Ahead of the broadcast, we spoke to director Kenichi Nishida about the film’s appeal and highlights.
-What impression did you have when you read the original work?
Director Kenichi Nishida (hereinafter, Nishida): At first, I thought it was one of those so-called “reincarnation in another world” stories, but after reading the original work carefully, I felt that this was a little different. It’s not a human being reincarnated in another world, but a dragon who was tired of life reincarnated as a human and started living again with a positive attitude. That’s what I thought was fresh, and I thought that depending on how it was done, it could be a new and interesting work.
-When adapting the work into an anime, what aspects did you want to focus on?
Nishida: One thing I thought was important was the “protect” part. The characters in this work, whether it be Bern Village where the main character Doran is reincarnated, or the elven settlement that appears in the second half, act with the desire to “protect the place where they live.” If that’s the case, it’s important to show how Doran and his friends cherish their village and the atmosphere of the village worth protecting, so I tried to depict the people as they were alive and breathing village life.
–There are probably many different ways to depict village life, but was there any particular way of showing it that you paid particular attention to?
Nishida: In the first episode, there is a scene that follows Doran’s daily life. In the morning, he wakes up and spreads fertilizer on the field… but in fact, he spreads it using water pumped from the toilet at home.
-That’s so detailed!
Nishida: This happened a lot when I was a child. Young people today may think that I’m just sprinkling water (laughs), but I’ve incorporated depictions of life rooted in real life.
The setting of the cow people who provide their milk to the village is one example. There is a cow person character called Miu, and the character designer, Nozomi Kawashige, said, “Can she alone provide the milk for the whole village?” Maybe there are cows raised separately from the cow people, and there is also cow milk. So we decided to add a ranch and cows in front of Miu’s house.
――なるほど、細かい部分までチェックしてみようと思います！ では、主人公のドランについて、彼を描くうえで大事にしたことをうかがえますか？
西田：とにかくドランは難しかったですね。前世が竜といっても、どちらかといえば神様に近い存在だったわけで、つまり神様が人間になって暮らすということだと思うんです。当然、神様の気持ちなんてわかりませんから、彼をどう描こうかと（笑）。
一つ手がかりになったのは、ドランの発言ですね。場の空気を読まずにドランが何か物を言ってしまって、周囲が唖然とすることがあります。なぜかを考えたときに、古神竜の頃はあまりにも強い存在だったから、自分の考えたことはすべて現実になっていたのではないかと思ったんです。だから嘘偽りを言う必要がないし、嘘という概念がないのかな、と。
――裏表がない、建前というものを知らないということですね。
西田：そうです。裏を返せば、人間として生きるのであれば「嘘」や「建前」が必要になることもあるので、そういった場面に出くわしたとき、ドランがどんな行動をするのかという部分にも注目していただきたいですね。
――西田監督はドランのどんなところに魅力を感じていますか？
西田：完成された神のような存在だったのに、不完全な人間になろうとしているところですね。それは、万能の力を自らなくしていくことでもあると思うんです。人間として成長していく話でありながら、完全ではなくなろうとする。原作がこれからどうなっていくのかまだわかりませんが、その矛盾した感覚に魅力を感じました。
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