Witch Watch, which follows the shenanigans of Nico the witch and her acquainted Mori the ogre, has garnered a lot consideration for its whimsical solid of characters, placing visible designs, and impeccably timed humor. At Anime Expo 2025, Anime Trending had the honor of conversing with director Hiroshi Ikehata on his expertise of bringing Witch Watch’s plentiful magic to life.

This interview was carried out by way of an interpreter and has been edited for readability.

Anime Trending: How did you come about directing this challenge? What about the unique story by Kenta Shinohara drew you in?

Hiroshi Ikehata: The corporate, Bibury Animation Studios, really approached me and mentioned, “Hey, there’s a title referred to as Witch Watch, and we’d wish to carry you on.” This was throughout very early pre-production, and in addition they requested if they may announce that I used to be connected to the manufacturing. I learn the manga, which was very filled with jokes and gags, and I believed, oh, that is one thing I’m very drawn to and wish to direct. We have been up towards different Soar title [adaptations], so it was actually, actually aggressive, and we weren’t fully positive if it might be greenlit. So I used to be actually excited when it was — I had the realization that “Oh, I’m really working on a Soar title!” And that was a giant deal for me.

Generally, different titles’ comedy can come off form of corny, however Witch Watch executes its humorous moments flawlessly. How did you stroll the line between humorous and corny?

Hiroshi Ikehata: The comedy in the manga relies on a Japan-specific fashion of comedy — your manzai, or duo comedy teams. Even when you don’t perceive Japanese and you watch, let’s say, a comic duo, you possibly can inform there’s a sure rhythm. In the unique manga, the story is on paper, so the comedy has to work in that world on paper. However once we made it into the anime, it was all about the rhythm, since comedy lives in the rhythm and the timing. 

We have been actually focusing on the rhythm of the scenes, particularly throughout the modifying portion, as a result of we made the anime first and then the voice actors got here in. As soon as we discovered the timing and the rhythm of the dialogue, we may direct the actors accordingly. In order that was a giant focus. You’ll be able to have the similar piece of dialogue, however relying on the timing and the rhythm, it may possibly fall flat, or it may possibly garner amusing. It’s that fine-tuning, that nuance.

As a result of every of the most important characters is a magical being of some type, there are lots of intricate parts to their character designs. What facets of the characters did you focus on the most when animating them?

Hiroshi Ikehata: General, I’d say as a result of Shinohara-sensei’s unique work is already fairly strong, it was a problem to take that unique manga base and then convert it into the anime. We did what we may inside our energy to attempt and match it. Our character designer, Haruko Iizuka, attracts the most important characters with a sure softness, and it was a bit of arduous for a few of us to comply with and actually seize that softness. It’s quite a bit. And I believe this [challenge] is the similar for any anime, you realize, that’s adapting a manga. In the manga world, you’re making a “3D” world inside the two-dimensional parameters. As animators, we’ve got to carry the world off the web page and legitimately attempt to make it extra 3D than 2D.

Particularly when it got here to colours, we have been actually, actually cautious. In the event you take a look at any of the unique [manga] that has colour versus what we’ve got [in the anime], it’s really fairly completely different. For instance, with Nico, her hair could possibly be pink, salmon pink, orange — no matter we select. We handled all the characters with their preliminary colours and then lined them as much as observe for consistency. And that’s once we really determined that, as a substitute of the pink hair colour that’s already form of current in the anime world, we wished to alter Nico’s hair to be extra of a salmon pink, to make it a bit of bit completely different.

One other instance is Keigo/Wolf. Wolf’s hair in the unique is extra grayish. The mangaka’s speculation was that the again a part of Keigo’s hair would change into Wolf’s hair colour. Since that half is pure white [in the manga], meaning his hair turns white when he turns into Wolf. So we have been bouncing again and forth about whether or not Keigo’s hair ought to change into grey or whitish. Some may discover it a bit bizarre that Keigo’s hair transforms into white when he turns into Wolf [in the anime], however we wished to tip our hat to the unique with the colour.

The primary cour has a refreshingly lovely OP sequence, directed by Megumi Ishitani. One other collection you directed, Magical Destroyers (2023), additionally had a really placing opening that went viral. What goes on in your head when planning these OPs and on the lookout for potential collaborators for them?

Hiroshi Ikehata: Really, our [animation] producer, Taniguchi-san, occurred to know that Ishitani-san was a giant fan of Witch Watch. So the opening was form of deliberate to incorporate her involvement. Nevertheless, Ishitani-san is an worker of Toei Animation — so therein lay the negotiations, as a result of we primarily needed to borrow her from Toei for this! However she informed us that she actually wished to do it. So every part apart from the negotiation half form of fell into place, and we’re actually lucky for that.

Today, in relation to OPs, lots of well-known artists have been getting concerned, and we’re seeing openings which can be extra music-video-esque. In the event you take a look at anime from round 10 years in the past, the focus of the OP was really the music, and the anime intro was created to match the music. That’s modified now, and we’re seeing extra of that music-video fashion that actually represents the title.

There’s a extremely nice animator, Koji Nanke, who made lots of nice works, particularly in the ’80s. He really used lots of completely different approaches. Impressed by that, I believed, okay, what would that method appear like now, in the 2020s?

[Hiroshi Ikehata pulls up a YouTube video] 

That is [an ED] Koji Nanke did for [the original] Ranma ½. Particularly in the ’80s, it was all about the music, so this one actually stood out from all the themes [of that time]. So, I went to the producer once more and requested, “What do you concentrate on having extra of a Nanke-san-style opening?” And he mentioned, “Oh, I really wished to attempt one thing like that, too.” In order that’s what led to the opening.

Particular due to director Hiroshi Ikehata and GKIDS Movies for the interview alternative! Witch Watch is at present streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.