Synopsis
In a future society where humans and mermaids coexist, Stephan, a regular office worker at a shipbuilding company, is suddenly proposed to by Chao – a princess from the mermaid kingdom! With no time to make sense of what’s happening, Stephan finds himself living together with Chao. As he is showered with Chao’s pure and wholehearted love, Stephan gradually begins to fall for her. What will become of their unlikely romance?

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ChaO is a well-balanced, straightforward, pure love story 2D animated feature film. It is full of outstanding and a variety of interesting visual expressions – truly a treasure trove of visual storytelling – that make the most of animation’s unique characteristics as a visual storytelling medium. The film is packed with entertainment elements such as fun visual design, the characters’ amusing conversations and behavior, and exciting, dynamic action scenes.

The film is produced by Studio 4°C, one of the leading studios in Japan. They are especially famous for their high quality visual feature films such as Memories (1995), Mind Game (2004), Tekkonkinkreet (2006), Berserk: Golden Age Arc (2012), and Children of the Sea (2019).

We interviewed Yasuhiro Aoki, the film’s director and author, on the story behind the creation of ChaO.

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Interview with Yasuhiro Aoki

Hideki Nagaishi (HN): Is there anything in this film that specifically you want global audiences to pay attention to or enjoy while watching?

Yasuhiro Aoki: I strived to depict the film’s story not through words, but through each situation and the characters’ movements and behavior. I hope this approach will communicate with and resonate with international audiences as well.

Also, I’ve carefully sprinkled and woven in the film various setups and payoffs, from small to large incidents. I would like audiences to be encouraged to look closely at every corner of the screen to check it out.

HN: The film’s story is your original creation, isn’t it? If so, where did the initial idea of the story come from?

Yasuhiro Aoki: Yes, it’s my original story. While there are many ways to visually express comedy, I personally wanted to depict a comedy film using a new animation style that had never been seen before. That was the starting point for this story.

HN: During the creation of the film’s overall story, what did you pay attention to, and what challenges did you face?

Yasuhiro Aoki: It took about a year for me to turn the scenario into a storyboard. Each time I had a certain amount of storyboard ready, I would sequentially ask the staff to check them. So, for example, regarding the first half of the film, I was sometimes a bit worried if they would understand it well. That is to say, I can understand Juno’s feeling when he said, “Editor-in-chief, please believe me!” in the film.

HN: All the main characters seem to have at least one unique aspect in their personality or appearance, and these are humorously and slightly exaggeratedly depicted at key points in the storyline. This makes them very lovable characters and adds a light-hearted tempo and a fun accent to the film’s narrative.

I’m curious if this impression of mine aligns with what you aimed for with this film.

Yasuhiro Aoki: I’m so glad to hear that!

Generally, you just need to depict typical cool or cute characters. However, I intentionally did not give the characters that kind of appeal.

I hoped that by the end of the story, the audience would think that their initial impression of the characters transformed into something like, “Every character is endearing. They’re all appealing.” If that happened, then I succeeded.

HN: Could you please tell us what you focused on most, and what challenges you encountered when developing the main characters’ inner and outer lives?

Yasuhiro Aoki: About half of that involves waiting for the characters to start acting on their own while I’m drawing the storyboard. Because it’s difficult to reach that point, I tried to let the characters do all the ‘imprudent things’ I can that wouldn’t be feasible in reality on the storyboard.

HN: What research did you do on the streets and culture of Chinese cities? How did your research influence the film’s story and the behaviour of the characters?

Yasuhiro Aoki: We went to Shanghai for location scouting. It’s a city rich with information, presenting a curious contrast between its traditional townscape, seemingly frozen in time, and a developing metropolis existing back-to-back. Furthermore, the people there possess a very high spirit of hospitality and are highly service-minded. I tried to incorporate their service-minded approach into every scene in the film.

HN: I would like to ask you about the visuals of the story’s universe. Specifically, what did you pay attention to when designing the background art and setting the color palettes? And how was the collaboration with Hiroshi Takiguchi, the artistic director?

Yasuhiro Aoki: I became very aware of Takiguchi-san after watching one of his works. Some time later, when I heard about this film project from the producer, it coincidentally turned out that Takiguchi-san was the proposed art director. I eagerly asked him, and he kindly accepted. He is the kind of creator who, in a good way, denies his previous work and turns that frustration into motivation, approaching each new title with a clear purpose and intent. So, I think it was tough for him to work on this film, but he did a wonderful job.

HN: The film features ‘several exciting action scenes with dynamic and edgy movements free from the laws of physics,’ ‘some funny shape changes of characters and objects that would never happen in the real world,’ and ‘very aggressive camerawork.’

How did you conceive of such images and visual expressions?

Yasuhiro Aoki: I believe one of the roles of film is to depict things that are impossible in reality, including imprudent things. I think being able to remove the limiter on such visual expression and movements was one of this film’s strengths.

All main and supporting characters in this film should live in the same space in the same town by moving around, just like us in real life. I hadn’t seen that depicted in animation before. Therefore, regarding camerawork, I attempted to depict that.

HN: I would like to hear about the music creation. How did Takatsugu Muramatsu, the music composer, join the film project? And how did you manage the collaboration with him to get the best outcome?

Yasuhiro Aoki: Muramatsu-san was introduced to me by Producer Tanaka-san.

It’s challenging to compose music for this story because it contains repetitions of scenes where, just as an essence of comedy enters a serious moment, a different emotion begins. But Muramatsu-san told me it could be worthwhile and rewarding. So, I decided to leave it completely in his hands.

After a while, great melodies started arriving from him, and I listened to them every day.

For Chao’s tearful farewell scene, I dared to turn down the volume of the sound effects and music. I wonder what a great song he would have sent me if I had normally included a melody for that scene; I might have prevented the birth of a masterpiece (laughs).