odd number It’s a bizarre TV animation, an incredible character drama, but with enough magical realism to give it a whimsical feel. It creates a unique world full of memorable and complex characters, each with its own unique story.
To follow up The last blossom,,,,, Baku Kinoshita Made a piece with odd number At the same time, it can be recognized from the same creative mind. The film is in the aging of a stale Yakuza named Akutsu who is on the verge of death in a prison cell. He recalled his past and chatted while touching my balm flower with a big personality. It’s a engaging, laugh-filled drama and a touching story. Kinoshita attends Annecy International Animation Film Festival The last blossom. He spent some time answering Ann’s questions about filmmaking and why he was attracted to magical realism.
What inspired the story of this ancient Yakuza and the plants he talked to?
Baku Kinoshita: I started with the idea of a person talking to someone who wasn’t alone, and this conversation will move the story forward. The protagonist is quiet. He is not good at speaking and is very serious. I want to create a character in the flowers that contrasts it. He is the opposite. He is very unique, flexible and unrestricted. I want to have this kind of contrast, where the gap between the two adds more depth to the movie.
This movie and odd number Use a lot of conversation to drive the story and develop the characters. How do you use visuals to make a conversational scene fresh and interesting?
Kinoshita: That’s what I’m very interested in. Some conversations are long. To stop the audience from having enough, I moved to change the position of the balm, the position of the Akuta, or the angle of the camera. That’s what I did throughout the process.
You draw inspiration from various sources, not just animation. What’s the impact The last blossom?
Kinoshita: The film was inspired by Kitano Takeshi’s film. In particular, there is a movie called The scene at sea About a young couple in love, they have this lovely, pure love, but the unfortunate way is over.
I tend to use long lenses. I think it’s a lot like a real person. Usually, in animation, people don’t like long shots for production reasons, but to me, it makes sense to spend time. At the time, it had power, so I tried to do it at work.
Why was it crucial for you to make movies in the 1980s?
Kinoshita: One of the themes in the movie is breaking down. In the 1980s, it was a period of the very strong Japanese economy that we mentioned in Japan. In the late 1980s, the bubble suddenly burst. That’s how we refer to it. You have seeds, the flower seeds burst, the fireworks burst, and then your bubble bursts in the movie. That is the period that needs to be set for this reason. As far as the 1980s period is concerned, I did a lot of research, books and online. We all try to absorb this atmosphere to recreate it in the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-dqmsbcdjm
The last blossom There is a great sound performance, and I’ve read that you recorded the sound before you start the animation. why is that?
Kinoshita:We did record the sound before starting the animation, which is the same odd number. This feels more real. Characters can show them when animate to fit the sound just as they stick to their own voice. It makes them feel like real characters.
What is the process of creating characters and their relationships in a movie? You have less time developing them here than TV anime.
Kinoshita: With TV series odd numberI have 20 characters, which is fun, but I can’t be with them. This time, we have three main characters. I have proposed some analysis. I want to get a deeper look at the characters, focus on the main themes, and incorporate them into their psychology and motivations.
Throughout the movie, I did something that I tried to use to build relationships between characters. In the first half of the movie, you have a scene where Akutsu goes out and smokes, and then Nana Light it up for him. That shot shows you that they have a long relationship of trust and that there is also a hierarchy between them, their masters and servants. Other similar scenes attempt to create a dispersed relationship throughout the film. I don’t want to give too many tips, but there are details, the way they look at each other, the way someone’s expression is shrouded in a second, and the movement of their hands.
In a great scene, the characters start to buzz the song, which is both moving and impressive and edited at the rhythm. Can you talk about the scene that you made?
Kinoshita: The screenwriter chose this song, but it was really difficult. It was so complicated to do a storyboard for that scene that I couldn’t understand correctly. I remember finishing the plot board and going back to do that scene. That’s too complicated.
I’m from Latin America where magical realism is an important part of the stories we tell, reality, rooted human stories, with whimsical and fantasy. between The last blossom and odd numberyou tell very human stories, but have some fantasies about them. What is the attraction of this storytelling?
Kinoshita: I think human society is not affected and stable. I want to use this basic assumption to show the possibilities of animation. The protagonist is not a superhero. He is a normal guy, but I want to prove that you can still make it into an attractive animation.
The last blossom Here comes Animation ExpoWhat about director Baku Kinoshita and producers Ryoichiro Matsuo and Hirofumiitō Will be inThe last blossom ((caterpillar) – July 4 at 4:15 pm in 404AB room on July 4, a special group premiered in Japan in fall 2025 in Japan.
