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Anime producer Shinpei Yamashita recently spoke in the context of an interview that the demanding production of »Mediterranist« would have provided the team with huge hurdles. We summarize the details below.
Difficult prerequisites
Even if some South Korean fans accuse the anime because of a single scene of the plagiarism, the rest of the world celebrates the extremely successful adaptation of “Mediterranist”, which also underlines a great Myanimelist score of 8.22/10.
This should sound like music in the ears of the production team, after all, their efforts and diligence are rewarded by the fans. Because, according to Yamashita, it would have been a difficult undertaking to bring the spectacular figure skating scenes from paper to the screen, since their realistic representation would have required a careful mix of 2D and 3D animation.
One would have been aware of this difficulty from the start, which is why several anime studios would have been asked for production. But they all replied that it was almost impossible to adapt the manga without loss of quality.
Ultimately, the choice fell on Engi, a still quite young anime studio, which is known for his balanced expertise in 2D and 3D animation as well as his participation in “Vinland Saga” and “Mobile Suitam: The Witch From Mercury”.
Live demonstrations as a reference
In order to perfect the ice skating scenes, the production was carried out in cooperation with the Japan National Skating Federation and the sports department of TV Asahi, whereupon the team was allowed to enjoy live performances by the professional figure skaters Yuhana Yokoi and Hinano Isobe.
A motion capture technology should be used, but it would have turned out that the ice rink is too large and the technology cannot capture everything. Therefore, one would have worked with a combination of optical recordings and the persecution of key points on the body of the runners.
And as is well known, the result is impressive. “Medalist” is now one of the most popular anime titles in the winter of 2025. But what do you think of the sports series? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
The anime implementation of “Mediterranist” in Germany in the Japanese original sound with German subtitles as well as with English, Spanish and Portuguese setting at Disney+ in the Simulcast. A new episode appears every Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
