At Anime NYC 2025, we sat down with best-selling author Scott Westerfeld and Qubic Pictures CEO Justin Leach to discuss the highly anticipated Leviathan anime adaptation premiere on Netflix. Beyond translating Westerfeld’s steampunk alternate history novel into a dynamic visual experience, the conversation centered on the unprecedented international collaboration that brought the series to life via Studio Orange (known for its stunning 3D CGI work on Beastars).
Leach and Westerfeld shared their deep-seated inspiration—from classics like Akira and Nausicaa—and detailed their shared mission: to push animation’s creative boundaries and expand the global appeal of the medium to audiences who traditionally “don’t watch anime”.
From Akira to Beastars: The 90s Anime that Inspired the Leviathan Creators
Scott and Justin were asked about their experience with the medium of anime, and if they had watched it growing up or discovered it later in life.
Leviathan creator and author Scott Westerfeld mentioned that due to his age, there wasn’t much anime available on TV during that time, but that the first anime series he watched was Death Note. Justin Leach detailed his experience with stumbling upon and reading the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind comic book in the 80s.
Continuing to detail his extensive exposure to Japanese pop culture growing up through his father’s video store, “My father owned a video store when I was young. So he had a lot of great anime and VHS tapes back in the day.” Justin continued to state that this exposure inspired a lot of the projects he works on today as CEO, Founder, and Executive Producer at Qubic Pictures.
“I watched Neo Tokyo, Robot Carnival, some of the great anthologies. I also love Akira, Ghost in the Shell. I’m big fan of 90s anime, having kind of grown up in that time period. And I think that inspires a lot of the projects that I want to work on today, are sort of trying to create that feeling of like, this is something amazing and of high quality so it was really inspired by that.”
Upon the mention of Akira, Scott retold his experience of first seeing the film at his local bar Max Fish down on Ludlow Street in the late 80s. “They played Akira on all their TVs just 100 % of the time” remarking that experience was probably the first time he actually watched anime.
Thinking about the experience of seeing anime films in public spaces, Justin reflected on his remembrance of seeing Studio Ghibli’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky and made the realization that the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind comic he read were both works by Hayao Miyazaki. “And that was kind of another big moment for me, just learning more about it”.
The International Creative Collaboration: Tokyo, Paris, and New York
Scott and Justin explore how the international creative collaboration surrounding Leviathan’s anime adaptation and production came about.
When asked how the production of the Leviathan anime came out and the collaboration between Netflix, Studio Orange, and Qubic Pictures concerning the adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s novel, Scott had this to say “So the rumor I heard is that the new head of Netflix Japan called a friend of his and said, ‘what should I do?’ And that person was a Leviathan fan. But it came from Netflix Japan.”
Scott had mentioned earlier in the press conference that he had been inspired to write Leviathan due to his previous novel series, Uglies, being well-received. “Uglies did well and I said, well, this is my chance to write whatever the hell I want. I got to publish it, no matter how weird it is.”
Decidedly making a list of things he found interesting like “bioengineering and airships” and story facets that could be centered around World War I such as creating walking tanks and exploring themes of diplomacy, this distilled list is how Leviathan was born.
At its heart, Scott detailed his fascination with the meeting of machine and flesh during wartime.
“I do think that World War I is the moment when machine and flesh met. It was the first time you had machine attached to the word gun. And it was the last war where people thought that bravery was going to beat this machine world. And of course, they were wrong.”
Finishing with the sobering realization that flesh alone can never outmaneuver a machine in war, Scott condensed his list and wound up with a much more interesting idea for a novel. “And that’s the tragedy of the war, is that flesh does not really stand up to metal.”
Circling back to the production of Leviathan’s anime adaption, Justin recounts his introduction to the project once Netflix acquired the licensing rights.
Justin Leach: “Once Netflix acquired the licensing rights to make the show, they approached me to help figure out how to make it… Netflix Japan approached me saying, ‘Hey, would you be interested in making this show?’ And I was like, ‘yes, this would be very cool’”.
Scott Westerfeld: “Did you go to Christophe (Ferreira) before he went to (Studio) Orange, or…?”
Justin Leach: “Yes, we first approached Christophe.”
(Christophe Ferreira is a French-born director and artist who has worked on numerous anime projects after being inspired to position his career toward illustration in the 90s after viewing Akira in theatres. Christophe has resided in Japan for many years.)
