Active Anime: Hello Mr. Morita and thank you for taking the time to give us this short interview, and it is a pleasure to have you.
Mr. Morita: Thank you for letting me have the opportunity to introduce myself, Yamatoworks and KAKURENBO.
 
Active Anime: How did you find the Yamatoworks team?
Mr. Morita:  With the experience I have, I had been thinking of creating a production team that could create works that has the team’s own color and style. While I was thinking, CoMix Wave offered me an animation project for a small team or individual, and so I decided to create the team Yamatoworks with Daisuke SAJIKI, who had been working with me for awhile and has similar tastes in direction and creation. We decided to make KAKURENBO as Yamatoworks’s first project.
 
Active Anime: What was it like, animating for the infamous Studio 4-do-C?
Mr. Morita:  While I was learning Design in college, I became interested in CG and creating animation. I joined Kamikaze Doga from the beginning and learned a lot about the techniques of visual production. While working at Kamikaze, I created original short animations including the MTV station ID.

After graduating from college, I went to Studio 4-do-C and worked as a CGI director. From the experience I gained at Kamikaze and 4-Do-C, I started to think about making longer animation works with stories rather than short animation or PVs. [karaoke music videos]
 
Active Anime: How did this project, Kakurenbo, begin?
Mr. Morita: CoMix Wave, a company that produces independent animation, was planning a new project for the production management of talented individuals and small teams to create animation, and they offered me the project. With this opportunity, I wanted to make original animation as the group YAMATOWORKS and decided to participate in the project.
 
Active Anime: Kakurenbo was made with very few staff members. How did having a small team affect the creation of this project?
Mr. Morita:  Compared to a project with many staff, production with a small team can have more control from the director’s point of view. It’s good for the project when the director has a solid direction for creation, or if the director wants to make new style of animation. Especially when trying to create a new style of animation, the project has to go through a trial and error process. Small teams can fit a production with many trials and challenges.

Also, there is room for a breath of inspiration in production from the fact that the staff can get to know each other well and there is harmony among the production team. You can trust others without needing explanations, and so the production can go smoothly.

Although there are many advantages to a small team project, a disadvantage would be the fact that each of the staff members has to play a large part in production. Compared to usual studio production, everyone has to spend much more time and energy. (laugh)
 
Active Anime: Kakurenbo's Tokyo setting looks very eerie and mysterious. The night lights and darkness make it the perfect playground for hide and seek. What influenced this world of Kakurenbo?
Mr. Morita: I was influenced by movies like “Blade Runner” and “AKIRA.” These movies made me want to be a creator in the visual production field. In movies or films, I always prefer to see an altered world or a dreamworld that is different from the real world or reality. These kinds of influences and tendencies really affect Kakurenbo. Therefore, Kakurenbo has a fictional, fantasy world.

Also, I was living in KYOTO when I was studying in college, so I was inspired by the atmosphere and power of old traditional buildings such as the Five-Story stupa. I wanted to express that atmosphere and power visually and tried to do this in Kakurenbo.
 
Active Anime: It seems children all over the world love to play hide-and-seek. Do you have your own memories of playing hide-and-seek as a child?
Mr. Morita: I loved to be at high places when I was a kid.  I tended to hide at high places.  Probably, I liked to hide to observe the situation of others from above. (laugh)
 
Active Anime: What capabilities do you see as unique to digital animation? Do you think there are expressions and effects that only digital animation is capable of presenting?
Mr. Morita: I believe there is nothing special or unique to digital animation. Of course, digital animation has a wider expression compared to traditional animation. However, I believe the most important thing is a creator’s ability to express himself, regardless of whether digital or traditional animation is used.
 
Active Anime: Why do you choose to work with digital animation?
Mr. Morita: Kakurenbo is made with full 3-D computer graphics animation. However, as a production method, I did not put emphasis on digital or full 3DCG. On the other hand, with Kakurenbo, besides the small team production method, I wanted to express a visual image that would make the audience excited or surprised. My driving force during production was to create such a world that would leave the audience amazed or astonished.
 
Active Anime: Independent, Japanese digital animation projects, like UDRA and Makoto Shinkai's Hoshi no Koe, are becoming very popular overseas. How do you feel about this international support for independent animation?
Mr. Morita:  I am simply glad that there are such fans overseas. (However, Kakurenbo is not released yet, so it is difficult to believe that there are fans overseas at this point…)

Of course, I hope people around the world will watch Kakurenbo.
 
Active Anime: Now that Yamatoworks' first animation is underway, what sorts of projects would you and Yamatoworks like to work on in the future? Mr. Morita:  At Yamatoworks, I would like to create a visual style that has its own color. I myself am interested in different production techniques besides animation. I would love to try live action or claymation. Regardless of the style of work we create, I want Yamatoworks to be a team that can express its own distinct style that people can easily recognize as “Yamatoworks’ style”. (Laughing)
 
Active Anime: Mr. Morita, one last question. Do you have any advice to aspiring artists that may want to do the same type of work that you do?
Mr. Morita: Each individual has his own creative style, so I can’t give advice that fits everyone, but from my experience in this project, I realized that there are a lot of people who gave support in this production. With their support, we were able to finish the project. I would always like to remember this fact about production.

Also, the production itself is very harsh and tough, but the harsher and tougher the production, the more excitement and joy there is when finishing it. As a creator, the opportunity to create and release a work which can be called one’s “own” work, is the happiest opportunity you can have.
 
Active Anime: Mr. Morita, once again thanks for taking the time from your busy schedule to answer these questions. Active Anime wishes you and Yamato Works continued success, and we hope to see Kakurenbo here in the United States soon.
Mr. Morita: Thank you very much for asking about Kakurenbo. The true completion of a project is felt when an audience watches the work. Therefore, I hope many people watch Kakurenbo and enjoy it!
 
Active Anime: Mr. Morita will be making an appearance along with YamatoWorks co-founder Daisuke Sajiki in WFAC (Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema) for the world premier of "Kakurenbo" in Canada. So if you're in the area, please stop by, and enjoy their first feature film.
 
Active Anime.com would like to give Mr. Kazuki Sunami of ComixWave a huge thanks for arranging this interview - Sir it is always a pleasure working with you.

About Director Syuhei Morita:
2001 graduated from Kyoto University of Art Design.
While in school, he started creating films. In 1999, he joined and built Kamikaze Douga. In 2000 he joined Studio 4-do-C and worked there for two years where he was primarily in charge of CGI animation. In 2002, he directed and produced “Mars Brat”, written by Arthur C. Clark.

His “MTV Station-ID Otokodate” won the bronze prize in 2001 PROMAX&BDA. In 2003 he established YAMATOWORKS and created “KAKURENBO – Hide and Seek” as his first feature. In this film, he created the story, wrote the screenplay, directed, composed the storyboards, produced, and took charge of CGI animation and editing.

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