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Onimai Director Shares Anime's Unexpected Inspirations in New Interview


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There might be no info on how recent anime delays have affected the production, but what we do know is that Onimai has some unexpected inspirations, according to a new interview with its director.

At the end of each episode beginning with the fourth, Onimai director Shingo Fujii shares his comments via an interview series with Animate Times.

There, he shared some interesting insights about the show’s development, as well as his sources of inspiration.

Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister! Director Explains Staff’s Contribution to the Anime

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Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister! may be another anime with a “magical sex shift” premise, where a character is transformed magically into the opposite sex (Ayakashi Triangle also comes to mind).

Though Onimai promises to have a deeper and more nuanced take on the genre, at least based on the voice cast’s previous interview.

Based on the new Onimai director interview though, that seems to be the case, as director Fujii explained how the show’s female staff members helped inspire the show’s scenarios.

For instance, there’s a scene in Episode 5 that involves the characters going into an arcade.

While the director drew upon his experiences to depict the arcade, he asked the writer, Michiko Yokota, as well as the female staff members for their input.

Specifically, they were asked for advice on depicting the purikura (or photo booths) in the arcades. This is because purikura are mostly used by women.

Having female staff members share their input made for a more interesting and authentic depiction of the arcades from a girl’s perspective.

RELATED: Crunchyroll Quietly Censors Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister! Anime

Onimai Episode 5’s Hairdresser Scene

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Another interesting inspiration for the anime is a hairdresser for the salon scene.

Instead of just basing the animation and atmosphere of the Episode 5 salon scene on videos, the director asked a hairdresser he knows for help.

In fact, Fujii said that he asked the hairdresser to perform the scene, which they then recorded on video to serve as a reference for the animators.

This is not a novel idea in anime as shows like Campfire Cooking in Another World have also made use of references for certain sequences. Though most of these are for key scenes.

For reference, Onimai is not about hairdressing, so it’s interesting to see how the director and the staff went the extra mile for more authentic animation.

New episodes of Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister! are released every week on Crunchyroll.

Discover the latest anime news and info by following us on Twitter @epicstreamanime.

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Source: Animate Times

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