How did Sunrise Yarate Bunko's first work for women come about?　Interview with Orion Rain

Sunrise is an animation production company that has created many masterpieces and hits, including "Mobile Suit Gundam" and "Armored Trooper Votoms. The website "Yarate Bunko" ( # ), which Sunrise has been operating since the end of September 2016, offers official novels of popular anime such as "GaoGaiGar, the King of Heroes" and "RaijinO, the Enconqueror" as well as original projects that have been dormant within Sunrise, delighting anime fans on a daily basis.

⇒Why does Sunrise operate the website "Yattate Bunko"?　Interview with Yoshitaka Kawaguchi, Editor in Chief of "Yarate Bunko" [Part 1

Orion Rain," which is currently serialized in Yarate Bunko, has a very different atmosphere compared to other serialized works targeting male anime fans. We interviewed Mr. Tateki Tsukada (Sunrise ), the producer of this work, and the author, Toru Shizuki, to find out how this work, which, when read, has a definite "Sunrise style," was created. Manga artist Uta Isaki, who is in charge of illustrations, also participated in the interview via Skype, so fans of this work should not miss it.

What "Orion Rain," Yarate Bunko's first work for women, is aiming for and what "Sunrise" is all about

─ "Orion Rain" is currently serialized in Yarate Bunko, and compared to other Yarate Bunko works, it is a work with a "different" color, isn't it?

Tsukada Tingeshiki (Tsukada): "Orion Rain" was originally started as a project for women in Yarate Bunko. I am in charge of "Millennium Thorn," which is also serialized in Yarate Bunko, but if you look at the Yarate Bunko lineup, you will see that it is all about boys, and I personally thought that it would be bad if there was not at least one female-oriented project. I personally thought that it would be a bad idea if there was not at least one female-oriented project.
Just before that, there was a good proposal written by Mr. Tsukizuki, so I brought it to him.

─ ─ The proposal that Mr. Tsukizuki wrote was, of course, for a TV animation, wasn't it?

Toru Tsukizuki (hereafter, Tsukizuki ) Yes. I have been assisting Sunrise with planning and scriptwriting for quite a long time, and the proposal for "Orion Rain" was produced for female-oriented content. I had already produced a number of other works that fit the atmosphere of Yarate Bunko, such as robot stories, so I was surprised when I heard that "Orion Rain" would be serialized as a novel (laughs).

─ ─ Was it difficult to start a work with a different direction from the overall atmosphere of "Yarate Bunko"?

Tsukada: There was nothing like that. When I brought up the idea of a project like this at a meeting, they said, "Oh, that's a good idea. (laughs). (Laughs) The conversation proceeded without a hitch, with the project starting in January 2017.

Tsukizuki: Originally, I am the type of person who thinks about the entire project while working out the details of the setting, but the proposal for "Orion Rain" was created with the idea of doing it in a different way from the other proposals I had made up to that point. I decided on the overall direction of the project, so I had not worked out most of the details. For the serialization of the book, we had to rush through the production of these parts.

─ Even if we talk about "for women," I have the impression that the scope of the project is quite broad. In what sense was "Orion Rain" aimed at "women"?

Tsukada: With "Orion Rain," we did not explicitly target a specific demographic. However, I am a man after all, so it is difficult for me to get a sense of that. I told you that I wanted the general framework of the work to have a science fiction feel because it was made by Sunrise, but I left a lot of the work to you, Mr. Shigatsuki.

Tsukizuki: Like myself, I think that many girls don't really like works that are "designed for girls. Rather, even in ordinary works that are not geared toward women, there are characters that interest me, that I like, and that naturally draw me into their world. Personally, I think such works are the ones that "women can enjoy" in the true sense of the word.
Therefore, "Orion Rain" is not a work that forces itself on you, saying, "Isn't this the kind of thing you like? I want " Orion Rain" to be a work that asks the audience, "How about this? I wanted to make it a work that asks the question, " How about this? I thought that "Prince" would be easy for girls to understand, so I decided to start with that and wrote the first episode. Mr. Tsukada commented , "It's good, isn't it? It's like Kamen Rider" (laughs).

Tsukada: It's a terrible story, isn't it? I was like, "What are you looking at?

Tsukada: And the moment I heard your impression, "Orion Rain" was reborn as a work about Ryota, who is conflicted and tries his best to shake off his doubts.

Tsukada...... To be honest, I don't have the experience of having a hit with an animated work for women, so I don't have my own criteria for judging this kind of work. If it were an animated work for boys or for little girls, I would be able to say, "This is the way to do it.
Of course, the story is well written, there is nothing wrong with the setting, and from what I have read, it is interesting. However, when it comes to whether or not this will stick with the target audience, I would have to go to .......

