At the Machi Asobi vol. 16 event on Tuesday, TMS Entertainment producer Toshiyuki Koudate and Madhouse producer Masaki Hayashi discussed production details of the Fall 2016 anime All Out!, an adaptation of the rugby manga by Shiori Amase.

For the joint production, animation studio Madhouse is creating the drawings and animation, while TMS Entertainment is responsible for assembling the final product. According to the producers, the manga editor in charge of All Out!! and director Kenichi Shimizu both have experience playing high school and university rugby. A number of staff members in the production team are also former rugby players, thus they aim to capture some of the human stories in rugby, such as the struggle of former players who have seen the rules of the game change over time.

One challenge animators face is that the former players in the staff all played backs, so in order to accurately capture the scrums which restart play in rugby, they must rely on photographs on how arms move and how the ball is kicked. While discussing the muscular appeal of the character designs, Hayashi pointed out the intentional drawing of the small waistline. With 15 people in a rugby team, the primary characteristic features are their macho, slender, and tall builds.

Although scriptwriter Masahiro Yokotani has worked on Free! and Shingo Irie on Kuroko no Basket, the producers indicated that neither one is the athletic type since their background is the arts, so their work will focus more on character dialogue. Music samples from the series were also played throughout the panel discussion, and it was announced that Yasuharu Takanashi is composing the soundtrack.

The producers also revealed that seiyuu Shouya Chiba did not initially audition for the role of protagonist Kenji Gion, but the staff believed he fit the role after discussing and listening through the audition recordings. Additional cast announcements are expected in the June timeframe.

Machi Asobi vol. 16 runs through Thursday in the city of Tokushima.

Source: Gigazine