The Staff of Sabikui Bisco

Sabikui Bisco has been surprising and delighting viewers every week with its bombastic post-apocalyptic world and fast-paced action. ANN spoke to the author Shinji Cobkubo about how he created this unique light novel, as well as to series composition writer Sadayuki Murai and director Atsushi Ikariya about how they brought the novel to life.

ANN: What were the biggest challenges you encountered when writing a novel?

Shinji Cobkubo: Well, I was pretty much an amateur, so everything was hard, but at the same time, I can say it was all really fun. As much as I wanted readers to enjoy a world they hadn’t seen before, I knew that if I overdid it, it would only appeal to a niche audience, so I strived as much as possible to give off the comforting feeling of “something you haven’t but also have seen before.” I also tried to give readers the joy of discovery.

As for the writing, I’m aware that plotting and narrative structure are my weak points, so I referred to Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need quite a lot. But regardless, though it was undeniably a difficult endeavor, I never felt agonized about it. I felt that the story was driving the author, and I remember being engrossed in writing it.

ANN: When you first submitted your manuscript to the Dengeki Novel Prize, did you ever worry that your story wouldn’t be accepted by modern light novel readers?

COBKUBO: Not at all. In fact, I thought the winds were favorable. I was raised by stories that transcended their times, like Ad Bird (the sci-fi novel by Makoto Shiina) and the Fist of the North Star and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga. I could list over a hundred examples, but I’ll just restrict it to those three. They’re interesting no matter when you read them.

Something timeless doesn’t need to follow the trends. On top of that, when I saw that there just happened to be a gap that wasn’t filled by an author with my same sensibilities, I thought there was an opportunity for me. Had I been born in the same era as Go Nagai or Buronson, then surely there would have been no place for one such as I…One thing I did worry about, however, was the idea that my humble work would be perceived as a “counter” to the trends. My story holds great respect for the stories that continue to run within the trends, and I think that they can work together to create fun for the reader.

ANN: The story has a very hot-blooded “shonen manga”-like quality, so what inspired the theme of “love” depicted in it?

COBKUBO: It comes from my own life experience. When humans decide to stake their lives in order to face something, I think it’s their most shining and beautiful moment. I call that “love,” and deep from my heart, I’ve always wanted to extol it.

Bisco pierces through society with his bow. Milo believes in his partner and gives everything to him. Even Kurokawa, when mustering his courage to confront Bisco for the sake of protecting his pretense of power and pride, embodies a splendid “love.” To me, that deserves great respect, even before good and evil or right and wrong are taken into account. And at the same time, I didn’t think that I would be able to convey this logic—well, more like feeling—through a philosophical text or sermon. I figured that I was only capable of conveying this “love” through the medium of entertainment.

ANN: Various religions are depicted in the novels. From my perspective as a non-Japanese writer, many of them appear to be inspired by Buddhism. What was your inspiration behind this aspect?

COBKUBO: As you say, many of the religions take Buddhism and Hindu mythology as their motif. I chose that because I’m simply a fan of the broad scale of Hindu myth. But also, much like how beer and shish kebabs are compatible, myths complement science-fiction and fictional religions. It felt comfortable to write.

Also, Bisco’s personality and the concept of valuing “faith” were both drawn from the story’s setting and worldview. Rather than follow a religious creed, Bisco abides by his own aesthetic. You could also say that… with great power comes great responsibility. In order to prevent him from becoming a dark force, it’s practical for him to “have faith.”

ANN: In the story of Sabikui Bisco, the various prefectures of Japan have turned into a completely different world from that of today. What was your first reaction to this premise?

Sadayuki Murai: I thought it was really interesting how the setting portrays each prefecture as having walls and border inspections. It’s not a totally fictional world; they’re linked by the real-life prefecture names. That makes the imagination race. The neighboring prefectures have bad relations and military clashes; they conceal information with a territorial mindset and make false announcements. There’s a certain sense of reality to it: if Tokyo were to be destroyed and the rest of Japan became a dystopia, it probably would end up being like this.

Also, since I generally know the distances between the locations, it’s easy to visualize the journey’s itinerary while reading. I was also conscious of that when adapting it to anime.

ANN: Do you have favorite characters and scenes?

MURAI: I think that each of the relationships between Bisco, Milo, Pawoo, and Jabi are wonderful. They’re tied by the strong love between partners, teacher and disciple, and siblings. Also, Milo has a sense of duty as a doctor, while Jabi and Bisco have the dignity of Mushroom Keepers, and Pawoo has a firm sense of responsibility as Imihama’s captain of the guard. I think that this is what lends the story its weight. Rather than a particular scene, I adore watching all the characters as they act according to their own principles.

ANN: The beginning of the story changed its structures from the novel to the anime. What was
your approach to adapting the original work for anime?

MURAI: When looking ahead, I saw this is a story about Bisco and Milo, so I figured that the first episode should end with their meeting. If we depicted the sequence at the Gunma checkpoint in full, then it would take an entire episode just to reach Imihama, so we couldn’t follow the chronology precisely. That inevitably meant shuffling things around.

