ORICON NEWS conducted an exclusive interview with Uoto in 2019 when the first volume of the manga was released. Uoto explained that the inspiration for the work came from watching the 100-meter dash at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where an athlete was disqualified for a false start. He was shocked by the thought, "Even a slight mistake means they can't run for those 10 seconds, and there might not be another chance at the Olympics..." At the same time, he thought, "If you can conquer 9 seconds and run faster than anyone else, you can earn an enormous income and solve many things in life." This intense tension and excitement became the theme of the work.

Uoto also said, "In sports manga, the protagonist is often depicted as part of a 'club' or 'team.' By making the protagonist an elementary school student who is not in any club activities, I wanted readers to recall their own elementary school days when they might have run 100 meters with all their might and find it relatable. I have no connection to sports and am bad at running. But precisely because of that, I thought deeply about the 'significance of sports' and depicted it. I intended to portray it more as a human drama than a competition."

Staff Information

Original Work: "Hyakuem." by Uoto (published by Kodansha 'KC Deluxe')
Director: Kenji Iwaisawa
Character Design and Animation Director: Keisuke Kojima
Art Director: Yamaguchi Keikan
Producers: Yusuke Terada, Yuki Katayama, Akane Takeji
Animation Production: Rock'n Roll Mountain
Production: Pony Canyon, TBS Television, Asmik Ace

Source : ORICON NEWS