Tsukatsuki: However, I think that your impressions and viewpoints are "Sunrise's viewpoints. That is a necessary element in order to create a "Sunrise work" with its own color. If I just write what I want to write, it is just "Toru Tsukizuki's work. As the work is serialized in Yarate Bunko, it is only with your perspective that I was able to incorporate the necessary "Sunrise-ness" into the work.

What does "Orion Rain" depict?
Worldview and Characters

─ Well, there are still many mysteries about "Orion Rain. The "silver rose" is the core of the story, but how did you come up with this setting?

Tsukizuki: Recently, I have been watching a lot of anime, and I have always thought that the scenes in which the "shattering" moment is reproduced in CG are very beautiful, so I wanted to incorporate that into the setting. I thought it would be beautiful if silver powder danced in the air, so I thought of roses.

Tsukada──That was a setting that you considered for the anime's appearance.

Tsukada: It is a key element of the work, and I wanted to include a variety of complex settings. Then, there was no point in twisting the original image too much, so we decided to go straight for the roses. It looks beautiful, and there are many kinds of roses. They look beautiful and there are many varieties. If it were tulips, it would not look so cool (laughs).

─ ─ In the story, the "silver rose" is a "wish-fulfiller," but it is not described as a good thing in the story, is it?

Shizuki: That rose is a being that does not make judgments about whether wishes are good or bad. But it is not so simple to say that all wishes are good, is it? I don't want to make it too difficult, but as for the point of what judges the rightness or wrongness of wishes, what kind of choices people made, what kind of coins came to earth, and how Ryota and his friends became "Orion's Knights" ......, I would like to include it in the work from now on.

Ryota and the other "Orion knights" who hunt the "silver rose". They are in tuxedos and armor, a two-stage transformation.

Tsukada: This was more of an idea that came up during the novelization process. In the original plan, we did not have a two-step transformation. At first, it was just a tuxedo, but then we thought, "Wouldn't it be better to have that element? So, we decided to include it.

Tsukizuki: It is said that a tuxedo, or rather a suit, increases a man's attractiveness by 20%. At first, I decided on a tuxedo for the costume based on such a simple image, but when I thought about it calmly, I realized that a suit has almost no image of a "prince" (laughs).
(Laughs) So, in order to create the image of a "prince" and a "knight," I decided on the current two-tiered transformation. Another reason is that if everyone wears the same outfit (tuxedo), there is no scope in the description in the novel, let alone in the video.

─ So, this was created out of the need to portray the novel?

Shizuki Yes. The "Samurai Trooper" in the Sunrise series has a two-stage transformation, which is just like that.

Tsukada: By the way, the design of the armor has not been decided yet. If there are enough requests from readers, we may come up with something.

─ By the way, the illustration/character design was done by manga artist Uta Isaki. Could you tell us why you asked Mr. Isaki to do the illustrations and character design?

Tsukada: I didn't know many artists, so I asked Mr. Shizuki if he knew any, and he said, "I know a good one," and he introduced me to Uta Isaki. I was introduced to Uta Isaki, who showed me his drawings of girls, which were so attractive that I decided to ask him to do it.

Tsukada: No, because it's a story about boys.

Tsukada: No, I mean, even if you showed me a picture of a boy, I would just say, "Hmmm..." (smiles).

Tsukada: (Chuckles) At that time, I had just been introduced to Mr. Isaki by a mutual acquaintance of ours. We had already met through Skype, and I had heard that you have a very keen sense of sensitivity and that you work very fast, so I asked you to help me out.

─ I see. Now, I would like to talk about the character design with Uta Isaki.

(Uta Isaki joined us via Skype.)

─ ─ First of all, what was your impression when you first heard about the "Orion Rain" project?

Uta Isaki (Uta Isaki): Actually, it was my dream to illustrate a novel, so I was very happy when I first heard about the project. However, considering the image of Yarate Bunko and its readership, I thought I would get a job for a male audience, but when I listened carefully, I was surprised to hear that the story was mainly for boys.
But I was surprised to hear that the story was mainly about boys. However, I thought I could create something that I had never done before, since it was an illustration for a novel, and for a female audience.

───How did you go about the actual design work?

Isaki: I talked with Shizuki-san via Skype as we worked. For example, for Ryota, the main character, I asked him directly about his image of the character, such as, "The main character is red, isn't he?

─ So the author and illustrator communicate directly with each other as they work on the design. I think this is quite an unusual production system.

Isaki: Because we were able to communicate directly, the work went smoothly. If there was someone else in between, it would be difficult to convey our intentions, or we would have to retake the work many times, but if we communicate directly through Skype, we can make corrections on the spot.

─ By the way, is "red" the main character in the so-called "Super Sentai" series?

Isaki: Yes, that's right. In fact, in the story, he is in the position of "Red," so the design is based on that image.
Also, Ryota was originally designed with a camera because he is a member of the newspaper club, but after hearing what Mr. Shizuki had to say, we decided not to go with it.

Shizuki: "Sentai Hero Red" is a rough image that we can both share, isn't it? Anyway, we were determined not to make vague specifications or retakes, so we used such a common language for character design and coloring of the illustrations. In the case of the camera, we talked about the detailed setting that the newspaper club was originally a means and not an end for Ryota, and then we asked him to proceed with the actual design.

Isaki: In this way, we were able to directly ask the teacher about aspects that were difficult to grasp from the initial settings alone, and we were able to finalize the design.

Tsukada: I thought that the setting came very quickly, but I guess that's how it happened.

Isaki: I think it was a new form of character design to decide on the characters through direct communication like this (laughs). (Laughs) Of course, I don't know if this is the best way to go about it, but I was very happy with the work we did this time. For example, Yukiya's hairstyle, the princess cut and braids, were my ideas. I like the Hime cut, so I was very happy (laughs).

─ Now, I heard from Mr. Tsukada earlier that you have not designed the armor yet, but do you already have an idea of what it will look like?

Isaki: Mr. Tsukasa told me that he has an image of a "Golden Saint.

Tsukada Oh, so that's the image you have in mind. I just heard that for the first time (laughs).

Isaki I just thought that designing armor would be difficult. What if someone asks, "Will these joints work properly? What if someone asks, "Will these joints work properly?

(laughs) . I'm sorry, Isaki-san, ......, but you have to be patient (laughs). Also, we don't have a setting for the larger Yukiya yet, do we?

Isaki Let's discuss it next time (laughs).

─ ─ This makes me look forward to the day when we can see the design (laughs). Well then, thank you very much, Mr. Isaki.

(Utah Isaki exits)

Orion Rain" from now on

─ Now, finally, I would like to ask you about the future development of "Orion Rain".

Tsukada: I will leave the future development to the writers at ....... Actually, I am nervous that it will not end as planned because we have included a lot of things. We originally planned to have 12 episodes in total: ......

─ ─ Since each episode is published in two parts, does that mean that there will be 24 ...... episodes in total?

Tsukada: Yes. At the moment (May 12), we are about 1/3 of the way through. ...... doesn't really give that impression (laughs). (Laughs.) On the other hand, I would like to see it end properly, but on the other hand, if it's going to be exciting, I wouldn't mind if it went on for longer.

Shizuki: In "Orion Rain," each character is a knight with his or her own reasons. While delving into the reasons why they fight, the story ends in a neat, gentle, and clean manner, so I hope you will enjoy it. I'm not sure if I can fold it up properly or not. ......, but that depends on how hard you work from now on.

Tsukada: (Chuckles) I would also be happy if you could give me your impressions after reading it on Twitter ( #OrionRain ), etc.). Since it is serialized in Yarate Bunko, I am sure that I will be able to reflect various things in the work based on your impressions, and in this way, I think it will be an interactive process.

Shizuki: That's right. I would like to hear from the readers, as I have not had many opportunities to receive feedback directly from them. It may be difficult to respond to each one, but I would like to express my appreciation for your work.

─ ─ Thank you very much.

(Reporting and writing by the editorial department)

Orion Rain

Author: Toru Shizuki
Illustration: Uta Isaki
Work page: #orionrain/orion-main.html
First issue: #orionrain/orion01.html

Synopsis.
Ryota Oe (Ryota Oe) has one toy coin that he keeps very dearly.
It was given to him as a child by a gentleman he met by chance when he sneaked out of his house in the middle of the night. The man, who was looking at the stars, said, "If you ever want to protect your star, you can use that coin.
　Time has passed since then--the world has been talking about "Orion," an unidentified flower vandal who comes to reap the "silver rose. Ryota, who works in the newspaper department, visits a Western-style house to write a feature article, and there he learns the truth about the silver rose and Orion.
Ryota then becomes a "Knight of Orion" to protect this planet from the "Rose of Disaster," and fulfills his duty.
　The story of the knight over the rose now opens.

(C) SUNRISE