Sparks of Tomorrow is a boy-meets-girl story in which the characters try to solve the mystery behind the 20th Century Electrical Catalog and hope to change their lives for the better. Set in an early 1900’s reimagining of Meiji-era Kyoto, the show features oil-painting-style cityscapes and detailed brushstrokes in each scene, highlighting the attention to detail and the atmosphere of the series. Paired with an ending theme song from Japanese city pop-inspired songwriter/producer Ginger Root, Sparks of Tomorrow pushes the boundaries of artistic vision and inspires strategic innovation. At Anime NYC 2026, Anime Trending and other outlets interviewed art director Mao Takayama and Ginger Root at a press junket to talk about the art, their backgrounds, and what the show means to them.
This interview was conducted via an interpreter for Mao Takayama and has been edited for clarity.
The Natural Aristocrat: In your view, which scene best represents the visual style of the series? What part of the world required the most research visually?
Mao Takayama: The scene that really characterizes the work the most is the scene where they show the cityscape of Kyoto — the old-fashioned buildings and the pipes showing through the city, and also the ground with a bit of dampness. It really shows the whole toned-down, misty, and foggy atmosphere of the series.
Adult Swim Central: The background art is incredibly unusual for an anime. Could you talk about how you and the team created the show’s art style?
Mao Takayama: When working on the background art, we really focused on making it as close as possible to an oil painting. Obviously, it’s not done by an individual. It’s done by a team, so there’s a lot of communication between team members. Whenever a part is finished, we’ll communicate whether it’s okay or whether these parts could be done a little better to really focus on creating this oil-painting style.
Otarush: Sparks of Tomorrow brings together a highly distinct visual identity and a very unique musical soundscape. When constructing the ending sequence and the overall atmosphere of the anime, in what ways do the art and music complement or connect with each other?
Ginger Root: I wrote the song [without] seeing any visuals of the ending animation. I was just given a painting done by the director, as well as a piece of writing about what he wanted. I also met with him online, but I didn’t have any actual visuals to go off of, except for that one piece he gave me and, obviously, some direction from him. I purposefully wrote things in the song that could probably complement opportunities for the animation to do something special, like the breaks, drums, interludes, chorus, and all that. I was very excited to see the finished result, and I think it matches very well. I wish there was animation for the whole song. It was still in the works, and they actually animated what I wrote, which is very special to me. That’s my side of the story.
Mao Takayama: When it comes to actually working on the art of the ending, most of it was done in 3D. The actual background art, the painting art piece, only had three cuts. So there wasn’t too much physical work on the background team’s side, but we were able to listen to the song before we started working on it. We really thought it matched the eerie atmosphere of the series. I’m not sure what kind of instrument was used, but it’s kind of like a pipe-organ-type instrument that really matched the atmosphere of the work.
In Asian Spaces: The background art for Sparks of Tomorrow captures the atmospheric transition of 1906 Kyoto beautifully, particularly the contrast between traditional wood-structure townhouses and the emerging glow of electrical innovation. How did the production team approach balancing historical Meiji-era accuracy with KyoAni’s distinct visual style?
Mao Takayama: When working on the series, we really wanted to focus on the brush strokes and keep all the brush strokes in the background art. We drew a lot of inspiration from impressionism, blurring the lines to make it very vague. But when it comes to depicting the cityscape of Kyoto — because it’s a world not a lot of viewers are very familiar with — we wanted to make sure those lines were very clear. For the characters, we wanted to feature the Kyoto cityscape with the more traditional building structures and keep those lines very clear. Each cut was focused on to make sure the balance was well made.
Anime Corner: To what extent did you make use of historical reference material when creating the physical world of the series? What are some real-life elements you wanted kept in, and where are places you intentionally deviated from the real world?
Mao Takayama: When drawing the cityscape of Kyoto, the general orders from the director were to make sure we didn’t make any unnecessary lines or edits. For the locale of Kyoto and how the buildings were structured, we tried to stay true to the actual historical accuracy. The parts we did change were the steampunk aspects: the pipes that are streamlined throughout the city, or the more cloudy and steamy aspect to it. Those are the parts we tried to deviate a bit from the historical aspect. One thing in particular, though, if you look closely at the series, you’ll notice a lot of cloth strung over the pipes, obscuring the skyline a little. Those were actually historically accurate. There really were clotheslines with clothes hung out in that era, but we replaced the clotheslines with pipes, and since the skyline is a little obscured in this world anyway, we decided to put more cloth over the pipelines.
