hoping that our sun will rise

This interview is pretty long so I’m splitting it up into two posts to make it easier for me.

This is an interview between Utsumi Hiroko and a Spoon staff member.

—To begin with, please tell us the details of how you came up with the proposal for SK8.

It all started because the Aniplex producer, Uryu Kyoko, I was working with on my last directorial project “Banana fish” said “let’s make something that you want to make Utsumi-san!” I said I wanted it to be made by the amazing Bones. I’ve skateboarded as a hobby so I’ve always thought if I could make my own original anime, I’d like to make it about skateboarding, so I told them about that and they allowed me to make it.

—How did you come up with the story and the characters?

I can’t do story writing so I told the series writer, Ookouchi Ichirou, about what I wanted to write and he composed a story with that as the base. I think the characters were created in a similar way. I think the second year of high school is the the time you can most enjoy being a student, and I just simply like how they look (lol)

(Back to part 1)

—Speaking of Reki’s family, Reki’s mother is played by Reki’s voice actor’s, Hatanaka Tasuku, real life mother, Fukushima Keiko. The conversations between Reki and his mother feel really warm and just watching them makes me smile.

That’s right, It’s really lovely! The one who did the casting was the sound director, Mima Masafumi, and so we didn’t know about it until the day of recording so it was really surprising. Even after we finished recording Fukushima-san said “Because he has this type of mother he grew to be this type of son” and it seemed kind of…… like she understood(lol). Though while we were recording Hatanaku-san was making a weird face like he couldn’t stand it……(lol). But that also made him seem like he was a boy around that age so it was really charming☆

—So please pay attention to see their real life mother and son interaction, I guess (lol). Now, in episode 4 ADAM finally makes his skating scene debut.

Since he’s a masked character, and since he has that outfit, we figured people would be anticipating him so we really took it as a challenge in our work. We couldn’t just make him a normal enemy, he needed a last boss feeling. We were really focused on showing through his skating that ADAM’s weirdness and craziness isn’t just his looks.

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3 + 4

Chill out comic

After making such big hits as Banana fish, Director Utsumi Hiroko is taking on the much talked about SK8 as her first original anime.  The skateboarding themed show where young boys compete in hot battles has been receiving a lot of feedback. So we asked Director Utsumi about how the show and characters were created and some backstory on the show.

―SK8 is the first original work you’ve worked on, Director Utsumi, so how did the planning for it start?

Utsumi: When it was first brought up, it was right when I first started working on my last work, Banana Fish. The producer Uryu (Kyoko) who worked on that and this said to me, “Let’s make something you want to make next Utsumi-san” but I remember being shocked I was just starting making that series and was really surprised that we were already talking about the next one (lol).

The second half of the interview where we asked Director Utsumi about the backstory to SK8. Director Utsumi said she likes “Animeish anime”, but what were the challenges making SK8? We ask her about the casting selection process and production problems, and then we get a message from her about the final episode. We talked to her about it all.

―Speaking of ADAM, Since he’s voiced by Koyasu Takehito-san, he really has the feeling of a character who doesn’t exist in reality (lol).

Utsumi: That’s right. When we moved into the casting phase I was asked if I had any requests and the only person I could think of for him was Koyasu-san (lol). Of course he’s done a lot of weird characters before, but he really has the prominence of being the strongest character in the series, so to give him that true sense of intimidation it really had to be Koyasu-san.

There is a short manga that is published every week that’s only 2 or 3 pages for each episode! It is called SK8 Chill Out! I’m going through and translating all the ones out so far and I will update this post as the chapters are published to keep them together!

Trick 1

Trick 2

Trick 3

Trick 4

Trick 5

Trick 6

Trick 7

Trick 8

Trick 9

Trick 9.5

Trick 10

Trick 11

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

If you look in the top left corner it looks like it could say ナースステーション(nurse station) Also the outfits instantly gave me nurse vibes lol

Here’s a picture of a random nurse station in Japan for comparison

Ok so the whole apparent confusion about the height chart drove me a little crazy so I went feral in powerpoint and made a clearer chart to prove Joe is the tallest not Adam. All heights should perfectly correspond to the ones from the official chart except instead of them being sillouettes with identifying pictures that confused everyone I just went and slapped their full bodies on a chart and even arranged them from smol to tol.

December 15 (Tues): Fairy Tales

December 16 (Wed): Crossover

December 17 (Thurs): Training

December 18 (Fri): Flower Language

December 19 (Sat): Home

December 20 (Sun): Holidays

December 21 (Mon): Future

Richard’s already spent a while trying to figure out Seigi’s feelings, as he’s been praising Richard non-stop since they met but also going on and on about Tanimoto, and Richard’s been trying to figure out where he stands. But he’s trying to protect himself, covering it all in his usual flowery speech - he sounds like someone who’s had some experience of trying to flirt with other men in situations where a misunderstanding might be dangerous, hence using a simile about kissing which he could just brush off as an idiom if he needs to. It’s very grown-up queer flirting, trying to sound out the other person without putting yourself in danger by giving away too much. He really hasn’t been able to tell up until now just how Seigi feels, as shown when he says “are you a philanthropist or a coward?” Are you trying to protect me by letting me down gently, or are you protecting yourself because you’re too scared to tell me you like me?

Meanwhile, Seigi is unaware of Richard’s feelings and is only just now figuring out his own feelings. I still don’t think Seigi is literally hitting a romantic confession - I don’t think he’s quite that far yet. More like he’s figuring out that Richard is a special person for him, and he hasn’t had a close male friend like that before - only senpai-figures and dudes like Shimomura, with whom he can’t necessarily be open and vulnerable, like Richard’s seen him now. He’s trying to figure out why he’s suddenly so protective of Richard when someone is a threat to him. He also can’t see through Richard’s coded language and is taking it at face value, although it does him well when he takes the kissing line to mean “you’re coaxing me into something I’m not ready for”.

Richard, being the older and more worldly wise of the two, is at least a step ahead of Seigi, and realises that Seigi is still figuring out his feels, but is a good enough person to follow Seigi’s example and not push him into anything too soon - by asking Seigi to wait for his story, he’s also making it clear that he can wait for Seigi to figure out what’s going on in his heart.

I know a lot of people are confused by this anime (and the novels!) because it isn’t BL but it does have a relationship between two men at the centre. The gems and the ‘cases’ are the lenses through which we can watch both Seigi and Richard as they figure out how they feel about each other, and while it’s not blatantly shippy, it is absolutely romantic - everything about this anime is framed as a romance, from the OP and ED (both romantic ballads with visuals that establish the two of them as a pair focused on each other) to Richard’s repeated use of romantic imagery in his speech, to the repeated scenes of the two of them eating or drinking together. Also, the anime has cut out a lot of little snippets which would have made it clearer - things like the cups with the gold bands which we sometimes see Richard drinking from - they were a gift from a gentleman who brought in his late wife’s engagement ring to be re-made into something he can wear - the chapter is all about romantic relationships, and Richard will only use those cups when it’s just him and Seigi (two cups with single gold bands!).

This story is definitely a romance. It’s slow-burn, but then aren’t a lot of real-life romances? Aren’t they messy and awkward and full of people trying to figure out if the other person feels the same way? Real-life relationships don’t always come with dates and confessions and clear milestones - quite often they start with two people who are friends or who work together, and then things happen to bring them closer, and they have to readjust to seeing each other differently and working out how they might have to behave differently around each other.