KyoAni's Takao Recalls Youth Of A Silent Voice Staff At 10th Anniversary Screening
Kyoto Animation director of photography Kazuya Takao spoke at a stage greeting at the Marunouchi Piccadilly Dolby Cinema in Tokyo on Nov. 8, 2026, held for A Silent Voice's 10th-anniversary theatrical re-release and its Dolby Cinema run.
1 source 10h ago
Reporting from 1 source: Animehunch.
Why it matters
A decade on, the account from inside the production puts the film's reputation down to a young Kyoto Animation crew arguing over scenes rather than to a settled house method.
Key Facts
- Kazuya Takao is the director of photography at Kyoto Animation for A Silent Voice.
- Takao spoke at a stage greeting at the Marunouchi Piccadilly Dolby Cinema in Tokyo on Nov. 8, 2026.
- The event accompanied the film's 10th-anniversary theatrical re-release and its Dolby Cinema run.
- Naoko Yamada directed the film adaptation of Yoshitoki Oima's manga.
- Takao and Yamada both joined Kyoto Animation in 2004.
Takao said staff in their 20s and 30s worked with everything they had and clashed with one another to make the film under director Naoko Yamada.
Takao joined Kyoto Animation in 2004, the same year as Yamada, and the two worked together on Lucky Star, Nichijou, Free! and Sound! Euphonium before A Silent Voice. At the greeting he recalled disagreeing with Yamada on certain scenes and said those creative clashes produced strong results.
He also described a production problem: animators struggled to capture the exact demeanor of protagonist Shoya Ishida, so the team recorded reference video of a staff member whose natural posture resembled the character's, which guided various scenes. Takao praised character designer Futoshi Nishiya's work for not aging over the past decade.
Written with AI by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited. See our editorial policy.
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