Anime Trending: Many animation studios don’t have an in-house background art department like Kyoto Animation and have to rely on external specialist studios. From your experiences so far, how does the in-house aspect of KyoAni’s background team contribute to the studio’s culture and expertise?
Mao Takayama: The biggest strength of having an in-house team is the communication aspect. When it comes to trying to describe what kind of scenes we want, sometimes it’s very hard to verbalize or put into words what the director wants. In that case, the background team can directly draw out what we want. It makes it very easy for us to relay what we want to each other. Especially in this work, where the atmosphere has a distinct art style, I feel this kind of work could only be done with a studio like Kyoto Animation.
Yatta-Tachi: For your past work, you found creative ways to create music, like performing using an old rotary phone as a microphone and filming on tape recorders. What’s your favorite “unconventional” instrument, and did you make use of one for recording “Soarin’”?
Ginger Root: When I made “Soarin’,” I did it completely in a bedroom. I didn’t rent any studio time for it, so it has that kind of lo-fi sheen that a lot of my other songs have. I used a little bit of that same telephone you talked about to record some of the vocals on there. The thing with writing for TV and anime is my anxiousness of having to change things all the time. For example, when I did stuff with NHK earlier this year, I used that as a learning experience to not actually record a lot of real sounds, but instead, use soft synthesizers or VSTs and all that.
So it was a good exercise. With a lot of my other songs, [I record] things with actual microphones. [For this song, I recorded] things directly that were easily editable in case I had to make changes, especially because there are two versions: a short version and a long version. I made the short version, got the okay, and then I had to figure out how to recreate the sounds I’d made for the short version to duplicate them for the long version. Thankfully, I didn’t have to change anything after the first draft, so I worried for nothing.
Adult Swim Central: What conversations or discussions led to this song becoming the ending theme?
Ginger Root: I got a proposal to do it. I thought it was fake. I was really excited; I am a big anime fan. One story I will tell is that I had one meeting with the whole team, including the director Minoru Ota, and we bonded over the fact that he really likes Lady Gaga. I don’t know why, but weirdly, I think that subconsciously influenced how I wrote the song. Not like I’m saying “Soarin” sounds like any Lady Gaga song to begin with, but the back-and-forth we had was — like I said earlier — he gave me that painting and that piece of writing.
He also said something about differentiating it from the opening theme. He didn’t want any Eastern-sounding instruments [in the ending] because the opening is meant to feel like “Here’s the Meiji era! We’re stuck in time, very traditional, and here’s a sense of adventure.” But with the ending theme, he wanted it to actually sound electronic. That was a big thing we went back and forth on. He gave me those notes, I made something I thought would fit well, and it sat with the team well.
Otarush: The ending of an anime episode is crucial because it dictates the emotional aftertaste the audience is left with for an entire week. What is the exact feeling or lingering thought you want viewers to walk away with?
Ginger Root: On the music side, they gave me a reference to City Hunter, where the theme song would start while the ending scene is going. There’s a little bit of dialogue left, then the beat drops — I think it’s called “Get Wild.” They wanted me to create that same essence. With that involved, the adventure isn’t solved. There are so many mysteries around the Electricity Catalog, so there’s an essence of cloudiness, just like how the town is shrouded in steam and smoke — that feeling of uncertainty. But there’s a lyric in the song that goes, “But together we can go past the stars. We can get out of that steam together.” That’s something I wanted to portray also with the animation team, to give them an example so the characters could actually fly off the screen and soar into the sky.
Mao Takayama: I basically agree with Ginger Root, but I also want to add that I really want to make sure viewers have a more thought-provoking kind of ending. I want viewers to think back, or think more about what happened in the episode and what’s going to happen in the future. I want to make sure those thoughts are swirling within the viewer’s head.