“In the very beginning, we’re trying to figure out how all the pieces are going to come together” Justin continued, “And I knew Christophe from a past production called Eden. He was a character designer on that.” In conjunction with Taiki Sakurai, a producer from Netflix Japan, Christophe was brought onto the project. “(Sakurai) thought that since a large part of the story takes place in Europe, that we wanted to make sure that we had a European perspective on the filmmaking side of things.”
In regards to how Studio Orange got involved, Justin stated that he was a big fan of their work (the Trigun series, Beastars) and Christophe lived nearby their studio. “So it felt very kind of destined, I guess you could say, that he would be involved.”
When asked about his involvement in the behind-the-scenes production of Leviathan, author Scott remarked that he was “very much” included by all parties, and the novels’ illustrator, Keith Thompson was also brought on board. “During the writing process, I think the writer’s room was meeting three times a week. And it was kind of a big writer’s room because there were people in New York, Tokyo and in Paris.”
Scott continued “And so, I was getting scripts and I was getting character designs and looking at animatics. And the very, very rough versions of things, I got outlines” stating that he and Keith were involved with the project the whole time.
“It’s really important” chimed Justin “ we want to make sure that we honor the original source material”.
Justin Leach on Breaking the Wall and Expanding the Global Anime Audience
As long-time anime fans all seem to have an experience of lack of access to TV shows, movies, and media for the better part of decades until its (fairly) recent international popularity, Justin was asked how his studio, Qubic Pictures, would further try to push the boundaries as a creative medium.
Justin Leach: “ I am very grateful for the core fan base in all shapes and forms that really identified this medium and brought it outside to different countries across the world. So I really love trying to, you know, connect with those fans. In addition to that, though, I also feel like there’s a large amount of people that still don’t watch anime (laughs) which is crazy. Cause like, I figured they’d figure it out by now.”
Justin continued to state that his focus was on creating stories that could potentially appeal to a wider audience:
“The projects that I like to work on are ones that are not like every other project… We want to try new collaborations. We want to try this sort of ‘how can we make different types of stories that can appeal to potentially a wider audience’ so that people that don’t normally watch anime can watch and go, ‘that’s cool. I like that’.
The projects that we try to do are ones that we want to try to break the wall, and invite more people in, because I’ve just always loved Japan. I love all the artists there, and it’s also become more global now. The creators are all around the world now, who’ve learned how to create in that style. It’s almost indistinguishable now.
So we just want to find these types of stories that can hopefully, reach an even wider audience. My long-term hope is that someday, everyone can just go see a movie that’s an anime, but not really worry about whether it’s anime or not. Just enjoy the animation. And I think sometimes, for some people who don’t watch anime, when they hear the word anime, they’re like, ‘I don’t watch that’ and I’m like, no, it’s just animation.
Anime is the shortening of the word animation. Anime has taken a lot of risks in terms of storytelling and different styles. So, I’ve always felt animation was definitely more of a medium and not a genre. That’s our long term goals, to create these sort of unique collaborations that hopefully we can, pioneer new ways to reach more fans across the world.”
Scott Westerfeld: “The Leviathan books, you know, of course, are just YA books published in the middle of the YA boom, like 15 years ago. That’s a very different audience, and it’s been interesting to see the people who come to it from that audience. Of course, [for] a lot of those people, because they were illustrated books, there was a big DeviantArt community surrounding Leviathan and I’m sure that some of those kids already knew about anime.
So the illustrated characters of the books had already bridged some of that gap, but it’s been interesting to see people who don’t watch anime, who are fans come to it and say ‘I really enjoyed that, it was a good adaptation’.”
The Visual Shift from Woodcut Illustrations to Studio Orange 3D CGI
Scott was asked about his thoughts after first seeing his work in Leviathan animated by Studio Orange, pioneers in 3D CGI animation, and how that differed from something like the live-action adaptation of his dystopian science fiction series, Uglies.
Scott Westerfeld: “I think the thing that was interesting, the books were illustrated and because Keith was working on it, they kept very true to the original designs. And I thought, ‘okay, so they’re gonna move’. But to me, the biggest thing that happened is not so much the motion and the 3D images, but the light and the color. It’s such a different feel. The books feel like you’re reading a book from the late 1800s, like you’re reading a Sherlock Holmes or War of the Worlds that’s been illustrated with like woodcuts.
