Assistant Producer Muramatsu Ryouko's Karekano Diary

Nov. 27
Hi there, it's Muramatsu again.
We're up to episode 9, with a veritable explosion of new characters. And all girls, at that! It's enough to make me wonder if this is supposed to be a girls' school or not. Izawa Maho, who premieres in this episode, is pretty popular among myself and the other girls in the publicity department. During conversations, we'll throw in this character's lines, either muttering or else forcefully if we're rebutting something someone else said. It's fun to say sometimes, like you've just remembered it. Maho is cool (even if she is the bad guy right now)!
There was one other big thing happening today regarding KareKano, and that was the release of the ending theme CD-single. The opening CD-single had a fresh, natural feeling to it, but the ending theme has a more "hot pink" image. The backing song, "SOS" (Yukino's sisters' theme) is also nice. We hope you like it.
That's all for now. Love love happy.

Nov. 20
Hi, it's Muramatsu.

While I was eating lunch yesterday, I went to get myself some tea, and there in the kitchen was Hiramatsu, drawing something on the blackboard. Surprised, I asked him how long he'd been there. And he replied, oh, this is some new illustration work for the animation magazines. The blackboard was covered with scenes of Yukino and Arima in love. And both his hands were white with chalk dust. Don't touch me, was all I could think. He told me that chalk doesn't make your hands as white as it used to, betraying his roots as a graffiti artist.
Anyway, the finished picture is pretty unstable, seeing as how it's chalk on a blackboard. Just brushing up against it would make it disappear. All we could think about was having the magazine editor come and get it, and quick.
The blackboard was returned that evening. All is well.
Oh, this evening, Tencho said that now that he's seen episode 8 of KareKano, he can die happy. I don't know whether to be happy or embarrassed. Keep a grip on your feelings when you see this one.
That's all for now. Love love happy.


Nov. 13
.
Come the tenth of the month, and all the new magazines roll out in Japan. And it's only natural that all the anime magazines have special features on KareKano. I see a lot of foretunetelling, but nothing all that good, which makes me feel a little maladjusted. And I get even more so when Tencho, who's reading along with me, has a better horoscope. And to top it off, I ran into Ando, one of the directors, who promptly said,
"Too much makeup!"
Talk about a body blow. That cut right to the quick. Don't hurt me like that first thing in the morning. Nothing but grief this month for me.
Anyway, as you all know, KareKano is about modern-day Japanese high-school students (and smart ones, at that). So naturally, there are classroom study scenes. The guys who are making it, though, are also, equally naturally, a group of ex-high school students.
"But we don't want to show that on TV!"
So the director's office is all of a sudden full of high school textbooks. I flipped through a couple of them, and I can't make heads or tails out of them. Mathematics I know from nothing. I don't envy the current crop of students one bit.

That's all for now. We're working hard for next week too. I wanna be happy.

Nov. 6

Hello, it's me, Muramatsu.

Tonight we finally had the opening titles for KareKano. It was pretty cute!
Let us know what you think when you see it.
I actually helped out a little with this week's episode (No. 6), though it was just writing some text.

Changing the subject, there's a window in direct line with the second-floor hallway of the GAINAX Building, with a chair right next to that window. It's for those who want to take a breather, look outside, and have a smoke.
When I passed by there this afternoon, though, there was someone just sitting on the cold floor of the hallway, smoking a cigarette. It was Hirose, who's doing cel running for episode 8.

Muramatsu: Isn't your butt cold sitting like that?
Hirose: If I get warm, I'll fall asleep.

Seems he hadn't had any decent sleep in a week, and was desperately fighting off fatigue. When I peeked in the production room about five minutes later, however, he was sleeping the sleep of the just.
So much for that.

I guess this just goes to prove that the people drawing the pictures aren't the ones who have it rough.

That's all for now. Love Love Happy (Boy, it's been a long time since I last said that.)

(Muramatsu)

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