We got the chance to speak with the Wistoria: Wand and Sword anime producer, Katsuki Aoyama, at this year’s Anime Expo, where he told us he believes the show’s staff to be the ‘greatest ever to assemble.’ The light novel and manga editor, Shiro Yamano, said that the key factor in the editorial staff’s decision to choose Aoyama’s proposal was the director, Tatsuya Yoshihara.
There were seven companies interested in adapting the work, but they chose the one that had Tatsuya Yoshihara as the director at studios Actas and Bandai Namco Pictures. Below is the quote from Katsuki Aoyama on the process of adding them to the team, broken down for each of the key staff members he highlighted.
At the core of anime staff is the director, Tatsuya Yohihara-san, We first met, talked it out, and, for him, it was a question of “What do you want to do with the series? How do you want to go?”
Tatsuya Yoshihara is well known for his work in Black Clover, JUJUTSU KAISEN and Chainsaw Man, among many others. Wistoria: Wand and Sword is particularly interesting to the Black Clover fans, due to some clear similarities between the two.
The director said he wanted Yuki Hayashi to do music, so then we went and approached Hayashi-san, and asked, “Would you like to do music for this?” That settled down.
Yuki Hayashi is another big name in the industry, having worked on many anime titles. Some of his most notable works were for My Hero Academia and Haikyu!!
We wanted a very fast-paced, action-packed opening theme, so we talked to Sony, and they got the perfect opening theme.
You can listen to the Wistoria: Wand and Sword theme song in the show’s opening video below. The opening theme song is “Fire and Fear,” and it is performed by Penguin Research.
Then we went to character design, and Sayaka Ono is very famous with all the prolific work she’s done in Sunrise and other places. She just made an amazing drawing of Will.
Sayaka Ono’s work at Sunrise includes Code Geass and Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon. She was also the character designer for the new Basta*d!! Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy anime.
Then the original manga pair are helping out. They’re totally ready to back the animation staff up. That was kind of when the framework was done, and then all the other staff kind of fell in place after that.
The original manga pair includes the author Fujino Omori and illustrator Toshi Aoi. Fujino Omori is most notably known as the creator of Danmachi (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?).
I’ve been saying “The greatest staff to ever assemble” as kind of a catchphrase, but I really believe that that is the case here for the [Wistoria: Wand and Sword] series.
A wider look at the Wistoria: Wand and Sword anime staff shows the following:
- Original Work: Fujino Omori, Toshi Aoi
- Direction: Tatsuya Yoshihara
- Series Composition: Tatsuya Yoshihara
- Script/Screenplay: Tatsuya Yoshihara
- Storyboard: Tatsuya Yoshihara, Isuta, Takahiko Usui
- Music: Yuki Hayashi
- Character Design: Sayaka Ono
- Chief Animation Direction: Sayaka Ono
- Creature Design: Ryo Aikizuki, Yoshiro Harada
- Prop Design: Raita Suzuga
- Production Supervision: Ryo Aikizuki
- Special Effects Supervision: Isuta
- Music Producer: Lantis
- Sound Direction: Hiroto Morishita
- Sound Production: Jinhan Studio
- Editing: Masato Yoshitake
- Art Direction: Yuki Neade
- Colour Design: Naomi Nakano
- Photographic Direction: Ayako Otsuki
- CG Direction: Morihiko Abe
- CG: Isao Mengishi
- Animation Producer: Kazunori Goka
- Planning: Hiroki Kikuno, Manabu Kuroda, Asa Suehiro, Naotoshi Tsunoda
- Animation: Actas, BN Pictures
- Episode Direction: Tatsuya Yoshihara, Masakazu Yoshimoto
- Animation Direction: Takahiko Usui, Munetaka Abe, Takeshi Ito, Eri Kojima, Akira Takahashi, Akio Takami, Rui Yang
- Assistant Animation Direction: Kaori Endo
The anime has 2 episodes out so far, and fans are already praising it for its production. The anime ranked 9th in our weekly ranking after its first episode, climbing to 5th after the second one. The English dub will premiere on July 21, which is also when the 3rd episode will release.
The anime is based on the manga written by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Toshi Aoi. The series began publication in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine on December 9, 2020, and has since published 10 volumes. Kodansha USA licensed it in English, while Crunchyroll is streaming the anime adaptation. They describe the story:
A hard-working boy named Will enters a magic academy in hopes of becoming a great sorcerer. Unfortunately, there’s a fatal flaw in his plan: he lacks the ability to use magic. Amid the cold stares of his classmates and instructors, Will feels discouraged at times, but he presses forward with unwavering determination. He can’t use a wand, but he can wield a sword in his battle to reach the top of a magic-dominated world. He just needs to believe in his own unique strengths and remember the promise he made with someone precious to him…
It’s obviously impossible to objectively confirm Wistoria: Wand and Sword or any other anime has the ‘greatest staff,‘ but this staff does seem very promising and it will be interesting to watch this anime throughout its run.
Source: Anime Corner Interview
©Fujino Omori, Toshi Aoi, Kodansha/Wistoria: Wand and Sword Production Committee.
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