Author: izumi/Anitama Cover Source: Angel of The Killing
Before it was animated, Angel of The Killing was originally a free-to-play game made by Makoto Sanada using the "RPG Maker". Let's listen to the author talk about the creation of the work.
Since childhood, Sanada has been a child who loves to write novels, draw pictures and other creative activities, so during high school and college, Sanada studied courses related to stage performances. However, what he aspires to is not the technical work of the stage, but the script writing, mainly considering that the script can be written without the restrictions of location, environment, etc., so that it is easy to stick to it all the time.
After graduation, Sanada joined a regular company. After taking office, despite his creative enthusiasm, his company was located in a remote township, and it was difficult to find a platform for him to develop his ambitions. Just when Sanada was worried about the lack of talent, he happened to learn that a free game he had played in the past was made with the "RPG Maker Master" software, and he became interested.
The stage art that Sanada learned is an artistic expression that maintains equal distance from the audience from the beginning to the end of the curtain, which is equivalent to maintaining a fixed camera position of the camera, and then adding elements such as lighting, sound, art, and actors to create an overhead world. Sanada intuitively felt that this was very similar to the scenario in a 2D game made by the "RPG Maker Master" software. At the beginning of the creation, he did not think about it carefully, but now in retrospect, he should have vaguely perceived the commonality between the two.
Even laymen who are not proficient in programming can produce the performance effect of stage art, and this feature of the "RPG Master Maker" software is quite impressive to Sanada. But when he really started to make it, he still encountered various situations, large and small, but finally completed the task, and the name of the game was called "Misty Rain Drifting Zero Forest".
After a small test, Sanada began the production of "Angel of Killing", according to him, the inspiration for this game suddenly flashed during the production of "Misty Rain Drifting Zero Forest". At first, he just thought of a simple structure such as "to attack a building where a murderous maniac was waiting on all floors to ambush the girl", and then it was a process of gradually adding branches and leaves to enrich the details. In the previous game, Misty Rain and Zero Forest, the atmosphere of the work is mainly depicted through monsters or fears born of people's karmic obstacles, but in this game, Sanada does not want to take advantage of such extraordinary existence, but instead focuses the root of terror directly on human nature itself.
Although it belongs to the same category of horror adventure games, this work has a very different atmosphere rendering from the typical "Japanese horror style" "Misty Rain Drifting Zero Forest", on the other hand, both works emphasize the concept of "convention" in terms of plot composition. In this regard, Sanada's explanation is that when digging deeper into the relationship between the characters, he will touch on some kind of "convention", which may stem from his own attachment to "convention". The "agreement" that Sanada refers to is not a casual statement, but a solemn commitment that is quite difficult to fulfill. "Angel of The Killing" is intended to embody the important principles of interpersonal communication through the form of covenants between characters, which is sanada's original intention.
In terms of character shaping, the heroine of "Misty Rain And Zero Forest" Kanzaki Shiori belongs to the cheerful and lively action faction, if this type of girl is regarded as an ideal female image, then Rigel can be seen as the spokesperson of the adolescent population. At first glance, Regil seems to be indifferent to everything around him, and his mind is also unpredictable, and the child's heart is extremely delicate and sensitive during this period, full of various unstable factors. According to Sanada's personal experience, young boys and girls of that age can always deeply feel the loneliness of not being understood by anyone when they look at the people around them. In his opinion, that kind of feeling has been experienced by both boys and girls. Of course, compared with ordinary children, Regil's heart is also shrouded in another layer of shadow, but in general, it is still the unique loneliness of the age of 13 that is at work, and Sanada just wants to focus on depicting the self-abandonment psychology transformed by the desperate emotions of isolation and helplessness, which triggers the characters' unscrupulous and fearless action patterns.
Except for the heroine, the owner who waits on each floor, the murderous nature, but these characters have more or less resonant qualities. For example, the important figure Zach follows his own unique aesthetic standards in dealing with the world and strictly implements them in practice. Such a distinct and prominent personality, even in the real world, is unique because of that "persistent belief".
