Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the broadcast of the TV animation "The King of Heroes: GaoGaiGar"!　Interview with Yoshitomo Yonetani and Yuichiro Takeda

We are giving away autographs signed by director Yoshitomo Yonetani and Yuichiro Takeda! See here for details!

Yarate Bunko "Haikai-Oh -GaoGaiGar vs. Better Man-" works introduction page

The 20th anniversary of "GaoGaiGar" and "King of the Realm: GaoGaiGar vs.

─ ─ The TV animation "GaoGaiGar, King of the Braves" began broadcasting on February 1, 1997. Today (February 1, 2017) is exactly the 20th anniversary. First of all, what are your thoughts on the past 20 years?

Yoshitomo Yonetani (Yonetani): I didn't think it had been that long (laughs).

Yuichiro Takeda (Takeda) It is hard to imagine that it has been that long.

Yonetani Well, that's true. It was a long time ago that I started planning "Gaogaigar vs. Better Man" (hereafter "Gaogaigar vs. Better Man"). ...... At the time, I had no idea that we would do something like this for the 20th anniversary. ......

Takeda: When the TV series was broadcast, the year 2005 (the time of the play) was in the future. I was making "The King of Heroes: GaoGaiGar" as a story about the future, but "The High King" is a story about the same time period.

Yonetani: If you had made it more of a super-future story, it might not have caught up with you. The scientific and technological aspects of the story could have been more different. ...... In fact, pagers have evolved to smartphones.

─ ─ The means of communication in the play was the GGG pager. Nowadays, pagers are almost unheard of. ......

Yonetani: I didn't think this era would ever come (laughs). Well, in that sense, setting the time of the play in 2005 was probably just right.

Takeda But now, it is fun to make a "GaoGaiGar" story in 2016. For now, GGG pagers should be GGG smartphones (laughs).

Yonetani (laughs). It's timely in a way, isn't it? In the blink of an eye, 2016 has passed in the past. The phenomenon of time is rapidly overtaking us. ......

───Tell us about the "Haikai-Oh," a novel that is currently being serialized in Yarate Bunko. This was originally a project for an anime, wasn't it?

Takeda Last year, Yonetani-san posted on Twitter ( @yonetanikantoku ) the date of the "King of the Realms" proposal, which was March 2003, just as "The King of Heroes: GaoGaiGar FINAL" (hereinafter referred to as "FINAL") was completed. The title was exactly the same as it is now, "The High King: GaoGaiGar vs. Better Man.

Yonetani: That proposal was the first one that was properly dated. I had already written it down in a notebook or something before that.

Takeda Indeed, I had already heard about the "GaoGaiGar vs. Better Man" concept from the "Better Man" days.

Yonetani That's right. Even back then, I said I wanted to do something like "Mazinger Z vs. Devilman" (laughs). I wanted to make each episode longer because it was an OVA, but that was also difficult due to the budget, schedule, and other practical considerations. But that was difficult due to the budget, schedule, and other practicalities. We managed to get the last episode to be longer, but it still didn't fit. The TV series had always been too small to fit all the episodes (laughs). (Laughs) I decided that I wanted to make an animated version of what I couldn't fit in, so I officially submitted the proposal.

─ ─ "Final" ended without any GGG members other than Mamoru and Kido returning from the Mieren Solar System, didn't it?

Yonetani: Some fans seem to think it was a bad ending, but we had no intention of ending it there. We were going to start "The High King" immediately, and that would conclude the story.

Takeda That was everyone's intention, wasn't it? If we had known that "The High King" could not be made into an anime, I think we would have opposed that last part. ...... The fact that we left the fans in the dark has remained a thorn in our side for a long time. But we couldn't say "actually ......" before the project was decided. We kept thinking in our hearts, "No, it's not true! We had been waiting for the day when we could say it.

Yonetani: In that sense, the picture drama "Project Z" that came with the "GaoGaiGar FINAL -GRAND GLORIOUS GATHERING-" DVD-box was a way to give us a shot in the arm, or rather, to let everyone know that we are actually thinking about doing a sequel like this. I wanted to show you that I was actually thinking of a sequel to this project. It was actually a longer story, but that was the limit of the extras that could be included in the DVD-BOX.

But now the fans can say, "Oh, there's more to the story! I think that was the limit of the extras that came with the DVD boxes. However, the "FINAL" sequel was never made into a film, and time has passed.

Yonetani: We also made pilot films for various other works, but they did not turn out well due to the changing times. I think it was also difficult for Sunrise to get original or robot projects approved at that time.

─ ─ I believe that Kawaguchi, the editor-in-chief of Yarate Bunko, said the same thing in a previous interview ( # ). Now, "The High King" is a novel serialized in Yarate Bunko.

Yonetani: I think there were other ways to depict the story, but the novel was the only way that Takeda-san and I could do it alone. Fortunately, Takeda-san's schedule was free, and he was very enthusiastic about the project (laughs).

Takeda (laughs). Well, "The High King" is also set in 2016, so we really wanted to get it out there in 2016. Also, as for us, we haven't given up on making an anime yet, so if this "King of the Realm" novel sells very well, I think there is a possibility that ...... will become a possibility. Rather than doing nothing and just waiting for the right time, I would like to explore opportunities by putting my work out into the world in this way.

Yonetani: This is not limited to the animation industry, but I think that as companies work for many years, they gradually accumulate successful and unsuccessful experiences, and they tend to kill off new seeds based on probability theory: "This is good, but this is no good, and this is no good. To be honest, it doesn't pay to work in this way either, but I would like to show companies that have already matured and young people who will follow in our footsteps that it is possible to do a series of works with just two people. I think this is an important basic attitude that should not be forgotten, not only in the "King of the High World" work, but also in the way people struggle to make a living in the world of work.

Takeda If "The High King" were to be made into an anime, it would give me great hope. There is a possibility to bring back content that has been put in storage, give it shape, and develop it anew.

Yonetani The future of the project is a complete blank slate (laughs). For each serialization of my novels, I do the illustrations and images by myself. ...... This process reminds me of the days when Sunrise had only one copy machine. It was on the 5th floor of a building separate from the studio, and there was no elevator, so I had to climb the stairs to get to it.

Takeda To get a color copy, you had to write an application and get three stamps by the day before (laughs).

Yonetani That's right. I know those days, so what we are doing now is very nostalgic. In that sense, the concept of Yattate Bunko itself is very Sunrise-like. It is creator-oriented, or rather, it retains the spirit of "Let's do something interesting! It still retains the spirit of "Let's do something interesting! Of course it is important to have a solid structure as a company, but I hope we can pass on the unstable but passionate spirit of monozukuri to the younger generation.

─ ─ How was the reaction of your fans after you started serializing "The High King" in Yattate Bunko?

Yonetani I don't pay much attention to ......, so Takeda-san might know better.

Takeda: I don't mean reaction, but ......, after a while after the serialization started, I saw quite a few comments from people who seemed to be very dedicated fans saying, "I didn't know you were doing this kind of thing now. I didn't know. I've been thinking about how to reach all the people who liked it back then.

Yonetani: It is difficult to advertise a work that is serialized as a novel on the Web. But I think its strength is that, unlike the broadcast format, it can be read at any time. I think we are in a position to slowly penetrate the market over a long period of time.

Takeda I think it is quite difficult to acquire new fans of this content, but I would like to at least deliver it to all the people who liked it at the time. ...... But I think there are a lot of people who don't know about it. I would like to work a little harder.