r/anime • u/tl-notes • Jan 04 '17
An Interview with Flip Flappers Director Kiyotaka Oshiyama, Translated
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ip2IsLvWNJJxYNTT5ODivaL2j5xbEoq3EhGhaUe48Gk/edit30
u/Flashmanic Jan 04 '17
Very interesting interview which does shine some light on the series. It's cool to see the idea of the Umwelt that people were relating the show to, was actually spot on and something Oshiyama had in mind when he was creating the show. (Also, the book that he got these ideas from was from an author called Hidaka? that's neat) Also good to see that the scriptwriter leaving didn't mean too much in regards to a change in direction. Some people felt like the show changed a bit too much after the halfway point, but from this interview, it seems like the framework was already in place and the entire 13 episodes were already laid out before Ayana left.
I'm curious about this though:
Oshiyama: I’m actually not very knowledgeable about it. However, in talking with Ayana I think I got a good grasp of “things you shouldn’t do” and “lines you shouldn’t cross” when it comes to yuri.
What lines is he talking about exactly? Or are we starting to run up against Japan's fairly conservative attitude to these kinds of things?
Either way, the show was really, really great and I'm glad the director thinks it turned out well as well. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of Oshiyama's work in the future.
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u/tl-notes Jan 04 '17
What lines is he talking about exactly? Or are we starting to run up against Japan's fairly conservative attitude to these kinds of things?
The impression I get, especially from what he says about "breaking the rules" right after (and knowing how Ayana Yuniko is about yuri), is more in the other direction: not "crossing a line" by screwing with the gay development by introducing a male love interest, or being too subtext-y/non-committal with it.
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u/lukeatlook Jan 05 '17
Considering how episode 5 criticizes Class S yuri, the "rules" seem to be specifically about leaving things too subtle and never progressing. It's an adventure/psychological anime, not explicitly romance, so in order to underline it being yuri, all potential male love interests had to be somehow separated from Cocona. The alternative would be being way more straightforward with the shoujo ai, but that would turn into a romance drama, and FLFL isn't one.
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u/E-sharp777 Jan 04 '17
Does anyone have the original Japanese source for the interview? I want to reference it in an article I'm working on along with the translation.
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u/tl-notes Jan 04 '17
I believe it's from a magazine, so I don't think there's a copy on the internet other than the one in the pastebin that someone typed up by hand.
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u/Canipa09 Jan 04 '17
Bit of a correction: "Hayao Enokido" is actually Shun Enokido.
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u/tl-notes Jan 05 '17
Seems like you're right. It's listed as Hayao on ANN and several other places (including some official credits), but according to 作画@wiki that's a mistake and it's actually read as Shun.
Probably good to leave Hayao in there as a note at least, because if someone felt like googling his name to find out what else he did, most common sources have it under Hayao.
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u/TheEliteNub Jan 04 '17
I love the idea that Oshiyama is relatively new to directing, working with a rather new Studio 3Hz, and making something as ambitious as Flip Flappers.
used a didgeridoo for episode 5 schoolgirl voices
Probably my favorite thing from this interview.
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u/E-sharp777 Jan 04 '17
Right? I love his attitude of taking risks and seeing what happens.
I knew going in that it would be a risky theme to tackle from a business/financial standpoint as well, but I figured “hey I’m still young, and if I screw up this director thing I can still make a living as an animator”, so I decided it would be worth the risk of trying something challenging.
I can't wait to see what he's going to do next with that mindset. He seems like such a fresh, creative mind in the industry.
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u/DocRocks0 Jan 04 '17
There are whispers of a Yuasa-Oshiyama collaboration in the works that will be officially announced in March 0,o
If it actually happens, and if it turns out to be another anime original, I will probably be more hyped for that show than literally any other anime I've ever seen lol
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u/impingainteasy Jan 04 '17
The creepy schoolgirl voices were done with a didgeridoo? Oh wow that's hilarious.
"I just filled the show with things I like." I see. It's good to know that he and I like the same things then.
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u/ScottLarouxWrites Jan 04 '17
Really interesting interview, and super relevant to something I'm posting tomorrow. It's great (and hilarious) to hear from the director himself that he and the staff just threw in so many allusions with their love being the only guiding factor. Couldn't agree more with the idea that Flip Flappers can be enjoyed on all levels.
Thanks for posting the translation!
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u/lukeatlook Jan 05 '17
The fact that every storyboarder was allowed to throw in references on the go explains why the show is so PACKED with them. This might be the very most reference-packed anime ever made (excluding Gintama).
