Interview With Shūsuke Katagiri and Shūhei Matsushita
Location: Anime NYC 2023
Interview Date: 11/17/2023
(Editor’s note: I’d like to apologize for missing a few questions and answers. Unfortunately, my audio file was corrupted and I had to make do with what I had.)
Unknown Outlet: In a 2019 interview for the anime’s premiere, they discussed the different tastes of shonen…
Shūsuke Katagiri: The target demographic has changed as the viewership has expanded.
Anime Herald: How did your brief experience as a ship’s captain (on a really hot day) help you with the sailboat scenes in season three?
Shūhei Matsushita: The boat had very narrow hallways and corridors. The setting is very important in creating an anime. If you’re watching and you see something that is inauthentic, and that gets caught, and you can’t fully dive into the narrative and the story and the characters. Especially in a series like Dr. Stone, we want to be truthful to scientific elements, so we pay attention to make sure what you see on the screen is as authentic as possible.
We went to the boat in the daytime. However, when you are inside the boat it is much darker. We were able to reflect that in the animation. We were happy to have done that fieldwork. It was worth it.
Anime Trending: Can you talk about the creative process about producing the two split-cour series for season 3?
Shūsuke Katagiri: We paid close attention to the ending of the first cour and the beginning of the second cour to make sure there was continuity for the story.
Shūhei Matsushita: Especially for the end of the first cour. We wanted the audience to be engaged so that we could carry them on to the second cour. When we’re thinking about the flow of the script, something will happen to conclude the first cour, but something else needs to happen to set up interest for the second cour.
Unknown Outlet: So many shonen series focus on physical strength and super powers. Dr. Stone shows how science and knowledge can be the greatest super power of all. Has it been satisfying to push that narrative and create a show that focuses on brains over brawn?
Shūsuke Katagiri: I mean, there are some characters that kind of have super powers. Having said that, the characters are relatable. I’m sure everyone experiences something like “I’m smart, but I can’t play sports.” Or, “I’m strong, but weak academically.”
I can’t play any sports whatsoever. I was good at drawing though.
Unknown Outlet: What do you love most about the Dr. Stone story, and do you have a favorite character?
Shūsuke Katagiri: I think part of the appeal is that what they create leads to something next, and the something next is always bigger. They are always scaling up to something bigger and better.
Sometimes when original manga is adapted into an anime series, we’ll have to drop some of the chapters or story arcs due to length reasons. However, with Dr. Stone, if you do that, there will be discontinuity. If you cut something out, you’ll miss a piece that leads to the next arc. That’s why we spend a lot of time and energy on the story.
Shūhei Matsushita: For me, in terms of such a large-scale and epic story, we don’t really see that these days. Dr. Stone has lived for 700 years! You don’t normally see such a grand story.
Unknown Outlet: This new season adapts the New World arc. Was there a specific sequence or scene you were really looking forward to?
Shūsuke Katagiri: I can tell you a scene we weren’t looking forward to. At the end of episode 13, Kohaku and Ginro get petrified. It was a shock to read it in the manga. When I saw it, at first I didn’t want to animate it but, of course, I had to. It was almost like “Oh, I had to get to this point.” There was a lot in it, and it was difficult to edit, and it took a lot of time to edit as well.
Unknown Outlet: What have been some of the challenges of animating Dr. Stone?
Shūsuke Katagiri: There’s a scene in the manga where there’s a machine that works off of the flow of gas. We had to see how the gas would flow in real life.
Unknown Outlet: Do you feel the staff had to learn a lot about science in order to animate sequences?
Shūhei Matsushita: Yes. (Laughs)
And as the story continues on, there are different fields of science that are introduced, so we had to keep studying so we’d have the knowledge we need to animate the show,
Anime Herald: Following up on that, would you recommend wearing brand new sneakers when going on location?
Shūsuke Katagiri: No, definitely not. (Laughs)
(Editor’s note: Producer Hiroto Matsukuma wore new sneakers when they visited the oil fields in Shizuoka.)
They had definitely told us that we needed to wear long boots. I just intentionally left out that information for him (producer Hiroto Matsukama).
(Editor’s note: Producer Katagiri was clearly joking.)
Shūhei Matsushita: That little funny anecdote gets more focus, but in reality, the fieldwork was very helpful. The oil is coming out. We got to smell it and see it and take a lot of photos. The oil gives off a kind of iridescent light. We were able to reflect that.
Also, the boars live there too. The boars rub their bodies against the tree. We were able to see the mud left on the bark. We were told to watch out for boars, but what were we supposed to do if we saw one? (Shakes head)
Unknown Outlet: It can be difficult to maintain the quality and rich storytelling over the course of many seasons. Can you talk about how you handled that for Dr. Stone?
