Hiromi
Seki
(A
translated composite of an interview with the Marmalade Boy producer.
She's been in the business since 1985)
"Marmalade
Boy is a love textbook"
The
theme was too express high school student love. Love that's forever,
to just express love.(she smiles and laughs). There isn't any
other object! I can say that clearly because it's that simple.
There
neither magic nor transformation. There's love only. It's all
about love. This is a textbook of love for girls watching this
show. I'd like to say that several years past, that they'll remember
the Marmalade Boy scenes during that time of their lives. I'm
making the story so that the story will become a guide for love.
"When
I have a rough time naming the episode titles, then I go to a
Karaoke Box"
Because
of a newpaper TV schedule page, we could only use 5 letters to
name them. 5 letters can make for an unclear titles so it's difficult
to describe the story. That's why used lines from the story.
I often go to a Karaoke Box when I need to think things out.
I saw Karaoke on the screen, then I suddenly remembered how I
get my ideas. For example, the prediction of the separation.
"Oh this is it!"...something like that (she laughs).
"Everyday
life required fashion"
When
an ordinary girl wakes up, she then plans out her day and she'll
decide what color and type of clothes she'll wear by her mood
and the weather. Nothing special about that. It's just part of
a girl's life. Thinking about fashion is a part of a girl's everyday
life. And, not wearing the same thing yesterday and today...
or she may change her clothes depending on where she's going.
That's the usual way it's done. So our theme is a girl's life
and love. So changing fashions is normal and natural. By seasons
or by fads. How girls change what they where has a lot to do
with TPO (Time, Place, or Occassion).
"Expressing
a girls feelings slowly and carefully."
I
pay a lot of attention to the senario. The original work appears
in a magazine monthy (Ribon magazine). So the TV animation which
comes on weekly can easily catch up with the original work. When
prolonging the story was decided, we need some original ideas.
But then, we didn't want the story too different from the original
work. And I wanted to express a girl's feelings about love taking
particular care to express slowly and carefully.
Because
it's a shoujo manga, I tried to express the unstableness of a
girl's feelings so that it would have a reality to it. For example:
When a girl is told that two guys love her, and if both of them
are cool, then she might be attracted to both guys because they
both have a different charms. Isn't that true in your life? But
I don't think it's a wrong to feel that way. When we thinking
over the senario, we kept in mind those kinds of realities. In
that way, the senario is very important to expressing a love
series. That's why we can call Matsui Aya (wrote most of the
Marmalade Boy scripts - see the credits sections if interested
in which ones) is anime world's Mukaida Kuniko (She a very famous
book writer; AND script writing for live action TV shows).
"I
have devoted my director's life to kissing scenes."
If
there's only one kiss scene in a entire story, then make it spectacular.
But in this show so many couple kiss in so many places so if
every couple kissed in the same way, it would be boring. I request
the Series Director, Yabe, and assistant directors to think about
think out the kiss scenes careful and devote a lot of attention
to them. (She laughs) Because shoujo manga, not just Marmalade
Boy, is about kissing, confessing scene, or getting dumps, anything
with strong impact is focused on with larger pictures. For example,
one page can be on a kissing scene. Those scenes are the ones
most liked by readers. Shoujo manga is for expressing those types
of scenes. That's that we devoted ourselves to those scenes.
When I see the storyboard and if I can't understand the impact
of the shoujo manga story, I ask that it be changed.
"I
town you can't know the nationality and era."
The
setting of Mamalade Boy is...where it's located, which town it
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