Creation and conception toi8 of
Studio 4°C was initially asked to work on the series' character designs, but the job was passed on to his wife,
Tomomi Ozaki, due to time constraints. According to Ozaki, director
Kazuhiro Furuhashi requested that the characters "should not look like manga characters or too real; and not too anime-like," and that he wanted the designs to be faithful to historical details. Ozaki sometimes referred to historical portraits from the series' time period as reference for her designs, as well as actors in Western films, mentioning that she referred to
Brigitte Bardot's hairstyles while designing Anna Rochefort's hairstyles, and used
Brad Pitt as the reference for Durand.
Writing Scriptwriter
Shotaro Suga was contacted by Tetsuya Nakatake at the beginning of the project, and agreed to work with them when he was informed that Tow Ubukata and
Kazuhiro Furuhashi were taking part in the production. He was unable to work on the project immediately, as he was also working on
Eureka Seven at the time. Suga admitted to being nervous about working with Furuhashi, whom he described as an "experienced director" because the other series he worked on (such as
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex,
Blood+,
Eureka Seven, and
Casshern) were by first-time directors. He described the script readings for ''Le Chevalier D'Eon'' as "ever more intense" than his previous projects, and that they all "kept on debating to scrutinize each and every detail." Chief writer Yasuyuki Muto noted that their script meetings lasted as long as twelve hours. Muto was in charge of the script for eleven out of the twenty-four episodes. Muto noted that their main focus while writing was the "...'emotion' of each character". Muto was present during the productions' post-recording sessions, primarily because he believed that it would be easier for the staff to have a writer on-hand in case problems arose during recordings.
Design and animation Art director Hiroshi Ono stated that he initially could not make up his mind whether to work on this project or not, saying "The information they gave me was enough to see that this was not going to be a straightforward job. The story takes place in Versailles and stretches from France to Russia and England. This means that you can't reuse the same background elements throughout the series, and instead you have to create new ones for each episode. Traveling stories are always the most difficult projects of all." Ono was responsible for the background designs used in the series, and he used photographs and classical paintings as references. 3D
CGI was used in the creation of certain backgrounds and settings for the series, such as the
Hall of Mirrors. toi8 of
Studio 4°C took on the role of designing the weapons and props for the series. He utilized different reference materials for his designs, saying that he "relied on images in books and on the web" as well as films such as
Fanfan la Tulipe and
The Affair of the Necklace. toi8 was initially asked to work on the series' character designs, but the job was passed on to Tomomi Ozaki due to time constraints. Ozaki noted that Furuhashi requested that the characters "should not look like manga characters or too real; and not too anime-like," and that he wanted the designs to be faithful to historical details. She said that she sometimes referred to historical portraits from the series' time period as reference for her designs, and also cited specific sources for her designs. "For Anna's hair, I imaged
Brigitte Bardot's hairstyles. For Count Guercy, I chose
Jack Black in
School of Rock. Durand comes from
Brad Pitt, and
Anthony Hopkins in
Mask of Zorro was my model for Teillagory", she said.
Music Composer
Michiru Oshima stated that this is "the first time in years" that she was given the chance to compose pieces that were "very classical". She stated that while she was composing the music for the series, she was "consciously trying to add depth that's typical of European classical music", and that she believed that orchestral pieces suited the series well because the characters "are all serious and weighty." The song "BORN", composed and performed by
Miwako Okuda, is used as the series' opening theme for all twenty-four episodes. The series' ending theme ("OVER NIGHT" by
Aya), which is also used for all twenty-four episodes, was specially composed for the project. Aya stated that she drew inspiration from the first illustration she was shown, which was of "D'Eon, splattered with the blood of his victim, [walking] in the burning city of Paris holding Lia's hands." == Media ==