Masashi Koizuka, the co-director of the second and third seasons of Attack on Titan, has revealed a unique approach taken during the production of his latest anime, Moonrise.
In a recent interview with Mantan Web, Koizuka shared that the voice actors for the Netflix-exclusive series were deliberately kept unaware of their characters’ future.
They were only given scripts for the episodes they were recording, leaving them just as uncertain about their characters’ fates as the audience.
This method, while unconventional, allowed the actors to perform with raw intensity, embodying the same unpredictability that their characters experienced in the anime.
The unpredictability of the story is also a key feature of the anime’s appeal. Moonrise consists of 18 episodes, and its creators focused on making unpredictable developments enjoyable for viewers.
Producer Ryoma Kawamura explained that, “In an 18-episode original anime, viewers won’t know what happens next or fully understand the characters’ personalities at the start. To ensure viewers still enjoy it, we focused on maintaining high visual quality. Instead of only assigning the best staff to the climax episodes, we had enough talent to distribute strong staff evenly across the entire series.”
Kawamura went on to explain that while freelancers were used where necessary, the core in-house team remained consistent.
“For crucial episodes, we gathered a wide range of contributors to raise the overall quality,” Kawamura said.
Moonrise is a Japanese original net animation (ONA) series directed by Masashi Koizuka and produced by WIT Studio, based on a novel written by Tow Ubukata. It premiered on Netflix on April 10, 2025.
Source: Mantan Web