Shūsuke Katagiri: It’s always very challenging. Director Matsushita took over with a television special, and then season three. We had a lot of discussions about the balance and the flow of the series. On average, it takes about 5,000 to 6,000 frames to make an [anime] episode. However, because we needed to pay attention to the balance of the whole series, perhaps one episode would need 7,000 frames, and the next would have 4,000 frames, so that is a dynamic from episode to episode. We paid a lot of attention to that.
Unknown Outlet: Has there been any discussion about doing a movie? Is that something you’d like to do in the future?
Shūsuke Katagiri & Shūhei Matsushita: (Laughs) Right now, we are super busy with what we are doing. Our plate is full. Having said that, if there’s a chance, that might be nice.
Unknown Outlet: How do you know what to keep from the story and what can be cut to keep the story cohesive?
Shūsuke Katagiri: It’s quite difficult. As a general principle, we’d like to include as much of it as possible. In terms of my creative style, I’d like to make a longer version of it and then cut it down in editing. We’d like to include all of it if we can. For example, in the manga we see a cute silly face from Gen. It’s not strictly necessary to include it, but we’d like to do so if possible.
Shūhei Matsushita: Directing the TV special was very hard. It was my first time making an hour-length anime. It’s always 30 minutes. It took a long time to edit it. About 15 hours.
Unknown Outlet: Moz is such a memorable enemy for Senku. How did you go about setting him up as such a villainous presence for this season?
Shūsuke Katagiri: If you look at the original manga, he has lots of muscles. He’s very intimidating. Perhaps we give him a few more close-ups compared to the other villains.
Unknown Outlet: Since the Dr. Stone manga finished last year, have you felt any new pressures in crafting the anime of a finished product, or is it a relief knowing where the story is going?
Shūsuke Katagiri & Shūhei Matsushita: Just because the manga is completed, we can’t sit back and relax. What the anime brings to the table is a little different than the original manga. There are fans who only watch the anime. We want them to experience the same thrilling moments as the people who read the manga. With that said, because we know the ending, we can plan ahead and foreshadow a little bit. We have that luxury.
Anime Herald: What were than anime and manga that inspired you to join the industry?
Shūhei Matsushita: I started with Evangelion. That’s what got me into the industry.
Shūsuke Katagiri: I kind of got invited into this field. I didn’t have an anime or manga that inspired me to join the industry. That said, my dream job would be something like Cowboy Bebop. Sci-fi.
Anime Herald: How did you get invited into the industry?
Shūsuke Katagiri: This was before I joined TMS Entertainment. My roommate worked as an animator. A production assistant had left the studio. My roommate said, “If you’re not working, please come.”
I was at that studio for one year. I cannot tell you how horrible the working conditions were. I just can’t. Just to give you a glimpse of how terrible it was, I didn’t have time to bathe. I washed my body at the bathroom sink.
Unknown Outlet: You came in as a director for Dr STONE: New World. Can you talk about what is like continuing the role of director for an existing anime series?
Shūhei Matsushita: I was definitely nervous. At first, I got to work on the TV special. The main staff stayed the same. I was learning from them. The episode director taught me a lot about the series.
Luckily, I had worked with the editors and sound directors before, so they were familiar faces. They helped me get accommodated with the existing team. When the TV special aired, we all watched it together. It was like my induction ceremony. “Yes, I’m finally part of the team.”
Unknown Outlet: Each season, the show expands in terms of scope and characters. Is that something that’s exciting or intimidating, to change things up as the show goes on?
Shūsuke Katagiri: Like you pointed out, the number of characters in this series is roughly double what you would see in a normal series. With that said, we can’t drop any of them. All of them are incorporated into the story, so each them are essential. We can’t drop any of them, so we want to make all of them as attractive as possible.
There’s a character that only speaks once in one episode.
Shūhei Matsushita: Even though a character only speaks one line in an episode, you might feel like you can cut that character, but the voice actor comes in to record it, and it’s the accumulation of those little moments that make up the story, so we can’t drop any of them. They’re all important.
Unknown Outlet: Is there any single episode that you take particular pride in, or that the audience has really gravitated to?
Shūsuke Katagiri: The fans haven’t seen the whole thing. There’s a lot more happening. Having said that, everyone worked very hard on episodes 12 and 13.
Unknown Outlet: How was it, showing Senku’s moral challenges and internal struggles this season?
Shūhei Matsushita: Senku’s facial expressions can tell the story, but sometimes we’ll only show him from behind, or only see his mouth. We see his emotional expressions a bit more than we do in the manga. We want to make him more relatable.
Unknown Outlet: Younger generations are facing threats like global warming. Do you think of the series at all as a post-apocalyptic story from that angle?
Shūsuke Katagiri: Perhaps there are elements of that in this story, but no one is going to get petrified in real life. (Laughs)
Perhaps you’ll pick up some survival knowledge and skills. For one example, wheatgrass can be substituted for wheat. If you watched the series, you can survive.
