The fantasy manga series Sengoku Youko, created by Satoshi Mizukami, has been thrilling readers worldwide since it began in 2007, with its tale of heroes battling monsters in feudal Japan. Nine years after the manga story concluded in 2014, prolific anime studio White Fox is adapting Sengoku Youko into a full series set to premiere this January and available to stream internationally on Crunchyroll. Powered with an immersive vision of Japan and memorable characters, Sengoku Youko is perfect for fans of similar anime series like Bleach or InuYasha while providing viewers with a faithful adaptation of Mizukami’s story.

Sengoku Youko takes place in a world where the land is divided between humans and monsters, known as katawara. A young katawara named Tama is determined to defend humanity while her more fiery-tempered brother Jinka despises them. The two siblings, along with a meek swordsman named Shinsuke out to prove himself as a warrior, uncover a conspiracy revolving around transforming humans into monsters and set out to dismantle it by any means necessary. This places them on an epic journey across Japan, making plenty of friends and enemies along the way as they navigate the fragile dynamic between humanity and the katawara.

In an exclusive interview with Popverse, Sengoku Youko director Kagetsu Aizawa and producer Allian Cai (credited below as a single speaker) detail how they approached adapting the manga story for modern audiences, take about how they brought characters and sweeping environment to life, and tease what audiences can expect when Sengoku Youko premieres this January.

Popverse: Sengoku Youko debuted as a manga in 2007 and concluded in 2016. How did you want to take the story and themes and adapt it for audiences today?

Kagetsu Aizawa and Allian Cai: In terms of the story and themes to fit for modern times, I think the themes were ahead of their time, that’s how we feel. For example, one of the female characters that comes up in this story, Tsukiko – usually female characters are not as strong as the male characters and they get protected by the male characters. For Tsukiko, it’s the opposite, where she's strong and protects the male characters. I think in that sense, I think it fits into modern themes.

In comparison to Tama, you have Jinka, who is much more fiery. How did you want to contrast Jinka compared to his sibling?

In terms of showing the contrast, we took the story from the manga. In the original work, it’s pretty clear who they are and what they represent. That’s where we took it. That wasn’t a challenge or hard for us. In terms of Jinka, he’s one of the main characters and he’s the one that transforms in a lot of the battle scenes, and I’m curious to see if the viewers will relate.

One of the characters we wanted to talk about is Shinsuke. He’s one of the regular dudes in the anime and I think he’s unique with his character development. That is something that I hope the viewers can relate to.

Mizukami-sensei has a very distinct art style in the manga series. How did you want to translate that into animation?

One thing we really wanted to emphasize was the character and make sure we retain the human side of it. Even in the manga, there are important scenes and we wanted to emphasize those. One thing we were thinking about, with big and exciting scenes, was how we can make them even more exciting in the animation. That’s one thing on the animation side we wanted to focus on.

From a production side, one thing we wanted to add, in Mizukami-sensei’s work there are a lot of serious scenes and also comedic scenes as well, there’s a mix of that. We didn’t really want to lose that, the humorous scenes and fun stuff, because, if you just watch the serious stuff, people will get too worn out. We wanted to make sure that balances very well in the anime, the comedy and the serious stuff.

Sengoku Youko is set within this vision of feudal Japan that you’re presenting to international audiences with this series. How did you want to distill the beauty and culture of this period within the anime series?

In terms of setting, the show is set during the Muromachi Period of Japan. Of course we did our research of that time period, like the items and how the environment was, but we didn’t really want to make this a period piece. In terms of the scenes, we wanted to show more details in the anime. That's what we decided it to be like, like more of a fantasy, that’s how we envisioned the anime.

There’s the truth, but we added some other things too!

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Directed by Kagetsu Aizawa and produced by Allian Cai, Sengoku Youko premieres January 11 and will be available to stream on Crunchyroll.

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