Why is there no robot in the novelization of "Zegapain"?　Interview to Commemorate the Completion of Yarate Bunko's "Entangled: Girl" [Part 1

The novel "Entangled: Girl Maihama Minami High School Film Study Club," serialized on the website "Yattate Bunko" ( # ) operated by the animation production company Sunrise, is a novelization of the TV anime "Zegapain," which was broadcast in 2006 and gained popularity.

This work, which features Ryoko Kaminagi as the main character, focuses on the point that everyone is interested in, "how Ryoko Kaminagi was acting" in the timeline of the anime "Zegapain ADP," which was screened at an event in October 2016. The contents of the book have been attracting a lot of attention from "Zegapain" fans.

Akiba Research Institute interviewed Sunrise's Makoto Shibuya, who is in charge of publicity for the work, and the author Yuya Takashima, as the final episode is scheduled to be released tomorrow (April 27). In order to avoid spoilers, this interview will be divided into two parts, the first part of which will tell how "Entangled: Girl Maihama-Minami High School Film Study Club" came into being.

We dare not call it "Zegapain!
How did a novelization of a robot anime with no robots come into being?

Entangled: Girl Maihama Minami High School Film Club" (hereafter, "Entangled: Girl") is currently being serialized in Yarate Bunko. Yuya Takashima, who is in charge of writing this work, is credited as a staff member in "Zegapain ADP" ("ADP"). First of all, could you tell us about your background and your relationship with "ADP"?

Yuya Takashima (hereafter, Takashima) In 2014, I won the 5th Sogen SF Short Story Award with my work "Landscape and the Summer Theorem. After that, I wrote a series of interview essays titled "Imagination Partage: Searching for New SF Words" on the Tokyo Sogensha website, and through that I became acquainted with AI researcher Yoichiro Miyake. Mr. Miyake introduced me to Hataike Hiroyuki, the design director of "Zegapain. Both Hatike and I like theater and movies, so we had a lively conversation, and later Hatike asked me to join "ADP".

─ So you were approached by Mr. Hataike?

Takashima Yes. I have been a fan of "Zegapain" since it was first broadcast, so when I was approached, I gave him a quick reply (laughs). (Laughs) Originally, "Landscape and the Summer Theorem" was one of the works I wrote with "Zegapain" in mind and with the intention of surpassing it, so perhaps that matched the direction of "ADP". I participated in "ADP" in this way, and was able to experience various things as a "science fiction research" staff member in charge of creating settings, including the holographic display used by Sogol Keogh, and researching the storyline and development.

─ How did you go from working as a science fiction archivist for "ADP" to writing the novel "Entangled: Girl"?

Makoto Shibuya (Shibuya): Of course, it was part of the "ADP" promotion, but it all started when I was introduced to Mr. Takashima by Mr. Hatike. Since I am in charge of Sunrise's promotion, I am always aware of the possibility of commercialization and book publication. So when I heard that Mr. Takashima is a novelist, I naturally said, "Let's have him write a novel.
⇒ Anime Industry Watching Vol. 21: Interview with Yuji Hirooka (Bandai Visual) and Makoto Shibuya (Sunrise) on the 10th year of "Zegapain" from a PR person's point of view!

─ ─ So this was originally a project that had nothing to do with Yarate Bunko?

Shibuya: I was thinking about various things, such as which publishing company to ask for the book adaptation (......), when I heard that the "Yarate Bunko" was launched. So I grabbed the person in charge and brought in a proposal for "Entangled: Girl. I decided to do a serialization of the novel. I had no idea about the content (laughs).

Takashima: (Laughs.) The members of the team, including Hatike, discussed the content. Mr. Hataike told me that I could do it freely. So I suggested the idea of either "the history of quantum server development" or "the episode of Kaminagi in the Film Study Club", and we decided on the Eiken episode.

Shibuya...... Actually, when Sunrise develops spin-offs like this, we try not to have the main characters of the anime appear in the story. If the main characters were to appear in various spin-offs, it would be difficult to maintain consistency and the story itself would not be able to develop freely.

Takashima Oh, really? I didn't know such a situation existed at the time (laughs).

Shibuya: So, if I had come up with the content, the novel would not have had this content. So this is the result of Mr. Takashima's enthusiasm. Also, it was important to me that Kaminagi's story would be a club activity/youth story. I think it was at this stage that Hatake and I discussed the possibility of not having a robot (holonic loader) in the novel.

─ ─ It is true that no robots, including the holonic loader, appear in the novel.

Shibuya: "Robots" pulls the whole work into its image. I don't like that. The reason why robots appear in robot animation is basically for "commercial reasons". In the case of "Zegapain," there was a reason to release a game.
But I don't think that has anything to do with novels.
When a robot appears in a novel, the description of the robot takes up a lot of space. But it is not directly related to the story. In that sense, I felt that the robot was a nuisance in the novel (laughs).

─ ─ Mr. Takashima, what did you think about the fact that the holonic loader does not appear in the "Zegapain" novel?

Takashima: I was like, "Why don't you have to include it? That's what I thought. Of course, I thought it would be hard to write.

─ ─ Then, is it also ...... that the title does not include "Zegapain"?

Shibuya: If I put "Zegapain" in the title, it would just be a novelization of "Zegapain". No, of course it is a novelization (laughs), but I wanted to make it so that people who don't know "Zegapain" can pick up the book without any preconceived notions. This is also related to the first part about the book adaptation.

Takashima: You insisted on the title quite strongly, didn't you, Mr. Shibuya?

Shibuya: By the way, Mr. Takashima had quite a hard time with the title.

─ Is that so?

Takashima Yes, I did. At first, it was about a film study club, so I tentatively called it "Eiken! but that was not good enough (laughs). (laughs) Including minor adjustments, we came up with more than 200 title ideas. I came up with about 20 of them during the meeting.

Shibuya: There were many ideas, but the impact of "Eiken! had too much of an impact, or maybe it was just "something different...". By the way, the serialization was supposed to start at the end of September, but the title was not decided until the middle of August.

Takashima: That was just in the nick of time, wasn't it? By the way, the title that remained until the very end was "Why can't Kaminagi become a movie director" which was the subtitle of the first episode.

Shibuya: This was a title idea to get people to pick it up first, considering the recent trend of light novels. It may be a bit unfair, but it was written by a science fiction writer who was also deeply involved in "ADP", so the content was perfect. So, for my part, I wanted to think about how to make it accessible to as many people as possible.

─ ─ And you finally came up with the title "Entangled: Girl, Maihama South High School Film Study Club.

Takashima Yes. The subtitle I chose for the final episode, "Ryoko Kaminagi in Karamaru Natsu," came to me fairly quickly, and I decided to separate the two with a ":" (colon) to express the relationship between quantum entanglement and kami-nagi. The ":" also has the meaning of expressing time, so I thought it would fit the world view of "Zegapain".

Shibuya: For fans, as soon as the words "Entangled" and "Maihama South High School" are included, they know it's "Zegapain! I think it's a good fit for the world view of "Zegapain". Even people who don't know "Zegapain" will be interested in the story of a high school film club. I think that is how the title was chosen.

Takashima: The word "Entangled" became the main theme of the work, so I am happy with the result.

───What did you pay attention to and what were the difficulties in writing "Entangled: Girl"?

Takashima: In the first half of the story, I wrote about the activities of Kaminagi and the other members of the film study club. I tried to have at least one Amane gadget in each story as much as possible. However, since it was something that a genius science girl would make, I did my best to come up with ideas.
In the second half of the film, the world setting and the meaning of Kamina's film gradually become clear. This structure was as planned, but when I was writing the second half, I realized that there was a deeper meaning to Kaminagi's film. So it was difficult to revise the structure. But I think it turned out to be better as a result.

Shibuya: I think it was more difficult to do the sci-fi research for "ADP". For anime, you have to give opinions in front of various people and are pressed by a tight schedule, but for novels, you can write alone.

Takashima That may be so (laughs). There are so many detailed settings in "Zegapain," and everything is created in a consistent manner. All the staff shared this information, and I was able to ask them many questions during the meetings for "ADP. In that sense, I think my participation in "ADP" as a science fiction archaeologist was indispensable for the creation of this film.
(Continued in Part 2 of the April 27 update)

Entangled: Girl, Maihama South High School Film Study Club

Author: Yuya Takashima
Illustration: Ryo Akizuki
Work page: #zega/zega.html
First issue: #zega/1.html

Synopsis.
I want to shoot summer. On the day before the summer vacation of her first year of high school, Ryoko Kaminagi, an aspiring filmmaker, is running around the school with her favorite video camera in her hand. She was going to enter her film in a national high school film contest. Her film will be decorated by her childhood friend Sogol Kyou, her best friend Mizuki, and the seniors of Maihama Minami High School's film club (......), all of whom have their own quirks and quirks. Will she be able to film "Summer"?
New writer Yuya Takashima, who also worked on "Zegapain ADP," depicts the heroine's point of view in this fresh, adolescent ensemble drama.

Recommended Articles