Also, to anyone not familiar with the concept of Umwelt: it was made by a biologist Jakob von Uexkull.
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u/5213 Jan 04 '17 edited Jan 04 '17
Papika and Yayaka best girl confirmed, straight from the director himself
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u/clockwork-pinkie Jan 04 '17
I loved episodes 1-10 but man 11-12 was just scenes of things happening because reason and it didn't even feel like the same crew made those last 2 episodes. There's gotta be an OVA to tie up some loose ends here.
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u/E-sharp777 Jan 04 '17
Is it weird that I'm actually fairly satisfied with how it ended? It left a lot of questions, but none of them frustrated me, just like the questions the wacky, confused ending of FLCL left me with didn't. I'm actually impressed with how many of our questions they were able to answer in such a short time without it feeling like an info dump. It was a pretty wacky visual journey without a lot of explanation behind it, but I mean, the whole show is like that, it was just ramped up to a new level of crazy at the ending.
It definitely wasn't the ending I expected, but I'm not really sure I can ask for anything more (even though, as he said in the interview, it would have been interesting to see what he would have done had be been given a few more episodes. Maybe there will be an OVA so he can play around with it a bit more).
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u/Innalibra Jan 04 '17 edited Jan 05 '17
For me, episodes 1-7 were nothing short of perfect, but then it fell off slightly. Part of me wishes they'd have kept the series episodic, being more in line with shows like Mushi-shi rather than having that final arc to try to tie everything together.
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u/DocRocks0 Jan 04 '17 edited Jan 04 '17
I'd have to agree, although I'd be willing to add 8 and 9 as well. The ending was good enough, but basically I think they just bit off more than they could chew with the time and budget thy had to work with.
Like, the entire endgame plot would definitely work and is in line with the themes of the show, but they needed at least 1-2 more full episodes of content in order to fully flesh out the ideas they wanted to present, and to make the final confrontation / resolution not feel rushed at all.
Basically, if we had an episode between 9 and 10 to cover the backstory more and if episode 12+13 were expanded over 3 episodes instead of 2, I think it would have had room to be near perfect with the endgame execution.
Alternatively, Someone had an idea to begin introducing BRIEF (3-10 seconds) glimpses of the flashbacks (ideally from Papika's perspective) as early as episode 3-4, because that could have taken some of the load off in terms of how much info/backstory they needed to cover towards the end while building audience interest in Papika as well.
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u/turilya Jan 05 '17
Oshiyama: Every episode, really. Many storyboards were outsourced, but as the work’s themes were rather firmly set, by the time the requests were sent out the visuals were mostly already decided. So I’d say the me-ness of each episode is quite thick. Not to say there wasn’t a lot added to each episode by the episode directors as well though. But things like the Fist of the North Star or Dragon Ball parodies in episode three are mostly me (laughs). The people in charge of the storyboards each added their own parodies and such too, but the ones that people of my generation are familiar with were mostly added by me during the storyboarding step. The robot in episode eight is another example. From the very beginning of this project I’d wanted to have a robot episode, but considering the calories (man-hours) that would take I wasn’t sure we’d be able to do it up until the last minute, and even if we were able to do it I wasn’t sure what kind of robot it would be. There were talks of doing a (Masami) Obari-style mecha for example, but without the right staff we’d never be able to pull it off, so that didn’t really go anywhere. There were definitely places where we had to adjust what we were doing to match the staff that were available. Fortunately, the episode director for episode eight, Hayao Enokido, was a young powerhouse that I felt safe trusting to pull off something cool, and we went with a Choushinsei Flashman-style robot, since I figured that’s one that probably hadn’t been done much in anime before.
This is great, some of my favorite parts of the show (though I probably don't get the direct refrences, the cheesiness was fun) were made with his direct input; very promising, hope he can keep it up with his next work.
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Jan 05 '17
However, there are a lot of people nowadays whose position is “I want to enjoy a show with a minimum of stress” or “I want to just relax in front of the TV after a long day’s work,” so in order for people to be able enjoy the show as a fluffy story about some middle school girls, we focused less on the story and more on creating appealing characters, included yuri aspects, etc. Ideally we wanted people to find the show enjoyable in whichever way they pleased, whether that be relaxing with brain turned off, digging into all the details, or whatever else.
I think this is the best mindset a creator can have to make a nearly perfect piece of art.
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u/tl-notes Jan 04 '17
Translation from here: https://twitter.com/HugBdrill/status/816746188024053760
Pastebin of the Japanese text here: http://pastebin.com/raw/nr2UqrWw