©JELEE／ 「夜のクラゲは泳げない」製作委員会
Where do these drifting jellyfish go?
A jellyfish rushed into the unknown big blue sea and started swimming! Illustrator Mahiru Kōzuki quit drawing after his work was ridiculed. Idol Kano Yamanouchi left the Sunflower Dolls group after causing a scandal. Kiui Watase quit school and lived a double life as a Vtuber. Mei “Kim Anouk” Takanashi had difficulty at school due to her German heritage and shy personality, and she devoted herself to supporting her idol. The paths of these four broken girls converge in the night, and together they form the unknown artist, JELEE. With the combination of Mei's music composition, Kano's lyrics and vocals, Mahiru's illustrations and Kiui's video editing skills, the songs they created have crossed the seas of the world wide web to reach listeners globally.
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night is an original anime series directed by Ryohei Takeshita and written by Yūki Yaku. The story revolves around four girls who want to pursue their passions without the pressure of conforming to media standards, inspired by the recent rise of online artists who don't reveal their names or faces. their. JELEE's music is provided by composer 40mP, artwork is provided by illustrator Hamunezuko, along with collaborations with many other creators. JELEE's music appears in the endings of episodes 3 to 5 as well as other dramatic points throughout the story to demonstrate the girls' growth not only through the plot but also from a creative perspective.
In the midst of their adult journey, the girls face a great challenge. The producer of Sunflower Dolls, the idol group of which Kano was once the leader, comes to Mahiru with a job offer. The producer is none other than Kano's mother and she wants to use Mahiru's artwork to promote Sunflower Dolls' new song. If Mahiru accepts her offer, it is likely that she will not be able to make JELEE's new music video scheduled for release later this year. After performing their first online-only live concert without an audience and gaining over 100,000 followers on social media, what awaits JELEE now? Will they choose to live as creators or will they each follow four separate paths? When shaken by such a large wave, where do these jellyfish curl up?!
Interview with director Ryōhei Takeshita and creator/screenwriter Yūki Yaku:
©JELEE／ 「夜のクラゲは泳げない」製作委員会
A work driven by great enthusiasm.
─I understand that you two have known each other since before Jellyfish, right?
Takeshita: That's right. I held a seminar called “The Making of the Eromanga Sensei Anime” and Yaku was kind enough to attend.
Yaku: I'm a huge fan of the anime Eromanga Sensei. I'm usually not the type to want to attend such seminars, but I thought if it was for Eromanga Sensei I'd want to go. It was there that I gave Takeshita and the other staff a copy of my light novel, Junior Character Tomozaki.
Takeshita: That's right. And from there, we started communicating via direct mail on social media.
–What was your impression when you saw director Takeshita's plans for an original anime?
Yaku: When I heard that the project was about creators “seeking approval through the Internet”, “can't help but compare themselves to others” and “discovering their true passion”, I thought to myself, “This is right up my alley.” I felt like he was pitching me a project that I could definitely write. Not to mention I like the atmosphere of Takeshita's compositions so much that I even attend seminars about them, so of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity!
Takeshita: Yaku gave me a chance to read his book, and when I read it, something in my head told me that I wanted to work with him one day. And there was also a part of me that wanted to come up with an original work that would pique his interest.
Yaku: And he succeeded.
©JELEE／ 「夜のクラゲは泳げない」製作委員会
–What were the interesting or difficult aspects for you two about making an original anime?
Takeshita: When directing an adaptation, I mean a work with Source Material, we form the characters from our own emotions, but the original author's ideas in the story must still be respected. as important as the law. On the other hand, making an original anime is really fun because we can decide all the right answers ourselves.
Yaku: I usually write light novels, so I almost always write them myself. However, with anime, people share their opinions and look at the work from all different angles and do it consistently every week over a period of a year or two. It was such a stimulating experience for me. We spend a week rewriting the script and then finalize it at another meeting the following week. Doing that over and over again taught me new perspectives that I had never thought of before, and I really think I gained a lot of experience from it.
Takeshita: Meeting people who share the same passion as us is really interesting. It's fun.
Yaku: I agree. We had a group chat on LINE Messenger, a popular Japanese messaging app for our meetings, and even before the meetings, I talked to Takeshita on the phone…
Takeshita: Sometimes I also go to Yaku's workplace, or the two of us will go out to dinner after the script reading and discuss further there.
Yaku: I'm always really enthusiastic when creating, and sometimes I worry that my enthusiasm is too great and I might end up pushing other people around. But Takeshita was able to match my level of enthusiasm, so I'm really grateful for that.
©JELEE／ 「夜のクラゲは泳げない」製作委員会
–How do you two feel about social media and streaming?
Takeshita: I've always felt that Yaku's stories are very relevant to the current generation, with believable depictions of social media and the like. Yaku himself is quite knowledgeable about social media, so I thought it would be great if I could incorporate that strength of his into our work.
Yaku: I consider myself proficient in social media and I often use it to see how people talk online and through social media as well as learn how people behave. It was one of the places where I conducted my field research. I think it will translate into my work as a result.
–It seems like social media is an essential part of your job, right? What moment stands out for each of you while working on this anime that made you think, “This is really fun!”?
Takeshita: Well, the script Yaku wrote was very interesting and the storyboards that I wrote and drew myself had to be interesting too if I wanted to move forward with them. And Junichirō Taniguchi's character designs are also very cute. But there's a part of me that worries about how viewers will feel about the finished product when it all comes together as one. We did some editing at the colorless stage, added some voices and music, and when we saw it with the group, everyone was happy with it. At that moment, I felt somewhat relieved as a director and decided to trust my intuition more.
Yaku: For me, there are two points. Someone came up with the plot. The plot of the first episode took me four times the usual amount of work. When I finished watching it and everyone said it was interesting, I felt that if I kept that momentum until the end, it would definitely become an interesting anime. The second moment was when I finished watching the first episode. I really felt the script was interesting, but I wasn't sure how it would translate into an animation. I don't know how the nighttime atmosphere or “street” feeling will appear in the film. When I saw how Takeshita and team created such a wonderful atmosphere with the elaborate compositions and skillful depictions in the finished product, that's when I truly felt how wonderful it was.
–Please share your impressions and feedback on working together on this project.
Takeshita: Creating an original anime has many challenges. There are times when we require our employees to work at a high level and push them to their limits, and there are also times when our opinions clash while reading the script. But every time we got through it as a team and managed to get it done. What makes me happiest as a director is the fact that we can create something that everyone can be happy with and proud of.
Yaku: I agree. I'm glad I could be a part of it.
©JELEE／ 「夜のクラゲは泳げない」製作委員会
This interview originally appeared in the July 2024 issue of Newtype magazine.
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