The TV anime "Darwin Incident," based on the manga by Shun Umezawa, which was also the winner of the Grand Prize at the 2022 Manga Awards, is broadcast every Tuesday from midnight on TV Tokyo. The original work has been serialized in Afternoon (Kodansha) since 2020, and tells the story of Charlie, a "humanzee" born between a human and a chimpanzee, who faces human problems such as terrorism, online outrage, and discrimination. As the work deals with sensitive subject matter, the original author, Umezawa, himself, said, "I didn't think it would be made into an anime." How is the production team approaching the anime adaptation of this work? We spoke to director Naokatsu Tsuda about the behind-the-scenes production.
◇I thought it would be difficult to adapt it into an anime… The scenario meeting was a headache
Director Tsuda has been keeping an eye on "The Darwin Incident" since the series first began, and was fascinated by it, saying, "I was impressed by how cool the way it didn't shirk away from the plot. It raises issues about things that we don't usually think about in our daily lives, but the manga depicts them head-on. It's a manga that makes you think about things you don't normally think about." However, he also felt that the hurdles to adapting it into an anime were high, saying, "I thought it would be difficult to adapt it into an anime." "There are many different ways of expressing it, and the style of drawing is not mainstream these days, so I don't think there are many animators who can draw it."
In the midst of all this, Director Tsuda heard from Koji Kajita, the representative of Belnox Films, about a plan to turn "The Darwin Incident" into an anime.
"Originally, they had about three original works submitted, and asked me, 'Which one would you like to direct?' One of the candidates was 'The Darwin Incident,' and there was something about it that really resonated with me. I was aware of the difficulty of adapting it into an anime, but I also felt that if I was going to do it, I wanted something that was challenging, so I chose 'The Darwin Incident' and decided to direct it."
The main principles that Director Tsuda and the production team took on in adapting the work into an anime were "not shying away from expression" and "portraying it faithfully to the original."
"I asked everyone that we didn't want to shy away from the expressions. If we were going to do it, we wanted to properly depict school shootings and human slaughter. The producer at Toho also said that he was going for it, saying, 'We don't want to shy away from it, and it's fine if it means leaving the majority of viewers behind,' so I thought that it was okay to go all out. I wanted to animate it faithfully to the original, and even make it easier to understand than the original so that it would appeal to everyone. The characters in 'Darwin Incident' are fascinating, but I think it's hard to keep watching if you don't understand what the story is about. So I thought about how to make it comparable to the manga when it was made into a visual medium."
In order to bring out the charm of the "Darwin Incident" as an anime, he apparently had a lot of trouble creating a scenario, such as deciding where to divide each episode. Director Tsuda has participated in the "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" series as director and general director, and has worked on works based on original works up until now, but he reflected, "I wonder if it's really necessary to use your brain this much in a scenario meeting for an original work? I thought I had used my brain in my previous works, but there were many things I had to pay attention to other than the words written in the scenario, and I had to take that into consideration when working on the scenario."
"That's also a testament to how much attention the original author paid to various aspects during production. Koji Terayama, who was in charge of editing the original work, also participated in the scenario meetings, and he would give us detailed advice on how the original author paid attention to certain things, so we relied on that to get us going. However, I don't think those aspects are things that often appear on screen. It was extremely difficult to create the foundation for the parts that aren't visible."
In the original work, "when dealing with a particular topic, the characters and topics are arranged so that it doesn't sound discriminatory. For example, if someone were to say this here, it would make someone who is normally sensitive about that feel very upset, and there is a proper counter-measure prepared," he said, revealing that careful consideration has been given to the story.
"The original author asked me to 'take the plunge' and pick up even the parts that would have been omitted if the production was for an anime due to time constraints and other reasons. Also, as we progressed with the script, the original author provided us with many explanations about the characters of Charlie, and his parent figures Bart and Hannah, which helped to create the foundation for the characters. As for the acting, he participated in all the dubbing, so I feel like I was able to work closely with Umezawa-sensei."
◇Charlie in motion and stillness He doesn't react like a human.
Another challenge in animating the film was expressing the "moving form" of Charlie, a "humanzee" born between a human and a chimpanzee.
"Charlie is a new species that is far more athletic than humans and is also far more intelligent. This creature has infiltrated our human society, so I was very careful to portray it in a way that made it seem different from humans."
Charlie says that even a simple response like "yes" carries a different meaning than it does for humans.
"At first, there were scenes where Charlie would normally respond with a 'yes,' but Umezawa-sensei instructed me, 'Charlie is a character created through subtraction, so please try your best to avoid human-like reactions.' Charlie listens to what is being said with a mind many times faster than a human, so he doesn't respond reflexively. He doesn't have the 'ah, yes,' reaction that a normal person has when someone says something to him. If he does say 'yes,' it's only in the sense of 'OK,' and he's fully convinced. That's why he doesn't nod."
Not only does Charlie not have human-like reactions, but "his eyes tend to be dark, so it's difficult to move his gaze. That, combined, gives him an eerie feeling," he explains of Charlie's other side. On the other hand, "Charlie's unique design was apparently what the teacher was aiming for, and he said he wanted to make Charlie more approachable by making him as cute as possible. Approachability and otherness are contradictory elements, but I think that their strange coexistence is one of the interesting parts of 'The Darwin Incident'," he says, trying to express his unique charm.
In his everyday life, Charlie seems to move very little, including his eyes and mouth movements, but when he faces an enemy, he displays amazing physical abilities.
"Animation is made in a way that omits unnecessary movement as much as possible. Every movement has meaning, so even the slightest movement isn't possible. However, when Charlie does move, his movements are dynamic, and I feel that the difference between stillness and movement is what makes Charlie who he is."
◇The true value of the game is revealed when images and sounds are combined. Its appeal goes beyond mere entertainment.
The vivid performances of the voice actors in the anime, including Atsumi Tanezaki as Charlie, Mitsuho Kobe as Lucy, Akio Otsuka as Rivera, Toshiyuki Morikawa as Bart, and Rina Sato as Hannah, have also been much talked about. Director Tsuda himself said that the dubbing was the part of the production that gave him the most satisfaction.
"When I was doing the dubbing, I really felt that the true value of this work comes from combining visuals and sound. In every work, both visuals and sound are important, but in this work in particular, the actors speak a lot, and the content of what they say is very important, so when they have a strong presence, it creates overwhelming persuasiveness and broadens the worldview. The actors who appear in the film are all fascinating, and when I was doing the dubbing, I was reminded once again how interesting 'The Darwin Incident' is."
The anime is entering a new phase after the shocking "Red Pill Shooting Incident" arc.
"The theme of 'Darwin Incident' is very different from other anime, and it's a work that puts the themes very front and center. I don't think many other works do this, so I think it's worth watching just for that. When you normally watch anime, there aren't many issues that you can relate to in your real life and think about, but I think 'Darwin Incident' is a work that approaches that. I think it would be interesting if people watched the anime and then remembered the work at random moments in their daily lives. I think it won't just be a work that ends up being entertainment, but a work that will stay in people's memories."
※The "崎" in Atsumi Tanezaki's name is pronounced "tatsusaki"
White dog/MANTANWEB
