Interview: Transcending Genre with The Detective is Already Dead Author and Director

The Detective Is Already Dead is full of surprises: It combines mystery, action, sci-fi, and romance into a single package. We spoke to novelist Nigojū, who created the original work, and anime director Manabu Kurihara about their involvement in this genre-bending work.

(For Nigojū) Although the story is about a detective, the mystery-solving elements in the first volume are surprisingly not too prominent. Was the “mystery” aspect something you wanted to downplay in favor of the other genre influences? What was the balance like for the later volumes?

It's true that the title has the word “detective” in it, but the fact of the matter is that I myself did not write this story while thinking of it as a mystery novel. That hasn't changed with the continuing volumes past volume 1. At the same time, this story does have a hidden truth to its world, for instance, and the characters all have their own secrets. Revealing the truths of those mysteries while crossing many different genres is the core of this work, and it's the duty entrusted to the detective and her assistant.

Siesta's approach of figuring out the truth behind incidents before they happen is interesting to see in a detective character. What inspired this aspect of her character?

A detective in a regular mystery story gathers evidence at the scene of the crime, listens to the testimonies of those involved, and by connecting all the hints they've gathered through fine logic, they reveal the truth. We feel that those detectives are cool, and I myself am a big fan of those mysteries.

However, what if it were the opposite? What if the evidence and testimonies were lacking, and the deduction part was bizarrely short? If the detective were unconvincing to the readers at first glance but still managed to confidently resolve the incident, I would argue that it paradoxically makes us want to find out more about the detective. Why does Siesta understand everything? Why does she possess such overwhelming knowledge and power? It's all connected to the mystery of the world, and I believe that it's something that piques the readers' interest. h7wjkX877k

Although the protagonist Kimihiko is a middle school student when he first encounters Siesta, the characters and their relationships have a kind of “college student” air about them. For example, they travel to many places and gamble. Was that “young adult” feeling something you wanted to emphasize?

A “college student” air, you say? Hmm, I see. That might be a perfect way of phrasing it. Many of the characters who appear in this story, including Kimihiko and Siesta, don't live the ordinary student life of eating scrambled eggs in the morning, studying with their friends at school in the day, and attending a club or a part-time job after school. Their physical and mental ages don't necessarily match. For example, given that they mess about day and night with bandits, the mafia, and monsters, it might only be inevitable for them to feel as if they are four or five years older. That being the case, I wasn't trying to emphasize the “young adult” feeling; I would say that their exploits naturally make them into “college students.”

How do you balance the appearances and psychological depictions of the heroines equally, especially considering that one of the main heroines is already dead?

It is indeed tough to balance the appearances of the heroines when one of them is already dead. That said, we always hold special feelings about the dead. That's no different in reality or in fiction. Despite the fact that we are always exposed to the gazes of the dead, we dwell upon the words that can no longer reach them. As a result, even in scenes where Siesta doesn't appear, for instance, Kimihiko remembers the smile she once directed at him. And we the readers can feel traces of Siesta between the lines. Because of this, I think that more often than not, I actually have to carefully consider the appearances and psychological depictions of the other heroines so that they don't lose to Siesta.

You've spoken before about the impact that works such as Oreimo and Saekano have had on you. Besides light novels, where do you get inspiration for your stories?

I take a lot of inspiration from manga. There isn't a specific work I have in mind, but in Japan, for instance, one of the most famous manga magazines is Weekly Shonen Jump. Some of the common concepts in the manga serialized in that magazine are “Friendship,” “hard work,” and “victory.” I wrote The Detective Is Already Dead while being conscious of those pillars of entertainment. I've also learned an incredible amount from other forms of entertainment like “comedians” and “idols.” I always have my antenna wired, taking these things into consideration as I live my life.

You've had experience writing for a doujin circle, but The Detective Is Already Dead is your debut commercial work. What was your experience like writing it? Was there anything you tried to do differently from usual because it was for a newcomers' prize ?

This is just my personal opinion, but with doujin works you prioritize your own enjoyment, while with commercial works you ought to prioritize the enjoyment of the audience. That was particularly how I felt about entertainment work such as light novels. I was deeply conscious of this when I attempted the newcomers' prize. And now I would be delighted if The Detective Is Already Dead were to bring entertainment to someone. It gives me my greatest satisfaction. I want to keep challenging myself boldly with the possibilities of entertainment.

(For Kurihara) What was your first impression of the original work?

I think that many people might have thought the same way as I did; when I first heard of the title, I imagined it would be a mystery story. However, as my reading progressed, my impression was overturned. That was around the time I read the latest volume, which was volume 2 at the time. Of course, there were mystery elements, but it had a lot of other elements mixed in as well: Sci-fi, action, and romantic comedy. I think it's the kind of story where you can enjoy a multitude of flavors all at once.

The first episode of the anime tells the story with a different order of events compared to the original work. What was the reason behind rearranging the story?

One of the reasons was because I wanted Siesta to leave a strong impression at the start. The first episode wasn't originally going to be a two-parter, so if we were following the original novel, then Siesta would have barely appeared. Thus, I changed the order this time.

The story of The Detective Is Already Dead represents a broad variety of genres. How did you try to represent this in the anime while also maintaining a consistent feeling?

The Detective Is Already Dead has its serious parts and comedic parts, but at its core it is closer to a serious story, so I was careful to restrain the over-the-top comedy elements such as exaggerated facial expressions and manga symbology.

The novel received a television anime adaptation within two years of its debut. When did you get involved with the anime? How difficult was it to create an anime during an early stage of the novel's serialization?

I think talk of an anime started around the beginning of 2020. I'd heard of things that get an anime unusually quickly (laughs). It was a story that was only just getting started, so it was hard to figure out how to express certain parts in anime when they weren't fleshed out yet.

The first episode has a really exciting action scene on the airplane. Were you responsible for storyboarding that part? If so, what kind of thought did you put into making the action look interesting? Also, could you tell us about the main animators who worked on that part and their contributions?

I drew the storyboards for the first episode. The interior of the airplane was all in 3D, but because the premise was that there would be action there, it's more spacious than a real-life plane. I also made it have a lot of passenger seats to create depth. I particularly wanted the part at the end of the battle where Siesta approaches Bat to have impact, so I drew it in a relatively elongated way to bring out the punch.

The key animation for that scene was drawn by our in-house animator Ryūki Hashimoto. Right from when I was drawing the storyboards, I intended for him to handle that part. He had already been told so beforehand (laughs). I knew that he was capable of drawing great visuals for us, but his work was even better than expected. I'm very satisfied with it.

In the novel, the gun that Siesta uses on the plane is described simply as a “musket,” so what kind of discussions did you have with the animation directors when it was designed for the anime?

The design was mainly based on the gun that Siesta is holding in the novel's cover, but if it were put into an attache case like that, it would end up being a very long case indeed, so we designed it with a mechanism that could allow the barrel and gunstock parts to split in two. The anime actually features a cut where Siesta takes the gun and does a movement as if she's twisting it. I was imagining her putting the two parts together.

Are there any anime-original elements that you'd like to highlight?

Natsunagi's ribbon is a very important item in the original work as well, but its meaning is a little more elaborated on in the anime, so I hope that you can be conscious of that part as you watch it.

The Detective Is Already Dead is streaming on Funimation.