesting than what it shows.”

Yamada said, “I can't think of any gods off the top of my head, I'd like to see the warrior monk Benkei or maybe Onihei. Joan d'Arc and Cleopatra would also be good choices. What kind of character would they be in the world of Record of Ragnarok, I wonder…? It's fun to think about.”

What would the team like to do next? Okubo said he would like to try something battle-oriented, while Yamada spoke about events in the Record of Ragnarok manga that are still yet to be portrayed in the anime. She said she was looking forward to the appearance of a character that struck her as she was reading the manga.


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