Activision Raid - Mobile Assault Room No. 8 - Staff Interview No. 4: General Director Goro Taniguchi

In this series of interviews, we will be looking into the secret story behind the production of the TV anime "Activ Raid - Mobile Assault Room No. 8". In the final interview of the first series, we interviewed General Director Goro Taniguchi. His creative skills as a producer who has worked on numerous masterpieces are evident throughout the production of "Activision Raid: Mobile Assault Room No. 8. In this interview, he talks about a variety of topics, such as his thinking process in production, creating "drama" as a director, and what he looks for in his "actors".

General Director Goro Taniguchi: "Expectations are betrayed to the fullest. You should stop watching.

─ Mr. Taniguchi, you are the "general director" of this work. What kind of work do you do for this film?

Goro Taniguchi, General Director (hereinafter referred to as "Taniguchi") I think it would be better to talk about this from the planning stage. First, Sotsu, Fields, and Flying Dog, who are producing this work, asked me for advice on an original project. I listened to the requests of each company, coordinated them, and put them together into a form that became the basis of this work. The original idea was to make an animated TV series out of it. If I had only been in charge of coordinating with the various companies, I would have been called a creative producer, but since they wanted me to take care of the whole project, I became the general director.

─ What is the division of labor between you and Director Akitani?

Taniguchi: The studio work within the production company, Production Imes, is done under the direction of Director Akitani and Assistant Director Fukushima-san. As for me, I can get the main points by talking with Mr. Akitani and Mr. Fukushima. We went through a lot of trial and error in the beginning, but we have finally settled on the way we want to work. I guess you could say that we narrowed down the points of contact as much as possible to make it easier to communicate with each other.

─ Returning to the planning, what parts of the project were created at your initiative?

Taniguchi: We started by asking, "Why don't we make it a team project of some kind? That was the start. I thought it would be easier to organize the requests of the various companies. At that time, we also considered an illegal organization, but if we pushed forward in that direction, things would get bloodier and bloodier (laughs). (Laughs.) This time, I thought it would not be in that direction. (laughs) So, the police are on the side of the regime. However, in the scale of a TV anime, there is not enough time to investigate and solve a case from scratch, and it would not be realistic for an original story to have a sequential structure, such as a back-and-forth story. So, we decided to create a film in which the protagonists' investigative authority was limited from the beginning. The main character's investigative authority should be limited from the beginning, and the department should be an experimental department where the police and defense people in the film play games. This is how Daihachi was created.

──This time, there is also interest in how you portray the regime side.

Taniguchi: This is my first work on the regime side. I have always been on the terrorist side (laughs).

(laughs) There is Planetes, but I think I would have to leave the organization. If it were on the anti-establishment side, there would be a lot of commotion, but since it is on the establishment side, it is fine to maintain the status quo. Maybe that's why the characters often have drinking parties (laughs). (Laughs) This may be due to the hobbies of Mr. Arakawa and the rest of the scenario team, though.

──How was Willware born?

Taniguchi: At a very early stage, when we were talking about the need for some element of entertainment, we decided that it would not be a giant robot. If such a thing were to appear in an ordinary town in this world setting, it would destroy houses and possibly kill people. No, people would die. I also thought about fusing the robot with biological weapons, or having an army of livestock fight under his command, but that would have strayed too far from the main idea of the project. This work is designed to be enjoyed by anime fans, but we are also thinking of the general public as our target audience. Therefore, it is difficult to create a setting that is too sharp. So we decided to use symbols that we had seen somewhere before, and we came up with Willowear, which can be understood as something like a powered suit. Therefore, the period setting is a bit in the near future.

─ ─ What were your goals in creating this work?

Taniguchi: As I mentioned in my comment on the official website of Production Imes, my goal was to make a proper TV series. I have never made a proper TV animation before.

─ ─ What do you mean by that?

Taniguchi: I mean a style that can be enjoyed comfortably every week. In the past, I have always completed a story in one piece. Now that I am in a position to call myself a general director, I decided to try a different approach and asked several scriptwriters to help me. The fact that I left the wording of the preview for the next episode to Mr. Arakawa is a very good example of this. This is the first time I have not written a preview. Then the words that came out were "Ohakonabachininko" (laughs).
Don't get me wrong, I take responsibility for those things as well. So, I am not unconditionally OK with any kind of things.

─ ─ Recently, there are fewer one-cour animations that are complete and allow more time for character portrayal.

Taniguchi: In a one-cour anime, it is difficult to describe the dramas of many characters because the story is just too much to follow. That's why I decided to hide the dramatic aspects of the story behind the visuals. Even in the first meeting with the voice actors, I told them that I would not do drama. If there are people who are watching this work because they like the dramatic elements of my past works, I will betray their expectations to the fullest, so they should stop watching hoping for something strange (laughs). I will say ahead of time that it is not intentionally made that way, so you will not enjoy it that way. If they come in and think, "Oh, I couldn't resist" (laughs).