Anime UK News interviews Studio WIT at London Comic Con October 2013
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At London Comic Con in October 2013, Anime UK News was privileged to speak to George Wada, the studio president and producer for Attack on Titan; Ryotaro Makihara, director of the studio’s recent feature film Hal; and finally Katsuhiko Kitada, the character designer for Hal and animation director for Attack on Titan. Check below how the conversation went.
Warning: Contains spoilers for the first thirteen episodes of Attack On Titan.
AUKN: Thank you for having me. I have a few questions – mainly on Attack On Titan, which is the one we actually get to see through streaming. Unfortunately HAL has not been shown here yet.
The first question on Attack On Titan would be: Attack On Titan has inspired a huge number of parodies and tributes, especially thanks to the first opening sequence. Were you surprised with the fans’ response to all these tributes?
WIT: We were surprised!
AUKN: If you’ve seen them, do you have any favourites?
WIT: I like Shingeki No Miffy (Miffy x Attack On Titan).
AUKN: Attack On Titan is based on a popular manga. When did you realise that the anime was going to be such a big hit?
WIT: At first we didn’t notice that it was such a hit, but we made a promotional video first of all, which had a lot of fighting scenes using the 3D Maneuver Gear – a lot of those action scenes. And that seemed to go down very well with the fans. So that’s when we first noticed that it was quite popular.
AUKN: What were the challenges, to bring the manga to life in animation?
WIT: Firstly, the biggest – the most difficult thing – was probably the fact that it was hard to imagine the movement from the manga of Attack On Titan so it took a long time to come up with the movement element of the 3D Maneuver Gear. So, for that promotional video that I mentioned, that had the action scenes in it. That took a long time to develop and it was what we were most satisfied with.
AUKN: The next question is actually about the movement of the titans, because the designs and the movements are distinct; they move in very unusual ways. So what were the most memorable types of motion?
WIT: Probably the scene where the naked male titan is running really fast with a sort of knock-kneed, camp style of running, and he’s knocking people out of the way.
AUKN: Have you got any favourite character? Do you have anyone that was really special, while animating?
WIT: The titans as a whole were fun to animate, especially the ‘Eren titan’.
AUKN: How did you judge the number of episodes used for the Battle for Trost arc? Was the large number a deliberate decision made to create tension and context, so we can actually relate to the characters in the battle more? Because in the manga, it’s shorter.
WIT: That was a deliberate choice on the part of the director, Tetsurou Araki. Another thing was the training scenes; in the manga those come later on, so he brought those forwards so that you could have that background information to build the characters on.
AUKN: Will we have to wait long for the next part?
WIT: (Laughter.) WIT Studio is having a bit of a rest at the moment after Attack On Titan. We’d like to do it in the not-too-distant future.
AUKN: Can you tell me more about any current or future projects of Studio WIT? What can we expect to see coming next?
WIT: Firstly, we want to carry on working with Makihara-san and Kitada-san, and then we’d like to make a 90-minute feature-length film, and also to carry on making TV series.
AUKN: And this feature-length film; will it be an original, or based on some manga or some existing set of stories or characters?
WIT: We’d like to make something original.
AUKN: Do you have a story ready?
WIT: Not at all! But I’d like to go deeper into the direction I started to go in with HAL.
Anime UK News would like to thank MCM Comic Con, Manga UK and Anime Limited for bringing these amazing guests and allowing us to speak with them.
