The My Deer Friend Nokotan anime stampeded into the season like an elk walking into a room, going viral from its first trailer and continuing to hold steam throughout its run. It’s one of the first shows, that I’ve seen at least, that has gone viral from the same scene twice, but for wildly different reasons – a true testament to the staff finding the funny in every moment from adapting the manga of the same name by Oshioshio.
Thankfully, Anime Trending got the chance to sit down with the staff of My Deer Friend Nokotan and talk about how memes were chosen and incorporated into the My Deer Friend Nokotan anime, creator Oshioshio’s gyaru preferences, the production methods for the series, and much more. Interviewed at WIT Studio were director Masahiko Ohta, episodic animation director Karin Omura, and color designer Arisu Komatsu, with WIT production manager Sakurai sitting in.
The interview has been edited for clarity and flow. Each interview was conducted separately.
Going Between the Lines With My Deer Friend Nokotan Color Designer Arisu Komatsu
Could you please introduce yourself and explain your role in the production of the anime?
Arisu Komatsu: My name is Arisa Komatsu and I take on the role of the color designer. A color designer has a wide range of responsibilities. We decide the colors of the characters by matching them with the background, so our job is to plan out the colors. I nervously try my best.
What are some of your previous works you’re proud of?
Arisu Komatsu: The series I’m most proud of is usually the one that I’m in the middle of working on. It helps become a great source of motivation that I can be directly involved in the production and fall in love with the series in a different way than I would as a viewer.
For My Dear Friend Nokotan, when I first read the manga, I thought, “This is nostalgic.” Other than that, the only inspiration I took for the colors is the trend of bright colors in modern anime, so I had that in mind as I decided the colors for the series.
If the manga was your inspiration, is that where the colors for the anime came from? Or how else did you decide on the colors?
Arisa Komatsu: For the anime, since there’s the original manga, we reference it like it’s our bible. I decided to have the colors match the manga, but the creator, Oshioshio-sensei, tends to color digitally with many dense layers of various opacities. This makes the series have beautiful colors, but there’s a richness to it.
In anime, it’s colored in one go. So it was tough to achieve the same colors that Oshioshio-sensei uses. When the characters were drawn up, they turned out very cute, and I used sensei’s colors as the foundation. I chose bright colors in a way that works well for anime, like I mentioned, following the recent trend of using bright, colorful palettes that pop. I tried to ensure that the colors match the manga and the characters in a way so that the colors are brought together in a clean, high-quality, and cute way.
Were there any parts that were hard to adapt from the manga?
Arisu Komatsu: In terms of the colors, we used color gradations in the hair, and in Nokotan, there are various gradations on one head. Blending these two gradations was a first for me. I’d never worked with these color gradations before. Usually, you only add gradations to the middle part, but using two gradations plus the base color and somehow blending it all together was really difficult, and I wanted it to turn out colorful. So coloring it in with the transparent white for the highlights was hard to figure out because the way the finishing staff blends and the way I blend colors are different.
In a previous project, if you color with gradations, it gets blurry and the hue becomes different. Because of that, there were times when it turned out well, or it turned out bad, with the color coming out wrong. In Nokotan, we used gradations in an eccentric way so there were times it didn’t turn out right, but the finishing staff were able to catch it and it was thanks to them that it turned out right in the end. For this anime, deciding the gradations and getting it to look right was very difficult. (laughs)
Did Oshioshio-sensei have any input on the anime colors themselves after she got the pitch?
Arisu Komatsu: When I was first planning the colors, no, nothing in particular. But when I decided on the colors with the director and the others, we presented it to Oshioshio-sensei and her first impression was, “Wow, the colors are very pretty and nice.”
The most collaboration we had with Oshioshio-sensei was over two gyaru characters. Oshioshio-sensei expressed that, how should I say this… they aren’t tanned like how gyaru used to be in the past, but instead to color them like the pretty Reiwa-style gyaru.
We could tell that Oshioshio-sensei was very particular about how they looked, so we had discussions about their colors twice.
Note: Current Reiwa-style gyaru are a very toned-down version of the classic Heisei-style gyaru, which at the time sported very tanned skin and bright make-up. NUTS, the premiere gyaru-fashion magazine, follows the current trends closely as an example of Reiwa-style gyaru.
What happens to the animation when you get your hands on it? Can you walk me through your workflow?
Arisu Komatsu: After the key animation is drawn, first we turn it into a black-and-white pixelated binary image. Then, we apply color according to the color designs. There’s a specialized software for pixelating the image so that it only uses two colors. That’s a process called binarizing.
All of this is part of the process called finishing (also referred to as compositing). The finishing work is taking the completed animation, converting it to a binary pixelated image, bringing that into the software specialized for coloring, and adding the colors. The colors are added one by one. When that’s done, the colored animation is brought to the finishing team and well, anime isn’t pixelated, right? So the finishing team processes it, smooths it out, loads that data, adds lighting and blurring effects, and then it’s finished.
What programs do you use to color in the frames?
