The Creators of ONI: Thunder God’s Tale on Overcoming Fear

The new Netflix-produced animated present from Tonko House, ONI: Thunder God’s Tale, is an excellent, four-episode story about discovered household, neighborhood, id, and outsiders. On October 18, Sara Sampson, Robert Kondo, and Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi sat down with io9 to speak about their animation course of and the way they approached storytelling whereas protecting each kids and adults in thoughts.

“This is a very Japanese story,” defined Tsutsumi, “so it was important for us to work with Japanese animation studios.” They took inspiration from early Japanese anime, with their restricted body charges and choppier animation, and tried to translate that right into a type of stop-motion laptop graphic animation. “We actually started as a stop motion series,” Sampson mentioned, “And then as soon as we started digging more and more into the story, the scope started to expand and take shape in ways that we never imagined. With that, we felt like we needed to pursue CG to tell the full story that ONI was shaping up to be.”

The present nonetheless retains the cease movement aesthetic, with textured felt-doll Kami characters contrasted in opposition to the waxy look of the people that Onari ultimately runs into. When requested concerning the episode two twist, when Onari realizes that the world past her house of Mount Kamigami is way larger than she might have imagined, Tsutsumi mentioned that this was a core a part of their storytelling improvement. It is, in reality, the entire level of the story.

“As you know, in Japanese folklore, Oni [are] always the villain.” Tsutsumi mentioned, referring to the folkloric Japanese demons. “And I read this really interesting historical theory that the oni might have originally been a description of foreigners, or people who didn’t look like the local Japanese people… I thought it was really interesting because that’s not that different from the world we live in today.”

When we use folklore in up to date tales you must make it hook up with the world we’re dwelling in immediately, Tsutsumi mentioned. It was necessary for the midpoint to be the connector between the 2 worlds. He credit the story group and lead author Mari Okada for making the twist so surprising.

Sampson spoke about how the north star of the sequence—the ethical of overcoming and understanding concern—helped them create a present that may enchantment to each kids and adults, not simply dad and mom. “We just focused on the concept of what is fear, when so much is unknown,” Sampson mentioned. “You can approach fear with curiosity, and it gives you the courage to explore a new path and move beyond that.”

Kondo agreed, and mentioned that for him, he at all times wished to concentrate on the father-daughter relationship between Onari and Naridon, and particularly problem the ways in which kids view their desires and themselves. “For me, at the end of the day, there’s this little girl who has this dream,” Kondo mentioned. “She wants to be something greater than what she currently is. And I think that a lot of kids but a lot of adults also can relate to that—we all have dreams. And she’s sort of faced with the reality of what she’s capable of and who she is. And I think at the end of the day, the heart of the story is, is the story of a father and a daughter.”

While you possibly can watch ONI: Thunder God’s Tale on Netflix proper now, click on by for an unique have a look at among the film’s incredible idea artwork from Tonko House.