thatshamelessyaoishipper answered:

Thanks for the info! I’ve been so focused on watching the Olympics (the Team figure skating events were so fun to watch, especially the Free Skates!), and working on my year abroad application (almost done!) that I keep missing out on fandom updates. :’)

But enough about me, let’s translate that little fragment:

This month, for the first time in a while, I have gotten some illustration commissions for “Yuri!!!” (based on the TV series). My next project after “SayoAsa” [Mari Okada’s new anime film in which he was the animation director] will also be a movie [the yoi movie] so for the moment, I’ll be working on official illustration commissions and it seems like I’ll also have the time to work out the direction of the character designs for the movie.

Let me just say that I like the way he writes - it’s pretty straightforward, which isn’t actually that common in the industry lol.

This could very well mean movie info this month - or, at the very least - an illustration/key visual, since that seems to be his main thing at the moment. The one thing we know is that we’ll see more illustrations from Hiramatsu soon, and the fact that he does all of the poster/main illustration art for the anime (like the key visuals or the OST CD cover art etc) is a good thing - it’ll definitely be something relevant to the future of the anime, and not just merch.

At the same time, I’m wondering what he means by “the direction of the character designs for the movie”. Let’s remember that Hiramatsu is the character designer for Yoi but only in the sense that he adapts Kubo’s original character designs for the anime - basically takes them and turns them into something that can be animated, if that makes sense. But I’d assume he’s already done that a long time ago - back when he originally adapted them for the TV anime. Is it normal for character designs to alter for a movie version of a TV anime?

*Buzzfeed unsolved voice* Now, let’s get into the theories.

I’m kidding haha. It might be possible that character designs need to be adapted between TV anime and anime movies - I haven’t heard about this much but then again, this isn’t something anyone really talks about, so I can’t say whether this is “normal” or “unusual”.

This could mean that the characters will be a little different in the movie and to be fair - that would make sense. Both Yuuri’s and Yurio’s hair is longer than at the start of the TV anime, Yurio will probably be taller - these are all things that need to be accounted for if the movie will be a continuation of the TV anime.

It’s also possible that the movie could be some sort of a prequel, maybe set in the past (or it could be a sequel with extended flashbacks), so they would need proper character designs for the characters’ younger selves as well.

In either of these two cases, it would make sense that they would need to spend some time “working out the direction of the character designs”. At the same time, if they’re only working that out now (another translation would be “polishing” which also sounds fair, so don’t panic), how far are they in production really?

That’s all I can really say. I hope I came in useful somehow and hopefully I didn’t worry you too much. :’) Judging by this, I think it’s fair to say that they’re making good progress on the movie production, but we might still need to stay patient. If Hiramatsu writes anything else, do tell me, since I seem to miss all of his updates. :’D

