In 2022, the showrunner of the Halo TV series, Steven Kane, infamously stated that he “...didn’t look at the game. We didn’t talk about the game.” While this quote was later clarified by Kane (through his deleted X account) stating how the team looked at lore beyond just the games, it is still a baffling flex to brag about disregarding the video game part of your video game adaptation.
That is what made it refreshing to hear the reverence the team working on Suikoden: The Anime has for Konami’s beloved RPG. Everyone working on this adaptation was required to play the game. During Anime Expo, I spoke with Ryo Hino, producer at NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan and lead producer of the show, and Kensuke Ito, producer at KONAMI, about their adoration for, and ambitious challenges in, bringing the fan-favorite entry, Suikoden II, to life on television screens this October.
GamingTrend: RPGs are known for their massive scope in gameplay and storytelling. Beyond just capturing the narrative beats, what was the process of adapting the more gameplay-focused elements into television?
Ryo Hino: All of us who are involved had to play the Suikoden game first. All of us. That was a mandatory requirement. The animation is based on Suikoden II, but if you play II, it can take 10 to 20 hours. Compressing the story and having it make sense was the first step we had to figure out.
Kensuke Ito: From there, we had to figure out what was the most appealing point through the game. We came up with a character story between Riou and Jowy. We completed the two best friends’ story in this anime series.
GT: Expanding on characters, while I haven’t played it myself, one feature I saw was that there are 108 recruitable characters. When making this adaptation, how did the team decide which characters to spotlight and which ones would stay in the background?
Hino: Since it is based on two boys’ story, we build the characters around that core. Like, who’s more important to finish this friendship story? But we tried to put as many characters as possible out of those 108 characters, so please find those characters when the anime is released. That’s another exciting part of this anime.
This is both for the original gaming fans and new people who are coming to watch this. We didn’t want to create something for game fans to say, “What is this story? It’s very different.” We wanted to be true to the original story, but try to get more new fans, so it is easier for new fans to understand the story as well.
GT: Expanding on the notion of appealing to fans, even though this is an adaptation of the second game, the series has a plethora of future entries. Will there be any references to those games within this adaptation?
Ito: We can’t speak too much, but of course [Suikoden] III and IV are referenced because they exist in the same world and same time frame. So II is in between the past and future of the Suikoden series. But please watch the animation.
GT: With the various characters in the game, what was it like translating their various fighting styles from the game to the show from an animation standpoint?
Ito: There are so many ways the characters fight: six-person party fighting style, they can fight the boss, which is one-on-one, and the army forces fight against each other. That’s the basic three ways of fighting in the game. To expand on this, various ways of using CG effects or sometimes hand drawings to find the best way to express the fighting style in animation.
[The team proceeded to show me a trailer for the anime to give a visual sense of their response]
GT: Wow, yeah, that was very pretty. One thing in particular I noticed is that the animation is being done in-house by Konami’s animation team. An earlier point you made is how you had everyone on the team play the game before making it, which is something other adaptations don’t do. With that being said, what were the challenges and benefits in terms of making something in-house versus supervising another team to create an adaptation of something so beloved?
Ito: We could definitely show the parts we wanted to show in the anime. That is the benefit, but that is also the difficult part as well because the bar got higher. But all the materials are within the company at Konami, so that was really useful. If you look for answers, there are always answers there, so that was really easier. Then also in the process, we found original notes from Mr. Murayama, the original creator of the Suikoden series, so that definitely helped us create the story.
Suikoden: The Anime is now airing in Japan. The series will premiere eveyrwhere else around the world October 6 with a 60 minute episode. Episodes will release weekly every Tuesday.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
