Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolts DECEMBER SKY" Ends Limited Theatrical Release!　Staff talk show report

The screening of "Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt DECEMBER SKY," which had been in limited theatrical release for two weeks since June 25, 2016, ended last week on July 8. On this final day of the theatrical release, a staff talk show was held with the film's director, Mr. Kohira Matsuo, assistant producer Yasufumi Kobashi, production desk manager Toshikazu Naka, and Marie Tagashira, animation director for the third episode of the pay-per-view distribution.

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt" is an anime work based on Yasuo Otagaki's manga serialized in Big Comics Superior. It is a "Gundam for adults," produced by Sunrise Studio 1, which produced "Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn)," and directed and written by Kou Matsuo, who directed "Revolutionary Machine Valvrave. Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt DECEMBER SKY" is a director's cut version of the four episodes that have been distributed since December 2015, with new cuts added, and was shown in theaters for two weeks from June 25 to July 8.

The Blu-ray/DVD of the film will be released on Friday, July 29, 2016.

The outline of the talk show is as follows

Mr. Matsuo (Director)

-About Mr. Tagashira
Usually there is one chief animation director, but for this case, I tried to come up with the concept that it would be good to have the individuality of the animation director for each episode. I asked Mr. Tagashira-san to do the original drawings from the very first episode. I was very reckless with him, and now that he is here, my shoulders are very tight (laughs).

-About the production
This time, the production team was excellent, and they did a great job as a matter of course. For example, Mr. Kobashi-kun called in a great art director, and Mr. Naka pulled in a good original picture man (Mr. Tagashira), or he stuck up for an original picture man who didn't listen to him and got him to improve his original picture. All the studios are doing their best, but the quality of the work is deteriorating due to the accumulation of shortcomings. My work is a subtractive process, so the fewer things I have to give up or compromise on, the better the product will be. The less I have to give up or compromise on these things, the better the product will be. No matter how good the people are, if the production is not good, it will be absolutely useless. The production team at Sunrise Studio 1 did a great job of that.

-About the CG of this work
It is often said that the hand-drawings in this work are amazing, but for example, the cockpit is 90% CG. Also, the hangar and some of the debris were done by a small number of people, but they were also done by CG. So, I hope you will not call it a hand-drawn Gundam, but rather, I would like you to include CG in your mind, even if only a little.

-An episode with Mr. Tagashira
When we were running out of time towards the end of the project, I received a phone call while I was out, and I caught a cold from the long phone call in a cold park in November (laughs). Mr. Tagashira was very particular and would not budge. But then again, so are most people who are good at what they do.

-Finally, I would like to say a few words.
Now that the screening is over, I feel a little sad, although I think my work has come to an end. This is goodbye to all of you, and I look forward to seeing you again somewhere else.

Mr. Kobashi (Assistant Producer)

-About the production
Thunderbolt" was serialized so quickly that by the time we were working on "Unicorn," it had already reached volume 3. I was thinking that this was a bad idea and that I had to be very serious about doing this, when Mr. Matsuo was chosen as the director and asked me to bring in Takako Suzuki for coloring and Kumiko Taniguchi for special effects. I was very lucky that Mr. Nakamura (Gouki) agreed to work with me because I knew that he had to be able to keep up with this level of background work, and the quality improved tremendously. I am very satisfied with the staff's work.

-I am happy with the staff work.
I think Daryl is the main character this time. Daryl's constant physical harming is similar to the masochistic feeling of the production team (laughs).

Mr. Naka (production desk)

-When there's a problem, you have to make a pause.
We would tell him that we were sorry, and we would tell him that we were sorry, but we wanted the final film to be good.

-Mr. Tagashira is very particular about his work.
From a production standpoint, the longer we waited, the more we felt sorry for ourselves when we saw the finished product (laughs). Matsuo-san understands that if we wait, he will come up with something good, so in that sense, we were prepared for that.

Mr. Tagashira (Animation Supervisor for the third episode of the paid distribution)

-About the drawing
I tried to draw what you can't see, so that the viewers can understand what I am trying to convey to them. This time we used a prescreening method, so I tried to make sure that the drawings matched the nuances of the dialogue as much as possible.

-Io and Daryl would be the best choice.
I don't want to be too specific about the character, but I'm more in favor of Io. He is very human and masculine, and I was attracted to him. Io was difficult. I thought it was surprisingly difficult to portray a good guy and to express that kind of masculine smell.

(C) Sotsu, Sunrise