Kazuya Tsurumaki and Atsushi Nishigori talk about 'GROTESQQQUE' and the original anime

Kazuya Tsurumaki and Atsushi Nishigori sit down to talk about GROTESQQQUE, the omnibus film Nishigori released on November 6 in Japanese theaters. The conversation closes a series of four interviews published by Real Sound for the launch, which also featured creators like Hiroyuki Imaishi and Shigeto Koyama.

The film brings together three original stories: Eliians, Yoroshiku Girl, and Nocturne: Kono Grotesque na Yoru ni. Nishigori, known for THE IDOLM@STER and Darling in the Franxx, directs all three. In the conversation, Tsurumaki doesn't hide his surprise at the format: a single director at the helm of an omnibus project is unusual.

"I can only think of Akira Kurosawa or Jim Jarmusch. It's not something you can just do," Tsurumaki says. For him, this kind of proposal demands a consolidated style and a career to back it up. Nishigori admits he was "pretty reckless" to take on something like this without that standing.

From a failed short to three stories

The project's origin was more chaotic than it seems. Nishigori says it was originally going to be a single piece, but he couldn't close it. He wanted to pour in every visual style he had in his head, and the result got away from him. The solution was to split that impulse into three experimental shorts. "I pitched it thinking it wouldn't get approved. And when it did, I panicked," he recalls with a laugh.

Tsurumaki connects that decision with the current moment in animation. He argues that even he finds watching a two-hour movie heavy, and that animated music videos have shown you can say a lot in four or five minutes. "Maybe making dozens of five-minute shorts would let you go more directly to what you want, without boring scenes," he reflects.

Nishigori admits his talks with Tsurumaki influenced him without him realizing it. He's interested in how young creators solve their own music videos individually, and he thinks studio products have fallen into a certain routine. Putting three pieces of that length into a movie seemed like a way to try something different.

The color of 'Eliians' and the idol flavor

Tsurumaki highlights the visual work in Eliians, the first of the shorts. There, the control of color and image texture is especially demanding, and doing it within a production system divided by departments is very complicated. "The audience doesn't perceive how hard it is. That's why I value so much that he pulled it off," he notes.

Nishigori shares the credit with art director Satoko Nakamura, who prepared the color boards before starting. With that base, the rest of the process was more manageable. Having also taken on episode direction let him control shot by shot how far to push each idea.

The conversation drifts toward the director's more personal side. Tsurumaki sees in the film a connection with the idol world that Nishigori helped popularize in anime. Not because of the presence of Nogizaka46 members in the cast, but because of something deeper: generational renewal. "In Yoroshiku Girl and Nocturne there's that passing of the torch that in THE IDOLM@STER couldn't be touched. I was moved to see it," he says.

Nishigori confesses it wasn't that premeditated, though he admits generational renewal and found family are themes that have followed him since Darling in the Franxx. "Maybe I like idols precisely for that reason," he adds.

The full interview is available on Real Sound, part of a series that also includes conversations with Masayoshi Tanaka, Rino Yamazaki, Yuichi Fukushima, and Yosuke Toba.

Have you been able to watch GROTESQQQUE yet, or are you waiting for it to reach your country? I'll read you in the comments.