The Blue Archive Team Talks With Anime Herald

• Interview Date: 7/5/2024
• Interview Location: Anime Expo 2024

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Anime Herald: What was your original idea for Blue Archive?

Yong-Ha Kim: At the time, the themes for other games were heavier, more somber. But, we wanted to bring out the brighter and happier moments to the game, so that’s how Blue Archive came about. Essentially, we’re battling. We wanted to focus on the brighter elements. The story and battles for other games are somber enough. We thought it would be refreshing, given that the characters are often carrying guns like it’s nothing. We wanted to give it a lighter feel.

Anime Herald: I noticed you seemed a bit uncomfortable with the characters carrying guns, and perhaps the guns themselves. Was that something you worked on making more palatable to see?

Yong-Ha Kim: From the beginning, I thought it might be an issue in North America. Later, I realized it would just be part of their daily life. The characters are okay, even when they’re hit with bombs. I thought it ended up playing into the story well.

Because these characters aren’t harmed by bombs shot at them, this is a situation where I thought it would be okay. No one is harmed. Rather than having it as a metaphor for dangerous gun issues, this is a game where people can be playful and have fun with.

Anime Herald: While there are battles, it seems like most of the conflict in Blue Archive is emotional conflict. Is that something you decided was the best way to advance the story?

Yong-Ha Kim: The emotional aspect of it is very important to creating a game and content. We thought it would be important to have the game develop with that emotional aspect to it. The story is about daily lives in the academies. So, what starts as a lighter, brighter, happy story, turns into something more profound. 

It starts out light, and then gets more serious. However, we also wanted to have some fun, showing the daily lives of the characters.

Gukki Kim: The connection between the user and the character is very important. I wanted the players to have a strong rapport with their characters. That’s essential to Blue Archive.

Anime Herald: It looked like Blue Archive started out as a tactics game, and then was turned into more of a visual novel. Was that because a visual novel was a better way of telling the story?

Yong-Ha Kim: It’s important that we have both the tactical gameplay and the story. What leads the players to keep playing is the story. The development of the story is something that the players can look forward to.

Gukki Kim: Our goal is to have synergy between the tactical gameplay and the development of the story. We don’t want either to be lacking. It’s our essential goal to keep both interesting for the players.

Anime Herald: The anime obviously has no gameplay to it; it’s pure story. I hope you are happy with the success of the first season. There’s a lot of demand for a second season. Do you have a rough idea of what stories you’d like to tell in a second season?

Gukki Kim: We really want to keep our users connected to the game. The things they have seen in the game that were inspirational or memorable, we wanted to carry that over to the anime and develop that story.

Yong-Ha Kim: The user, Sensei, is never shown. We could portray Sensei in the anime. We can have the characters discuss themselves, and their battle plans. There are things that happened in the story that the players couldn’t see in the game while they were playing. We could put those things in the anime to give them fuller details as the anime plays out.

If we were to do a second season, we’d want to keep what was memorable from the game portrayed in the anime. But, we can’t disclose our plans for season two at the moment; we need to discuss how and what we can do in season two.

We would love to think about how we could have parts of the game we couldn’t portray in season one play out in season two. If we are going to come out with it.

Anime Herald: Did making the first season of the anime teach you about different ways you can tell the story going forward?

Yong-Ha Kim: When we first started making the anime, we had no prior experience in making anime. When we started making it, we learned that the screenplay for the anime is important. When we were making the anime, we weren’t sure how to approach filling all the different positions needed to create the anime.

The one thing we learned about was communication. How to communicate between producers, and everyone involved in the storytelling. I think that if we do make a second season, we’d be able to do it a lot better.

I was very happy to see the characters from the game animated and how they moved. I was very happy that viewers got to watch the anime. I would love to make it even better so that everyone can enjoy the animation.

Yong-Ha Kim: This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to meet our users here in America. We were able to see online how many people played Blue Archive, but this our first chance to gauge our popularity offline.

At the beginning, I was concerned about turnout. Now that I know that we are loved… we appreciate the love of our Senseis. The next time we have an event we’ll prepare for better accommodations for our fans.

Anime Herald: Are there any funny stories you’d care to share about the development of either the game or the anime?

Yong-Ha Kim: When we were working on the animation, ahead of the eleventh episode, we were talking about how we were going to portray the scene with (Shiromi) Iori’s bare feet. We felt that the animator seemed a little too enthusiastic as to portray the scene, but I think it turned out well in the end

Anime Herald: Thank you very much.

Yong-Ha Kim: Thank you.