Although it is winter anime season is in full swing, most anime fans are still riding high high compared to last year’s list of shows— key among them being a first-choice anime of the year contender Day Yes Day. Immediately following the cliffhanger season finale, animation studio Science Saru revealed that fans won’t have to hold their breath for long, as the second season the premiere is scheduled for July 2025.
To motivate people as they consider their future manga reading, io9 spoke with director Fuga Yamashiro to get his thoughts on the challenges of anime adaptations, Momo Ayase and Okarun’s new romanceand how he and his team brought Yukinobu Tatsu’s wacky ongoing manga to life.
Isaiah Colbert, io9: Anime adaptations are often content to be one-for-one recreations of manga panels, instead of venturing beyond being an exact copy of their source material. What guided you when directing Day Yes Day?
Fuga Yamashiro: I wanted to avoid comparing the anime to the manga, so I tried to kind of rebuild it Day Yes Day with a different approach from the manga whenever possible. What I’m trying to say is that creating animation is a group process, so I’ve always tried to change the playing field, avoid turning it into a “who has the better art” competition. But at the same time, it was necessary to replicate the feel of the manga, so I tried to capture impressive panels from the manga that I assumed everyone wanted to see – really cool panels, layouts, etc.
io9: What are some of your favorite moments when you deviate from the manga to create additional scenes/changes in the anime?
Yamashiro: I think the base is manga, but many of the styles and techniques were used exclusively for the anime medium. I didn’t change this just because I wanted to change things, but because manga and anime are different mediums. You have to translate what is shown in the manga into anime form in order to give the anime viewers the same impression that the manga readers had. Anime differs from manga, which you can read at your own pace, in that each frame is allotted a certain amount of time. So I paid a lot of attention to detail and tweaked things as needed to stay close to the idea Day Yes Day that manga readers had.
io9: What was your favorite sequence to animate Day Yes Dayand why?
Yamashiro: The crab chase scene in the fourth episode. It really captures the freedom and energy of the animation, and also marks the first time Momo and Okarun work together from a dramatic standpoint. For the first time, they are in perfect harmony, completing the unit of friends. There’s a real catharsis in that drama, and it meshes really well with the energy on screen. A lot of effort is put into the scene in every way – human drama, visuals and music – and it feels dramatic, but also optimistic. The atmosphere I was aiming for Day Yes Daythe relationship between Moma and Okarun in episodes 1-4, it’s all distilled in this scene where they work together.
On the way, before they took off, Okarun takes Momo’s hand and helps her up. This isn’t supposed to be comical, but this marks the first time they touch each other on purpose. They’re not really aware of it, but it’s almost like a handshake. I think it’s super dramatic and awesome.
io9: Day Yes Day stands out for its cinematic approach to framing and showing the action through first-person scenes or villains outside the frame. Where did that direction come from? Is this a result of setting yourself apart from your contemporaries by adapting the work, or is it simply taking inspiration from different mediums’ approaches to storytelling?
Yamashiro: I was hoping to have images and scenes with real direction and not just simple paper dolls on the screen. As for the reason the camera is so often at about human height and not too high, it’s to make the audience feel like they’re right there with the characters. I wanted to create the feeling that you are laughing, talking or feeling fear along with them.
There are no episodes or scenes that don’t have any point or drama or anything. I thought that even if something doesn’t look super modern, someone somewhere always has a dramatic development and that character’s feelings are always fluid and changing, so I tried to capture that in the visuals. I wanted to show the changes in feelings that happen when people communicate – not just the conversations as simple back and forth conversations.
I actually think character development, the way characters’ emotions develop, is more important than the plot in Day Yes Dayso I really tried to make sure that every little detail was captured on screen. Slowing down the dialogue-heavy scenes was intentional—I wanted to make them feel different, to stand out.
io9: What was the most challenging part of bringing it on Day Yes Day to life through animation?
Yamashiro: I wanted to avoid creating visual elements that don’t have a specific point whenever possible. Visuals are there to express something – more than anything, I wanted to avoid adding things just because they’re cool, because they feel good, or because they’ll act as a substitute for connecting things. I thought about the best way to express the situations and feelings of the characters, as well as the changes in emotions throughout the scene, and I tried to compose the scenes with only the visual elements that really seemed necessary.
I would think to myself, “Why is this picture necessary?” before adding things. I don’t think I really succeeded, but that’s where my soul is, where my ideal is when I’m working on a project. I want to make things that are well designed, beautiful and refined.
io9: in Day Yes Day In an interview for the theater screening, you mentioned that you have a notebook filled with blocking and framing that you can go back to with different framing and blocking as you work on the play. Do you refer to it often as a directing bible Day Yes Day? Did your framing ideas come from directors you’ve seen in other anime or movies, or do you come up with these ideas spontaneously and jot them down as they come to you?
Yamashiro: My notebook is mainly for my own study. I use it to record which directing techniques and visuals directors and visual creators use in their works, so that I can analyze them. This is true for any film, any medium, but there is something that the creators want to say in a project or in an individual scene. There is always some kind of intention or goal on the part of the production. I love figuring out what they are, solving these puzzles and analyzing them.
The direction is really interesting, you know? Changing the time when information appears, or even one part of the shot, can completely change the feel of a scene. It makes me feel like maybe magic is real. I’m still a beginner, so I feel like I have to look at what great directors have done before me and take inspiration from them, take different ideas and put them together in new ways. I was very careful to ensure that these techniques were ‘sublimated’ into the project, rather than stopping at parody.
io9: Yukinobu Tatsu revealed that he read shojo manga to inform his approach Day Yes Daythe romance between Okarun and Momo Ayasa. there is Day Yes Day animation team had to go through a similar routine of researching the romance series to get additional ideas to emphasize the romance that followed in the series?
Yamashiro: I didn’t really think about shojo manga, but as for the romantic scenes, I tried my best to make them natural and realistic.
In terms of pacing, the show is generally about 1.25 times faster than normal anime. I tried not to add breaks anywhere. However, for romantic scenes, where we see the inner feelings of the characters, or scenes where the characters are alone, I made sure to add appropriate pauses. I think variations in tempo can have a big effect on people, that sense of “gap” between extremes.
I think it might be easy to understand if you watch the classical guitar scene in episode five. Wasn’t it different from what it was before? Okarun and Momo are aware of each other here – they must have been feeling different emotions than normal. I wanted the audience to experience these emotions vicariously through them.
io9: What have you learned from working on other anime projects that have helped you direct Day Yes Day?
Yamashiro: Everything I have learned so far I tried to bring into this project. I worked as an assistant to director Masaaki Yuasa (Devilman Crybaby, Ping pong animation, Hands off Eizouken!) for a long time and I think it has had a big impact on how I think about projects and how I work. I don’t think I would exist today without that experience and I appreciate it very much.
All 12 episodes Day Yes Day are airing on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix, with a second season coming soon.
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