Interview with Eunyoung Choi, producer and co-founder at Science SARU about Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Date: 2020 January 17 06:57

Posted by Joe

We're currently really enjoying anime studio Science SARU's latest show Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!. It's a delightful series that really captures of the passion, joy and excitement of being anime fan. Not only that, but it enthusiastically explains what makes certain anime titles so great.

Along the for the imaginative ride it takes us on we were keen to find out more. The good folks at anime streaming service Crunchyroll helped us by sending us an interview with Eunyoung Choi who is producer and co-founder of Science SARU. They've even let us publish the interview ahead of their news letter.

Full Story

So Science Saru has been making a lot of films recently. There's Night is Short, Walk on Girl which I absolutely adored, uh, Ride Your Wave which I cannot wait to see, uh do you see Science Saru doing more film production or are you balancing film and television series?



Yeah um, we're trying to find the balance of more ya know feature film and also ya know more TV production as well. Because , ya know, making feature film is like a dream right? So there's a lot of enjoyment and also putting the film in the cinema is like an amazing thing to do. But on the other hand, making TV series is like a , you like that kind of speed and working with the new talent and also some young generation ya know trying to work on some new ideas and then there's different (?image?) and (vibe?), and we love them both and then by doing the TV shows we can renew talent and searching for new talent and also eager for new ideas and new talents but that is good for us because otherwise we just stick with the same system or same people and the way we do is always kind of repeating, ya know, but by doing TV show we kind of struggle more and then trying to find more people and more people to talk and ya know, it's kind of the good challenge.

Speaking of good challenges, Science Saru employs much different animation techniques than most anime studios. Would you care to talk about your thoughts on Science Sarus' unique approach to animation.

We are kind of very different, I mean, we I guess we are the same as other studios like, in a some part, most of part to be honest, like 70%. It's kind of same system, the way we work is the same. The process is not that different. But that like 30% for example like using new software and if we have some like, more efficient tool, we are, we don't hesitate to ya know, test or use so we also have a lot of people outside of Japan so very multicultural but ya know still like majority of animators or talent are Japanese but on the other hand we are very open to the people outside of Japan as well. So there's a lot of idea changing in the studios and also we try to open, ya know, our mind to the new talents and also new tools if we can make it something more efficient, we are very open minded. We've tried to keep that, ya know, like that. Yeah, so we use for example, first feature film Lu Over the Wall done all Flash animation. That is a whole nother (?). Of course we mix with the love of animation with the hand-drawn, traditional animation but after that we complete that, ya know, a film with the, ya know, Flash animation. And with very small team. It's about like, 8 people. Like, Flash animators.

Could you describe Eizouken for me?

Ok. Um, yeah, Eizouken it's about 3 high school girls and trying to make animation. And there's a lot of enjoyable moments, and I don't know, it shows their imagination sometimes and then Yuasa made a really magical moment in that ya know, episode, a lot of moments, scenes, are so beautiful, and then also you can enjoy a lot. There are so many ideas, ya know, yeah I think you guys will totally enjoy it.

I noticed in the first episode that the world of Eizouken feels very fantastical, but still grounded in reality. It feels like the characters of the anime are almost self aware that they are in an anime, they realize they're in a fantastical environment. How did you convey that on screen? How did you convey the magic and also the reality at the same time of making an anime in these characters lives?

So basically what you saw, those like really imaginally world, is what they are imagining, right? So that's very important that like, Oh why do you have, ya know, like, she thinks something and then we kind of show that ya know, idea, so to make that idea special, we need to make that the reality. The real, like subtle reality. So daily life we show that, ya know, very realistic way and then also when they're imagining something, the setting of the imagination is ya know, like that. Like, it's amazing. Yeah.

Do you have any final thoughts you'd like to give to people who either are gonna watch Eizouken or are fans of Science Saru in general.

I mean, if you're interested in Science Saru project, ya know what we are making, then there are so many ideas in Eizouken, especially Masaaki Yuasa put so much like, unique and enjoyable ideas in Eizouken. On the other hand, if you are a big fan of anime you'll love to see the process of how we make the animation. So if you're an animation fan, I think there's so many things you can enjoy in the series.

Is there any other message you'd like to send to anime fans in the West just in general? Anything you'd like to say to the anime watching public at large?

I mean, the, I think, I studied outside of Japan, animation I studied in London, but on the other hand I'm working in the animation industry in Japan but there is a lot of struggle and it's hard to make anime because there's certain, very limited time and limited budget, but on the other hand, there's a lot of creative freedom, and there's a lot of enjoyable moments. And then I, hopefully people understand, ya know, enjoy those moments as well so yeah, I mean, ya know, there's so many great animation coming out from Japan so please keep checking all those animations, I can't say enough it's amazing, all of them.

==========================================================

Otaku News would like to thank Crunchyroll for letting us publish this interview before them! Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! can be enjoyed now on Crunchyroll.