"We Struggled to Express Turquoise Blue": The Original Creator and Anime Production Team Talk About Just Like Mona Lisa in an Interview

Just Like Mona Lisa (hereafter Mona Lisa), whose TV anime adaptation was announced in June 2026, is set in a world where everyone can freely choose their own gender. The story depicts the inner conflict over "love" and "what matters most" among protagonist Hinase, a high school student troubled at being the only one who is still "genderless," and Hinase's two childhood friends, Shiori and Ritsu.

The original manga was serialized in Gangan ONLINE (Square Enix) and concluded in 2021. It is a popular work whose 10 collected volumes have surpassed 1 million copies in cumulative circulation.

For this article, we interviewed three people: original creator Tsumuji Yoshimura; Mitsutoshi Kubota, President and Representative Director of Shaft, the studio handling the animation production; and Manami Kabashima, a producer at CyberAgent's Anime & IP Division. We asked them about how the anime adaptation came about and the new challenges they took on in bringing the work to the screen.

—First, a question for producer Kabashima. Could you tell us how the anime production of this work came to be decided?

Manami Kabashima (hereafter Kabashima): It all started roughly four to five years ago, when I had a conversation with Square Enix. The manga had already concluded by then, and since it's such an interesting work, I assumed an anime adaptation had already been decided. But when I asked, they told me, "No anime adaptation has been decided yet." I replied, "Then I'd like to consider it," and that was how it began.

From there, when I thought about what kind of visuals to aim for, the turquoise-and-black color scheme in the manga left a strong impression on me, so I wanted to take on the challenge of adapting it if Shaft would agree. About half a year after I approached them, they said yes.

Mitsutoshi Kubota (hereafter Kubota): Sorry, that took quite a while, didn't it?

Kabashima: I was sure you had completely forgotten about it (laughs). I kept checking in regularly, asking, "How are things going since then?" but I never got a reply.

Kubota: My apologies for that (laughs).

Kabashima: Oh, not at all. Just when I was thinking it was surely a no, one day I got a phone call saying, "We'll do it." I remember answering, "Really, are you sure!?" with my hands shaking on a street in Ogikubo. I was truly happy at that moment.

Kubota: Right. It was the kind of original work we hadn't really dealt with much before, and that's actually what made it interesting to us. I think it's a work that very directly reminds you of high school students earnestly worrying, struggling, feeling anxious, cherishing their friends, and liking or disliking things.

And thinking that everyone might relive those experiences through it, I asked staff members in their 20s and 30s, "Why don't you read the original?" The reactions I got were, "I really want to read what happens next," and "What's going to happen after this?"

If everyone found it interesting, I thought we might also be able to express the original's turquoise color well through direction as a new challenge for us. So I replied, "We'll do it," and that's how it started.

—So the anime adaptation was premised on Shaft being involved?

Kabashima: Yes. That's why I was thinking that if Shaft turned me down, I would have to apologize to Square Enix (laughs).

—We'd also like to ask Kubota: does Shaft also see expressing things like the turquoise color and subtle emotional nuances as one of its new challenges?

Kubota: Every time, we think about trying something new, but there honestly isn't that much we can do (laughs). But having happened to receive an original work with this kind of theme, we're trying things out, thinking that a different kind of novelty... the expression of color, and the quiet, delicate movements and everyday lives of the characters, could become new challenges for us.

How that turns out is something to look forward to. I hope we can convey how color gets added. We're working hard so that the way various colors come in as the story progresses comes across well.

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