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New Mononoke Anime Film Producer Addresses Why Original Character Designer Did Not Return

Last week, the Mononoke anime franchise announced that it is getting a new film in 2023. Kenji Nakamura will return to direct the film, with production at Twin Engine. Takahiro Sakurai will return to voice the Medicine Seller.

Missing from the announcement, however, was Takashi Hashimoto, who designed the characters and served as chief animation director on the original TV anime. Producer Kōji Yamamoto published a blog post on Sunday addressing the reason for Hashimoto's absence from the project.

According to Yamamoto, Hashimoto was involved with the early preproduction at around the end of 2020, but stepped down from the project in late July 2021. He was dealing with physical and mental health issues, which made it difficult for him to take on a large amount of work. Furthermore, Yamamoto wrote Hashimoto's motivation to participate would change depending on mood swings. On some days, he would claim that he was not capable of fulfilling his role and volunteer to drop out, while on others he would firmly request to stay on board.

Yamamoto claimed that while the staff tried to be accommodating to his needs and limit his workload out of consideration for his health, communications were difficult, and Hashimoto struggled with drawing designs that the staff could proceed with.

He wrote that Hashimoto's health eventually deteriorated to a degree that his family was asked to step in, at which point Hashimoto voluntarily decided to leave the project.

Yamamoto responded to a claim Hashimoto made on Twitter that he was not paid for his work by posting a screenshot of an email correspondence from Hashimoto, where he expressed his decision to quit. In the email, Hashimoto asked not to be paid for his designs, as long as the committee does not use or publish them. He also promised not to speak of such matters on social media.

Yamamoto apologized for discussing such deeply personal matters publicly, but said that he felt that it was necessary to contextualize Hashimoto's comments out of concern for the audience. He stressed that he does not hold any hard feelings towards Hashimoto, and that he would love to work with him again one day, when his health has improved.

In his recent tweets, Hashimoto commented that he did not believe that the production had progressed much since his departure, pointing to the lack of key visual. He also complained about "Y Producer" (apparently referring to Yamamoto) for only offering informal verbal agreements instead of a written contract, which prevented him from getting paid for his contributions towards gathering staff and attending meetings.

The Mononoke anime premiered in 2007 and aired for 12 episodes. The series is a spinoff of the Ayakashi - Samurai Horror Tales anime. Specifically, it follows the medicine seller from the "Bakeneko" (Goblin Cat) arc. The Mononoke anime has five arcs, the last of which is titled "Bakeneko."

Kenji Nakamura directed the television anime at Toei Animation, and Takashi Hashimoto designed the characters and served as chief animation director. Yasuharu Takanashi composed the music.

The anime's 15th anniversary project also includes a crowdfunding campaign and a stage play. The crowdfunding campaign launched on both Kickstarter (for overseas fans) and Ubgoe (for fans inside Japan) on Friday.

Sources: Kōji Yamamoto's blog post, Takashi Hashimoto's Twitter account