- Interview Date: 7/5/2025
- Interview Format: In-Person
Anime Herald: What are your origin stories? How did you enter the industry?
Goshi Yoshida: I used to be involved in variety shows, which is very real. Real people. That has its own limitations. The main factor that played into my transition was the excitement and freedom of the storytelling in anime. I was excited to get the opportunity to join the anime industry.
Yui Shibata: I started as an editor for novels. While being involved in the novel world, I’d been drawn to the power of anime.
Anime Herald: Did any of the novels you edited end up being made into other forms of media, like anime or movies?
Yui Shibata: That was my bread and butter. Novels that became anime, television series, movies, games.
Anime Herald: Did any of them come over to the West?
Yui Shibata: When both worked together on an animation, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.
Anime Herald: How long have the two of you worked together.
Goshi Yoshida: Five or six years now?
Anime Herald: Was that when you moved over from variety?
Goshi Yoshida: Exactly.
Anime Herald: Is it common to switch fields like that within the entertainment industry?
Goshi Yoshida: Yes, especially in Japan.
Anime Herald: What current projects are you working on?
Goshi Yoshida: Detective Conan (Case Closed), Yaiba: Samurai Legend, and Ascendance of a Bookworm.
Yui Shibata: So many. The Water Magician. Shirohiyo (SHIROHIYO – Reincarnated as a Neglected Noble: Raising My Baby Brother With Memories From My Past Life). Those are both on air right now.
Anime Herald: You seem like a busy person.
Yui Shibata: (Laughs) I have to edit a lot of books, so I am so busy!
Anime Herald: What projects would you like to talk about here at Anime Expo?
Yui Shibata: Ascendance of a Bookworm for sure.
Anime Herald: I believe Ascendance of a Bookworm has thirty-two books in Japan, and twenty-eight so far here in America.
Yui Shibata: Yes.
Anime Herald: The anime covers the first seven. It’s been described as the prologue. Do you expect us to get to the main story in the anime?
Yui Shibata: It’s a new beginning, with a new studio, airing on a new channel. We are looking forward to showing that to the world.
Anime Herald: What goes into the decision on what studio you want to use to make an anime?
Yui Shibata: Largely speaking, there are two aspects. One is the change in environment. The next arc is going to be in a very grand palisade. Second, the magic and action. There were limitations in the past studio methods. Bringing in a new studio, we like to bring in new methods to express the magic action.
Anime Herald: This is fascinating. Do you have different studios in mind for different types of projects?
Yui Shibata: We believe that there is a long and great story coming up. We are grateful to have Wit’s support in expressing that story. Without them, we were afraid the story wouldn’t come across.
Anime Herald: Wit Studio is very well respected. The fact that you are going with them suggests this is a major investment.
Yui Shibata: (Nods)
Anime Herald: What attracted you to this project?
Yui Shibata: I was familiar with the series as an editor. In partnering with Yomiuri telecasting corp., one of the most powerful television stations, we believe we were able to get more exposure and more views.
Anime Herald: What is a normal workday like for you?
Yui Shibata: First, I check emails. Lots and lots of emails. I’ll meet with authors, either on the telephone or on Skype. Then, meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings.
Anime Herald: So, that’s a Saturday. What about a workday during the week?
Yui Shibata: (Laughs)
Goshi Yoshida: I’m a producer across different projects so I am typically on the ground, on site. Whether it is the after-recording, the editing, the recording, or even the reading. I’m usually on site. Never at the office.
Anime Herald: Are there any stories from the recording sessions you’d care to share?
Goshi Yoshida: Ascendance of a Bookworm is going to start the post-production recordings next week. The teaser we aired at AX was recorded for AX.
Anime Herald: I assume it was finished last Friday?
Goshi Yoshida: (Laughs) You got me.
Anime Herald: What would you like our readers to know about Ascendance of a Bookworm?
Yui Shibata: It has a wide range of readers. For young kids to older adults. A very wide demographic. It’s been translated into over twenty languages. It’s an encouraging and inspiring story of a young girl in love with a book, and creating a book in her world. We would like to inspire those readers.
Anime Herald: In Japan, were there any crossover promotions with local libraries or schools?
Yui Shibata: In Japan, the schools have a book-reading time. Ascendance of a Bookworm has become one of the top charting novels with middle-school students.
Anime Herald: How did you decide to become an editor?
Yui Shibata: In university, I studied American literature.
Anime Herald: Who were some of your favorite authors?
Yui Shibata: Paul Auster. He wrote the New York trilogy.
Anime Herald: How did you first decide to enter the entertainment industry?
Goshi Yoshida: I wanted to be an elementary school teacher.
The opportunity to join the entertainment industry was kind of simple. I put very little thought into it. I was training to become a teacher. In Japan, the training in college is very hard. I didn’t want to become an aloof, naive teacher with little knowledge from outside of teaching. I wanted to become involved with something I liked. Entertainment and anime were things I liked.
Anime Herald: What were the anime and manga that got you into anime?
Goshi Yoshida: Junji Ito. Cardcaptor Sakura.
When I became a producer, I got the opportunity to work with Junji Ito and make an anime. It was very rewarding.
(I showed Mr. Yoshida the Junji Ito / Hayao Miyazaki Beatles meme.)
Goshi Yoshida: I worked on that project. Junji Ito would like to be compared with Hayao Miyazaki.
Anime Herald: What were the anime and manga that inspired you to join the industry?
Yui Shibata: Doraemon. More recently, Spy x Family. I love shows for kids.
Anime Herald: Do you have any questions for us?
Yui Shibata: We had an interview before this. Why do American interviewers care so much about our careers? Our past experiences? What is the fascination there?
Anime Herald: I want to understand the people who are making the projects. Is this uncommon in Japan?
Yui Shibata: Typically, we get asked questions about the projects.
Goshi Yoshida: That was the first time I was asked about what I liked.
Anime Herald: You clearly have an interesting story to your life and your career, if you’d care to tell it.
Yui Shibata: It’s a funny story. I wanted to be a teacher as well. I have a license to teach.
Anime Herald: What subject?
Yui Shibata: English.
Goshi Yoshida: I was thinking about quitting work and becoming a teacher at age 30, but work was so fun I kept tagging along.
Yui Shibata: In university, my master said to me, “I want you to be a professor, but you have another place in the future, so you have to go to another place.” I chose entertainment.
Anime Herald: Would you say you put a lot of thought into that decision?
Yui Shibata: He told me that there is a bigger world out there. I took those words to heart.
Anime Herald: Are you still in contact with this professor?
Yui Shibata: Yes. He’s eighty years old. We always talk about movies and literature.
Anime Herald: Are there any other questions you like to ask?
Yui Shibata: How would you say American fans are introduced to anime?
Anime Herald: Often through fashion. I’ll walk around New York and see so much One Piece, so much Dragon Ball.
Yui Shibata: The Dodgers had One Piece night. 40,000 people were wearing the Straw Hats. Do people find out about One Piece through that?
Anime Herald: Certainly some people do.
And of course, television. And now, people find out through streaming, and YouTube, and influencers.
Yui Shibata and Goshi Yoshida: If there was anything we could do to become the Harry Potter from Japan, what would it be?
Anime Herald: I remember when the books came out, the local Barnes & Noble would open at midnight so people could buy them. To become that popular you have to become part of the zeitgeist. People who don’t normally read books will have to want to read your book. You have to write something very good that a variety of different audiences will enjoy and attach to. That’s hard to do.
Yui Shibata and Goshi Yoshida: Thank you so much!
Anime Herald: Thank you!
