The House That Hosoda Built: An Interview with Studio Chizu

Studio Chizu is a fairly new studio headed up by Mamoru Hosoda, known for his films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and more. Studio Chizu's most recent film, Mirai, has been recognized worldwide as a hit and even garnered an Oscar nomination for best animated film. At AnimeFest 2019 we got the chance to chat with the CEO and some of the lead animators for the company, and talked about the filmmaking process, Netflix, and more!

A-to-J: Hello and thank you so much for the interview? Would you please introduce yourselves to your fans?
Yuichiro Saito: I am the producer and CEO of Studio Chizu, Yuichiro Saito.
Takaaki Yamashita: I am an animator at Studio Chizu, Takaaki Yamashita.
Tatsuzo Nishita: Hello, I’m also an animator at Studio Chizu, Tatsuzo Nishita.
Yohei Takamatsu: I did the art direction for Mirai and The Boy and the Beast, Yohei Takamatsu.

A-to-J: Your studio only a few years old, how did it get started?
Saito: The company started in 2011, so I guess you could say it’s still young. But this is our 9th year, and we have already put out three films, the first of which was Wolf Children. The main reason for creating Studio Chizu actually was to make Wolf Children. Before that, Mamoru Hosoda and I worked on The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars at a different studio. After Summer Wars was finished and became a big hit, we thought about what we wanted to do next. Hosoda-san wanted to make a film about his mother. I thought that it was a very good and innocent and pure idea, but also thought that it would be difficult to make. To make a film like that… he wanted to talk about how he was raised, and to include feelings of gratefulness and remorse. I thought it might be a hard sell to other studios, so we made our own so we could make the film we wanted. But then, Hosoda-san wanted to keep making films [laughs], so we’re still doing that almost a decade later.

A-to-J: How do you approach the filmmaking process?
Takamatsu: For Hosoda-san’s films, he pays a lot of attention to locations where the films take place. A lot of the movies we do are based around real locales, and a lot of details representing those areas are put into the background images. We do go out to those places to research them, but sometimes it’s hard to find the “perfect setting” for his vision for a story.
Saito: Since Studio Chizu was created as a studio for Hosoda-san’s films, we’re very focused on what he wants to do, what his desires are. He has a need for finding an exact location to match the ideas in his head, or else he has a hard time going forward with a film. For Wolf Children, we travelled all over Japan, hunting for the perfect spot. But in the end, he ended up going back to where his mother raised him and using that. Settings are very important to his films, and that’s how we approach making them.
 
A-to-J: Each of Studio Chizu’s films are a delight. Can you tell us what you like or are proud of about them?
Yamashita: For me, I did the animation direction for Wolf Children by myself, and that’s a very memorable experience for me.
Saito: In Japanese animation studios, it’s rare to only have one animation director for an entire film. But Yamashita-san is amazing. Only he could do such a thing. Hosoda-san was really insistent about how the growth of the children and their mother was shown in Wolf Children, and kept saying “it can only be one person doing that direction, and that person has to be Yamashita-san!” We asked for a second director and he said no [laughs]. It was pretty hard but the end result is wonderful.
Nishita: A lot of the films I’ve made in the past, my children have seen. They’re big fans of Hosoda-san’s works, so I’m happy about that and I could be part of that [laughs].
Takamatsu: From a background art perspective, we do our backgrounds almost entirely with paint and brushes. No Photoshop. Something like 90% of modern Japanese animation do their backgrounds in Photoshop, so I’m quite proud that we do it by hand.
Saito: I believe it’s only really us and Studio Ghibli who still do most of the work by hand nowadays.
 
A-to-J: Do you feel modern streaming services like Netflix have made it easier for your works to be embraced by a worldwide audience?
Saito: Yes, very much so [laughs]. I really feel the times are changing. At the Golden Globes and the Oscars, we got the chance to talk to the director of Roma, Alfonso Curon, and a film like that, with that setting, and that kind of cast, it wouldn’t have been possible without streaming. A big studio would pass on it, and it wouldn’t have been seen by as many people otherwise. As film makers, even if the medium changes, we’re still trying to make the best and most interesting movies we can, so that part hasn’t changed. Streaming has overtaken movie theaters in regards to how people watch movies, especially with younger people, but it makes it so we can have our work seen all over the world! I really feel, now more than ever, I want us to make movies that people on the other side of the world and also my own neighbors can enjoy. It’s kind of a challenge, how we can make a film that is enjoyable and meaningful and can leave an impact on so many kinds of people.
 
A-to-J: Mirai received an Oscar nomination, congratulations on that! What was the studio’s response to getting recognition like that from Hollywood?
Yamashita: It’s very wonderful!
[General murmurs of agreement]
Saito: it’s something we’re very proud of. For Mirai, we started its media tour with the Cannes film festival. The film’s story is very personal to Hosoda-san, as it tells the story of his two kids. There’s no big romance or epic adventure or giant catastrophe, just a film about the daily life of his children. A much smaller scale for a story. Even though it wasn’t a huge spectacle, we realized everyday life can be big. Taking it around the world, from Cannes to the Golden Globes, and the Oscars, and the Annies, we realized it’s something that everybody can relate to. I think there’s a lot of value to have people around the world understand that even daily life can be interesting and wonderful and make a good story.
 
A-to-J: What kind of project would you like to work on? Like a dream project?
Takamatsu: I’d like to do something that’s entertaining
Yamashita: I’d like to continue working with Hosoda-san on his films.
Nishita: I’d like to work with Hosoda-san on something in the realm of science fiction maybe.
Saito: we’re thinking about what to work on next as a studio. After all the new experiences with Mirai, I’m trying to challenge us at the studio to make a film that can be embraced worldwide. I’m also an academy member now, so there’s lots to think about.
 
A-to-J: Is there anything in the near future we should look out for from Studio Chizu?
[laughter]
Saito: I guess we kind of covered that already. Because Mirai did so well all over the world, we get to continue making films. If you mess up with one film and it doesn’t do well, it’s hard to recover from that. But because Mirai did great, we can keep going forward. The director said that [laughs].
 
A-to-J: Lastly, do you have any closing messages for you fans?
Takamatsu: I hope everyone enjoys our films and that the fans here at Anime Fest are having a good time.
Nishita: I really want everybody of all ages to watch our films.
Yamashita: Please watch our films!
Saito: I think for animated films, there’s an infinite amount of themes and motifs that have yet to be explored. I strongly believe we can still make movies no one has seen or expressed before. Hosoda-san is able to take these possibilities and make these movies no one has done yet. He doesn’t want to make the same thing over and over as a result of people liking a particular thing he did in the past. So he’s always challenging himself to make something new and unique. As a studio, we’ll keep challenging ourselves to make these films and hope you come to see them.
 
A-to-J: Thank you again for your time!
 
For More Information on Studio Chizu:
Studio Chizu youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzoqsy8C3lCpsBBVUS3cpTw
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/studiochizu/
Website http://www.studio-chizu.jp/index.html
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This interview was conducted by Janette G and Emily G