Secrets in the Shadows, Lore in the Light: A Conversation with Kazuaki Terasawa

Kazuaki Terasawa, the director of The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 and a founding member of Studio Kafka, appeared as a guest of honor at Anime Expo 2023. We had the opportunity to sit down with Terasawa-san at the convention and discuss the upcoming continuation of The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2, as well as the future of Studio Kafka.

The second cour of The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 was recently announced to start airing this October. What can viewers expect in terms of manga content that will be adapted in this next phase?

I can't really spoil which areas of the manga will be adapted, but I'll try to cover as much as I can of all of the volumes that are out so far.

Could you elaborate on the level of collaboration between you and Yamazaki-sensei in the process of adapting her work? How closely do you work together to bring the story and characters to life?

Since the production of the second season started during the pandemic, Kore Yamazaki-sensei does not come physically to the recording studio, for instance. However, she does participate remotely, either online or by phone. Since The Ancient Magus' Bride anime is faithfully adapted from the original story, the production team has been in close contact with Yamazaki-sensei and they have been in communication whenever they have questions about her story.

It sounds like you work together very closely in order to create an adaptation that represents Yamazaki-sensei's work as closely as possible.

We've been in contact with Yamazaki-sensei even before the anime production started.

To gain a deeper understanding of her work?

Yes. While we were producing the anime, we would also contact her whenever we had questions about the original story.

I believe you've also worked closely with Yamazaki-sensei in creating the original OVA content for Studio Kafka's first work.

The OVA is a completely original story. However, because most of the stories in The Ancient Magus' Bride are based on existing fairy tales, Yamazaki-sensei was a huge inspiration for us. In this regard, she gave us a lot of advice when we were making the OVA.

Now regarding The Ancient Magus' Bride, the two main characters, Elias and Chise, both struggle with expressing their emotions. What sort of challenges does that pose in terms of conveying their emotions to the viewers when they themselves aren't very good at showing it?

Interestingly, Chise and Elias both have very Japanese-like personalities. Unlike American people, they don't use big expressions. They are, however, very sensitive people who experience a wide range of emotions. We use subtle cues to help them express their emotions. For example, when Chise feels nervous, her eyes widen and her mouth opens slightly. These cues help to develop the characters' expressions and emotions.

Also, another distinctive feature of The Ancient Magus' Bride is the importance of shadow and light. The use of these techniques does reveal these types of hidden feelings or expressions. That's something that I have been dealing with a lot during production.


You've expressed in a previous interview that you have a lot of interest in color theory and how it can be used to convey a wide range of feelings. What type of feelings did you try to convey with The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2, and how did you incorporate shadow, light, and other elements of color theory to achieve that?

There are so many characters in The Ancient Magus' Bride, but few of them express their emotions verbally. It's shown more through their expressions. The use of color, as well as the use of music, is very important in expressing what they are thinking or feeling. So if there's mellow music, the character might be feeling mellow. Joyous music or light colors can be used to create a sense of joy or cheerfulness. Color theory, as well as music, are examples of techniques used to express the characters' emotions.

That seems especially important for The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2, since everyone has secrets that they're trying to hide from each other. How do you navigate these multiple perspectives and use visual and audio cues to hint at their true motivations?

That's a very difficult question. As you mentioned, music and color do play an important role in hinting at these various secrets. However, when compared to other animation, The Ancient Magus' Bride has a very low number of cuts. At the same time, the length of each cut is significantly longer than the standard cut size. For example, you could say "Yes, see you" and that's one cut. However, in The Ancient Magus' Bride, they would say "Okay, see you..." followed by an expression. As a result, the length of these periods of silence creates some nuance that hints at something hidden.

So you're using the absence of audio and visual cues to create something new.

Yes, so I'd like to talk about some technical aspects of making animation. When making a cut in other animation, the line usually starts after a fourth of a second. So, it's very fast and starts right away. However, there is a one-second silence for The Ancient Magus' Bride. For example, Chise's character does not act spontaneously, but she is the type of person who thinks carefully before acting or saying something. This brief pause hints to the audience that she might be thinking about something at this moment.

That's quite the contrast to what the other characters have to say about how Chise acts, because they tend to perceive her as being reckless. However, in reality there's actually some contemplation behind her actions.


So, pivoting from The Ancient Magus' Bride to Studio Kafka itself, Studio Kafka was primarily established for the purpose of The Ancient Magus' Bride project. Looking ahead, do you see any elements or approaches from this work that you believe will influence or carry over into future projects produced by the studio?

Yamazaki-sensei's story is a completely original work, but it was inspired by existing stories from Greek mythology, Celt mythology, and fairy tales. Through the process of creating The Ancient Magus' Bride anime, I've learned that it's important to have background knowledge about different aspects of the work. This is something I hope to incorporate into other anime by Studio Kakfa in the near future.

On a quick tangent, I noticed that you're wearing a Harry Potter shirt right now. Do you have a personal interest in these types of magical stories?

Honestly speaking, I like most films, not just Harry Potter specifically. However, Yamazaki-sensei and I both do like Harry Potter, and you can see homages to Harry Potter incorporated in The Ancient Magus' Bride.

Oh wow, I'm not sure if I caught that.

If you come to the screening after this, you'll see it in episode 13: the first episode of the second cour.

I'm looking forward to that, and I'm sure the fans will too!

Back to the topic of Studio Kafka, in terms of genres of works that the studio might produce in the future, it's not just limited to magic, fantasy, or other similar genres?

Yes, that is correct. The studio's focus would not be limited to just fantasy or magic. If we come across a work that inspires us, genres would not be a limiting factor.


Do you have a final message that you would like to share with our community about The Ancient Magus' Bride?

The first cour of The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 is filled with many mysteries, none of which have been solved. Fans are likely wondering "What's going to happen to this?" or "Who's going to...?" Now in the second cour, there will be movement in the story and all these mysteries laid out in the first cour will be solved, so please stay tuned until episode 24!

Alright! Thank you so much for the interview, Terasawa-san!

Interview was conducted through an interpreter and has been edited for clarity.

©2022 Koré Yamazaki/MAG Garden・Mahoyome Partners