'The Lantern-Keeper' Team Reacts to the Map — Director Kureha: 'The Slope We Drew Matched a Real Map'

"The Lantern-Keeper," Tomoshibi Animation's new series premiering next spring, is based, as previously reported (Sept. 10), on Lineage 7, "the Lit City," and director Kureha has held, from the project's start, to a policy of "we don't know what society actually exists over there, and the one thing we've kept to is never depicting the unknown as if we understood it." The sloped streets at the heart of the story were, as previously reported, "filled in largely from imagination," based on published observation materials. On the 3rd, following Window 5's map disclosure, Kureha commented, "Among the parts we filled in from imagination, the curve of the slope and the arrangement of the buildings turned out to be astonishingly close to the outline in today's map. It's less that we guessed right, and more that reading the observation materials carefully came back to us in this form."

Hayate Ashihara, 24, the voice actor cast as the lead, previously disclosed (Sept. 25) that he studied this paper's Dimensional Survey pages to build his role. Of today's announcement, Ashihara said, "Honestly, I never imagined that the continuing story I'd been using as reference material would turn into an announcement this big. It's a strange feeling, to have been reading those articles just to grasp a role, and then to be present on the day the whole way of seeing the world changed." Suzuna Aiuchi, 22, previously reported as cast in the role of the protagonist's childhood friend, said, "A line in the script — 'watching their morning' — landed with a slightly different weight today."

The ethical debate over whether it is right to keep watching through the windows at all has long continued on the Dimensional Survey pages, as previously reported, and an extension of that debate has questioned whether fictionalizing the view is appropriate either. On this point, Kureha said again, "Finding out the two are the same world doesn't make me want to rewrite our own story. This is still a matter of filling in beyond the observation data by our own hand, and we still state up front that this is fiction — that policy doesn't change." A producer present added, "If anything, we'd be glad if this becomes an entry point for people who've never read the observation pages to see why today's announcement is so interesting."

As casting for supporting roles (reported on the 2nd) and recording, set to begin in December, proceed toward the broadcast on TCT's Saturday evening slot next spring, a spokesperson for the network said, "This series already had a deep connection to the Dimensional Survey pages from the time it was announced, but we never expected it to coincide with news this big. Anticipation for the broadcast is only growing." Rin Toda, this paper's Dimensional Survey reporter, said when asked, "I was surprised enough to hear that an article of mine had become an entry point into the anime. This time, it's the real thing on the other side that's overtaken our own imagination. I think the window keepers will be glad to hear about this too."

Being present where fiction and observation stood side by side, equally astonished, was an unusual experience even for a reporter who covers this page. Kureha's policy — never depicting the unknown as if understood — hasn't changed, but the outline of what remains unknown came into slightly sharper focus again today. Next spring's broadcast will likely be watched with a slightly different eye than before.