Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

3rd May 2006

Number 83 - Therru Sings

I am sure there are a lot of people who have already seen the trailer and who have heard "Therru's Song".

This song plays in the middle of "Tales from Earthsea" during a scene which is an important key to the film.
Nor is it played as background music:
this is a song that the girl Therru sings.

This scene was included in rolls 3 & 4 which we carried out cutting on the other day. It was necessary to match the song with the movements of the character's mouth, and above that, with the flow of the cut. It was the only time we listened to music while cutting.

The key animation for this scene was from Ms. Kagawa[1], and the background art was done by Mr. Oga[2].
Ms. Kagawa is a veteran animator, who worked as a supervising animator[3] on a short film currently showing at the Ghibli museum, "The Day I Bought a Star". She is someone whose loud laughter makes a strong impact, but the flip-side of that hearty impression is a person who draws gentle and graceful pictures. And there is no need for me to explain that Mr. Oga is a master of drawing beautiful scenery.

The completed picture is filled with gentle beauty and when the song was combined with it,
even though we were in the middle of cutting,
we were thrown unthinkingly[4] into that world.
That is how much the song and the pictures melded together to create a fabulous scene.
It was a moment of great admiration for the strength of the pictures and for the strength of the song.

Translator's Notes

[1]: Megumi Kagawa (sometimes credited in English as Ai Kagawa). Animation Director (or supervising animator) on Spirited Away, Pom Poko and Porco Rosso. Key animator on Howl's Moving Castle and several other Ghibli films going back to Nausicaa.

[2]: Kazuo Oga. Art Director of several Ghibli films. There is a book published solely devoted to his background art.

[3]: This is "enshutsu animeetaa" (演 出 ア ニ メ ー タ ー) a new term to me. I guess it means something between a key animator and an animation director, but I don't know if it is an official credit title, or just slang he's using.

[4]: or unaware