How Mahoseka Came to Be | Interview Part 1

“It All Started with a Doodle I Drew When I Was Sick of Working on the Plot”: The Story Behind the Independently Produced Anime Living in a World Without Magic

Living in a World Without Magic (Mahoseka for short) is an independently produced animated music video (MV) released on YouTube, and it became a hot topic for its stunning visuals and emotional story. To celebrate the newly announced feature-length film adaptation, we’re delighted to bring you a special conversation between Akiwashi, the original creator and visual artist, and kyo of HoneyWorks, who composed the music.

In Part 1, we look at how the project began as an art-school graduation project, and how its unusual “visuals-first” process came about.

Putting Coursework Aside to Take On a Graduation Project

Q: Let’s start with how you came to make the Mahoseka video.

Akiwashi: In high school, I heard about someone who was making an anime as their graduation project. I thought, “Wait, you can make an anime for your graduation project if you go to art school?!” That’s what led me to art school in the first place.

Q: So you had already decided to make an anime for your graduation project back in high school. Did you have the idea for Mahoseka even then?

Akiwashi: No, I had no concept at all back then. I was picturing a regular anime with voiced dialogue, and I wasn’t planning on a music video. But during my time in college, I got a few chances to work with HoneyWorks. Near the end of my junior year, I told them, “I want to focus on my graduation project in my senior year, so I can’t take on any work.” And they said, “Then let’s make your graduation project together!”

kyo: On our end, it was more like, “If we’re going to do something together, well, we’re music people, so if it’s an MV, we can pitch in.”

Akiwashi: Exactly. That’s how we settled on making the anime as a music video.

Q: Where did the idea for the story come from?

Akiwashi: I started by working out the story, but I got stuck and was sick of wrestling with it (laughs). So I took a break and doodled something, which actually ended up being the face of the character in the scene where they’re brought back to life from a skeleton.

Q: And that scene made it into the finished MV, right?

Akiwashi: Yes, exactly. I was like, “Maybe it’d be interesting if I built a story around this drawing.” And that’s where it all began.

Q: Did you run the theme or concept by your professors?

Akiwashi: I didn’t talk to my professors at all… (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Akiwashi: Most people don’t start working on their graduation projects until April of their senior year (when the Japanese school year begins), so starting at the end of my junior year was actually quite early. I just kept plugging away on my own, and when I finally talked to my professor and presented it as a done deal, saying “This is what I’m doing,” all I got was, “Oh, okay. Sounds good.” And that was pretty much it.

Q: Maybe the professor had seen your work on previous assignments and trusted you’d do fine on your own?

Akiwashi: Actually, not really. I was in the design department, so we barely had any animation classes to begin with, just a bit of paper flipbook stuff. Most assignments were things like going to an island, taking photos, and turning them into three-dimensional objects, and that wasn’t really my thing. I was pretty good at coasting through assignments I had no interest in, so I’d just submit the bare minimum to stay out of trouble (laughs). I was probably not the easiest student to deal with.

Building the Animatic Before the Music: A Rare “Visuals-First” Process

Q: What was your production process like?

Akiwashi: I mapped out a rough storyline in my head, working backward from the chorus, because I wanted a visual that would really pop there. No paper storyboards. I jumped straight into making an animatic (a rough, timed storyboard in motion) to get a sense of the pacing.

Q: So you built the animatic without any music at all? For a music video, I would’ve thought the song would always come first…

Akiwashi: That’s right. I was basically picturing the timing in my head, thinking, “The intro’s probably about here, then the verse, the pre-chorus, and the chorus should hit right around here.” I built a line-art animatic based on that and sent it over to HoneyWorks—no color, no motion, just rough line drawings and a few simple notes.

kyo: That totally blew my mind. We’d never been sent an animatic with no song attached and then composed the music to fit the visuals, and we haven’t done it since (laughs).

Akiwashi: Yeah, that’s definitely not how it’s usually done (laughs).

kyo: But even that initial line-art animatic was insanely good, and that’s exactly why the hardest part of production was only just beginning.

Continued in Part 2

Join the Wishlist

If you’d like to stay closer to the journey of Living in a World Without Magic, we invite you to join the Mahoseka Wishlist.

Wishlist members will be among the first to hear about major project updates, exciting announcements, production news, and other special updates as the project moves forward.

As we continue working toward bringing Mahoseka to life, we’d love to have you with us along the way. Join the Mahoseka Wishlist and stay up to date:

Mahoseka Wishlist

Thank you for believing in Living in a World Without Magic and for being part of this journey with us.

— Mahoseka Production Team
Living in a World Without Magic