Which are wonderful, but they’re very staid, and the kind of poses that people have are a little bit like the fencing scene in Leviathan. Everybody looks very much posed. Whereas, anime characters have big gestures and exaggerated expressions, and they transform a little bit as they move, and the incredible sunsets, and the sun glinting off the metal. I thought that was the thing that felt like it was opening up to me and felt trippy and strange, like it was a different world. Just color is a big deal, it turns out (laughs)”
Scott and Justin do pay attention to the Leviathan Fandom, and enjoy watching fans create new expressions and ways to enjoy the story through fanfiction and creative works. When asked about their experience and opinion on the fan reactions to the adaptation, both creatives were encouraged by the fandom.
Justin admired fans who were inspired by the series to create their own fan art, stating “It inspires them so much, they start drawing the characters, or they take the character designs and then meld it with what they like from the book, sort of making their own unique hybrid as well. I get really excited when I see people happy at what we do, those are things I tend to remember.”
Scott mentioned his experience of following someone on Twitter who is mixing screencaps from the animation, book quotes, and their own bit of fanfiction to make the story their own. “There’s someone who I started following on Twitter who’s taking scenes from the anime and putting subtitles onto them that are scenes from the book, and maybe a little bit of fan fiction, I think, at this point. The ability to just have lots and lots of images of two characters talking, and re-subtitle and create your own scene, that’s exciting to see.”
Scott continued, “And it’s been cool to see the people who were fans of the book who hadn’t watched anime before. And now they’re saying, ‘it’d be cool to check out some other anime’ and asking what other stuff has flying things in it. I’m like, ‘oh my goodness, we have all of Miyazaki’….(laughs)”
How Getting Fired Led to Creative Freedom and Discipline
Sometimes a closed door is not denial, but a redirection to something much better than you could ever imagine.
Scott was asked about the year he took to write, to which he simply answered that he had been “fired” with a laugh. Through that experience he developed a routine of running and then writing, in order to not fall into bad habits, stating “I literally got up every day and started running at nine and then would write till 12 and then have a lunch break and then would go till five. Cause I thought, you know, if I don’t work eight hours a day, I’ll just wind up on the couch, dipping my hand into a bag of suet and watching… watching whatever. And of course I don’t do that anymore. And, it didn’t last but a couple of months.
But it was really important to me to have, to start with discipline and to start with the idea that this is going to be the rest of my life and it’s got to work. I had, you know, I got fired in that way where they give you, sort of money to go away. So I could live frugally for a year and just write. And yeah, luckily, I had already been working on a book. I managed to get a novel out to agents about halfway through the year, and got an agent and got it published.
And then between doing some freelance work and just writing novels, I’ve been able to go since, what was that? That was like, 1996 or something. Yeah, I’ve got like 30 years on it. So, it worked out. Get fired. That’s my advice. That’s my writing advice. (Laughter)”
After hearing this, Justin realized that he also had a story similar in nature that like Scott, actually pointed his career in the right direction and brought him to the success he is currently experiencing today.
Justin Leach: “ I had a similar experience, but it was earlier. (laughs) Yeah, it’s funny you had this [same experience].”
“I was working at an animation studio and throughout my career, I’ve done lots of different jobs from animation to character design, storyboards to making supervision pipeline, running like Python code. My journey into producing has been kind of a long one, over like several decades or two decades… I think I was at a particular job where I always believed in being employed at a big company and getting a nice salary, and it’s secure.
You’re like, ‘I’m in a safe place. I don’t have quite all the freedom I want, but yeah, I’m making a good, decent salary and this is good, right?’ then over the years, I kind of lost the passion for my work…I was doing the job, but without much passion. I think ultimately I’m not good at doing a job if I’m not passionate about it.”
Believing the company picked up on that energy of passivity, Justin was offered a severance package by the studio if he wanted to leave. Despite first being unsure of the next step to take, he figured out a pathway to success.
“That was the first step to independence. And I think I understand the allure of being fully employed at a company with all the benefits and everything. But after I’ve left and started to become more of an entrepreneur doing my own thing, it’s hard to imagine going back. (laughs) I feel like sometimes it’s a prison. But yeah, anyway, I’m glad that my path led me to where I am today.”
Are there any works you’ve done that you would like to see animated?
Scott Westerfeld: “We have talked a little bit about Spill Zone because it’s a comic book, but in a weird way, I think Spill Zone would be better to do live action because it already has an animated version, which is an illustrated comic book version.
I think it’s already gone through that, I think it’d be too close. Otherwise, that would be good…I think [the Midnighters trilogy] would be good animated. One of the problems the Midnighters keeps falling into, has been a million have people done treatments for it.