Also, I felt that the streets of Imihama have a lot of charm, so I wanted to showcase that as well. We dedicated the first three episodes to the Imihama part of the story; by using a deliberately confusing structure to give the viewer a dizzying sensation, I wanted the Mushroom Punk setting to stand out first. From there, the idea was to structure the story in a way that gradually returns to the chronological order while delving into the characters’ feelings and emotions.

ANN: Are there any anime-original scenes and depictions to look forward to?

MURAI: I wanted to show Pawoo’s actions as she chased after Bisco and Milo, so I included some original scenes in episode 5. I hope you enjoy it. Also, although the flow of the story itself follows the original work, director Ikariya brought the setting to life in such a charming way, so I hope you can soak in the visuals as well. I think that the climax is an absolute must-watch. I’m looking forward to it very much myself.

ANN: What was your first impression of the light novels?

Atsushi Ikariya: My first impression was “I love Mad Max! I wanna watch it again!” I especially got that impression from the chase scene at the start of the book, which depicts a crab (Actagawa) and hippo. In the novel, it just writes the word “crab,” but when we adapted it to anime, I was surprised. Even though I made it myself, a crab running while being chased by a hippo was such a peculiar sight. Overall, I thought it was an extremely fun novel to read.

I also took inspiration from mocha’s drawings, who handled the illustrations of the novel’s setting. When creating the OP visuals in particular, we didn’t just consult the original novel but also mocha’s personal artbook.

ANN: Sabikui Bisco is set in a post-apocalyptic world that features unique things, including mushrooms and huge creatures, like slugs (escargot aircraft) and crabs. What aspect of the world was most challenging to adapt from page to screen?

IKARIYA: Many of the unique creatures that appear in this series are fusions between machine and organism. A major underlying point we kept in mind was not to make the creatures look too uncanny. A design where the body is connected with a bunch of tubes would just look grotesque, and you’d end up feeling sorry for the creature. So for hippos and other large creatures, we took care to ensure that they had something endearing about them.

For the anime original “Gorilla” character that appears in the latter episodes, I brainstormed ideas with Yoshihiro Sono, who handled the creature setting. We were careful about not making it grotesque in that case as well. Speaking of grotesque, there’s another anime original character: a human who has been strengthened by mushrooms thanks to Kurokawa. We created it with something like Resident Evil in mind. Originally, Bisco fends off a bunch of men in rabbit masks as they pursue the fleeing Kurokawa, but I wanted a character with a sort of “mid boss” presence to show up. I wanted to make a strong-looking character show up and immediately get offed like in the Indiana Jones series, so in the script meetings, I personally suggested creating a new character.

When depicting the creatures, there were things I had to pay strict attention to, but there were fun parts to it at the same time.

ANN: Animals, such as horses, are notoriously difficult to animate. What was the process for creating realistic animals? Were there any key members on the animation team that focused on the crab, hippos, or other wildlife and monsters?

IKARIYA: I drew the hippos at the start of episode 1 myself. I drew them while looking at figures of small animals. I had a lot of fun at the start drawing the scene where the hippo yawns, even if it was a lot more difficult than I imagined. I drew that because I wanted to express that living things do persist, even if the desert scenery shown on screen may be sparse.

The designs were created in consultation with Mr. Sono, who handled the creature setting, but the whales and gun barrel serpents were drawn by our newcomer animator Hsiao Chih-Hsuan. I asked another newcomer, Yо̄to, to draw the gorilla battle in the second half. This show was largely made possible through the eager hard work of up-and-coming animators.

ANN: The action scenes include bows, guns, helicopters, and giant mushrooms sprouting all over the place. You did well in framing the action in a coherent manner. What were you most careful and conscious about when creating a work which contains those miscellaneous elements?

IKARIYA: I’m glad you asked this question. First of all, because this anime’s setting is connected to our modern world, I wanted real-life weapons to show up in it. Kurokawa uses weapons that often appear in war films, like Black Hawk helicopters or Hind attack helicopters. Handguns also appear a lot in Italian mafia films. The Imihama troops and the children of Calvero use Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) arms. Kurokawa’s guards hold the gun that shows up in Terminator 2. This is a digression, but the scene where Tirol rides a jeep is modeled on the car that a famous animator in the industry actually drives.

The reason why a lot of the guns and vehicles are drawn from reality is because every time a character brandishes a weapon they do so with a purpose in mind. I was conscious of giving the show a feeling of unity in that regard. If they used weapons with no rhyme or reason, it might come off as silly and incoherent. With that said, a lot of the finer details are homages to all kinds of films and anime.

During production, there were so many times when I found myself thinking, “This flavor is like that part in that title,” as I was slotting things together. If you happen to spot a reference, please post it on social media. I’ll be sure to find it! Also, to avoid confusion for the viewer, the series composition writer Sadayuki Murai wrote a solid script. We made sure not to change any of the dialogue. If we were to alter any of the lines, then it was possible for contradictions to come up in the story. We were very careful not to change any of the words uttered by the characters.

The anime is streaming on Crunchyroll.

The light novel is available for purchase from Yen Press.

Title: Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 1 (light novel)
Publisher: Yen Press
Date of Publication: 01/18/2022
Number of Pages: 228 pages
ISBN: 9781975336813
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $15.00 US/$19.50 CAN

Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 2 (light novel) is set to release on 04/19/22.