In contrast, Dr. Danny hides an incomparably fragile complex state of mind behind his violent and extreme words and deeds, and when the plot is halfway through, this person will also stage a scene of emotional transfer, according to Sanada, the character's excellent "on-the-spot play" makes him grow into a key clue character beyond the preset.
The situation in which the animated characters metamorphose and escalate with the plot is not limited to Daniel, Regil, and Zach, but also established mutual trust earlier than Sanada imagined, according to him, feeling that after the 3rd episode of the original work, all the processes have exceeded his original arrangement and begun to accelerate forward. Because the work was broadcast on Amazon, Sanada prepared a story outline of 4 episodes in advance, but he did not expect that such two "non-listening" characters would emerge. As a result, the plot quickly evolved into a situation where Rigel and Zach joined forces to overcome the problem side by side and break through the wall. The two advance and retreat together, giving people a strong sense of rapid advancement.
From the perspective of time nodes, two and a half years after the end of the game, the work ushered in animation. It is said that when Sanada first heard from Sakura that it was expected to be changed, he did not believe it very much. Until the adaptation plan was officially put on the agenda, Sanada was still worried more than happy. Including as a script and storyboard supervisor, Sanada was still skeptical about whether the content of the work was suitable for broadcast in the form of animation. Until the PV was released, seeing the scene of the character coming alive and vividly, he finally experienced the excitement and joy of being the original work with hindsight.
Puzzle games such as "Killing Angels", the characters need to frequently travel through the rooms to find various clues to solve the puzzles, which is not suitable for animation performance, however, it is in the process of back and forth exploration, the inner orientation of the characters, and the firmness of the will have undergone a momentary and subtle change, so Sanada hopes that this part of the depiction of psychological changes can be preserved as much as possible. Then there is the fact that as many copies as possible have basically no impact on the main story line, but they can show the personality of the characters and evoke the lines that the player recalls. In short, I want to convey more benefits that only the original fans can understand.
The game has been changed and the media on board has been converted, and the air sense of the original work cannot be restored 100%, and it is not necessary. In Sanada's opinion, the anime version has worked hard to achieve most of the results. It is said that the biggest limitation of the animation is the restriction of the length of the film, and the producer even took this factor into account, and decided to ensure the integrity of the original work to the greatest extent in the form of additional letters, which made Sanada feel grateful at the same time, but also to increase the burden of supervision and staff.
Moreover, the adaptation of the animated version also injects a new charm into the original work. In particular, Casey's active performance in the film has exceeded Sanada's expectations, adding a lot of points to the character, originally thought that the game version of Casey has been given a considerable sense of movement, this time, really let Sanada fully appreciate the animation in the presentation of the picture, plus the assistance of sound, instantly make the viewer's mood fluctuate.
As for the voice actors, since Sanada was not familiar with the situation of the voice actors and did not specify someone specifically from the beginning, after listening to the DEMO tape, he only objectively talked about his opinion from the perspective of the original work. But when he heard the voice of Rigel's CV, Haruka Chisuga, Sanada couldn't help but smile with satisfaction on his face. In his original words, "I felt that when I first made the game, the voice of Regil, which reverberated in my head, suddenly became concrete in reality." Chisuga's voice is neither like a child nor an adult, but a special voice that mixes multiple complex components such as cuteness, blindness, and dark side, and it is Rigel himself! It is said that before that, the staff in charge of casting matters were also struggling to find a suitable female lead voice actor, Sanada had expected that the female lead casting would not be smooth sailing, but he did not expect to find the ideal candidate without compromise, which really made him happy.
Speaking of the point of view of the work, in view of the high expectations of fans of the original game for this anime version, Sanada suggested that if you compare the two, there will be many new discoveries. Previously, due to the limitations of the game production software, or his own lack of ability, he could not achieve the effect of biting, and in the animation version, it was drawn into a very impactful picture to be realized, so it is absolutely not to be missed. For those who do not know the original, Sanada asks you to follow the eyes of Rigel and Zach and others on a thrilling adventure like never before.
<h5>Resources:</h5>
August 2018 issue "NewType"
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Original: m.anitama.cn/article/197ce21aea9c54b8?utm_source=toutiao