Arisu Komatsu: There’s a software that has been used for a long time in the anime industry called PaintMan from a company called RETAS Studio. It’s been used since long ago and it hasn’t been updated in a very long time too. It’s an old software, so it’s actually reaching its limits for high-quality animations by modern standards. Everyone in the industry uses PaintMan, and we use the paint bucket tool to fill in large areas. It’s a software made specifically for filling in the colors in anime. I believe everyone uses this across the anime industry.
Note: PaintMan was incorporated into Clip Studio Paint in 2015, which is slowly becoming the standard program used in the anime industry.
What about the rest of the finishing team? What kind of software do they use?
Arisu Komatsu: For the finishing team… What was it again? I’m not too familiar with post-production myself, but there’s a software that’s linked to Photoshop used for filming, but I’m not sure if they use it. I’m pretty sure it’s After Effects.
For anyone who wants to get into coloring in anime, what advice would you give them?
Arisu Komatsu: I would say it’s a job that anyone can do if you love anime. That makes it sound really easy, but I love anime so much. That’s how I got into the industry, and I also liked coloring. I mean, I can’t say it’s simple, but I think it’s a job that can be done if you want to do it. So, if you want to challenge yourself and try it, I think that’s great and it’s a good job for that.
How the Nokotan Anime Was Created With Animation Director Karin Omura
Can you introduce yourself and explain your role in the production of the anime?
Karin Omura: I work on layouts and key animation. I’m also beginning to work as an animation director sometimes. What I was responsible for changed on each episode. There are some where I only worked on the layout and key animation. Then I was only the animation director in some episodes. There were also some where I was in both roles.
Though, that doesn’t mean I was editing what I drew myself. Someone else would be responsible for editing what I worked on. (laughs)
How much of the drawing do you do now on paper versus digitally, like on a tablet?
Producer Sakurai: It differs from person to person. We have about twenty animators that worked on Nokotan. Of them, there are less than five who use paper. Everyone else works digitally. Most of the veteran animators work digitally, and most of the new animators start out using digital tools.
When there’s a specific scene that the episode director really wants to land, they tend to do it on paper. It also depends on the episode director. If the episode director does checks on paper, then their staff tend to have lots of people who work on paper. If the episode director checks digitally, then their staff tend to lean more digital, as it’s faster and there’s also all the work data included.
Karin Omura: To be precise, I worked on paper on the in-between part after the key animation was done, so I can’t speak from experience on what the difference is like when working on the key animation itself. To weigh the pros and cons, it’s easier to confirm paper illustrations if there aren’t that many drawings to go through, especially if you’re just confirming [something like], “Oh, this goes here, or this happens now.”
However, if there are a lot of drawings to check, I think tablets are easier. When working digitally, you don’t need an eraser. Sometimes when we use an eraser, it’s hard to erase things and the paper gets crumpled, or we erase too hard and end up tearing the paper. Usually, we hold the paper in place on the drawing tables using peg bars. You make three holes in the paper and use that to align the pegs. Sometimes, we hold the papers in place with a clip and flip through them instead. Sometimes it gets misaligned and we need to completely redraw it. On a tablet, you can just cut and use the clipping mask. I think it’s less stressful to work digitally.
What has been your favorite cut to work on so far?
Karin Omura: So there’s this scene in episode six where Nokotan opens up her head and makes coffee. For some reason, I thought it was really cute, so it was a lot of fun drawing it.
What has been the most challenging cut for you?
Karin Omura: There’s a scene in episode nine with the five mob characters and the three student council members making a fuss. They’re all meant to be down at once with a bang, and I was asked to do that all on one cel.
Does that make sense? In anime, there are a lot of ways to divide up each part of a single character in each cut. On Nokotan, we divide different aspects into sections like cel A, cel B, etc. Rather than having cel A be character 1 and cel B be character 2, they wanted me to have all the characters on one sheet in cel A, and make them all fall over at the same time. I had to figure out how to deal with this situation. Making the drawing too complicated would likely lead to mistakes, but they needed proper movement animation. So, I asked my senpais for a lot of advice while drawing this part.
So while you’re animating, are there any specific things you pay exclusive attention to?
Karin Omura: Animation is a field divided into a lot of very distinct roles, and I felt that keenly when I began my career. If you think about it, key animation comes quite early in the animation process, and once you’re done with your part, there’s still the job of the in-between animators, colorers, and others. You need to make sure that your intention is properly passed along to the next person and that it maintains consistency with the overall picture, or else people will notice something is wrong when everything comes together. That’s why I pay extra attention to intention and consistency because I don’t want the next person to get confused or wonder how they’re supposed to use the parts I give them.
For anyone who wants to become an animator, what advice would you give them?
Karin Omura: I can’t place myself on too high of a pedestal here. As I entered the industry – and it’s a bit rude to describe it this way – but the level I was at, I needed to practice drawing a lot more in order to keep up. I felt that keenly during my first year, and I wish I practiced drawing more prior to working. Improving your artistic ability, which isn’t exactly easy, is the key. You can learn all of the meticulous techniques used on the job after you join a company as there will be someone there to teach you, so it’s best to focus on raising your own artistic ability.
