While new anime series "Radiant" might look like a conventional animation filled with fantasy and adventures, it is actually an epoch-making piece of pop culture developed through exchanges between France and Japan.
Currently being broadcast on NHK-E, the anime features Seth, a misfit trying to become a "great wizard," who lives in a world where "Nemesis" creatures descend from the sky to attack people. The creatures can also give people supernatural powers enabling them to become wizards.
NHK Enterprise producer Yusuke Fujita first learned about "Radiant" when he stumbled across the first volume of the manga, published by Asuka Shinsha, in a bookstore in 2015.
"Where has this been hiding?!"
For a person who thought they were up-to-date with current trends, the discovery surprised him. The fact that it was a translation of a comic by a French mangaka, 34-year-old Tony Valente, was also a shock.
Fujita, 31, read the manga and was immediately absorbed.
"I couldn't believe a French person created it. It was a quintessential shonen boys' manga," he recalled.
A big fan of "Dragon Ball," and "One Piece," Fujita always dreamed of working on a mainstream fantasy series for NHK. He was well aware of the frequent fierce battles to obtain visualization rights in the anime industry, but as "Radiant" was not widely known at the time, he was confident he could get them.
Fujita secured the rights to produce an anime adaptation after contacting the publisher in France when the fourth volume of the manga came out in 2016. He commissioned animation studio Lerche, which was responsible for "Ansatsu Kyoshitsu" (Assassination Classroom) among others, to produce the series.
NHK's executive producer Yuko Yonemura is another person who was captivated by the story.
"Not only is the work exciting, but it also includes important issues such as immigration and discrimination," said Yonemura. "I'm positive it fits the principles of the programs we broadcast for children in the early evenings on Saturday on NHK-E," she said.
This is the first time a French manga has been turned into an anime in Japan.
Japanese anime started being aired widely in France in the late 1970s and almost developed into a social problem because of how absorbed in them children became. Many manga titles were translated into French in the 1990s. The children who grew up in those days are the ones who are now in the center of the latest "Japonisme" cultural exchange.
While France has its original version of highly artistic bande dessinee comics, a considerable number of artists now draw Japanese-style manga.
"The numbers are quickly increasing," said Masato Hara, 44, who translated "Radiant" into Japanese. "And they're popular."
The publication of "Radiant" in Japan is a reverse phenomenon in terms of manga being exported. It's understandable such news is being enthusiastically discussed in France.
"It still feels like a dream to me," said Valente on Sept. 14, after attending a preview at NHK Broadcasting Center in Tokyo.
Valente talked about his own experience of facing discrimination in France because his father wasn't originally from the country. "I suppose you can see such encounters reflected in my work," he said.
Manga is no longer a field confined to Japan -- nor are there boundaries to the attraction it is generating. And that is exactly what the release of "Radiant" demonstrates.
"Radiant" is broadcast from 5:35 p.m. on Saturdays on NHK-E.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