I know Warner Brothers has kept it forever, [they] keep renewing the option because they want to do something with it, and they keep trying to make it older because everyone on TV is 23. And the story of Midnighters is these kids who have an extra hour in the day. At midnight, there’s this hour that’s compressed, and they can walk around while everyone else is kind of frozen.
And there’s just nothing cool about staying up till midnight when you’re 23. And so, it has kind of a fundamentally…you it came out in 2003 before all YA was written secretly for adults. So it has almost a middle grade vibe now. I think it would be a kind of a cool thing to turn into a cartoon. And no one’s ever gone that route. They all keep trying to make it older.”
Justin Leach: “Yeah, I mean, I do like Spill Zone (laughs) if you’re asking. Also, one of the staff that works in our company was from Poughkeepsie, there’s also that. I’m a big fan of Dandadan, or like that colorful kind of vibe… and I know that the comic book did cover a lot of that, but I do love seeing things moving. It was appealing to me”.
With the completion of the Leviathan anime, is there anything in retrospect that you would probably approach differently in terms of stylistic animations or sequences to visually link the narrative themes of the story?
Justin Leach: “I wish I had more episodes, and to do more because there’s three books, there’s a lot to cover. I think when you’re making a show and you’re planning out, 12 episodes seems like a lot. And you’re also worried about like ‘Is this show gonna get renewed again?’, if I do only one…”
Justin continued to state that if budget constraints weren’t an issue, he may have wanted to slow the pace down and spend more time on character arcs and watch them develop over several many episodes, mirroring Andor, a show he enjoys watching’s thematic arc style. “I’m certainly happy with what we did and I invite people to read all the books and go on more adventures that aren’t covered in the series”.
Scott Westerfeld: “100 episodes next time” (laughter)
Justin Leach: “Clone Wars is 100 episodes. I remember George Lucas, when we were starting working on that show and we were just in the first season he’s like ‘yeah we’re gonna do 100 episodes’ and we’re like ‘what?’ I worked on that show years ago…and we’re like, ‘what? No one told us that’. But he had all the money in the world to do that. He could do whatever he wanted. It was amazing.”
Scott Westerfeld’s Vision for Turkish and Vietnamese Anime
In the ever-expanding world of anime, what would you both presently like to see more of in the creative side and on the business side?
Justin mentioned the changing way projects are created, now with a ‘creator economy’ being driven by individuals over the traditional, increasingly antiquated Hollywood studio system where there are often more misses than hits.
Justin Leach: “I would love to find different ways to produce content and distribute content that is maybe outside that system… Is there any sort of new ways of thinking where we can produce content in a way that fits into the way the world is now consuming content?
A lot of it is in short form. It’s on YouTube. YouTube has had a profound impact on Hollywood, I think. Even my son, he just watches YouTube videos, and Minecraft playthroughs, and Roblox. It’s really changed. I try to encourage him to watch movies all the time. But that’s on the business side.”
Justin continued, “Creatively, just continue doing stories that are different, that maybe have different representation across cultures and different backgrounds. I just think the more we can sort of mix those ideas together, we can continue to create and evolve the media forward.”
Scott Westerfeld: “I feel like it’s been really interesting seeing Netflix expand into a really international company and to see them putting money into so many different countries and seeing the TV that comes out of that. I’m watching a lot of interesting Spanish TV. And I remember watching something called The Protector, which is a Turkish television show.
And it’s very much, it’s like Buffy in Istanbul kind of, basically it’s a genre show. And the fundamental genre rule of the show is that Istanbul is the center of the world. Fair enough, totally is. Crossroads of everything. And so every generation is born a protector whose job it is to [protect Istanbul] because if you lose Istanbul, society crumbles. I’m like, this is so cool because it’s so local, it’s so specific.
If you read much about the history of the world, you’re like, ‘that makes sense’. I can see that if you lived in Istanbul, you’d be totally into this feeling and feeling like the rest of world doesn’t appreciate what you have in this beautiful, little city. And of course, you know, the humor is very Turkish on it. And it’s a live action show, but it was like, I would love to see anime from everywhere. Like, that would be really cool. And I’m sure that there’s anime fans everywhere.
And I’m sure that those kids are gonna grow up and they’re gonna wanna make anime and the tools are gonna get cheaper, and the way they can make things. Yeah, and I’m excited to see Turkish anime and Vietnamese anime.”
You can follow Scott Westerfeld and his creative journey via his website and social media, and Justin Leach on social media and the Qubic Pictures website. And of course, you can watch the Leviathan anime only on Netflix.
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☆ In Asian Spaces ☆ Ephesians 6:12 ☆
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