The director breaks down the unique and challenging animation production on his new Netflix anime series about a legendary assassin who falls in love, marries, has kids, and falls out of shape, but must resume old ways to ensure his peaceful new life, streaming January 11.
An exciting, James Bond-adjacent take on familial anime stories, the new Netflix series, , puts the “slice” in slice-of-life anime.Whether it’s bashing villains over the head with crowbars, stabbing hands with box cutters or kicking ass with katanas, ’ deadly protagonist Taro Sakamoto proves that domestic bliss – with a side of love handles – doesn’t make a hitman any less sharp.
“The original work is truly fun and full of fascinating characters,” says director Masaki Watanabe, referring to Yuto Suzuki’s popular manga of the same name serialized since November 2020 in Shueisha’s “Weekly Shonen Jump.” “I really enjoyed directing the animation.”
Available to watch starting Saturday, January 11, centers around “the greatest hitman,” Taro Sakamoto, feared by all villains and revered by all hitmen.
The first episode kicks off by illustrating Sakamoto’s dark and gritty past, as the slender killer takes out bad guys left and right with nothing but a handgun and whatever debris he can find nearby.Sakamoto exits the fight victorious, crowds cheering in his honor.Then, in true slice-of-life anime fashion, Sakamoto falls in love with a convenience store clerk.
It’s love at first sight and, much to the chagrin of his fans, Sakamoto hangs up his weapons, puts on a hot pink “Retired” t-shirt, and weds Aoi.The two have a daughter, open a mom-and-pop store in a quiet town, and then Sakamoto… lets himself go.But to ensure a peaceful life with his beloved family, the legendary ex-hitman bands with comrades to take on a relentless stream of assassin attacks and, despite the post-wedding weight, does quite well.
At least, if the blood on screen is any indicator. This is where the action-packed story of ordinary and extraordinary begins.Check out the trailer: Produced and animated by TMS Entertainment (, , ), Watanabe directs with series composition by Taku Kishimoto and character design by Yo Moriyama.The voice cast features Tomokazu Sugita (Taro Sakamoto); Nobunaga Shimazaki (Shin Asakura); Ayane Sakura (Lu Shaotang); Nao Toyama (Aoi Sakamoto); Hina Kino (Hana Sakamoto); and Ryota Suzuki (Heisuke Mashimo).
“Shonen manga is my specialty genre, but the [] action scenes are still a challenge,” says Watanabe, known for his long-time directorial work on the anime .“I have to be more aggressive in order to develop the seriousness of the original work, because it requires a lot of ingenuity in the way the animations are captivating, and the sound effects and music are heard.” One of the toughest episodes for the production team was Episode 3.“The roller coaster in that episode took a long time,” shares the director, reluctant to share too much about the episode before its release.
“We first created the model in 3D, animated it, and then used rotoscoping techniques.It probably took three times as long as other scenes.” One of the anime’s more visually unique characteristics is the fact that all the vibrant animation is accented with shading and texturization meant to represent paper.This is especially noticeable when looking at the shadows under characters’ chins and the darker folds of shirts, though everything has an overlay of the subtle scratches you’d see on parchment. For Sakamoto’s fighting scenes, it enhances the dark, menacing tones but adds almost a homey, warm feel to sequences where the family is watching TV or eating meals together peacefully. “The texture of the paper was an idea that came from the cinematographer, who wanted to animate the original color illustrations,” explains Watanabe.
“The number of lines had to be reduced for the animation to work, but we also wanted to increase the amount of information with the texture so that the picture would not be bland.” But what’s interesting is that the texturization doesn’t move with the characters and scenes.It stays stationary (pun intended), so it almost looks like scenes, mostly created with Clip Studio Paint and Adobe, are taking place behind a very thin, very clear sheet. “This is part of the ‘filter’ that is applied during compositing,” shares Watanabe.“The paper texture is extracted from the shadow areas of the drawing material and applied only to those areas.
The texture does not follow the character's movements, as this would greatly increase the amount of work required.” And the team already had their hands full with detail work, not only because of this “filter,” as Watanabe calls it, or rotoscoped rollercoasters, but also because of the incredible realism applied to the weapons featured in the series. “Since the work depicts assassins, we positioned their tools as important for the production,” notes Watanabe.“A gun without shine or a knife without sharpness would lose the tension of the fight and would not express the strength of the character using it.” He adds, “However, although the drawing was done in a realistic direction, some of the gimmicks differ in places from the actual specifications.The reason I dared to slide a handgun that is in a no-slide state is to depict the character's showmanship.
Character Heisuke's Mosin-Nagant is not capable of rapid-fire in real life, but we have made it a burst type in order to express the content of the original work as it is.” But that’s been the beauty of anime since the 60s: making the impossible possible with animation.Still, the crew did their due diligence in research. “Our approach to firearms was to first lightly examine the actual guns,” says Watanabe.“And then we would decide whether or not to draw them as they are based on the criteria which could portray the original story in a more appealing manner.” Watanabe shares the biggest challenge for wasn’t so much the complexity of animation but securing talent able to produce the combined vision of Watanabe and Suzuki.
“Since there were few creators present at the production from the beginning, we had to gather freelance creators, which made managing the quality of the work a challenge,” says the director.“But our animation director did a great job on the pictures, and the special effects and cinematography did a great job on the textures.It is difficult to keep up with the production schedule for a TV series because of the large quantity of work involved, but we have built a highly skilled staff.” The Shonen veteran director also says is a “treasure trove of ideas” that makes the work interesting and has given Watanabe a few concepts to chew on as he looks forward to his next Shonen project. “As a director, I felt anew the importance of having effective approaches to drawing,” says Watanabe.
“I would like to explore methods to maintain a certain level of drawing by not only relying on highly skilled animators but also utilizing 3D animation to set up a proper foundation for the platform.I am inspired as an artist by the world view Yuto Suzuki depicts and I feel that I gained a lot of new ideas as a Shonen director.” Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.
Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
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