Nokotan Anime Director Masahiko Ohta Tries to Explain All The Deer
Can you please introduce yourself and explain your role in the production of Nokotan?
Masahiko Ohta: I’m Ohta. I’m the director. Uh, yeah. That’s basically it.
Megumi Han, Nokotan’s voice actor, described the My Deer Friend Nokotan anime as “chaos.” What would you describe the series as?
Masahiko Ohta: Hmm… I would describe it as uh… a mysterious deer world? Nokotan and the deer arrive, turning Hino City into this weird world where it’s just like, deer – deer everywhere!
What were your first impressions of the series when you got the pitch?
Masahiko Ohta: The author of the series is female, so as you would expect, the art is really cute. After reading it for a bit, how do I put it… the quality of the faces seems to collapse? It’s a gag manga, so some distorting of the faces is expected, but the series doesn’t even try to maintain the cuteness of its characters. It doesn’t hold back at all in that regard, which surprised me.
I thought, “I see. Female authors make things like this too.”
It wouldn’t have surprised me if a male author wrote something like this, but for a female author to do it? Impressive.
What element from the original manga was the most challenging to adapt?
Masahiko Ohta: It was definitely the deer, deer, and deer! It was hard to decide whether to draw them or use CGI. Drawing them would have been quite difficult, as there aren’t many animators who are skilled with drawing deer. So, we tried using CGI instead, resulting in what we have now. That was challenging in its own right, and we would’ve been in trouble if that hadn’t worked
How has working on series such as Kotoura-san, YuruYuri and Onipan! prepared you for Nokotan?
Masahiko Ohta: As a director, starting on a new project feels like starting a new game that I’ve never played before. I will, of course, have more experience with games in general than last time, and I will try my best to not make the same mistakes, but there are always new mistakes that crop up. It’s never easy, but I do my best.
Considering how many pop-culture references are in the anime, how many did you reuse from the manga, and how many did the team choose on their own?
Masahiko Ohta: Generally, we try to use as much from the manga as we can. But sometimes the thing referenced doesn’t want us to use them, and we can’t do so without their permission. Sometimes I come up with new ideas when I’m drawing the storyboards, and sometimes someone else will come up with an idea when I’m writing the script. Every time we get an idea, we have to ask permission to see if we’re allowed to use it, and there are new ideas at pretty much every step. If a good idea pops into our heads, it feels like we have to use it.
How do you choose the pop culture references? How did the Bully Maguire dance make it into the show?
Masahiko Ohta: Once the staff comes up with an idea, I need to decide whether I think it can be broadcasted or not, and if it can, we immediately try to use it. If we don’t end up getting permission, we unfortunately have to give up on the idea there.
As for the Bully Maguire dance… I’m a big fan of Director Sam Raimi’s work, so when the scene where Koshitan was supposed to do a weird dance came up, I immediately thought of the Bully Maguire dance. Once that thought was in my head, I said to myself, “I have to include it!” Japanese people aren’t really familiar with the dance, but I knew it was a joke that the foreign audience knew about. After the episode was broadcast, a lot of the foreign audience did recognize it, which made me glad we worked so hard on it.
I love Director Raimi’s work, so I’m really happy that I was able to include an homage to him in Nokotan.
What has been your favorite reference in the series thus far?
Masahiko Ohta: There’s so many … my favorite? Those moments where the scene switches to slow motion, such as the scene in the first episode where they enter the classroom by breaking down the door … It’s not exactly a parody, but I’m a big fan of American director Brian De Palma, who worked on The Untouchables. So, the slow-motion scenes were inspired by that, which was the feeling we were going for.
Are there any references you wanted to put in but couldn’t?
Masahiko Ohta: We were able to do everything that we wanted to do. I think the author of the original work understood what we wanted to do, and we were able to get a lot of permission because the work was the type that allowed this kind of freedom. I guess we’re just praying that nobody gets mad!
What was your reaction and the team’s reaction to how viral the show had gone before the series even began?
Masahiko Ohta: Sometimes advertising goes well! I was glad that the publicity for the series did so well, but I also couldn’t help but want to tell people to calm down a little and temper their expectations (laughs). We were thankful, and the staff was also really happy, although we were also not quite sure how to respond in the face of such an overwhelming show of support.
Do you have a message for international fans of the series?
Masahiko Ohta: I didn’t expect this series to be so popular overseas. I was afraid that some of the references like Bully Maguire would’ve gone completely unnoticed, so I feel very fortunate that the fans noticed. I hope fans continue to enjoy the show. Thank you so much!
Finally, what is with all the deer?
Masahiko Ohta: Great question. I’m not entirely sure either! Deer don’t have facial expressions, right? For some reason, the fact that the deer are staring at the viewer like that creates an interesting and strange atmosphere. What is with deer?
My Deer Friend Nokotan is currently streaming worldwide on multiple platforms. Seven Seas Entertainment releases the manga in English. Thanks to REMOW for setting up this interview and providing on-site assistance. Translation by Momo Cha and Dan Luo.
