My Melody & Kuromi｜What’s your favorite scene?｜Character Sculpt Lead & Animator Leina Muramatsu
I’m Leina Muramatsu,
Character Sculpt Lead and Animator. I also worked in Creative Development. I initially worked on
developing character sculptures, and later I joined as an animator. My favorite scene is in episode 11,
where the building gradually collapses. The building is floating in the air. After a certain incident, it begins to grow mold, deteriorate,
and eventually fall apart. It’s an action-packed scene. The biggest challenge was figuring out
how to make it feel like it was happening in the sky. The floor of the building cracks, but the prop makers struggled to create the effect. It was built like a puzzle, with calculations
to make each piece appear to break apart gradually. It was fine that the building broke apart, but we had to think about
how to film the sky emerging through the cracks. We installed lighting underneath to make it look as if the characters were
really above the clouds. For the building walls, we also discussed how to make them slide. We hung them from a pole and moved them just a few millimeters at a time
to create the effect of the wall cracking. To create the mold, we used wool felt and other small, rounded, cotton-like materials, which the character sculptors dyed. We also needed to create large areas of mold,
which had to spread quickly, so other staff prepared a lot of it, and I animated the mold
by pasting it in place on the spot. It’s a serious scene, so I had to express
the character’s emotions accurately. Otherwise, the tension
wouldn’t come across to the audience. I tried to put myself in Kuromi’s shoes, but without becoming too subjective. I kept the bigger picture in mind, repeated the process
over and over, and animated the scene that way. If I had stayed only in Kuromi’s perspective,
the acting might have become self-centered. Character sculptures have a certain weight to them, and their limb lengths and designs
are different from those of humans. Most importantly, I wanted to animate
movements that only this character could do. Just making them move like humans
isn’t always the right answer. In fact, I feel their movements become convincing
precisely because they aren’t human. It’s not just about realism. I want to express what the unique qualities of
the character’s body and limbs can do. Even with the sense of desperation, I wanted
the characters’ poses to feel both beautiful and cute, balancing those two aspects. When I was a child,
I used to play with stuffed animals and dollhouses. To me, stop motion feels like an extension of
that kind of play, but seeing serious adults build
epic scenes full of tension was truly fascinating. When you watch the finished film, the characters run and move as if
completely naturally, like it’s just what they would do. But every single one was made by hand, and I hope that comes through when you watch it.
Netflixシリーズ『My Melody & Kuromi』の魅力を紐解く ― What’s Your Favorite Scene?
制作陣が選んだ“お気に入りのシーン”を通して、作品づくりの裏側に迫ります。
第8回は、作品開発・キャラクター造形統括・アニメーターの村松怜那が登場。
シーンに込めた想いや、制作時のエピソードをお届け✨
原作：サンリオ
監督：見里朝希
脚本：根本宗子
主題歌：LE SSERAFIM「Kawaii (Prod. Gen Hoshino)」
制作：TORUKU from WIT STUDIO
配信：Netflixにて世界独占配信中（全12話、約13分／各話）
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#ネトフリでメロクロ #mymelodykuromi #メロクロな関係 #WITSTUDIO #TORUKU