—Turquoise blue seems to be a key point in the story. Did you all struggle when actually expressing that color on screen?
Kubota: Yes. I don't know what Yoshimura thought, but on our side, it was quite a struggle. There are so many shades of blue, so we wondered which one is the turquoise blue of Mona Lisa, for example. And what we see with the naked eye inevitably looks different in color once it's on screen.
So we turned it into visuals while discussing it lively together, thinking maybe the differences in color could be interesting. ...Yoshimura, how did it look when you actually saw it? Didn't you think, "That's not it, it should be greener"?
Yoshimura: No. First of all, the colors I paint myself differ from the colors on paper (in the printed manga). And the colors in the e-book version are different again. On paper they end up a bit more subdued, while in the e-book they come out more vivid. In my mind, the turquoise in the original was already all over the place to begin with, so I was really looking forward to seeing how it would be expressed in the anime.
Kubota: We ended up deciding, "Let's go with the color we all believe in!" (laughs). That said, we did aim to get as close as possible to the colors in the original books.
Yoshimura: The brilliance was wonderful. It was amazing.
Kubota: On screen, it glows on the monitor, so it looks different.
Kabashima: Maybe it's because we haven't fixed a specific color code. The blue tones in the teaser trailer are also a bit turquoise in places, or turn into gradients.
Kubota: Well, I think a little variation there is fine (laughs). This color appears at several key points in the visuals, so I think fans of the original will be wondering where it shows up. I hope they'll look forward to seeing how we handle the color.
—Next, we'd like to ask Yoshimura. How did you feel when the production offer came in?
Yoshimura: As Kabashima mentioned earlier, I heard about it from my editor right around the time the manga's serialization ended and the final volume was about to come out. If news like that reached me before things were fairly certain, I'd just end up getting my hopes up for nothing (laughs), so it was really only at a late stage that I was told.
So I had been thinking that even though I worked quite hard on it, it didn't lead to an anime adaptation. I wouldn't say I was down in the dumps, but around then an anime adaptation of a work by an author I know had also been announced, and I was thinking, "Lucky them, I guess I couldn't get that far." Since I was in the middle of putting out the final volume, I was incredibly happy to receive the offer. I thought, "Thank goodness!"
Actually, even before that, around when I released earlier volumes like Volume 5, I had talked with my editor about whether an anime adaptation might be possible. But I was told that the anime production side had said, "It's hard to start an anime adaptation without knowing how the original ends," and I thought that made sense.
And since I was feeling down that no offer had come even after the serialization actually ended, I truly owe Kabashima and President Kubota more than I can ever repay (laughs). Thank you very much.
Kabashima: The feeling is mutual.
—Finally, could you share a message for the fans looking forward to the Mona Lisa anime?
Yoshimura: Sure. I think the anime will be seen by many people, and probably more of them won't know the original. But I feel the team is working hard on the scenario, the art, and more so that it's really appealing even for people coming in through the anime, so I'd be happy if people watch it thinking, "I don't know it, but what is this?"
Kubota: For fans of the original, I hope that first of all they'll watch the anime and feel how characters like Hinase, Shiori, and Ritsu move and speak. Animation, after all, passes time through sound—dialogue and the score—so I hope we can convey how we want to express that.
Just as everyone has imagined, I think seeing the characters move and speak is something that will make people very happy, so please look forward to it.
Kabashima: No matter what era you watch it in, regardless of nationality or gender, the emotions we want to cherish are universal and shared by everyone. I think this will become an anime that values that, so I truly hope many different people will watch it. Please look forward to it.
Mona Lisa is being adapted into an anime while valuing the colors and emotional subtleties of the original manga. Not much time has passed since the production announcement, and the broadcast date and broadcasting station have not yet been revealed, but it looks set to be an anime worth looking forward to as we await further news.
Text by Ryuya
(C)Tsumuji Yoshimura/SQUARE ENIX, Just Like Mona Lisa Partners
