Naoko Yamada Details Mongolia Research Behind Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia
The production grounded its 13th-century setting in firsthand location scouting and expert supervision rather than studio guesswork.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Naoko Yamada and director Abel Góngora traveled to Mongolia for location scouting ahead of Science SARU's Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, touring museums of Mongolian history and consulting experts on Mongolian and Persian history who supervised the project. The pair also did a homestay in a traditional dwelling and tried horseback riding. Yamada said the manga's 13th-century Persia and Mongolia setting and its basis in a true story drew her to the project.
Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia is based on Tomato Soup's manga and a true story set in 13th-century Persia and Mongolia, a period Yamada said most people know little about. The character design is cartoonish but deliberately 'not too anime,' and the production drew on traditional Iranian and Persian art. Yamada and Góngora visited Mongolia for location scouting, toured museums of Mongolian history, and consulted experts on Mongolian and Persian history who supervised the project. During the trip they did a homestay in a traditional dwelling and tried horseback riding, which Yamada described as a chance to be disconnected from the internet.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.