Here's a video from YouTube showing the director and the main female seiyuu from true tears visiting the real-life setting of the anime, in Toyama Prefecture.The video shows locations that are part of the anime -- the shopping mall, the shop where Ai-chan works, Shinichirou's house, the snowy streets and houses, etc.Iguchi Yuka (Ai) says she was surprised and moved by seeing how like the anime the shop was. In real life it sells takoyaki (squid balls). In the anime it sells imagawayaki (sweet bean waffles). Director Nishimura Junji says they liked the feeling of pride in Toyama. The fact that the animation company has its headquarters there might also have helped.In the video, Iguchi Yuka (Ai) is wearing all pale colors and has short, straight hair. Takagaki Ayahi (Noe) is wearing jeans and a dark jacket and has a dark face and very long ears. Nazuka Kaori (Hiromi) is tall, wears a dark jacket and light skirt, and has bobbed hair. Director Nishimura Junji is balding, with a beard and mustache. The video also shows the actual proprietor of the takoyaki shop and a representative of the mall.Toyama is a prefecture (= state, province) on the west coast of Japan. The area gets a lot of snow, especially this winter. No wonder Hiromi is looking for "a town where it doesn't snow."The animation company that is making true tears, P.A. Works (Progressive Animation Works) actually has its main headquarters in at Nanto, in Toyama. Nanto is a district municipality taking in a number of towns and the land between them. The company also has offices in Tokyo, where the voice recording was done.The video says that P.A. Works has assembled "young creators" from all over Japan to work in this quite out-of-the-way town. Since its founding in the early 1990s, P.A. Works has done subcontracts, mainly for Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell, Tsubasa Chronicle, Seirei no Moribito). This is the first full anime it has produced itself.The video is a TV news feature, probably from Toyama television.
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta