During AniManGaki 2026, we had the incredible opportunity to get to know STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION, a project by the multi-creator musician and producer RON, known for his work on That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Moriarty the Patriot, and Kyoukai no Kanata.
Disclaimer: The following interview has been edited for clarity and ease of reading.
We know you as both RON and SDF. How would you describe the difference between the two, and do you think your fans see that difference too?
It’s not that different, it’s just me. But, RON is more a composer and SDF is more of a project that sings for anime songs.
When inspiration hits, what usually comes first for you? A feeling, a melody, a story, an image, or something completely unexpected?
Usually when I make a song, it’s the melody that usually comes first, but sometimes, it’s the lyrics. Ultimately, it depends on the project I’m working on.
Is there a particular emotion that you find difficult to express through music?
I’m actually quite good at expressing different emotions through music. As I’ve been composing a lot of anime soundtracks lately, this is a quality that is needed in order to express varied emotions. But there are at times moments where it’s difficult to express a specific feeling in words and music, as the melodic shift can change it. There needs to be a balance between the melody and the lyrics in order to achieve it.
What’s the strangest or most unexpected thing that has ever inspired you to write a song?
Once, I had to compose music for contemporary dancers—it was interesting watching the elegance of a simultaneously masculine and feminine dancer as they performed. After I watched a performance, it was my first time composing a very mysterious melody based on it.
What I learned from that experience was while being exposed to other creative fields that are not music, for example, art and movies—I could then create new sounds that I’ve not thought of before.
When you’re creating an anime theme song, where does the process usually start? Do you begin with the anime’s story and characters, or do you sometimes have a musical idea first and find a way to make it fit?
It actually varies depending on the anime. Sometimes I compose the song after finishing the manga in order to fully capture its atmosphere. Sometimes, the order from the anime committee is simple: make the coolest song you can! Both times, I make the song in order to help the anime to grow.
From the outside, creating a song can look quite effortless once we hear the finished product. What’s something that happens behind the scenes that people might not realise is actually one of the hardest parts?
The recording process. Sometimes the same phrase has to be sung over and over in order to experiment with various patterns. There are times where we’ve finished recording and then scrapped it, before reworking the entire thing. There’s quite a lot of effort put into it, but it’s very fun too. I sometimes head into the recording booth with the singer and we discuss what sound we’d like to make.
What factors in when you rework a song from the ground up?
For example, when a happy song has depressing vocals. There are various times, like when the mood of the song and the vocals don’t match. I made a song recently with a singer named NANO called Dream Big. We recorded the vocals and music separately and after listening to NANO’s vocals, I completely reworked the song as I wanted it to have the same level of energy as what she put in.
We’d like to once again thank AniManGaki and STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION’s RON for the interview opportunity! You can connect with STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION on his website and listen to him on Spotify.
