WIT STUDIO's Kyoji Asano Traces Seven Bears Design to Manami Hyuga
The interview ties the Seven Bears designs inside the film to the series' own villain history and to a bear-people premise that was dropped before release, showing how much of the on-screen concept was discarded or reshaped during production.
Reporting from 1 source: Cinema Today.
Character designer Kyoji Asano, who handled the Seven Bears designs for Odoru Daisosasen N.E.W. Run Through the Metropolis!, says the concept came from producer Chihiro Kameyama and director Katsuyuki Motohiro. Pride was designed first. The evil soul bursting from a plush toy's abdomen draws on Manami Hyuga, and Asano also describes a hidden bear-people backstory that was cut.
Asano says the design brief arrived from two directions. Kameyama sent a memo outlining a bear kingdom with a white bear as king, while Motohiro asked for something a little cute but eerie, with an unbalanced feel and an eerie face. Design work started with Pride, the bear in the protagonist position.
The abdomen detail comes from Manami Hyuga, the killer from the first Odoru Daisosasen film, where a teddy bear is stuffed into a victim's stomach. Asano proposed a bear-people backstory with souls of criminals possessing plush toys. It was not adopted.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.