{"id":30329,"date":"2020-06-21T23:07:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T06:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=30329"},"modified":"2021-07-13T23:05:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T06:05:04","slug":"546a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/546a\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Gigazine<\/em> interview, June 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>How <em>Age of Yamato<\/em> condensed 52 anime episodes into 90 minutes<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"image-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/554a04.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>An interview with Harutoshi Fukui and Yuka Minakawa<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Published June 8, 2021 by <em>Gigazine<\/em><br \/>\n(see the original article <a href='https:\/\/gigazine.net\/news\/20210608-Yamato-harutoshi-fukui-yuka-minakawa-interview\/'>here<\/a>)<\/p>\n<h3>How does an &#8220;Astro Warrior&#8221; work?<\/h3>\n<p><em>Age of Yamato<\/em> is a special compilation of the TV anime <em>Yamato 2199<\/em> and <em>2202<\/em>, packed into just 90 minutes. It will be released in theaters on June 11, 2021 (Friday).<\/p>\n<p>Harutoshi Fukui, who wrote the series composition and screenplay for <em>2202<\/em>, felt that a mere &#8220;compilation&#8221; would be pointless. This work was created to show all of society the remake version of <em>Yamato<\/em> for the future. Yuka Minakawa, who worked on the <em>2202<\/em> novelization, was deeply involved in its creation.<\/p>\n<p>Before the film&#8217;s release, I had a chance to talk with Mr. Fukui and Mr. Minakawa about how they made this film, and how they met each other in the first place. I asked them a variety of questions, both related and unrelated to the film.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> First of all, I&#8217;d like to ask what interests you, Mr. Minakawa. I saw a tweet of yours that said, &#8220;If you work like an astro-warrior like this, you&#8217;ll go bankrupt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a02.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Novella by Yuka Minakawa:<\/em> &#8220;That My Heart Should Be This Way&#8221;<br \/>\n<em>Published as a bonus item with the<\/em> Age of Yamato<br \/>\n<em>limited-edition Blu-ray.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> So you&#8217;ve been checking it out. (Laughs) I was talking about the bonus novel for the <em>Age of Yamato<\/em> limited edition blu-ray. It was supposed to be a short story, about 30 to 50 pages, but I ended up writing 150, so I missed the deadline and caused trouble for people in various fields. I thought, &#8220;If I keep doing this, I&#8217;m really going to die.&#8221; This is what I mean by &#8220;astro-warrior.&#8221; One game is a complete burnout.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> The Astro team, right?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I thought it would be about 50 pages, but the number kept increasing. I thought I shouldn&#8217;t be doing this kind of work. It took more than three times longer than I planned.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> It sounds like you&#8217;re working yourself to the bone\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I feel like I&#8217;m going to be separated from my body. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> That doesn&#8217;t mean you work like an astro-warrior on everything, does it?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> Most of the work I&#8217;ve done so far is like that. I did the same thing when I worked on <em>Gundam Officials<\/em>. I&#8217;ve concluded that it&#8217;s not good to keep doing that.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Even though you think that, will you still end up becoming an astro-warrior?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> My body can&#8217;t take it and my mind can&#8217;t take it, so it&#8217;s time to find a way not to do it. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I see. (Laughs) I&#8217;ve interviewed Mr. Fukui-san twice, for <em>2202<\/em> Chapter 1 and again for Chapter 7. At the time of chapter 7 (March 2019), he said, &#8220;Even if you think &#8216;it ends cleanly with this,&#8217; you can&#8217;t say for sure.&#8221; When the sequel was announced afterward, I thought, &#8220;I see&#8230;&#8221; Where did this work, <em>Age of Yamato<\/em>, and its sequel <em>Yamato 2205<\/em> start?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> This work started in earnest in 2019. I was wondering what it would take to proceed in parallel, and this astro-warrior was there. I thought, &#8220;This is just perfect.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> The first time I talked to him was on the day of the Chapter 7 preview. When we were having dinner afterward. Mr. Fukui joined in and we were whispering in secret. He said, &#8220;We&#8217;re going to do a compilation.&#8221; I was like, &#8220;How are you going to do that?&#8221; (Laughs) But then I found out they were going through with it.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> So it wasn&#8217;t, &#8220;we&#8217;ll do the compilation and then <em>2205<\/em>,&#8221; but <em>2205<\/em> was planned first, and then the compilation was made for that?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a11.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Yes, we started preparing <em>2205<\/em> first.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> When <em>2199<\/em> was finished and <em>2202<\/em> was to follow, Mechanical Designer Junichiro Tamamori got the offer and said, &#8220;If it&#8217;s a hit, we can assume that there will be another one.&#8221; [See that interview <a href='https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/391a'>here<\/a>.] (Laughs) How did you feel when you heard about &#8220;<em>2205<\/em>&#8220;?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> This kind of filmmaking is not a dream, nor is it romantic. From the beginning of <em>2202<\/em>, we had already been talking about, &#8220;This is the direction we should take next.&#8221; Once we had the numbers, we just had to decide whether to go for it or not.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> So that&#8217;s how it was.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> The other thing was whether I would do it or not. However, as you can see in <em>Age of Yamato<\/em>, I&#8217;ve taken the characters out of the yoke of &#8220;character&#8221; and made them just &#8220;people who are there.&#8221; I had a strong feeling that they would probably fall apart in someone else&#8217;s hands. So I knew it would be hard, but I had to do it. This is true for the production committee as well. I could see it on the faces of everyone involved.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> So, you decided to participate in the project as a scriptwriter?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I was in charge of the novelization of <em>2202<\/em>, and Mr. Fukui asked me to help him with <em>2205<\/em>. That&#8217;s how I ended up working on the script for this film. When he originally decided to do <em>Yamato<\/em>, he said, &#8220;If something comes up, I want to get you in.&#8221; That&#8217;s how it eventually came about.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Hmmm&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I think it was a regular meeting for <em>2205<\/em> held in May 2019. I heard, &#8220;We want to focus on Sanada.&#8221; At that time, I didn&#8217;t think I&#8217;d be doing it, but I thought, &#8220;Good, Sanada. That&#8217;s an interesting way to start.&#8221; Then they said, &#8220;Please put a document together about him.&#8221; I was asked to compile materials on Sanada&#8217;s arc from <em>2199<\/em> to <em>2202<\/em>. When it was put together, I gave it to Mr. Fukui. In June, I got an invitation from Mr. Fukui and the staff.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a03.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you know why you&#8217;re here?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you want to do the script?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s how I decided to do it.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Ah, I see. Then this film is based on the &#8220;arc of Sanada&#8221; that you compiled.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I thought, &#8220;It&#8217;s going to be hard for someone to do, using this as a base,&#8221; and then it turned out to be me.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> So, from your point of view, Mr. Fukui, Minakawa is the only one who can do it?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> I already found some words I needed in her summary. I thought it would be better to use them as they were. In the process of asking for help with <em>2205<\/em>, I knew she had a good sense of visuals. I thought it would be pointless to ask someone else to do it again, so I decided to ask her.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> In this work, Sanada talks about the story with narration by Miyuki Sawashiro. It&#8217;s a little different from a &#8220;compilation&#8221; that summarizes a work in a digest.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> It&#8217;s more like a documentary than a compilation.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> At what stage did you come up with the idea to make it that way?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> At the very beginning.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> What, from the beginning?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> When I think about &#8220;the meaning of making a compilation&#8221; in this age of visuals, it doesn&#8217;t make sense. In an era where you&#8217;d have to wait for a rerun after something was first broadcast, then there is a purpose to making a movie. Before we had home video, it made sense just to listen to the audio portion on a record. But now we can see everything, so we have to reconnect it and make it compact. For example, if you could &#8220;see the whole thing in 30 seconds,&#8221; it might still make sense.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Hmm, I see.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a12.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> But <em>Yamato<\/em> will continue as a series in the future. There are already 52 episodes, and it would be a hurdle to make people watch them from scratch. If this is the case, rather than just making a compilation of <em>2202<\/em>, it would be meaningful to show all of society the remake version of <em>Yamato<\/em>. It would also be meaningful for the sequel. If you have the chance to see it all in one package, even people who are not interested in <em>Yamato<\/em> itself would be able to see it. This work was my solution to that problem.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> This film is a combination of <em>2199<\/em> and <em>2202<\/em>, plus some new shots, and the total length of the film is less than two hours. In an <em>Akiba Research Institute<\/em> interview for <em>2202<\/em>, you said, &#8220;26 episodes is not long for me at all. Instead it&#8217;s like, &#8216;is this all you can give me?&#8217; (Laughs) It&#8217;s always a battle.&#8221; I&#8217;m amazed that you were able to pack so much into this work.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s why it was absolutely impossible to summarize it in the form of a drama or a story. <em>2202<\/em> itself was sort of made like a compilation, crammed tightly into 26 episodes with no room for anything extra.&#8221; (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> There was no chance to put it all together, so I filled in the bits and pieces of history with narration and Shiro Sanada&#8217;s emotional words. By alternating between information and emotion, I was able to create a sense of drama. The way it&#8217;s made, though, is to truncate the story.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> When I first heard about this project, I thought, &#8220;Let&#8217;s just connect the two.&#8221; I tried to connect <em>2199<\/em> and <em>2202<\/em> with the parts where Mr. Sanada appears. I thought, &#8220;What am I going to do with two and a half to three hours of that?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To begin with, Mr. Fukui had written the scripts for the theatrical screenings. The &#8220;synopsis so far&#8221; was about 10 or 15 minutes each time. It would be useless to simply calculate how much those would add up to. I even thought I would have to cut the story into two halves, but I was told to do it all in 90 minutes. It was hard for me to understand how Mr. Fukui thought it would fit into 90 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a13.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> 90 minutes, what an absurd request. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Once you understand it you can do it, you just have to cut things out between the lines. But I didn&#8217;t do it that way because no one would be happy with it. You&#8217;d feel like you&#8217;ve already seen it. There wouldn&#8217;t be much point.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> What you see on the screen, the lines and the narration, don&#8217;t necessarily have to be facing the same direction. It&#8217;s okay if they&#8217;re different. The narration may tell you what happens next, or the picture may go to the next scene before the narration has finished. There&#8217;s a chemical reaction that occurs when images and lines contrast with each other, and there&#8217;s a moment when they connect well.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of <em>Gundam Unicorn<\/em>, I thought about how to keep it within the time frame. That&#8217;s how we came up with the idea of &#8220;talking about very important things, but there&#8217;s fighting all the time on the screen.&#8221; At first, I thought, &#8220;Normally you can&#8217;t do that in a movie because it won&#8217;t get into your ears, but it&#8217;s something I can do because this is a film that is supposed to be watched more than once.&#8221; When I saw the speed of the movie experience, I realized that I could understand it.<\/p>\n<p>When I first saw <em>Char&#8217;s Counterattack<\/em>, I couldn&#8217;t understand it because the tempo was too fast. But now I can watch it just fine. Everything you need is said in it somehow, somewhere. I think the way human beings concentrate now when they face a visual is different from when we were children. Nowadays, I think people are more attached to the images while watching them.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> And if the axis is simple, instead of saying, &#8220;I don&#8217;t get it! I&#8217;ll be left behind!&#8221; you&#8217;ll follow the narration with Sanada and you can understand the story on the surface. It&#8217;s not structured in such a way that you have to look at every corner of the picture and imagine what&#8217;s going on. Of course, you have to think about what&#8217;s hidden behind the scenes by looking at the visuals as well. But I think that for this amount of information, I was able to make it so that there was little sense of being left behind.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Sanada is the most appropriate person to look at the whole picture objectively, isn&#8217;t he?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a04.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> This time, as we can see in the trailer, you mentioned the Apollo project and added a lot of details about the history of the human race up to the battle against the Garmillas in the <em>2199<\/em> part.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Since it&#8217;s in a documentary style, it wouldn&#8217;t look cool unless the &#8220;month and day&#8221; were shown. So I did my best on that part.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> We were going to have only the year, but we decided to include all the dates. I worked for a long time on an Excel spreadsheet that says, &#8220;This happens on this day in this month.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> In the past, it was just, &#8220;what year did it happen?&#8221; And if specific dates were given, that was the official answer.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> In that regard, these decisions have been controversial among fans. At the beginning of the meeting, we said, &#8220;We&#8217;re about to get into a lot of trouble.&#8221; And I said, &#8220;Okay, I&#8217;ll do it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> We gave a date for Apollo 11, so I thought, &#8220;Why stop showing dates there?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> It brings a sense of unity. I understand that feeling, but I felt like I was going to throw up from the pressure. However, I thought that if I respected the information that had been released so far and kept working hard, the fans would understand. For example, the date of Pluto&#8217;s Operation M is almost confirmed from the depiction in <em>2199<\/em>, so I could count backwards from there.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a05.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I see.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> Mr. Tamamori was very helpful with the whole chronology. It was thanks to him that you see text caption, &#8220;The 200th anniversary of the End of World War II.&#8221; He said, &#8220;I want it to be a world where humanity has solved its problems, and although there will be major problems again, I want it to be a world where we can have hope for the future because humanity has overcome the hardships of the past 200 years.&#8221; That helped me to see the direction of the world.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> After that point, 70% of the human race will die, but after 200 years of overcoming various obstacles, we were able to restore the Battleship <em>Yamato<\/em>. After that, we went into space and the bubble collapsed. In the 2190&#8217;s, we were divided into two planets and fought against each other. The arrival of Garmillas was the 9\/11 of the 22nd century, the Great Recession, and Corona all rolled into one.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> When <em>2202<\/em> started, you said, &#8220;This is the right time to make it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s right. I never wavered on that point.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> On the other hand, even though it&#8217;s in a bubble, human beings still manage to restore the bBattleship <em>Yamato<\/em>. We&#8217;ve maintained peace for 200 years, and we&#8217;ve solved many problems. But now we&#8217;re facing a much bigger problem. They may be going in a bad direction now, but I&#8217;d hoping those people would think, &#8220;Well, that&#8217;s not going to happen to us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Indeed, if you think of them as such people, it may be natural for them to make that choice at the end of <em>2202<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> And they pay for it in <em>2205<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>(Everyone Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> You&#8217;re always adding a punchline. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I understand that Mr. Fukui asked you to participate in this project. How long have the two of you known each other? He wrote a comment in your book, <em>A Critical Biography of Char Aznable<\/em>, which came out in 2006. <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s when we first met, I think.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a06.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> When <em>Mobile Suit Gundam Gaiden: The Blue Destiny<\/em> was published by Kodansha, the person in charge of the paperback said to me, &#8220;Let&#8217;s ask Mr. Fukui to write a comment.&#8221; So I asked him, and he wrote the first comment for me.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> That was before <em>Gundam Officials<\/em> came out, right? [An extensive encyclopedia of the <em>Gundam<\/em> universe.]<br clear=\"none\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s right. But we didn&#8217;t have any contact at that time.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> I knew of her and I was like, &#8220;The one who made that awesome thing?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> We met in person when I was working on <em>Critical Biography<\/em>. It was right when you were starting <em>Gundam Unicorn<\/em>, right?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> It was right after it started.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> In a talk event you two had at Waseda Festival 2013, Mr. Minakawa talked about seeing <em>Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3<\/em> and said, &#8220;I remember my past life, when I was in the second grade.&#8221; Mr. Fukui was surprised and said, &#8220;That&#8217;s how my brother was.&#8221; When you talked about finding <em>Yamato<\/em>, Mr. Fukui said the first movie was broadcast on TV the same year <em>Farewell<\/em> was released. Mr. Minakawa, you&#8217;re a little older than Mr. Fukui, so are you in the generation that was directly hit by <em>Yamato<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> In my previous life (Laughs), the TV series started when I was in 4th grade. I watched the movie version in the first year of junior high school, <em>Farewell<\/em> in the second year, and <em>The New Voyage<\/em> in the third year. In that same year (1979), I watched <em>Mobile Suit Gundam<\/em> and <a href='https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/100'><em>Space Carrier Blue Noah<\/em><\/a>. It was a dense three years, three years of <em>Yamato<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a07.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s a lot. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> So when it came time to do <em>Yamato<\/em>, I had something like &#8220;<em>Yamato<\/em> instructions.&#8221; (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Instructions?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> Like, &#8220;You have a tough job to do.&#8221; (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> It was, &#8220;Put your heart into it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> It was going to be a difficult job.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Yes.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I&#8217;m halfway through my generation. The generation of Mr. Izubuchi, the General Director of <em>2199<\/em>, first saw <em>Yamato<\/em> in junior high or high school. For me, it was three years with <em>Farewell<\/em> in the middle, and for Mr. Fukui it was another three years starting with the TV series <em>Yamato 2<\/em> with <em>Be Forever<\/em> in the middle. For me, the first work of <em>Yamato<\/em> belonged to my older brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Oh, it&#8217;s not like it&#8217;s &#8220;our own.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s the way it was, and when <em>Farewell<\/em> came out, I realized that it was for my generation. The subtle difference of three or five years is huge, and I think there are many ways to look at it. Besides, there was a lag in information depending on whether you lived in Tokyo or the Kanto region, or in a rural area.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I see. Earlier, you mentioned &#8220;<em>Yamato<\/em> instructions.&#8221; Did you have any advice during the production?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a14.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> After that, I asked Ms. Minakawa to write the novelization, and she would come back with, &#8220;I thought of this concept.&#8221; <em>2202<\/em> had already been created by adjusting various concepts. So when she came up with a new one, I was like, &#8220;What do you want me to do?&#8221; (Laughs) So I kept thinking, &#8220;The next time I do this, let&#8217;s put it in from the beginning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> When I gave it to him, he said, &#8220;You can&#8217;t put this in anymore&#8221; or &#8220;I&#8217;ll use this later, so don&#8217;t write it in here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> I had written a concept that would lead to <em>2205<\/em>, so I told her, &#8220;I&#8217;ll use this next time, so please don&#8217;t put it in the novel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> So rather than, &#8220;You can&#8217;t do that,&#8221; it was, &#8220;This is good, let&#8217;s save it.&#8221; (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Yes, that&#8217;s right, and we could use that basis to explore it more deeply. Though some of that exploring was done while we were talking in a bar (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> Yes, deep exploration in a bar (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> That kind of talk is fun. It usually goes, &#8220;Is this a better concept, or this one?&#8221; Do you work on it like that?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> Not really, but when I think about it, I get into it. Then I hear the voice of the universe.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> The voice of the universe! (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s the voice of the universe, Zordar&#8217;s voice, or Teresa&#8217;s voice. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I see. I heard that when you were working on <em>Gundam Officials<\/em>, there weren&#8217;t just piles of materials, but more was also kept under the floor.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I was sitting on top of the Gundam. (Laughs) Since then, I&#8217;ve moved the stuff under the floor to another room, but now I can&#8217;t get to the back. Mr. Fukui-san came to my house the other day, but that was as far as he could go.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a08.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Is that so?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> There was a room you couldn&#8217;t get into, wasn&#8217;t there?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> The one that wouldn&#8217;t open. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> It&#8217;s a scary room with only a Buddhist altar, books, and a copy machine. I also collected materials on the history of anime around the time I worked on <em>The Rise and Fall of Japanese Animation: The New Tezuka School<\/em>, so it was pretty tough. I&#8217;ve digitized a lot of things, but I have to get rid of a lot of stuff. It&#8217;s physically putting pressure on my life.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Have you ever thought of making something like <em>Yamato Officials?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> The old series and the remake series are different from each other.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Yes, you&#8217;d have to separate the old series from the remake series.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> It would be difficult because I&#8217;d want to put them together in a stylish way, as a book, as a world view. I&#8217;d like to be able to systematically manage all the information in the remake series. I&#8217;m not sure who would do that (Laughs), but I think it would be very useful.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> I think this work is the first step toward something like that.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> The history of mankind&#8217;s expansion into space has been sorted out, hasn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> For people in their twenties and thirties who have seen the <em>Gundam<\/em> series, it is very important to have a chronology, or a type number on the mecha. It feels like reality. So the biggest barrier for people who don&#8217;t know the old <em>Yamato<\/em> is that it&#8217;s the Battleship <em>Yamato<\/em>. &#8220;Why is something in that shape flying in space?&#8221; That&#8217;s probably what we&#8217;re talking about. It&#8217;s the same thing as, &#8220;Why does Tetsujin 28 have eyes, a nose, and even black eyes?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> It&#8217;s a tragedy that we had to come up with a reason for Gundam to have arms and legs. When people asked, &#8220;Why does the universe have an up and down in <em>Yamato<\/em>?&#8221; there was no solid followup on the official side, so the fans tried their best to fill in the gaps. This has been reflected in the remake series since <em>2199<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s right. The most important thing to overcome in order to break through that is for them to see, &#8220;This is how it happened based on the surrounding history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-right\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a09.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> Rather than, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t it strange that it&#8217;s shaped like the Battleship <em>Yamato<\/em>?