Reincarnated as a Sword: Shinji Ishihira and Yōsuke Shimada

Anime Herald: Mr Ishihira, you’ve gone on the record stating that when you decide what titles to direct, you consider the content, and not the genre. What was it about “Reincarnated as a Sword” that attracted you to the project?

Shinji Ishihira: Usually when I get an offer, I get an offer with the idea. They’ll say “We’re thinking about making an anime of this manga. What do you think?”

I’ll get the proposal and look at the original material, the manga or the light novels. With light novels, I’ll read the source material quite seriously. If I get a definite idea “Oh, I can make this happen this way!” then I’ll decide to join the animation production.

With manga, just by seeing the facial expressions, or the storyline, I’ll sometimes have an idea of what I want to do. In that case, I’ll join the animation production.

Usually, that’s how I’ll decide. However, with this time, for Reincarnated as a Sword, I decided right at the moment I heard the title. “Reincarnated as a Sword?! It was so intriguing!”

I do a lot of fantasy work. Just by hearing that title, I decided that “Oh, this is a work I want to do.”

This was the first time I decided to join a project this way. Later on I read the source material and realized that my instinct was right. So, if you want to know what attracted me to this project, it was the title.

In [Space Adventure Cobra] there was a race of talking swords (The Swordians).

Anime Herald: I’m old. I remember.

Shinji Ishihira: So that concept stayed in my head for a long time. In terms of making fantasy works, talking swords are an interesting element to have. Cursed swords, purified swords. When I first heard this title, I thought “Finally, it’s here.”

Anime Herald: A follow-up question: Do you play video games, and if so, have you ever equipped a cursed sword or cursed armor?

Shinji Ishihira: Yes, I play video games. I’ve equipped cursed weapons, but it’s very risky. The attack power can be quite high, but the rest of the stats can be quite low. It’s quite risky, but I do love to use those weapons.

Anime Herald: The two of you have worked together previously on Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy, and Shachibato! President, It's Time for Battle! Can you describe your working relationship and what you like about working with each other?

Shinji Ishihira: First of all, Fairy Tail! For Fairy Tail, Mr. Shimada was there, working as a subcontractor. C2C, Mr. Shimada’s company, was also involved as a subcontractor for Fullmetal Alchemist.

There’s a production company, Bones. When they hire someone as a subcontractor, that gives an impression that the subcontracted company is high quality. “Bones hired them.”

When I heard C2C was hired for Fairy Tail, I expected it was going to be quite good. Then, it really did turn out to be very good. Then, the key animator for an episode of Fairy Tail became the director an episode of Jujutsu Kaisen.

I hadn’t personally met him before.

(Editor’s note: I am not sure if he’s referring to Hironori Tanaka or Ken Takahashi)

Shinji Ishihira: So that was my first contact or exchange with his company. After a few years, I was considering working with C2C on some of my works, but by that point they had become a prime contractor rather than a subcontractor.

Then one day, I got contacted by director Junichi Wada. He basically asked me “What are you doing this weekend? Are you free? Can you help us out?”

Director Wada said “C2C wants to work on this next project.”

I thought the offer was to help director Wada out. Not to direct it myself. At that point, I contacted Mr. Shimada and he told me it was about [the] Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy- production.

Before Tsukimichi, Mr. Shimada wanted to see how I worked. At the time, Mr. Shimada was doing Shachibato! President, It's Time for Battle! He invited me to do storyboards.

Anime Herald: And you liked the storyboard?

Yōsuke Shimada: Yes. (laughs)

Shinji Ishihira: C2C the company itself, is staffed with a lot of the younger generation. There’s a level of passion and drive there that most companies don’t have. People from different divisions all come together to brainstorm ideas. That’s very different from how other companies work. I was happy there. Multiple different generations brainstorming together. I really enjoyed working in that environment.

Yes, the director can be very strict and single-minded to get what he wants. However, I preferred all the brainstorming. The more ideas we hear, the more we understand the audience. There were a lot of ad-libs during the process. Not just the actors. Assistant directors, or people from different sections. That ended up shifting the anime’s message, in a good way.

Mr. Shimada created that very important environment for everyone. I respect him from the bottom of my heart.

Yōsuke Shimada: First of all, director Ishihira is a very good director. He has a broad vision. He understands manga, novels, animation, [and] films. He has lots of different cards to play with. He’s constantly learning, studying, taking in new material, anime, manga.

There are many directors who prefer things the traditional way and stick to that. Nothing else. Director Ishihira is very flexible. He can understand modern trends. That’s something I trust about him.

The part that I really respect about director Ishihira is that he can bring his Ishihira-colors into his work. The reason why, in the process of making anime there is a divided section of doing the storyboard process. However, he can do that all himself. That makes Ishihira-color more vivid. More solid. That’s why I respect his process and how he works.

Anime Herald: Anime has changed so much, with the growth of the American audience, streaming, and the use of computer animation. What do you imagine the future of anime is like in ten years?

Shinji Ishihira: I can’t imagine. Ten years ago, I couldn’t imagine where we are today. Probably in ten years I’ll be adapting to the evolution of the industry.

Yōsuke Shimada: I pray that the tradition of hand-drawn storyboards survives forever.