It was all magic and muscles Saturday at Anime NYC with a special event highlighting the fan-favorite MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES series.
The panel featured special guest Aleks Le (English cast of Mash Burnedead), director Tomonari Tanaka, composer Masaru Yokoyama, producer Sota Furuhashi, and ended with a special music performance from the second season opening theme artist, Creepy Nuts!
First and foremost, this panel made it obvious that this show is created by people who love the source material. Producer Sota Furuhashi read the series long before an anime had ever been considered, and it was him who pitched the manga in a producer’s meeting hoping he could be the one to make it.
The entire team understands that this story is meant to be just as funny as it is action-packed. Director Tomonari Tanaka felt more pressure than excitement when first beginning work on the series knowing he had to maintain the balance between those two elements and that so much could right, but so much could also go wrong. The audience was and always will be the focus for the MASHLE creatives, and they like the visuals to speak for themselves while creating a catchy show. Facial expressions are one thing they like to focus on when animating, capturing the true heart of the story with subtlety and visuals.
Sota Furuhashi went on to commend Tomonari Tanaka’s directing, saying he’s true and honest to the passion of the content while staying true to the manga, only elevating the story by adapting to what animation can accomplish that the art on the pages of the books can’t.
The music of MASHLE is a tool used expertly, adding emotion and context to the story on a deeper level. Composer Masaru Yokoyama detailed his process in crafting the music of the series, saying he leaned into orchestral sounds to portray the magical aspects of the world, but adding in hip-hop to represent the muscle of it all. This blend was as much a surprise for the rest of the creative team as it was to audiences, but the creatives loved it and audiences do, too.
Some scenes were changed to match the music after animation. They found the music needed a higher level of intensity for some of the fighting scenes and they increased the playback speed 1.5-2 times to keep up with the energy.
Aleks Le, the English voice actor of Mash Burnedead, showed up donned in Mash’s iconic school robe with one of his signature cream puffs. Le learned about cream puffs from the show, saying he ate some every few days after finding out they weren’t just a fictional food and were very much available here in the U.S.
As a character, Mash is one that Aleks Le loves dearly. He resonated with seeing this outcast character make friends for the first time and said that while Mash’s brain isn’t a muscle and therefore not something Mash uses very well, his heart very much is. Mash has been one of the most difficult characters for Le to play thanks to his monotone voice. Comedy and sincerity depend on line delivery, and it’s a challenge to provide the emotion necessary while staying in its parameters. He said that he knows Mash is always trying his best with his friends, and that’s what he leans into in the more difficult moments of the performance.
Creative freedom is something that the MASHLE team uses well. The creative team was granted permission by the mangaka Hajime Komoto to make the gags even funnier and to go above and beyond the manga, which Tomonari Tanaka says is rare. Aleks Le is also given some freedoms in testing out line deliveries, which resulted in Mash using words that aren’t said all that often. Le stated that he wants Mash to be timeless, so using words that make sense within slang now can’t be used if the jokes are still to be enjoyed 10 years from now, so he’s tried to find a vernacular that can withstand the test of time.
More MASHLE is on the way, with the anime sequel already announced and in production! A cream puff collab is also on the horizon! MASHLE is teaming up with Beard Papa in December 2024 with limited flavors and merch.
If you missed the event, it was live-streamed and is available to watch!