In Asian Spaces: Your music frequently draws inspiration from retro Japanese City Pop, Showa-era television aesthetics, and vintage analog synth textures. In composing “Soarin’” for Sparks of Tomorrow, how did you approach matching your signature retro soundscape to the show’s early 1900’s Meiji-era setting and the sense of flight and wonder surrounding Kihachi and Hinako?
Ginger Root: I do like vintage Japanese culture, but not that vintage. It was a great opportunity to stretch my palette and deviate from the things I normally do. When talking to the team, I asked, “Do you want me to write a song I think sounds like an anime song, or do you want a Ginger Root song?” They said, “Well, while we’d like a Ginger Root song 110%, we probably can’t.” So in my own head, I decided, “Okay, let’s do a 70% Ginger Root and 30% anime song. What would that sound like?”
It was a fun exercise to put on a new hat, try on a new set of clothes. I think they fit really well. Ultimately, taking Ota-san’s writing, painting, and all the key artwork and character designs I was able to see, they said that Sparks of Tomorrow is a boy-meets-girl story, and that [the theme is] you can’t do it alone. So the song starts with a single instrument — you start off alone — and as you try to achieve something you want to do, you need help along the way to support. That’s why the song gets bigger and bigger. In the chorus, there’s a whole choir that sings the whole chorus, kind of upheaves toward that point. It was a really good challenge; it was really fun, and I’d like to do it again.
Anime Corner: Your creation of the ending theme shows you were thinking about themes and emotions. From the early parts of the series, which characters in particular were top of mind for you, and what themes in the series struck you as best belonging to a song?
Ginger Root: In terms of themes specifically, I think it was a sense of wonder that this book has. It’s something so familiar but something that hasn’t been delved into a lot. In the song, I chose certain chords that evoke that [feeling of] “we’re not home yet, we’re not done yet” — this series isn’t done yet, this song isn’t done yet. In terms of characters, everybody wants something — whether it’s wanting revenge for a brother, aspiring [to be] like their mother, or just getting what they want. We all want something in life, and we can’t do it alone; some people try to do it alone and fail, some people try to do it together and succeed. I feel like that was the core essence of what I took from the theme, the characters, the script, and stuff the team told me to implement into the ending theme.
Anime Trending: Takayama-san, what’s the best piece of advice, or the best lesson, regarding creating background art that you’ve acquired?
Mao Takayama: Something I learned from people I’d worked with before is to think [about purpose] while I’m drawing at all times. Because it’s background art, we want to make sure the art really brings out the characters in the foreground, or to be able to control where the viewer’s eyes go. So a lot of it is constantly thinking about what I’m drawing.
Yatta-Tachi: How and when did you first start drawing, and what other artists would you say influenced you in your development?
Mao Takayama: I’ve been drawing since I was little — maybe five years old — and I’ve always kept drawing. But what really made me want to become a background artist was when I was around 14. I went to an art exhibit for Nizo Yamamoto, who is an art director for films like Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke. Seeing his art exhibit really made me want to become a background artist. I feel a lot of my inspiration comes from his works.
The Natural Aristocrat: What’s the biggest change for you moving from background artist in 2020’s Violet Evergarden: The Movie to art director on Sparks of Tomorrow?
Mao Takayama: Back when I was working on Violet Evergarden, I was still very new to the industry — it was probably my second year or so. There were a lot of times I’d get edits from my superiors, and I tried my best to fix all the edits I was given. Now that I’m an art director, my role has swapped. Now I’m the one giving edits to the people working for me. I was able to implement the things I learned while I was an artist now as an art director.
Adult Swim Central: How does it feel art directing an anime for the first time?
Mao Takayama: So difficult. As an art director, not only do I have to draw the pieces, but I also have to communicate. A lot of the roles I had to take on were things outside of just drawing — the other aspects became more important, and I felt that was very challenging.
Otarush: Colors are incredibly important for setting the psychological tone of a series. For Sparks of Tomorrow, did you establish a specific set of color rules or lighting techniques to separate moments of intense drama from the quieter, more intimate scenes of everyday life?
