Anime Industry Watching No. 21: Interview with Yuji Hirooka (Bandai Visual) & Makoto Shibuya (Sunrise) on "Zegapain" in its 10th year, as seen from a PR person!

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Sunrise's robot anime "Zegapain," which first aired on TV in 2006, with an event featuring voice actors and musicians in July, the general release of a BD-BOX with significantly more extras than the previous BOX in August, and a new interpretation of the TV series with re-editing and new cuts in October. In October, a new interpretation of the TV series, "Zegapain ADP," will be screened at an event.

Despite the many benefits of the 10th anniversary, DVD sales of "Zegapain" were sluggish at the time of its original broadcast, and the work suffered from a difficult battle. We asked Mr. Yuji Hirooka, in charge of advertising at Bandai Visual, who himself is a big fan of "ZEGA," and Mr. Makoto Shibuya of the Sunrise Lights Sales Department, who supports the work from the production company, about their thoughts on "ZEGA" in its 10th year.

My favorite in-house work is "Zegapain!

───First of all, could you give us a brief history of your involvement with "Zegapain"?

Hirooka: I joined NAMCO after graduating and spent four years in Kumamoto. Ltd. and Bandai Co., Ltd. merged to form the NAMCO BANDAI Group. In my sixth year of work, I requested to move to Bandai Visual, a group company, and I watched "ZEGA" at home while I was in Kumamoto. But when I joined Bandai Visual, the person in charge had also moved to another company. On my entry documents, I was asked the question, "What is your favorite anime from our productions? I wrote "Zegapain" on my entry form, and the girl in accounting told me I was strange (laugh), but I appealed to everyone in the company that I liked "ZEGA.

(Laughs) But I was appealing to the company that I liked "ZEGA." In the meantime, ZEGA was chosen as the top BD movie in the second round of the "Your Help BD Project," a project in which fans vote to decide which movies they would like to see BDs of!　However, as I mentioned earlier, there was no one in charge of "Zega" within the company. So, I said, "Well, I'll do it.

───The BD version was released in 2010, and you hosted the "Zega" stage event at the "Tokyo International Anime Fair" that year, right?

Hirooka That's right. First of all, I was worried about whether the event would be well attended (laughs). But as far as I could see, a large number of fans had gathered. At the beginning of the event, I asked, "Have any of you ever seen 'Zegapain'? I asked at the beginning of the event, "Have any of you ever seen 'Zegapain' before?

Shibuya: Moreover, it was not on the main stage, but on the stage in the booth of the Namco Bandai Group. If it was not a new work, but an old work, it would be better to have it in our own booth, and anyone could see it once they entered.

─ ─ In 2010, in what way were you involved in "Zegapain"?

Shibuya: I belonged to Sunrise's Rights Sales Department, which handled past works, and I was in charge of merchandising. There are people in charge of each category, such as software sales and distribution, but as of 2010, I was the main person in charge of "Zegapain" because there were multiple productizations going on at the same time, including not only the BD-BOX, but also ROBOT Soul and mooks.

───At the time of the original broadcast 10 years ago, there was no one left who was involved with "ZEGA" in the capacity of advertising, right?　Did you feel uneasy about that?

Hirooka: No, I was not concerned about that. Because I was confident that I was the one who had the most love for "Zega" in the company (laughs).