───How did you feel when the editorial department proposed a project where the members of “Ojamajo Doremi” would appear as grown-ups?
I was honestly very happy. Perhaps it’s an occupational disease of being a producer, but I’m very conscious of the target age of the work. The original “Ojamajo Doremi” series targeted children aged 7-9. When I received the proposal in 2010, it had been 10 years since the original Doremi was broadcast. So, when I counted the volumes, I thought it was a great project for something to be read by 17-19 year olds.
This might be an unpleasant occupational disease (laughs), but I’m very conscious of the age of people I meet for the first time. If they’re around 30, I wonder if they watched “Sailor Moon”, if they’re in their late 20s, maybe they watched “Digimon”, and so on. It’s ingrained marketing habits from anime production. We also did a lot of marketing research with Bandai when we were planning “Doremi”.
───What were children like 10 years ago?
What surprised us staff, who were in our 40s at the time, was that children’s curiosity and sense of wonder were almost unchanged from our own childhood. Things like “loving telephones”, “being fascinated by how their mother’s lipstick would extend and retract when they turned it round and round” - I was exactly the same when I was a child. Of course, things like mobile phones have become widespread and social conditions have changed, but I realized that children’s sensibilities don’t change that much.
───What did you want to depict in “Doremi” in the first place?
We wanted to depict the “universal things” that children have, even as the times change. That’s why Harukaze Doremi is really just an “ordinary child”. She doesn’t stand out or have any particular talent. We wanted to express a real world seen from an ordinary child, so we didn’t just take surveys, we also collected all the textbooks at the time for research and bought fashion magazines. If we focus too much on depicting the “magical” fantasy elements, it becomes a world where anything goes. But that’s no good. On the contrary, because we use “magic”, we need to depict the everyday world more realistically, including emotions.
───That desire to depict reality has remained consistent throughout the “16” series as well, right?
So in my mind, this “16” series is a story from before 2011. The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. This was a big deal for me. So many people were in such difficult situations, and no “wizards” appeared anywhere. Since Doremi is linked to the real world, I absolutely couldn’t ignore that.
You know MAHO-do has an antique atmosphere, right? That’s actually one way of expressing a world that will remain beyond time.
───Why did you start depicting from high school instead of middle school?
Going from middle school to high school is a choice that most children make in modern Japan. Compulsory education ends, but in reality choosing high school has something close to compulsory education. But I think graduating from high school means that more of our own will starts to come into play, with more drama from worries, setbacks, failures, etc.
I’ll talk on the assumption that you’ve finished reading this volume, but actually only Doremi and Aiko chose to go to university. Hazuki is studying music abroad, Onpu is studying drama abroad, Momoko is at a confectionery school. Hana isn’t human to begin with so let’s leave her out (laughs). Everyone chooses their path with their own will. That’s what we wanted to depict.
───Was it your plan from the beginning to depict up until graduation from high school?
Yes. The ages of 16-18 are the most sensitive times, and this was something I had thought about from the very first meeting with Kuriyama-san, and I definitely wanted to do it until they turned 19. Going back to the marketing talk earlier, children who loved Doremi at that time also went through middle school and high school, experiencing love affairs, fights with friends, devoting themselves to club activities, being left out by friends, heartbreaks, thinking about their future paths - there were many things.
I think experiencing setbacks during that time is very important. Everyone has one or two setbacks or things they’ve given up on. Ordinary kids can’t use magic. Of course readers are aware there are no wizards either. But I think there’s a feeling of “I wish there were”. There are things that even magic can’t do anything about. But I don’t want to deny that miracles happen when you try hard.
Doremi is an “ordinary child” who has human parents and is not a resident of the magical world. That’s why she’s not a “little witch”, but a “witch apprentice”. So we wanted to realistically depict how an “ordinary human child” hits the wall of the real world and how they overcome it, and the drama of life not going as planned.
───It feels like only Doremi is a little behind (laughs)
While everyone else at MAHO-do finds their dreams, she has a late start and can’t find a dream either, the world isn’t that sweet (laughs)!
It may seem like Doremi is the only one who has suffered setbacks, but the other members have also overcome various hardships. Hazuki has financial problems at home, Aiko has her own injuries, Onpu has family problems, Momoko hit the wall of reality earlier because she found her goal earlier. But everyone is trying to overcome it with their own will. We’re not just depicting children with chosen talents. They also impose the rule of “not using magic for themselves”, so they don’t use magic in concerts, games, tests, and other important scenes, they solve problems with their own will. So I hope that when readers hit walls, this provides a little push on their backs.
───Now, I think what readers want to ask most is, will there be an anime adaptation?
We want to make an anime adaptation. We’d like to make it. But of course there are realistic constraints, and frankly speaking, it’s sales. The first volume sold a lot, but sales inevitably dropped off for the second and third volumes. Without sales, people from higher-ups and sponsors who provide funding won’t gather. It’s an adult world so unless it hits sales numbers where they’ll say, “This sold so well that an anime will certainly be fine!” Whether there’s an anime depends on all of your support going forward. Please give your full support!