Mizuho Nishikubo interview

Written by A. H. on 12 Jan 2015

Way back in the midst of October 2014, we managed to make some time to sit down for a chat with the director of Giovanni's Island (and frequent collaborator with Mamoru Oshii) Mizuho Nishikubo - due to some particularly unusual scheduling our interview took place over the telephone as we were in Glasgow to watch Mr. Nishikubo's film while he was promoting it in London, but nonetheless we managed to discuss his aims, hopes and experiences during the creation of a touching film that ultimately proved to be the winner of the Scotland Love Anime 2014 Judge's Award.

To find out what he has to say about this particularly remarkable film on the cusp of its home video release from Anime Limited, read on!

UK Anime: First of all, welcome to the UK! Is this your first time in the country?

Mizuho Nishikubo: I've been to Ireland before - I was there about ten years ago, preparing for The Sky Crawlers with Mamoru Oshii, but it's my first time in the UK.

UK Anime: How did this film come about exactly - was there always a particular story you wanted to tell, or did the story arise from the wider events in the film that you wanted to depict?

Mizuho Nishikubo: The protagonist of the film, Junpei, is actually still alive today, and this film is based on his story. The author of the novel, Sugita-san, was writing a book based on the recollections of this gentleman and he wanted to turn it into an anime - that's when I was approached, and because I'm interested in this period I decided to get involved.

UK Anime: Digital animation has become a big part of animation production now, but one notable aspect of Giovanni's Island is it still uses a lot of hand-drawn animation. What drove the decision to go down that route for the film's production?

Mizuho Nishikubo: Production I.G has a lot of animators that are particularly good at hand-drawn animation, so we wanted to make use of that in the film.

However, the scenes set in the present day actually use a lot of CG technology, and there are other scenes which appear to be hand-drawn but are actually using CG in a way that makes it look hand-drawn.

UK Anime: Having previously directed Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai, did working on that documentary style of film help at all with knowing how to approach the historical setting and events of Giovanni's Island?

Mizuho Nishikubo: Rather than that experience having been useful for the production of this film, it's more that making Musashi introduced me to how interesting it is to make a documentary within anime.

With this film, for the sections that are based upon the character's memories I aimed for them to be in a documentary-like style with that level of reality, but I've also combined that with the fantastical, fantasy sections inspired by Night on the Galactic Railroad.