&#8221; it&#8217;s more fun to think about, &#8220;What&#8217;s the meaning of the shape of Battleship <em>Yamato<\/em>?&#8221; When Mr. Tamamori explained why <em>Yamato<\/em> is still a ship with weapons on the top and armor on the bottom, it was a revelation to me. The turret is vulnerable to bullets, so the thick part on the bottom of the ship is for protection. It&#8217;s a spear and a shield.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I also learned his theory of the third bridge, and it was an eye-opener for me. [See interview linked earlier.]<br clear=\"none\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> But if you go by the theory of the shield and the spear, you have to roll over while you fight. I&#8217;m sure that&#8217;s part of the &#8220;cool laugh,&#8221; but the point is that we can actually see a world in the future with a real feeling of where our space development will end up. It may be strange that <em>Yamato<\/em> is built inside the battleship&#8217;s body and flies in the sky, but you can understand the earnestness of the people depicted there, can&#8217;t you? That&#8217;s how I made it. So I think this film may be less of a hurdle than watching the main story.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> There are a lot of hooks in this film, so something in there might catch your attention.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> I think it would be great if people follow up and watch the whole thing again.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I think it would be interesting if it got people into the old series, or other derivative works, or the decades-long history.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> Atsuki Sato is the director of this film. He&#8217;s been making trailers since <em>2199<\/em>. What do you think of him from your point of view?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> He has a natural talent for connecting images. Usually, when I do this kind of work, I have to tell them, &#8220;6 more frames, drop a little,&#8221; or &#8220;12 more frames, start a little earlier.&#8221; But when I tell him, &#8220;Make it feel good,&#8221; he gives me the perfect result. The first thing that comes to mind is that there are no deviations. He is a person who &#8220;knows the right answer.&#8221; The type who has his own &#8220;body clock.&#8221; When I was thinking about who to ask to edit this film, I thought of Mr. Sato, and my work was almost half done.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a15.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> His opening montage for <em>Ark of the Stars<\/em> was amazing. I was like, &#8220;No problem with this guy.&#8221; I was relieved when he was introduced at the beginning. I thought, &#8220;He&#8217;s the one who can do it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> I&#8217;ve known him for a long time. It was like, &#8220;Oh, I remember you did the trailer for <em>Yamato<\/em>.&#8221; And from time to time, I would hear conversations like, &#8220;You remember everything, you must really like <em>Yamato<\/em>.&#8221; In this compilation, the background music for the scene where <em>Yamato<\/em> first breaks the bedrock and rises to the surface is the same as the launch scene in the original TV version.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> <em>Gathering the Fleet.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> He really wanted to use that piece. We couldn&#8217;t use the version from <em>2199<\/em> for various reasons, so when we used the same piece in <em>2202<\/em>, we re-recorded it, but we didn&#8217;t have it. We were so passionate about it that we asked them to record it anew.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> When the special report came out, there were some fans who noticed that the music was a little different.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I didn&#8217;t know that.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> It was a new recording.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I realized it was a new recording just from the special report.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> The last question is a bit strange, but in a talk event you guys had once, there was a question, &#8220;Which character in <em>Gundam<\/em> is similar to you?&#8221; Mr. Minakawa said Full Frontal, and Mr. Fukui said &#8220;Camille at the time it aired, but after 30 years, It&#8217;s Ryu Jose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> That&#8217;s a clever thing to bring up.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> In the case of <em>Yamato<\/em>, who do you think is similar to you?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textRed\"><em>Fukui:<\/em><\/span> Not who I like, but who I <em>am<\/em> like. I see. Well, I guess Keyman. He came on board later with <em>Yamato<\/em> and started to verbalize things that no one had been able to verbalize before. He died in the end, though. (Laughs)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textGreen\"><em>Minakawa:<\/em><\/span> I think I&#8217;m Gelhen. He says something he shouldn&#8217;t and gets dropped. (All laugh)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"textBlue\"><em>Interviewer:<\/em><\/span> I see. Thank you very much for your time.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jul21\/546a10.JPG\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href='https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/554a'>Return to the index<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30329"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30498,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30329\/revisions\/30498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}