Mao Takayama: Generally, for the coloration, whether it’s a serious scene or a more relaxed scene, we tried to keep the general colors the same — the same colorful graininess, the same clouded sort of coloration. The main difference between the more dramatic scenes and the more relaxed scenes is in the brushstrokes — for dramatic scenes we use stronger brushstrokes, while for relaxed scenes we use softer touches.
In Asian Spaces: From Kihachi’s inventive wingsuit escape to the atmospheric smoke and electric lanterns of the city, the series features many memorable visual beats. Is there a specific scene or detail from the first three episodes that the staff found particularly rewarding or challenging to bring to life?
Mao Takayama: Rather than something that was very impressionable, there is a scene that took a lot of effort — the scene where Kihachi’s thinking about the very futuristic one. The people moving around are very realistic. The background team had to draw it in, and we had to separate the moving parts from the background. It was a very arduous process, so I thought that was impressive.
Anime Corner: Ginger Root, to what extent did the fact that you were working on a song for Sparks of Tomorrow affect your usual choices around instrumentation, structure, and the overall creative process for your music?
Ginger Root: As I said in a previous answer, the director specifically wanted more electronic bass sounds. Finding the medium between what I’d personally put in [or] a synth sound I would like versus something that would fit the story was a fun challenge to incorporate. In terms of process, I had to make the 80-second version first because they needed that to animate, and then went back and extended the song. That was a really interesting thing I’d never done before.
Usually when I’m writing songs specifically just for Ginger Root, I write from the first beat to the last beat. But with this one, I had to hit a checkpoint, get it approved, and then go on. Like I said in other answers, I didn’t save the guitar sounds, so I had to match by ear how much distortion I had in the first half. That was a really interesting challenge. I’d try to figure out a way to not do that again.
Anime Trending: Both your creative elements (such as the music, video, and visuals) and the story of Sparks of Tomorrow explore themes of creative passion and perseverance. Have you ever felt burnout or hit a creative block? How do you keep up your motivation and maintain momentum when you are juggling different roles?
Ginger Root: Yeah, I was burnt out last year, definitely. [laughs] In the midst of getting burnt out, I had to remember — and I’m still trying to remember — why I started doing music in the first place. It was for fun, and it was because I enjoyed doing it. I never thought I’d get this far doing music; I never thought I’d be sitting in a room at Anime Expo talking about my song. I’m very excited I had the opportunity to do that.
So, I’m trying to learn to be more mindful of taking a step back and really being thankful for what I’m able to do with these music opportunities. In terms of creative block, man, just going for a walk works wonders! I used to do a thing where if I couldn’t finish a song in one night, then it was a bad song. I’ve started to be a little more lenient [with that]. It’s okay to take a step back, to take a day or two and don’t even think about it. Then, come back with a fresh perspective because a bunch of times I’ll make something and think it sounds like garbage, and then I’ll wake up the next morning with a fresh mind and think, “This is not bad.”
Take it easy on yourself if you hit a creative block. Motivation comes and goes. Creative burnout is hard, but if you remember why you started doing something in the first place, it’ll come back when it’s ready.
Yatta-Tachi: What does your past experience with Kyoto Animation’s works look like, and did you have any specific feelings about being able to collaborate with the studio?
Ginger Root: I love Kyoto Animation. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say all the other shows I like, but [there’s] K-On!, Nichijo, and Violet Evergarden. I watched Violet Evergarden with my mom; she cried, and it was great. One thing I will say, and I said this at Anime Expo, is that I was learning Japanese during COVID, and the first book I was able to read in Japanese was Sound! Euphonium. I read that book, realized Kyoto Animation made the [anime,] and watched it. That’s like a super crazy connected story.
Now, I’m working with the same studio that made that work. It’s really special, and I’d love to do something again. Maybe an opening theme one time would be awesome. Just as a fan… it’s awesome, it’s really cool. I’m really happy I had this opportunity, and I hope to do more in the future. Who knows, maybe if I get better at drawing or maybe take a lesson from Takayama-senpai and draw better, maybe I’ll make my own one day — but I don’t know. That’s maybe 15 years from now.
Sparks of Tomorrow is currently streaming on Netflix.
Anime Trending questions by Isabelle Lee and Melvyn Tan. Press junket attended by Isabelle Lee.
